There's some double standards here. People giving the benefit of the doubt to Lamella who has not done anything of note whatsoever, and saying get rid of Paulinho who has contributed a few goals at least. I say don't get rid of either of them, or be so quick to judge. There were plenty saying get rid of Bale.
So Man U, who finished below us last year and I would say have a weaker squad overall, especially in midfield, need to offload a couple of players who did f-all for them last year. Naturally, the rumor mill has us being thrilled to sign them. Why wouldn't we be thrilled to get Man U's castoffs when we have better players we're very likely trying to get rid of? To be fair, some case can be made for Hernandez, as the idea of playing either Kane or Soldado in the same team with Ade doesn't seem like a bad one. I would have been very happy to get him three years ago. I haven't been impressed for a while. The way he switched off and let Schneider knock Mexico out of the World Cup defined him as a player to me.
IMO, Bent was a lazy, thick twat. Hernandez, is not. He scores goals and IF we could get him at a reasonable price, Christ knows we need a goalscorer!
He doesn't have as many sponsors contracts to keep him in the team as Rooney. Just a thought...that any rational person must have had at the last three World Cups.
I'm happy with Holby he has done little wrong in my view. THis frenzy of players coming in is just bullshit reporters trying to fill their columns. If it amuses you to discuss the the ins and outs OK but don't expect me to believe you. The squad we have is in need of time together under a man who knows what he is doing. More new players just delays our progress. The huge squad we have should be more than enough to produce good results. The quality is there, we should be concentrating on getting the best out of them rather than introducong yet more uncertainty with new players.
I completely take your point regarding giving players time. But the key difference between the two for me is that I can see a place for Lamela in the team - the attacking/wide midfielder spots are wide open right now and Lamela has the versatility to float between the positions behind the striker, which will work well in Pochettino's system. Whereas I don't see Paulinho fitting in. He's not a good enough passer (to my mind he's never shown this, as even at his best he was the kind of player who finished attacking moves rather than starting them) to play in a deep role and he certainly isn't a better no. 10 than Eriksen or Holtby IMO - again, he's not as creative as either of those players - and he doesn't carry that much more of a goal threat than either of them to justify his inclusion to the detriment of the creative aspect of the team game. I'd love to see Paulinho succeed at Spurs but I just don't see what role he will play in the team right now. While there are aspects to his game that are very good - as many have said we probably didn't see the best of him athletically last year, as he is said to be a superb athlete, due to how many games he had played over the last few years for example - we have plenty of other players who can display similar qualities while offering more in their respective roles as footballers. Where would you play Paulinho? And who would you leave out for him? I just think the case is very similar to Huddlestone's - yes he could be an effective player for us if we allow him to play himself into full form and fitness, but is he going to be THAT good that we can justify just letting him play until he gets there, when there are plenty of other players in the squad who could offer as much if not more right now. Letting him go for a good price might be best for all parties.
Touching on Huddlefro's point regarding where Paulinho fits in, I think the same can be said for a number of players/ positions. Right now, even though I have a rough idea of what my preferred XI would be, there are a number of positions well open for debate as to who fits it better. LB - Davies or Rose. CB - Vertonghen I'd say starts (if he regains form) but then it's a choice of Kaboul, Vlad, Dier or Daws to partner. DM - Sandro or Capoue. CM - Dembele or Paulinho or Holtby or Bentaleb. RW - Lamela or Lennon or Townsend LW - Chadli or Townsend or Lennon Lloris, Vertonghen, Walker, Eriksen and I'd personally say Ade (for the time being at least) should be pretty much nailed on to start when all fit but then a case can be made as to why any of the other following positions should or shouldn't have <insert player name> in them. It's a nice selection headache for Poch as all players mentioned are of a very high calibre in my opinion and he needs to see who he believes will fit his system and philosophy.
I suppose it comes down to players getting fully fit too. For me a fully fit Dembele and on form walks in to our first 11. His problem is he has long term niggly injury problems he can't shift. Hugo, Walker, Dier, Vert, Davies, Capoue, Dembele, Eriksen, Lamela, Soldado, Andros is the team I would like to see.
I think an on-form and fully fit Dembele and Paulinho would both make awesome cases to start alongside the DM. Dembele can absolutely boss a game and dominate any opposition midfield where as Paulinho has the ability to be a superb box-to-box midfielder with a goal scoring threat.
Dembele may have suffered more than most from the negative tactics of AVB and by the time Sherwood arrived he had fitness issues. Paulinho has shown enough qualities to merit a little patience with his form. In our position we are always up against the likes of Chelsea, City, United, Arsenal not mention the European giants hoovering up the top players. We have to rely on finding a young gem and trying to retain him for a few season or picking up players like Van de Vaart by luck. We cannot afford to dismiss players like Paulinho unless we are very certain that he cannot work for us. We were very close to the breakthrough when we made the CL with Redknapp if we could have made it again the following season that would have made all the difference to our ability to attract players. The 'almost' position that we occupy means we have to be a lot cuter in our transfer dealing than those above us. I don't understand why posters want to judge our squad on the basis of last season. Let's be honest if we are to judge the team like that we might feel inclined to get rid of the whole lot and start again. We have what 10 days to see who we keep or not, presumably Poch has made some decisions on what he has seen in training.
Apparently we are looking at a Sevilla defender called Federico Fazio. He has a €10m buy out clause which, reports claim we are happy to meet. If true then would seem to confirm the Musacchio deal is dead
It would be a travesty if we sold to them... He's an Everton fan, probably where the rumour comes from.
Yeah, I agree with most of that. I think we have most of what we need, and with proper management, we should be able to mount a decent challenge. There are, however, one or two obvious weaknesses, IMO. We definitely need a reliable first choice, or back up CB, depending in whether Dier is seen as a regular starter, or not. And a striker, please! One who actually scores goals on a regular basis!...
I agree with you in general, especially about the fact we need to find or develop the next big things. The Dier signing was the perfect example of the age and cost we should be looking for. We certainly can't run around like United and pay over the odds in hopes it will all work out. I'd been saying we needed to sell a few players, Paulinho being a good choice. I'm not so sure now. We won our first two games thanks to subs who changed the game. I'm wondering if that may continue to be a pattern for a club that's both fitter than most and deeper than most. I keep hoping Paulinho will work well for us. He is a good player, the problem is, he's not the kind of good player who does enough to help us win. He doesn't shoot or pass from range well enough to start as a CAM, and doesn't tackle well enough for a deeper lying role. If ever you needed a player to be a CAM half the game and a deeper lying player the other, he'd be ideal. But few, including us, do. He might be better used by a midtable team. I was pleased to see Gylfi go from warming our bench to entertaining Swansea fans, and Paulinho might benefit from something similar. On the other hand, I'm not sure who else I really want to go. Dembele might be a great player for us yet, as he was before.
