Weren't you guys a **** hair away from signing Willian yourselves? If I recall he flew over to England to speak to Spurs, and for whatever reason, it fell through and we hijacked the deal. I am sure something like that happened?
See my last post which answers this point. Then compare our squad with those of Everton and Liverpool, the teams immediately below and above us in the 'finances table', after which there is a gap the size of the Gobi desert to Arsenal and Chelsea, followed by a gap the size of Russia to the Manchester clubs. Who have they got as a supporting cast? Sturridge, Can, Moreno, McCarthy...none of them cost more than £12m, which is just right for a club with decent but not miraculous financial clout. Over the years, we've made a habit of picking up very expensive players who don't really add much to the squad. And we sit here and (rightly) deride the likes of United for doing the same thing...all the while forgetting that Pogba for them is a drop in the ocean. Sissoko for us is a famine.
Just saying, players like that ARE within your capabilities of signing and your scouts CAN find them. Its not like Spurs are flat broke and no one wants to sign for you.
Correct. It isn't at all often we spend more than £20m, but when we do, we tend to make a right pig's ear out of it. The fact that our best signings tend to be from the £5m-£15m shelf is commendable, but doesn't take away from the fact that we consistently undermine our own progress through the farcical approach to every transfer window.
He even had a medical with us. But that goes to the root of the problem. You lot flashed your cheque book at him and we were blown away. Money talks.
Yet you wasted £30m on Sissoko? Who is in charge of scouting for players? Sounds like he is the guy you need to have words with!
Our posts crossed which is why the example was a bad one if you you thought I was answering yours as yes they have plenty of dosh. In answer to your post- that is why we sit where we do in the table. Behind the rich clubs who can splash the cash and above the others.
So you think that wasting £22m on Son and £30m on Sissoko is an effect caused by us being relatively cash-strapped? In a way, you're right. The likes of United can afford to sign 3 players at £30-40m each on the chance that one will turn out good. We can't. Which is why when we splash the cash once, we have to get it spot-on. Any Spurs fan could've told Levy that Sissoko was very much not 'spot-on', so why pursue him? Was it a joke? A game of truth or dare that got out of hand? I can definitely appreciate your viewpoint, but there is a limit to how much you can blame our shortcomings on finances when so many of our problems are so clearly of our own making.
That goes for most of the clubs in the Prem though mate. With the exception of probably City and Chelsea, no side has a full bench of players who are of the quality or near the quality of their first team counterpart. Other clubs have perhaps two or three players which is the bracket in which I think we come under. As you say the likes of Vorm, Davies, Dier and Son (I'd also add Wimmer) are guys who we know we can rely on for the most part, to be fair I'm being harsh to put Dier in that list, he was bloody superb last season, I'd have the Dier of last season over the Wanyama of this (just!) but naturally the Kenyan has cemented his spot for the foreseeable future. Hindsight is something of a void point to make in my opinion, if we could've known Janssen wouldn't be able to hit a barn door or Sissoko would be bringing his Newcastle and not his France form then of course we'd have done things differently but that's something we have to deal with rather than saying what if. Big clubs do suffer injuries but the examples you're using are of no similar scenario to what we've dealt with. Arsenal being without Cazorla is a blow for them but if we'd only been without say Dembele for a period, I'm sure we'd have done much better than we have, the problem is we've been without Dembele, Kane, Toby and Lamela all for extended spells amongst other players, it gets to a point where it completely disrupts rhythm. Take Cazorla out along with Sanchez, Ozil and Koscielny and let's see how they do. City being without Kompany is something they've been dealing with for years, so much so that they've spent over £100m on three CBs. Pool only lost Coutinho this weekend while Firmino has played in 12 of their 13 league games, it'll be interesting to see if both are out long term though because we can then see how Pool cope in their absence. As for our squad not coping, I think our squad has coped exceptionally well, we're fifth in the table, a two game swing can see us go second.
Fair points SOS. I spent the day with a friend's family who are all Chelsea fans so I'm now at home sulking
You massively under-estimate how hard it is to sign players in the £20m to £40m range who are actually better than those in the £10-£20m range. I got this data from Transfer league from the last few windows: Elaiquim Mangala Manchester City 40,000,000 Leroy Sané Manchester City 37,000,000 Alexis Sanchez Arsenal 35,000,000 Anthony Martial Manchester United 35,000,000 Shkodran Mustafi Arsenal 35,000,000 David Luiz Chelsea 34,000,000 Sadio Mane Liverpool 34,000,000 Granit Xhaka Arsenal 33,800,000 Michy Batshuayi Chelsea 33,200,000 Christian Benteke Liverpool 32,500,000 Nicolás Otamendi Manchester City 32,000,000 Moussa Sissoko Tottenham Hotspur 30,000,000 N'Golo Kanté Chelsea 30,000,000 Henrikh Mkhitaryan Manchester United 30,000,000 Eric Bailly Manchester United 30,000,000 Roberto Firmino Liverpool 29,000,000 Islam Slimani Leicester City 29,000,000 Wilfried Bony Manchester City 28,000,000 Romelu Lukaku Everton 28,000,000 Juan Cuadrado Chelsea 27,000,000 Christian Benteke Crystal Palace 27,000,000 Gabriel Jesus Manchester City 27,000,000 Memphis Depay Manchester United 25,000,000 Adam Lallana Liverpool 25,000,000 Yannick Bolasie Everton 25,000,000 Georginio Wijnaldum Liverpool 25,000,000 Morgan Schneiderlin Manchester United 24,000,000 Marcos Alonso Chelsea 23,000,000 Son Heung-min Tottenham Hotspur 22,000,000 Pedro Chelsea 21,400,000 Dejan Lovren Liverpool 20,000,000 Lazar Markovic Liverpool 20,000,000 André Ayew West Ham United 20,000,000 Ilkay Gundogan Manchester City 20,000,000 That is 34 players. I think only about a fifth are rip-roaring successes and another fifth look reasonable value, leaving 60% looking massive wastes of money. I find that really unsurprising. Selling clubs have a much better understanding of how good a player actually is and you have to pay more than that to get him. There is no reason at all to expect that Spurs have an advantage in this market segment: looks like we are doing about as well as could be expected.
I'm not sure PS. You can pull the stats out but it still boils down to the fact that we spent 42 Million on a couple of players that have added zero to us when needed. Mane for example is doing it now...value for money performances, now when it matters. We always sign people who need a season of cuddles.
How do you propose to 'get it spot on'? What skills do we have that clubs with more money don't? If I was Levy I would be tempted not to sanction any spend above £20m on the grounds that it was not likely to be successful. But we do need to strengthen the squad so we need to tale some risks.
I agree. The main difference being that if ourselves (Chelsea), or City, or United, spend £30m on a player, and he ends up being no good, our board just say "Meh" and sell him for half what we paid and take the loss, then buy someone else. I am not aux fais on Spurs finances, but you aren't poor. You have a big fanbase in the UK, and probably a semi decent one in Europe. You certainly have more financial clout than anyone else outside Chelsea, Arsenal, United, City and Liverpool.
That is correct which is why I think we are doing well to be challenging that group. We have the potential to become a more equal member of it of as well but even then we should only expect to be top 4 two thirds of the time, and win the PL and CL about as often as Arsenal do...
We should have spent the money on experience. Defoe, Bolasie and Ashley Williams would have been great understudies and our boat wouldn't be rocked as much when we lose first teamers because we are turning to experience in the short term. It's a hard ask to keep a team doing well if you are a youngster with no experience and you know it's your job to maintain a high standard. Much more chance of achieving that with some old heads. The strategy is wrong for me. Quite sick of building for tomorrow when tomorrow never comes. I understand bringing youth through or buying young, but not always. It won't work...there are only a handful of examples to show that it does. You can't beat experience. The likes of Fergie had no problems turning to a 35 year old Blanc or a retired footballer in Scholes. I get the Poch vision but for me it's flawed.
