I agree, and I don’t think we’ll find anyone who alone who can replace Dembele. But 2 players could probably get close to doing so. Which goes back to the Cook and Grealish talk earlier. Not saying I desperately want either, or both, but it’ll take 2 players like those two to sort the midfield out.
I agree that two CMs would be ideal, not necessarily “two to replace Dembele” but just the sheer fact that CM is the weakest area in our squad. With Dembele nowhere near his best and possibly off, Winks yet to progress (and seeming injury prone), Sissoko not being good enough and then the likes of Amos, Skipp, TOB and Marsh all being too young/ inexperienced as immediate options, it’s an area we could do with beefing up. Grealish is one I’d like. Cook not so much.
It does say something that, when discussing the CM situation, people seem to have accepted Onomah's not going to figure in those plans. To be honest it wouldn't surprise me if he did slip between the cracks, because for the past couple of seasons Winks has done a much better job of establishing himself in the team, and now Skipp's nudging his way into contention, so time does appear to be running out for him to step up.
Sky are saying that we’re “listening to offers for Rose, Toby and Dembele.” WHY CANT IT BE GKN, JANSSEN & CO FIRST??!! I know we’re looking at new options for Dembele, but you just know we won’t be replacing Rose or Toby. Can’t help but feel that if we sign players we want (as things stand), then let those 2 go, we’re not actually improving the team. Toby and Rose are much more established first XI players who should be staying over some of the other deadwood we need to get rid of first. It’s the “leaking bucket” all over again. When will the day come where we sign players in positions that we need to strengthen, whilst keeping some of our better players, and selling the worst ones? We seem to have this habit of retaining some/most of the deadwood, but selling players who we could really do with keeping that stand a much better chance of playing regular football. The result? A good starting XI, but options on the bench that are well below par!
I have a theory about this. The transfer committee has to tell Levy what new signings are worth. If they turn out to be worth a lot less than that then they are embarrassed to admit the mistake. So for example Sissoko has to fetch 20m or whoever said he was worth 30m two years ago looks a pratt. Someone like Dembele can be sold more easily as no-one looks stupid.
Because it's Sky. It sounds so much more dramatic as we've bought nobody and we're prepared to sell 3 front line players. We'll only sell them if we can directly replace them. If we got an offer for Vinnie, GKN or even Llorente, we'd sell no matter what. They're running a stroy amounting to..."Spurs are skint and trying to sell off their best players" The whole story's a crock of ****, as I just don't believe that we're only in the market for 2 players. It looks that way with claimed negotiations for Zaha/Martial and Cook/Grealish being in the news, so they're claiming it as informed news. Really nobody's got much of a handle on what we're up to, particularly Jim White.
I feel gutted for him but the fact he's been injured this pre-season has basically ****ed his chances I reckon, at least for this season. I imagine him and Foyth will be loaned out. Both haven't had the chance to prove their worth for the coming season and were already well down the pecking order, it's also not helped them that Amos, Skipp and CCV have all impressed at the ICC.
More (very) good business from our new West London rivals...... Initial thoughts that they would do more than simply survive this year are starting to get reinforced. Bloody hope that Toby will stay, cos Mawson was near the top of my list of domestic replacements.
Going back to Dembele, because I’m slow off the mark today.... We can’t replace him, just like we couldn’t replace Carrick, Berbatov, Modric, Bale etc. He is a unique player who plays in the heart of the team. Life after Dembele will require a tactics or formation change. We can’t replace him with 2 players because I’ve heard fielding 12 players is frowned upon. Whoever “replaces” him will have to do so in their own way with the rest of the team adapting to that change
Nope. Big signing to me is someone who has won trophies and/or basically walks straight into the starting line up. Those three are all decent squad players but if signed I expect they won’t figure a lot for the few six months.
I also like Mawson, Fulham doing good business this window, although there's a few others I'd rather have over him for if (when) Toby goes (I know not all are domestic, lol): Maguire - although likely too costly Tarkowski - silky CB and should've gone to Russia over Jones Mina - Link up with Dave De Ligt - Link up with Dave Stones - I've even surprised myself at that but he impressed me at the World Cup and I think under Poch - who tends to get the best out of defenders - I think he could go up a notch.
I'd agree but the problem with that is that most of those types of players are already at sides equal too or bigger than us, so signing them becomes extremely difficult, borderline impossible.
I get what you’re saying about sky exaggerating it, but we won’t make much of a net spend, we never do. If we actually manage to sell (rather than loan) the likes of GKN and Janssen, the fees we will accumulate, will only be pennies towards reinforcements. Therefore I think we’re relying on the money from Toby, Rose and Dembele. Sky might be trying to stir things as they prepare for deadline day, but for us not to make much of a net spend again, it’s these 3 that’ll bring in some dosh. So in a way, they are right.
Wouldn’t argue with any of those. But as Maguire and Stones are probably not realistic he would have been a good option as a homegrown. Oh well, - time will tell - could actually be an indication that Toby might be sticking around? (He said - hopefully.......)
Still, it’d be nice for us to sign players who are almost that “big”/“marquee” type, though. Players like Martial and Kovacic. Players that find themselves on the fringe because they are surrounded by an abundance of other top players. That’s why Lucas Moura was such a good signing. Getting these types of players should be in our reach and definitely adds substantial strength to the squad. As well as adding someone like Grealish. But with us you just know that we’ll only purchase the “up and coming” player which ends up helping us a bit, but doesn’t add any substantial improvement on what we have, or add huge strength to an area where we’re weak.
There's a possibility Stones may actually be available, I wouldn't be surprised if he was a surprise deadline day mover, not necessarily to us but he's fourth choice at City and as good as they are, no player of his stature wants to be that low down a pecking order. As for Toby, I think mentally he's gone already to be honest, it's literally just waiting for the right fee to come in before sanctioning it so he can physically be out the door.
For sure and I think we will make a marquee signing. Kovacic would be amazing as he's arguably better than Dembele or at least will be. Martial I'm not too arsed about, just like Zaha, I feel neither of those are really upgrades on what we have, very good players and they'd get a lot of fans excited but just for me personally, only someone like Bale (which won't happen) is the type of AM/ WF we should be aiming for. I still maintain that fans will be massively surprised with Grealish should he join, genuinely believe he could make an impact similar to Dele/ Dier (albeit he'll be a bit more expensive!). It'll just be sods law though that he signs a new deal at Villa now. Although I wouldn't hate on him if he done so, he's a Villa boy and I'd respect that decision as he's essentially their Kane. I'm still banking on Spurs fans being happy come the end of the window. Admittedly I thought we'd get stuff done earlier but I'd predicted everything correct until that so I'm still massively optimistic.
Martial would be a useful signing due to his versatility, as he could play on the left while Son's at the Asian Games, but he's also capable of playing up front - while also adding some much-needed pace to the team in a position other than full back ...yes I am aware I posted pretty much the exact same thing about Alassane Plea a few weeks ago!
With all the talk of Manure possibly going for Yerry Mina if they can't get Toby I got to wondering why we're not in for him. He's already played alongside Davinson.
