Transfer Rumours transfer thread fact and fiction

We need more players to be represented by their in-laws

 

Huddlestone was big boned and a tank, Ndombele is notably chubby… there’s a huge difference. So your point hasn’t been proven in the slightest.

Huddlestone never once struggled to play 90 minutes either. Whereas it feels like a miracle if Ndombele does.

The whole team was put on a diet by Ramos with the exception of Jenas - and trust me, I know that to be a fact as Ledley King told me himself on a specialised stadium tour.

The guy is berated because he’s a piss poor professional who can’t get in shape and moans/ wants out the moment any pressure is on or anything negative happens.

Who here has said he needs to be invincible? People just expect the bare minimum levels of professionalism from an extremely highly paid professional footballer and that’s to be in shape and be committed. Two things he ain’t.

 

The trouble is I feel that you are now moving the goalposts - Dembeles game was never based around assists and goals, he was a unique player who carried the ball like no other player. Maybe its the comparison with Mousa that is really the problem, because so far, he is in my opinion a pale imitation of the Belgian and if he wants to be remembered in the same light he really has to step up. I hope he does.

 

I’d take Mousa Dembele now over a prime Tanguy Ndombele

 

So would I, but that goes for ALL of our CMs!

Huh?

I wasn't talking about Dembele's lack of goals or assists even slightly. You can create chances without assisting. Modric is a great example of someone who did this, as was Eriksen and Dembele obviously, and Tanguy is the only CM with stats anywhere near this. Again I'm not talking about assists.

Of course he's not a patch on Dembele. Nobody has been since he left. Tanguy does however share some positive attributes that are similar to some of Dembele's positives. When asked what he offers, that was the answer, as well as the goals. I didn't move goalposts sir

Chubby? Like Paul Gascoigne was?

Redknapp also had an issue with Huddlestone's weight way after Ramos. I am not talking about Ramos's regime.

I'm not here to defend unprofessionalism, simply highlighting where support is gonna help more than being dismissive and judgemental.

Harry Redknapp ironically is the exact manager that would put an arm around him and get him to his best. Also ironically, Mourinho did this. It was working. Mason didn't, and neither has Nuno apparently. I imagine that changes now the window is closed.

He wanted to leave. It's no longer an option. Maybe he'll do as Kane did and recommit. At least he's been training this whole time, like a professional, and unlike Kane.

He may well get to his best. I hope he does. I just don't think calling him a useless fat c&*( every time he appears is gonna help.

Especially if he works, as he has proven to before, to get to top form.

That is all.

 

You spent a record breaking 30m at the time for sissoko (fat money then) to make him a squad player? I'm not sure about that one the dier

 

Most Spurs fans I know are of the opinion he wasn't a Poch signing and Levy only bought him because of the generous payment plan Newcastle gave us (rumoured to be £5m pa for 6 years).

What DH means by "circumstances" is that our first choice midfield in 16/17 was Wanyama and Dembele. They were monsters in the middle of the pitch. No one could have foreseen Wanyama's relatively young career taking such a steep nosedive barely a year later after that knee injury he picked up against your lot (becausw of course, everything bad that happens to Spurs is due to Chelsea). Had that not happened, he would still be a mainstay even today and probably at the peak of his career. Similar situation for Dembele although it was a series of small injuries rather than one big one that did it for him. He started his decline shortly after Wanyama and by 2018 could barely run anymore.

In ideal circumstances, Wanyama would still be playing for us and Dembele would have carried on to at least 33, which takes you to last season. Sissoko wouldn't have got a look in.

 

Wanyama and Dembele were beastly then and it would be understandable that they would be the first team names down. Maybe the coaches knew something about those two and injuries or maybe they saw something in sissoko (levy that is) that they thought he'd become a first team player (like Son who wasn't guaranteed and spot and Harry, Dele Alli and Eriksen was seen as the unbreakable 3 up front). Even if the payment plan was to levys liking, i can't see Levy spending 30m, a club record signing at the time with the plan that sissoko is a squad player for the rest of his spurs career (see sanchez for a similar type signing).

 

The biggest issue with Ndombele only ever looks for the direct play, be it a through ball or taking on his man, and never looks for the percentage play

Obviously this pays off if he beats his man or finds a teammate with a through ball, but if it doesn't he's throwing away possession in a critical area and lacks the graft to regain the ball after he lost it - and this was especially obvious in Poch's last days (with a certain rhomboid formation...) as Kane and Eriksen were starved of the ball which Ndombele should have been supplying them with

In comparison, while we remember the times Modric or Dembele split the lines with a pass or a dribble, the fact is both of them knew when to be direct and when to retain possession by laying the ball off to let a play build up or to recycle it

 

That's a very good point. Although atm our entire midfield favours percentage play. Hojbjerg will mix things up with the odd adventurous pass every now and then but both he and Skipp are much better at retaining possession than risking it. Dele in his new role is as well; although he'll attempt more dribbles than the other two, most of his attempted dribbles aren't successful and his version of adventurous passing is still fancy tricks and flicks that almost always fail. In pre season he was playing some delightful slide rule passes on the ground and I'd like to see much more of that from him.

For me the player who epitomised the balance you refer to was Modric. But that requires a genius footballing brain as well as the ability and talent. Few and far between have that.

 

He was mate.

As CK has said we had Dembele and Wanyama whilst the positions in front were Eriksen, Son and an inform Dele.

He was a deadline Levy “special”, maybe Levy thought he’d be a first team starter but I don’t think anyone else associated with Spurs did.

He served a purpose for a couple years and in 18/19 had a stellar season but we absolutely had our pants pulled down by Newcastle that window, even if it was a structured deal of £6m a year.

Though you only have to look at most of our other record/ huge money buys to realise it’s not exactly our forte.

 

That transfer window, I thought we could have got a significantly better striker than Janssen had the Sissoko (&GKN) money been spent in that area. We would have had close to £60mio instead of the £17mio we actually spent

 

I'm afraid I've been unconvinced about NDombele ever since he arrived. In his first game, the ball went out of play - I think he failed to control it - and he just stood there, watching all the other players run into their positions, just because he was frustrated/disppointed. Not exactly the right mentality for your first appearance. And since then my opinion has both hardened and simplified. I now think he's actually, quite simply, not very good.

 

The previous season did demonstrate that, with Dembele out of the team be it due to injury or suspension, Poch's system simply didn't work as there was nobody breaking the lines and creating space through the middle, so Sissoko was a solution to that problem

It also has to be said Dembele did miss a fair few games in both the AVB/Sherwood season and Poch's first season due to injuries, so there is the chance that Poch was actively looking for somebody to replicate his role - and that need moved up when Bentaleb effectively talked himself out the door

 

I have no idea who this bellend is, but if there's any truth in this, then various people need a kicking.
It would be a massive **** up by the club and a betrayal by the player.
Aurier is far from perfect, but he'd improve that ****show that they call a defence.

 

He’s a Spurs reject (when do the club ever terminate a contract early). They’re welcome to him.

 

I mean I did predict a merry -go-round of Emerson to us, Bellarin to Barca and Aurier to Woolwich...

 

He doesn’t fit the profile that Arteta goes for

 

Leaving Tomiyasu aside, as we haven't seen enough of him to judge, he's a clear improvement.
Soares is crap, Chambers isn't a right-back and they don't seem to want to use Maitland-Niles.
Aurier has a brain-fart fairly regularly, but he's a far better attacking option than what they've got.

Having just had a quick browse around, I don't think that they've got the space to register him.
Not sure if they can still offload someone to a Dutch club, for example and bring another one in.
The Netherlands still have their window open for today, for some reason.

 

In that he's not utter **** and expensive?