Transfer Rumours transfer thread fact and fiction

Agree on your first sentence but disagree (slightly) on the second.

I already think that on ability alone Romero is one of the top defenders in Europe, let alone the Prem but his recklessness will always (and rightly so) hinder him from being respected enough for his ability.

But Toby - and Jan, who was better than Toby in my opinion - were just a slightly better calibre of player and I personally don't see Romero getting that much better to be considered on a par or better than them. In their primes, I think they were as good as any CB at the time and I'd say their era had far more world class calibre CBs than what's currently about now in Romero's.

 

Some on here have compared him to Sergio Ramos in terms of having to take the bad with the good, but according to the plain stats he is currently averaging a card every three games, whereas Ramos averaged one almost every four.

It's a massive issue.

 

The flip side of that is that Ramos played for ludicrously good Real Madrid sides.
They also benefited from some rather generous refereeing and he still got sent off all the time.
He even got sent off for PSG against the might of Reims and Lorient, FFS!

 

I do agree on Jan, he was (is) a rolls Royce of a defender. Undoubtedly the second best defender I have seen play for spurs in my lifetime. Ledley is obviously number one!
I think this last half of the season is absolutely critical for him. If he can come through relatively unscathed on any disciplinary issues and prove what a class player he is, I’m hoping he can change the narrative that is so far letting him down on being in the conversation of being the best in the league.

 

Absolutely, Ledley was just a different breed altogether. Somewhat similarly to Romero, he never got the respect he deserved, albeit through injury, but his ability towered over any CB I've seen at Spurs - and most clubs.

Unbelievable how injuries robbed not just Spurs but England of a potential all time great - I mean he was a great for us anyway but to think how good he could've been with two knees is scary. Maybe that's why he only had one knee, the footballing gods couldn't allow his ability to have two functioning ones, would've broken the Matrix!

 

I did a bit more digging to find someone comparable with Romero's record but the painful truth is he has one of the worst disciplinary records across the major leagues.

73 yellows and 7 reds in 207 senior appearances is absurd.

By comparison, Ledley picked up 9 yellows and 0 reds in 322 appearances

 

Ramos seemed to do a fair bit of "taking one for the team"
as opposed to falling prey to the red mist.

 

Nusa Watch
Looks like Brentford realised what Brugges' 12.5% sell-on fee potentially means for them

Levy Mode: ACTIVATE

 

I was behind the goal with my dad at the Lane to witness *that* block on Arjen Robben when we beat them in Nov 2006.

I was speechless for days. I kept watching back the replays to make sure I hadn't dreamt it all up.

With goals from Dawson and Lennon, plus a red card for John Terry, makes that one of my happiest games as a Spurs fan.

 

Some rumours that Nusa failed his Brentford medical. Loose cartilage in the knee and a persistent back problem. Could be a bullet dodged if true.

 

Just as some of us were talking about Ledley and his knees as well, how’s that for timing?!

 

Bloody hell, we're going to have to find something that rhymes with "Bardghji now aren't we?

Also, I give it three hours before O'Queef claims we somehow knew about this...

 

According to a few journos, we’re trying to muscle in and steal Lucas Bergvall from Djurgardens. Barca were looking close to signing him. Lange is spearheading this one.

17 year CM. Already played 29 times for the senior side.

 

Palace closing on Wharton. I would’ve liked us to follow up our interest in him, said that before we even found out Vermeeran was going Atleti. Think he’d really suit Ange’s style in the number 6 role as well as being capable of playing in the 8. Palace have signed a few players we’ve been linked with over the years such as Eze and Olise (plus Anderson and Johnstone), both who’ve turned out ballers, could be another smart signing for them.

 

The interesting thing with Bergvall is he plays in a similar role to what Sarr does in our team - but his range of passing is far closer to either Bentancur or Maddison

 

Vulture Watch
The following players are likely to want to leave Milan at some point in the next 12 months
- Rafael Leao
- Christian Pulisic
- Ismael Bennacer
- Tijjani Reijnders
- Divock Origi
- Luka Romero

 

Not sure why there is so many links to Bergvall when Romano says Bergvall is in Barcelona with his family and meeting Deco.

 

Agent talk to get better terms at Barca? That would be my assumption

 

Perhaps his agent prefers a move to a club which might be able to pay the transfer fee?

 

I think if you are comparing Romero and Van de Ven to Toby and Verts you must surely need to take account of the different teams and methods of the teams they played in. Romero is given more freedom to take the ball upfield and is possibly also subject to needing more 'life and death' tackles as teams break through our very high line. I am always sceptical of just using 'numbers' to make value judgements on players because your performance is altered by your 10 team mates and the manager's choice of tactics. Another example is people already complaining about Werner after just two games. This is to prejudge (which I do as well, to be fair) a player in a different team with a different role before he has been assimilated into the team. I think before you can criticise him at Spurs his team mates need to at least pass the ball to him occasionally to see what he can do.