Roman Pavlyuchenko was spectacularly underused in his time at White Hart Lane. The Russian striker arrived in 2008 on the back of a fantastic European Championships with his country, in which he was named in the 23-man Team of the Tournament. Costing £13.7 million, Pavlyuchenko scored 21 times for the Lilywhites in 45 Premier League starts, as well as a further 21 strikes in 26 starts in other competitions. Remarkably, this fantastic record never really cemented him as the club's first choice front man and, having come disillusioned with life at Spurs, he did throw a couple of tantrums. That said, he knuckled down again and continued to impress when given the opportunity, but his time never came. He was sold to Lokomotiv Moscow in his homeland for around £8 million and, inexplicably, was replaced by the incoming free agent Louis Saha. Saha was more than three years older than Pavlyuchenko, making the situation even stranger than it already was.
