My exact thoughts when seeing this news too. He is a bit more dynamic than Kulu in terms of beating the first man but he’s very one footed and I’d worry about him standing up to the physicality and pace of the PL. He’s better than Gil but might run into some of the same issues. I would rather we look elsewhere. Kulu is a conundrum this summer. I wonder if he might be a surprise casualty if we get a good offer. His versatility, covering attacking midfield and RW, is a plus point if you consider him a squad player, but I’m not convinced he 100% suits what Ange wants in either of those positions. He’s got a lot to improve on if he wants to stake a claim as a starter next season.
Think I would prefer Solanke to Toni but would much prefer Ollie Watkins. But no way are villa selling him
The reports are they’re asking for 15, but obviously we have the 35% sell-on clause that we would waive by buying him, which brings it to under 10. Like you say, sounds low though. I think Edwards is another one where if you buy him, you’d still want to see the club pursue a really elite winger. There are question marks on Edwards for me. IMO Johnson had a really promising, if sometimes frustrating, debut season at Spurs and I’d be worried about our quality on the right if our options were Johnson, Edwards and Kulu. Putting a heavy emphasis on Brennan stepping it up another gear if that’s the strategy.
I think it’s partly down to him losing his spot. Gyokeres’ phenomenal debut season seems to have pushed him out the XI. Clubs in Portugal probably aren’t in a position to be demanding £25m+ for someone that isn’t a starter anymore. With our percentage in any deal for him too it’s probably closer to a £13m-£15m fee that we then just subtract the difference from.
Purely player perspective I think Toney is leagues above Solanke but his attitude is probably something Ange wouldn’t want. He’s the calibre of striker I’d be happy with though but it’s whether Ange compromises or not. Solanke for me doesn’t represent an upgrade on Richarlison. I’d only take him as a Richarlison replacement whilst we still pursed a first choice ST. Watkins would be fantastic but as you’ve said, not happening. No chance he’ll leave CL Villa this summer unless it’s to another CL club.
Ally Gold says Skipp wants out. Not said whether permanently or temporarily but I’d imagine it’d lean towards the former in order to kick on at a club over x amount of years. Think most of us more or less expected that though to be honest. Skipp ain’t a kid anymore and a bit part role is of interest to no one.
Skipp should've been given some time in the holding midfield role. Nobody else nailed it down and we're extremely short of CG and HG players. You also know you're always getting 100% effort from him. I'll be sad to see him go.
He seems a good lad and hard worker, I just think he lacks the ability to play at the very top. I think he would be a good signing for a promoted side or a championship side chasing promotion.
As will I. I think there’s one or two others this season as well that can feel aggrieved at a lack of game time and it’s why I can’t blame him (and potentially them) for wanting out, played just 861 minutes, less than 10 full games. The CG/ HG issue is something we’ve (our managers) have brought upon themselves though so only got them to blame. It further explains the links to KWP and Edwards in recent times.
A club is always run in the image of its owners and a lack of respect for youth policy comes to no surprise when you consider the lack of respect we have shown for genuinely chasing silverware over the years going onto decades probably . So long as we scrape the top 4 lottery or thereabouts, THFC, one of ENICS many sports and entertainment ventures that take place at the Tottenham Hotspur stadium, will carry on operating as usual, nothing changing.
I do wonder if the obsession with top four played a part in neglecting youth but in Levy’s q&a with fans alongside Ange about 6 months ago he mentioned how one of the things they hired Ange for was to build a bridge from academy to first team, so not sure what to think now lol.
To try and claim the owners have shown no respect to the youth policy is revisionist history of the worst kind, considering that under ENIC's tenure we've seen youth products captain the side and become the club's all-time top scorer Realistically the issue blew up in the period between 2017-19 for a combination of factors, chiefly i.) Poch had a policy players were there to train and no play, meaning that youth players were stagnating in the academy while in comparison someone like Harry Redknapp would have lined up loans for players who had potential to kick on ii.) Replacing Poch with a succession of success-first managers, which had the obvious knock-on effect of prioritising finished products in our transfer plans over raw talent within or without iii.) Our approach to loans being closer to 1992 than 2022 for a long time, for example the reason the 2013-14 season saw Alex Pritchard, Ryan Mason, Massimo Luongo and Grant Hall head to Swindon on loan was less due to some bold strategy and more because Tim Sherwood had a mate there and called in a favour, which was already becoming an antiquated approach even then and looks almost quaint a decade later
Romano rehashing the Emerson x Milan news again, says Emerson wants the move - so do we! €20m valuation apparently.
And he was still unfortunate enough to get relegated. Probably for the best that he gets a move away from some of his friends.
