So, 4 hours left and counting. Anyone reckon we'll do any more business? I reckon we'll see Sandro out the door and I'd be looking to shift Benny and probably Kaboul too if we could. I'd love to see us get a goalscorer, but who? Thats the question.... Edit: regarding Pochettino not getting his targets, I do agree to an extent that we should have backed him better. But looking at the fees - Musacchio would have been well upwards of £20 million due to the 3rd party ownership issues, Southampton wanted similar money for Schneiderlin and Rodriguez would also have commanded a hefty sum, and would have been a risk too as we have no idea if he will ever be the same player again after his injury. We don't have the resources to drop £30 million plus on 3 players without selling a Bale, especially with the stadium situation over the horizon. But I do think that Fazio and Stambouli were Pochettino targets, as he would have surely given Levy a number of options for each position he wanted improving. He just hasn't got his goalscorer yet, and time will tell if he does. Levy can hardly be the easiest man to work with regarding pursuing targets though.
I know sandro has got injury issues, but to be selling him and replacing him with an unknown in Stambouli seems a bit risky. Bentaleb is half decent, but still young and unproven. Capoue is still quite inexperienced in the prem due to his injury history too. We should only have sold Sandro if Schneiderin was coming in, IMO. (Presuming sandro was unwanted) We still very much need 2 players who can make a real difference IMO. Once again, it feels like our rivals have added quality and we've made a sideways step again.
No, just the standard 10pm "spurs are in for <big player>" as a smokescreen to make it look like we tried.
Spurs are in talks with PSG for Cavani on loan....apparently we are willing to pay 40% of his wage. we didn't see that one coming did we!!!!
I'm disappointed with both Holtby and Sandro leaving but someone had to go. Even before Stambouli we had Paulinho, Dembele, Sandro, Capoue, Bentaleb and Holtby who can all play in the deeper 2 positions. The consolation I take from this is that Dembele has looked better in his short gametime this season and I'm hoping that Stambouli was signed because Pochettino wanted him. As Much as I like Holtby and Sandro, there's no point getting a manager like Pochettino in and then forcing him to keep players he doesn't think work in his system for the team. In the transfer window in general, I'm reasonably pleased. We needed another left back badly and at least one centre back and a better backup right back. I believe we got that. Those were the essentials imo, anything else had to be adding more quality and we did that with Vorm but there wasn't much other quality going that we could've got. The squad still has depth and is more balanced than it's ever been so better not to spend money for the sake of it, if the deals aren't there. Up to Pochettino and the new signings to prove themselves now. We might well find ourselves in a better position than the big spending clubs around us come January when we can look to recruit again.
Just on SSN. Welbeck NOT having a medical at Arsenal and is not going there. I reckon he will be a Spurs player by tonight. Happy days
I wouldn't pay anything like £18 million for Welbeck. I'd pay £10 million absolute tops, and even then thats accounting for the English player fee premium and its a hefty gamble on top of that. He would probably play a Jay Rodriguez role for us, start on the left and rotate in and out of the central striking position. He's a good athlete and willing worker but his footballing brain, technique and finishing need a serious amount of work to make him into a top player. It'd be a big big gamble, and it could be worth just offloading players like Benny etc. and then going back for Rodriguez or Bony in January.
We are still short of creativity from central midfield (Modric type if you like) and another forward imo
I don't disagree with any of that YV But I still think we lack a bit of spark. I don't feel confident in anyone getting 20 goals for us.
