June 2009 David McGoldrick (Academy) sold to N Forest £1m August 2009 Ricky Lambert bought from Bristol Rovers £1m July 2009 Andrew Surman (Academy) sold to Wolves £1.2m January 2010 Jose Fonte bought from Crystal Palace £1.2m June 2009 Nathan Dyer (Academy) sold to Swansea £400k August 2009 Dean Hammond bought from Colchester £400k August 2009 Gregorz Raziak sold to Reading £1.6m January 2010 Lee Barnard bought from Southend £600k #researchneededbeforespoutingoff #clubthatslowlynurturestalent
You asked for research, and here it is - a short list of Southampton signings you conveniently forgot to mention... August 2009: Dean Hammond, £330k January 2010: Jason Puncheon, £440k January 2010: Danny Seaborne, £220k July 2010: Fraizer Richardson, £450k January 2011: Richard Chaplow, £880k January 2011: Guly Do Prado, £2m July 2011: Jack Cork, £775k December 2011: Jos Hooiveld, £1.3m January 2012: Billy Sharpe, £1.8m You know what else my research unearthed? Firstly, I discovered that several players who featured in the League Cup this week came through the Spurs youth system, namely Harry Kane, Ryan Mason, Andros Townsend and Nabil Bentaleb playing for Spurs, as well as Tom Carroll and Ryan Fredericks who are on loan at Swansea and Middlesbrough respectively. That seems to say that we can nurture young talent of our own - and we don't get on our high horse about it. Secondly, I discovered that Not606 is not Twitter, which means only an idiot would use hashtags on the site.
You clearly haven't taken to being a voyeur (aside from charlottle) as idiots using hashtags on this site is widespread.
You can make a case that Spurs have consistently been better when playing 2 strikers. The exception was when we had someone who was fantastic at scoring from long range. Without Bale, trying to pass through the defense ends by packing the other team in and getting hit on the counter--unless you have a team that's both very good and very experienced at doing so, at any rate. Getting a couple of strikers forward quickly and firing the ball into them is a better approach for a team at our level of skill and experience. Pochettino just saw two strikers end a terrible run of play. I'm hoping this will at least start to convert him to playing them more often.
I dunno - I just don't think that belief has that much to do with it for us right now. There was a time about three/four years ago when I looked at the likes of Chelsea and Arsenal and I thought "Bloody hell - we're better than this lot - we have better players and they're playing better football! We might not just fluke a win - we deserve to beat them every time!". Around this time I wouldn't have fancied Spurs signing hardly any players from Arsenal. Now I could glimpse at, say, Chelsea's squad list and instantly see names like Hazard, Fabregas, Costa jump off the page at me as big players - players who can boss and win PL games against any opposition. Then, below that, they have Willian, Oscar, Remy, Ramirez, Schurrle, Drogba (assuming he's not the Drogba of a couple of years ago otherwise he'd be in the other list) etc. To my mind we have two players of this standard - Adebayor and Eriksen. That's it. We have no top, top talent and a couple of players who are in that standard just below. I'm sure you'd find the same if you looked at Utd's, Arsenal, City's squads. Even Everton have more stand-out players in the EPL than we do now. Are any of our players better than Lukaku? City probably have about ten players better than our best, Utd at least five.
All offset by sales too many to mention. Firstly my research discovers that Bentalab joined Spuds aged 17 he's now 19 but in THFC world that's an academy product is it? I can't even be arsed to check the veracity of the others. Secondly you mention those Spuds starlets playing in the league cup, which, the last time I checked, is not like quite like playing in the prem is it? Thirdly #'sannoyfailinglondon'big'team #nohighhorsetogeton #comparingacademieslolchequebookclubinahurry
Firstly your research should have discovered that Bentaleb was a player who was without a club at 17 years of age, which surely means he was nurtured from our academy to first team...to the World Cup. Secondly you seem to have missed Kane, Bentaleb and Townsend have also played in the Premier League and Europa league this season. Thirdly, can we lord it over other fans by saying we offset signings by selling academy products like Steven Caulker and Jake Livermore? Fourthly, Not606 still isn't Twitter, so hashtag cut the crap. Lastly, you should be aware that your posts bring this to mind... [video=youtube_share;iN45OjB-cCU]http://youtu.be/iN45OjB-cCU[/video]
Quite a hilarious example of someone not being a youth product, there. Bentaleb's apparently not one of ours, as he joined Spurs from France at the age of seventeen, having been let go by a Ligue 2 side. They're annoyed at us for trying to buy one of their academy kids, though. One Morgan Schneiderlin, who they bought from Strasbourg for £1.2m when he was 18. Southampton bought their way back up the league, having overspent in the past, gone into administration and been relegated to the third tier. It must be a South coast thing. They've produced some decent youth players recently, but it was out of necessity as much as anything. I've only met a couple of Saints fans, but they both had the same strange opinion of their club, as if they were somehow on a historical par with clubs like Spurs, Everton and Villa. No idea where this comes from, as even the likes of the lowly Spammers have a trophy cabinet which dwarfs that of Redknapp's favourite local side.
McGoldrick, an academy product by your reckoning, joined you a couple of months months before he turned 17. If he counts then we'll count Bentaleb and Rose. But who really cares, this is one of the saddest "my club's better than your club" arguments I've read on here, and there are a lot of them on here. Please stop using hashtags.
rwaeb, when I mentioned two strikers a couple of weeks ago I was laughed at and somebody said that it was a long time ago, and now you mention it. People are indeed strange creatures. Both AVB and Poch opt for 4-2-3-1 and I don't know if it works.
It seems that AVB walked into a strong club in Russia,possibly the best at the moment over there.It looks like he has lucked in for a pot or two this season......unless he mucks up!
You should strike people with Mjollnir when they laugh at you, TMT. That would learn 'em. I wasn't convinced there was any chance Pochettino would start playing two strikers other than late in games where we needed a goal, but the way our fortunes changed against Forest may convince him. He doesn't seem unwilling to experiment. Even AVB started playing more aggressively eventually (though not soon enough to save his job.) 4-2-3-1 in a nutshell, to me, relies on passing through defenses. It works well for us against weaker teams who play an open game (QPR). Against teams that pack the bus, it has gotten nowhere every time for Pochettino. It will also get us destroyed by stronger teams playing an open game. With two strikers we're basically trying to get the ball into the box any possible way when attackers are there. We look a lot less toothless against teams that park the bus, because we've got attackers who are reasonably good at scoring, and midfielders who can get some decent balls in. It also gets us destroyed against better teams. The one way we would do better against better teams would be to park the bus ourselves, but I'd rather take our chances trying to attack.
Mighty Mjolnir is at the ready. Townsend was talking about the difference in the two wingers' roles, under AVB they were told to stay wide whereas under Poch they are encouraged to cut in on the inside which he isn't used to. This team needs time to settle.
A drone's eye view of the game: [video=youtube;TjD7603Yo3c]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjD7603Yo3c[/video] Seems that the guy that did this has been arrested, as he tried to repeat the feat for the City game.
A shame it didn't spark a mass brawl like it did for the Serbia/Albania game, just so we could see how many of our players could "accidentally" lamp the referee...
