Part of the same story in a way. We've just got too many players who've never played together before so we've concentrated on getting the more expensive ones game time. I think we've got 13 outfield players who were not available for selection at the end of last season, either because they were not yet signed, injured or on loan.
I think its more that we'll never find out how good Kane is unless he gets some game time - if he might be a high quality striker then its worth taking some risk to find out. Similar with Carroll and Pritchard.
According to Bild (reported via this website of uncertain repute) Holtby could be on the way back to Schalke. He's definitely in Germany right now, nominally to see a film a friend of his is in or something. It could be journos making a mountain out of a molehill but it does seem a bit weird that we'd let a player jet off to Germany purely for a social engagement, unless he was a long term injury and it wasn't interfering with rehab, which to my knowledge Holtby is not. Twitter had gone wild with rage about this. I'd be pretty pissed off too. Link: http://www.101greatgoals.com/blog/b...holtby-is-leaving-spurs-to-return-to-schalke/
Here's what I have: 1. Holtby off in next week - Sherwood not a fan 2. Sherwood has his own ideas and is not concerned about ruffling feathers. Not the only player he does not rate and want's out, my concern is those he does. Several of last summers buys are unhappy, no prizes for guessing who they are. Carroll only comes back if we have the space, no forward currently --------------------- That's from 2 different ITKs - number 2 verified number 1's info as "top notch". Again - pinch of salt etc. Links in with The Hudd's info above my post though. Edit - just looked on twitter, media are reporting that Arsenal want Julian Draxler from Schalke and us selling Holtby back to Schalke will pave the way for that move to happen. If it does go like that then wow.
What I don't get, is why Sherwood would be calling the shots on holtby, when he might not even be our boss next season? But as we all know, Levy loves a profit. So course he's going.
There's a few mill profit in Holtby, Levy won't be letting them have him back for 1.5 thats for sure. He's been here a year, and we're all still talking about what his best position is!!, and what he brings....not enough goals or assists for the position he wants to occupy. One way ticket on Lufthansa from me for Lewis I'm afraid, we've got too many here already better than you in Midfield. If the Draxler/Goon deal does hinge on it, in effect, we're getting Arsenal to pay the LH profit, everyones a winner!
Or, like with the Bale deal, we weaken our own squad and in so doing allow Arsenal to strengthen theirs. Yippee.
My first thought as i read this was "Well just cos you and I have not seen much of him does not mean the training staff haven't - they must have watched him hundreds of times in games and still the conclusion seems to be that he's still not yet first team material". And then I'm reminded again that he's still only 20 years old. But having said that the fact that he's only 20 should, in a way, be all the more cause for not worrying about "blocking his progress". It's not like he's 23/24. In two years' time he'll still be only 22 (see how I did that?) and where will Ade be then? Where will Soldado be? Will they have remained injury-free and international tournament-free for that whole time? How many strikers has he already seen come and go? We surely need another option up front. Cos otherwise we are one injury away from either changing the formation and having (apparently) Lamela play just behind a striker or we have a youth player up top for a run of games.
If Holtby goes to Schalke and that results in the Goons getting Draxler then the powers that be at Spurs need their heads checking. There has to be some sort of transfer strategy thinking surely? What perplexes me is that Sherwood has said recently that he really values passion and work rate - surely Holtby has this in spades? Not to mention his ability and potential, which I believe is perhaps lesser than that of Eriksen but still not inconsiderable. Moorph mentioned summer transfers being unhappy, apparently Capoue might be wanted by Napoli. Ties in with what we've heard about Capoue and Holtby being particularly out of favour with Sherwood, after turning up late to training/the team coach or whatever it was. That appears to be more speculation though, whereas the Holtby stuff seems to have a little more weight behind it.
That's the key issue with Holtby. Where does he actually play? If it's behind the striker then Eriksen, Lamela and Chadli can play there. If it's a central midfield player then he's behind Dembele, Sandro and Paulinho. He doesn't really seem to have nailed down a spot and if the club feel they can cash in then the deal makes sense. Additionally reports of a €9m plus bonuses bid for Capoue from Napoli. Would not surprise me in the slightest.
Can't see Wenger signing Draxler, the goons are already crammed in midfield, reckon they'll save for a top striker in the summer.
Also remember next year Carroll will be the first name on the team sheet for central midfield so unfortunately that just adds to the traffic ahead of Holtby! There are players with much less natural talent then Holtby in the premier league that are performing, take Steve Sidwell, he is nowhere near the level of Holtby in terms of natural talent but hes a better performer and has 5 league goals this season. There will be many examples of players with less talent that perform, so in Holtby's case its becoming more clear he either isn't suited to us as a club/team or our league in general and that doesn't reflect on his ability as at times we have an arrogance of that if a player can't perform in the premier league we view them as not being that great! Holtby could well be a star in Italy where its slower paced or back home in Germany where he is used to the league. Just I can't see a future for him with us, and thats a shame as I had high hopes for Holtby!
I think we'll eventually regret selling Holtby, yet for the moment the player glut at some positions seems so bad it has to be addressed, and I guess Holtby, along with Gylfi, are obvious candidates for a move, with the difference being that Holtby can be sold at a profit. As it stands, we'd have Dembele, Paulinho, Bentaleb and Sandro in the middle, Lennon, Lamela and possibly Chadli and Townsend on the right, Eiriksen, Townsend and potentially Chadli and Lamela in the left, Soldado, Eiriksen, Lamela and Chadli to play behind Ade... ...and no real sub for Ade unless you count Kane. Of course there's no danger Ade will get hurt or flake out... ...but in any case, given who we have, it probably makes sense to either sell or loan Holtby and Gylfi. and probably Capoue as well. We have to get rid of 2-3 players, I would think, to keep too many unhappy players from crowding around.
We may regret selling Holtby but some players simply have to move so when that situation occurs it's a case of right player, wrong time. Remember Kevin Prince Boateng? Talented player, purchased fairly cheap, had personal issues but wasn't suited to us at the time. Afer he leaves the guy goes on to become a top player and moving for mega money! Looking back that was a mistake but only if he would have progressed at the same rate and that is up for debate. Same with Holtby if he leaves and goes onto to become a top player it doesn't mean he would have progressed at the same rate with us. Or as SOS will probably say '' he's **** anyway ''!
If a bit of a clearout is to happen, we might as well get rid of sig for the same reasons as holtby. We should be able to get £6m or so for both players. - Add that to the £6m for Defoe, and we've got £18m+ to spend/put towards a new striker. Sell Capoue too, and we've got enough money to buy another soldado.
I don't think I've ever said he's ****, have I? I honestly don't know But it's no secret I'm not his biggest fan on the footballing side, seems like a great bloke and top professional but I just think he's done nothing to really warrant a starting place in his time here bar the odd glimpse here and there, for a guy of his aspirations, being a squad player just isn't good enough for him and I can fully appreciate if he wants to move. Others have already moved ahead of him in the pecking order when he was struggling to break through prior to the new boys joining, Bentaleb's emergence hasn't helped him out either. Sometimes it just doesn't work out for players at certain clubs, like you said, KPB is a prime example. Dos Santos is having a great season with Villareal, Pienaar looks a completely different player to the guy we saw at WHL and I'm sure there'll be plenty more down the years of those who succeed elsewhere.
I reckon we can get more for Sig than £6m. We paid £8m I think and while he's always been in and out the side, he's a still a very good Prem player who I think many in this league - and others - would love to have and so I'm sure Levy would get our money back on him. Such a shame about Capoue though, I thought he looked great in his first few games and ok when he returned from injury. Looked like a great back up/ competitor for Sandro's DM slot. I hope Tim invests in a new striker now, after Defoe's announcement and watching Soldado over the weekend, I'm actually fearful that if Ade gets an injury (never thought I'd be saying that) we're ****ed up front. We'd have to rely on an underperforming striker with 1 goal from open play in the league and a guy who probably doesn't have a combined 90 mins worth of experience in the League under his belt. There's a couple of strikers I was reading up about over the weekend, one I know fairly well and one I'd never heard of: Graziano Pelle (the one I'd heard of and seen a few times) is smashing goals for fun in the Eredivisie, YES I know that there's been many hit and miss goal scorers in the past to come out of Holland but this guy's fairly experienced and has played in another league. He had an ok scoring record when he played in Italy and as I've said, his time in Holland has been a relative success. He's a big lad - 6ft 4 - and so would be the ideal competition/ back up for Ade in my opinion. He's been back in Holland for the past 18 months, being on loan last season and signing permanently with Feyenoord this season. Even though he's likely got a lot left on his contract I reckon there's a good chance we could land him for sub-£10m if he was interested. Other guy is Jonathan Soriano, now this is a complete wild card. The guy plays for Red Bull Salzburg and has a ridiculously good scoring record since he joined them. Prior to his Salzburg move he was at Barca B where again, had a very impressive goal record. He's 5ft 11 so while not a typical target man like Ade, he's still of decent stature and of the clips I've seen of him, does look a good, composed finisher and someone that would hopefully give Soldado a kick up the arse, he's Spanish too so perhaps it could help both him and Soldado to settle well. I'd say good chance we could nab him for £5m-£6m. He'd probably jump at the chance to join us. Sometimes the less pressure on a striker can be a benefit to the club and player, both those players would be coming to us without huge expectation as say the likes of Soldado did with his £26m price tag and so I'd like to think they'd be eager to impress rather than worrying to perform to their price tag. Even if we got a honeymoon period out of each striker, like we've seen with the likes of Michu, Cisse, Jelavic and others in the past, it'd serve us well for the remainder of the season.
I think it's a bad move selling Holtby, especially so cheap. I doubt Sigurdsson's going anywhere, he's a Sherwood signing and he's shown clear favouritism to his signings so far. If we're going for a stiker I really hope we try for Kiessling. Top scorer in the Bundesliga last season and he's scoring well again this season. He's very much like Negredo too in that he's tall, quick and strong which would stand him in good stead for the Premier League. Might be difficult to get him to come though, we're a bit of a mess at the moment.
I think that is just another example of randomness at work - all players have bad patches and good patches. Stopping signing players altogether and simply playing the current squad and giving them time to settle might easily be better plan than these continual changes. Our squad is quite young - if we signed one player a year for the next few years we'd probably be fine
