Summer Transfers

Has looked good for Soton and he had a great partnership with Jan at Ajax. Would give another reason for Soton to hate us though and no doubt see our friend sa1nts return for a word or two.

I'm all for it

 

We've been linked with Alderweireld since AVB was in charge, so doesn't that mean Southampton are stealing out targets?

 

Yes, Alderweireld is just keeping irons in the fire. The player I want is Schneiderlin, not that he’s likely to come. Did you know Wanyama and Schneiderlin are two of the top seven in the PL in fouls? That’s one way of preventing goals--though it doesn’t seem to work for Mason, who’s number 13.

 

Southampton aren't the most attacking side for the most part, they put 12 past Sunderland and Newcastle at the start of the season and still have far less goals than the sides around them. I'd be wary of signing their defenders based on their form this season, they get a lot more protection from midfield and sit back and soak up pressure, we need someone who will press, play offsides and can play football. Maybe he can do that, I don't know but I wouldn't be getting carried away with how he's done at Southampton this season.

 

We started early this year...

 

Could genuinely see Liverpool or Spurs going for Alderweireld. Been linked to both (like most players) for a long time.

Am I right in expecting a summer of change at Spurs? Adebayor, Soldado, Capoue, Vertonghen, Lamela, Paulinho, Chiriches all possible outs?

Would take the last five at Liverpool like..

Already feel physically tired by the upcoming summer of 'Kane to City/Chelsea' rumours.

 

We never seem to move players on at the rate we should. Vertonghen seems to be on solid ground still, despite a dip in form lately. Lamela, Paulinho and Soldado are useful players for us. It would also be embarrassing to various people to sell them, since no one will give us close to what we paid for them. I really like Chiriches, though I don't seem to have any company. The occasional absolutely epic error he makes on and off the pitch obscures the fact that he's an excellent tackler, faster than you think, dangerous going forward and a lot of fun in general. He has the sense to celebrate the deepest snowdrifts by falling down drunk. There is no reason whatsoever that Adebayor and Capoue shouldn't move, which means, like Bentley, they're going absolutely nowhere.

I'm not ready to give up on Lamela yet. Paulinho is at least a decent forward, even if he's crap in a deeper role. 60 million profit last year plus a new stadium to pay for plus emerging academy talent clearly indicate our emphasis will be on developing home grown players. Men in Blazers have been saying for months "Real Madrid's Harry Kane scores another for Tottenham!" I wonder if he actually wants to move somewhere he's likely to displace our last export as Spain's public enemy number one.

 

Dembele,could be the first to go,he saying he has to think about what to do ,as he is unhappy about losing he place in the starting line up

 

Paulinho - Had his moments when he first arrived and if our fans can find their memory, they may well remember Paulinho looked to be a class act, who would show lots of energy, put himself in great attacking positions but like Soldado would fail to convert.

Although there was this game where he scored an important goal
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/24098608

At one point I did see potential with Paulinho linking up with Soldado and they appeared to work well together and out of all the dud signings, he is the one player who may deserve more time.

We have spent 90 million on Soldado, Lamela, Paulinho & Dembele while a further 16.5 million on Fazio and Chiricheș.

Looking back it was embarrassing when our fans believed we where building for the title with the people "ITK" claiming Joe Lewis viewed this as an opportunity to finally challenge for the league title....with AVB!

Anyway, I expect us to sign more duds this summer but one positive is that we have Ian Broomfield back at the club, this means we should find at least one key signing and I would trust his judgement over Baldini.

 

Chiriches might be a good shout for backup to Can, actually, very good on the ball and likes to get in quickly. As prone to errors as Lovren too so shall we say £20mill then?

Can't see Vertonghen going anywhere unless he forces it and I doubt Lamela would get any big offers so there's no point us selling him either. I'd add either Stambouli or Dembele to that list but I'd be shocked if we managed to move them all on. Capoue and Adebayor are the ones we really need rid of though, get them out and a couple of the others and it's a good window regardless of what else happens!

 

Saw somewhere that we are still interested in Llorente!
Damiao anyone

 

Made the mistake of listening to jason cundy on talk sport last night for 10 minutes while washing up.
He is doing man utd tapping up of harry kane ... like jamie redknapp used to do for them with berbatov.
Most (not all) football pundits and journalists can not bare spurs having decent players...they simply tap them up so the player demands to leave (like carrick, berbatov, keane, modric, bale) and then claim we are a selling club.
It is going to be a long summer of kane to...united, city, chelsea, real madrid and spurs are a selling club with no ambition articles imo

 

Anyone else think Carrolls' future will be decided by the U21 Euros ??
If he has a stormer, IMHO Pochettino will have no grounds to get rid.

Or do people think his fate has already been written ??

 

Carroll will feel a tad unlucky as when he was impressing as a sub, AVB wasn't brave enough to give him a chance while allowing other players to do nothing for 90 minutes. Then when Sherwood was manager he was on loan and we couldn't get him back. Now with Kane in the team (a player Carroll understands) he is out at Swansea. Luck hasn't followed him so far but I feel seeing his mates make a mark will give Carroll optimism about his own future, if he can have a a great euro u21 - I mentioned this the other day in a discussion with huddlefro, who is another rare believer that Tommy Carroll can make it.

Hopefully YV will refrain from offering his negative opinion!

 

I can only see one area where we really need to do anything and that is to replace Adebayor.

Lloris, Vorm and a youngster is perfectly fine for the GK
Yedlin, Walker, Davies and Rose fine for full back
Vertonghen, Fazio, Dier, Chiriches and Kaboul is OK for centre-back - can afford to lose one especially if one of the youth team is coming through.
Stambouli, Capoue, Carroll, Bentaleb, Mason is fine for Central midfield
Dembele, Paulinho, Eriksen, Holtby,Townsend, Chadli, Lamela, Pritchard is fine for attacking midfield - could afford to offload a couple
Kane and Soldado fine for the attack.
Of course if we spend £20m on any single player they are likely to be 'better' than the one they are replacing but it is very hard to be sure especially given the young age profile we have.

 

we need to lose Kaboul,Fazio and possibly Chiriches,imo,Kaboul's injury has caught up with him,and Fazio is an accident waiting to happen either getting sent off,or us conceding,through his mistake,Chircihes is a good standby of a full back though

 

That's the problem, there's a lot of "fine" in the squad, when we need to improve the quality in several areas.

Central defence has a few issues: Dier is still developing so shouldn't be a regular first-choice player at this time, Vertonghen is maddeningly inconsistent, Fazio and Chiriches are both players capable of making catastrophic errors in games, while Kaboul is leaving this summer one way or the other - and none of them seem capable of organising the back line.

Central midfield also has issues: Mason has little positional sense so is often out of position at critical times, Capoue is lacking the workrate and often strolls around the pitch (and is likely leaving), Carroll is Schrodinger's Deep lying Midfielder at this point in his Spurs career, Stambouli seems to fade after 60 minutes so is a lot less influential in the latter stages of games, Dembele is too conservative with his distribution while Paulinho simply doesn't work as a central midfielder - and a lot of our defensive frailties this season can be put to the lack of better shielding from midfield.

We clearly need players who can dictate a game better than the ones we have, the issue is they'll cost a lot. For example, Morgan Schneiderlin would be the perfect player to partner Bentaleb in central midfield and fix the problems we have, but he's going to cost upwards of £20m and several other PL clubs are also interested. Of the other midfielders we've been linked to Marcelo Brozovic would've worked as he's a similar player to Schneiderlin but he joined Inter on an 18-month loan in January, while Ignacio Camacho seems to be a Sandro replacement/Stambouli upgrade, in other words a player we should've signed last summer.

 

I'm happy the players we have will improve a lot as they mature and I think it is very difficult to be sure that any affordable new signing will actually turn out better

 

It's been made all too clear to us lately how tricky it is to improve a squad with big money signings. The numbers spell one thing, which is a continued emphasis on young players: our own first, and others second. It makes sense to sign a Yedlin for relatively little, or an 18 year old for less. Most won't work out, but they'll probably end up costing little or nothing. The ones who do work out will have been groomed for years to fit into the team. A player at his peak has got to slot right into the team or be a bust, as a general rule. Add in a new stadium to pay for, not to mention a reported 60 million profit last year, the youngest team in the PL this year, and chances are good we won't be signing many mid-career players. Carroll and Pritchard will push for places next year. I would like us to spend for one player, Schneiderlin or someone else who can fix our defensive problems, either by being a very savvy DM or, perhaps, by being a captain type.

 

Some players likely will improve, some can improve - but there's some that won't.

Take Capoue as the perfect example: for the first few games he was half of a formidable central midfield pairing, then after half a dozen games he couldn't influence a toddler to hand over their lollipop. The issue is that I'm not just describing this season - I'm describing him for both seasons he's been with us, so he's not going to improve if his attitude is based on being a useful player for a handful of games in August/September, then being a passenger for October-May, which based on his strolling around the pitch when the other nine players are pressing for the ball is a fair assessment of his contributions to the team.

Townsend's another: he's already reached his ceiling, and his ceiling is a lot lower than what we'd hoped - and when you consider his wasteful shooting when other players have been in better positions hasn't been coached out of him by AVB, Sherwood, Poch or the England coaches, he's clearly not going to stop doing it.