CAN anyone tell me why we're trying to borrow players rather than sign them like a proper grown-up football club?

I'm beginning to get increasingly worried about Harry Redknapp's inability to add to our squad, and the latest rumour that we're trying to loan Klaas-Jan Huntelaar and Craig Bellamy just smacks of desperation.

Huntelaar was hot property in the Netherlands but has flopped since his move to a proper league, and I'd rather stick red-hot pokers in my ears than see the stroppy Welshman line-up in a Spurs shirt.

Loan signings are by their very nature a temporary solution and as a club which has just broken into the top four and is trying to stay there, we should be acquiring good, proven players on a long-term basis, not trying to plug holes in our squad.

If anything, the goal-scoring department is one we need the least help with, and it's our defence that needs urgent repair work.

Jonathan Woodgate won't start the season and its looking likely that Ledley King will also be sidelined for a while.

As talented as Michael Dawson and Sebastien Bassong are, if either of them were limp out of a training session it would fall to Younes Kaboul to step in, and then we'd really be down to the bare bones.

In midfield, we could also use another playmaker and possibly some more muscle.

I love Tom Huddlestone like, if not a brother, then a close cousin, but he and Wilson Palacios could do with some help to boss the middle third against the top sides, especially if we're to let our flightly, lightweight magicians like Luka Modric do their thing without undue hinderance.

The Scott Parker idea was on the right lines, but looking like the best player in a team riddled with mediocrity is hardly a good indicator of success.

Up front, with Defoe, Pavs, Crouch, possible Keane and – fingers crossed – a returning Dos Santos, we look pretty tasty in my eyes.

Even if our options were depleted then we'd need to buy players, and my preference would be Luis Suarez or someone else with a bit of meat on their bones.

Surely we're a club who loans players to other, smaller outfits, and not the other way round.

First we missed out on Joe Cole, against all reasonable footballing logic, and now it seems as if Harry is hunting around for scraps.

I don't like it and I want it to stop.