Option 1 - sell and don't strengthen - Fans angry Option 2 - sell and buy really expensive replacement (eg something like Di Maria) - Problem, nobody interested Option 3 - sell and buy 2 of 3 players for like £50m - Fans angry and weakening of team Option 4 - sell and spend money on what we perceive to be solid purchases at the time What are the other options?
If we take away the hindsight this is what you said about Soldado last summer: Yep, thats you saying Soldado was the right move.
You're getting carried away and creating these odd options as they aren't helping you make your point, as you're fixated by fans being angry. My opinion last summer was that we signed too many unproven players and it was naive to expect us to spend the Bale money (all at once) and invest them in 7 foreign players as most will flop and the ones who will be a success will be the bargain type signings and if the players flopped (the big money ones) then it would impact our strengthening the following season. That has proved to be correct so i'm in a position to question Baldinis judgement as I've been proved correct. Plus, as Sherwood improved our season by bringing in players frozen out and young players that hadn't been given a chance then the logic behind my idea of strengthening the team has also been proved correct and until I see otherwise, there is no way to be challenge that.....although we could discuss angry and happy fans!
Are you actually being serious, you sat at your computer and went through my old posts? whatever you claim to have found I could show you posts where I said Soldado was an odd signing and wasn't right for the league. if you really want to go down that route!
My point is that everything you are saying now is with the benefit of hindsight. We bought too many players, we spent too much etc etc. But without hindsight the job of how much to spend and who to spend it on is a tad more difficult. Like i've shown, without the hindsight you thought Soldado was a good move, but now you are his biggest critic. Being a DoF is easy with hindsight.
At the time I said we where likely to finish 7th, we signed too many unproven players and Soldado was an odd signing. If I went to the trouble of looking through old posts (which is odd behaviour) then the comments would show this, so nothing is being said with hindsight.
Should we have bought proven players along the lines of Bent and Bentley. Buying any player is a risk and some will work out and some won't. Modric and Berbatov unproven but successful. Postiga and Rebrov unproven and unsuccessful. Torres proven but unsuccessful. It is impossible to tell who will be the successes and who won't. Of last seasons seven there are signs that at least 3-4 of them will be successes.
Paul, no offence but you're not reading what is being said so if you want to join in then at least pay attention as i've explained why the spending spree was a mistake, all you and Spurm are doing is focusing on set words and not looking at the overall factors, as I've no issue with signing unproven players (in general) but when you look at all the factors mentioned and the players signed, it was naive to sign 7 unproven players and expect them to fit in as a team, which is why if I done what Spurm did (stalker behaviour) and went through old posts, I could show how posters where saying "'we're going to challenge for the title". I'm all for signing players that may be unknown and be a success, just when you try and build a squad its not just about throwing as much money as you can and hoping some prove a success. You have to buy players that are proven and unknown, its a mix, and if you want to mention proven players then you wouldn't mention Bent or Bentley, you could mention Crouch and Defoe, so its all about signing players based around the best judgement if you want to build a team that pleases the fans.
ROI from new signings is spread across time. Some contribute immediately (Berbatoss etc) . Some take a bit more time to get going (Modric etc) . Some take much longer (Bale etc) . As Powerspur has said, time is the true judge of the ROI of any signing.
"And some never make it (no matter how much time they are given)." Of course. For those, the skill is deciding at which point to give them up as a lost cause. I suspect that if one goes thru the signings of the past 10 yrs, the ratio of players who were great/ok/poor for the cause, and the periods after which they started to / did deliver, is near-constant. Which would be expected for a club of Spurs' means and stature.
My concern is we assume that because of the previous success we had with Berba, Modric, Bale, that if any signings struggle, fans (or the club hierarchy), say "look what happened with Bale" or "look how Modric progressed". We could end up giving tine to players that are a lost cause, because of how previous players progressed.
Buying foreign players will always carry a risk. It's about far more than there playing ability alone. A player may be performing to a very high level in his home league - in his home country. Or at least in one that shares his language. He then comes to England and everything is different. The football is different, different team mates, a language he doesn't understand. Many of the younger ones have no family with them, and consequently are alone in a hotel room much of the time. Some will adapt to major changes quickly, some far slower, some never at all. It's why proven premiership performers normally fetch premium prices.
Will somebody please explain to me why we are being linked with players now that the window has closed?
Mainly due to the press knowing we have signings that have struggled and for Pochettino in bring in the players he wants, there will be player movement (in/out).
I don't think that the signings of last summer were the problem and I'm not convinced that the money was badly spent. The issue for me was the way that they were integrated into the squad and the problems that we had with some of the players that were already present. Bringing in seven new players that have absolutely no experience of the Premier League and chucking most or all of them straight into the side was naive, at best. Villas-Boas would've been better served by largely sticking with those that were already at the club, but his falling out with Adebayor and Assou-Ekotto made that very difficult. Injuries to key players (Sandro, Rose, Kaboul) and the combination of press pressure and mouthy international managers (Deschamps) also did some damage. The bizarre determination to win every Europa League game at all costs wore down some of our squad and isolated others. Those that needed to be protected from injury (Rose) were exposed to poor, desperate opposition and missed big chunks of the campaign because of it. We ended up with a crocked, dispirited and broken dressing room, then handed it over to a man who seemed determined to create even greater divides in it. He picked up a pretty large number of wins, while pissing off an equally large number of players. Were the signings poor? Not in my opinion. Were they used properly? Again, not in my opinion.
Teams can still sign players who are out of contract and the press seem to believe that we're still after a striker, having been saved from Welbeck by Arsenal.
And for that, the DOF's judgement has to be questioned. We all have different opinions, some rate the signings, others don't, some believe it was naive to bring in 7 unproven premier league players, while some are actually happy with the arrival of 7 players (in one window) and rate all 7, yet Baldini can't just sit in the background and not accept part blame or fans can't take offence if he is questioned, as his role was to work with the manager to build a squad, not just for the future, but for the immediate season ahead.
I disagree. The DoF is supposed to sort out a strong, balanced squad. The manager is supposed to get the best out of that squad. We started the season with very few changes to the team, but those appear to have been enforced by whatever happened with Villas-Boas, Assou-Ekotto and Adebayor. I'm not sure how Baldini was supposed to either plan around that or anticipate it. We had multiple settled options in virtually every position and could've gradually introduced the new signings, but the manager chose not to do that. He rushed them in, which didn't do them any good and appears to have pissed off those that they displaced. Using them more sparingly in the league and allowing them to gain experience of the club by playing in the Europa League first might have seen better results. We'll never know, of course, but fighting for points that we didn't need and flying about all over the place, then playing big league games clearly cost us points.
If we win the league with five of the seven playing 30 games each in three years time then they will be sensational signings. If they get sold next year for £50m total then they will be rubbish. Only those with a crystal ball know which of these is more likely. My personal opinion is that two or three of them will be extremely good, two or three average and one or two rubbish. That will be a good result. Signing any player is hit or miss so signing seven with the Bale money is a good way of hedging your bets, but that only works if you give it time to work.
