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3. Roberto Soldado
With top scorer Gareth Bale sold to Real Madrid, Tottenham clearly needed a new goal threat in the summer of 2013 and the man that Andre Villas-Boas turned to was Valencia’s Roberto Soldado. The Spaniard had scored 30 goals in 46 games for Los Ches in the previous season, and Villas-Boas clearly had high hopes for him – enough to make Tottenham break their transfer record by paying £26m to bring him to White Hart Lane.
Soldado started at Spurs well enough; his goals from the penalty spot handed Villas-Boas’ side two wins from their opening two games, but alarm bells began to ring when it took him until late October to find the back of the net from open play. The Spaniard ended 2013-14 with just 6 Premier League goals to his name – and was widely considered one of the season’s biggest flops.
The striker was given a second chance by the arrival of Mauricio Pochettino as the team’s new boss in the summer of 2014, but he soon found himself outshone by youngster Harry Kane, who burst onto the scene as Spurs’ new goalscoring hero. Soldado ended the 2014-15 campaign having started just 7 Premier League games, scoring 1 goal in the process.
Unsurprisingly, the summer of 2015 saw him move back to Spain with Villarreal, who paid just £10m for the striker – meaning Spurs made a marked loss on their investment. Currently with Granada, Soldado has never scored more than 10 goals in a season since leaving Tottenham.
Rating: 1/5
