As disappointed as I’ve been at times, I do worry what will happen with other owners. Whatever their faults and foibles, and they have plenty, Levy and ENIC have been focused on making Spurs a bigger club. I think many fans may not be appreciating the off-the-field developments as much as they might. I’ve said it before, but the academy and the stadium show the kind of ambition no other club in any sport is showing at the moment. And isn’t ambition what fans most want from owners? Not to say consistently good judgment wouldn’t be nice.
Witsel looks to be off. Said he wants to leave but Zenit have no time to replace him. This is what happens when you leave it this late
Harry thinks we’ll still get Berahino. I thought he was a better pundit than that. We are not getting Berahino, no way, no how, and nobody should be spending another moment wasting time on it when there’s still time to get some kind of a backup striker, which we desperately need.
I'm dreading the traditional 'morning after' routine of scrolling through lists of free agents in the faint hope that someone like Andres Ineista was accidentally released by Barca and no-one noticed apart from Spurs.
"Not to say consistently good judgment wouldn’t be nice." You mean like not leaving all our transfer business until the very last minute and missing most of our targets?...
So where do we stand on our supposed targets currently..... Berahino - increasingly unlikely Witsel - just said himself he's not moving Wanyama - is in Kenya, so no Pato - being linked with Arsenal Massive gamble anyway What a huge mess
Can't believe Southampton are paying £11.5m for Van Dijk. Shows how ridiculously inflated last-day prices are as the level of quality north of the border is abysmal. The most frustrating thing now that Witsel has confirmed he's staying at Zenit is how we seem to believe that since VDV happened once, it can happen again; when in reality the only thing the final day of the window is good for is fleecing other clubs for highly inflated fees.
Why do we always have this nonsense in the last few hours of the window? Teams have had a couple of months to sort out deals. How have the two biggest and most influential clubs in world football managed to f*** up a transfer which appeared to suit both at £29M? Unbelievable.
Totally agree. Clubs wanting to avoid relegation are all egging eachother on spending more and more. It's not just the size of the fees, it's the size of the squads they're creating. It's going to be a great next summer for anyone getting promoted as they'll have plenty of free cash with the new TV deal and a lot of decent surplus players available at other clubs. What gets me about the De Gea deal is that the line coming out from United to the press appears to be "Madrid shouldn't have left it so late", like they're not currently tying up a late deal for Martial who's costing them double what he'd have cost a month or 2 ago. Not to mention Falcao done last day of last summer's window, nearly missing out on Fellaini the season before because they let his release clause expire and the whole Berbatov nonsense. I hope De Gea refuses to play for them as they've clearly messed his transfer up and deserve no reward for it.
I assumed that this would go through anyway, to be honest. Pretty surprised that the clubs haven't pressured the authorities into smoothing it out.
It's often been said our scouting system was woefully ill-equipped compared to other teams, and that obvious flaw has only started to be addressed in the last year or two. It's also not hard to notice that our scouts concentrate their activity in a couple of countries at a time: Holland and Brazil during the 2011-12 season, and based on this summer mostly in France and Germany.
Trust me. I know how you feel. We've spent £10m this Summer ffs. Every other club has brought in at least 4 players. Except us.
Agreed. This whole things smells of a Madrid wind up. There's no way they'd pay that much plus a top quality keeper (albeit Navas isn't as good as De Gea he's still top notch) for a player who will walk through the door for free in a year even better and more experienced than he is now. The real losers here are United since they've missed out on a huge windfall plus a very decent replacement, plus a sulking first choice goalie. That and the ridiculous sum of money spent on Martial because he just signed a new contract has made them an absolute laughinstock this window. I don't think Real we're ever THAT crazy about De Gea; we've seen from experience with Modric and Bale how relentless they are when they truly want a player. Not asking this as a WUM but what are your thoughts about Arsenal's lack of activity?
Which is exactly the reason Utd wouldn't intentionally scupper the deal. £29M now or nothing next summer for a player who might "not be in the right frame of mind" to play all season?
I'm sure De Gea will be ready to play now. He has said, I think, he was ready to play before? Unless Van Gaal has fallen out with him too?
That opinion would hold more weight if Van Galling didn't have a reputation for spitefulness: he's had a long-running spat with Koeman for the last ten years, and one with Cruyff for the last quarter of a century.
Absolute **** mate. For the past two years, we have hoped to push on after we bought Ozil and won successive trophies, but it just isn't happening. We aren't any closer to winning the title or the CL and we aren't investing in our team in a season where we really need to prove to everyone why we moved stadium in the first place. We keep employing naive tactics in games and we have a manager who is too slow to make changes when necessary. Okay so we've marginally improved in between the sticks, but any minor improvements aren't enough for us to compete for what we really want. Especially seeing as United spent over £200m, City spending over £150m and even Chelsea signing quite a few players. I understand the need for continuity and familiarity within the side, but there are certain positions that need to be improved on. Defensive midfield we are lacking depth and none of our CF options are good. We've known this for years, we've had ample time to do something about it but have willingly chosen not to. The only reasons I can think of is that Wenger genuinely has the (mistaken) belief that his team is good enough to fight on all fronts or he wants to stick to his rigid principles. Either way, it is hindering our side and we're all just expecting a fight for 4th this season. Again.
