All the talk on here is that we need to find 2 world class forwards to hopefully progree in CL, League and cups next season..... without CL qualification this, again, will be very difficult to achieve. The sale of Bale would provide us with plenty of cash to invest, or, a player swap with Higuan has been muted. To get to the level we need to be at, we cannot sell Bale, for too long we have been a selling club. Getting AVB i beleive signals an intent to grow a squad capable of progression......so, Do we spend big on a striker, offload Ade... who, when playing well i love to bits, but he doen't prodcue it enough. Damiao would be the choice i believe.... Kane is upcoming, Defoe is bleed Tottenham so we have a plan B and decent quick forward.... this leads me to Coulibaly, the next Drogba?????..... i don't follow the younger teams or the reserve teams and have lost track of this WONDERKID..... does/has he been cutting it this season, i know he scored a few in the youth euro cup thingy, but does anyone have a report on his progress... when we took him under the noses of Chavski, City etc i thought we would be seeing him blooded in the minor cups by now????... COYS!!!!!!
Spurcat will no doubt fill in the details, but no, he's stalled this season, doesn't do a lot in a game other than pop up with a shot...remind you of anyone!? Its a very good reason why people should not get too excited by one good season, repeating it is a different thing altogether as it usually entails going up a level. Wonderkid is a daft term bandied about which does young players no good whatsoever, other than swell their heads!
Souleymane Coulibaly made the headlines with an extremely impressive display in the famous 7-1 thrashing of Inter Milan in last seasons NextGen tournament. It's not going over the top to say his performance that afternoon was awesome. Since then, it's been pretty much downhill, although there are geunine mitigating circumstances surrounding his time with us. He had the burden of serious doubts about his work permit which dragged on and on for months and he then suffered an injury which probably should have had surgery but the recommended lay off in the hope it would go away, undoubtedly hampered his progress, plus he was suffering with acute home sickness. As has been mentioned by Notso, he tends to remove himself from the overall pattern of play, drifting in and out of the game which doesn't endear him to the coaches. Then he'll suddenly burst into life from nowhere and belt one in from about 30 yards. To help the player, we arranged a loan move closer to his family but the reports coming back are not especially encouraging and there are real concerns he might be released. Whatever his mitigating circumstances, he still needs to show signs of progress and development and that has not happened this season. As is often the case, someone else has taken his place and at this moment in time is considered the better prospect of the two. This is Shaquile Coulthirst who has come on in leaps and bounds and has had a season of enormous progress.
Thanks Spurcat, although disappointing that Couli is not living up to his potential its encouraging to hear of another exciting talent. When i saw Coulthirsts name on the bench against the Swiss i looked at his details... who would you liken his game to??... i know this is not accurate but is he a target man (Kane type), pocket rocket (Defoe), Messi???? (Please say messi-esque)!!!
Coulthirst has been with the first team on a matchday for several weeks now, in addition to being named on the bench as he was at Anfield. This is because the management does like to give young players a taste of the PL matchday experience and have them involved in the pre-match warm up on the pitch. I don't mention that to suggest he is there to make up the numbers, but to highlight how impressed the coaches have been with him this season. He generally plays on the left of a front 3 and he has an excellent scoring record of 20 goals in less than 30 games. He is very quick and not frightened of taking defenders on. He is not brilliant in the air, but certainly competent enough at this stage of his development and he has good hold up play (something which Coulibaly definitely lacks). He is a livewire and looks to get involved all the time. He has come a long way this season, scoring well for the under 18's and then conntinuing at under 21 level. Inevitably the long season is beginning to show and he has looked off the pace a bit recently, so certainly one to keep an eye out for next seaso.
Speaking of Coulthirst, it was interesting to see how our midfield struggled to bring the ball forward for most of the United game so he increasingly looked to play on the shoulder and get in behind the defence. I don't see him often so it might be something he does regularly but I thought it showed some good initiative and he picked his moments quite well and I don't think he had many offsides against him, if any. Not a great game for him or any of them really but it was just something I quite liked in a poor game for us.
He is a good learner and thinks about his game. I did think he looked a bit weary the other night, but now you've mentioned the lack of drive from midfield, that was probably a contributary factor as well. The 'legs' of the side's midfield have been sent out on loan along with a lot of the creativity. I think the side still has enough to clinch that top spot but we are limping over the line as opposed to steaming through games like we were not so long ago.
He missed a couple of sitters in the U21s at Anfield, but his overall game was good and he didn't let his head drop. Got hooked off shortly afterwards, though! No pissing about at that level.
Thanks so much for the information, gentlemen. I hope Coulibaly gets back on track next season, but I'll now be very interested in seeing how Coulthirst progresses. I thought, do we have some cool names for young strikers, or what? First Souleymane Coulibaly, now Shaquile Coulthirst.
If you're into cool names, here's a few other Spurs youngsters - Victor Zapata-Caicerdo Roman Michael-Percil Channing Campbell-Young Laste Dombaxe Ruben Lameiras Zodel Brown Kane Vincent-Young
Cheers. Zodel has a ring to it, but I still like Shaquile Coulthirst. Don't know if I'd want to go through life answering to Laste Dombaxe, though.
