Started out superbly then fizzled out terribly. His decline was unreal, literally went from superstar to super **** within a matter of years.
Russian players often start brightly then fizzle out remarkably fast - Diniyar Bilyaletdinov was great in his first season at Everton, then faded horribly. Kanchelskis' career went south pretty quick too, a great player at Man Utd (and in his first season at Everton) then he started to play like a player twenty years older than he actually was.
I think that both of the North London Russians were used in systems that didn't suit them. They worked well as a pairing and required similar strike partners to thrive, but they weren't given them. There aren't many players out there that can almost instantly click with whoever they're paired with and I often feel that not enough thought goes into these choices. Teddy Sheringham was one of the rare exceptions in this regard, probably because he had many facets to his game. The Keane and Berbatov partnership was more than the sum of it's parts, but neither worked well with Defoe, despite all being good players. Crouch was probably a worse player than either the Irishman or the Bulgarian, but he was the perfect foil for the diminutive poacher.
Depay staying, Remy staying, Yedlin signing today or tomorrow, Inter reject 10 mill and Bobby Sol. Don't want Remy anyway.
I got a shock on Twitter till I saw the account name Slow Sports News ‏@SlowSportsNews ·4 hrs Breaking: Peter Crouch has made a £9m return to White Hart Lane signing a 5 year deal
Inter are trying to offload Freddy Guarin and they've also been linked with Soldado for a while, yet some hack wants us to believe that they've turned down the striker and money. This is someone who's supposedly being offered around for about £14m. Really poor journalism.
I've been banging on about the need to move four or six players since last year, so I could easily believe we're trying to do it. Aside from needing to arrive at a 25 player squad, aside from paying wages to someone who's not playing, having extra players who are clearly good enough to start for decent to good teams is something any manager would do well to avoid. It greatly strengthens the anti-him party looking to orchestrate a coup. Imagine Dembele and Paulinho, for example, who have looked like big players at various times in their careers, not getting minutes for ours. They couldn't possibly be happy. I would definitely move Dawson, Beni and Carroll, probably Dembele (he might work in Poch's system) and Chadli, and possibly Townsend (depending on the offer) and Paulinho (depending on the offer and whether he works in Poch's system). I still can't figure out why we want Guarin. He's 28, doesn't score, assist, pass, or tackle, from the review I saw. He does dribble and cross, but we have two excellent dribblers we're supposed to be trying to offload, one of whom is much younger, and any number of crossers. I'd take Remy, on the other hand. I think we need one more serious goal threat.
Signing Yedlin on a 4 year contract when he's gonna be on loan with his old side until next year seems quite a short deal imo.
Expect last minute wheeling etc from levy and Poch is what I read and I hope so because I still want to see Spurs sign a player I'm looking forward to watching.
So that's Naughton staying for another season - or at the very least until January, with Fredericks as back-up while Walker's out.
