Spurs ace was outscoring Bale before signing, then he became the “flop of the season

Tottenham Hotspur are fighting for a return to the Champions League in Ange Postecoglou’s first campaign in the dugout, with the club falling by the wayside in recent years.

Shrewd investment in the transfer market is not exactly anything new under chairman Daniel Levy, widely accepted as one of the more economical figures in the Premier League, but thrifty spending hasn’t always hit the mark.

Sure, Spurs yield a chequered past in this regard, but well it goes right, it goes right. Gareth Bale is probably the gold standard in this regard, one of the Premier League’s all-time greats and he didn’t leave for a half-bad price either.

Why Gareth Bale is a Spurs legend

Levy saw a bargain and he snapped Bale up on an initial £5m deal from Southampton back in 2007, with the teenage left-back touted for big things and choosing the Lilywhites over Manchester United as he sought a path to prominence.

It didn’t go according to plan in those fledgeling days, with Bale regarded as an ‘unlucky charm’ after enduring a 24-match winless streak to start life in London, though an infamous two-legged affair against Inter Milan in the Champions League saw the Wales international bloom into a world-class phenomenon.

Completing a world-record £85m transfer to Real Madrid back in 2013, Bale draped the curtain on a staggering Spurs career, totalling 71 goals and 58 assists across 236 outings after enjoying a season back on loan at the club in the twilight phase of his career.

The iconic winger scored 26 goals alone in his final year in England (before moving to Madrid) and Levy needed to replace his goal threat, but actually found a replacement who had outscored Bale in Roberto Soldado.

The fee Spurs paid for Roberto Soldado

Harry Kane was stirring away in the maiden stage of his Tottenham career but he was not yet ready to flaunt his legendary goalscoring talents in the Premier League, and Soldado was landed to lead the strikeforce in 2013, joining from Valencia for £26m.

He had, in fairness, plundered 30 goals from 46 appearances in all competitions for his La Liga outfit during the 2012/13 term and looked to be a reliable and exciting new member of Tottenham’s team.

Let’s just say it didn’t go to plan,

How Soldado is remembered at Spurs

Journalist Kevin Palmer lamented Soldado for being “so useless” that Tottenham failed to impress in the Europa League during the 2014/15 campaign, losing in the last 16 against Fiorentina in part due to the Spaniard’s profligacy.

In total, Soldado chalked up 13 goals and 11 assists across 74 matches for Spurs but this doesn’t even paint the full picture of a player who drastically underperformed, incapable of leading the line to even the semblance of Bale in his free-scoring brilliance.

Realistically, all seven of the signings made to replace Bale fell wide of the mark – bar Christian Eriksen – but Soldado really was the worst of the bunch, giving the transfer fee and weight of expectation after such clinical efforts in Spain.

Soldado flattered to deceive at Tottenham but Levy’s blushes were spared two years on as Kane began a ridiculous rate of scoring at Spurs for the best part of a decade.

Still, journalist Sam Tighe mused that Soldado might have been the “flop of the season” – he really was that bad.