I can see us needing another RW if we are moving Deki into the middle fulltime, especially as Odobert's injury is apparently a nasty one - but Bissouma's increasing narcolepsy when defending make it obvious where we need to look for a key signing
The manager moaning about the squad running on fumes but not using Spence or Reguilon doesn’t help his cause at all. Archie Gray has definitely deserved a chance at CM imo.
I think whichever positions we look to strengthen really does need to be players capable of going straight into the XI but also to have either that X factor and/ or strong presence. I think our strongest first XI is "decent" but it really does lack some standouts and there isn't enough quality right now to trouble the top four. Poch's team was riddled with as such with the likes of Hugo, Toby, Jan, Dembele, Dele, Eriksen, Son and Kane. Arry's group had King, Modric, Parker, van der Vaart, Bale and Lennon (plus Ade for a season). Jol's bunch had King, Dawson, Keane and Berba plus the early stages of Bale and Lennon. Right now, Son despite his form is the only player I feel with that real star/ X factor. Kulu's shown it a fair bit this season and hopefully it stays and I'd say Maddison when on it has that game changing ability too, a fully fit Bentancur would definitely be someone for the presence factor but between all four the consistency hasn't been there this season barring Kulu, who's previously struggled with form. I think two *genuine* £50m-£60m calibre players could make the world of difference for the second half of the season but I really need to stress the *genuine* because Ndombele, Richarlison, Johnson and Solanke were not/ are not £50m-£60m+ calibre players.
My opinions about Son are well publicised (and criticised!). All said, this is genuinely the first Spurs cohort I've ever seen that lacks the x-factor you're talking about. We went almost seamlessly from Sheringham to Klinsmann to Ginola to Keane to Berbatov to Bale to Kane and for the first time that chain has broken. We underestimate how much of an impact having that x factor can have, not just on our own players but the opposition too. We no longer have anyone in our team or on the bench that an oppo player would look at and soil themselves. Teams don't fear us.
So, we can wave goodbye to Romero this summer, Levy will not have liked his comments and we all know what happens to anybody that calls out the board. Romero was probably going this summer anyway, what with the rumours etc, but this probably just rubber stamps it, there likely won`t be any great effort / improved contract offer to keep him now. I just wish more players, pundits, former players etc spoke up and called out the board for what they are.
Keane was at the club at the same time as Postiga. I think the two words you're looking for are Sergey Rebrov. There is a very small gap at the end of the Sugar reign and beginning of Levy's, which some might argue was bridged in part by Gus Poyet. Otherwise it is seamless.
I personally think your criticism of Son has been a bit too reactionary. He’s still a quality player but just out of form and personally I blame the system more for it than anything else, when one player is out of form it’s a player issue, if multiple are (Son, Maddison, Bentancur - Bissouma!!! - Porro etc) then I find it’s a system/ managerial issue. The only two players regularly turning up are Kulu and Johnson - the latter in stats, certainly not performances. I agree with the rest of your point though. I think the blame has to be shared between the hierarchy and manager on that. Lange hasn’t targeted any genuine high level profile of player since coming in and Ange’s insistence of only wanting players who purely want to join Spurs and not just get out of their current clubs has severely limited the pool of players we’re targeting. Ange has to accept that quality requires money and not just desire for Spurs, whilst Lange needs to show a bit more ambition outside of largely mediocre players or promising youngsters and give Ange a few options that whet the appetite.
There was a good six year gap between Sheringham/Klinsmann and Robbie Keane;s arrival A gap which mainly consisted of Chris Armstrong, Steffen Iversen, and wondering if we signed Les Ferdinand's cousin
Keano joined the club during Teddy’s final season here, started a lot of games together and ironically scored 13 goals each too.
Ginola covers most of that gap. The weak point is 2000/01 where we literally had a squad of absolute nobodies. ENIC's first full season we had a little bit of star quality (albeit waning) with Poyet. Then Keane joined.
I don't remember Sheringham mk.II being much good though. Same for Keano mk.II. Mostly consisted of shouting and pointing at spaces they had no intention of running into.
All this talk of the 'olden days' has actually got me thinking. A LOT of our transfers back then were far more ambitious than what we've seen now, even if they didn't work out as we'd hoped. Klinsmann was simply a mental transfer. So were Sir Les and Ginola. Even pinching Blackburn's captain and midfield leader was quite a coup considering they'd not long won the league. Richards, Kanoute and Ziege were pretty impressive. Keano was a huge signing. Carrick was massive even though he obviously saw us as a stepping stone. Jenas, Berbatov both significant. The last signing we made that got me out of my seat a) impressed we pulled it off and b) trusting we'd signed an instant upgrade was probably Toby or Wanyama. What the feck happened?!
Cunha from Wolves been linked. To me he will be another of the Solanke, Brennan, Richarlison level. Not a bad player but not consistent enough to move the club forward. Probably cost £50million but wages won’t be huge
Sheringham wasn't here for most of the spell between Sheringham/Klinsmann and Keane's arrival, though
If we’re going on pure buzz then Bale’s return was definitely the most recent. The craziest thing is I remember having a chat with my Mum about 2-3 weeks before it happened and I said to her I had this weird feeling Bale was going to return and she called me delusional . Eriksen would be the last permanent signing where I'd say I was both buzzing for his arrival and he also delivered (and some!). Toby/ Wanyama were brilliant signings but I didn't have the huge buzz for them, ironically I expected Wanyama to be backup for Dier! I was also buzzing for Perisic but we never got to see the best of him. The van der Vaart and Modric signings probably have to be my all time favourites though. Both came from out of the blue and back then we didn't have a Romano to ruin the announcement with 37 tweets to the point the announcement itself was no longer much to celebrate. Rafa was literally set to join Bayern 24 hours prior, it fell through and then on deadline day watching SSN and they've gone "Breaking news from Spurs, they're close to signing a World Cup finalist!" and it was just pure bedlam. If I remember rightly Modric was linked with Newcastle and a few other clubs, then all of a sudden on the day of a game (I think Bolton?) Spurs announce his signing, it was nuts. These are the feelings I want to experience again, hopefully January provides it but I won't hold my breath.
Do you know what I actually really like him, literally said my to cousin last night on WhatsApp as we were both watching the Wolves - West Ham game that there's no way he's staying at Wolves beyond this season. I think he's miles better than Richarlison but I do also agree that £50m+ would be better spent on someone with more pedigree and who'd command "star player wages".
Remember when people on here wanted stats-based scouting like Brighton and Brentford had, which made them competitive at a fraction of the cost other teams would pay as they were picking up players other teams overlooked? So of course when we have that, all we get is bitching we aren't paying big money for known names...
I think the desired ambition among most fans is to see a bit of both. Following their recruitment strategy is definitely sensible but with the greatest respect to those clubs, we are incomparably larger and wealthier. There is no reason we can't sign one or two recognised names per window and make up the rest with young potential. We laughed when Danny Rose said it six years ago, but Romero's comments suggest that nothing has changed.
We should have both our infrastructure, our finances, our reputation should have us doing both instead we do nothing with any real conviction and just plod along feeling like one business project amongst many under ENIC no one started supporting THFC for it to be run like an entertainment source over it being a Football club seriously challenging for silverware…at least show pride in failure, we don’t even really have that because really, winning, being the best, you know…the things that sport were invented for, isn’t the aim of the owners and now it seeps through the pores of this club because 20+ years is plenty to re align the DNA and ENIC have achieved that. we have no pride, we just participate
