Does anyone think that Harry and Sonny are definitely going to be here in August when we start the season with no European football? Harry may give us a another year and his injuries may have reduced his options, but I think there will be a queue forming for the Korean and I am not convinced he will hang around to play for Jose.
I floated this concern a few months ago and got nowhere with it. It is a massive concern but ironically, I think their long-term injuries could well contribute to them both giving at least one more season to the club. Maybe they'll feel like they have unfinished business, maybe other teams will be slightly more hesitant (especially for Kane, who is now in every sense of the phrase 'injury prone'), maybe their natural affinity to the fans and club will make them reconsider leaving on a relatively sour note. IF our benevolent owners show a solid degree of ambition in the summer, I think they'll stay.
This is it. I was prepared to try and get behind Mourinho, despite thinking that his appointment was a huge mistake. Now, to a lesser extent, I still am prepared to try but the hope that I was wrong is fading fast. I'm not impressed by him acting the fool in press conferences. If it doesn't improve our play or results, it's meaningless. You can be clever when you're winning...when you do it and lose, you're a clown. I'm struggling to see that we've learned much of anything of any real use over the last three months or so. Dier is still Dier and playing without deserving to. Winks still can't play in a midfield two...and those players who we need to get up to speed - Sessegnon, Skipp, Parrott, Gedson Fernandes, Foyth aren't getting anywhere near enough football, even off the bench. From match to match, we've chopped and changed personnel and formations to such an extent that, after the Norwich away game, I went on a CK style rant. I know that we've got injuries but there was nothing showing by way of improvement or cohesion or shape. Nothing...and at that point, we still had some fit forwards. Each selection since looks like it was drawn (blindfolded) out of a hat and is certain to minimise any progress that we need as a team. Most games, we're playing like a scratch side, which is exactly what we are, with changes to formation, personnel and players' positions. If we're not getting results from that (and it should be clear that we're not), it needs to stop and Mourinho needs to get on with implementing a formation and style of play for next season. Also, he needs to pack in playing those who are going and get on with integrating those who are staying. They're not going to improve without playing and those getting on the pitch aren't justifying it. Then, maybe we'll actually start moving forward
exactly All roads lead to ENIC no ambition no football savvy Example: Sell a RB at the height of his powers for 50 mill. Replace with misfit at PSG who they can’t wait to get rid of for less than half that. Misfit delivers Jekyl and Hyde performances week in week out, let’s blame the misfit for Spurs’s problems. Yet, we can’t buy unless we sell to generate the money(ok, fine)...yet when we do we still bargain hunt. The same apologists should be big enough to question Levy but they won’t...let’s now blame the manager...he can’t work with the squad Levy apologists strike again rinse repeat cycles galore number crunching world champions
I'm not claiming any great knowledge of managers in foreign leagues, outside the obvious candidates. However, not many managers in the PL or Championship excite me. Nagelsmann would be a proper fit with the club. He's a manager who has been working predominantly with young players and his team bullied us last week. They played within what's currently acceptable in terms of tactical fouling and get the ball from back to front quickly.They play football that looks competitive and not years beyond its sell by date. Additionally, Levy tends to store up prospective signings for possible later use (including Mourinho...a decade too late). We were said to have been interested in Bergwijn and Gedson in the summer, they were judged to be lesser options than Sessegnon and Lo Celso/Ndombele. A few months later, they were promoted up the list We'll have scouted Nagelsmann but deemed him to be behind Levy's fan boy thrill at working with Mourinho. Whether he's potentially available when Levy admits the inevitable, is another matter.
i.) The fact you describe £23m as "bargain basement" is laughable given that's £1m less than Chelsea paid for Alonso ii.) It wasn't Levy
Alternatively... Sell a RB who was clearly tapped up and started acting like a tart for the maximum you could get for him, and sign a replacement who was highly sought-after at the time as Arsenal and Man Utd had both been strongly linked with Aurier before we signed him while also having an extra £20m+ to spend elsewhere If you think that's bad business, stay the hell away from my tax return
It was totally levy. It has levys hallmarks all over it and he thought he was getting a great deal at 23m after selling walker for 50m
One is a championship winning defender. The other one is a donkey. What next, sell harry (kane not winks) for 100m and buy back adebayor on a free. You have made 100m and thats a great bit of business
They're both championship-winning defenders... As for the rest of your comment, I'll counter with this: Wenger's strategy was based on unearthing gems who he signed for chicken feed and molded into first teamers, so by the time Barca or Los Ladrones started sniffing around (which they did for Fabregas and Vieira) the club would not only have enough to sign a player who was a little further on in their development or even ready for first team football already, but also have enough to sign two or three other first teamers That's exactly the situation with Walker and Aurier: we signed a prospect for peanuts, sold them at a premium (even after he'd been acting like a twat for the final third of the season) and brought in a direct replacement while having plenty of money to sign another player or two. That's how business works to 99% of all football clubs, and if you think that's basis for mockery that says everything about the mentality the other 1% have instilled in their respective fanbases that has unfortunately started to bleed into the other 99%
Worst thing about signing Aurier was that he was more expensive than Ricardo who we scouted for a lot longer. Leicester have ironically signed about 4 or 5 players in the last few years who we’d scouted quite extensively. Maguire when he was at Sheff Utd and Hull. Ricardo when he was at Nice on loan from Porto. Soyuncu when he was at Freiburg. Tielemans when he was Anderlecht and Monaco. Maddison when he was Coventry and Norwich. Our scouting network is really, really good yet the decision making by manager/ chairman etc with regards to signing/ not signing players in recent years has been debatable to say the least.
I would agree. Thats the best way to building a club. Sell at the max and buy when its low. Unfortunately auriers a donkey so in this instance it is bad business. The extra 25m you have to spend is actually going to be needed to replace aurier cause hes so bad
Ultimately the issue with Aurier can be summed up in just two words: **** happens Fans of every club can point to an entire squad's worth of players who looked like they'd be the business but ultimately weren't, for example we can point to the likes of Aurier and Paulinho, Arsenal can point to Jeffers and Senderos, Liverpool can point to Carroll and Aquilani, and so on On paper he looked like the exact player we needed to replace Walker, as he had the pace and attacking instincts that Poch wanted in his system plus he had crossing ability so his runs would have an end product - but we overlooked the fact he leaves a gaping hole at right back. This isn't necessarily a problem, however, provided that he has somebody in front of him willing to fill the gap like Aaron Lennon or Erik Lamela would do when Walker was playing - but the issue is that Lucas doesn't fill the gap, and more often than not Sissoko would drift out wide to plug that gap, which means that we're guaranteed to have a gap somewhere on the pitch when Aurier gets forward either because Lucas isn't covering the right flank or Sissoko covering the right flank has left a hole in central midfield So while I would happily bin off Aurier this summer, and we're likely to break even on the transfer fee due to his regular minutes, I have been saying for months our entire right flank needs replacing as Lucas is making the problems Aurier creates even worse while Lamela can lessen the issues but can only play half a season at most This would lead to the key issue, though: our fanbase is a demanding, reactionary bunch as noted by them being up in arms when we transfer listed Danny Rose last summer or howling when Eriksen and vertonghen were benched at the start of the season, so if we sold Lucas and replaced him with someone more adept at being a team player, unless we signed Lionel Messi the fanbase would erupt in indignation the second the tweet announcing Lucas had been sold
You're acting like we had any choice in selling Walker. He'd already been tapped up by City, so what else could we do?
Hbic was saying aurier wasnt levys buy. I just disagreed with it. As for walker maybe he could have forced him to stay. I dont know whether selling him is the right or wrong answer (tbf trips was good after). 50m was a heck of an amount for walker
Aurier hasn't worked out, but it's the sort of signing that people wanted Levy to make. He was direct competition for Trippier and looked decent at PSG. He can't actually defend, though. We should have done what we've actually been successful with and brought in a youngster to eventually takeover from Trippier. Pochettino was happy with the player that we had, apparently. Now we've got to replace our first-choice and bring in suitable back-up/competition.
