"Coulibaly joins Peterborough United. I'm going to follow this one with interest as some of his performances for our Academy side were awesome." Buy-back/sell-on clauses ??
I saw the odd performance here and there and always thought he looked lively. Was initially surprised we let him go as he joined us with the reputation of being a real star of the future coming off the back of that impressive world cup he had, will definitely be keen to see how does at Posh.
Gomelt's free transfer to Bari confirmed: http://gianlucadimarzio.com/news-cat/bari-contratto-triennale-per-gomelt-del-tottenham/ (confirmed two weeks ago, that is...) On the subject of Eastern Europeans in our Academy, the whole Filip Lesniak situation is slightly confusing: he's supposedly a free agent, yet he played the entire first half of the Spurs XI match against Peterborough last week
Nice window so far, but I grow in my concern from here on if more quality players don't come in. We've gone from having squad depth to being very thin in certain areas. Stambouli had some quality about him, but he seemed to have a habit of fouling in dangerous areas. With Liverpool hoarding striking options and Man U bolstering their midfield, I feel we need more than just an improved defence to compete even as well as we did last season.
It's early days in this window but the deck clearing suggests we will be making some more signings before it closes.
I think it is a staggeringly high number of transfers for this stage. While it obviously makes sense to get it done as early as possible, Levy (and his counterparts) doesn't even check his ink levels until mid August usually. Levy has actually stated there will be more signings once we have sold a few. We're ready I think.
Does anyone know Profit and Loss on Stambouli, Capoue, Paulinho and Holtby? Sales are Paulinho - £10m Lewis Holtby - £6m Etienne Capoue - £5.5m Benjamin Stambouli - £6m
Shame to see Stam go but wish him all the best. Agree with the above - we've gone from being over-stocked in central areas to now looking worryingly threadbare in the space of a few weeks. I would hope that Alli gets sent out on loan to a PL club next season. As for Tommy C, as much as I like the lad I just don't think he's ever going to cut it at the level we require. I know a lot of people point to Modric and say 'look how late he bloomed', but the fact is I think we can all recognise that at the age of 23, Luka was already in a different league to Tom. Apart from a disappointing loan season last year at Swansea, what worries me about Tom is that he's only scored one senior goal in his entire career (at club level). It's really the Mason dilemma - how long can you wait for a player to flourish before you say 'forget it, let's cut our losses'? I'm rambling a bit but my point is that we currently only have 3 proven central midfielders: Nabil, Ryan and Moussa - the latter being a perennial underachiever in MP's system. It's obvious that there'll be more incomings: I personally expect one big money signing for the '2' in midfield to partner Nabil. Question is, who? A lot of people have been throwing around McCarthy from Everton, but imho he isn't much of a step up and definitely isn't worth the money they're after. I'd look at Bender or maybe Biglia. I'd prefer the former as he's younger and more of a MP style player from what I've seen of him, although the latter is likely to be cheaper. I also fully expect Adebayor to be a Villa player by the end of the window. Quite frankly, we should pay them to take him off our hands. I'll happily drive him up the M1 myself. He can even choose the music for the journey. And there again - with Benteke going to Liverpool, who would you bring in up front?
Are we really lacking in depth? Experience perhaps but I wouldn't say squad depth is an issue at the moment. Paul, Capoue and Benji have gone from CM, while Carroll and Alli have come in, so technically just one less than last season and considering one or two never made match day squads, it won't make a great deal of difference. Kaboul has gone, with Toby and Kevin coming in. So one up at CB though I'd expect Vlad to go soon with possibly Faz to follow seeing as we'll have 5 CBs with him arguably being 5th choice. Lets not forget the young monster we have in Carter-Vickers, who's looking like a superb CB in the making, very excited to see him develop in the coming seasons. We've an extra RB now in Trippier, which could see Yedlin pushed further forward to RW, though that's just a guess. Holtby's exit wasn't felt as he weren't here last season but Pritch is now a member of the squad so that covers his absence. I know it could be seen as a risk replacing older players with those less experienced but lets face it, the club has shifted these older lads because they were pony. Pritch and Alli have come to us off the back of superb seasons with Brentford and MK respectively, Carroll has had more Prem experience at Swansea and is now in a similar position as Mason was last summer where it could be make or break, he's never really done badly in my opinion in a Spurs shirt when he's played despite looking average when out on loan, that said a number of lads never really excelled in loans yet established themselves somewhat when here so I still think Carroll has a future. I already think we're looking stronger on paper than last season, purely because the defence has (hopefully) been sorted with good additions. I'm feeling confident in that we'll sign a new striker or two to compete with Harry and there's been lots of ITK and Twitter talk about the club looking for a new DM, so the signs are positive in my opinion in terms of strengthening the areas that let us down last season.
We are going to give more young players a chance, which I support. Surely Bentaleb, Kane and Mason turned out better as a group than three high-priced signings we could have made in their place. If Pritchard, Alli and Carroll disappoint, then it's time to partly reevaluate. I wonder about Onomah as a possible first team striker, actually. We should be considerably better based purely on our players's ages and the fact that they have another year playing in the same system, with most of the same first team. I would say most undervalue both maturing and continuity as factors in improvement. I note the average age of the first team is of an NFL first year player. In fact, the pressure is on Pochettino to some degree. If the club doesn't improve, he has to be questioned. The problem is the clubs above us, and one below, have spent big and we haven't. I agree with Spurf: it's probably just par for the Levy course. To judge from the persistence of various rumors, it looks like he's doing exactly what you would expect, which is comparison shopping. When teams jack up the price on a target, he's pricing other targets. Of course, if you're willing to go for multiple targets, it decreases the chances you'll get the coach's first choice, which is certainly a drawback. The other drawback is that it will decrease the time new players have to get used to the team, and vice versa. I also think McCarthy is Stambouli in Irish disguise--in other words, not worth 20 million. As for strikers: Hernandez sounds too good to be true for 9 million, so he probably is. While I’d love to have him for that, or even for somewhat more, I don’t really see why he’d want to come here. He would not be first choice, and we don’t have CL. He doesn’t seem like a player who could play anywhere but striker, either, unlike Berahino. I think West Brom will price us out of Berahino as well, though you never know. If we get him, it will probably be for around 20 million, which I can't decide if I would take or not. I probably would. As expensive as that is for a backup striker, he's 21, he's English, and he's an option on the wing, so it's not that likely we'd lose too much on him. While there are many players I’d like to have, I’m pleased the club has done the two things which most needed doing, which were address our defensive frailty and shift extra players. I wonder what kind of budget remains for signings. The figures on the first page show we have a 6.5 million net profit. But that doesn’t take into account all the money we’ve saved from the wage bill, which would really dwindle if we can shift Adebayor and Soldado. My sense is Levy would be willing to spend big for the right player, but most expensive targets want CL football. How he balances getting a team that will fill a big grounds versus having the money to pay for it will be intriguing.
I sincerely hope so. Man U away is a great game to start the season with, only if we are an on-fire, tightly drilled unit. For me, a little more bite is necessary. I like Bentaleb, but think Mason can be improved upon. McCarthy, to me, would be an improvement but I don't see that deal happening somehow.
This is somewhat off-topic, but we get rolling by playing the following in 1 1/2 weeks: MLS All-Stars Real (second richest team in the world, and second or third best) Bayern (second or third best team in the world) or AC Milan Man U (richest team in the world) We can be as ready as we want, we will still be able to use all the help we can get. Am I wrong to want to beat Real even more than Man U?
This is precisely what I'm worried about. The fact that our two most experience players are now Adebayor and Soldado is frightening. You cannot overstate the importance of having a wise old head around the dressing room and training ground to nurture the development of the deluge of young talent now at Spurs. Look at Cambiasso's influence on Leicester's season, Carrick's at United, Fabregas at Chelsea. Or look at Davids and Parker's impacts at us. I agree - we're pretty well stocked in all areas, but with an absolute dearth of leaders and role models (in footballing terms). It was telling, for example, that Kyle Walker's farewell message to Kaboul emphasised how much he'd learnt from him on the training ground. Irrespective of how many lines Kaboul crossed, I highly doubt he fell out with every single employee at the club - in which case he was probably quite happy to guide players like Walker through the ropes of defending (apparently the tuition was a 2-way process though, with Kyle imparting his knack of switching off entirely and getting caught out of position ). That's why I'd love to bring in a player like Bender or Biglia to sit in the centre of midfield. Both still have their best years ahead of them but have bags of experience both domestically and internationally. De Rossi would be a dream but never going to happen. Maybe Srna from Shaktar to add that little bit of know-how? Either way, McCarthy solves neither of these problems. Didn't impress me much last year and one of the reasons his first season was so impressive was that he was playing next to an old head in a surprisingly good vein of form, Gareth Barry, which further proves my point.
Our DM options now worry me a bit. We need someone to partner Bentaleb who is still developing and has a way to go (although I'm convinced that he will become a fantastic player), who complements his game and can help him progress in a way that Mason does not and cannot. Dembele is not and never will be that player. We have a fantastic prospect in Alli but him and Bentaleb would be a very rash choice for a starting DM pair when you consider their ages and levels of experience at this level, the jury is very much out on Carroll still, and Winks cannot seriously be considered to be a starter yet. We need an experienced DM who is good on the ball and who's age will provide a foil for the exuberance and youth of Bentaleb or Mason or any of the others. Think Cambiasso, Carrick etc. That said, although I would have liked Stambouli to stay, I think we're doing well so far. We've cleared the decks to a large extent although there will probably be another 3 or 4 big exits you'd think, and we've quickly bought in the players who most crucially need to learn each others games and forge effective communication - the defenders. The requirements still remain a striker (or 2 if Soldado and Ade leave), a winger and a DM. And crucially, not to let anyone go that we want to keep - that goes without saying.
I still think Naybet and Davids were 2 of our best signings. Decent on the pitch but, i'm guessing, much more use on the training ground and in the other player's minds. Naybet in particular was kept around a while after he stopped being picked for the 1st team, if i recall.
I too like old heads (vested interest ) but I wonder if MP sees himself as the old head and prefers to mold young players in to his methods. Our young squad is getting younger by the week and we all know you can never win anything with kids, don't we!
