Spurs’ transfer policy under Levy has also been called into question on numerous occasions and Jermaine Jenas has appealed to the club’s hierarchy to get their affairs in order if they want to challenge at the top of the league table. He said: “Maybe there needs to be a mindset shift in the club now. I have always felt that as owners of the football club they have done a great job up until this point where it is, the stadium, the training ground, the visualisation of what Tottenham are. “They are at a bit of a crossroads. I have always said you are going to have to make a decision at some point." Whilst Jenas continually reserved praise for Daniel Levy’s ability to provide the club with a world-class playing facility, he wants to see far more ambition in the transfer market going forwards. “Do you want to be part of the big boys that spend the money, pay the big wages and compete at the top level like Chelsea do, like Man City do, like Man United do, like Liverpool do? Do you want to be part of that?" he continued. “Or are you going to half-heart it again for the next 10 years? Half-hearting it is showing you what you are right now. Financially there will be a really good model when that stadium kicks in but if they want to be part of the elite I would like to see them be part of the elite to the fans and go and compete at the top level for the best players. “They let Bruno Fernandes go to Manchester United, he could have been a Spurs player if they had gone a bit deeper. There are loads of situations like that."
This is where Levy economics fall down, an extra £5ml (not sure on actual figure) could have gained you £10-£15ml with a champions league place. Players don't come to clubs for a shiny new stadium (as nice as it is) or "state of the art" training facilities. There are three factors that count in a transfer 1...from a club point of view are you prepared to pay the transfer fee 2...from a player/agent point of view what is the contract worth 3...from a player point of view what am i likely to achieve and do the squad meet the requirements. Any two of these will go a long way to getting the player you want, the rest is just window dressing.
The club prioritised the signings of Lo Celso and Ndombele as Pochs preferred options for new central midfield players in that window- that was nothing to do with economics or cost it was the managers choice of player we were not ever going to buy 3 players for that position in 1 transfer window. It was generally thought at the time that we made our 'interest' in Bruno known to try and get the Lo Celso deal done. With hindsight that was a poor decision but who knows its quite likely Bruno would not have looked the same player at Spurs he would certainly have scored fewer goals as we get less penalties and the ones we do get he wouldn't have taken.
I took from Levy`s propaganda the other day, that Harry Kane is for sale at the right price, he said he would do what is right for the club (or for ENIC would be more accurate), which means that if his valuation of Kane is met, then he can go. If the valuation of Kane is not met, he will stay, it is that simple. It will all come down to how much £ity want him, and how much they are willing to pay, Levy will not sell cheap with 3 years on his contract. Levy is a lot of things, but the one thing he has close to his heart is the Spurs finances. If Kane is sold though, we may as well all give up, whoever replaces him will be a downgrade, and it would send out all the wrong signals and be another clear indication of the acceptance of mediocrity, there is a good chance it would be the Bale, AVB and Baldini summer all over again.
If Kane wants out then what else can the club do but try to get the best price for him? He’s got 3 years left on his contract so they can demand a huge amount, ultimately do we want to keep him against his will where chances are he won’t be fully committed and it will probably affect his performances (end of season he was pants).
Kane doesn't strike me as someone who'd refuse to play or willingly down tools, I think his form at the end of the season was largely down to being rushed back which we've seen all too often. We never seem to ****ing learn with that. Zaha's wanted out of Palace for the third successive summer but when the move hasn't materialised in previous seasons he's always given his all to Palace, not as consistent or as good as Kane obviously but hasn't allowed the failed moves to distract him, nor has he ever refused to play (or at least I don't think he has). Similar with Mahrez, he submitted a request with Leicester, didn't get the move, played well and then got the move the following summer. Grealish too, sounded like he wanted the move to Spurs in 18/19, didn't get it and three years later is in the form of his life still at Villa. As long as Kane doesn't act like a cock, which I don't think think he will, then assuming he's here after the window because we've potentially rejected bids, I'd like to think he'll still be amongst the top scorers come the end of the season like usual. He'll be wanting to hunt down Shearer's record regardless of who he's playing for.
I think Kane will want the move this summer and will force it if he has to. Going by previous Spurs players, the club always sells in the end.
It is unlikely Kane is the type to sulk, at the end of the day he is a Spurs fan, you would expect he would accept the situation and get on with it to the best of his ability. At the end of the season his focus probably turned to staying injury free, when it became clear Spurs were playing for very little.
Fonseca isn’t a very inspirational or ambitious appointment. Unlikely to persuade Kane that his trophy winning aims will be realised with Spurs.
Yeah we all know this but truth be told I doubt Kane would have stayed for anyone less than Pep or Klopp. Conte might just have done it but that's it. He doesn't have time anymore to embark on another 'project' and we're hiring a project manager with Paratici as project director. Truth be told again, whenever we have tried to be ambitious and hire the stellar CV managers, it has worked out disastrously. I'm all for giving Fonseca the time he needs to have a good crack at it. You really never know when it comes to these things. So many variables at play. West Ham were a laughingstock when they went back for Moyes and look at them now. So were United when they stepped back from the Van Gaal and Maureen level of CV to appoint Smeagol.
If you had finished 15th, had an average squad and the new manager was appointed to rebuild from a low base, then he might look like the right kind of appointment. But when you’ve got a number of A list players- headed by Kane- and the aim is to get back into top four and win a trophy, then it looks very uninspiring. The reason a more high profile manager is needed is to persuade the best players to stay and help to recruit the type of players needed to improve the squad. Solskjaer hasn’t yet proved himself as Utd have now gone the longest period in four decades without winning a trophy, the team still have obvious weaknesses and he isn’t necessarily the manager who would lure top stars to the club. But he has a lot of advantages any Spurs manager won’t get, which give him some sort of chance. He hasn’t yet taken those chances.
The BBC are now claiming that we're close to finalising the deal for Fonseca. Again. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/57489970 Probably happen today, I'd have thought.
It's been suggested that the announcement might be delayed a little due to travel restrictions bringing him into the country.
Similar as CK said, with the exception of Conte there isn't another manager on the market that I think would represent being "ambitious". I made this thread thinking it'd be a 5-10 pager tops and 109 pages later there's still debates going on as to who people would like, would not like and I think that shows that there isn't a clear target in mind whom everyone can agree on, whether that be via ability, potential, style, reputation or a mix of all four. The voting had changed a lot over the weeks (it's now closed), Nagelsmann took the early lead, then ten Hag and then Potter, whilst 'Other' and Rodgers also hold a strong amount of votes. This is why I'm happy to give Fonseca a chance and hope he can surprise a few. We've generally hired better when getting people with lesser reputations and fewer expectations. Jol, Redknapp and Poch being our best managers of the Prem era when we've hired people like Jose, AVB and Ramos shows that Spurs are a bloody weird club where it's hard to tell who'll do well or not, lol.
I think the reason the big names have done worse than other managers is that Spurs tend to rise by investing in and trusting in youth and fall when they don't. Trying to beat Man City and Real at their game at this point is bringing a knife to a gun fight, and will be for a while, even if things go very well. What Spurs can do, and have done in the past, is outdo Borussia Dortmund and Leicester and Ajax in finding the next star. The last thing I want as a fan is to lose Kane, but the fact is this crop of players have already peaked. They won't win anything big. It's time to start a new cycle, sell them and use the money so that it's Spurs, and not Borussia Dortmund, that have the equivalent of Haaland and Sancho in a few years.
Ideally I'd love for that, said many times I'd like Spurs to try adopting similar models of clubs like Ajax and Dortmund, though my fear (based on the last 5 or so years) is that we'll spunk the Kane money on a bunch of overpriced average players and basically end up with more Sissoko's, Sanchez's, Ndombele's and Lo Celso's. With Paratici on board now maybe things will change though, least I hope they will.
I think there’s definitely something in this. It’s the only argument for selling Kane this summer - the 100-150m a club would have to part with in order to get him out may be below what we would have sold him for in the absence of Covid, but that money will go a lot further in a depressed market than it will next summer once clubs have (hopefully) had fans back for a season and recovered somewhat financially. The flip side to this argument is that there is so much surgery to other areas of the squad needed that selling Kane and ripping the whole lot up might be too much change for one window. So better to keep hold of one of the only bits of the team that works and fix other things, if we can. We already have to integrate a new coaching team, DoF, and fix the defence and arguably midfield this summer. Let’s leave striker and GK for next year because they’re the least broke bits of the starting XI. As you say though it all goes back to squad management. Too many players on the wrong contracts because we’re afraid to sell.
After seeing the fixtures... City (h) Wolves (a) Watford (h) Palace (a) Chelsea (h) Arsenal (a) Villa (h) Newcastle (a) West Ham (a) Man Utd (h) Everton (a) The new guy is gone by September 26th (the Arsenal match) The shocking thing is (if you replace Watford with a relegated club) we only got 10 points from these 11 matches last season...
