Transfer Rumours transfer thread fact and fiction

So it's not in first place over three years. How has it done against all the others? I think we are about the same as Liverpool, Man U, Man C, and Arsenal. So joint second. Yes it's a disaster.

 

Still wondering what Nuno's initial plan was

Presume it was a front three of Son, Lucas and Gil under the assumption that Kane was off - but then he wasn't, and Gil was suddenly surplus to requirements

 

Gil was just a shot at buying a possibly excellent player on the cheap by getting them young. Much like Gray, Bergvall, Sarr, Tel, Odobert, Vuskovic etc. Fewer than half will work out.

 

As far as I can tell, as follows:

Chelsea £250m (14 players)
Spurs £117m (4 players)
Arsenal £100m (7 players)
Man Utd £93m (9 players)
Man City £78m (8 players)
Liverpool £72m (6 players)

But given the fact that of all those sales across six clubs, only one was a player no one wanted to see leave (Kane), I'm very reluctant to celebrate his departure as some sort of success: It was a reflection of our failure to match his ambitions.

So take Kane away and our academy has generated the grand total of £37m in three years. That is deeply worrying.

As is the fact that our sales frequency is the lowest of the big six.

Liverpool's trails behind as a grand total, but they have integrated the most academy players into their first team squad, which is itself a huge success story.

 

It did seem early in the window we were looing for a hybrid LW/AM, with Xavi Simons and Eberichi Eze the most obvious names (only for the former to get jumped on by the Chavs, while the latter made puppy dog eyes towards the Bottlers)

Have to wonder where the attention is headed now

 

If he was good enough, he wouldn't have been surplus to requirements.

Singularly unsuited to the PL.

 

When the other options in his role are Son and Lucas, he becomes surplus to requirements very easily

 

Lucas never played on the left flank.

 

Gil could play either flank

 

I'd prefer not to rely on luck.

Since moving to the new stadium, we've signed a legion of players in that tricky £40-60m bracket:

Ndombele
Lo Celso
Romero
Porro
Gray
VDV
Solanke
Johnson
Maddison
Richarlison

Of those, the only one I think has made a significant and sustained improvement to the first team is Porro. Many will argue Romero, but he doesn't hold a candle to what Toby brought - and is injured or suspended half the season.

The rest are a bunch of nice middling players whose overall contribution is neither here nor there. No one would lose any sleep if they left the club tomorrow.

The current approach is very broken, and I think I've accurately explained why.

 

Well that's an even poorer commentary on his ability then, isn't it?

 

I see a few issues with your approach.

VDV has absolutely improved us and has been a good buy.
Johnson get so much grief yet delivers a lot of goals including the Europa league winner (somrthing kane failed to achieve in 3 finals for us) and goal in the semi final.
I have no idea how anyone would be happy if we sold Gray.
I would be very disappointed if we sold Solanke too.
Romero has never lost a final, has won the world cup and we are always hearing how the team is crying out for winners and leaders in the team so I would be very irritated if we sold him.

Would these four have been starters in the 2016-2019 teams? No but they would have greatly added to our squad.

I agree that some of our buys beggar belief ... £60m for Richarlison was never a good idea, I personally have never rated Maddison but in all fairness the bloke has had 3 or 4 major injuries in his 2 years with us so it's hard to judge him.

The first two are on Pochettino (along with Sessengon) they were three players he insisted on.

I don't watch other leagues so have never really had a clue about whether a player from another league is a risk or not but Sessengon never impressed me at Fulham so I had no idea why he was bought.

My other point is that you are damning on Ange as a manager so I am confused why you are judging players bought by him. You've expressed that they have been played out of position while following the instructions of a tactically clueless manager so surely you perception of them is down to Ange.

None of this is a dig at you btw

 

On your last point the value of the academy is clearly the sum of the transfer fees obtained plus the value added by academy players in the first team squad.
Not counting Kane is just weird...if you take the very best case out of any distribution you really distort the figures. I find it difficult to calculate the academy's cost but I suspect just finding Kane paid for it for more than 5 years.

 

The 2016 to 2019 team was bought for about £100m between them but was worth more like £750m at their peak, so with inflation it's hardly surprising that players in the £40m to £60m range are worse. Putting a team like that together is a feat which is unlikely to be repeated.

 

Yeah he’s been a disaster.

3 loan moves too and none of the clubs wanted him on a permanent deal. Says it all

 

Fair enough, you're entitled to push back.

VDV looks a top prospect, but a player who is only available for selection 50% of games isn't going to significantly improve the team. And we knew all about his injury risks before we signed him, just like we knew all about Ndombele's disciplinary issues before we signed him.

Brennan we'll have to agree to disagree. Classic stat padder imo in the same way Darren Bent's stats make him look like a good player where a simple eye test will reveal his limitations.

Solanke I'm a fan of, but he isn't anything close to a £60m player and if the base line is Richarlison then yes, he improves us significantly, but if the base line is Kane, Solanke is a massive step backwards for an awful lot of money.

Gray shows huge potential but it is too early to say. Currently a £40m expenditure doesn't look wise, but time will tell.

Imo if we're spending in the £40-60m bracket as frequently as we do, we should reasonably expect more of those players to slot straight into the XI and improve it, given that these will inevitably be among the most expensive transfers in the whole league every season. And imo that just isn't happening enough.

 

Not really a push back CK tbh. I just think that for all we got under our managers in the Premier league era Wed 21st May 2025 gave us the biggest high since the 1991 FA Cup final.

The manager had a game plan, the players both believed and followed it and everyone gave it their all...standing on the terraces with my daughters and a mate was just out ****ing standing.
Celebrating with 50,000 people watching it on a tv ffs ... it was a beautiful, glorious memory and it was better than Everything we've achieved in almost 40 years.
That night is what football is for imo.

I loved Jol (in my view probably the most important manager in the last 40 years) cos he made us believe again.
I loved Redknapp for getting us to the CL and proving we could mix it with everyone.
I loved Pochettino for making us a real force for a few seasons.

However for all their efforts they never gave us the WOW moment.

They gave us David, Carrick, Bale, Keane, Defoe, VDV, Berbatov, Modric, Kane, Walker, Dele, Lennon, Toby, Jan, Gallas, Dembele, Hugo, Dawson, Kaboul etc.
They gave us famous wins over united, Arsenal, Chelsea, city, Liverpool, real Madrid, inter Milan, AC Milan, Dortmund and most famously against Ajax.
They gave us a near endless stream of European football. They gave us so many memorable games such as;
Spurs 3 Arsenal 3
Arsenal 2 Spurs 3
Spurs 2 Arsenal 0 (last NLD at WHL)
Arsenal 4 Spurs 4
Spurs 2 Chelsea 1 (our first win in years v them)
Spurs 4 Liverpool 1
Leicester 0 spurs 6
Hull 1 spurs 7
Spurs 4 Villa 4 (the 125 match comeback)
I could go on.

But they and those players achieved no top WOW factor with us.

Son and Davies are the only 2 players who stayed and achieved that WOW moment.
That's why they will be remembered as being club legends and why most of those players will be remembered as great players, some as world class but very few will be regarded as a spurs legend...only those who left as they couldn't continue at the top or who were pushed out such as Lennon, Defoe, Jan, Toby, Hugo and Dembele.
Ange had everyone on board, they trusted and believed in him. His sacking is as big a backward step as sacking Jol, Redknapp and Pochettino imho.

I was obviously against sacking Ange but fear that now Frank is in a no win situation. If he fails to get us off to a good start then he and the players will come under too much pressure.

I am lucky enough to have tickets for the Burnley and Wolves games ... it'll be interesting to see the difference in terms of supporters feel good feeling as the matches are 6 weeks apart.

I am still smiling about THAT May night but get the feeling that many have already consigned it to history without soaking it in. Palace and Toon fans are still enjoying their moment whereas we seem to be acting like its ancient history.

 

Great post Colin,

I was in favour of sacking Ange but if we aren't going to back Frank then we should have stuck with him

 

Not being as good as Son is not damning, as the exact same thing could be said about Bergwijn

The main criticism of Gil is how he never seemed to put on any muscle mass no matter how long he spent in the gym so it was always easy to bully him off the ball, when even Ryan Sessegnon was able to bulk up (or overdo it in his case, he was a goddamn tank one pre season)

 

It’s not about being kept out the team by Son or not being strong enough. He’s just not good enough. Did he even ever score a goal for Spurs? I can’t think of one moment from him that made me see why the club wanted to sign him.