There's a special 'book 2 weeks, get 3 nights free' at the cave if you're interested. Limited availability only.
Nabil Bentaleb is reportedly being offered to Everton and Villa We really should be considering this, rather than the various sites once again thinking that Wilfried Zaha is the solution to everything
According to Dan Kilpatrick, the club's aims for January are 1.) Not panic buying to fill the hole left by Ndombele and Sissoko being out 2.) Offload Eriksen and Wanyama The fact that Wanyama is being ushered towards the door is yet another reason to sign a DM, which means that while we won't be panic-buying we clearly need to move up the transfer plans for one player (and I'll just keep repeating Soumare's name until he signs for PSG on the 27th...)
The real question is what our intentions for this window are At present we have two squad places available (it was three back in August, but re-signing Vorm took it down to two) so if our intentions are to sign a striker and a DM that would be fine as it would fit our quota However, if we're looking to sign a third player, we need to free up a place - while Eriksen is self-explanatory
This has been a massive source of frustration. It's been obvious since pre-season 2018/19 that Big Vic is done as far as playing PL football is concerned. It was suspected to be the case for some time prior to that. Yet, we've treated him as a fully functioning squad member. It's a joke. We've let this go on for too long. It's time to stop that nonsense and start to fill the gaping hole that should be our central midfield. If he won't leave for other interested clubs, as happened in the summer (which he's entitled to do), then we just need to recruit irrespective and let him see out his contract training with the kids, irrespective of him having any contractual rights to leave, if we deny him a squad place. It may cost us a few quid but we've wasted a lot more on paying off Mauricio Pochettino and disposing of Janssen and Soldado. So, let's stop all this pissing about and do something about it.
This is the thing that stands out For the first couple of seasons anyone who pissed about was swiftly out the door. The Kaboul Cabal, gone. Bentaleb, gone. Townsend, gone. Yet a few years down the line, Rose kicks off...and he's still here. Toby starts playing silly buggers over his contract...and he's still here. It's no surprise that Eriksen feels like he can play silly buggers with his contract while also mouthing off to the Danish press, because he knows that Rose and Alderweireld did that and got away with it
This window really will be a defining factor for ENIC. I’ve generally been a pro-Levy/ ENIC type of guy but early signs of this window suggests they’re pissing about - again. I’m contributing towards the highest ticket prices in the Premier League, I’m seeing new sponsorships announced every couple of months and I’m seeing Spurs posting record revenue thanks to solid CL runs in the last few years. New stadium or not, I won’t be convinced anymore there isn’t money to spend. Levy and co better get their arse into gear because I won’t be defending them anymore if we make it three windows out of four without strengthening. Liverpool are showing us exactly how a club should be run with regards to transfers, they made a signing before the window opened and he was able to play five days into the window once he’d been registered.
I don't think we have or had nearly as much money to spend as some people assumed would be the case the morning after we moved into the new stadium. True, our debt structure seems very sound and sustainable. And true, projected income is much higher than at WHL, but here's the rub: when has Levy ever acted based on projected income? He has only ever operated within the strictly conservative boundaries of current revenue streams - which is probably why our net spend in the summer corresponded almost precisely to the extra revenue taken in through our CL run, but no more. Levy just doesn't do venture capital. It is at once his greatest strength and most restrictive weakness. It was clear throughout the summer that despite the new stadium, our strategy was still very close to sell-to-buy as it has been for going on 20 years. Poch's frustration in that window was clearly more down to us not moving certain players on than it was not bringing players in. My gut instinct is that we don't have enough money to sign more than one player on credit. After that, we'll be relying on sales again. As poor and injury prone as some players have become, the bizarre Brugges bid for Wanyama indicated that there are still clubs out there desperate or stupid enough to pay good money for them. And Levy will cling on to that hope until all evidence points to the contrary, as it did when no-one came in for Toby with a bid anywhere near his release clause.
I'm not sure what 'The Dybala Saga' means for this. Were we genuinely in for him with finance to back it up? If so, there's money to be spent. If not, figures will need to be juggled to sign half a dozen players for next season or we've just made one HUGE mistake in appointing a cheque book manager.
I think what it signifies is that we had enough readies to make two statement signings last summer, with Ndombele being the first and Dybala was expected to be the other, and this underlines the problem with the transfer market right now: back when Martin Jol or Harry Redknapp were in charge £60m would be enough to sign two or three players for the first team while leaving enough left over to add a couple of squad players or prospects, while now £60m signs either one first teamer or it signs three or four squad players (leaning closer to three, to be blunt about it) And that's the issue right now: that £60m likely won't be invested in a headline signing this January, it will likely be split between a midfielder (hopefully...) and activating the clause in Lo Celso's loan that lets him join us for a discount this January, and that's why trying to get some cash for Wanyama and Eriksen this month makes sense because with Lille gladly talking about how there's so many clubs looking at Soumare we need to have cash-in-hand to stop another Batshuayi situation
You're contributing to the 2nd highest ticket prices in WORLD football, mate Embarassing stuff from owners that treat the first team like a mid table venture at best
Athletic Bullshit Watch The Athletic report that Sissoko's injury could mean that we won't loan out Oliver Skipp This is the same Athletic who have been saying we'll loan out Oliver Skipp since June Don't forget to pay your subscription, folks!
Lilywhite Rose claiming KWP to Palace on loan. Despite the fact the Eze move they claimed was on the cards hasn't seen any fruition yet, they're bang on with regarding our own so I'd expect that to be announced pretty soon.
I could see him working well under Jose, he wasn’t a bad player the first time around and now he’s older and more experienced.
