Why didn’t Paulinho do better for Tottenham? Why did we never see the best out of someone, who or a period of time was our record signing? We paid Corinthians £18 Million for Paulinho, and they must be laughing all the way to the bank for that fee. Don’t get me wrong, I would have loved to have seen Paulinho perform well, or even score more than 10 goals in two seasons, but in hindsight, it all seemed doomed from the beginning.
When Paulinho arrived he had just finished the Confederations Cup in Brazil, so he didn’t really have a great first pre-season in terms of settling in with his new teammates. Another thing was the fact I always got the feeling that he wasn’t a player the our manager at the time Andre Villas Boas (I do miss him) really didn’t want. It was at a time when Franco Baldini was just appointed our new Director of Football, which any long suffering Spurs fan will know has never worked (See Damien Comolli and David Pleat). Baldini wanted to make an impression and brought in someone who was seen to have a great talent in the Brazilian League. The Brazilian League, where only Oscar and Juninho (the old Middlesbrough one) have come straight to the Premier League and made an immediate impact. Paulinho didn’t really have a chance when you think about, did he?
Oh, I almost forgot. He was compared to Frank Lampard before he even kicked a ball. Yes, Paulinho was linked to someone who was, and is, one of the greatest Premier League and English midfielders ever, and he hadn’t even put on his shirt yet. That was probably one of the biggest problems when you look back, and how the expectations on Paulinho hindered his ability at Tottenham. We judged him on performances we hadn’t really seen, and based his game around one of the legends of English Football. But in all fairness, it was Paulinho who compared himself to Lampard, not us fans. We would never hype up a player for no apparent reason.
But without blaming too much of this on outside factors such as a Director of Football, or even our own expectations, we have to look at what makes a footballer, and that is his performances on the pitch, and Paulinho didn’t have many great moments on the field. I will point you in the direction of “that shot” away at Burnley this past season as a visual representation of Paulinho’s time at Tottenham. Everything was going great and he had a great chance in front of him, but when he got that chance, he failed to deliver, despite how he made it look harder than it arguably was. When it all comes down to it, he just wasn’t cut out for the Premier League. That isn’t a slight on Paulinho himself, as some just can’t play in the pace, like Andrey Shevchenko, but we all wish him the best in China, with his former manager Luis Felipe Scolari, where I predict that he will be an absolute superstar in China.
So good luck Paulinho, at least you scored the winner away at Cardiff that time.
