Football BSider claim that we won't be triggering the option to make Vini's goal permanent, which would come as a surprise to a Spurs fan who has been in a coma since November and nobody else So, time to start Googling stories about Wout Weghorst once again...
He's a decent player who has impressed almost every time he's been called upon. The manager obviously doesn't trust him (along with around a dozen other members of the first team squad). However, that said - is he worth the £40m it would take to make his loan permanent? Probably not.
I don't think that we ever use him correctly, like a number of other players in our squad. He needs service and seems to thrive off crosses and diagonal balls into the box, so we play without width whenever he's in the team. He might also benefit from having Moura play up with him in the new role that he's been given. He's not Harry Kane, so he shouldn't be expected to play the position in the same way. Who does? Even if you look at other Premier League strikers that have been successful in recent years, none of them do it. Aguero, Vardy, Aubameyang, Calvert-Lewin, Lukaku? Nope.
Definitely not worth £40m, the board wouldn't sanction such a move for someone who's played so little too but I think whatever Benfica would possibly compromise on (if they would at all), Vinicius would reject us anyway. On the whole it's been a pointless move for him other than "getting rich" as Jose said a few months back. What's worse is that when he likely returns to Benfica and we fish the market for another striker, no one with half a brain will want in at Spurs having seen how little game time Vini's had this season. Everyone knows the number two striker to Kane won't play a shed load but it's been pretty pathetic how little we've utilised what seems a very decent player. We'll probably have to end up promoting one of Scarlett or Parrott a bit too early whilst the other heads out on loan.
My worry is that we are forced to sell Kane and are then expected to pay stupid money for a replacement cos everyone knows we'll be desperate
My biggest concern at this point is that if we make an enquiry about any of Benfica's players, they're going to tell us to foda-se after loaning Gedson and Vinicius with the promise of a £30m+ fee after the loan was complete, only for them to receive the loan fee and a player who feels like they wasted their time Anyway, this is what happens if you Google the phrases "Wout Weghorst" and "goat"
Like RCL, I am already bracing myself for one or both of Kane and Son's departure this summer. If that happens, it changes the discussion entirely as we won't sign replacements of a similar calibre and will have to utilise multiple inferior options to plug the gap left by a single player. Similar to how the Crouch+Defoe combo (eventually) replaced the Berbatov sized hole in our team.
I've more or less prepared myself for Kane's departure since last year, often felt Kane would give Jose a full season to see what he could do, we're still obviously in with the chance of two trophies but it's hard to see us winning them based on how we've been playing most of the season and if we do end up potless (doubt the League Cup alone would work, especially if we fail to get CL again) I think Kane will certainly have a chat with Levy over his future. The only hope is that Covid's impact on clubs' finances results in them not being able to afford Kane, that said, I still think there are possibly one or two that could find a way and meet or get near our possible asking price. EDIT: Thankfully I do have high hopes in the academy to produce one or two stars in the coming years. We likely won't ever produce another Kane but we can certainly produce some talents that can go far and I think Scarlett is one of them, he may well be the heir to Kane and it'd be fitting that he comes from the academy. I also still believe in Parrott too, not had a great time out on loan but then Kane's loan spells had mixed success too, certainly not writing Parrott off as he's a player who's had a lot of hype for his age. With Skipp returning next season and Devine making an instant impact since joining from Wigan, we've got some real potential heading into the next few years. It's just whether the club/ manager utilises them well enough.
I can see Kane asking to leave, it appears we are going nowhere with the current squad of players and ENIC won`t be prepared to spend what is required to fix all our problems. Kane has said he will stay at Spurs if he feels the club is progressing in the right direction, but so far this season we have tread water, even though we still have an outside chance of top four and a trophy or two. On the other hand, who will have the money to pay what Levy will want, Mansour FC is the obvious destination to replace Aguero, but they may well prefer a younger player like Haaland. All the more reason why we desperately need new owners with real ambition to win silverware.
There's been quite a bits from Hotspur Related (via various sources) over the last 24-48 hours: Doherty back to Wolves as we've all seen. Aurier back to PSG. Us willing to pay £17m for Vinicius instead of the £35m-£40m. Interest in Matthew Hoppe of Schalke. Another Vestegaard link. Lloris wanted by Poch at PSG. Interest in Mahmoud Dahoud of Dortmund (I'd quite like for this one to be true, upgrade on Winks and Sissoko as a squad option). Interest in Dusan Vlahovic of Fiorentina.
It is worth pointing out that r/coys has banned Hotspur Related from the subreddit, not because they're bad but because they're an aggregator - which means that, during transfer windows, the subreddit was getting countless new threads linking to Hotspur Related tweets every single hour Personally, I'm keeping an eye on rumours about Mike Maignan, as his name was floating around last summer and his Lille contract expires at the end of next season, which is leading to Narratives about him being Hugo's long-term replacement for club and country
I think that'll be the basis for a lot of our potential targets; those with little time remaining on their contracts. Dahoud and Vestegaard's contracts are similar to Maignan's. It'll probably be the case for a lot of clubs though so we'll have to move quickly if we have any serious interest in any of them.
For anyone unfamiliar with him, he's an American striker that came through Barca's US academy. He's been given some games for Schalke recently due to their utterly **** form and he's about the only bright spot on their season. Just turned 20 this week and might want to move to a top-flight team when they inevitably go down soon. Nicely taken hat-trick in their uncharacteristic win against Hoffenheim, but he's only scored two other goals all season.
Can't see Aurier to PSG happening...Poch didn't rate him when he was here so why would he want to re-sign him? Lloris moving there makes a lot of sense and I'd be fully in favour of that happening. Easily our best keeper of the PL era but he isn't getting younger and still hasn't improved the glaring weaknesses in his game. Alli to PSG will also no doubt soon start resurfacing. If we could arrange Winks, Sissoko, Dier, Toby, Sanchez, Doherty and Lo Celso to PSG too, that would be marvellous.
