"Tottenham have confirmed they have no senior players out of contract this summer." Really? Isn't Vorm out of contract? Smiling face on Twitter tomorrow?
No, I've just read that we are supposedly close to signing an 18 year old Barcelona 'starlet', Riqui Puig......they both played for Barcelona, though.
If we had the power of hindsight we'd have never signed either. Neither have shown themselves good enough to be blocking Onomah's and KWP's route to the first team. Both should be sold, even if it is Aurier's first season, he's made far too many mistakes for someone of his supposed pedigree and KWP has already looked better in his small handful of appearances. This is the first season as well where Poch hasn't given many chances to the younger players. A few made 5-10 minute debuts off the bench but that was it. Baring in mind in past seasons; Mason, Bentaleb, Carroll, Townsend, Kane, Alli, Winks and Onomah all featured quite substantially, we haven't had that this season, KWP has had the most chances and that's barely been a handful despite looking really good. I appreciate that with our growth under Poch, expectations have been raised but we've got some of the best prospects in the country and some of their first team counterparts haven't warranted the game time they've been given.
Yeah saw that, too. Been reading up on him since, supposedly one of their most highly rated youngsters and is in the Iniesta/ Xavi mould in terms of CM playmaker, so it'd seem a good buy with that regards. Someone to learn from Seri or Milinkovic-Savic next season
DH - are you an ITK in disguise?? Every link has these two already sold to Goons and Utd! Something you're not telling us??
Positive thinking, man, positive thinking. We're gonna gazump one of those sides and unveil either player before you know it.
We had 77 points last year without playing at home. If we won as many points at Wembley as at WHL, we'd have had 87. That wins the PL about half the time. We played the CL finalists 4 times, went 2 2 0 with a +5 GD. Our squad is mostly young. We have less resources than 5 other teams in the PL. We played better and scored more when our one man team/striker was out. It seems clear that two players didn't play nearly often enough. Most would say we need a Dembele replacement, a left back and maybe a second striker, plus some others. Before thinking about who we might buy, I would consider how we could line up with no additions. Other options who might get considerable time are in parentheses. Players who may well not be with us next year have question marks next to their names. I assume Alderweireld won't be back. Lloris Trippier/KWP Sanchez Vertonghen Trippier/Rose (?) (Aurier, Dier, Foyth) Eriksen Dier Alli (Dembele (?) Wanyama, Winks, Sissoko) Moura Kane Son (Lamela, Alli, Eriksen) It seems to me we definitely don't need a back up striker if we're more effective without any striker. Between existing options and a strong selection of young players, we may not need any more reserves. While we might want a Dembele replacement, I'd really like to see first how we do with a 4-3-3 with Eriksen and Alli often but not always in the middle three--though that's practically impossible. However that might be, there's a case to be made that we should only go after 1-3 young players in the transfer window who we believe will be the best in the world at their position fairly soon. Sessegnon comes to mind.
According to the usually pretty reliable Dan Kilpatrick, we are preparing to sell the following this summer... Toby Alderweireld; Mousa Dembele; Danny Rose; Serge Aurier; Moussa Sissoko; Fernando Llorente Erik Lamela; Vincent Janssen; GKN; That's well over a third of our senior pro's. That's a cull of significant proportions but it looks about right to me. I love Mousa D and Toby and Lamela but it's time to shuffle the pack. MP wants to be brave? **** it, let's be brave.
There's some logic to dispensing with any of those - but not all of them at the same time. And it depends on who you bring in. Spurs' recruitment in the past few years has been pretty sound. You might say there have been a few duds, but on balance it's a massive positive (unlike some )
Toby we'd all love to stay but know the writing's on the wall. Highly unlikely but if Dembele was to settle for a squad role I'd be delighted for him to stay. Rose I'd personally keep if he showed the same level of performance as Leicester, the final game of the season saw the Rose we all came to love in recent seasons. Looks like he's massively wound his neck in and eaten humble pie since the idiotic comments last summer - perhaps because he now knows no one better than us is going to be interested but none the less, him and Davies as LB options are amongst the best in Europe, let alone the Prem. Lamela I'd also keep. As squad quality goes, he's an excellent option to have - BUT I wouldn't begrudge him if he wanted to move. He's no longer considered first choice and after the injury he had, he'll probably wanna get back into a regular XI as of next season and we can no longer offer him that.
Rose has pretty much confirmed he will still be at Spurs next season. I cant see any clubs better than Spurs coming in for him anyay considering the season he has had.
Selling Lamela makes no me to be honest. Think his style and commitment are invaluable even off the bench. He has his faults but so do most non world class players. Toby has to be sold as he wants what we can not afford. Rose is a prize twat who I have no understanding of and in my honest opinion should have never worn a spurs shirt again. If someone is willing to buy the money grabbing, chocolate addicted, fat arsed, ignorant, chip munching, jelly bellied nobhead then it can't happen soon enough. The rest should be sold if possible as they are not first choices and we could get better than all of them...apart from Sissoko ... I'll miss him
Prepared to sell doesn't necessarily mean actually selling, though. I'll be very surprised if they all go.
I should have checked. You're right, it's Borussia Munchen Munchen Munchen Munchen Glad To Be Back Dookla Fisch Eff Cee. Also known as A German Team. He'll be playing with the other Hazard, the other Traore, the other Raffael, the other Doucoure and the bloke that forgot winning the World Cup. Finished about as mid-table as possible.
It takes me back to the old 70's joke..... "Who's the most unpopular bloke in football?" "The bloke at Borussia Monchengladbach who shouts........"Give me a B.....Give me an O...."
