Tottenham Hotspur made exceptional progress under Mauricio Pochettino, but only after a rather frustrating 2013-14 campaign.
Expectations were high after finishing just one point outside of the top four in the first season under Andre Villas-Boas.
Gareth Bale’s exit left Tottenham without the star of the show and the infamous eight signings brought in with the Bale money didn’t quite pan out.
Christian Eriksen was the biggest success of the lot but the rest flattered to deceive.
Erik Lamela didn’t live up to the hype but did give many years of service to Tottenham whilst Nacer Chadli, Vlad Chiriches, Paulinho and Etienne Capoue didn’t really shine.
Tottenham needed to replace the goals Bale provided too, and Spurs decided to splash a cool £26million on signing Roberto Soldado from Valencia.
Tim Sherwood on Roberto Soldado
Soldado had been a hot prospect in the Real Madrid ranks before smashing 33 goals in 66 games for Getafe.
The Spaniard took another step forward with a stunning three-year spell at Valencia, hitting 80 goals in 141 appearances.
The hope was that Soldado would bring that kind of goalscoring form to England, but it just never quite happened.
11 goals in his first season, five in his second… Soldado only managed seven Premier League goals and ended up being phased out by Harry Kane’s development.
Tottenham offloaded Soldado to Villarreal in 2015 and his disappointing two-year spell in North London came to a rather quiet end.
Tim Sherwood – the man who stepped in to replace Villas-Boas following his sacking in December 2013 – has now offered his thoughts on Soldado.
Speaking on Under the Cosh, Sherwood admitted that Soldado trained ‘brilliantly’ and always gave his all for the cause.
However, Sherwood accepted that things just weren’t going Soldado’s way and having given him as long as he could, he simply had to go with Kane instead.
Sherwood also appreciated Soldado trying to help Kane, passing on knowledge and experience to help him on his way at Spurs.
“I didn’t want to do it too early, because I wanted Soldado to show me something,” said Sherwood when asked about bringing Kane into the team. “I felt like we’d play a little bit different to Villas-Boas – there’s no point going in, taking over and doing exactly the same job, but it was becoming boring so I thought we’d play a little more on the attacking side, I thought Soldado might relish that and thrive.”
“But I gave him as much time as I could. He trained brilliantly and he was a great lad, he worked hard in the games but it just weren’t happening for him and it weren’t happening in training and all that, so in the end I just said to Harry ‘you’re gonna play tomorrow, son.’
“He was a good lad, really good. He broke goalscoring records in Spain but it’s a different environment. Sometimes they do struggle in the Premier League – it is the toughest league in the world. He was brilliant with Harry as well, when he went in, and he ended up scoring goals,” he added.
READ MORE: A timeline of all Tottenham Hotspur captains in the Premier League era
How did Soldado fare after leaving Tottenham?
Sometimes, moves just don’t work out.
Soldado couldn’t replicate his La Liga form in the Premier League but it’s clear that he tried to be a real team player, even helping Kane despite losing his place to him.
Soldado went back to Spain with Villarreal but couldn’t recapture his form with just 12 goals in 55 appearances.
The next two moves were a little better; 19 goals in 59 games for Fenerbahce and 25 goals in 82 games at Granada.
Soldado then joined Levante in 2021, scoring 11 times in two season before retiring last summer at the age of 38.
That move to Spurs will sadly go down as one of Tottenham’s most disappointing signings, especially as it came with the funds from the Bale deal, and he joins the likes of Serhiy Rebrov and Vincent Janssen in the ‘underwhelming Tottenham striker’ ranks.
READ MORE: Tottenham Hotspur’s 10 most expensive transfer signings of all time including £63m flop
