Tanganga is three of the other missing pieces. So all we need is a ST and DM and we'll win the quadruple.
I love the guy but Sissoko really isn't very good. He has benefited tremendously from a clearly defined role in a position his is more naturally adapted to, and his work rate and desire are second to none. But he is so sorely lacking in most areas of ability.
Definitely. You look at a guy like Aurier and just think 'nah'. But for sure, if he can reach the same levels of work rate, consistency and application shown by Goat in the past 2 seasons, I might just be able to watch him without first hiding any sharp implements.
To the surprise of nobody Harry ****espout is mouthing off about the Spurs Twitter having a love-in for Lo Celso within minutes of selling Eriksen Because apparently the correct code of conduct when unveiling a new player is to say "He's ****, the one we just sold is miles better than he'll ever be"...
Another Striker Watch O Jogo report that we're looking at Benfica's Swiss striker Haris Seferovic, who sounds uncannily like the sort of player Poch wanted off the bench as he's got physical presence and can hold up the ball...although in terms of putting the ball in the back of the net his record is less than stellar, because while he banged in 23 in the league for Benfica last season that's not a fair reflection on his scoring rate, as after that his best return came in the two seasons he managed to score ten goals for Eintracht Frankfurt The likely scenarios are either a.) The usual transfer window double bluff, where we try to force Milan's hand by indicating an interest elsewhere b.) Seferovic heard about West Scam's interest and noticed how quick Gedson was in trying to be linked to us instead...
Finalising Lo Celso on a permanent was the best business we could do this window. If we can get Bergwijn done too then it'll be a good window. Loads to do in the summer still but Jose doesn't seem quite ready to swing the axe yet, with only Eriksen gone because of his contract situation.
When one door closes another one opens Somebody make sure Danny Rose is stood near it so we can boot him out
Talk that Luis Binks might be leaving us. If true - What the **** is going on with our youth structure at the moment? We’re either losing top prospect after top prospect whilst the others are being ruined by not playing any type of football for first team/ U23s. Absolute **** show.
I mentioned it a few days ago, there's one key difference between our academy and others Man Utd have Nick Cox as head of the academy and Nicky Butt as head of first team development, both of whom are separate from the U23s or U18s Saltypool have Alex Inglethorpe as the head of the academy (annoyingly...) whose role is seperate from the U23s or U18s The Nomads have Per Mertesacker as head of the academy The Sheikh Mansour Team have Brian Marwood as head of their academy (albeit with an OTT job title) Chelsea have Carlo Cudicini, Paulo Ferreira and Tore Andre Flo as loan coaches Everton have Martin Dobson as development coordinator Newcastle have Joe Joyce as director of the academy Southampton have Matt Hale as academy director and David Hughes as head of academy development West Scam have Terry Westley as academy manager and Ricky Martin (not that one) as player development manager Now the other day I said Spurs didn't have anyone in this role, and that turns out not to be the case - because buried on the Premier League site it says that John McDermott is in these roles. You read that correctly, roles - as in he's both head of the academy and head of player development, even though in each of the clubs where they have both of these roles on their payroll they're carried out by two people This, I believe, is the issue: if McDermott was in one of those roles then somebody else would be performing the other, and while I don't hold McDermott responsible for the mess that is our U23s (that falls entirely on Wayne Burnett) it's been obvious that there's an issue bridging the gap between the U23s and first team, which became an issue last season when the likes of Edwards, Shashoua, Georgiou and Sterling demanded loans as keeping development in-house works until a player turns 18 but after that period the only way it helps is if they get regular games and none of them were On the one hand there's an easy solution to this: hire somebody as either head of academy or head of development and let McDermott focus his time and effort on a single role, but on the flip side the obvious question is...who? And the thing is, we might actually have the answer already on the payroll: Paul Bracewell, who joined the U18 staff around the same time that Ryan Mason did, and he certainly ticks the same boxes the likes of Joe Joyce or Terry Westley do because they're ex-managers/coaches and will have contacts in the game, and you need those to find the perfect loan for a player
