The thing with Ndombele is he wasn't signed on potential, not for that fee: he was signed to be the centrepiece of our midfield Our track record when we splash the cash has always been littered with cautionary tales, because for every success story like Modric or Romero there's three or four or five or six examples where it's not worked such as Ndombele, David Bentley, Barren Dent, Helder Postiga, Robert Soldado, Sergei Rebrov, Dean Richards, Paulinho etc etc etc That's why the low cost/high potential approach worked so well for us, because if the player slotted in then everything was fine, while if they were a bust it wasn't such an issue as we'd likely recoup a decent chunk of the fee moving them on, but it was just as likely we could flip them for a small profit like we did with Benjamin Stambouli or even make a random massive profit like we did with Kevin Wimmer - which also meant that, if we did make a dud statement signing, we could eat some of the potential loss with other sales But moving away from that approach completely only serves to put more pressure on the big signings to perform, and if they don't...well, we're ****ed on the pitch in the immediate term and ****ed on the balance sheet at the end of the season
He was signed for both, because at 21/22 he was far from the finished product and was expected to become an excellent player in time, as well as immediately slotting into a midfield that had previously been occupied by Winks and Sissoko. The hope was that Pochettino would turn him into a Mousa Dembele capable of scoring and assisting. Now four years later at still only 26 he's on loan at Napoli playing a bit part role, whereas he *should* essentially be one of the best midfielders in Europe about now based on what we spent and expected. Low cost high potential is a great route to go down and one I have zero qualms with. High cost high potential is something we've been burnt far too heavily with and needs stopping, it's just too risky regardless of our previous failures with it. Then as for spending £60m on Richarlison, who is neither high potential nor high quality, is something only those involved with the deal at the club will ever understand, the Brazilian is basically our Maguire, just about everyone knew the player was nowhere near worth the money spent yet the club spent it anyway and here we are, about to enter April with a sulky individual who's yet to score a domestic goal for the club.
We don’t spend it…we blow it thats wasting not spending all because the very top of the tree is clueless
You think Levy chose Ndombele, Sanchez, Lo Celso, Sessegnon and Richarlison? Things go wrong WHEN Levy backs the manager which is one of the things I think has changed recently. None of those signings were any sort of bargain hunting of the type Levy gets criticism for. They were actually the sort of thing most fans think is the right way to run a football club...go after the manager's targets and spend whatever you need to get them. I hope Levy has learned the lesson that most managers are no better judges of who to sign than any of the rest of us...
You sound like a Government minister who always blames the NHS, Police, Railways or whoever (except the Armed Forces of course) for not spending money smarter. The trouble is, most organisations spend their money as smartly as they can and unless you can point to a particular systemic failure at Spurs which is fixable, there is no reason to expect either that we are worse than average at spending money or that there is any way of making us better.
Which does not imply that the spenders are smart enough for the task at hand ( "Peter principle" etc) .
Indeed, but to hire better people you usually need to spend more money so an allegation that money is being wasted usually means the budget is too constrained.
I can’t say what you sound like because I’ll get banned for being personal. You just keeping burying your head in the sand
Apparently Levy is currently in Asia working on a sponsorship deal. I think this pretty much summarises the issue.
OK apologies if that sounded personal. But what improvements do you think we need to spend the money better? If I said the players need to play better and the coach needs to coach better....is that constructive?
The thing with so many of the transfers where we've blown cash is that it doesn;t really fall on Levy Barren Dent was on Comolli not listening to Martin Jol's instructions (he said sign a striker if Mido and Jermain Defoe left, not just Mido), although Levy realistically should have had his hand over the killswitch for that one David Bentley was Ramos apparently forgetting that Aaron Lennon had been a fixture in our team for the previous three years Soldado was on Villas-Boas, as Baldini suggested Christian Benteke as the striker his system needed by AVB overruled him Paulinho was on Baldini Ndombele was on Poch, to the point we refused to sign a stopgap the previous summer Lo Celso was 50/50 on Poch, given the talk was Lo Celso or Bruno Fernandes (which, in retrospect, looked like we were replacing Dele in the summer of 2019) Richarlison is absolutely on Conte Although this does beg the question how our ceiling for transfers that won't go tits up is in the mid-tier fees (i.e. £10-15m a decade ago, around £20-30m in the current market) and whenever we stray above that limit things either go horribly wrong or, in the case of Lamela or Sissoko, take longer to work out than we would have hoped
I have worked with enough people who were paid the "market rate" but they were not very good (and therefore cost the clients money) .
Most investigations result in negligible fines, usually not for the clubs hiring somebody after the fact So naturally we hired the exception to the rule...
Picking unsuitable managers He's brilliant at it. BRILLIANT! Paul O'Keefe's comments about getting a bargain are spot on. From AVB to Mourinho and then Conte...and Aurier having to get out of PSG...Swansea having to raise money from Rodon...getting Bale back cheap when Mourinho didn't want him...the Grealish saga... ...the bloke's just a market trader at heart...grifting. Penny wise but pound foolish...and it isn't going to change. He'll be at it again with the coach appointment and turning up late in the window with players that the coach won't use...from a bloke he knows down the wine bar.
