A level headed fan

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Yid Vicious said:
My point was that we're not the only club in the top 4 with 2 strikers. Of course we wanted a new striker and it's disappointing we missed out but this isn't some ridiculous position we've put ourselves in that no other top club would ever do, like you were claiming. Personally I think we should've gone for the cheap quick fix, like we did with Dempsey but I can understand why they were not keen to do that and instead go for the long term target.

The situation isn't as bad as some people are making it out to be though, we've survived the majority of the season with those 2 strikers and Ade being missing for awhile and if it was that bad of a situation then we wouldn't be 4th. For me the main thing to get sorted this window was backup for Dembele because without him we were **** so with bringing Holtby in I'm hopeful that has been solved becuase relying heavily on a player is a sure way to make sure they are overplayed and start picking up injuries and losing form. My worry is that someone out of Holtby, Dempsey and Sigurdsson may be seen as backup for left wing, as AVB has let Falque and Townsend leave but I don't want to see Lewis become a utility man and I don't want to see Dempsey or Sig out there as they're no good on the left wing.
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Last thing I'll say about the Chelsea comparison is that, to be fair, I said, above "...any other top team being happy with two strikers". I'd be surprised how happy the fans and staff at Chelsea are with having only two strikers for the first time in what must be decades. Though I suppose if Chelsea want a player they can normally get them - so maybe Abramovich/Benitez is happy with the situation (bearing in mind how massively more productive their midfield is over ours when it comes to goalscoring). Anyway - it's a freak and doesn't really undermine the main point that top teams will almost always have more than two strikers. If we went back over the squads of Man Utd/Arsenal/Chelsea/Liverpool/City/any team that's done well any particular season over the course of the last ten years I bet you'd find it hard to find too many other times that it's happened.

Not to mention that one of our strikers is now only available to us again due to the sheer good fortune of events in South Africa!

I too would have gone for a Saha-esque signing. Not sure who. Ask a Newcastle scout.

I think that Spurs have been lucky to get where they are and are there despite, rather than because, of the striker situation. We have not been too convincing for most games. We have clearly lacked a cutting edge and Bale once again had to provide us with something special to make the difference today. When I said that Lennon gets about 3 or 4 goals a season those numbers came off the top of my head but actually turn out to be exactly accurate. Season totals since he came:

2
5
3
5
3
3
4
3 (so far)

Well now we've been lucky that Ade's gonna get back. Just like we have been lucky that Defoe had a hot streak at the start of the season. And we were lucky that some blood-spinning allayed the worst of Defoe's earlier injury. And we have now been lucky that Ade is back just as Defoe gets injured.

And I'm all for us continuing to be a bit lucky. Reckon we must have earned some at some point over the last couple of seasons.
 
humanbeingincroydon said:
Not necessarily - in the case of Leandro, negotiations weren't didn't involve three parties (Spurs, Internacional, Leandro) but also several third parties who also own a stake in him that want to make a fast buck from their asset.
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Are the third party(ies) different this time around compared to all the other times we've bid?
 
Of course,we are all on about strikers but doesn't our defence need a vote of confidence for their efforts? They've been pretty good.......
 
humanbeingincroydon said:
Yes, there's several of them.
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Oh grief. So something that was complicated and expensive is now complicated and expensive in a different way? And Levy's previous experience of it being long and complicated and expensive is enough to convince him that a last-minute bid in a newly different complex, expensive situation will get something done?

Tell you what - Leandro must be absolutely head and shoulders above all the strikers such as Ba, Cisse, Sturridge, Michu etc who have gone for reasonable fees in the last year or so.

I think I would actually feel a bit pissed off towards Damiao if he came to WHL now, the amount of fruitless sodding about that's gone on in his name. Oh - are Internacional saying that they'll look at the situation again at the next window? ****ing great.
 
lennypops said:
Oh - I'm not being that skeptical - I believe everything that AVB said. Point is that putting in a deadline day offer or two way below the selling club's valuation on a player that they have refused to sell cheap for the last four or five windows is not really trying, is it?

Spurs have no excuse for not knowing how Inter value Damiao or what they believe an acceptable offer would be. This pantomime of "trying" to sign him every window for about the past two and a half years is depressing and stupid.
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If we think he is worth £15m then offering £15m for him every window is a perfectly reasonable strategy. Or should our policy always be to buy players for more than we think they are worth.

And before someone mentions it - our valuation ought to include the increased chance of CL qualification, the extra cover for injuries etc.

You can say we've got the valuation wrong but that doesn't make our window tactics wrong.
 
The RDBD said:
"Comolli spent our money like confetti, its the one thing i understand from Levy's side of things,
but being the polar opposite isn't helping either."

What Internacional wanted up front was too much for what the club has in the
kitty, and for the inherent risk in Damiao actually being rubbish in the PL.

There could/should have been other targets, but as been said often enough, the current
Spurs scouting network is effectively non-existent.
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Thats right aswell, but still makes no difference to the fact they wanted over 20m in total. He has multiple owners who all want a decent slice, but i assume you knew that aswell. For that reason he won't ever be that cheap imo, he'll always be on a long contract with an inflated buy out figure. Thats greedy Sth. Americans for you!
 
notsosmartspur said:
Thats right aswell, but still makes no difference to the fact they wanted over 20m in total. He has multiple owners who all want a decent slice, but i assume you knew that aswell. For that reason he won't ever be that cheap imo, he'll always be on a long contract with an inflated buy out figure. Thats greedy Sth. Americans for you!
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Levy isn't an idiot, so it makes you wonder why he keeps going back, attempting to do a deal that we can't (or won't) afford, is this Damiao that good?
 
PowerSpurs said:
If we think he is worth £15m then offering £15m for him every window is a perfectly reasonable strategy. Or should our policy always be to buy players for more than we think they are worth.

And before someone mentions it - our valuation ought to include the increased chance of CL qualification, the extra cover for injuries etc.

You can say we've got the valuation wrong but that doesn't make our window tactics wrong.
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Do you want to buy a striker? Now I didn't ask "Do you want to get a bargain?" or "Do you want to buy your perfect striker at your perfect price?".

Because if you really think that the squad needs another striker then going back for the fifth/sixth/seventh time to a club to offer the same amount that was rejected the last several times (if, indeed, that's what happened - you'd have to imagine that the bid has been increased) is basically insane. Cos guess what? They will probably reject you just like they did the last few times.

I mean - if you want to give it a cheeky punt then fine. But as your plan for the transfer window deadline day?! There are plenty of players that have been bought and sold that would have improved Spurs' striking options in the last year or so. I'm not saying we should spend massive money or pay more than we think a player is worth. I'm certainly not saying that we got our valuation of Damiao wrong. But whatever our valuation is, Inter will not sell for that, which is all that matters.

I'm just holding the fairly uncontroversial opinion that two strikers, one of whom is away on international duty for possibly the next two/three weeks is very weird and extremely risky. Why make yet another half-hearted attempt to sign a player whose club and owners keep saying no when we really need a striker? Even a Saha/Gudjohnsson signing would have been very worthwhile.

Getting into the CL ahead of Arsenal/Liverpool/Chelsea is such a massive achievement. And this window we have done very little to help ourselves get a foothold on a long-standing and solid advantage, year after year, on the Gooners etc. Cos that 20-30m that we'll get is 20-30m that those other teams will not get. Year after year after year.
 
Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. - Albert Einstein

I don't think that we needed a marquee signing up front. We've got two strikers fighting for one position.
We needed to bring in someone that would be suitable emergency cover, whether that was by buying potential or bringing in a stopgap.
It's still not too late to get that second option, but our choices are very limited now.
 
PleaseNotPoll said:
Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. - Albert Einstein

I don't think that we needed a marquee signing up front. We've got two strikers fighting for one position.
We needed to bring in someone that would be suitable emergency cover, whether that was by buying potential or bringing in a stopgap.
It's still not too late to get that second option, but our choices are very limited now.
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We've got Kane back as emergency cover. As long as we don't end up with both Ade and Defoe out for long periods we should be fine.
 
PleaseNotPoll said:
Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. - Albert Einstein

I don't think that we needed a marquee signing up front. We've got two strikers fighting for one position.
We needed to bring in someone that would be suitable emergency cover, whether that was by buying potential or bringing in a stopgap.
It's still not too late to get that second option, but our choices are very limited now.
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is there a website that tells us who's a free agent and available?
 
My only problem with Levy is that I don't think he seems to want back AVB enough in the markets financially. Maybe that's down to money that's been spent on the training centre and trying to save as much as we can on the stadium, but even still, there seems to be some hesitancy when getting players in for Andre.

Over the years, (going from memory so no doubt I'll forget people or may have got 1 or 2 wrong) these managers have had substantial backing with players (albeit some were Commoli signings).

Jol - Tainio, Davids, Stalteri, Ekotto, Jenas, Berbatov, Zokora, Kaboul, Chimbonda, Young pyo, Lennon, Huddlestone, Ghaly, Taarabt, Chimbonda, KPB, Mido, Malbranque and a little unknown lad, think his name's Bale?

Ramos - Gio, Bentley, Modric, Corluka, Pav, Woodgate, Hutton, Gunter, Gilberto, Gomes, Cesar.

Redknapp - Palacios, Defoe, Bassong, Keane, Chimbonda, Kaboul, Sandro, Khumalo, Parker, Krancjar, Peanut, Saha, Nelsen, Ade (loan), Walker, Naughton, Rafa, Friedel.

Prior to AVB signing - Adebayor, Vertonghen and Sigurdsson were all initial targets under Redknapp so hard to put them with either Harry or Andre in my opinion.

AVB - Dembele, Lloris, Dempsey (panic buy from Levy imo), Holtby.

All three managers prior to AVB had fantastic backing in my opinion and while AVB has been able to add some great quality, I still don't think he's had as much financial backing as what he could have, especially when you look at the figures we've spent on past players PLUS the fact that nearly everyone could see a striker was really needed.
 
If Adriano weren't such an unprofessional twat, I think every club in the world would try and snap him up.

Zaki too looked an inspired loan at the time for Wigan but then he decided to get too big for his boots, not show up for training/ be late and then just piss around.

Personally I'd have Saha back any day.
 
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