You'd need a crystal ball to know whether Benteke is worth £25M, but it's a gamble at that price. Adebayor had a 20+ goal season in the PL and looked to have all the attributes, but few Spurs fans are championing his cause right now. Few strikers are capable of managing better than a goal every two games over a sustained period in the PL, as the record books show. But if Spurs have £25M available for a striker, have spent £17M on Paulinho and have other irons the fire, Levy's not the tight a*se he's sometimes portrayed as, is he?
Haha, though to be fair I think it's more of a case of Joe Lewis adding a bit of extra funds for a change. It's clear for all Spurs (and possibly neutrals?) that we really aren't far off of having a very good, complete squad. I'm not going to sit here and say with someone like Benteke/ Soldado we'll be genuine title challengers and on par with yourselves, City and Chelsea but I'm pretty sure with a top drawer striker in the ranks we can definitely give anyone a game and at least have an outside shot of being able to aim for a title challenge, even if realistically it won't happen..... For now
Yes, SoS, there are five teams who can realistically win the title next season based on their personnel, of which Spurs are one. The key is consistency, as always, and central to that is squad depth. Can the players who come into the team in the event of injury, suspension of change of tactics etc perform as well as those they replace? Strikers are crucial. A very good Chelsea squad on paper have been well off the pace in the PL because they can't rely on their strikers to consistently get goals. Utd and City when they won it have been able to rely on three or four strikers chipping in regularly. So Benteke and a box to box midfielder like Paulinho can only add to Spurs' potency if they perform. The only problem is that all the teams above you last season will be spending big too.
I think the meeting with Joe Lewis recently is no coincidence, it would seem our billionaire backer is finally providing funds not just for buying players, but raising Bale's and others wages, offering new deals to stay is costing us more than it ever has. I think the value of brand Bale wearing a Spurs shirt has given them pound signs in their eyes. Its now or never though, if we buy right and have a good season reaching all targets, a massive task in itself, he'll stay again imo, and his worth in commercial revenue for another year to the club is something they must want. This kind of player developing global recognition does not come along often, I'd be disappointed if Levy was not thinking similarly. I also think the NLD up 3rd game has made us change our ways too, we cannot possibly go into that in the usual 3rd game disarray of recent seasons, throwing in just signed players with one days training etc. Results against rivals can decide things in the long run, its important not to throw points away, if this fixture occurred in the first 3 games in previous seasons, we would have, so we have to be up and ready from the off instead of morphing the side still half a dozen games in, and one or two 9pts clear already.
Bernard is most likely off to Porto - which has nothing to do with Bank Mendes Gans having a connections with both Porto and Mineiro...
Never heard of this Leandro guy. Is he good? Chadli certainly looks like a good technical player. A front 3 of: Chadli - Benteke - Bale or Townsend - Defoe - Lennon With Holtby, Gylfi and Demps on standby would be pretty sweet. Re the Joe Lewis bits - I dont see any evidence he has dipped into his pocket. Bales increased wages can be countered by the increased exposure he offers us - in the US in particular The young players we are being linked with - this is just a continuation of a policy that has served us well since Enic started the whole DOF thing with Arneson. It is also a good thing with FFP rules - if only we were buying strikers - The more expensive players we are linked with imo could be bought with Bales sale in mind for next year Either - we buy and we get CL - then we can afford the purchases We buy and we dont get CL - we cannot afford the purchases and sell bale - but still have the other good players that would likely not have come without Bale
Ozzie, dear friend, I doubt that anyone who has had the indubitable pleasure of reading our wide-ranging and intellectually stimulating discourses over on the CFC board could possibly come to the conclusion that I am the one who is either "obsessed" or "bitter." By the way, I like the way you keep a civil tongue on our board. It suits you.
Also we still had modric money left and all prem teams have had a bumper pay day. So we will need to buy another 4-5 players before I believe Lewis is now bankrolling us.
Adam suter is claiming that it's likely Benteke will be a spurs player by the end of the week on a 5 year deal.
There were only two ways for Lewis to go: let Bale go and count his profit--and be resigned to Spurs not being a top four club for the forseeable future--or open up the checkbook, and pay both for what Bale deserves and for transfer dealings which will signal intent to him, our sponsor and our other players. A good businessman would take the ambitious but reasonable gamble on option two and Lewis is by all accounts a good businessman. Option 1 would have been folding a good hand when there's a lot of money on the table. If we pull off option 2, the club will increase in value by a few hundred million. If we don't, the club will lose a comparatively insignificant amount of money. (EDIT) SG, you have a good point concerning whether "opening up the checkbook" has actually taken place. A clever negotiator might have in essence got HP to pay for Bale's new wages, and maybe even kick in a little extra for new players. Hewlett Packard is a big US company and could very jusitifiably see it as promotional money well spent. Good strikers cost too much, for various reasons. We've spent years not paying it. In the case of Ade, we went for a player who has top level talent, but not top level focus. We got an up year and a down year, and few fans think we ought to keep him. I'm one of them, on the theory that he may be due an up year again, and was good the last six weeks or so of the season. IMO, Ade is as likely to get near 20 goals for us this year as Bentecke, in other words. But, I'd still gamble on Bentecke. He is young, he was good last year, and this is a moment when appearances count. If we pick up Bentecke it continues to look like we mean business, which will reassure our players and sponsor--not to mention our fans.
Apparently he'd agreed to join 3 clubs and changed his mind over night. Not defending the guy, but he has been spot on with a lot of info, TJ.
AVB has had a massive row with Levy. Things in the balance but AVB should still be here come August. Also Levy definitely wants to keep Bale and Vertonghen is nailed on to be with the club this coming season. He may well sign an improved contract in the next year or two. Aaron Lennon may well start for us on the right.
Actually everything in that post is obvious and highly likely. Just makes the little juicy bit about the row more plausible. Especially since I state that there will be no visible repurcussions.
Apparently Lloris is still angry at being second choice for a few weeks last season and is mulling over a move to Stoke. Watch this space.
