Summer Transfers

I think it is a good bet that we are going to ship quite a few players which means we will get a few in. And once again we will hear the the usual. they need time to bed in, the league is different to (insert foreign league name here) and they need to get used to the pace, or one of the other reasons as to why Spurs aren't gelling. Perhaps if Levy gets his finger out and stops faffing around until the last minute or we actually get players that the manager wants or there just appears to be some sense of agreement as to which players would actually benefit the club. Hopefully we can avoid making it look like we have four or five guys all running around with a company credit card buying wildly and then running back to the White Hart Lane and presenting their purchase and saying "what about him?" Like some football version of Bargain Hunt

 

If you do business early, then you have a full pre-season to get newbies accustomed
to the squad remainder. Not always easy depending on nationalities, as some regional
international tournament always seems to be happening somewhere in the summer.

The Europa/League Cup always offers good competitive game time in addition
to the above, plus getting overseas players ready for the rigours of the PL
(which is always highest priority/risk in that time frame) .

Wholesale summer churn for a club in the CL is IMHO impossible for a PL club.

 

Kevin Wimmer's pretty much let the cat out of the bag in an interview on German radio. Among the quotes he gave were...
"Nothing is done yet...[d]efinitely there is interest in my services. Both clubs have agreed we will at first be sure of our top-flight status. And then we will see what's going to happen."
"I'm moving to North London this summer, but that is not my focus now; let's stay up first, talk transfer second"

So if FC Koln win their next three matches to secure their place in next season's Bundesliga, does that mean we'll agree a transfer earlier than if they're battling on the final day? If so, let's send positive vibes their way!

On the other side of the transfer column, various papers are saying that all of these players will be sold in the summer: Soldado, Paulinho, Dembele, Lennon, Adebayor, Kaboul, Chiriches, Capoue and Stambouli - although the more likely option is a few will only be loaned out due to their wages or the fees we're expecting.

 

Our record of shifting players it would seem wise to shift is poor. I'll be surprised to see more than half of the players we clearly should move gone by next season (Ade, Kaboul, Capoue), let alone the players we arguably should sell (Soldado, Lamela, Paulinho, Dembele, Fazio). I haven't seen a massive exodus yet, so I'd be surprised if I see one this summer.

 

Depends if there's interest or not: there's been reports of interest in Chiriches, Paulinho and Stambouli from Roma, Juventus and Fiorentina respectively, while moving on Kaboul and Adebayor may be more straightforward as they both have a year left on their contracts (even if Ade's wages are a sticking point)

It wouldn't surprise me if Soldado was still at the club on September 1st, though - mainly because I wouldn't be surprised if Levy valued him at at least £15m, which would ease the hit we'd take on the initial fee but price potential suitors out of a move, so unless we wrangle a cash + player deal he's going to be our option on the bench for another few months.

 

It's hard to see Levy selling players for much less than he paid for them, and I'm afraid his unwillingness to do that may trump other factors. Another point is that everyone we might sell has had their moments, is a useful squad player, and might yet prove to be more. But the wiser move would seem to be to sell most if not all of them if possible, buy 1-2 players as good as our best three (f if we can), plus more youth players. The money we'd save in salaries would help pay for the new stadium. Of the three you mentioned above, I'd let Paulinho and Chiriches go, a little reluctantly, but keep Stambouli, since he's been consistently good and I don't think we'll get much for him.

 

Reported today we want to sell 9 players ,with, Soldado and Ade among them

 

I think even Levy knows he'd be way too unrealistic if he thought he'd get the same fees for what we paid for most of our players.

£26m for Soldado - be lucky to get £10m.
£17m for Paulinho - could probably get £10m.
£8m for Vlad - probably get £5m - £6m.
£8m for Capoue - same as Vlad.

Then on people who've been here longer than the 2013 Summer lads:

Kaboul - £3m - £4m.
Ade - chances are we won't be able to sell, so loan with 50% of wages being covered.
Dembele - would fetch about £10m I reckon.

That'd be clawing back roughly £40m if we could get those fees, more than enough to spend on areas we need strengthening in.

 

Approx. £40m purely from player sales is a pretty decent transfer bank really. Reports today of a swap (maybe Lennon + cash) for Mirallas means that we'd have strength coming in one problem area already, Wimmer looks a strong bet to be a CB coming in and I don't think that fee would be extortionately high. The Standard are saying that 3 London clubs are interested in Ade too, which is good news. If we offer Dembele for sale then I think we could make a decent amount of cash there, certainly £10m SoS perhaps more. He seems to have a strong reputation in the media and amongst other clubs, I doubt they like playing against him.

 

I agree a clear out makes sense. I remain skeptical it will happen. If we do sell a large number of players, the thing to avoid is bringing in more players at about the same level as most of our team. It's been next to impossible, I think, to choose between, say, Stambouli and Mason. That difficulty may well become more intense if various returnees join the squad next year. What we need to buy is another Kane, Eriksen or Lloris (or two): someone who's clearly a cut above. It would have to be a young player, for various reasons. The problem is, it's reasoning like that that has led to many if not most of our poor buys, and could very easily lead to another.

 

We've got a big squad with many players of a similar level as rwaeb says, so we need to ship a few out and then buy quality players who are better than what we have in starting positions. What we don't need is second options (like Stambouli was for Schneiderlin, although I think the former is a solid enough player to be fair) or many promising youngsters, as we have enough of them coming through the ranks already in many positions.

 

If we miss the europa i wouldn't want us to buy much at all. Maybe a CB and a striker assuming 2 leave.

 

There's times where the second option is better business, such as signing Eriksen after missing out on Willian - but then again, there's times it does look like we're settling, for example signing Fazio only because Moreno was injured and we were priced out of a move for Musaccio.

 

I always thought it was down to Willian or Lamela hbic, not Eriksen but I could well be wrong. You're right though, the second options can often prove to be better options for the price, although its tempting to play 'what if' football and imagine our season with Schneiderlin and a proper class CB coming in and settling into a solid partnership with Vertonghen. Its all speculation though isn't it really.

 

Like Huddlefro, I seem to recall we were getting both Eriksen and Willian, although from memory I think Lamela was already here when Willian joined Chelsea?

 

Yeah, but imagine 2 really expensive wastes of skin to go with the others we bought too

 

Willian was having his medical with us on August 22-3, before Chelsea swooped in on the 25th. Eriksen and Lamela were both signed on the 30th - but we opened negotiations for Lamela on the 20th, while in Eriksen's case we opened negotiations on the 28th.

 

looks like we might not have t look for another keeper,as Lloris is reported to have said he is happy at Spurs even though we are not in the C/L

 

I think we've got another season with Hugo (though I thought that with Bale), if we don't get top 4 next season then I think we'll unfortunately have to say good bye. I wouldn't blame him for wanting to go, he's one of the best keepers in the world and with the defence he's been treated too for most of his Spurs career, it's a miracle he's stayed this long!

 

And to add, as gutting as it will be to lose Hugo, it's quite reassuring to know we've got a very good keeper in Vorm ready to step in.