Yeah, bit that's not what poch has said. He didn't say he wants only 25 over 21s, he says he wants 25 players. Thats overs and unders.
...which means up to 9 players could be on their way !!! Allowing for schneiderlin, the winger, the right back and the centre back.
I guess we'll find out on Saturday how well prepared we are! To start the season with a loss to allershite's spammers would be soooo depressing! This is a hugely competitive league. You have to be ready to compete from the first whistle to the last. If you're not, the so called "lesser teams" will be at your throat. Last season, we looked disorganised, dispirited, and finally just depressed. It's vital that the players have a good working, trusting relationship with the manager. If they don't believe in him, or what he's asking them to do, we'll get a repeat of last year.
That Pochettino quote sounds wrong. The reference to the American tour seems out of place and I wouldn't be surprised to find out that he said it a while ago. A 25 man squad shouldn't be too hard to get to, assuming that he's not counting youth or fringe players. GK: Lloris, Vorm, Friedel. DEF: Walker, Naughton, Davies, Rose, Vertonghen, Kaboul, Dawson, Chiriches, Dier. MID: Sandro, Capoue, Dembele, Paulinho, Lennon, Townsend, Chadli, Lamela, Eriksen, Holtby. ATT: Adebayor, Soldado, Kane. Still leaves a few over and I'd expect a few changes, but the only notable omissions are under registration age, barring Assou-Ekotto. Bentaleb, Fryers, Ceballos and Veljkovic are the main ones that I'd expect to get some game time, if they're not loaned out. Mason, Khumalo and Obika don't have much of a future at the club, in my opinion. Not a very controversial one either, I think.
He's been pretty clear, he wants a first team squad of 25 including any u21s : http://www.tottenhamjournal.co.uk/t...e_has_too_many_players_at_tottenham_1_3720330 http://cartilagefreecaptain.sbnatio.../5988291/mauricio-pochettino-spurs-squad-size
Whatever the context of the quote, getting the squad down to 25 over 21s would be a start. Get that sorted and the remaining players playing well enough, then IMHO you can think about the 25 being N seniors + the best U21 prospects.
It would be a start, but it's not enough to achieve what he wants. If we get the 4 signings in then there's 9 players going out, either sold or loaned. Even if we dont get any signings in there's 5 leaving. At least we dont need to worry about who's homegrown, who's u21 etc anyway !!
I know, he says he wants to get the squad down to 25. He says thats his idea. It camt be his idea to have 25 excluding u21s, because you arent alllowed more than that anyway, and because it wouldnt need the squad to be trimmed to achieve that. He wants 25 in total. Thats what all the articles that have reported the quote have said, and it's the only way the quote can make any sense. Here's another one btw : http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/fo...tino-as-he-prepares-to-sell-five-players.html
"It would be a start, but it's not enough to achieve what he wants." Fine. But WTF does everything have to be instant mass churn / slash and burn ??
Dont know. That does seem like what he's saying though. Tbh, we probably do have too many atm though. Maybe it's a tactic to try to make someone bid for paulinho !
The squad that I listed contains players that are U21 and that wouldn't count against the registered total. Eric Dier, for example. Several that would count that I didn't list will leave, with Assou-Ekotto being the most obvious example. I assume that Pochettino has no interest in getting rid of our youth system, so I don't see why he'd be including players like Veljkovic in the total. Anyone coming in would presumably replace someone in the 25 and would see someone leave. Any more trimming would be unnecessary, in my opinion. I see no reason to believe that he's including players who wouldn't be involved on a day-to-day basis. We have players that aren't needed and won't play much if they stay. The development squad aren't in that group. That's the same interview. It's virtually the same article, actually. Two different writers, at least one of which is getting paid for no reason!
The word I've thought when watching Kaboul this preseason has been "commanding." We'll find out soon how ready the team is. I think we're in reasonably good shape, as a guess (from far away). The plan seems to be to go with who is ready and work in those who aren't later. I see it as a bit of luck for Poch. The veterans who haven't been involved yet will have more motivation to do what he wants, rather than working together to hold back the changes he wants to bring in. Of course, if the group who started against Schalke get a couple of bad results or one, it doesn't look like such a great plan. In any case, I can't believe he would start the World Cup players without giving them a run out against Schalke at the very least, any more than he would start a player coming back from a few weeks off due to injury without a runout. The words about the squad are in line with my thinking. If Poch were to name the players he has big plans for, and we sell the others, we would get tens of millions, maybe fifty million or more. Mussachio, Schneiderlin, Depay and Bony remain possibilities. And we've got to start paying for the stadium some time. Injuries are very cruel. Many wonderful players are never the same after them. I barely had a glimpse of Sandro, but he doesn't look nearly back to his best yet, while Kaboul does.
I have though hugo, that's the thing. Yeah, there's a couple of good shots in there, but you could make an andros townsend compilation that would piss all over any of lamelas. I just dont like him on the ball either - he knocks it about 3 yards every touch. As spurf and others have said, it's too early to judge really, but i dont like what ive seen anyway. One hope i would have is that i think he looks a bit like a rabbit in the headlights, so maybe the pressure of the transfer fee etcs getting to him just at the moment, but, no, as i say, even looking back to clips and that from roma, im not seeing a lot personally.
I'm hoping the special part of Lamela's game is scoring and assisting. It would explain his stats at Roma, and the three times I've been really impressed with him as a Spur. (The two goals in preseason and the beautiful assist for Paulinho's back heel last year.) When I looked at the video compilations of the seven incomers, the one who really impressed me was Eriksen. (And the thing that impressed me was his dribbling, which I haven't seen much of since he got here. Last year it was his free kicks and crosses. Now it's his through balls and square balls. Maybe he's just a really, really good player.)
