Pretty much because we haven’t had a policy for a number of years. It’s actually no wonder 90% of our signings over the last five or six years have flopped when they’re coming into a club who don’t know their left and right at the moment. We’ve been targeting the wrong players for the wrong manager, or the right players for the wrong manager, or the wrong players for the right manager. There’s not been any cohesion whatsoever. Said it many times but we need to take inspiration from clubs like Dortmund or Ajax. They all work together, from board to scouting to managers and that then allows the players to flourish. The board trusts their scouts/ DoFs to sign top talents to work with progressive coaches who get the best out of them to help with on field success and then sell for monumental profits to then repeat the process. Hopefully Fabio can sort us out in the long run and implement a proper philosophy, it was never going to be sorted in just one window even if the club didn’t do enough in that one but there’s a hell of a lot work that needs doing at this club and I think the likelihood is we’re gonna have to experience a bit more **** before we start looking up again.
Skipp is in a similar mold to Scott Parker or Michael Carrick, whose job it is to regain the ball and quickly turn it over into an attacking move In other words, a creative player - in comparison to someone like Sandro or Davids, whose job was purely defensive
The irony is that doing so for Sarr was a very smart move Doing so for Jack Clarke, on the other hand...
I largely agree with this but it is way too early to judge how successful the past window was. Granted, the glaring absences were a backup ST and a creative mid, but even the latter remains unknown. There is a chance, however unlikely, Nuno manages to coax a tune out of Tanguy. That solves the problem instantly. And if that fails, there is also a chance we continue developing what I will continue to refer to as the 'Liverpool 433 System' where 3 workhorses in the midfield get the ball as quickly as possible to overlapping FBs who get it as quickly as possible to one of 3 devastating attackers. The unknowns in this second potential solution is we don't know how well Emerson will adapt to playing as an attacking RB, we also don't know how much Romero will be able to emulate VVDick in carrying the ball out from the back, and lastly but by all means most importantly - while Son can rub shoulders with Salah and Mane, whomever we pick from Bergwijn, Lucas or Gil to fill the 3rd attacking slot is miles off the quality Pool's front 3 have. I'm reserving judgement until January. By then I think we'll have a far clearer insight as to Nuno's medium to long term tactical plan for the team, we'll get a better sense of what Emerson, Romero and Gil are capable of, and to what extent the manager has coaxed a performance or ten out of Tanguy. I agree, the road between now and January is likely to be filled with potholes, bumps and width restrictions, but so long as we are seeing incremental progress both in terms of results and team cohesion, I'll be happy. In Poch's first season, we spent Aug, Sept, Oct, Nov and half of December yo-yoing between the top and bottom half of mid table. As January approached we picked up 4 wins in 5, including that 5-3 against Chelsea on new year's day, entered the top 7 and didn't drop any lower for the rest of the season. That's what I'm looking for this season. Mid table half the season followed by things visibly clicking and a sustained assault on the top 6 would in my books represent excellent progress and constitutes a solid foundation for next season.
No, no, no - you're supposed to have a complete meltdown and scream "I TOLD YOU SO!!!!" after one bad result while pretending that having five first team players out due to injury or isolation with a sending off on top has nothing to do with anything Yesterday was a ****show, but most teams missing large chunks of their starting team have ****shows, yet the reaction I've seen in plenty of corners of Twitter, Reddit and even here is like our first choice team got humped
I think Moura's best on the right with a decent overlapping fullback that can give him options and allow him to threaten centrally. He's rarely any good on the left and we don't have the creativity or solidity to pair him with Kane, which would also weaken us on the right.
I haven't judged the past window's signings, though the window itself was relatively disappointing with the work we didn't do, not what we did. We still don't have another striker and we still don't have a creative midfielder whilst a good number of deadwood remain. I think Nuno will get a decent amount of results with us but yesterday showed exactly why I and many others didn't want him - he's ****ing boring with no imagination. Whilst he deservedly won MOTM for August, two of our three performances left a lot to be desired and in those two we needed a penalty and a freak goal to get the wins. 3 wins, no goals conceded is great on paper but there were already signs that the football was going to be pretty dour. Then yesterday we got gubbed 3-0 and the performance was a joke, arguably the worst Spurs performance in years and that's saying something considering we've sat through some tripe under Poch's last 12 months and most of Jose's reign. Whilst we were dealt a rough hand with the international break, just about everyone more or less stated that the lineup lacked creativity and even when pressed after the game as to why Nuno didn't bring Gil or Ndombele on, he somewhat curved the question with stubbornness. I think you've more or less said yourself that even if we try emulating that Pool team, we don't have the quality in a number of areas to match it. It'll still likely get results though as I've said and enough for Nuno not to get sacked any time soon but I don't think we'll be enjoying ourselves much, not unless he changes his "primarily aiming to avoid defeat" style to "going out for the win" and get some of our more creative players in the side and stop persisting with useless dross like Winks and Dele.
Where do you see him fitting into the starting XI, if everyone's fit? He looks a real prospect, but if his best position is on the left wing, then I can't see him getting in. That issue may get solved if Son's injury is a bad one, though. I think it might be.
I'd have him in for Dele any day of the week, in front of Hojbjerg and Skipp. I think he's got a touch of the David Silva's about him and with more experience could become a really good playmaker. Assuming a fully fit Spurs: Lloris Emerson, Sanchez, Romero, Reguilon Hojbjerg, Skipp (or Ndombele if he ever sorts himself out) Lucas, Gil, Son Kane Whether it be 4231 or 433 with Gil the most advanced CM, I think that's at least a potentially entertaining side that could cause problems to many. Alternatively and to respond to your post about Lucas, I wouldn't mind seeing him the one behind Kane with Gil then shifted to the right, I think his direct running could cause issues through the middle and open up spaces out wide for Son and Gil to exploit.
The trouble with this argument is that we need to be better than teams like Dortmund and Ajax to get top four in the PL. We are quite likely already better than both of them and, if so, doing what they do would only make us worse.
DierHard has basically said it, play Bryan in the middle and hope he turns out to be like David Silva. Spurs desperately need somebody in that 8/10 role who can actually play football and control the game etc
Being better than them (very debatably) doesn't mean that we can't learn from their methods. We can't expect to go toe-to-toe with the teams we're competing with and come out on top.
We're definitely not better than Dortmund and on current form over the last couple of years we're likely not better than Ajax either. The principle of having good scouting and a clear vision amongst a club can apply to any team in any league and they can find relative/ comparative success. Leicester have found success in recent years by good scouting and having a clear plan. They've become a better team than us with it too in the last couple years whilst picking up an FA Cup in the process. Brentford have found success with their module, they're now in the Prem because of it despite having an income far lower than other Championship sides. We can learn from both of those teams despite being bigger and usually better. The scale of quality and success depends on a team's stature (and finances) of course and thankfully for Spurs, whilst we're not part of the truly elite we're a big enough club that can attract a large range of players, problem for us over the last 5-6 years is we've gone for plenty of the wrong types of player because we haven't seemingly had a plan, whilst we've mixed and matched completely different styles of managers too which won't have helped with recruitment.
Both of your comments are correct. But our outcomes over the last two seasons are approximately what we would have expected if we are about as well run as the other clubs in the top half of the PL. Signing top four players is hard when five other clubs in England and at least six more in Europe are more attractive to them.
What do you mean by good scouting? How exactly do we get a sustainable edge in procurement? Brentford have done it at a lower level by a mostly data driven approach. But there is no evidence at all that it would get us the better players we need. Leicester are only a tiny bit better than us at best. No evidence that their recruitment of top four players is better.
Good scouting is finding the right types of players to fit a club's and manager's footballing philosophy - the manager and club need to be aligned with one another in this too. And why do you think Leicester are now better than us despite being a smaller club with lesser finances? It's not luck. They've gone out and bought the perfect types of players for Rodgers and he has then gotten the best out of them. Dortmund consistently sign the best up and coming talent in Europe and they also hire managers that fit their club's footballing ethos, if you Wikipedia a number of their recent managers you'll notice there are similar descriptions when it comes to their styles of management - attack minded, quick, progressive coaching will feature in many. Whilst they can't overcome Bayern's dominance they make themselves successful enough with strong league finishes, constant European participation and occasional cup winners. We don't have any plan. We hire chalk and cheese managers, chalk and cheese players and then try bundling them together and just hoping something will click - which for a number of years now, it hasn't. Paratici's been hired to hopefully fix this but we'll have to wait about two years to begin getting an idea if he's the right man for the job.
The issue with Clarke's loan, other than Leeds loaning in five other players that window so one was always going to be left out of matchday squads, is it would've been fine if we paid £5m and loaned him back for the season - but paying £10m and loaning him back begs the question why we didn't make the same offer for Daniel James, who was simply that much further along in his development by that point so would have been a better use of that sort of arrangement
I would argue that any gap between us and Leicester or West ham for that matter is bridged solely by dint of the fact that in Kane and Son, we have two players who are miles better than any equivalent in those teams' squads while at the same time neither of those teams could dream of being able to afford players of similar quality. We've been extremely fortunate in that both of them grew into world class talents over years with the club when in normal circumstances one or both would have moved on ages ago (and one very nearly did a week ago). Every other player in every other position is much of a muchness with those sides. Some marginally better some marginally worse the biggest difference being that Rodgers and Moyes especially have a clear vision and have purchased players who subsequently shine in that system.
I fundamentally disagree with your whole ethos. Players are more similar to each other than people seem to think. It is the DoF job to hire a group of players who have a mix of talents and the coach's job to meld them into a team that outperforms the sum of its parts. I think we have made one mistake which is to try to get players that the manager wants rather than to simply sign the ones that are objectively the best. But I will probably be in a minority of one on this. I am possibly unduly influenced by my own experience as a manager in business where my main strengths were analysis, team building and coaching but I soon discovered that I had no edge at all in recruitment or performance appraisal. I thought that was true of other managers too so I was very happy to take on staff who were underperforming and coaching them to work in my team. The Brentford system seems to be very consistent with my approach.
