L'Equipe say we're looking to sign Adrien Rabiot's from under the noses of Arsenal, Juventus and Roma. On the one hand it's likely to be a cheap deal, as he's in the last year of his contract and negotiations over a new deal have repeatedly stalled - on the other hand the reason his negotiations keep stalling isn't for footballing reasons (namely the lack of games he's getting since PSG signed Cabaye) but because his advisors (one of which is his mother) are looking to line their pockets, so it's quite probable that our name is being used to see if another club comes in with a bigger offer. Also, where would he fit in? Bentaleb's looked good in both PL games thus far, and if Rabiot comes in that presumably means somebody has to leave - most likely one of Paulinho or Dembele.
Spanish sources are claiming that we've paid the release clause for Fazio and the deal should be announced soon. Holtby's being linked with Hamburg who want him to replace van der Vaart, who's off to Turkey, apparently.
I somehow don't see Dembele as part of Pocket's set up or Paulinho and Townsend. It's amazing how quickly he has set himself up to be a "Want to play for" manager. One can imagine bigger names now wanting to come and play for us.
What works for me is that we seem to be an attractive proposition for young players, on several levels too. According to Spurcat, Freund's enthusiasm appeals to prospective Academy trainees, meaning we can secure some genuine prospects. For the first team, Poch's reputation means youngsters would consider signing for us, knowing they will play and develop into better players - which also appeals to Levy, as we sign good players for modest fees who can come into the team and do a job for us, and they can potentially develop into great players that will move us up to the next level (or until Los Bastardos de Madrid tip the wink to Marca again...) Here's a pic of him with Levy... please log in to view this image
I would imagine Dier may become the poster boy for young talent wanting to come to Spurs. Surplus to reqts for his former club. Youngster. Immediately given a chance to play for the seniors and taken it eagerly.
Fair enough, though I think I've seen signs of glacial progress from him. I did question including him in the list of players who could use pace to get around a parked bus, since I've never actually seen him do it (as opposed to Walker, Lennon and Rose). He did cut the ball back once in preseason, which may be a first, so it's possible he could learn to do other things than dribble down the right, cut in and hit the keeper in the chest with his shot. Looking at it from the other way round, if Pochettino decides he wants to come up with a Plan B to use against teams that sit back, he may be able to teach players many things (even Townsend, theoretically) but pace won't be one of them. So we may want to hang on to the players who have it.
I know deep down you agree with me on Townsend but you have fallen into the SOS & YV trap of being overly positive, yet I know you realise Townsend is never going to change!
Sort of. One of the things I won't forget about seeing Spurs play (against Swansea at WHL last year) was one of Townsend's dribbling runs that I literally found mesmerizing. So I make excuses for him because even though he's a one trick pony, I enjoyed the trick.
Townsend's been out for a long time through injury. If he does stay, then I think that the new style of play could suit him very well. He clearly needs to work on his decision making and play with less desperation to impress, but he's got a lot of useful tools in his armoury. Pace and being able and willing to run at defenders puts fear into most back lines and he's clearly capable of hitting the target, he just needs to know when to do it. If we can progress in the Europa League and domestic cups, then he'll get a decent number of starts and tired opposition legs won't want to see him being introduced from the bench in the league. The switching of the front four against QPR seems to be the way that we want to play under Pochettino and this might suit him. Being less predictable and mixing things up would make him much harder to deal with, especially if he's swapping flanks.
Dawson has gone to Hull Actually quite sad to see him gone really though naturally he was well past his best. You so rarely see loyalty like he had anymore
I've put 3m on the front page btw for Dawson - that's the only figure I've seen mentioned - if anyone finds the actual figure then let me know
I think Townsend may very well suit Pochettino. Pochettino seems to want three players behind the main striker who can interchange and also share the burden of goals. Townsend can certainly play on the right or on the left (not sure about the middle, though) and, as we all know, likes to get his shots in so you can expect a fair few goals from him over the course of a season. Is he good enough? Like many players at Spurs right now I'm not sure. Mind you before Saturday I had more reason to be optimistic of Townsend than Lamela (going by what I'd seen of them in Spurs shirts). And now, an excellent first 45 mins and an OK second 45 mins against a truly awful QPR later, Lamela's the bee's knees. I do think that any coach worth their salt should be able to get something very useful out of a player with Townsend's skill set, that's for sure.
