At least one NEW AM is needed this summer, being the heir to Eriksen. By definition it : 1. allows the burden to be lessened on Eriksen (for whatever remains for him) this season 2. gives NEW AM time to acclimatise to the PL for if/when they become the main man instead of Eriksen Two NEW AM this summer means Levy is going to get rid of Eriksen at the best possible price.
Now would probably be a bad time to mention that r/coys banned Hotspur Related a week ago Admittedly the rule was to stop posting threads which were just links to aggregator Twitter accounts, but given the amount of threads that we're just someone posting a HR tweet for the karma it's pretty obvious why the rule came in
I think Eriksen leaving after the PL window has closed is a possibility we have to be prepared for. If he hasn't signed a new contract by Thurs morning I cannot see Levy passing up the opportunity to bring in circa £50m for him rather than lose him on a free. In fact, knowing as we do how Levy operates, I wouldn't be half surprised if we fail to bring in a replacement, sell Eriksen, and Poch is told the same line he has been told every year for 5 years: do the best you can with what you've got. Spurlock's fairy liquid analogy is not a figment of his imagination. It is a reality and one that I fear greatly.
If nobody is bought in and Eriksen sold then the club better be prepared for the criticism they will truly deserve. By doing that, they show it’s all about profit over glory and a massive lack of ambition on the field.
One thing I've noticed in the last couple of weeks is the ever-shifting Narrative A week ago it was said the plan was to have both Lo Celso and Eriksen in the team A few days ago the Narrative stated we had to sell Eriksen to buy Lo Celso (or Fernandes, as the Narrative shifted again) Similar can be said for Sessegnon: one Narrative says he'll be signed irrespective of Rose, the other says when Rose is sold he'll be signed No wonder the lunatic fringe have been getting uppity in the past week, at this point it's possible to pick and choose a Narrative that fits your agenda, so all you need to sort out is what your preferred hashtag will be
Would be far worse than that (also a statement of shambolic club running) . The moment that Eriksen shouted his "new challenge" blurb, then getting a NEW AM should have been made as high a priority BEFORE day 1 of the transfer window (if NEW AM was not already high priority enough for Pochettino regardless of whether Eriksen stayed) . Getting them signed as quickly as NDombele then immediately weakened Eriksens' stance, and Levy could go to town. But no, NEW AM is not yet here with days to go. And to compound it, in Lo Celso we see Spurs yet again have got into a transfer saga with a player who has some arsey 3rd party involvement (owners, sell-on fees etc) just as it was with Damiao and Moutinho.
I see this happening too. But I only see this happening if we bring in Lo Celso. Then we survive until January before going back in for Fernandes, for example. If we don’t sign anyone to replace/back up Eriksen, then we sell Eriksen after our window shuts, the fans are going to lose their ****. But I wouldn’t be at all surprised if it happened.
There is only one Narrative that currently matters: the narrative of the best manager in our PL history being chronically under-provided by his employers. This narrative isn't the stuff of dreams, it isn't the figment of a reddit stream imagination, nor is it over exaggerated by any "lunatic fringe". It has been a true story for 24-36 months now. And yes, the construction of the stadium has kept logic at bay and circled ENIC's wagons, but this narrative now has 4 days to change its story. And the people writing the script have used the same stage directions for the past 17 years.
WTF cares about "narratives" ?? Emotional man-children on the Internet ?? Narratives do not fix squad rosters, club owners and managers do. The bottom line is that a transfer window that begin cleanly with the signing of NDombele without aggro, is hours from repeating the same old tedious eff-ups with the added possibilty of losing Eriksen on the cheap between now and end Jan, or for free next summer.
Just out of interest, could you let me know how confident you were of it being a HUGE window last summer? - as a percentage, please.
Who cares about Narratives? Well for one thing, the people determined to create them - as evidenced by various news sources tripping over one another to make something about Poch's comments after the Los Ladrones match, which in turn leads to people with a crippling case of confirmation bias latching onto them and regurgitating them through the internet, and so on, and so on...
I was misled by the new stadium delay, last summer is void, bro. There doesn’t seem to be any distractions this time around. GLC or Bruno in. (GLC and Bruno if Eriksen leaves). Sess in. Maybe Hyseij too, links to him keep reappearing.
FWIW, Story this morning that Fernandes has told Sporting that he wants to join Spurs and asks them not to stand in he way.
The latter option would be one of the best windows ever, certainly in the Prem era I’d say. Though for me, the realistic scenarios are: GLC/ Bruno in and keep Eriksen. GLC and Bruno in but sell Eriksen. Sess joins either way. Dybala not happening either way.
There's also a story doing the rounds (admittedly from Duncan Castles, which is why only the Star are running it right now) which suggests that we offered £41m for Fernandes - because there's a clause in Fernandes' contract that states that, if Sporting receive an offer of £32m or more and refuse it, they have to pay him £4.5m in compensation Of course, for the sake of clarity, I'll just emphasise the parts that might make this story a little less than credible: Duncan Castles, The Star
I think we’ll need to wrap up one of Lo Celso or Fernandes if Eriksen looks like going this summer. If he doesn’t, he’s an influential enough player to make him worth forgoing the transfer fee to keep him another year. It sucks that we haven’t got the fee we wanted for him but we can’t force other clubs to buy him at a price that makes it worth selling and can’t force him to sign another deal either. If he stays for this season I imagine we’ll go back for Lo Celso or Fernandes in January. I can’t see us getting both, and frankly there are other areas of the squad I would look to spend money on before doubling up on the pair.
Real have opened talks for Van der Beek. That's the hatchet buried on Eriksen's dream move once and for all. Where else could he go?
Rumours of a bid for Hysaj have resurfaced, with a fee of £20m being bandied about by the Mirror - but of course, lunatic fringe gotta lunatic fringe and are up in arms that it's not Atal...