Yep, that's great news as well. I would love to see us line up Walker Daws Kab JV We might even not concede from a corner then Much as I love it when England play Scotland, I think the Wales and Belgium games will interest me more. I suspect it'll be on with the computer plus TV on Wed - streams and channel hopping - busy busy busy
such a shame we missed Villa. This is his goal from Saturday... [video=youtube;mILXWiZLYI8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mILXWiZLYI8[/video] bang!
I get the feeling AVB is trying a new approach as well, with the idea being that if you get a bunch of players together who are fast enough, strong enough, big enough and talented enough, you may not need, or even benefit from, a playmaker; they can be each other's playmakers. If this is something like what AVB has in mind, put me in the skeptics camp. But: Espanyol was hardly a fair test considering half the squad were little better than complete strangers. What this team continues to need even more than a VDV type, IMO, is a Moutinho-like deep lying playmaker. We continue to have a number of players who can beat one player on the dribble, and have a good chance of scoring when they get a ball they can run onto in open field with only one man to beat. I still hope Carroll will get a good trial in this role. I might like to see him come in against teams which sit back (as Espanyol did). I'm not sold on Gylfi as CM, but think he deserves a good run. Looking at what he did with Swansea, his record of producing goals, and the number of times Espanyol fouled him, I think we might be very pleasantly surprised. I also agree Holtby was signed to play that role, and deserves a trial there. It's true (I think) Holtby is only 22, but Gylfi is only 23. I certainly wouldn't mind a top playmaker of some stripe coming in yet, and think it would be optimistic to say we don't need one. However: I was afraid we'd have a squad in disarray against Espanyol, like the one we started last year with. Instead I saw a strong team that dominated play, played with spirit, and looked reasonably formidable considering how new it is. Lacking the final ball, sure, but that may improve in time. In any case, I'm seeing the glass half full at the moment.
Not having seen the Espanyol friendly I now find it difficult to know how good Spurs will be. 3 or 4 1st teamers in means a significant difference from the team I watched last season. AVB showed last season that he is not afraid to make changes between and during games, he now has a whole new pallet to play with. Now we will see the real AVB with a team suited to his plans (subject to injuries and late transfers) As a Spurs fan you have to be excited by the prospect of seeing the wealth of talent we now have blending together and producing some very exciting football, on paper anyway! Bring it on!
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/fo...lotti-as-interest-in-Spurs-forward-cools.html Gareth Bale is not in my plans, insists Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti as interest in Spurs forward cools Real Madridâs interest in Gareth Bale appears to be cooling after head coach Carlo Ancelotti told club president Florentino Pérez that he did not consider the Tottenham player integral to his plans this season. Ancelottiâs comments, which are understood to have been made in a meeting with Pérez at the end of the clubâs US tour, follow Cristiano Ronaldoâs refusal to publicly endorse the signing last week and a change in public opinion in Madrid. Real's position could prompt Manchester United to formalise their interest in Bale - who has been ruled out of Walesâ friendly international with Republic of Ireland, despite training with Chris Colemanâs squad on Monday morning - following the Old Trafford clubâs failure to prise Ronaldo from the Bernabéu. United manager David Moyes admires Bale, but the club remain wary of making a formal offer because of concerns over Tottenhamâs willingness to sell to them and the lack of encouragement from the Welshmanâs camp that he would consider a move to Old Trafford. When Real Madrid president Pérez, who denies meeting Daniel Levy in Florida last week in an attempt to reach an agreement over Bale, set off with his players on the clubâs pre-season tour two weeks ago, the pressure was on him to sign a superstar to counter Barcelonaâs capture of Neymar. But, with Real having won six of their seven summer friendlies, the pressure has eased. Supporters have questioned the wisdom of paying anything more than â¬70million (£60million) for Bale; players have questioned the need for another expensive acquisition; and now Ancelotti has said his piece. After Realâs last game against Inter Milan in St Louis, the Madrid coach was asked about Bale. He replied: âWhy talk about Bale when Jesé [RodrÃguez] and [Alvaro] Morata have both played so well. They are young but incredibly talented.â That response was in marked contrast to earlier on the tour when Ancelotti had openly talked of negotiations progressing and reflects not only how well the squad are performing just five days ahead of the new season but also the lack of optimism within the club that any prompt resolution can be reached with Tottenham. Tottenham continue to insist on the inclusion of Morata in any deal but Pérez is under pressure to keep the homegrown players at the club. Angel Di MarÃa, another potential makeweight who might have helped the deal go through, has told Madrid he wants to stay in Spain. Ronaldo has scored six goals in pre-season and he sowed the first seeds of doubt over how well the signing of Bale was being received in the Real Madrid dressing room when he said in a press conference last week: âI have my views but I am not going to share them publicly.â Ancelotti feels that with Ronaldo, Isco and Mesut Ozil operating behind Karim Benzema he has his first-team front four and that in Morata, Jesé, Kaka and Di MarÃa he also has two players for each position. Bale has done exactly as Real would have wanted by featuring in only one of Spursâ pre-season friendlies and the feeling in Madrid is still that the player will end up at the Bernabéu but whether the deal happens this summer or next has been thrown back in the balance by Madridâs form and the two clubsâ inability to come any closer in player valuation. Bale trained with Wales on Monday ahead of their friendly against Republic of Ireland, but a spokesman for the Welsh Football Association later confirmed he would not play because of injury. Earlier, Ireland assistant manager Marco Tardelli had suggested Bale would risk losing the respect of his team-mates if he did not turn out in the game. When asked if he expected to be facing the winger, Tardelli replied: âI think he will play, he is a Welsh player and he is the best player in the team. If he wants the respect of the other players he must play. âHe is a very good player, at the moment he is up there with Cristiano Ronaldo and players of that calibre, and we saw this with what he did for Tottenham last season.â Of the reported £105million transfer fee Tottenham are demanding for the winger, Tardelli added: âTimes change but maybe in my time Diego Maradona may have been [worth that much]. I donât know if Bale is worth that much but if someone pays it that is his value.â
another insightful comment from spurs community... http://www.spurscommunity.co.uk/index.php?threads/update-251-the-goat-on-spending.100472/ "Lewis has given Levy the green light to spend what we need to be contenders. Expect more activity."
Roo as much as I enjoy (being polite here) your twitter updates, please remove Spurs Community from your bookmark list as that site is really the biggest pile of crap on the internet for spurs fans, no one on there is ITK and they have a group of fans who actually believe they are ITK to help bring people to their site.
Yep, I saw that. Something I've been wanting to see from ENIC for years. Them spending their own money and not just ours. If it's true, ENIC are about go massively up in my rating of them, and more importantly at long last we might actually escape from the shadow of Arsenal and Chelsea. Being the third club in London for over a decade has not been a nice feeling. So hope we're finally gonna give it a go.
thanks for the insight Boss, I'll not waste any more time going through it @futbol_mercado have tweeted saying we've bid 35m euro's for Lamela. Probably more bullshit!
It is weird that Capoue's announcement hasn't been made yet, but I'm not worried or concerned it's broken down or anything. I know he's on France duty so perhaps the OS wants to get him posing in a Spurs shirt before announcing (even though he was at the Espanyol game). Not sure if anyone covered it (can't be arsed to scroll back through pages ) but apparently he smashed all fitness records in his medical, officially making him the fittest player at Spurs. If true then I can see why he's called the French Tank!
HI Hugo, something I've been repeatedly querying. To me it's pretty clear the deal hasn't been 'done' as so many have said it was. Why, who knows? One explanation is that he's had a better offer. I take SOS' point that him being with the French squad might be holding it up, but as I've been saying normally we've been very quick to announce deals this window. Saying 'subject to medical/terms/whatever' If the deal had been done, but there were minor problems, we could heasily have announced it in those terms, then done the 'shirt stuff' after the French game. To me, for whatever reason, Mr Capoue hasn't put pen to paper yet. Because, surely, we're not doing one of our 'last minute lowball tactics', are we, please say not.