I have extrapolated this season, and have Kulu down for 10 PL goals in 2022-23. To use 2016-17 as a reference, that makes him Eriksen. Are you saying that Richarlson will be the Dele Alli and score 18 PL goals ?? Or in total the pair will score 28 PL goals ??
I’m saying I think we have 2 players in our best XI who are likely good for c.20 PL goals a season, and another who is good for 10-15. It’s hard to compare between seasons when we’re using an entirely different system though. Son has improved greatly since then and Kane is a different beast altogether in terms of contributing more than goals. Back then we had effectively a front 4 (DESK) and now the setup is entirely different. I think that as well as having 3 players in our ideal front 3 who can put up the numbers, Conte will also want to be seeing far more in terms of assists, goals and chance creation from the wingbacks (we rarely had a settled pair last season and are improving the players in those positions) as well as more output from the CBs from set pieces - as the rumoured recruitment of a specific set-piece coach suggests. Ideally we’d also be getting more from midfield too. For too long we’ve been entirely reliant on Son and Kane for goals and we’re going some way to address that.
We can hope Richarlison will do well. He's certainly good at everything not involving passing and shooting. He's been very good for Brazil. It's definitely a seller's market for forwards. I don't think any of those available are going to score 15 goals a year. Jesus might be the best shot to do it, but I always (edit) hope that someone taking a step down is thinking mainly about planning for retirement....not that Arsenal would know anything about that. I think he'll also produce less per minute for Arsenal than he did for Man City. The only question is how much less. I like Raphinha, but think he's more of a winger--though I really haven't looked at him much. I am concerned that a chance to spend whatever needed to be spent to get a replacement for Kane or Son passed by. I trust Paratici and Levy for that matter that there simply wasn't anyone who was a reasonably good candidate. While this option is now by the boards, I think I would have done anything I could think of to keep Bergwijn here, purely on a hunch that he's the likeliest to score 15 a year. He had 14 goals and 12 assists one year, for one thing. I've got the feeling he could have been Son's replacement. I've got nothing solid to back this up, so it's just an opinion time will tell on.
Timing the replacements for Son and Kane is going to be very tricky. This wasn’t the summer to get the long-term replacement for either of them though, finding a player to compete/rotate with them has been hard enough over the years, let alone someone who might oust them, as Kane did when he emerged amongst his competition at the time. FWIW I think Bergwijn is a very good player who has found it hard to take all the chances he’s been given here. He’s had flashes obviously, but hasn’t always looked physically and mentally confident. Strikes me that he may be more of a confidence player who needs to know he’s starting the majority of games and get into a rhythm. Not a knock on him, some players are just like that. Managing the transition away from 2 long-term elite performers is going to be the next big roadblock for Spurs IMO, it’s never easy.
I do think that Vlahovic would have been a perfect replacement for Kane, not just because of his age and his insane scoring ratio but because signing him would be the catalyst of a large-scale squad overhaul because his game is very different to Kane's Case in point, our midfield setup is based on Harry Kane dropping deep and bringing in Son or Deki, so much like Saltypool's midfield three its main priority is pragmatism, albeit for very different reasons - but while Vlahovic does hold up the ball much like Harry Kane does, his game is a lot closer to Haaland's as he regularly breaks into space from wide positions so we'd need a midfield that is looking to pass into those channels It's similar to how Dembele's decline and departure should have been the catalyst for a complete overhaul of our midfield, because Dembele was a tough act to replace (as Sissoko and Ndombele both demonstrated) that instead we should have simply sign a different player entirely (for the sake of argument let's say Tielemans) and adjust the system accordingly
If we can convince Kane to pen a new deal (which I'd say we have about a 70% chance of doing) then I wouldn't worry about replacements for them two for the next few years. They're not slowing down any time soon and a good quality long term replacement won't wait around for 3 or 4 years being a squad player, nor is it even likely possible we can spot a long term replacement who in 3-4 years time will definitely be good enough to replace them. It's something I think we'll have to deal with as and when they leave/ retire. If we're lucky, one or both of Scarlett and Parrott will be ready to step into Kane's shoes but it's not something I want to pressure them with at their ages right now. If Parrott and Scarlett aren't good enough by the time we need to replace Kane then I think we'll just need to hope that there's a Haaland or Nunez on the market and we as a club are in a position to afford and attract them.
I'd like to think if Kane signed a new deal we could move him into midfield in his later years he has never been a speed merchant and his main weapon has been his shooting and speed of thought , I would love to see him controlling the midfield for years to come
I could certainly see him in a role that Totti played for the last 4-5 years of his career where some games he'd be an AM feeding the wingers and CF, others he'd rotate in as a CF
He could easily become a deep playmaker but I think he loves scoring goals to ever want to drop that deep.
All done it seems. I’m saying 5pm announcement for tomorrow. I was about an hour and half out when predicting the Bissouma one, gotta do better on this one. Various reports suggesting we want him, Lenglet and Spence in by Monday - sounds like it’ll happen too.
What’s so good about this Langlet? not seen much and from what I’ve seen on YouTube I still haven’t seen much tbh
saw this the other day just need to replace him doing the dance in our kit boom avi sorted for Pinkie
Bloody hell we're not hanging around are we? Obviously want to announce Spence and Lenglet before the Sabbath.
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Yeah reports are saying we want both in before Monday’s training begins. The mirror are saying Spence will have his medical today/ tomorrow but then that is the mirror. Romano’s implying Lenglet should be next though.
My honest opinion is you’ve probably paid a bit too much for him, but the main question here is: will he improve your squad? And he obviously will. Despite him being a total ****, he’s a very effective player and is a clear attacking threat. Improves the quality in your squad depth. I know Bergwijn is pretty much sealed to move back to the Netherlands, but I wonder what this means for Lucas Moura? He’s going to get even less minutes now, could he be on his way out too?
