Hugo has been good but he can be a liability and in my opinion we need a new number one so while I wish him well I won't see losing him as a huge issue
Makes sense to get rid then. To give him a long contract would be madness. Spurs probably only offered until 2023 if they have offered one at all
The issue is there's going to be a lot of potential replacements potentially moving elsewhere Mike Maignan's somebody that has been talked up as replacing Hugo for club and country this season, and he's also entering the final year of his contract, but Milan are reportedly after him and need a new GK due to Donnamura letting his contract expire this summer
GK is a long way down the list of positions we need starting players for over the summer so while I can’t see us offering him another long term contract I also can’t see us selling him. There’s potentially 5 or 6 positions (CB, RB, CM for sure; possibly AM, a winger and a striker depending on outgoings) where we need 1st team quality to come in. Adding a starting XI GK to that list would be nuts IMO as Levy and co are going to have their work cut out delivering as it is. Hugo isn’t at the level he was but he still saves us more points than he costs us and while that’s a low bar, it places him in considerable credit compared to most of the other members of this squad.
Navas is the same age as Hugo (in fact he's eleven days older) so at best would be a sideways step as he'd need a longterm replacement a year or two down the line If we need a new starting GK it really needs to be somebody in their mid-20s rather than somebody in their late 20s or early 30s, i.e. not Nick Pope, because GK is a position you need somebody to remain there for a good 4-5 years Unless they're ****, obviously...
Hugo may not be "World Class" anymore but he's still pretty consistent. Surely you boys remember the good old times of Heurelho Gomes and the latter years of Robbo. Not to mention it will cost you even more money to buy another keeper else you're playing Joe Hart or one of the youth keepers
Robbo's latter years coincided with Didier Zokora being so good at being a DM the only way opponents could score past us was from 25+ yards in the last minute...at least that's what Zokora probably told himself given how often it seemed to happen Of course, it would be churlish to point out how often Joe Hart has been beaten from distance this season and suggest that this might have something to do with lacking a pair of jackboots in midfield...
There's a few out there that are available cheaply or even free, in the case of Juve-bound Donnarumma. Onana with a suspension is one example. €7m is being suggested, as his contract's ending.
I've never got why Onana keeps being so heavily linked with us, as whenever I've seen him he seems like an obvious downgrade as he always seems to have a clanger in him and doesn't control his area
He's a good shot-stopper, relatively young yet experienced for a keeper and I don't think his command of the box is that bad. He can actually kick a ball to his own man occasionally too, IIRC.
Similar could be said for Gomes when we signed him At least until he had to contend with Didier Zokora screening our defence...
Going back to the OP, there are some candid quotes coming out of Kane's interview with Gary Neville. Didn't think he'd be that bold with a few of the things he said. Not sure Levy will be too pleased with that.
Gomes did pretty well for us. Had some amazing games and some that were less amazing, too. I still remember his time with the club fondly, though I think that might be because I can remember Ian Walker playing over 300 games for us.
I haven't watched it yet, but here it is: Ban Neville from the ground. I'm sure he'd respect the tactics of his old gaffer.
Haven't watched the full video either, but the quotes I saw were things like "I'll decide my future, not Levy", "I am [at a crossroads] in my career", and "He might want to sell me...I'm not going to be worth this much for the next two or three years". I know he's been frustrated for a little while, but didn't expect him to be so honest and all it will do is send media speculation into overdrive.
Ali Gold’s article if people just want to read the quotes. It seems like he think he holds all the cards, which is surprisingly naive. He’s more forthright than I would expect him to be. “I’d never say that I’d stay for Spurs for the rest of my career. I’d never say that I would leave Spurs.” He sounds like he thinks he has plenty of football left in him but at the same time seems keen to have that conversation sooner rather than later. For him to come out with this interview which he must have known would be published before the end of the season is very bullish and again, surprising because he will have known the effect this would have and also known he would need to have spoken to Levy before this was published. Need to watch the interview at some point and see if it comes across different to the article, mind.
