Spurs 2018/19

[GlastonSpur]

We were told we would have significant investment in the playing staff, and that the stadium costs were paid for and would not lead to an Arsenal style drop in spending. Pochettino signed a new contract soon after demanding we be brave in the window and bring in players early, is our manager living in the same land as I am then?

By 'way over the odds' you mean pay market value in order to benefit the squad. It can be the difference between an exit in a semi final and winning the trophy. Pochettino has continually stressed this so perhaps it's time the board took notice of our fantastic manager? We lose him and all this penny pinching will feel very silly, because we will immediately face and exodus and drop from competing.

I don't consider a £1 billion investment in the club's long-term future to be "penny pinching".

Moreover, why don't you wait until the transfer window has closed before concluding that we haven't had "significant investment in the playing staff" (and that's even if you don't count big wage hikes for several players in order to keep them all together at Spurs) and haven't had "an Arsenal style drop in spending".

As far as Grealish is concerned, I don't regard it as sensible spending to dole out an extra £10m (say) simply in order to get him in 3 or 4 weeks early … especially since he's going to have to perform very well even to make it into our best XI.

 

[SquishyMcSquish]

I'm just being facetious mate. Poch has done a great job, fair play to the lad, I'm a fan. I'd rather you lot win the league than City, Liverpool, Chelsea or Arsenal, trust me. You won't though, we all know that.

All I'm saying is, it's all well & good to get wins against big clubs, but when you talk about BIG games, season defining games, you can always count on little Spurs to bottle it. Juventus in the CL last season, United in the cup, West Ham away when you were right up Chelsea's arse the year before, Chelsea away the year they were shite & you were 2-0 up.

We won't because we don't have the squad for it. We need more depth, we need a couple more top class players to come in, but Poch doesn't get that. When Chelsea and City won the league they both had better teams, the only year where there is a question mark was the Leicester season, but this was early days still and we were inexperienced.

You could find similar moments of failure from nearly any team in the last few years. Juventus are a fantastic side, better than us undeniably, who have reached 2 CL finals in recent years and were 3-0 up at the Bernabau. They have far more experience than us and it showed on the day, we gave a decent account of ourselves but were outdone by a team with brilliant players and a tactical switch which we struggled to react to. United are also a very good side, we put in a poor performance in the second half but lost to a team with world class players who also finished above us in the league. It was a tight cup game against a better team than us .. no bottling.

We're still a learning team and Poch is still a relatively young manager, so yes he's made mistakes and we're not quite there yet. We need that little extra to go all the way in trophies (more money spent) which we haven't got. This team is still lacking that little bit extra to win trophies, we've generally lost/gone out to teams better than us (Chelsea the year before last, United last year, Juventus etc) rather than losing to teams we should beat.

The truth is we're a good team, but not quite good enough to compete for the top honours, but good enough that we're not going to focus on winning a league/FA cup. Liverpool reached a CL final last year and finished only 2 points behind us yet they have added Alisson, Keita, Shaqiri, Fabinho etc. That's a team building on their success and trying to make that extra step.

 

[SquishyMcSquish]

I don't consider a £1 billion investment in the club's long-term future to be "penny pinching".

Moreover, why don't you wait until the transfer window has closed before concluding that we haven't had "significant investment in the playing staff" (and that's even if you don't count big wage hikes for several players in order to keep them all together at Spurs) and haven't had "an Arsenal style drop in spending".

As far as Grealish is concerned, I don't regard it as sensible spending to dole out an extra £10m (say) simply in order to get him in 3 or 4 weeks early … especially since he's going to have to perform very well even to make it into our best XI.

I think that decision was made in order to make the club more financially profitable long term. It's a financial decision, not one which will win us trophies or make us more competitive on the field. I don't doubt the boards interest in making us a club which is self-sufficient, I doubt that they really care enough about us winning trophies and feel that they probably would be happy if we finished top 4 and went out in a semi final every year for the next 10, because they would benefit financially.

Because that would be consistent with the way we have spent for many years under Levy, I don't expect it to suddenly change. We will likely sell a few players at the end of the window too, do you really believe we will have spent much overall when all is said and done? Signing assets on long term contracts is beneficial to the board, they don't want to be losing our top players on the cheap either. We're a very low spending team, so yes we have seen an Arsenal style drop in spending, our overall spending is by far the lowest of the top six and we have an extremely tight wage structure.

I don't think we'll end up Grealish much cheaper, Villa aren't going to give him to us on the cheap. We may save a few mill here or there, but we will suffer because players won't have a pre-season tour and Pochettino will have less time to work with them properly. We've struggled with this in the past and will struggle with it again, especially with a pretty tough start to the season playing a number of away games as world cup players slowly return. We could very realistically be playing catch up from the start, something which Poch himself has spoken about the dangers of and has asked to fix.

You keep acting like getting an extra 3-4 weeks of time with a player before a season starts is a minor thing, yet our own manager has on a number of times stressed how important it is. He's come out with 2-3 quotes trying to hammer home the point that this is what he badly wants, if it's so important to him (the guy who has built this team) then perhaps we should be taking him seriously.

 

[UnrelatedPsuedo]

On the other hand, the doom-mongering is all looking like the doom-mongering that's occurred on here every summer for the last several years concerning Spurs … whether from the supposed sale of our best players, or being outspent by rivals leading to "no chance" for top 4, or the manager leaving, or … etc

So another year where a repeat of the year before would represent success?

That's another coin in the well for the Arsenal comparison.

 

[UnrelatedPsuedo]

Not saying we are at Crystal Palace level but we are way behind our rivals. Although in net spend terms we ARE behind Crystal Palace.

They've sorted on the wrong column though. 5 teams have spent more than you. So bravo for finishing 3rd.

 

[Scroto Baggins]

What’s baffling? Grealish isn’t exactly for sale, meaning they really dont wanna sell the kid, it’s not like nipping out to buy a packet of cheese and onion crisps. Every transfer window is like ground hog day, the same people buying into the media circus of “The Transfer Window”, People sucking in all the media BS like sponges, it’s like everyone’s IQ drops by 50%. Sports “journalists” must laugh their tits off that people actually click on their lies.

What clubs want to sell their best players? Every club roles out the usual 'not for sale' sound byte in the media. Yet strangely other teams have managed this seemingly impossible feat. This is Jack Grealish not Lionel fecking Messi you are attempting to sign, a championship midfielder who is a step down from Dembele.

We weren’t told anything, Poch said he wanted his signings early it didn’t happen. We aren’t an elite club with elite finances, we aren’t in a position to pay for elite players.

Well at least you are honest.

Spurs lean on their academy a bit, any players expeced to make a step up this season? More game time for Walker Peters, is he replacing Rose? Assuming Winks once fit will be back in the mix. Foyth ready to step up to PL level? Could save Levy a lot of money if you have academy players on the cusp of making the first team. What happened to the 'messi' kid everyone was spunking over that was doing really well in the under 19's?

 

[Don Alfredo]

Spurs will sign Martial in the last week of the window and do the best business out of all the PL teams. Many talk about their current lack of transfer activity, but you can‘t forget they managed to get Poch, Kane and Son to sign long term deals. Much better than what happens at Utd, with the best talent wanting out (Martial wanting to leave, Pogba being touted around Europe by his agent).

The problem for Spurs is the good windows of Liverpool and Chelsea, but with Utd falling behind and Arsenal not improving enough (Mustafi will still be playing in their starting 11 come next season), they are a lock-in for Top4 imo.

Plus many players had valuable experiences at the World Cup, which will help in the CL games to ceep calm.

 

[LilyWhiteSpur]

What clubs want to sell their best players? Every club roles out the usual 'not for sale' sound byte in the media. Yet strangely other teams have managed this seemingly impossible feat. This is Jack Grealish not Lionel fecking Messi you are attempting to sign, a championship midfielder who is a step down from Dembele.



Well at least you are honest.

Spurs lean on their academy a bit, any players expeced to make a step up this season? More game time for Walker Peters, is he replacing Rose? Assuming Winks once fit will be back in the mix. Foyth ready to step up to PL level? Could save Levy a lot of money if you have academy players on the cusp of making the first team. What happened to the 'messi' kid everyone was spunking over that was doing really well in the under 19's?

Mate Walker Peters is right sided, Rose is left.... keep feeding the media BS, keep them in jobs and read the waffle they spew, leave being intelligent... to well... the intelligent. I’m not just talking about Spurs here, the media create lies so supporters can beat their club with it, each time you click their headlines you make them money... do you get that, they can basically say ANYTHING, you clink they earn from it.

The sooner football fans wake up and realise this the better. We spend literally months talking about shit that mainly is just speculation and at worst is literally lies. Brainwashed.

 

[GlastonSpur]

s

So another year where a repeat of the year before would represent success?

That's another coin in the well for the Arsenal comparison.

In terms of the league, yes, because I don't expect us to win the league title.

In terms of domestic cups and the CL, success would be represented by going at least a stage further.

 

[GlastonSpur]

I think that decision was made in order to make the club more financially profitable long term. It's a financial decision, not one which will win us trophies or make us more competitive on the field. …

So you want us to spend more money on signing new players (because you say this will help us to win trophies or make us more competitive on the field), but don't acknowledge that the investment in new stadium will itself bring in more money than currently, each and every year for decades to come, and that this extra money can be spent on signing new players

Look, we don't yet know how much money the club will spend this transfer window, because the window is still open. But I'm saying that there's a balance to be struck between investment for the long term (the new stadium etc) and investment for the short-term (new players). And I'm also saying that the round of new player (and manager) contract renewals that is underway costs money .. and that's also part of the balance.

 

[UnrelatedPsuedo]

In terms of the league, yes, because I don't expect us to win the league title.

In terms of domestic cups and the CL, success would be represented by going at least a stage further.

Fair shout to be honest. Rome wasn't built in a day. At least your expectations are realistic.

 

[SquishyMcSquish]

So you want us to spend more money on signing new players (because you say this will help us to win trophies or make us more competitive on the field), but don't acknowledge that the investment in new stadium will itself bring in more money than currently, each and every year for decades to come, and that this extra money can be spent on signing new players

Look, we don't yet know how much money the club will spend this transfer window, because the window is still open. But I'm saying that there's a balance to be struck between investment for the long term (the new stadium etc) and investment for the short-term (new players). And I'm also saying that the round of new player (and manager) contract renewals that is underway costs money .. and that's also part of the balance.

I'm saying I don't want to end up like Arsenal. Lots of promises of change and how we'll compete with the new stadium, then just stuck with a board content to scrape top 4 every season. Eventually dropping out due to lack of investment and gradual inevitable loss of actual quality players.

We could face a similar situation. We risk not capitalising on our best squad and manager that I can remember due to a failure to add that little extra the team needs to compete. We've got an opportunity to build something great with the current core and I don't want it wasted, do you really think our manager and current irreplaceable stars will hang around 5 more years?

Yes, the window is still open. Tell me honestly though, do you really expect us to suddenly sign a bunch of players? We will sign to replace outgoings with maybe a Grealish on top. That balance you're talking about will be wrecked entirely if we drop out of the CL, which is what will inevitably happen if we don't invest.

The new stadium won't matter if we lose European football, and subsequently lose our manager and top players. We're playing a dangerous game by investing little whilst others around us spend. It could easily backfire. I'm not going to applaud our club for giving its top assets new contracts, yes I'm pleased but we are likely still paying them under the market value. It's not some huge expense we should all be thankful for.

Shiny new stadiums and promises of building for the future do not make success on the pitch, Arsenal know this. You need to compete on the pitch, invest and take risks and you can actually win trophies which is what matters in football. I won't be sat here in 20 years going 'I remember when Levy got Kane on a new contract', it's winning stuff that makes new memories. Win trophies, and we will gain more future fans, more prize money, better sponsorships etc .. I'm not talking about a Leedsesque splurge here, we can still be sensible but spend a bit.

 

[amolbhatia50k]

They've sorted on the wrong column though. 5 teams have spent more than you. So bravo for finishing 3rd.

6. And they've sorted the correct column.

 

[UnrelatedPsuedo]

6. And they've sorted the correct column.

Graphic Title: Spending since 2014 - They've sorted on the Net Spend column. So they've either sorted on the wrong column, or the title is wrong.

I'm was originally being glib to deliberately remind anyone that can be bothered to listen: Net spend is a worthless metric as it doesn't speak to anything. It's a narrative. Not a measurement of anything real.

[Got me bang to rights on the 6 and not 5 though. I only counted up. Missed Liverpool.]

 

[SquishyMcSquish]

At the end of the day I'm a football fan. I want my team to win trophies and haven't seen them do that in far too long.

I don't care how low we are in a net spend trophy or how much we've saved in the latest transfer negotiation, if it doesn't help us compete on the pitch I couldn't care less. Nobody is going to remember the 5 mill Levy saved on the Grealish transfer in 20 years time.

Of course I'm delighted about the new stadium and obviously I want us to be sensible with spending, but I do want the board to realise that the best way to create a feel good factor around the club and build for the future is by investing in the squad and thus winning trophies. This team needs to win silverware and it won't do that without Pochettino getting backed.

I'm a sports fan, not a business fan. Like I said, you can have the best looking spreadsheets in the league and still win nothing. We need to go out and win a trophy and really mark a new era for the club. Give Pochettino what he needs/has asked for and I'm certain he will deliver this.

 

[SportingCP96]

I feel Spurs best chance to win the PL was in 2015/16 and 2016/17 now its more difficult with how good City is and how much the other traditional English giants have to play catch up to city. Spurs remind me a bit of Braga from Portugal Braga are trying to push to fight with the Big 3 of Portugal and are the closest to them by a long mile and I feel Spurs are the same trying to push the bigger clubs in England. I love the way Spurs play and their transfer business ( granted none this year so far) would love for them to win the EPL one day.

 

[Scroto Baggins]

I feel Spurs best chance to win the PL was in 2015/16 and 2016/17 now its more difficult with how good City is and how much the other traditional English giants have to play catch up to city. Spurs remind me a bit of Braga from Portugal Braga are trying to push to fight with the Big 3 of Portugal and are the closest to them by a long mile and I feel Spurs are the same trying to push the bigger clubs in England. I love the way Spurs play and their transfer business ( granted none this year so far) would love for them to win the EPL one day.

I kind of agree with this, that window for winning the PL has gone. But they should be well in contention to win a cup, and whilst they are in the CL I feel are more likely to hang onto players like Kane/Eriksen. I can understand some Spurs fans concerns with not much investment, if they fall out of CL places for a few seasons do the likes of Kane/Eriksen stick around? Or move to clubs that do provide CL football(and pay higher wages), my bet is the latter.

They have arguably hit the jackpot with Kane, a world class striker that cost them nothing, a position notoriously hard to fill with real quality that will cost you a fortune to go and buy off other clubs. They would be flapping around fighting Arsenal for that 6th place slot with a striker pairing of Janssen/Llorente. understandable fans want to see some real conviction to push on with some good signings.

Spurs will sign Martial in the last week of the window and do the best business out of all the PL teams. Many talk about their current lack of transfer activity, but you can‘t forget they managed to get Poch, Kane and Son to sign long term deals. Much better than what happens at Utd, with the best talent wanting out (Martial wanting to leave, Pogba being touted around Europe by his agent).

The problem for Spurs is the good windows of Liverpool and Chelsea, but with Utd falling behind and Arsenal not improving enough (Mustafi will still be playing in their starting 11 come next season), they are a lock-in for Top4 imo.

Plus many players had valuable experiences at the World Cup, which will help in the CL games to ceep calm.

Spurs have to come to the table with a reasonable price for Alderweireld or it isnt happening, we will just look to sell Martial abroad.

Spurs could go on and sign Grealish, Martial and De Ligt which would definitely constitute a good window. Or they could sign Sissoko on deadline day for 30mil

 

[balaks]

They've sorted on the wrong column though. 5 teams have spent more than you. So bravo for finishing 3rd.

6 actually and some more than double.

 

[UnrelatedPsuedo]

6 actually and some more than double.

Aye. Corrected and acknowledged above.

 

[KM]

Spurs will sign Martial in the last week of the window and do the best business out of all the PL teams. Many talk about their current lack of transfer activity, but you can‘t forget they managed to get Poch, Kane and Son to sign long term deals. Much better than what happens at Utd, with the best talent wanting out (Martial wanting to leave, Pogba being touted around Europe by his agent).

The problem for Spurs is the good windows of Liverpool and Chelsea, but with Utd falling behind and Arsenal not improving enough (Mustafi will still be playing in their starting 11 come next season), they are a lock-in for Top4 imo.

Plus many players had valuable experiences at the World Cup, which will help in the CL games to ceep calm.

Hilariously bad post. How can you say that Spurs will sign Martial when every indication from our top club sources have said that we won't sell him to an English domestic club? Pogba won't leave the club, Martial if sold will be to a foreign club. We've improved in this window so far(which Spurs can't say, given they have signed no-one) and our best player(De Gea) will sign an extension.

It has become too fashionable to count off United here when in fact we had a better season than Spurs last year and had actually improved the team in this window so far.

 

[KM]

and yes I don't want to comment on many Spurs issues but I feel @SquishyMcSquish is somewhat right in whatever he's saying. Villa were in dire state for the past two months and the Grealish deal was certainly there to be done, but now with the new investment he'll be significantly more expensive than before. Also, Spurs are the only team which hasn't signed anyone and there's only 15 days left in the window, so that should be a concern.

 

[balaks]

and yes I don't want to comment on many Spurs issues but I feel @SquishyMcSquish is somewhat right in whatever he's saying. Villa were in dire state for the past two months and the Grealish deal was certainly there to be done, but now with the new investment he'll be significantly more expensive than before. Also, Spurs are the only team which hasn't signed anyone and there's only 15 days left in the window, so that should be a concern.

It is a concern that we have yet to sign somebody with 15 days to go in the window however for all we know we could be close to signing a few players - we will find out over the next week or two obviously. Until then I'll not judge and will try and remain hopeful. Grealish will be done and I still think it will be a relatively cheap deal which will free up money for other signings. Not panicking yet....

 

[KM]

It is a concern that we have yet to sign somebody with 15 days to go in the window however for all we know we could be close to signing a few players - we will find out over the next week or two obviously. Until then I'll not judge and will try and remain hopeful. Grealish will be done and I still think it will be a relatively cheap deal which will free up money for other signings. Not panicking yet....

Yeah agree with that, but I think that InLevyItrust called Squishy a bed wetter or something of that sorts on the previous page which wasn't right given his concerns are somewhat right.

I disagree about the relatively cheap regarding Grealish, Villa could've gone into bankruptcy before but now they've been taken over by Billionaires. Grealish must be increased by atleast 10m now that they don't have an quick need to sell him.

 

[balaks]

Yeah agree with that, but I think that InLevyItrust called Squishy a bed wetter or something of that sorts on the previous page which wasn't right given his concerns are somewhat right.

Yeah...

 

[SquishyMcSquish]

Yeah agree with that, but I think that InLevyItrust called Squishy a bed wetter or something of that sorts on the previous page which wasn't right given his concerns are somewhat right.

I disagree about the relatively cheap regarding Grealish, Villa could've gone into bankruptcy before but now they've been taken over by Billionaires. Grealish must be increased by atleast 10m now that they don't have an quick need to sell him.

I think it's just the case that a lot of our fans find it hard to criticize Levy/the board, understandably. They've obviously done a hell of a lot of good, culminating in a fantastic new stadium, as fans we do have a lot to be thankful for. However, they've made bad decisions when it comes to the sporting side of the club (quite a few failures in terms of managerial appointments till we struck gold with Poch) and I think they're guilty of messing it up this window, so far at least. Especially when aforementioned manager signed a new contract on the basis that he would be well backed in the window and provided with early reinforcements that he would be able to work with.

Sure, like @balaks says, the situation could completely turn around in the next week or so, but I think it's understandable to be frustrated when we're pretty much the only team not doing business thus far. It's so, so dangerous to sit still in this league when there's such competition for those top four spots, let alone for actually winning trophies, which is what every fan really wants to see. I do think we've dallied on the Grealish deal and tried to be hard in negotiations which has backfired, and I really hope it doesn't come to define our window. I think a lot of my fears also come from the fact that the start of the season has (in recent times) been difficult for us, and with adapting to yet another new stadium, the world cup players coming back slowly and a few tough away games to kick off, it could easily put us badly on the back foot. I'm genuinely concerned we could find ourselves chasing the pack pretty early on, especially now since any signings we make will not be settled for a good while.

 

[LilyWhiteSpur]

Yeah agree with that, but I think that InLevyItrust called Squishy a bed wetter or something of that sorts on the previous page which wasn't right given his concerns are somewhat right.

I disagree about the relatively cheap regarding Grealish, Villa could've gone into bankruptcy before but now they've been taken over by Billionaires. Grealish must be increased by atleast 10m now that they don't have an quick need to sell him.

I think the media hype round the “transfer window” gets everyone on edge for no real reason. We read all the stories and suck in all the media lies like sponges when in reality 90% of it is completely fabricated BS, this is turn riles up supporters fr adsolutely no reason at all while these “sports journalists” laugh all the way to the bank.

 

[vadimivich]

Spurs have a few tricky issues to navigate when it comes to player signings / additions.

Spurs have very few club trained or association trained players for a variety of odd reason. Ben Davies came up with Swansea City but UEFA does not count them as part of the English FA, for example. Eric Dier plays for England, but since his formative years were in the Portuguese league, he too counts as a foreign trained player. Both the 2nd and 3rd choice keepers (Vorm and Gazzaniga - who spent 2 and not 3 seasons before 21 in England so misses the cutoff) are foreign trained. That means Spurs cannot actually fill out a squad properly for UEFA competition without some serious juggling (last year Lamela was left out of the CL group stages and Spurs still only registered 21 players, for example).

This means that Spurs badly need "association trained" players to round out depth in the first team, more than anything. The problem is that there aren't many good ones - that's what makes even someone from the Championship like Jack Grealish so attractive. Zaha is another name linked a lot, and he also fills the same association trained slot that Spurs need. Any foreign trained players that Spurs purchase automatically must be taking a spot from one already in the squad, so they actually add no depth.

What I would expect in the end is that Spurs shift one of the keepers for an association trained or academy one - though Gazzaniga is highly liked, he's soaking a foreign trained player slot that is badly needed. Also any foreign trained player will have to be matched by a similar sale (i.e - Alderweireld out, another foreign player in *cough* Martial *cough*) and a premium will be paid for association trained talent that can add depth to the first team since that is the only way for Spurs to do that (i.e - Zaha, Grealish, etc).

 

[UnrelatedPsuedo]

Spurs have a few tricky issues to navigate when it comes to player signings / additions.

Spurs have very few club trained or association trained players for a variety of odd reason. Ben Davies came up with Swansea City but UEFA does not count them as part of the English FA, for example. Eric Dier plays for England, but since his formative years were in the Portuguese league, he too counts as a foreign trained player. Both the 2nd and 3rd choice keepers (Vorm and Gazzaniga - who spent 2 and not 3 seasons before 21 in England so misses the cutoff) are foreign trained. That means Spurs cannot actually fill out a squad properly for UEFA competition without some serious juggling (last year Lamela was left out of the CL group stages and Spurs still only registered 21 players, for example).

This means that Spurs badly need "association trained" players to round out depth in the first team, more than anything. The problem is that there aren't many good ones - that's what makes even someone from the Championship like Jack Grealish so attractive. Zaha is another name linked a lot, and he also fills the same association trained slot that Spurs need. Any foreign trained players that Spurs purchase automatically must be taking a spot from one already in the squad, so they actually add no depth.

What I would expect in the end is that Spurs shift one of the keepers for an association trained or academy one - though Gazzaniga is highly liked, he's soaking a foreign trained player slot that is badly needed. Also any foreign trained player will have to be matched by a similar sale (i.e - Alderweireld out, another foreign player in *cough* Martial *cough*) and a premium will be paid for association trained talent that can add depth to the first team since that is the only way for Spurs to do that (i.e - Zaha, Grealish, etc).

Solid post. Mate told me about this recently.

 

[Ish]

Hilariously bad post. How can you say that Spurs will sign Martial when every indication from our top club sources have said that we won't sell him to an English domestic club? Pogba won't leave the club, Martial if sold will be to a foreign club. We've improved in this window so far(which Spurs can't say, given they have signed no-one) and our best player(De Gea) will sign an extension.

It has become too fashionable to count off United here when in fact we had a better season than Spurs last year and had actually improved the team in this window so far.

Aye, don't know how he got to the conclusion of "United falling behind"

Even if we do sell Martial (and it will be to a foreign club) - it's not like he was a mainstay in our team, which finished above Spurs last season.

 

[KM]

Spurs have a few tricky issues to navigate when it comes to player signings / additions.

Spurs have very few club trained or association trained players for a variety of odd reason. Ben Davies came up with Swansea City but UEFA does not count them as part of the English FA, for example. Eric Dier plays for England, but since his formative years were in the Portuguese league, he too counts as a foreign trained player. Both the 2nd and 3rd choice keepers (Vorm and Gazzaniga - who spent 2 and not 3 seasons before 21 in England so misses the cutoff) are foreign trained. That means Spurs cannot actually fill out a squad properly for UEFA competition without some serious juggling (last year Lamela was left out of the CL group stages and Spurs still only registered 21 players, for example).

This means that Spurs badly need "association trained" players to round out depth in the first team, more than anything. The problem is that there aren't many good ones - that's what makes even someone from the Championship like Jack Grealish so attractive. Zaha is another name linked a lot, and he also fills the same association trained slot that Spurs need. Any foreign trained players that Spurs purchase automatically must be taking a spot from one already in the squad, so they actually add no depth.

What I would expect in the end is that Spurs shift one of the keepers for an association trained or academy one - though Gazzaniga is highly liked, he's soaking a foreign trained player slot that is badly needed. Also any foreign trained player will have to be matched by a similar sale (i.e - Alderweireld out, another foreign player in *cough* Martial *cough*) and a premium will be paid for association trained talent that can add depth to the first team since that is the only way for Spurs to do that (i.e - Zaha, Grealish, etc).

Ah makes sense. Very good post.

 

[vadimivich]

In comparison - United had the following "club trained" or "association trained" players in the squad last season:

Paul Pogba
Romelu Lukaku
Michael Carrick
Phil Jones
Jesse Lingard
Luke Shaw
Chis Smalling
Ashley Young
James Wilson

Pogba and Lukaku counting as club / association trained gives United a lot more flexibility to build depth, and is something to not be underestimated in terms of their value. Spurs are not going to find Pogba/Lukaku quality players in this market, but the idea has to be to find Jones, Smalling, Young level depth that can contribute to the first team even if not being obvious starters on a regular basis. Be that via veterans tapering out their careers or youngsters from lower clubs in the PL/Championship - Spurs have to be better at finding contributors in those empty slots over the next few windows.

 

[SquishyMcSquish]

Spurs have a few tricky issues to navigate when it comes to player signings / additions.

Spurs have very few club trained or association trained players for a variety of odd reason. Ben Davies came up with Swansea City but UEFA does not count them as part of the English FA, for example. Eric Dier plays for England, but since his formative years were in the Portuguese league, he too counts as a foreign trained player. Both the 2nd and 3rd choice keepers (Vorm and Gazzaniga - who spent 2 and not 3 seasons before 21 in England so misses the cutoff) are foreign trained. That means Spurs cannot actually fill out a squad properly for UEFA competition without some serious juggling (last year Lamela was left out of the CL group stages and Spurs still only registered 21 players, for example).

This means that Spurs badly need "association trained" players to round out depth in the first team, more than anything. The problem is that there aren't many good ones - that's what makes even someone from the Championship like Jack Grealish so attractive. Zaha is another name linked a lot, and he also fills the same association trained slot that Spurs need. Any foreign trained players that Spurs purchase automatically must be taking a spot from one already in the squad, so they actually add no depth.

What I would expect in the end is that Spurs shift one of the keepers for an association trained or academy one - though Gazzaniga is highly liked, he's soaking a foreign trained player slot that is badly needed. Also any foreign trained player will have to be matched by a similar sale (i.e - Alderweireld out, another foreign player in *cough* Martial *cough*) and a premium will be paid for association trained talent that can add depth to the first team since that is the only way for Spurs to do that (i.e - Zaha, Grealish, etc).

This is interesting, genuinely wasn't aware that this was the situation. Surely makes even more sense to wrap up deals for the likes of Grealish quickly, as Villa will know the further down the line we get the more desperate we become. With a week or so to go they know it'll be difficult for us to switch targets suddenly, so they would hold all the cards.

 

[africanspur]

I think the media hype round the “transfer window” gets everyone on edge for no real reason. We read all the stories and suck in all the media lies like sponges when in reality 90% of it is completely fabricated BS, this is turn riles up supporters fr adsolutely no reason at all while these “sports journalists” laugh all the way to the bank.

You're conflating some very different issues here.

You have decided that some disquiet with our transfer business so far (as, I believe, the only club so far to not do any deals so far at all) means that those fans are muppets who believe everything they read in the papers, are wetting the bed etc etc.

If they believed 100% we'd be spending 150 million net, blowing other clubs out of the water etc then yep fair enough, they got duped and were being a bit silly.

If they thought we'd have done at least some business (even moving on some of the deadwood while the WC was going on), then I don't that is at all unreasonable.

I'm not going to lie, I am slightly concerned about the beginning of the season. We had the most players in the WC semis, our players ran the most of any club I believe at the WC. We're traditionally slow starters anyway but the spine of our team will either have minimal rest or minimal pre season. 5 of our first 7 games are away, 3 of the first 4 games at the new stadium are Man City, Chelsea and Liverpool. Son will be away for August.

I'm not panicking, we've had some bloody terrible seasons as Spurs fans not that long ago and realistically, even if the worst comes to pass, I can't see anything below 6th, even in a terrible season but it would have been good to actually do some business a bit before the season started.

 

[Oga on top.]

They are playing a dangerous game not making any signings early enough, I'm surprised many of the spurs fans seem to disagree with @SquishyMcSquish in what he's trying to say. The way managers like Klopp and Poch demand football to be played requires a pre-season straight and simple. Spurs had the most players from the WC semi finalists so naturally they'll return to club football later meaning early signings would have helped the squad overall.

 

[jack1092]

They are playing a dangerous game not making any signings early enough, I'm surprised many of the spurs fans seem to disagree with @SquishyMcSquish in what he's trying to say. The way managers like Klopp and Poch demand football to be played requires a pre-season straight and simple. Spurs had the most players from the WC semi finalists so naturally they'll return to club football later meaning early signings would have helped the squad overall.

Agree in general, to me, it seems the stadium is going to hold them back like Arsenal. Can they really afford to fire out 60/70mill on Zaha, to be a rotation player?

The thing about Spurs is though, they are sure to get 30goals from Kane barring injury, so they will always be thereabouts.

Only way Spurs struggle for me is if Eriksen is out for a prolonged period.

 

[vadimivich]

They are playing a dangerous game not making any signings early enough, I'm surprised many of the spurs fans seem to disagree with @SquishyMcSquish in what he's trying to say. The way managers like Klopp and Poch demand football to be played requires a pre-season straight and simple. Spurs had the most players from the WC semi finalists so naturally they'll return to club football later meaning early signings would have helped the squad overall.

Honestly, it seems that players need a full year with Pochettino to really blossom. In terms of summer signings that really had good first seasons for Spurs you have Toby Alderweireld, Davinson Sanchez and Victor Wanyama and that's probably it. Guys like Son, Davies, Dier and Trippier all struggled to one extent or another in their first season with Spurs before coming good. I expect for Spurs in 18/19 that improvement will not come from new signings but from players that were signed last year like Lucas Moura as well as Aurier and Foyth making a big leap up after a year in the system.

Does not meaning continuing to invest in playing talent is not important (it very much is) but that with a manager like Pochettino it must be a long term plan and immediate quick fixes are very unlikely.

 

[Don Alfredo]

Hilariously bad post. How can you say that Spurs will sign Martial when every indication from our top club sources have said that we won't sell him to an English domestic club? Pogba won't leave the club, Martial if sold will be to a foreign club. We've improved in this window so far(which Spurs can't say, given they have signed no-one) and our best player(De Gea) will sign an extension.

It has become too fashionable to count off United here when in fact we had a better season than Spurs last year and had actually improved the team in this window so far.

Look at the development in the Martial saga, eventually Utd will give in.

First it was "Martial is not for sale", then it was "Martial can leave, but only for the right price which is 80m". The next step was "Mourinho is happy to let Martial leave if he says he wants to go and the price is 50m".

Martial only has 2 years left on his contract, he is an asset which value will decrease until next summer because of his little playing time and his contract situation. If Martial says he doesn't want to leave England, he only wants to play under Poch, there is not much Utd can do. The only other option is a swap Martial plus cash for Willian with Chelsea maybe...

 

[LilyWhiteSpur]

You're conflating some very different issues here.

You have decided that some disquiet with our transfer business so far (as, I believe, the only club so far to not do any deals so far at all) means that those fans are muppets who believe everything they read in the papers, are wetting the bed etc etc.

If they believed 100% we'd be spending 150 million net, blowing other clubs out of the water etc then yep fair enough, they got duped and were being a bit silly.

If they thought we'd have done at least some business (even moving on some of the deadwood while the WC was going on), then I don't that is at all unreasonable.

I'm not going to lie, I am slightly concerned about the beginning of the season. We had the most players in the WC semis, our players ran the most of any club I believe at the WC. We're traditionally slow starters anyway but the spine of our team will either have minimal rest or minimal pre season. 5 of our first 7 games are away, 3 of the first 4 games at the new stadium are Man City, Chelsea and Liverpool. Son will be away for August.

I'm not panicking, we've had some bloody terrible seasons as Spurs fans not that long ago and realistically, even if the worst comes to pass, I can't see anything below 6th, even in a terrible season but it would have been good to actually do some business a bit before the season started.

We can’t shift players that no one wants to buy? The market is slow because there isn’t much business going on right now. It was always going to come down to the last week due to our window closing earlier than the rest of Europe.

 

[Oga on top.]

Honestly, it seems that players need a full year with Pochettino to really blossom. In terms of summer signings that really had good first seasons for Spurs you have Toby Alderweireld, Davinson Sanchez and Victor Wanyama and that's probably it. Guys like Son, Davies, Dier and Trippier all struggled to one extent or another in their first season with Spurs before coming good. I expect for Spurs in 18/19 that improvement will not come from new signings but from players that were signed last year like Lucas Moura as well as Aurier and Foyth making a big leap up after a year in the system.

Does not meaning continuing to invest in playing talent is not important (it very much is) but that with a manager like Pochettino it must be a long term plan and immediate quick fixes are very unlikely.

Yeah I agree. Poch must run his players like fecking dogs when they first arrive.
Where do you see you guys finishing this season? Any trophies? Also as someone who was desperate for Spurs to win the FA cup semi final last year against you know who, did you think the manner of the defeat left a bad taste for most you Spurs lot?

 

[KM]

Look at the development in the Martial saga, eventually Utd will give in.

First it was "Martial is not for sale", then it was "Martial can leave, but only for the right price which is 80m". The next step was "Mourinho is happy to let Martial leave if he says he wants to go and the price is 50m".

Martial only has 2 years left on his contract, he is an asset which value will decrease until next summer because of his little playing time and his contract situation. If Martial says he doesn't want to leave England, he only wants to play under Poch, there is not much Utd can do. The only other option is a swap Martial plus cash for Willian with Chelsea maybe...

Do you actually live in a fantasy world or something?If Martial says that only he wants to play for Spurs, then United can't do anything. Christ.

Martial is at a critical stage at his career, United won't sell him to a domestic rival and if he wants to stagnate his career more then he can stay on the bench. Even next year we'll get 40-45m for him easily.

Also there hasn't been any stage at which United are selling him for 50m pounds, thats a lie and like the rest of your post a badly throughout fantasy.