The thing is, how the hell can we expect the likes of Moddy, Bale and Walker to want to play for us if their manager cannot be arsed with us any more? That's Harry's biggest crime, as far as I am concerned. He has shown that he cannot give a toss about our club or us fans. Any respect that I might have had for for him as evaporated, and he's going to have to work pretty hard to get any of it back. But nothing he is saying gives me any hope that he is too bothered to try.
I honestly think he should have gone after Capello walked. It could hardly have been any worse,could it?
Capello might have appreciated some English players listening to what he wanted them to do, rather than turn around and say "Year, but what we want to do..." like he endured for the last four years.
I think that whoever comes in (hopefully Bilic), the transfer policy should be this: We will only buy two types of player: (1) Those for the future, to augment the Academy players (eg Coulibaly); and those that the manager TRUSTS to be an aactive part of the first team squad (ie, if named in the 25-man squad, the manager trusts him, AT ANY TIME, to play a role in the first team). Why? So that when March rolls by, the squad isn't made up of those players who are too knackered to chase a ball for 90 minutes and those who are not even trusted by the coaching staff to play at all, or hardly ever (eg dos Santos, Pavlyuchenko, Pienaar, Bentley, Niko, even Defoe...) If you're good enough to be bought, you ought to be trusted to play. At Man United, Giggs and Scholes play on - and on and on! If there's one thing Fergie knows how to do, it is to rotate his squad, so that come the business end of the season, they are all fresh and enthusiastic. There's no point in being touted as a good "man-manager" if, season-after-predictable-season, you can't manage your men!!! Come the end of the year, all players should be roughly equally knackered and in need of a nice rest. We've got half a squad ready for the knackers yard and the other half as fresh as daisies!
On paper, we have been adopting a system to augment the Academy and/or Reserve side in the last season or two, with Coulibaly, Uvini, Ceballos, Falque and Veljkovic all joining in the last year or so - the issue being we haven't been bringing in youngsters that won't be in the team come August/September, but can make the step up come March/April when we need a fresh set of legs and some enthusiasm...or, in the case of Townsend, they were loaned out when they could have come in useful. It does look likely that our squad will be overhauled in the summer, just on the face of it the following will likely happen based on reports of transfer targets and a little common sense: Goalkeepers Out: Gomes (hopefully Alnwick) In: One young keeper to feature sporadically in 2012-3 before becoming first choice, plus a long-term understudy Defence Out: Bassong, gallas, (probably Corluka, possibly King) In: Caulker, Vertonghen, Naughton, possibly Uvini/Julian Velazquez/Christian Ramirez (all three would be nice...) Midfield Out: Bentley, Jenas, Dos Santos, Pienaar In: Townsend, and presumably some cover Forwards Out: Adebayor (possibly Defoe, hopefully Obika) In: Remy, Leandro, SOMEBODY!!! That way we'll have a solid first team for the start of the season, plus players waiting in the wings to be introduced in the latter stages of the season. We thin out the players that expect/demand to play regular first-team footyball (and cut down the wage bill), but keep the right blend of players.
Your "outs" look more like a personal wishlist! In the event that: (a) Harry leaves and/or (b) We finish 5th (or worse), don't you consider the "outs" might include Walker, Modric and Bale? I'd feel a little cheated if Defoe were to be sold and Saha kept. Defoe is our leading scorer this year, despite being starved of decent opportunities, even when VDV was (is) going through the leanest spell of his career, here. While we are on the subject, let's all pray that the "Ins" include AT LEAST ONE PLAYER who is capable of profiting from attacking free kicks and corners. We have been nothing short of woeful in this area and it would be obvious, even to a blind nun in a brothel, that no thought or practice has ever been devoted to the art of the dead ball on the training field. Venables, as both a player and coach was extremely inventive in this area. Harry seems not to have placed any importance on it.
We have players that have shown capability at set-pieces before joining the club though, Sheikh. I can't help but feel that this is an area where our coaching has failed us. Defoe's main problem is that he can't lead the line as a lone striker. Whenever Adebayor's out, we simply don't have a working partnership up front.
If it were up to me, I'd keep Corluka and maybe Bassong - it's hard to argue for keeping the others around. The difference is we should take any offers for Bentley and Jenas (and the youth/reserve team dreck like Alnwick and Obika), but we could get some decent offers or part-exchange deals if we play out hand right with Dos Santos, Pienaar, Defoe or Gomes. The worst case scenario of a mass exodus is probably being overdone - if the talk both here and in Spain of Txiki Begiristain being brought in as a DoF is true, that's both a statement of intent to the players, and also opens the possibility of attracting a better coach than we could otherwise, with the knock-on effects of encouraging players to stay, and attracting some top quality ones who see what we are building. As for set pieces, as stated we have several players who were more than capable of taking free kicks and corners before we signed them, but lost the ability at Spurs Lodge. This can't solely be blamed on 'Arry, as Bentley's corners never cleared the first defender under Ramos either, but even though we've overhauled the coaching staff the problems remain.
I just don't know why every free kick has to be a direct shot at goal. Our success rate is pathetic. What happened to the inventive things like a little dink over (or around) the wall, to a player moving and getting behind the wall for a closer shot? So far as I can see, the greatest (and most selfish) offender has been Van der Vaart. Bale is not much better. I think the stat on corners is even worse. If the ESPN commentator was correct, when Ade headed in, the other week, it was after something like 123 UNSUCCESSFUL corners. That's just not good enough for a top team...it HAS to be done to the coaching (or lack of it). When our players are showing signs of a long, tiring season and the goals from open play are not flowing quite so freely, we need to be capable of relieving the pressure on open play by scoring from a higher percentage of set plays. It's not rocket science - but it's something we're not very good at, either.
Yet, Defoe remains, pound for pound, our best striker, this season. Granted, Adebayor has 11 invaluable assists to his name - but if we don't have a working partnership upfront, don't you think (just like corners and free kicks) it's something that the coaches should have been working on since the start of the season? Defoe did his part, spending last summer in the gym. I was never his greatest fan but have seen, clearly, the difference between last season's Defoe and this season's improved model. It was a little disheartening to hear Harry admit, in essence, that we can't play with two upfront, even at White Hart Lane. Again, this has been a problem, I believe, of sticking with the same personnel, game in and game out, instead of rotating the squad, during the season. I am hopeful that Bilic will be able to sort it out, next season.
Defoe has scored goals this season for sure and if he could both carry on at this rate and get them against the top teams, I would revise my opinion of him. But as PnP says, he doesn't have the all round game to play as a lone striker and he is nowhere near as good as VdV in the support role. I doubt he is in the top twenty PL strikers which is simply not good enough to start for a team with top four ambitions.
Some people (and, I suspect, you are amongst them) will NEVER change their opinions of Defoe. Actually, he is currently in the top TWELVE PL strikers. http://soccernet.espn.go.com/stats/scorers/_/league/eng.1/barclays-premier-league
No - he is in the top twelve goalscorers. He does little else. If he had twice as many goals that would make all the difference. He misses too often to be picked on goalscoring alone.
Also, I try not to come to fixed views on players but if we want to be top four we need to be better than at least three of City, Utd, Arsenal, Chelsea, Newcastle and Liverpool. Defoe wouldn't be first choice (or even third choice in most cases) for any of those, so why do people think he is good enough for us?
we need better player than Defoe . He would struggle to hold a first team place in most of our competitors. Not good enough for them and not good enough for us , if we want a regular top 4 spot.
Scoring the goal in a 2-1 defeat isn't covering himself in any great glory, is it! Wasn't that what we used to accused Bent of doing? It seems that some people form their opinions purely on bias and not on facts. One fact that I can never forget is that one where, for a solid period of approximately 18 months, Defoe was probably the most inept and useless striker across all divisions, any where in the world.
If a new manager comes in and we don't have CL, I doubt we'll be able to afford lots of new players, unless we sell Modric and/or Bale. A new manager will doubtless be lumbered with a few players he doesn't rate, it tends to be the case for most teams with large squads but relatively restricted budgets.
Up to and including the 3-1 win against Stevenage, Defoe had played a total of 1,827 minutes in all competitions, scoring 15 times and providing 8 assists (combined goals and assists of 23) at the rate of a goal or assist every 79 minutes. Over the same period, Adebayor (whom you all used to hate) had played for 2,259 minutes, scoring 12 and assisting 12, at the rate of a goal or assist every 94 minutes (ie less than one per game). Van der Vaart played for 1,835 minutes, scoring 9 times and providing 3 assists, at the rate of a goal or assist every 153 minutes. Whatever the arguments are concerning "leading the line", or playing as a second striker - what counts, at the end of the day, is how many times we put the ball into the net. As much as you may dislike the guy, he has done more with the minutes he has been given, than his counterparts. the exception is Louis Saha - but his contribution up until Stevenage was not really statistically relevant, having played for only 301 minutes. I've had more than the odd moment of frustration watching Defoe in the past - but even when we were considered a chance to win the title, in January, the only striker we managed to attract, was an aging and injury-prone Saha - so I don't think anyone should think it less than dignified to openly support Defoe (and all our players) at this crucial stage of the season.
