Beckhamitus! That's the disease that affects the media in modern times. The cult of so called personality although many of their chosen ones seem devoid of any sort of personality in the true sense of the word. Beckham is the classic case, hyped out of all proportion to his abilities in his chosen sport. It's worth reminding ourselves in the midst of the media frenzy surrounding Bale that yes he is a stand out player (far superior to Beckham) but he is just one player in a team. I know from personal experience that a team with one stand out player often does not play as well as a balanced one. The best example is Maradona at Barcalona. Venables arrives as manager and immediately sells him off with the comment: Football is a team game. Now I'm not going to argue with Venables, especially when I had personal experience of what happens in just such a situation. No! I didn't play for Barca! We already have seen this start to happen at Spurs in the second half of last season. The team began to look for Bale, get the ball to Bale became the ethos. Sure, he can and did perform some amazing feats but whether we would have needed his get out of jail goals at all if we had used the full range of our talented squad is arguable. Bale in my eyes was causing us a problem and as many critics said, we were becoming a one man team. The trouble being if such a talent is available on the pitch why would you not give him the ball. The key for me is a balanced team. I'd much rather have a quality well balanced squad where all the players feel valued than 10 men trying to support their 'star'. The team wins everytime for me, it's a TEAM GAME.
Agree with every single part of this. I'd much rather lose Bale and have a balanced team that's stronger all round than rely on one player who, if he plays like last season and loses his magic touches, will be worth diddly squat. £85m is silly money and I think he'll flop at that price (saying that Spanish teams aren't known for their defensive qualities so he might get a bucket load of goals over there!)
You've got that spot on Spurf. Bale is world class and will be a big loss to us. However, if the money is spent wisely and 3/4 quality players are signed then we've strengthened the team/squad far more than we all thought possible at the start of the window.
Utterly agree. The best team is just what it says on the tin - a team. Having all the best individuals (egos?) most certainly do not necessarily make the best team. If I was designing a footie management game I'd include a hidden "team player" stat. It would contribute to how the performance of the team overall, which is not necessarily the sum of how the individuals are playing. It would include stuff like Spurf is talking about, where a player becomes the focus of the team and where everything is channeled through him, perhaps increasing as he becomes more famous. There is also a case for how much a player is prepared to (or ego allows him to) pass to other players in better positions than he is. How many times did we see chances wasted last season where other players seemed to be in a better position? (Not actually pointing to Bale there, just a general comment.) So most certainly it is possible to be a better team without Bale, and that is where the quality of the manager needs to shine through. I would also argue that this roving central-ish position for Bale actually reduced a couple of his best abilities - beating defenders for pace when coming from deeper, and his crossing. I almost wonder if we would have done better if he had stuck to the wings.
I agree with the principle but the problem is we've struggled in the areas once we've sold our key players so I'd argue and say the key players are pinnacle to what makes a good TEAM. Berbatov - Sold him and have struggled to find a top quality CF since. Hopefully Soldado will be the man. Modric - There was a huge Modric hole last season, Dembele initially started off brilliantly and somewhat eased the loss but then later in the year, it was obvious we didn't replace Luka's influence and creativity. Bale is now our next "superstar" in line to leave. Bale is on a completely different level to the other two, we're talking about a player who is pretty much the 3rd best player in the world, behind what I'd consider the two best players ever (well, along with Ronaldinho that is) - Messi and Ronaldo. To sell a player of this magnitude will be a somewhat suicidal decision. Barca would struggle without Messi and the same for Real and Ronaldo, though both teams would be able to cope with their status in the game, selling them two players for each respected club wouldn't cause other players to be put off joining. That's not the same for us and losing Bale, we're a team on the rise but not a powerhouse like Real and Barca (plus others). Losing our key player, who is also the best player in this league will be devastating in my opinion. People have mentioned we can get 3 or 4 key players with his money, out of interest, who do people have in mind?
SoS - Im pretty sure we'll see Dembele back to his best alongside Sandro / Paulinho this year. It was when he had to line up a the defensive mid that he struggled (or alongside the f*cking useless Parker)
Spurs or Sex, I think our team has improved since Berbatov and Modric left. I'd love to have them both in the squad but the team overall is better than the ones they left.You can always juggle players on paper (we do it all the time) and players come and go. A top striker would have been a more important addition to all our recent squads IMO so if we address that we will have improved again. Without Bale our team will still create lost of chances and if we do sign a top striker the results will come.
Imagine this team ... Lloris Walker King Vertonghen Ekotto Carrick Sandro VDV Modric Bale Berbatov Shame!
you've only got to look at man city for evidence of that. Balotelli & Tevez both falling out with Mancini and an absolutely dire style of football. Balance is the key, as spurf has said. Age also come into the balance IMO. we have to get rid of this mindset of only buying players with the potential of selling them for more. Every squad needs experience as it helps the young ones learn from other role models around them.
Yeah go on TJ rub it in! What could have been, but first we have to get there it's chicken and egg. You could also argue that we have found players each time. Jol and the Carrick team was the breakthrough many of us long standing Spurs fans said At last! we are getting there. Then Carrick goes (gutted) Jol goes, same again. (Skips over Ramos ) But each time we came back stronger. We are on a roll, yes we get bumped, the bigger boys need to stop us we are after them, but each time they come and rape us we come back just a little better. We will get there.
Yeah don't get me wrong Parker was awful last season and that didn't help Moussa but for a £15m player, I'd have expected a bit more to be honest, especially as it's not as if he needed adjusting to a new country, 1 league goal from a player who used to play CF is a poor return too. The squad's have been better balanced but I'm not sure they've actually been better without the player, if that makes any sense?
Mousey Dembele was clearly unfit half of last season. He was struggling with the hip (was it hip? Thigh? Whatever) injury even after his return. Plus one of his worst matches he was probably playing with a concussion. If he is fit and stays fit i would expect him to maintain his form from beggining last season
Well we have maintained our top 5 status throughout and our rivals have strengthened during this time so we haven't gone backwards.
Yes let's not forgot the number of injuries we had last season, long term and key players. We can't be so unlucky this time can we?
OP - I posted something similar in another post about increasing the team as a whole, through sacrificing a player. Whilst there is obviously the combined salaries to consider, for the current numbers being banded about for Bale we (Chelsea), bought Mata, Hazard, Oscar & Moses. Although you may (or may not) prefer Bale to any 1 of those, we've got 4 for the price of 1. I think it's got to the stage where if this press talk of c. £85m is anywhere near true, you need to make it happen and happen fast. You can't afford for this deal to happen on the last day of the transfer window and then have to make desperate buys - or no buys at all.
Not gone backwards but we've not pushed on to that "next level" either. It's been a steady progress but the sales of Berba and Modric have pushed us back to where we've had to reinvest the money to keep it balanced and cover the losses. We've brought in 3 fantastic players this summer, adding them WITH Bale would make us a team that can seriously do some damage.
The difference with you lot though mate is you never re-invested money from the sale of a key player. The 4 players you signed were funds that you had to add on to your squad already. IF we sell Bale, we're having to sign 2/3/4 players to come in and A) replace his input and then B) try to improve the squad.
1. The price of anyone we go for will be considerably increased because teams know we have a lot to spend - as indeed the agents do, who will no doubt be pushing for the maximum possible wages. 2. You can buy three players with that fee possibly, but you can't play 13 players at the same time. In other words, unless all those three are starters and better than we have, then the team doesn't get stronger. Yes Chelski got those four players for the combined fee of less than £85m, but how much does their wages bill come to? Lets say they are on £125,000 per week each (it could be more!), that is £6.5 million each per year or £26 million for four of them!!! That soon changes the equation doesn't it.
