Transfer Rumours transfer thread fact and fiction

Well he's only played 214 minutes for Fiorentina in the league this season and is described as being a defensive mid. 45 games for Fiorentina overall, no goals or assists.

I'll let you make your mind up on that one.

 

Has anyone seen enough of Amrabat to make a judgement? I certainly haven't.

 

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We’ve all seen enough of last week Levy in a transfer window to make a judgement though

 

I don't think anyone will have, including our scouts based on the amount he's played this season

 

Hard worker but doesn’t score to assist. 25 years old so a good age but not the creative midfielder Spurs need and I don’t see where he plays unless Skipp or PEH get injured

 

Which is fine, if that's what he's being signed for.
Doesn't solve the creativity issue though, of course.

 

This actually gives me hope he might turn out to be exactly what we need

 

This can be the only reason I can imagine why we're going in for him, as a backup to those guys.

If it's him AND a creator, I'd be happy with that.

 

More than one manager can want the same player, for example Harry Redknapp wanted Wijnaldum (but didn't get him due to a slight case of being sacked) and Conte seems willing to take him in part-ex for Ndombele

In terms of Amrabat, no, he's not exactly like Hojbjerg given he started his career as a No8 at both Utrecht and Feyenoord and only really started to be played as a No6 by Fiorentina due to his chipped passes from deep, something which Hojbjerg doesn't even do

Also, since minutes played are now being brought up...
2020-21: 2440
2019-20: 2928

The fact he's played 90 minutes in two of Morocco's three AFCoN matches is also conveniently being overlooked, for that matter...

Alternatively, the whole thing can be a long play by Paratici: loan in Amrabat to get him fit and hopefully increase his value for the summer, and if we do that Fiorentina will make sure to answer our call if we make an offer for Vlahovic in the summer, similar to how taking Gollini on loan seemed to speed up negotiations for Romero significantly

 

So which exciting creative players do you want and how are we going to pay for them?
By the way, Conte doesn't usually use attacking midfielders. At Chelsea he hardly used Fabregas....Kante and Matic started almost every match. He also prefers a striker and two wide players. At Chelsea he used only 4 players in those roles as starters all season...Costa, Hazard, Pedro and Willian.
They had no better cover for those than we have for our four.

 

Yeah if he’s signed alongside a creative midfielder then it’s a different story as hopefully he won’t need to play much but my fear is he’s the only incoming midfielder this window

 

I just struggle to believe that out of all the players out there that Conte would want the exact same player that Nuno did especially when it’s Adama ‘no assists or goals’ Traore

Vlahovic chance has gone, Juve are involved now and willing to pay the amount Fiorentina want. The player wants CL football also.

 

The attacking player I want is a striker.

I don’t even necessarily think Spurs need an attacking midfielder, I mean a midfielder who can play deep but is good on the ball (a Modric type)

I’ve seen Wijnaldum linked and I think he would be a good signing and would definitely prefer him to Amrabat

 

So you want a striker that Conte will never pick....how does that help?

 

If he wants to make him a RWB that makes the end product less of an issue, instead he becomes somebody who adds directness to our counter

Also, in terms of Vlahovic, you're overlooking something: Fiorentina hate Juventus and have for decades, and on top of that their fans' track record when Fiorentina sell players to Juve isn't particularly pleasant, with them literally rioting when they sold Roberto Baggio to Juve to the point bricks and molotov cocktails were thrown at the club's offices, while the only reason the club escaped similar wrath when Federico Bernardeschi made the same move was because Bernardeschi did a Judas

So with that in mind, that does give Fiorentina options: do they risk their stadium being burned down by selling Vlahovic to Juve, or do they have valid reason to consider another option that is available to them?

 

So you don’t think Spurs need another striker?

 

If we get Kessie in the summer then we will have Højbjerg, Kessie, Winks, Skipp and Sara to cover two midfield positions which seems fine. We are short for the rest of the season if Ndombele and Lo Celso are going so we do need someone on loan. Since he will only play if two out of Højbjerg, Skipp and Winks are out he just needs to be better than Harvey White. Wijnaldum would be ideal I think.
I don't regard a Kane backup as worth having. If Kane is out for a prolonged period then the backup won't be good enough to get us top 4 and if Kane stays fit the backup won't play. A better CB or winger would be my priority but hard to come by in this window.

 

In terms of Conte's system at Chelsea and with us, there's obvious similarities...and obvious differences

Playmaking CB - Luiz for them, Dier for us
Mobile CB - Azpilcueta for them, Romero or Davies for us
Sitting CB - Cahill for them, Sanchez for us
RWB - Moses for them, Emerson (Traore?) for us
LWB - Alonso for them, Reguilon/Sessegnon for us
Sitting DM - Matic for them,...ah
Roaming CM - Kante for them, at a push Hojbjerg for us
Roaming winger - Hazard for them, Son for us
Combative CF - Costa for them, Kane for us
Conservative winger - Willian/Pedro for them, Lucas for us

What there wasn't in his Chelsea side was a creative midfielder, at least not in the traditional Modric/Pirlo sense - but Kante can be considered creative in the Scott Parker/Michael Carrick sense that, while he doesn't link all of the team's play, his ability to win the ball then quickly and accurately feed it to the attacking players does mean he is an important part of their buildup play

Obviously there's some personnel which can be improved to make the comparisons work better, most obviously Sanchez, but the system can be seen already

 

His contract runs out next year, sounds like Juve are willing to pay £60million for him. I can’t see how they can turn that down when that’s a huge amount for them.