Something to do with Utd signing a £750mil deal with Adidas, so I've been reading. Only problem for them is that that figure gets reduced considerably should Utd fail to make the CL two years in a row.
"We can't sign the Di Maria, Falcao or Costas of this world, so we have to bring in the Bale, Modric, Berbatov and van der Vaarts." And for the latter that requires a better scouting network in Europe. Again, one of the reasons that Baldini was allegedly hired.
Assessing the players signed agaisnt fees paid, suitability for squad/league, potential and timing, then overall I would question his judgement as a Dof.
Even if signing a striker was dependent on selling one isn't it the job of the dof to sell too? Surely if he's so well connected he would know of some teams looking for a striker and be able to offload one
The issue is that both of them give clubs reason not to sign them: Soldado can be seen as damaged goods along with the expectation that Spurs would be looking to claw back as much of the £26m as possible, while Ade has baggage plus wages that are significant compared to several comparable strikers. At the end of the day, Baldini can't make another club sign them - not unless he has friends who would be more at home in Inspector Montalbano's neck of the woods.
How well he's bought has yet to be determined. From what I can see and guess, though, I think he's done a very good job. The big negative has been that Soldado lost his scoring boots. I'm not so sure I should blame Baldine for that, but even if I do, I'm still very impressed with his choices. Lamela subs for Messi and does what Messi can't do, which is score against Germany. He easily outshone Reus and Goetze in that game. He has 4 assists in 2 1/3 games and is the PL's most fouled player. Eriksen's numbers last year were better than Ozil's and very near Ramsey's and Silva's. They may get hurt, fail to progress, or forget how to play football. But both of them have shown me they were excellent choices and came at a reasonable price (especially if, as I've heard, the real price for Lamela was more like 15 million plus 15 million in performance bonuses). The other four look like good to very good buys as well, with the possible exception of Paulinho. Dier was a brilliant buy, it seems (after three games!) and Holtby had a lot of potential, and turned out to be a good move even though he didn't pan out for us. My opinion right now is that I doubt many DoFs would have done nearly as well as Baldini has done--although, again, whether he has made good buys will need more than a year to fully determine. I mean, 12 million for Eirksen plus 4 million for Dier versus 50 million for Ozil plus 16 million for Welbeck?
Signing 7 years during one transfer window, all unproven in this league and put together in a fashion where we looked in a rush to spend the Bale money, IMO isn't doing a very good job. Soldado and Lamela both over priced, which in itself isn't a crime as most players are over priced but add in Paulinho and he oversaw around £75 million of attacking talent (give or take depending on fees) and so far all three have flopped. Soldado looks a lost cause, Paulinho average and Lamela may be decent, yet obviously I accept we won't know the full picture until the players fully settle, yet so far I would question his judgement and can't see how he can be viewed as doing a very good job. Eriksen and Dier may look like bargains, yet still early days, Dier could just turn out average and Eriksen so far can't perform in the big games. Its far too early to be saying hes done a great job or very good job, but you can question his judgement based on the fact he oversaw the arrival of 7 players in one window which I said at the time was a mistake and now its generally accepted we tried to sign too many players at once. However my initial instinct was the signings where a mistake, Soldado was wrong for us, Chadli a flop (before he kicked a ball) and I was never really behind his appointment so I haven't seen anything to change my view or believe he is the right DOF (for us).
RWAB, just to correct one thing, Holtby wasn't signed by Baldini, he arrived in January (the Bale season) and AFAIK David Pleat recommended Holtby and Pleat also recommended Baldini and I won't give you my views on Pleat, other to say I'm not his biggest fan.
We agree on the main point, which is that it's TBD. I don't know to what extent, exactly, Baldini has been responsible for many things, including buying seven players in one window. But those signings in that window were central to Sherwood winning a higher percentage of his games than any manager in Spurs' history. From what I can see now, the problem wasn't the signings, or even the number of them, but the coach in charge of integrating them into the team. I stand corrected on Holtby. I can accept your perspective on the man who has put Messi on Argentina's bench (if Argentina know what's good for them), but I'm shocked you still question the new Bale (our co-leader in goals)...
Were they, though? Firstly, wasn't the fixture list one of the main reasons for that win ratio? And also when I think of Sherwood's reign I think of Adebayor being brought in from the cold, of Bentaleb being promoted and only then of Eriksen starting to look semi-consistently classy. Oh and I suppose Sherwood was also noatble for playing Chadli centrally which seemed so weird to me I thought there must have been something in it. Turns out, of course, that it was nothing special. So Paulinho, Chiriches, Chadli, Soldado, Capoue, Lamela responsible for Sherwood's win percentage? That's not how I remember it. (But of course I might be wrong cos my memory is crap and I actually have no idea how often, say, Lamela played for Sherwood - anyone got any good web-resources for this sort of information or do I have to just go through a list of Spurs' results then cross-reference with match-reports from BBC or something? Well even if he did play for Sherwood I definitely would have remembered it if he played well.) Edit: of course Lamela, in particular, can't be credited - he was injured for most or all of Sherwood's reign! So bad example . Or perfect depending on your point of view.
there are reports today that Baldini's role is under question,as he didn't sign a striker during the summer
keep up tots...we've been discussing that since post #2919 ... but in breaking news Real Madrid want Bale
One thing I remember very well, was comments such as "we're building for the title" with the fabulous seven. Comments based around the fees paid and fans knowing little about the players actual ability, to then end the season 6th, two sacked managers and a host of flop signings isn't something Baldini will be highlighting on his CV. Although Baldini also won't be mentioning Roma improved once he left. He isn't that high profile so I would expect he will eventually just "vanish"....."the club have gone their separate ways with Baldini" with a short paragraph thanking him for his work. Thank you Baldini (the Italian David Pleat), who gave us Chadli.
I don't think you can blame Baldy for signing so many players or spending the money. If we hadn't spent the money or just signed 3 players for like £15m each the fans would have gone mental knowing the club had just pulled in over £100m in player sales. The actual players are up for debate though.
You can, as it was a mistake. You shouldn't invest money for the sake of investment, unless you want to end up with a long list of mistakes and that is what we're going to be left with. And unless our big money signings (Lamela, Soldado and Paulinho) prove to be a success, then we're going to suffer for that spending spree as one of the reasons we never signed a striker (this year) was because the club are trying to give every opportunity for the flop signings to come good so where trying to find a "bargain basement" striker, or one on loan.
Who's all? the silly fans who said we where building for the title? You don't spend money just to please fans, especially as we these same fans will moan whatever happens. Overall we overpaid and signed far too many players, that just how it is, and Baldini was the DOF who was in charge at the time so his judgement can be questioned.
So at the time, without the hindsight you are so fond of using, you'd have been happy had we sold Bale plus others for £100m+ and then not significantly strengthened the team? Do me a favour. Lots of football is about pleasing the fans. The fans are the customers
Where did I say we shouldn't have strengthened? I said at the time the signings where a mistake and we signed far too many, yet that was based around the fact they where unproven in this league and the balance was all wrong, in terms of how they would improve the squad, yet we should have been more smart with the strengthening of the team. To please the fans, the club has to build a team which achieves its goals and plays exciting football, neither has happened.
