My take on the situation is that Harry has brought in Andy Cole and has said to Toddy that he isn't going to be guaranteed even a place on the bench at the club with Benjani, Kanu, Lua Lua and Cole all ahead of him in the pecking order. Toddy has said he just wants to play football so a few Championship clubs have come in for him and Toddy is thinking about playing for someone like Birmingham or Cardiff but then Wigan come in being short on strikers and Toddy's mind is made up having the oppurtunity to still play in the Premiership with a side that he is going to be guaranteed to feature for.
Whilst I think that it could be a mistake in letting Todorov go to another Premiership side having scored 2 goals in 3 appearances (two as sub), we will have to trust Harry with his decision to bring in a supposed "higher quality" player in Andy Cole to get us the goals. Ironically Toddy has injured himself and might not play for the Latics for a while (he can't play against us due to Premiership rules anyway) and rumour has it is that he aggrevated his injury playing for us and Harry knew this and sent him on loan knowing that Andy Cole was on his way back to full fitness. Therefore theoretically Redknapp has swapped an injury prone poacher for a fully fit poacher for his squad.
Harry went on about how he needed five strikers at the club but with Toddy off to Wigan that has left us with only four in Benjani, Cole, Lua Lua and Kanu. Oh but there's one man we're forgetting...
...Ivica Mornar!
Yes by some miracle (or ridiculous contract clause) he is still here! Let's not forget that all decent squads carry five strikers but rarely is the fifth used and is seen as more of an emergency player if injuries are doing us in (like they always seem to). I do not see Svetoslav Todorov in the "use when desperate" bracket and it would be unfair on him for Harry to keep him at the club whilst he assesses the other four himself when Toddy is clearly capable of producing at this level. Mornar on the other hand has never proven himself at this level but did look handy in pre-season and if push really came to shove, the forgotten man could have the oppurtunity to show us what he can really do. There's also the possibility of Douala playing as a makeshift striker too...
There seems to be some confusion as to how long Toddy is on loan for. Well I'm 99% certain it's until the end of December as our official site states this and Wigan's says "on loan until the end of the year" which some may have misinterpreted as "end of the season" when really they meant the year as in 2006. He will be back with us in January I'm sure and he might be even fitter and got over his injury niggles that he had here. He is a fan favourite and will be missed though, let's hope his replacement can fire them in on a regular basis for us.
There's also a possibility that when Toddy does come back to Pompey in January he could still be seen as surplus to requirements as we chase a high calibre striker (i.e: Defoe or Nugent). This would no doubt cause an uproar among adoring fans but as the saying goes, there is no room for sentiment in football and maybe Toddy will feel that a permanent move is better for him personally if we were to add even more quality up front. A lot can happen between now and January though so I'm not going to say anymore about that particular issue if or when it arises.
For the time being, I believe Svetoslav Todorov has done what he feels is best for him whilst leaving the door open for a return in January. There is going to be four people ahead of him in the striker queue and even if it were to be decimated by injuries, Mornar or Douala could still step in.
Playing at Wigan will give Toddy the best oppurtunity to play at the highest level so he can prove a point to Harry whilst he uses the other four in his plans. It's a risk for Redknapp to take, but they usually pay off and we will have to believe in him when he says Cole et al are better men for the current job than Toddy is. We also can't forget that Todorov is carrying an injury so it would make logical sense for Harry to ship him off somewhere temporarily so he can get over it whilst still playing football as Redknapp brings in a similar player to him in Andy Cole who is almost 100% fit again.
Toddy will be back by January, it's just a case of how long for after that...