From now on we can outspend everyone apart from the two Manchester teams. That should gradually lead to us having a better chance of success. If there are better forwards available than those we have we should try to buy them but I don't see any that are obviously better than what we have who don't already play for clubs we can't extract them from.
There are plenty out there, the problem is that they're all on long contracts apart from the two KH mentioned above. Plus Martinez at Inter who has 2 years left but would still cost an absolute fortune. Guirassy, Gimenez, Openda and Watkins are all worth exploring but each would break our transfer record. The one small advantage we will have is that Real have secured Mbappe, PSG seem to be rowing back on spending eye watering sums and of the five PL clubs who can match or beat our bids, only Arsenal are likely to be in the market for a new ST (although Chelsea remain unpredictable), which means we should be able to avoid a bidding war.
I wouldn't touch Toney....too much of a risk with his gambling habit. Vlahovic might be ok but we would have to have not signed two of Vicario, Van de Ven, Maddison and Johnson to have afforded him.
There is a massive difference between "can outspend" and "will outspend", especially where Levy is concerned.
We've spent every penny of our additional profits from the stadium over the last five years as far as I can see.
There’s plenty of better forwards out there and at clubs we can sign from. It’s just where in the forward line Ange chooses to strengthen. I’m starting to wonder if we need two wide forwards more so than a striker now because as far as finishing goes there aren’t many better than Son, his all round game will never be as good as Kane’s but not many will be, so if finishing is the prime aspect to focus on then Son’s one of the best in Europe at that and we probably won’t be able to sign a better finisher in fact. Give him a couple of top class wide forwards either side of him though and that forward line would be very formidable, because currently Werner is Werner and nowhere near good enough, Kulusevski is proving too inconsistent, Johnson is still raw, Gil is a goner and I’m wondering if we’ve all suffered the Mandela effect and Solomon never actually signed for Spurs.
We don't have much longer with Son as a reliable source of goals. The fact that he isn't at Kane's level means he will struggle to adapt and change his game to maintain his high output as his main weapons (pace and stamina) begin to fade. I'm confident he'll still be good enough next season but not much beyond that, which means we need to start looking for a long-term replacement. The bottom line is none of the teams we're trying to chase down would sign any of our attackers on long term contracts to join their first teams. That's the problem. I'll keep banging this drum.
Not Toney please...there seems something really unlikeable about the bloke...his treatment of Brentford fans has been awful IMHO.
There's certainly something missing in midfield, though the reason why is pretty obvious: three years of managers would prioritise signing a No6 over a No8 or a No10 The makeup of our midfield bears this out No6: Sarr (though he plays as an 8), Bissouma, Hojbjerg, Skipp No8: Bentancur, Bergvall* No10: Maddison, Lo Celso No2: Ndombele Weirdly this is the exact reverse of Poch, where we had a glut of No8s but never showed any intention of signing a No6, which is what lumbered us with the Winkssoko pivot for way too bloody long Redressing the balance in the summer, with Hojbjerg and Lo Celso leaving and we sign a starting No6 and cover for Maddison would go a long way
As poor as Werner did in that 1v1 situation, it has to be mentioned that Johnstone handled it to the textbook.
I thought that Werner actually played very well after that complete **** up. Maybe Son could help him with his finishing, because we all knew that he was going to score. Part of that's confidence, in my opinion, but Son's absolutely lethal in those situations.
I think you're too obsessed - and incorrect - with this idea that Son needs replacing soon. Other than last season where it did initially seem a concern but to which we now know was injury-related, where in his performances has he shown this perceived decline you keep mentioning? He's still got bursts of pace, as we saw with his finish yesterday, he's comfortably one of the best finishers in European football and he's only four goals off of the top scorer this season in the Prem. He's still absolute quality and I don't think we've only got a year left of that based on what we're seeing. Every team in the league would take a kick in the bollocks to sign Son, whilst he's that good, we need to stop worrying about his eventual replacement that in all likelihood isn't going to be as good and focus on giving him teammates that can compliment him in the front three, none so far are doing that.
We all know of Werner’s weakness as a striker but his one on one with the gk ended with the gk making a good save rather than Werner being poor. Werner played well yesterday other than this. I think Johnson has done very well coming on as a sub recently. Maybe he will come good soon. VDV was immense. I still have a man crush on him. Romero was a bit hit and miss yesterday but in the right place at the right time to knock the goal in. Kule is off the boil but if he’s nursing an injury, why are we playing him. Same with Sarr. If he has a bad back, should we be risking him as a sub? But what has happened to the exciting football we saw at the start of the season? The first half was very dull and inevitable. Opponents have worked us out. Great to get 3 points to keep us within sniffing distance of top 4. I think it’s April when we have a very tough run so ideally we need to stock up on points prior to then. Plenty of negatives along with positives so far. But we’re going in the right direction.
The game changed on two substitutions, in my opinion. Eze was their only threat and scored from their only shot on target. He went off, Bentancur was replaced with Johnson and we switched to a 4-3-3. There was suddenly more than one player getting involved outside of a small area near the box. I don't know why we've switched to a 4-2-3-1, but I wish we'd go back to how we started the season. The fullbacks move inside and our outside forwards are isolated with nobody to cross to. Son's never going to head the ball and none of our midfielders will, either. That severely limits our options and we end up passing into congestion and back out again all day.
One highlight from the first half. Says it all, really. Efan Ekoku should never be allowed near our games. Absolutely hates us and he's ****, too.
Yeah I don’t like him but I rate him. Tbh there’s plenty of Spurs players I don’t like anyway so what’s one more
He should be scoring that all day long. I’d go as far to say that he will miss more 1 on 1 than he will score which says it all.
Just remembered one more thing that I wanted to mention. Our set-pieces have gone to ****. Bring back Gianni Vio.
