It was reported yesterday in Murdochâs toilet roll that Liverpool had made a bid for Aaron Lennon. The report stated that âhard up Spursâ are being forced to sell players (inferring Lennon) in order to generate cash for new signings. I know that we would like rid of a number of players who are either past their best or who havenât lived up to expectations. Is their presence really hindering the signing of the sort of talent we need next season to mount a sustained challenge to the teams that finished above us? Is the club sending out the right signals to the likes of Modric with their sell to buy policy or are we going to drop back into mid-table obscurity, as our best players shake their heads and take the best deals they can get elsewhere?
The media have misinterpreted a sensible transfer policy with financial hardship. There are a number of players that aren't needed taking up space in the squad and who really need to be moved on before anyone is brought in. It's a sensible policy to make sure that we don't put ourselves in a position where we're really desperate to get rid of people, because we can't afford to keep them on the books. O'Hara's gone and Palacios, Jenas, Bentley, Keane, Hutton, Dos Santos, Bassong and Kranjcar all seem to be either in negotiations or on the verge of moves. Gomes and either Crouch or Defoe may also be moved on. It shouldn't affect any first XI players or even anyone that played a decent number of games last season.
It's all talk to help our bargaining position. We are very likely to sell more than we buy this summer so if the sales come first and clubs know that we've gained say £20-30mill from sales they'll try and take us for every penny we've got when negotiating players to come in. By saying that we have to sell before we actually do, we lessen this effect. Also it makes sense to sell them first, it's harder to hold out for more money when we've already bought a replacement, a bit of an oversight when we got Friedel.
Unless we are spending ourselves into oblivion, like the Scousers and hopefully manUSA, according to the press, we are skint. Other clubs know the state of Spurs finances. We are quoted on the stock exchange, so all the info is readily available. Not for the first time this summer, it is lazy journalism.
The media (I'm not sure that The Sun qualifies) are, once again, using tales from their "Instant transfer story" dept. Yes, we need to shift some players, many of which we should never have bought in the first place, or we paid too much for. All of the ones that we seemingly want to shift should find new homes - so long as Levy doesn't insist on holding out for silly money. When I was trading, if you made a mistake, you cut it and move on. Once the error was realised, the first cut was nearly always the cheapest to take.
Being a tight arse I can understand the Levy way of bargaining but I'm not so sure he realises that sometimes you have to make a short term loss to make a profit in the long term
We do have a sensible and financially astute Chairman and I don’t want my team to go the way of Leeds United, however, I think that there are times when Levy has been far too cautious and this has cost us dear. I refer particularly to last season, when I believe the Premiership was there for the taking. We had an abysmal run of form, starting at Blackpool, which certainly cost us a place in the Champions League and conceivably, a tilt at the title itself. One or two January signings might have made a big difference, as would biting the bullet and offloading unwanted players at a loss. It seems to me that we are in exactly the same position now as then, demanding top dollar for players who haven’t lived up to their potential whilst refusing to sign others until the deadwood has gone. It’s a difficult balancing act for Levy to get right but I’m not sure that we are sending out the right signals on our ambitions, either to those players we want to keep or to potential targets. One 40year old keeper certainly doesn’t do it for me!
I think that a push for the title is pushing it a bit, but I can understand your frustrations with the last two transfer windows. I think that Levy got distracted by the Olympic stadium debacle, personally. We kept hold of far too many players that had no future at the club, didn't do our business early enough and didn't have a working system in place that suited the players that we had available. Hopefully all of that will be sorted this time out.
I think, PNP,you will find, that Nick Leeson never cut anything. That's how he ended up in the god almighty mess that he did. Instead of realising he'd got it wrong and cutting, he carried on convinced that the Mkt would turn his way.
Just as a post script to this nonsense. Leeson was not a trader. He was an idiot chav, who thought he could buy the Mkt, and dig himself out of the giant hole he had dug himself into. He forgot rule No.1. When you're in a hole - stop digging! As for buying the Mkt, many have tried - all have failed.
There were wasn't exactly a queue for our fringe players in the last window, you can't blame him for thinking 'what if none of them go again!' . We can't just keep increasing the wage bill. That does seem unlikely now as things seem to be happening with the right names already. Its not like you have to pay for a player upfront anyway these days, so I can't see it preventing a purchase now if the right one turns up.
What's obvious is your pure obsession with all things Spurs. Luke, why do you feel the need to post the blindingly obvious on every thread on the Spurs board? You don't see us posting on the Oldham board all day do you Unless you are going to contribute something of worth fack off back to your own board. You are pissing all of our posters off just like you did on bbc606 - give it up of I will have you banned from this board! Capice?
Jackboot all you want son, the delete button will answer your questions P.s. The boards are meant to be run as the individual members want it - ergo the fans of the team in question. The fans of this team want you rid. Now run along...
I confess, I have been a little perplexed by our buying strategy, of late. Surely, letting it be known that we have to sell before we can buy is telling every other club that we're desperate and inviting them to offer us well below what the players are worth? I also agree with the poster who commented that it sends the wrong message to the like of Modric, who may conclude that we never going to get in the players we need to push with building the squad, either because we won't sell enough players, or we'll sell them too late to make the purchases we need. I have this awful feeling that we're going to repeat exactly what we did in the January transfer window, and end up without having bought the strikers that we really need. I wish we could be more like 'Pool, and just go out and buy the players we want, and sell the players we don't need as and when we get proper bids in.
