Why did nobody baulk at the selling of Caulks?

NO ONE can argue that the arrivals of Paulinho, Nacer Chadli and Roberto Soldado have added necessary strength to our midfield and attack - but when was it decided that we had too many defenders?

The sale of centre-back Steven Caulker to Cardiff for £9million is a strange decision to say the least, yet it seems to have been accepted without question. 

Caulker broke into our first team last season and went on to make 28 appearances, scoring twice. He also made the England squad in November, bagging a debut goal during the 4-2 friendly loss in Sweden.

He spent the 2011-2012 season on loan at Swansea for their first season in the top-flight and made 26 league appearances. That takes his Premier League tally to 44 games - not bad for a 21-year-old.

Even more surprising in the transfer of the young Londoner is that he came up through our own youth system.

Spurs have a great record of producing top defenders. And following in the footsteps of Sol Campbell and Ledley King, everything seemed in place for Caulker to continue his ascent next season.

But his departure means we now need to find another player to fill our "homegrown" contingent.

For anyone that has forgotten, since 2010-11, Premier League rules have stated that each 25-man squad must have eight players that have come through a British training academy.

That seems to have slipped everyone's mind while we've been spending £50m on three foreign players.

Admittedly, a club needs to recoup their outgoings but surely we're going to have to replace Caulker otherwise the squad looks worryingly short of defenders. 

The club website lists just three recognised centre-halves and one of those is Younes Kaboul, who spent most of last season out injured.

It seems ironic that after addressing our shortage of attackers, we now need a defender. 

The ideal candidate would no doubt be young, British and proven in the Premier League - maybe with a future in the England squad. And you can bet he will cost a damn site more than £9m.