I think you have gone about things the wrong way around. You have tied up most of your top players with new contracts which makes good sense and was needed but, you should have got any new signings in first. Now any agent worth the title will be asking for wages comparable to the new contracts you have handed out which will make it a more costly business for you.
Not at all Bri..I'm not saying spend 50mill on Richarlison. What has he done? He's ****e. However there are players out there with good pedigree and a price on their head. I know for a fact we all wanted Seri...what vital info did we miss about him that meant he joined bloody Fulham for relevant peanuts?...we could have done with that kind of quality to bolster our CM options...we weren't even in the fight. There are other similar players available with prices on their heads and with pedigree not just reputations such as Savic...yeah he's got a hefty price tag but I'm afraid that's what we need instead of spending 20 here, 30 there and buying another Clinton Njie clone for 15 mill. Like you say though a few weeks left..lets see what Levy does for our team. I'm expecting at least one more meltdown from me before the window slams shut, I'll try my best not to have it.
I've made a similar point to this in the past. While it's nice to get business done early, there is literally zero correlation to show that signing players earlier guarantees they'll be a success. Even we're a prime example of that: Early window signings in recent years: Janssen - flop Soldado - flop Paulinho - flop Wanyama - success Jan - success Toby - success Late window signings in recent years: Llorente - flop Nkoudou - flop Sissoko - flop (albeit has improved marginally) Eriksen - success Sonny - success Dave - success
i don't agree with this because if the wage ceiling had not gone up we would not be able to attract the big players this team needs. Now that the wage ceiling has gone up...that should open up the net for the required quality. Obviously there is the small matter of the price tag but wages had to go up and made available for new quality signings...if and when they are made.
Nah I disagree mate. If we didn't tie our key players down to deals then the media would've been selling half of them off to Utd/ City/ Real/ Barca and PSG which can then cause unrest. Getting them tied down is also massive for our future, we're not naive to think that we'll be spending huge amounts in the coming years because ultimately stadium repayments will begin so spending will be restricted (insert Levy strict transfer joke here), so our best bet is to get as many tied down to long deals to at least ensure that if we do need to sell one or two, we can expect top dollar.
I'd like to think that the players that we are after now would not have signed for us on the old wage regime. If we're spending £50m+ and are a CL club, that player's going to expect £120k minimum or has the world's worst agent. We're now earning more than Chelsea and the same as The Gooners and Liverpool. As long as we're not spending more than 60% on wages, ENIC are happy. That's the thing. The Spurs wage structure is not about how much but what percentage of income it is. In the last 4 years we've more than doubled our income, so no problem.
Which is something I have been saying for ages, it's a bit of a catch 22 situation. I just think the timing was wrong not the action, you could have made the deals with new players for moderately higher wages then rewarded the existing players later in the season.
Out of all the flops the only real let down was Soldado considering his success in Spain. The rest were hit and miss potential signings and as proved were miss more than hit. As for the successes...when they came into our team...their playing levels were sufficient for where we were. Now them players have moved onto another level and we are in a different landscape of success therefore the quality of player Levy needs to be looking at should be complimenting what Poch has built...we are closer to the holy grail and that's the hardest bit. The quality we need can't be risked in some unknown gamble with great potential, it's in players everyone is aware of due to how good they are. So Levy needs to be more supportive of Poch because he needs it now. How many years before Poch decides it's the club that is holding him back as oppose to his own inability to deliver? For me this is one of the most vital windows in our recent history because we are all set...Levy needs to get the handbrake off...anyway I'll shut up now before I call him baldy **** and get myself in trouble
I think Paulinho and Llorente were also massively disappointing. Paulinho came with a huge rep, had just won the Copa Libertadores, voted third best player at the Confederations Cup and was becoming key for Brazil, everything pointed towards him becoming an elite Prem CM. Llorente has a CV that'd make 99% of players in world football jealous and he also showed his quality for Swansea, I finally thought we'd found a striker who could compete with Kane after the Soldado and Janssen failures. Like you say we are so seemingly close to doing something special and I think that's why it's hard to find the perfect players. Maybe this is why it's taking time as Levy/ Poch have wanted to bide time to see who potentially becomes available before pouncing? Most of us generally agree a CM is our priority and like we've all said over recent months Seri would've been ideal (in our opinions) but maybe the club didn't think so? With all respect to Fulham, I think if we'd wanted Seri we'd have gotten him.
I've not been on too much lately, what actually happened? Sounds like NSIS and Libby are pissed at DMD but I'm not really aware what was said.
There has been new rules introduced, no personal insults or thread disruption. Not everybody has taken to it and some short 12-24 hour bans have been handed out. The only guy with a real grievance is Piskie but he hasn't been banned just slighted. There has been some real discourse on there for just over 24hrs now and it's quite interesting to read. EDIT..........Oh, and DMD has gone power mad
What happened with Piskie? Not really seen much from him. I've only been going by NSIS's grassing thread though (where it's obvious DMD ain't flavour of the month with Libby, NSIS and Stan - presume they were the ones to get bans?), should I read the politics thread to get up to date or another?
So at the moment I’ve got tweet notifications turned on, in the hope spurs official will bring me the news of a signing... Last night my phone was going mental in the early hours with all the #SpursInTheUsa stuff, but as I scrolled down the notifications there was a tweet preview that said “one signed”. When I opened it, spurs official had deleted the tweet. Did anyone else see this? My guess is that the “one signed” had nothing to do with an incoming transfer, and was just merely a poor choice of words from a member of our social media team, that resulted in backlash from the already pissed off fans!
I know... what am I thinking? Instead it’s just “free delivery on all orders over £50”, “Poch takes part in crossbar challenge” or “thankyou so much for having us [insert location]! #SpursInTheUsa”