Transfer Rumours transfer thread fact and fiction

Who do we think we will leave out of our CL squad. I think it has to be one of Doherty, Gil, Sarr or Lenglet. I would guess Sarr where we have Harvey White as U-21 cover but Doherty is probably third choice in his position too.

 

Probably Sarr, leaving any of the others out would piss them off massively. If it was me I’d leave out Gil but number wise he’s needed in case of injury

 

Sarr is the most likely, given Harvey White covers our U21 and CG requirements - and it has to be said that Conte’s probably locking him in the weight room for the weekend

 

Need to be equitable on this.

Those not included in the CL list for the group
stages must be given their opportunities in
PL games to show they are worthy of inclusion
should Spurs reach the KO stages in UEFA land.

 

We seem not to have had to leave anyone out so perhaps Doherty or Davies count as home grown for some reason..

 

Quick, get Rees Mogg on the phone, we found a Jonestown benefit!

 

Paratici signed team

Forster
Emerson Romero Lenglet
Spence Bissouma Bentancur Perisic
Gil Richarlison Kulusevski

Versus pre Paratici team

Lloris
Sanchez Dier Davies
Doherty Skipp Hojbjerg Sessegnon
Lucas Kane Son

Second team wins I think

 

**** off Bild

 

I don't follow the comparison. It's the equivalent of saying I bought a second hand car and the cambelt, clutch and exhaust were fecked as well as cracks in the mirrors, a flat tire and aesthetic damage to the bodywork. I set about fixing all of that but don't get credit for the car's new level of performance because the engine, chassis, windows, battery, oil tank and seats were there and working when I purchased it?

 

I think it's still interesting, though. Shows what we've done and what basically wasn't worth doing.
Also demonstrates that the squad's been overhauled in pretty much every position.

 

It wasn’t meant as criticism. It’s actually really good that we’ve bought a whole new team over three windows which is almost a match for the good one we already had

 

The missing piece of the jigsaw is how many players were signed between Paul Mitchell's departure and Fabio Paratici's arrival...and how many of them would be first choices now, when assessed against players signed under Paratici?

To my mind, the only contenders are Hojbjerg and Skippy (although Skipp and Bissouma need more time on the pitch to truly assess it). None of them are guaranteed to play alongside Bentancur, but once all 3 are fit, it will be one hell of a fight. Bentancur glides into the best XI. Hojbjerg currently hold the shirt...we shall see.

Emerson is probably ahead of Doherty...just. It may be close which one goes first, when we see a potential upgrade in the market...or Spence satisfies Conte that he can do it at elite level.

Romero is ahead of Sanchez. Conte has improved Sanchez confidence by playing him on the right of a 3, but Romero is the better player. Despite both having the odd defensive mistake in them, Romero adds massively to our building quickly from deep positions.

Sessegnon has talent but a lot to learn. Having a fabulous player like Perisic to learn from will help him hugely. Perisic is just a fabulous footballer, role model and our best LWB.

Kulusevski and Richarlison are well ahead of Lucas, albeit that he's a decent option from the bench and interested Newcastle in the last window.

So, from Jan 2017 - Jan 2021, we recruited one player who Antonio Conte is likely to view as first choice. That's the tale of comparing recruitment pre-Paratici and post-Paratici.

 

This just flashed up on my timeline. Bit of a result for us.

 

I wonder when the club learned of this and if it wasn't a given, could that have made a difference to Joe Rodon's future this summer?

It's hard to say. We're lacking a Dier replacement and if Rodon had any interest in staying and was HG, I'd have kept him ahead of Japhet Tanganga.

No use crying over spilt milk now. It will do Ben Davies career with us no end of good and help on recruitment during his stay with us.

 

Tanganga is club trained though, so Rodon couldn't have his place in the squad, only that of Forster, Sessegnon, Spence or Davies

 

I keep forgetting Spence. Maybe Rodon could have been seen as more important than him to us?

I don't know but reckon that Rodon would have been seen, by Conte, as a stronger option than Tanganga. His international experience must count for a decent amount as far as the CL is concerned, where Spence is unlikely to see much action.

 

I think Rodon himself wanted to leave to be honest. Had only played about 15 games in two years and it wasn’t likely going to get much better for him this season, as I can’t see Conte rotating Dier much out of the XI for Prem and Europe. World Cup around the corner too.

 

If I was him, I'd have left.

 

I think the only fair comparison is to look at the entire senior squad side by side, pre and post Fabio. The difference is night and day.

One thing that does strike me as a very positive thing is that first XI posted by PS, even though many of its members were obviously signed as backup only, is still remarkably well balanced and actually a pretty decent side, with more or less (apart from Royal at rcb which isn't a million miles away from his skill set) a player for every position. It wouldn't pull up trees, but that 'Paratici XI' is in little danger of getting relegated imo.

It shows a thought-out strategy that aims to build a strong collective rather than a haphazard assortment of people who happen to play football. A far cry from the disturbingly recent past when our squad contained 1 ST, 1 RB and 8 CMs.