Transfer Rumours transfer thread fact and fiction

Careful, somebody might be about to compare Xavi to Chris Brunt again...

 

That did cross my mind when I was posting it, and if I am honest I think that 'assists' as a stat are massively over-rated, but in this case I did think it had some validity, I don't want to appear hyper critical, but I was just thinking that I couldn't recall an assist or even him really creating a chance for anyone else recently so looked it up.

I do want him to succeed and it is possible the Hojbjerg may be the making of him, but its a big ask on recent form, also if it's true that Jose is up for the sale then he has lost his confidence too.

 

The obvious issue with going solely on goals and assists is it ignores anything that came before them. Modric is the perfect example of this, as his numbers for both are very low, but he gets a lot of secondary assists due to one of his passes from deep breaking the opposition lines putting the player who got the assist clear. And that's the issue: if he had space created for him he could be a Modric/Rakitic player, but because he doesn't he isn't - although it would also help if Aurier and Lucas didn't keep pissing away possession so frequently

This doesn't just apply to Winks, either, as Eric Dier's career as a DM was ended by the same issues: when the team were pressing from the front and Dembele was smashing holes in the opponents he was an effective hatchet man with a generous helping of ****ehousery on the side, but when the team stopped pressing and Dembele was fading the weaknesses of his game were exposed

A large part of the problem was the most important player in Poch's system wasn't Kane, or Eriksen, or Son - it was Dembele, as he had the perfect combination of strength and skill to move the ball vertically and create space, which either created gaps that Kane, Dele or Son could break into and score or to widen the opening for Eriksen or Lamela to thread a pass through, and that's why our performances dropped whenever he didn't play. And that's the issue with his decline, as we didn't effectively replace him: Sissoko was brought in to cover for him a year or so before he left, but while he has the physicality and some scary pace he doesn't have the skill while also having some questionable judgment when picking out a pass, while Ndombele has been a more direct replacement than we anticipated as he's not only got several of Dembele's positive attributes but also the ability to be a magnet for niggling injuries

 

I totally agree - Dembele was unique and so far irreplaceable

 

Ultimately that's what did for Poch: his system needed an elegant bulldozer plowing through opposition lines, but he wasn't able to find that player - and it was made worse by making Ndombele a statement signing, only for the wheels to come flying off

I think I said it a few weeks back, but the fee we paid for Ndombele could have signed both Stanislav Lobotka and Florian Grillitsch while leaving some money left over, and while that wouldn't have been as dynamic going forward a diamond with Grillitsch at the base, Lobotka and Winks in the middle and Lo Celso at the tip would be a lot more solid than the Winks-Ndombele & Sissoko-Lamela configuration we had at the start of the season because not only would it have an actual DM as part of it but wouldn't be putting a lot of faith in Sissoko and Ndombele considering they can both be very streaky

 

I like Winks because he’s a Spurs boy...that’s about it tbh

 

What other reason would you need?
He is not optimal in a DM role but will look much better in a more attacking role. We pretty much played Winks and Sissoko as a pair since the restart and beat most other teams points totals over that period so I'm really looking forward to doing better still with two proper top 4 players instead.....

 

There’s talk that Milan have reached agreement with us for Aurier but are now debating whether they do actually want him due to his exuberant persona.

I mean, you’d kind of think about that before submitting a bid wouldn’t you?!

 

Or you might expect that we would consider the problems exhibited by Ndombele before we flashed out 50 million and remember we bought Aurier in the first place

 

Anyway is there much wrong with Aurier's temperament? He coped brilliantly with his family death. He's a good footballer he is just played in the wrong position, he's not a defender.

 

That's my point, we'd surely considered all of that before making the bids for those players.

The rumour is Milan have agreed a fee but are now debating whether they want him or not. The debate should've happened before the bid.

 

You're right of course DH I am just trying to say this is football and poor decisions on transfers are commonplace. Successful businessmen are often in charge of football clubs, you clearly know more about the game than a lot of them. You just don't have the odd £200 million or so to piss up the wall.

Least I assume you don't

 

His past antics aren't too great, punched a copper and called his former manager a ***got.

His personality does seem a bit wild too, although I think he could be a good laugh in and around the squad as one of the team's funny men.

He's been a RB all of his career though, made the Ligue 1 team of the year twice at RB. Not sure how, mind.

 

I just don't think he has the mindset of a defender.

 

Yeah for sure, everyone makes poor decisions, it just seems a little odd to me that Milan have gone through the trouble of trying to deal with Levy only to then potentially backtrack, it's like they're making life hard for themselves deliberately, lol.

£200m? Peanuts.

 

Skriniar Watch
Okay, this is getting wearisome...

So we've gone through the "Ndombele for cash + _______________" phase, we've gone through the "Inter don't want to sell as he's key to their plans" phase, and we've even gone through the "Doesn't want to join due to the lack of CL football phase" - but now we're in the "Sacked the manager so he's suddenly seen as expendable" phase, which will no doubt rotate around to the "Ndombele for cash + _______________" phase yet again by the end of next week

I think I covered everything

Because We're Being Linked With Goalkeepers Again Watch
The Daily Sneer report that Bournemouth have given us a quote of £25m for Aaron Ramsdale

The thing with this is that it's giving me flashbacks to when we decided that we didn't need Andy Robinson because Danny Rose was doing more than fine...only for Rose to get injured, fat, and a general pain in the arse almost as soon as Robinson was very much off the market

And that's where we'd be if we did make a move: Hugo is still a fine keeper, albeit he doesn't have time on his side like so we probably should be looking at a long-term successor, but the question has to be that, if we did sign Ramsdale, how would we approach it? Would we immediately install him as first-choice and bin off Hugo, or would we loan him for a season (or two?) longer to get him enough top flight experience for when he steps in?

People Trying To Be Clever But Failing Watch
TiFo Football have done their list of sensible transfer targets for us, and they seem...ehhhhhhhhhhhh

Jerry St Juste (23yo, Netherlands U21, CB, Mainz)
Kenny Tete (24yo, Netherlands, RB, Lyon)
Joan Sastre (23yo, Spain U19, RB, Mallorca)
Marcos Senesi (23yo, Argentina (no games at any level), CB, Feyenoord)
Hector Martinez (22yo, Argentina U17, CB, River Plate)
Salomon Rondon (30yo, Venezuela, CF, Dalian Professional)
Kasper Dolberg (22yo, Denmark, CF, Nice)
Habib Diallo (25yo, Senegal, CF, Metz)

So quick question: how are those "sensible" transfers when the biggest issue we've had for a couple of years is the bad HG/Overseas balance in our squad? And considering some other players who are just as sensible - Timothy Castagne, Robin Koch, Callum Wilson, some bloke from Brentford - honestly it comes across as TiFo flexing about the obscure players they know - which I'm sure isn;t in any way related to them being The Pathetic's podcast/Youtube arm

 

He’s a liability on the pitch and temperamental off it.

 

Seems Ramsdale is off to Sheffield United, good business for them considering Dean Henderson is gone.

I get where they’re going with the Sensible Transfer stuff, but they do quite explicitly base it heavily on stats and this is one of the ones where they do perhaps come across as trying to appear more clever than they need to be. Considering they took cost into account for this one and only profiled cheap options, it would have been nice for them to use the HG filter too.

 

The biggest issue with Aurier is the role we play him in requires somebody who can be relied upon to get the ball into the box - but he really can't, because if he's not losing possession by overrunning the ball or running down blind alleys he's launching crosses into the area that are most likely to smack into the first defender as they are go out for a goal kick

The fact the same can be said of Lucas underlines the issue with our entire right flank being streakier than American bacon

 

Granted the system doesn’t suit him but he always worries me with his rash challenges and poor decision making. Jose Mourinho likes a solid defence so I still expect Aurier to be sold this summer