Baldini to leave Spurs at end of transfer window

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/fo...t-ways-with-jury-out-on-his-time-at-club.html

Franco Baldini has agreed to leave his position as Tottenham Hotspur director of football at the end of the transfer window after overseeing a major overhaul of the club’s squad.

Opinion will be split over the job Baldini has done at Spurs, with the Italian often blamed for all of the club’s failed signings.

Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy views Baldini’s input differently, as the Italian was never solely responsible for identifying and signing new players. The club are on course to make a profit in each of Baldini’s three summers at the club, while remaining in the Europa League.

During Baldini’s first transfer window, Spurs sold Gareth Bale for a world-record £85 million, along with Steven Caulker, Tom Huddlestone and Clint Dempsey, and signed the so-called ‘magnificent seven’ of Erik Lamela, Roberto Soldado, Christian Eriksen, Paulinho, Nacer Chadli, Etienne Capoue and Vlad Chiriches.

Eriksen and Chadli can so far be counted as the only successes and Baldini has spent this summer selling Paulinho, Capoue and Chiriches, while also dealing with clubs interested in Soldado.

With Younes Kaboul and Benjamin Stambouli also heading out of the exit door, Baldini has earned Tottenham more than £25 million during the current transfer window and has dramatically cut the wage bill.

Soldado joined Tottenham in a deal worth £26 million on the recommendation of then manager Andre Villas-Boas, who was also determined to land Lamela for a club-record £30 million fee.

Baldini last summer convinced Levy to appoint Mauricio Pochettino as head coach and Tottenham signed Stambouli, Federico Fazio, Ben Davies, Eric Dier, and Michel Vorm.

Spurs, though, once again sold as many players as they signed and, despite all the upheaval, finished fifth in the Premier League table and reached the final of the Capital One Cup.

Baldini still has plenty of work to do before his exit, as he is solely responsible for player sales. Emmanuel Adebayor had second thoughts over a loan move to Aston Villa, but there is still room for negotiation, while Villarreal want to sign Soldado. Aaron Lennon is up for sale with a permanent move to Villa or Everton a possibility.

Despite concentrating on getting players out, Baldini is also still being asked to use his contacts to help Tottenham’s pursuit of their remaining targets. Pochettino wants at least one new forward and a central midfielder.

Spurs have held talks over Lyon’s Clinton Njie, Stuttgart’s Timo Werner and West Bromwich Albion’s Saido Berahino. In terms of midfielders, Borussia Dortmund’s Sven Bender, Bayer Leverkusen’s Christoph Kramer and Cologne’s Kevin Vogt have all been identified.

Once the latest overhaul is complete, Tottenham want to concentrate more on developing their own players, rather than buying and selling, which is why Levy and Baldini agree that the time will be right for him to leave in September.

Dele Alli is one of the young players signed under Baldini’s watch who Spurs hope will save them major moves into the transfer market in the future.

The 19-year-old midfielder has been one of the stand-out players during pre-season and produced an assured performance against Real Madrid in the Audi Cup in Munich.

Former Tottenham midfielder Luka Modric branded Alli a “little bugger” for embarrassing him with an outrageous nutmeg in the centre of the Allianz Arena pitch.

Alli is used to impressing on the big stage. He was part of the MK Dons side that thrashed Manchester United 4-0 in last season’s Capital One Cup and is hoping for the chance to face Louis van Gaal’s side once again in the Premier League opener at Old Trafford.

It may be that Alli has to settle for a place on the substitutes’ bench in Tottenham’s Saturday lunchtime trip to United, but the England Under-19 international is clearly not overawed by the big occasion.

“It would be a dream come true for me to play against United,” said Alli, who Spurs paid £5m for in January. “Obviously I played against them before for MK, when we won 4-0. That was a surreal night. Hopefully we can repeat that, but I think it might be tough.

“The MK Dons game was a bit surreal. It was a game we didn’t really expect to win, let alone win by that much. We showed the world what we could do that night.

“We had a good year as a team and that was one of the stand-out matches. It was a great platform for the club and me, and a few of the other players. We showed everybody what we could do. So you could say it helped me get noticed.

“Hopefully, I can get into the team for the Manchester United game, which feels a bit unreal saying that. I would like to play as much as I can and help the team as much as I can this season.”

 

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Yet another director of football bites the dust. Levy seems keen on having one but they never last long.

 

TBH, after the monumentally ****ed up buying spree the club went on two summers ago, I'm surprised he's lasted this long!

 

It just highlights the random nature of making the right signings in football. The player spotter is potentially the most important man at the club.
If he is any good.

 

What has Baldini been doing since Paul Mitchell joined?

 

Good question! Answers on a postcard?

 

He has been working as Adebayors personal trainer!

 

He found someone stupid enough to take Sandro. That has to be worth something.

 

Well, he's ****ed that up too then!

 

Can't believe what happened to Sandro, he was such a good player for us, until the injury.

 

Agree. I loved when he came on and the cries of beast would go round the stadium. My favourite recollection of him was scoring a great goal against Chelsea and then had Redknapp tearing him off a strip for being too far forward as he celebrated the goal.

 

Yes I remember that, how dare he score a goal

 

It's in the article. I'd imagine he's been touting around some of our poor buys for quite awhile.


I like this article as it actually clarifiies what Baldini did, as opposed to most journalists and pundits who lazily assumed Baldini bought all our flops and suggested he'd face Levy's wrath. Turns out he's been doing fine the whole time, Levy still thought highly enough of him to listen to his advice on managers last summer and his departure will be on good terms.

 

It's news that will surprise no-one - but if he does manage to dislodge that limpet from our wage bill on September 1st, he deserves all the good will in the world.

...unless he then joins Los Ladrones and helps them tap up a few more of our players. If that's what happens, I'm starting a Kickstarter to pay for Agent 47 to pay him and his employers a visit.

 

I'm not sure it clarifies it much at all. Still nobody has taken responsibilty for the poor signings and the money wasted. Possibly AVB 'persuaded' Baldini, but how do we know that?
It seems to me that his current job mainly consists of clearing up the mess that he was at least partially responsible for creating two years ago!

 

"the Italian was never solely responsible for identifying and signing new players" is the telling quote on signings. We'd signed players before that summer and as far as I'm aware no one on the non-playing staff had left that summer so I doubt Baldini just came in and took over all responsibilities in signing players.

We've always had deadwood that were mistake buys we struggled to get rid of. Transfers are gambles and when you gamble some pay off, some don't and you'll go through times when you make big successes and times when you make big mistakes. Baldini's helped us with moving the bad signings on quicker and often for decent money, regardless of his suspected involvement in 3/4 of those signings.

 

Are we the only club that has ever had a different person responsible for incoming and outgoing players?