I completely agree. But I don’t believe it’s intentional by the club. We signed Kudus and tried to get MGW in the same week last month. The problem I believe, is that Spurs are perhaps looking at the same players that the other big clubs are looking at and the players would prefer to join those clubs, potentially due to the higher wages and/or more likely to aim to win the PL. We can’t compete these days in the transfer market despite the club’s lofty ambitions. Spurs really do need to start paying the salary to match their ambitions. Didn’t I see something the other day that shows figures for clubs paying over 100k per week? The figures were in the high teens for the usual suspects, including Villa and Newcastle. And now Son has departed, we apparently only pay 3 players over 100k per week. Surely that can’t be correct?
As I've said many times before, our self-imposed wage ceiling is killing us. We can afford to buy two £70m players every summer without selling anyone, but the wages we offer them will be half of what they can earn elsewhere. And yes, with Son's departure I'd estimate our wage bill has dropped from 8th to 9th highest in the league. We do seem to have just four players earning over £100k: Maddison, Romero, Kulu and Kudus. Palhinha is another but I'm reluctant to count loaned players. Levy talks about winning the CL and PL but pays like we're Uber Eats.
Thank you! 63 years young on Monday, and no football this weekend to ruin it.... Currently in very lovely Tenby with the wife...
I am amazed we have let the club trained quota go so low. If Scarlett goes on loan we only have Austin so our CL squad will be restricted to 22 players plus any U21s who have been with us for two years. We have 5 fit association trained players so one of Spence, Davies, Gray, Solanke and Johnson will use up one of the 17 unrestricted slots in the squad. I think that means at least two other squad members won't get in...Kinsky? Bissouma, Dragusin, Kulusevski? If we sign two of the players we are linked to then all four of the above probably miss out. The PL squad is OK because Bergvall, Odobert, Tel and Gray don't need a spot being U21.
It's only been a problem since Kane and Skipp left actually and we were not in Europe the first of those years so it wasn't relevant.
Spurs don’t do forward planning. It’s just stumble along and hope for the best for a long time now. The personnel changes but it’s the same way regardless.
I think we do forward planning but in this case we have the wrong plan. A policy to always have 4 club trained players over 21 would suffice. It would stop us selling Skipp and buying Bissouma.
It's a lack of planning that we have so few options for worthwhile club-trained players. Our academy seems to produce some promising youngsters and then it all goes sideways. Our loans are poorly chosen and there's no direct route into the first team. Who's supposed to fill any of those slots in the near future? Why did we miss out on an obvious, free solution to a fullback slot this summer? What is the club doing to fix it long-term?
If we had the policy I mentioned it would force the things you mention. You don't need a plan to take obvious decisions. A plan sometimes gets in the way of such decisions. If we sell club trained players we should retain an option to buy back. Surely the short term solution is to retain three U21s who qualify to be on list B rather than send them on loan.
Also has to be said our academy bottlenecks in other ways: the reason why Dexter Oliver joined the Mansourites is because Luca Williams-Barnett plays in the same position, and as LWB is the brighter prospect that meant Oliver's game time was limited in spite also being a good prospect Weirdly this just keeps happening: Oliver Skipp being the better prospect meant that Tashan Oakley-Boothe got squeezed out, and both Marcus Edwards and Samuel Shashoua being the better prospects squeezed out Noni Madueke
Loaning out youngsters successfully is better for them than rotting them in the reserves. Retaining them is probably worse for the long-term issues with the list. Who would you want to buy back from those who currently count as club-trained? Cirkin, Skipp, Winks and Walker-Peters are probably the most obvious candidates. We failed to bring back the last on that list this summer, despite him being free in a position we lack depth.
On the subject of loaning youngsters, I think I have found why Rangers are having trouble registering Mikey Moore... please log in to view this image
They need him to make an impact immediately. 2 games in and they could end the weekend 4 behind Celtic. Russell Martin under massive pressure already.
Yeah he's already realised the scale of the job on his hands and how much trouble he’s in. To neutrals it’s obvious how far behind Celtic they are but their fans won’t accept that so demand he will turn them into title winners
So our squad for Wednesday only includes 22 players as there are three club trained players spots not filled, as expected. I don't think Dane Scarlett has gone on loan yet so I assume he will take up one of the U21 spots. Interesting to see who the others might be. Has Matthew Craig left the club?
