They don't cover for it though. Tanguy especially does pretty much nothing for the defense. I agree that there is an argument that the two of them are far less effective in a team that sits so deep and spends so much time on the back foot, that is certainly true. But one of them seems to be permanently injured while the other - despite improving on the no-show last season - still drifts in and out of games, looks totally disinterested for large periods and hasn't once set the tempo of play against above-average opposition.
Calcio Mercato joining Corriere dello Sport in saying Lamela is likely to be off. They claim Bologna is also interested, CdS initially said it was Napoli and AC. Good to see there’s a decent bit of interest in him from various sides, a return to Italy should be good for him too.
PSG Watch La Parisien report that PSG want to re-sign Aurier, with several at the club - from Leonardo to Poch - in agreement And who are we to stand in the way if they want to pay us a decent sum of money for a player who will help with their HG numbers?
This is absolutely key - he is clearly very talented but he is a complete luxury player, I never thought we could get a more frustrating player than Lamela, but we have somehow succeeded in doing just that. I do wonder why when a genuine world class talent like Bale cannot get in the team because he doesn't work hard enough, how has Ndombele been a fixture in the team? I do realise that the other midfield options are not particularly palatable, but he really has had about the same number of good games, where he has been a real influence about as often as Bale has and that's in a lot more matches.
I don't think that we've got enough quality in other positions, nor an established style of play, to carry either against decent teams. They've not been integrated into a system, they're just bodies in shirts to fit in around Sonny and Harry Kane. I didn't want Bale and knowing what we know now, I wouldn't have signed Ndombele. However, both can be much more effective than they are right now...because we're not a team in any cohesive sense or sense at all, really. Against Everton, I could see Ndombele lacking any options when he received the ball. So, he tried too many tricks and Everton just took the ball off him. If you press this team, the players are lost. It's disgusting that a coach we pay £15m a season puts out teams that are so inept. Bale gets on the pitch when Mourinho can't think of anything else less ridiculous. Now, nobody looks good, apart from Kane and maybe, Rodon. Even players who started the season promisingly, like PEH and Reguillon, look dreadful now. Mourinho has ground them down with his lack of coaching, blame game and anti-football. If we built around Ndombele....but that would take someone with a vision or some real funds, so it's unlikely to happen with us....maybe PSG would be interested? As for Bale, he's set on playing in the WC next summer above anything. He's no interest in club football, having won the lot at Real, so he can train for that on his own dollar, as far as I'm concerned. We've got him fit for the Euro's. Sponsoring his training, to the tune of £250k per week, shouldn't happen for a second season.
RB Watch Various outlets are linking us with Emerson, who on paper looks like an ideal replacement for the hopefully PSG-bound Aurier as he's young and performed regularly in La Liga for a couple of seasons And then you look at the arrangement he has... So in the January window of the 2018-19 season Barca signed him from Atletico Mineiro, yet at the same time they didn't as Real Betis paid half of the €12.7m fee and the two clubs split the economic rights between the two of them meaning that in the summer of 2019 Betis paid €6m to sign Emerson yet got a two-year loan out of paying to sign a player So in effect this means that, while Emerson's two-year loan at Betis will expire this summer, this means that we first have to wait to see which of Barca or Betis buys out the other in order to gain the full registration of Emerson then we have to negotiate with that club who will likely bump up the transfer fee immediately So it;s nice to see that we're looking at some straightforward deals to address key positions...
If this is true it’s exactly why the club has to somehow get Levy away from transfers. I wouldn’t be surprised if Mason and <new manager> gives Dele another chance but I swear if I see Winks back in the fold I really am done!
If Levy thinks that sacking Mourinho, months too late, is going to get him off the hook with a large number of fans, he's mistaken. Mourinho was a brainless appointment. He has one way of playing and if he doesn't have the players to do that, he's absolutely ****ed. A number of posters on this site said exactly that when he was appointed. Mourinho didn't want Dele or Winks and then Levy went and bought Bale, without telling him. What a ****ing **** show.
This is the danger. Getting rid of Jose is the right choice but these are some of the hard truths I mentioned on the other thread earlier. Sacking Jose and getting in a Levy yes-man is going to **** us. Levy needs to have the same trust in the new manager that he had when Poch came in and binned off a load of influential, popular players because they were rotten behind the scenes or just not what he wanted on the pitch. Bringing in Nagelsmann and not backing him, or any manager tbh, would be criminal.
That’s likely nailed on to happen mate. Part of me just wants to give up on Tottenham to be honest. Zero faith in the leadership of this club anymore. If Harry Kane goes in the summer I think I’ll join him. Probably the only thing keeping me invested with this club now. The soul has gone, the club’s made it clear fans like us mean jack ****, hard to see why I should continue to support it.
Dele, Winks and Bale were effectively unreplaceable because of their HG status. They were therefore essentially free options for Mourinho. If he couldn't use them that is down to him. Those players were not the issue. The players Mourinho bought in were.
Ironically, Dele and Winks are 2 players who we could have got sufficient transfer fees for, to replace with home grown players. If we'd sold Dele and Winks, we could easily have bought Ollie Watkins and Ben Godfrey.
He's made 24 appearances this season: https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/harry-winks/leistungsdaten/spieler/249126 13 were the full match and a lot of the others were starts.
True but one of Mourinho's most infuriating traits was his failure to use his squad....or should we say Levy's squad? Levy has a habit of buying and keeping players that his managers didn't and don't want. Levy signed Bale, who has the same status...and he was peripheral too...Berwijn was also signed without being wanted by the manager. He did it to Poch with Aurier and Lucas and they were underused too. Levy needs to be removed from interfering in matters where he has no expertise, especially when he's busy buying golf courses, joining break-away leagues, developing the Tottenham High Road, etc.
