Transfer Rumours transfer thread fact and fiction

You can write the same story about every club. Most transfers don't work out well. Our record is actually better than most.

 

**Was better than most

 

Still is I think.

 

Not a chance. We’d be around middle of the rankings at best now, we’ve been extremely fortunate that Son and Kane have masked over many of our failures over the years, because I genuinely dread where we’d be in the table otherwise.

 

But that's true of almost any club. If you take away their two or three best buys they look much worse. For every good buy you get about two bad ones.

 

Was actually defending Levy/Enic by showing they have spent money rather than pocketing it...so don't get shirty with me young man!

Sorry...thought I was in school for a sec

 

I even wasn't trying to criticise you....just preempting the inevitable response from @Billy The Spur
Do I get detention?

 

Kane wasn't a buy and we've probably averaged about four or five bad ones to a good one.

 

**** that...that would mean I have to stay late

 

I don't think we've done *that* badly since Fabio came in. At the very least there's a clear strategy and instead of our business resembling a lucky dip we've actually targeted specific players for specific positions in need of strengthening.

Most of us were pretty happy with the summer window. I think the greater fault lies with Conte for not utilising the tools given to him effectively. I understand he wanted McKennie or Jessie but ultimately the former didn't want to move and the latter preferred Barca to us. So he got Bissouma instead and in the space of 6 months has turned him into a shadow of the player he was at Brighton.

Then there is the peculiar case of Djed Spence which needs no elaboration. Not even starting him at home to a League 1 side is insane.

Lenglet also wasn't first choice but he hasn't been a terrible addition and certainly adds qualities that Davies doesn't have.

Udogie looks a really smart investment for the future.

Forster has actually been quite disappointing and I think in hindsight we should've pushed for a proper Hugo replacement last summer rather than delaying the inevitable. Safe to say we went on a wing and a prayer but it hasn't worked out after 5 clangers leading to goals already this season.

Richarlison was clearly a Conte signing and massively overpriced as we all know but in theory a huge upgrade on Lucas and Bergwijn as an attacking option. Doesn't help that when he is fit we rarely play him in his strongest position which I still maintain is leading the line with Kane playing as a false 10.

I'd say his only complete flop of a signing so far was Royal but even then we should consider that he was signed for a manager who wanted to play an ultra defensive back 4, not an attacking wb.

Ultimately our single biggest problem is the lack of traffic the other way. We have a woefully bloated squad stacked with the crap accumulated from 3-4 years of bad decisions and panic buys. The list of players who need to leave permanently is enormous and is clearly hindering our ability to operate in the market. Porro is a classic example as while there is a strong argument to just go and buy him, there is an equally strong argument to highlight the fact that we are not managed by Gareth Waistcoat so shouldn't need 4 RBs in the senior squad.

Our 'outbox' currently includes: Ndombele, Lo Celso, Rodon, Winks, Reguilon (baffling but there you have it), one of Sanchez/Tanganga and there is also a strong case against Dier, Royal, Doherty and Sessegnon.

That's 10 senior players who either aren't wanted or aren't good enough, and all of them are still employees of the club.

 

Since Fabio came in? Perhaps not and that’s why I’m fully in support of him.

Over a 5 or so year period though? We’ve been awful, practically up (or down) there with Utd and Everton (and Chelsea to a degree) for atrocious signings at inflated fees.

Kane as a false 10 just doesn’t make sense to me, our best finisher feeding a poorer finisher is illogical in my eyes, especially as our second best finisher is bang out of form. We simply cannot afford to take the one player who’s got an incredible scoring record out of a position that could essentially considerably lower their goal tally, just in the hope he can turn into Kevin de Bruyne on a full time basis as well as simultaneously hope that Son rediscovers his form and Richarlison actually manages to find the net.

 

How convenient you compare ENIC`s miserable tenure to that of Sugar, they would have to be complete and utter morons not to improve on that shiete show of an ownership. All they have done is return us to where we always belonged, but without the trophies. You can defend ENIC, Lewis & Levy until you are blue in the face, but the bottom line is this, ENIC have no real desire to win trophies at the expense of profit, their primary concern is profit and increasing the value of their investment, as long as there is a stadium full of consumers they will be happy. They have turned the club into a complete and utter laughing stock, with a clueless chairman making bad decision after bad decision, they are about to lose the clubs best player because he can see the lack of ambition coming from the very top. All overseen by a multi billionaire tax dodger who has no interest in Spurs other than the profits it makes. Lewis and Levy are the kind of people who (despite being incredibly wealthy) go into a supermarket and still walk out with a trolley full of items covered in yellow stickers.

 

He was essentially playing the role I'm describing in 2020-21 and 2021-22 and still managed 23 and 17 goals respectively. It should be noted that he hasn't scored over 25 league goals in a season since 2017/18. Yes, that is partly down to the overall quality of the team dropping but it is also due to the league getting tougher and his own style of play adapting to circumvent the more physical aspects of the game in order to stave off the ankle problems that plagued him year on year.

 

He wasn’t, he was playing as a 9 and 10 hybrid where he had the space of both positions to himself. If he plays as a strict 10, with Richarlison as a 9 leading the line, his path and positioning in the final third will likely be blocked off by Richarlison and I’d imagine Kane would end up consciously or subconsciously playing more passes to Richarlison than going for scoring opportunities, this would then require Richarlison to have a strike return similar to Kane’s when he had Eriksen/ prime Dele supporting him to make this work… And Richarlison is just simply not that level of finisher.

It might work on Football Manager but I don’t see it being an effective system in the real world. At best a 442 where they’re a strike partnership but even then it’s hard to predict how two players used to leading the line on their own would look playing side by side.

 

You mean like Cole and York

 

Are you trying to torture us with that list?

 

In fairness I left Royal off

 

Always blame ENIC - The facts are that as power has pointed out (yet again), we are more consistent in terms of league position than we have ever been, it is also a fact that this century we have reached as many cup semi-finals as we did when we won all those cups between 71 and 91. Is it ENICs fault that out of 10 semi finals we have reached only 4 finals and lost 3 of those and reached and lost in a champions league final too. The players and managers have to bear some of the responsibility for the trophy drought and whether we like it or not the chances have been there but on the pitch we have failed to deliver.

And anyway who doesn't love a yellow sticker!

 

Yorke definitely played in a two before his partnership with Cole at Utd, was with Milosevic (sp?) at Villa, I’m pretty sure Cole did too but I can’t remember who, was only young back then. Plus 442 was the go too formation for just about every club, most strikers back then were used to playing alongside another striker along with having two wingers on the flanks.

Most strikers nowadays play as a lone figure in formations like 433 or 4231 etc and most wide players are generally inside forwards that.

Kane and Richarlison might work as a pairing though, I’d be more open to that than playing Kane out of position when he’s the best goal scorer we have.