Pretty accurate if a little self-explanatory to Spurs fans. Interesting how the one player not discussed at all (position wasn't even mentioned) was Dembele. I'm going to get absolutely slaughtered for saying this so let me first state that I cannot rate him highly enough, BUT... I still sometimes feel that against teams who set up to pack the midfield and deny us space (a growing number of teams resort to this), he isn't the best player for the overall system. Winks for me is the future of this group. We often need a player who can release the ball quicker and more accurately. Dembele's strength is at the same time his weakness. He operates in exceptionally close quarters and is probably the best in the country at it. However, it isn't rocket science to say that dribbling 20 yards takes a lot longer than passing 20 yards. By the time Dembele has finished, we have either conceded possession in a key area (rare but costly - see the defeat at Stamford Bridge), or we are hammering on the oppositions door but they've all had time to get back home and pull up the drawbridge (more often). Winks has something of the Modric about him. That ability to receive possession in space and release it to another player in space. However, Modric only truly flourished with the afterburners of Bale and Lennon bombing into said space. Passing 20 yards is indeed much quicker, but it also requires your team mates to cover that ground quicker too - and beyond Son, our attackers simply don't have the pace to do it. Just floating an idea out there but as the big belgian gets older and the niggling injuries start to pile up, I feel we will come to see Winks as the better option. Let the slaughter begin.
This is a long-standing disagreement between us but I still see Tielemans as more of an Alli than a Winks. I haven't been too impressed by him when they deploy him deeper in the midfield, and think that he would simply be swamped out of the game if used there in the PL.
The question is how much is he going to cost? As Cat Stevens put it.....'Fee For The Tielemans'? I'll get my coat.
Last season's Premier League wage bill's have appeared and there are some interesting figures. Ours was £100m. Villa's was £93m. That £7m made quite a big difference, didn't it?
And the top 5 spend double what we do (we're 6th but very much in line with many below us). We should be able to afford more with CL qualification surely?
To be fair, Milner gets £140k per week to be a **** full back and Sturridge gets more just to be.........injured. Liverpool continue to pay wages on a par with the Money clubs and Arsenal, despite finishing outside the Top 4 for all but one season since 2010. I recall writing on the old 606 that Liverpool needed to reinvent themselves as Chelsea and Citeh had overtaken their status as a 'Big Club'. That Top 4 wasn't a 'gimme' any more and that they couldn't expect to buy the best players and needed to do more development. Seven years and four or five managers later, the problem persists. Their fans want to spend £50m on Van Dijk. They're paying Coutinho double what he's worth as he only turns up half the time. If The Gooners snatch 4th there's going to be hell to pay for another failure to land CL again.
1. If the wage bill rises by X million, then you need a minimum X million in revenue to cover it. When Spurs were in the CL in 2010 the wage bill ramped up seriously, and Levy fought hard to plateau it during years of EL. This is why I am hoping the Goons have a period of EL, because then Kroenkes' precious cash reserves will need to be used to fund some of their wage bill will on EL revenues. 2. What is stunning is that the total wage bill for last season is about 20m higher than in 2010-11.
Liverpool's wage bill should be similar to ours or lower, because their squad depth seems to be even more shallow. We haven't quite got enough in reserve to handle all of the competitions that we're in, in my opinion. Liverpool's backup looks even more anaemic in a variety of areas. Their first team is generally good, though they clearly could improve in one or two positions. That they've had to throw in a talented 17-year-old in Ben Woodburn says a lot about the rest.
Absolutely. I assume there was another 'ceiling increase' in light of our CL qualification. What that will mean next season with even more CL loolah is yet to be seen, although I doubt Levy will sanction two raises in consecutive seasons. As others have said, this gets to the heart of the contract talks with Toby. I've noticed that a lot of posters are calling for us to pay him whatever he wants but the fallacy in that is that the majority of our first team 'deserve' 2 or even 3 times the wages we are paying them and they could comfortably command elsewhere. Paying Toby 150k a week could set off a domino effect that could ruin decades of pragmatic financial management under ENIC - especially if next season is as underwhelming as many of us are predicting. As you and others have said, it is clear that the Big 5's approach to wages isn't reaping any dividends anyway so what benefit is there? I applaud City for turning round to Toure and telling him 'if you want to play for us next season, you'll have to take a 160k per week pay cut.' The fact that Arsenal are seriously considering giving Ozil a pay rise after the season he's just had is just a laughable summary of everything wrong with the club.
Good game in progress in the IPL. Mumbai Indians going well in pursuit of a massive 230. Lendl Simmons just hit two enormous sixes.
Just filled out an online job application for a mining job in Arizona. One of the drop-down boxes said: Are you hispanic or latino? The options were. 1 Yes I am hispanic or latino 2 No I am not hispanic or latino 3 Rather not say. Jesus, politically incorrect or what? Perhaps Donald Trump has bought Arizona. And where it needed a drop down box, it didn't have one. One had to fill it the 'reason for leaving' box manually!!!?? As the application was for a mining position, it would be easy to write a drop down box, it would go something like this: Why did you leave your previous job? 1 The boss was a cnut 2 I'm a beer monster 3 I got caught smoking weed 4 I got a local girl pregnant 5 I got involved in a fight. 6 I crashed a company vehicle 7 All of the above. Any other reason is obviously a lie.
