Sky programme called the press pass discussing him and his talent and went on ti discuss if he would choose to play for england. One of the journalists then asked "if he played for england would that be good for spurs in terms of his transfer value?" FFS ... 2 league starts 3 subs appearances and they already are pushing for him to be sold...
Just how desperate are England for players? That was his first league start yesterday. He had a good game, but I don't see him and Dembele as a balanced pairing. Need to get a proper holding player in there to free the other player up.
Do you mean Sunday Supplement? I think they were talking about the potential influence on a player like him with the FA reportedly hoping to get players like him and Januzaj to wait until they get a citizenship so they can play for England. The other influence being the club so Spurs were used as the example because England players are more popular which makes them more valuable. You're right though, all they seemed to go on about was his wages and transfer value trebling which is a huge exaggeration and misses the point really.
Thats the one...I love football but its just become souless with all the money talk...and journalists advocating every half decent player be sold so they can fill their papers (and make more money)
I assume you use the term "journalists" loosely as the level of expertise, intelligence and writing skills of these back page wannabe footballers who discuss the ins and outs of every detail of football on Sunday Supplement are anything but. These days they are just blood suckers filling advertising space.
Bentaleb would be mad to choose England over France. Just shows how desperate the FA are in turning to foreign youngsters. Here's a thought, put a ruling in place where a match day squad must contain a certain quota of home grown players like a few European leagues do these days.
Just some info about this young talent Bentaleb. He joined us two years ago this month as an Academy scholar. This was after a successful 2 week trial. As a kid, he played for his local team and was spotted by Lille and he joined their youth set up and was there for 5 years before being released at the age of 14.He then moved across the border to Belgium where he joined Royal Excelsior Mousxron. They went bankrupt and folded so he was on the move again to US Littoral Dunkerque, from where he was released in 2010. He was then without a club until Birmingham invited him to England for a trial. He was then offered a trial by us and two years later has made his first PL start yesterday where he gave a man of the match performance.
Can we please get back to talking about Bentaleb. If you want to talk about religion or whatever then this isn't the board for it, any more and I'll have to close the thread. If you're wandering where your post has gone it's been deleted for being off topic
I knew about his Brum trial but never knew his history with Lille, Mouscron and Dunkerque, shows what great attitude and determination he has to come back from such setbacks at an early age. I can see why Tim said he's an excellent listener and trainer. Good on the lad, certainly showing signs of a fantastic future ahead.
At the time I thought Bentaleb had a poor first half, as many others did but after the game the more I thought about it the more I remembered the amount of times he had to help out with covering the left flank as Eriksen wasn't there. Really it was a very grown up display from him and in the second half he was a big influence on the field which was great to see. It's been hard to judge who out of our young players can make the step up to the first team as Luongo, Pritchard, Carroll and Ceballos all impressed yet got loaned out to lower leagues but I think Bentaleb serves as a good reminder that you can't really judge a player until he's been thrown into the deep end. I'm really hoping we change tact a bit with our loanings next season and look to include some of these talents in a full preseason with the first team and give them some games in the first team, there's no point in us building a great state of the art training ground and scouting for the best young talent if we're not prepared to bring them through and take a bit of a gamble on them.
It's a lot of moving around to do as well. I knew a guy who had trials at United, Chelsea and Fulham(I think it was) and United were the only ones that offered him a place in their academy. He couldn't go because his family wouldn't relocate and he'd pretty much given up on the idea of becoming a professional footballer by 16. When you think of how young Bentaleb is and the setbacks and relocating he's done already to continue his footballing career it's very impressive. His family must've been a huge help too so fair play to them.
Best to consider Bentaleb appearances as an Academy player who is stepping up for the cause, rather than because he is the real end product. Further down the Academy pipeline than others perhaps, but still a work in progress. If Sherwood is still around next season and Spurs are still in the Europa, I expect to see Academy players not on loan to be utilised in the manner we hoped AVB would have done this season.
"When you think of how young Bentaleb is and the setbacks and relocating he's done already to continue his footballing career it's very impressive" Evidence of the "attitude" trait that some here have suggested that the scouts should be looking at in more detail for prospects (in addition to technical ability) ??
I only saw the highlights on MOTD but reading the Sunday Times yesterday, they made him MoM. Whichever way you saw it, he certainly looks like a bright one for the future. Our current manager seems to have a lot of faith, anyway. Maybe that's because, according to some reports from the usual unreliable sources, Sherwood is pissed off with Capoue's attitude and wants to out him!...maybe OS knows the truth of it?
Is the story that Sherwood doesn't think Capoue is putting a shift in during training sessions, rather than the "attitude" problems that Ade and BAE had over recent months ??
Not sure mate, I assume so as he hasn't been playing matches under Sherwood. The report just claimed that Sherwood didn't like his attitude - lack of application, I assume they mean?..
Well that is easier for player and manager to discuss and resolve than the other kind of antics. I trust Capoue to jump thru whatever hoops necessary to be back on the team sheet.
There's an article on Squawka about Bentaleb's contribution to Saturday's game and it raises a few interesting points: http://www.squawka.com/news/2014/01...s-magic-moroccan-is-paying-off/2014011353758? Lots of passes and lots of attempted tackles, but not many real attempts to feed it through the middle or play wide players into space and he was hit and miss when challenging for the ball. He seems to be more of a Dembele/Paulinho box-to-box player than either a holding or creative midfielder, so I think we need to consider who he's being paired up with. Very positive start to his senior Spurs career, though.
