I think Poch is saying things to appease the situation. Everyone knows he wants to strengthen, he’s said many times about bringing in the right players but he’s also smart enough to not go full Jose in front of the media if there aren’t adequate funds/ no signings because if he did, it’d send the fans into a meltdown of highest proportions and that’d then only have a negative impact on the club/ team. I’m sure it was you who even said that if need be, Levy should take out a loan to ensure Poch gets at least one or two of his targets. This is something I’d also go along with. I’ve said before but this really is such a crucial season for us, it’s got to have a good ending otherwise I fear all the work Poch has done could come severely unstuck with potential departures, which may or may not include him as well.
Is their footage of him saying this anywhere, as I'm having trouble working out exactly what he's on about? I can generally understand him better when it's on film and a lot of his comments read a little strangely on the page.
I've long believed that Joe Lewis should refinance the club. He doesn't have to sell but we could take on partners, given that the infrastructure in LWH, Hotspur Way, Tottenham Hotspur ST/\DIUM, etc. are worth £1 billion plus. I see no reason to leave the club straddled with enormous debt when the club could re-capitalise and take off the handbrake. It's allowable under FFP and would still leave ENIC in control of a huge asset. I'd much rather they did that than borrow more money but I'd like MP to be given money to have the option to buy some much needed talent. If we can afford it, I'd be in favour of taking a loan to buy some talent, if we can identify someone that we can get at a price that we can afford. However, if we don't buy this window, I'm not going to go into meltdown, either. I'm not sold on MP staying shtum because he fears supporter meltdown. I'm sure that he knows the financial position of the club to a pretty good degree, he's said that DL includes him on all this stuff and DL will have told him what we can afford and they are working together on it. He didn't turn down Real Madrid because he feared supporter meltdown. He committed to a project that clearly indicated....we build Hotspur way, then the stadium and then we can address the team. I think he's backing the club because it's what he knew was coming and it is the right thing to do, albeit it could be easier.
I haven't found footage but it seems to have come out of Gazzanigga's signing being criticised by the morons who text back to the club..."Announce Messi" and the like... https://www.football.london/tottenham-hotspur-fc/news/pochettino-latest-spurs-news-gazzaniga-15581962 He has a point. There is a very negative perception of the club's actions from a lot of the supporter base. It's something that the club could do with helping with, rather than staying silent too often.
We do have an issue with some overly negative fans, which is typified by that ****ty Harry Hotspur blog. I don't think that Gazzaniga's a great example of that though, as it did just look like we were signing a third choice keeper. That's not an issue in itself, but when you're not doing a lot of business, then it'll draw the focus. How many people expected Vorm to get displaced and for some to be calling for the Argentinian to get games ahead of Lloris when he joined? Barring a few that had seen him playing at Gillingham and were extremely impressed, I think that most were just uninterested in the signing. It wasn't negative exactly, just that we already had two good keepers and that he was expected to make up the numbers.
I’ve long said I think Steve Nash will have something to do with the club sooner or later. Whether that’s a potential takeover bid via a consortium or look to become some form of partner as you’ve suggested. No proof or insider knowledge my end, just an instinct. It’s common knowledge Nash would like to be heavily involved with the club and I think now would be a perfect time to do so. The Real rejection and current funds are two different scenarios. No one knows for sure why he didn’t take up the position there, maybe he does indeed want to see out his project, maybe he just felt it was too early to take the job, again, no one knows. But keeping quiet now about funds is something I think he’s doing in order to not let things get out of hand, which shows just what type of bloke he is and why he’s cherished here. As for targets, again, we can all speculate as to who we want but we won’t ever really know who Poch himself wants (unless it becomes knowledge like Grealish) but I don’t for one minute buy the idea that he’s happy keeping things as they are which he’s implied in that recent quote, as I’ve said, I think that’s been said to keep panic at a minimum. FWIW I’d say he’s definitely content and why wouldn’t he be? He has a good bunch of players and currently things are going nicely, even if we are threadbare. But I definitely believe he’d be a lot happier with a couple of signings he feels can help take the club to that desired “next level”.
That's the biggest fallacy of the Levy Out mob, they think all signings should be £20m+ and only come from elite clubs, which is ****ing moronic Case I point, if our transfer activity was dictated by them, we wouldn't have signed Alli, Dier, Tripper, Davies, Rose, Gazzaniga etc etc - and it's funny how, when this is pointed out to them, they seem to shut up very quickly...
Just as they accuse people of thinking we'll pick up another VDV, so they think the club is still capable of picking up the likes of Berbatoss and Modric under the radar at equivalent transfer/wage fees.
I got into it with one of the buggers over the summer, mainly because he was mouthing off that our selling Anton Walkes in the summer was the first step towards Kane, Eriksen, Alli etc leaving (because selling a fourth-choice right back who had spent the last couple of seasons on loan at Atlanta and Portsmouth is totally the same...) and the drivel they were coming up with was remarkable, not least referring to the £30m Moussa Sissoko as a "bargain basement player" which looked ridiculous then and even more ridiculous now. I think a lot of the blame should be aimed at FIFA (that's the video game franchise, not the organisation) because it appears a worryingly large number of people seem to believe that how a player is in a game is 1:1 with real life (and I've seen websites actually use players' FIFA ratings in articles, which is a joke), just as they think transfer negotiations take a couple of minutes or you can easily swap players in and out of teams because they'll be an instant fit While not quite the same, I prefer Football Manager, and while I do use that as a rule of thumb for a players' wages in real life (as the game devs use the same scouting software as numerous real-life teams, for example Everton use the same software) using it as a judge for a real life player is absurd, for example FM12 listed Harry Kane as a **1/2 player while Souleymane Coulibaly as between ***1/2 and **** depending on your save, which a quick check on Wikipedia reveals to be...hmm, what's the polite way to phrase this? Oh yeah, woefully inaccurate.
Tempted to do some cheeky Photoshop retouching on that image and remove the shadow under his finger, so it looks like his hand is further away from his face and he's not rubbing his eye
RCL's gonna love that. I think in the last six posts he's replied to me, the 'Poch middle finger' picture has been used in four of them, so an upgrade will definitely excite him.
I would have thought it was the perfect time and a very good signal from MP. You can never stop the negativity entirely, some people build their lives around it but in the best period for Spurs in probably over 50 years he is quite entitled to criticize the moaners. Although you could argue that it may not be worth his time and effort to engage with them.