Postiga and Reyes - poles apart

Compare this with Spurs who are paying £6.25m for Postiga, who joined last June. Under the terms of that deal they had to pay £2.5m up front with the rest spread equally in instalments over five years. The trouble is that not only has the 21-year-old failed to live up to that huge fee, but his value has actually dropped and he had been consigned to the reserves long before his injury against Charlton earlier this week. Signed by Glenn Hoddle, presumably with Pleat's backing, the striker, who earns £30,000 per week, seems to be largely ignored by the acting manager.

When you sign any player there is always the risk he won't settle, but Arsenal don't do things by halves. Reyes, like Postiga, is young and could have had difficulty adapting to life in London. He left school at 14 and Seville took great trouble to ensure that he was helped to mature in a way that saw him overcome his lack of a formal education. Arsenal were well aware of this and proved equally protective by moving his parents, brother and girlfriend - to North London. Postiga arrived alone - eventually bringing his girlfriend with him of his own accord.

There are other differences. While Arsenal monitored Reyes for two-and-a-half seasons before signing him, Spurs, according to Hoddle, only checked out Postiga for a few months. It is hardly coincidence then that their fortunes since signing have proved so contrasting: Reyes settled in from the start, scoring three goals and looking a Highbury natural; Postiga struggled, netting just once in the Premiership. His chances of making Portugal's Euro 2004 squad are receding by the week.

The Highbury crowd has taken instantly to Reyes even though his own goal led to their defeat at Middlesbrough in the Carling cup semi-final. Robert Pires believes that the faith that Arsenal supporters have in their manager's judgment played a decisive part in persuading supporters to keep faith with new players in difficult times. "It is hard when you come to England. The football is different and the language is different," Pires said.

But there were enough Spanish speakers around - Pires among them - to ease Reyes into the club. "The fans even have a song for him", said Pires, referring to the 'Jose Antonio' chant that greets his on-field successes. Tottenham supporters have yet to come up with anything as lyrical.

Of course it is much easier for any new arrival to fit into a winning team like Arsenal rather than one that has struggled like Tottenham this season. But it would be fascinating to know what chairman Daniel Levy makes now of Hoddle's prediction on signing Postiga last summer: "In two or three years' time, I believe people will look at this signing and say it was a good bit of business. There's a balance in the transfer market and I think we've got that right," Hoddle said.

It is all a far cry from when Postiga joined Porto eight years ago from his local club in the north of Portugal, Varzim, in exchange for 12 shirts and a dozen pairs of boots. It proved an inspired signing and he scored 22 goals in 67 games. He was acclaimed as one of the standard bearers of a new golden generation of Portuguese talent.

Had he stayed at Porto, he would no doubt have played in their European Cup semi-final against Deportivo this week. Instead, he turned out in front of a few hundred spectators for Spurs, picking up a thigh injury.

Postiga still insists that he made the right decision, but he hasn't started a game since coming off injured during the infamous 4-3 FA Cup defeat by Manchester City in early February and has already been the subject of loan move rumours concerning Celta Vigo and Espanyol.

He said: "I knew it would be difficult and success would not be immediate. I have had to adapt to a new way of life and the football is very different to the game I played in Portugal. Premiership football is far more physical and you don't get the time on the ball that you enjoy abroad, so you have to adapt to the game and that only comes with time. It was also important for me to have my English-speaking girlfriend Filipa here because I have never been outside my own country.

"Although it's not been easy I have never gone home at night and worried that failure would destroy me."

Of course, for all the criticism Postiga has received, it's important to recall that there are other foreign stars who didn't make an immediate impact in the Premiership.

Dennis Bergkamp and Thierry Henry were written off after failing to find the net early on, while Manchester United striker Diego Forlan was labelled a flop after more than 20 games without a goal.

Postiga added: "In time I want people to remember me for all the right reasons, I want to be a big success here.I want to go down in the history of Spurs as a great player. I want to live the dream and be remembered." A good first step would be to score the winning goal in a north London derby. Sadly for Spurs, he won't get the chance on Sunday.