Ousmane Dembele is said to be a top target for Conte. Said a week or so ago, very good player but made of glass. We’re also apparently leading the race for Kessie. It’s nice to be leading it but could we just win it, please? A CB is also supposedly on the wish list.
In terms of a CB, what do we need? Dier is doing very well as the libero (brainfart last night aside) and Rodon is a good backup Romero and Davies are both doing superbly as the mobile CB, with Tanganga as backup The conservative CB seems to be the role which needs fixing, as Sanchez isn't blessed with the first touch or reliable passing to roll it off to Hojbjerg/Emerson that the role requires...but nobody tell Napoli I said that
Still need improvements, let’s not fall into the trap that Spurs did in 2016-18 by thinking there wasn’t better options out there. Conte has improved players no doubt but still questionable if they’re at the required level (especially centre back and centre midfield) for where Spurs want to be.
I personally think we can hold off on a CB in January and have it as a primary target for the summer, I'd rather whatever dough we have plus what we make from any sales goes towards a midfielder and another striker, both of which won't be cheap. But if Conte really is pushing for one then I'd imagine it'd be someone to compete with Davies more so than an upgrade on Sanchez, as Romero will likely demote Sanchez once he returns anyway. We only have one left footed CB in the first team and whilst I think since Conte's come in Davies has been as good as anyone, competition for his LCB role is ideal. Romagnoli on paper would be great, especially as his deal expires in the summer so a cheap deal in January should be doable. It's also possible to also look at someone to compete with Dier seeing as Rodon is likely to head out on loan, he's barely kicked a ball this season and it's doing his development no good. We the fans like him but it seems none of our managers have overly trusted him barring a brief spell under Jose so it's better he heads out for the second half of the season and then we can reassess in the summer whether to give him a shot or cash in. Ekrem Konur has linked us once or twice with de Ligt but I just don't see that happening, he'll cost an absolute fortune and I'm not sure he'd switch Juve for Tottenham, even if they're on a bit of a decline now.
Realistically in January we need to look at urgent additions, which is why I keep banging on about midfield because we're light in that area anyway that means that, while Kessie is the ideal signing as that will add some dynamism to our midfield, Svanberg would also be reasonable as he would allow us to rotate out either Skipp or Hojbjerg at a time where we have a glut of fixtures
Back up ST surely has to be top priority? Kane was again pretty unspectacular last night. Loads of misplaced passes and he just doesn't look as sharp as usual still. Our lack of alternatives means he is guaranteed a spot in the starting line up which means we are running him into the ground but unlike previous seasons we have very little to show for it.
I think a CB, CM and a ST has to be the bare minimum in January. A couple of decent games can’t suddenly mean the defence doesn’t need reinforcements or that the annual Harry Kane injury won’t massively ruin the season if there is nobody to step in.
Weston McKennie's being linked for the umpteenth time this season We're going to be signing him out of embarrassment, aren't we?
Wouldn’t agree with that, I thought Kane was good and has been since Conte arrived. The goals are still sparse but his history and record says they’ll almost certainly come. Wouldn’t be surprised if he still nets around 13-15 league goals come the end of the season, which is for him disappointing but very good in general for most strikers. Another striker is needed though and has been for various seasons. Whether it’s top priority or not is open for debate, I’d take a creative mid more than anything at the moment, we’re starting to create more under Conte but having someone who specialises in making chances should take it to a new level and help Son and Kane start racking them up.
Cadiz apparently want Gil on loan, I’d rather we let him go to a Prem side to build experience over here but if there’s no takers then Cadiz makes sense. Really do think he’s a special talent but he needs minutes, which are looking unlikely here at the moment.
Their backup keeper is called David Gil. Doesn't appear to be any relation. Cadiz are right in the **** at the moment, despite drawing 0-0 with Madrid the other day. 19th in La Liga and really struggling to score, having only managed 15 goals in 18 games. Having said that, it's not outrageously low for the current season over there. Sociedad are in 5th and they've only scored 20.
Gil really wasn't the sort of signing that we needed last summer...and not of a type that we've had great success with. We signed Taraabt, Boateng, Dos Santos as up and coming talent from Europe. The incumbent manager didn't use them and neither did his replacement. They didn't go out on loan either. Whatever talents they had, ended up being wasted hanging around the place and the restaurants and clubs of London. Gil needs to play competitive football and it's unlikely to be at Spurs for some time Gil's a Juventus signing, where they have a loan deal already set up for him and they had sufficient cash/cache to sign others to immediately improve the team/squad. Having had a season at the club, Paratici better will understand that we don't have the money to be dabbling in the futures market with the likes of Gil and Pape Sarr. We need half a dozen first team ready players. Last summer, he delivered just two.
In the case of Taarabt and Boateng the incumbent manager didn't even want them, with Jol telling Boateng this to his face in training, but Comolli had gone rogue by that point and was happy to play Football Manager on Levy's dime Gil makes sense as a signing if Harry Kane went to The Sheikh Mansour Team, as then we'd have likely had Son through the middle so there'd have been a place in the team for Gil and/or Bergwijn, but he didn't and instead we signed Gil as Son's understudy in spite the fact that Sonny is undroppable so the reality is that if we want an understudy we should be signing a French/Spanish/Portuguese winger for relative chickenfeed to ease into the team over a couple of seasons, instead we spent £21m on Gil and ended up with Nuno trying to get him to work as either a RW or an AM due to Sonny's undroppableness
From what we've seen of Gil so far, he's not exceptionally quick, not a particularly potent goal treat and whilst he has lots of skill and heart, he's the strength and physique of a 12 year old. If his future is to be in the PL, it isn't for a season or two, to my mind. If Sonny picks up a knock, Bergwijn's well ahead of him and possibly even Sessegnon, if he can stay fit. If he goes out on loan in January, it wouldn't surprise me if he didn't come back next season, if at all. As talented as he undoubtedly is, he's at the wrong club and at the wrong time.
I’d be massively in favour of a Skipp-style loan for him, basically upper Championship at a team that will give him the opportunity to earn a proper role and plays good football. He needs to toughen up a bit. There’s definitely a player in there but we’ll never see it unless he plays. Get him out and I think he’ll come back a proper player. I’d even be in favour of sending him off to Norwich or something for 18 months this coming January, he’ll get PL minutes and then hopefully a big role in a strong Championship team assuming they go down.
I think we should always look for the best up and coming talent in Europe and there’s never really a wrong time to sign them. Both Gil and Sarr represented big coups for the club, each were courted by a lot of Europe’s elite. The rebuild of the immediate first team was always going to be a 2-3 window job too so making additions for that as well as signing players who’ll roughly be first team quality around the 2023/24 season is also nice going. We’ll hopefully have some academy players to join them in that time as well (Scarlett/ Parrott/ Markanday/ White etc) and so it sets us up nicely for the future. If Fabio/ Levy provide Conte with 2 or 3 first choice signings this January, we’ll be in a relatively healthy position for the season and then the summer can be used for any further critical additions or some nice freebies that Fabio’s got a reputation for. I’ve got a lot of faith in what he's doing, especially now he’s got Conte working beneath him.
One thing I spotted on r/coys earlier, people up in arms against signing Kessie because he's a similar player to Hojbjerg Take a look at the CM options at any of the Skyte Four, you'll notice that the rotation options in midfield are all similar to the players they're coming in for in order to maintain continuity, rather than being drastically different players - or for that matter consider how we had Sissoko to deputise for Dembele or Kranjcar to deputise for Modric in the past Obviously there's a time and a place to have a rotation option who isn't identical to the first choice option, most obviously forwards because having a target man or a nippy poacher on the bench does mean that if opponents are sitting on our first choice line we can change things up in their third, but the idea of having completely different players in other roles has more than a whiff of playing too much FIFA for me
A new one year deal would be fine but the man is 35 years old. Ideally a new keeper would be signed in the summer as a long term replacement.
