With all due respect smithy, Eriksen did very little in the CL final to get a winners medal...I ain't blaming him but a key player needs to grab the game by the scruff of the next and produce a piece of magic.
The City game last week highlighted the gap you've been highlighting between him and KDB. It is unbelievably vast. And, I would add, all down to attitude.You can't really choose between the two in terms of ability or technique. KDB is faster and physically stronger but Eriksen is better with his weaker foot. The stand-out difference is the hunger De Bruyne has to be a match winner, to see his name in bold print in as many 'team of the weeks' as he possibly can. Eriksen is far too nonchalant and timid by comparison.
I think it's a personality thing with him. I'd wager he is a real nice guy in private life but a little modest and self effacing. Unfortunately if he had a bigger ego he'd be a better player. As you say he has everything in terms of technique and ability but not the ruthless edge.
KdB is the best playmaker on the planet right now, as much as I'm a fan of Eriksen I can happily hold my hands up and say he's not at his level. I agree with what you and SD have just said, I think it's an attitude/ ego thing that at times holds Eriksen back. If he was more egotistical and arrogant like so many of the elite players are, he'd be at KdB's level or at least a lot closer. Realistically though Eriksen is the best we can ask for. We won't get a better player than him for a long, long while and it's why I'm praying to the footballing gods we do keep him. At the very least, Poch should be starting him whilst he's here but Poch is making so many questionable decisions that I'd say he's been the most disruptive person at our club, mad really when for so long he was the one that brought everyone together.
Here is the root of a lot of Spurs current problems. Once again agents are at the heart of the unrest. "https://amp.theguardian.com/football/2019/aug/27/tottenham-uncertain-christian-eriksen-intentions">
I think Agents are easy scapegoats. No connection to a club or the player therefore no attachment to us...but apparently pulls all the strings. Agents do what players want them to do most of the time. Tbh this whole saga has been conducted in typical fashion of sorting a problem out with an introvert. He's probably been telling the club one thing, his own people another...trying to keep everyone sweet. It's the kind of weak guy he comes across as. On the flip side with how Poch is behaving it would be naive to ignore what Trippier said about background issues. We tend to ignore a lot of the finer details. Maybe Eriksen thought the same and has decided I'm not signing I need a fresh environment. There's something rotten at Spurs...it could just be the philosophies of those running it.
Interesting post Spurlock, as always we are talking about a collection of egos, which of course have all been massaged by reaching the CL final. In the case of Eriksen it's clear he is ego driven but he probably realises that it would be easier to ply his skills in a less 'aggressive' league. I am not sure about agents doing what players want? I tend to think that agents are there to advise their players what career moves they should make and of course it is always in the agent's interest to move a player on. Footballers have agents because not many feel they would come out best in negotiations with someone like Levy, and in my experience as a negotiator it's not something that everyone can do. We all have different skill sets. Pochettino comes across as an intelligent level headed guy but anyone might expect to be altered by the success he has had at Spurs. His growing confidence over his time with us has been easy to see. It's not beyond the bounds that he has become a little too high handed with the players and bruised egos are starting to rebel. This whole mix is a fairly common situation in all walks of life and it's easy to find yourself dealing more with the problems of the people you are working with and literally taking your eye of the ball and the goals.
Linked to this could be that the players themselves might not consider it to be as successful a period as the manager or indeed us fans do. We look at success over the course of decades and have generally been happy with the upturn in our fortunes the last few years. Players only have a few good years to win medals and there is perhaps a feeling amongst some of them that Poch isn't the man to deliver said medals, given that he doesn't seem to learn from certain mistakes. Couple this with a training regime that is probably more intensive than most clubs and it's not hard to see why some players might seek pastures new.
There is a bucket-load of irony when to comes to Eriksen. Had he turned up in the CL Final, or indeed other big games, and taken those matches by the scruff of the neck like top-tier players often do then clubs like Real Madrid and Barca would have been falling over themselves to sign him. Consequently, by pushing our team onto winning trophies there is a huge chance that he'd want to stay with us anyway. He'd be the main man in a shiny new stadium with 200k+ per week instead of just another player for one of the big Spanish sides.
I don’t get where he’s coming from, unless he’s under pressure from his wife, or whatever. Or he wants a Spanish league title medal. As you say, if he was that good, then both Real and Barca would have been tripping over themselves to buy him. Ok, they probably think they can get him for nothing next year anyway, but the money is nothing to those clubs if they want a player and want him now. The chase for Neymar shows that. Even if one of the Spanish big two do take him, the best he can expect is to warm his arse on a bench.
I think it's a lot simpler than it's being made out to be. Eriksen letting his contract expire puts him in a very strong position. He can see what offers come his way in the summer and pick whichever one suits him best. If that happens to be Real Madrid or Barcelona, then that's great for him. If not, then he'll have multiple offers available and I'm sure we'll be one of them. This should have been sorted 18 months ago, at least. Sign a new contract, accept a move or rot in the reserves. Naively allowing multiple senior players to enter this position is ludicrous. We've repeated the mistakes that we watched Arsenal make repeatedly. Levy took his eye off the ball to concentrate on the stadium and our squad has suffered badly as a consequence.
I don't agree with that. Both sides should honour the contract. The player or the club both have the option to run it down. If nothing happens it is right that the contract stands and the player can be selected. This is just the way it is. No-one has acted badly or made any mistakes.
As Pochettino said, "when you sign a contract as a player, you need to understand that you don’t sign to play, you sign to train." If you're acting against the best interests of the club, then you shouldn't expect the club to act in your best interests, either.
Why would Real and Barcelona want a lazy player,whatever his talents? I'm sure these clubs have spies everywhere marking down who cares and don't care in all leagues. If players don't want to play....don't let 'em!!!!! Let them rot on the bench until......
But it has to be symmetrical. We ran Llorente's contract down. What recourse did he have? How is it against the best interests of the Club to honour your contract?
The club isn't failing to honour anyone's contract. They would still be paid and training with the club. They're not entitled to start games.
I agree but we are not entitled to ban them fron starting games either unless they breach their contract. Anyway would you really have not picked any of Alderweireld, Vertonghen or Eriksen since Christmas as none would sign a new deal?
