Tottenham in the Summer Transfer window - 2013 edition!

EDIT: double post!

Btw SOS, i thought you were staying clear of the transfer window thread this summer?! didn't last long, did it!

looks like I've got my partner in crime!

 

I think the main reason he hasn't played is while under Harry, we were USUALLY (I think, or I'm pretty sure anyway ) winning games by the time he came on, so Harry brought him on to shore things up. This season, we seem to be chasing a goal a lot of the time so Jake isn't the type of person you want bringing on, hence his limited time I reckon.

I'd love a top class creative mid (Modric & Rafa love child would be amazing ), someone like Erikson would be more than welcome but I don't think Levy will shell out for another CAM when we have Sig, Holtby, Dempsey plus Mousa and Carroll who can all play there.

I think we definitely need 1 striker, if we get top 4 then we'll need 2.

Townsend can add the wing cover/ competition IMO.

I think we also have to take into account, and although I think it's unlikely that AVB MAY not be here if Madrid and Mourinho part ways and do indeed chase AVB as his successor. He did say in an interview he's "focussing on next season with Spurs" etc but we'd be stupid to think someone would turn Real Madrid down if the opportunity arose.

 

Haha it just draws me in! Though I've unfollowed ALL ITK's on Twitter, sick of them getting my hopes up lol.

 

AVB will be here mate. He's just hinted in an interview that he'd like a contract extension, and apparently it's being looked at according to the ITK's. - Same for Bale supposedly.
Rumours are circulating that Ancelotti is taking over at RM.

I think you're probably right regarding the CAM role, but unfortunately there's not been enough goals from those players. (can't really count dempsey as that role as he's played wide also)
Not sure where the best fit for Holtby is at the moment. As i've said, I think it might be slightly deeper.

It hard to say, but i think we might have to be slightly ruthless this summer with 1 or 2 of those players, regardless of whether we make the CL.
It's all well and good having large numbers, but you've got to have quality to either get you into the CL and/or to be able to compete in it. For me, there's things missing from that group.

I still don't understand Sig's role in the side. His preferred position is being occupied by Bale which has left him playing on one of the wings, which isn't ideal for him, or our style of football. i think he's played well over recent months considering, but something inside me still says that it's a "make do" situation. We can't have that if we're genuinely serious about Top 4.
The same goes for Dempsey. He hasn't worked out centrally, so he now occupies a wider role and does ok. But he's not ideal either. Again, it's a "make do" situation.

Our squad and playing positions are messy and just... well... not quite right.
We have a winger playing as a striker (Bale)
An attacking midfielder playing as a left or right wing forward (Gylfi)
someone who was signed as a striker playing as a wider option (Dempsey)
another number 10 operating out on the left at times (Holtby)

As fans we seem to have become accustomed to thinking "ah well, that'll do", because we're forced to to think like this by the club we support. There's always some sort of dilemma. It all stems from the striker situation, but I'm no going into that again.

I think there's more work to be done in the transfer window this summer that we think.

Bale going central has worked well for him personally, but it's crippled other players and left us with no shape on so many occasions. The likes of Sig and Holtby haven't had a chance to shine in their natural position. It's not Bale's fault obviously; he wouldn't be in this position if we weren't so desperately short up front.

What I'm getting at, is that we need to get some balance.

Those midfielders you listed above lack goals, for one. If we say that TC isn't a realistic starter just yet, we also lack creativity. Also, with the exception of Dembele it's hardly the fastest group either.

This is hypothetical obviously (before anyone throws a tonne of bricks at me) But the sale of Gylfi and Dempsey would more or less fund Eriksen alone. It allows us to have options. Eriksen and Bale can both play central, Bale and Townsend can both play left. Therefore we can mix it up, without losing balance, but still have a player in the side who can create, and score goals. The lack of goals from out midfield is a big problem at the moment.

We've also had a lack of depth this season as i have said. With all the games next year as well, it's important that we've got competition for places. I honestly believe that Holtby could be the replacement for Parker, which again gives us some versatility and rotation with Sandro/Dembele/Holtby.

Then it's just a young up and coming player to give Lennon competition.

AVB likes to rotate, but this season the depth hasn't been there and nor has the quality. It's a massive factor in CL qualification, IMO.

 

I wouldn't remain 100% sure RE AVB to be fair mate, like I said the lure of Madrid is too much for most. As much as I personally love Spurs, if you're a neutral and you have the choice of joining Madrid or remaining at Spurs... What do you do?
I hope Ancelotti is the favourite and goes there but until then, I won't rule out the possibility of AVB potentially joining them.

I wouldn't be overly fussed if we were ruthless and got rid of Sig and/ or Holtby to be honest, especially if it mean making way for Eriksen. Both clearly have talent and have shown glimpses of form but neither have fitted in as expected. Holtby has more leniency as he only joined late Jan.
Holtby could well play CM like you say though and it'd give a good kick to Mousa as his form has dipped at times.

I think AVB "over-rotates" the squad. In each game he tends to make 1-2 changes sometimes more. For me that has a detriment on the side, especially when he switches the defence up so much. I don't mind switching things up in cups and if we've had a "3 games in a week" scenario in the league, otherwise our league side must remain as close as intact as possible IMO. While he's impressed me, I also feel AVB has cost us points this season with his rotation policy.

 

i'm with Roo. Its the squad depth that has cost us points when rotating for me. Harry played the same(ish) team every week in the league and we had a minimal EL campaign (played kids and went out) and our cup runs were nothing to write home about. By march they looked totally shagged and look what happened.
The same, to an extent, has happened this year but much less so becuase (i believe) AVB has rotated better. Its swings and roundabouts really as we're gonna hit a similar points total probably.

 

AVB has already made one mistake jumping into a top European side too early in his career, he has nothing to show for his time with us and is way way off being even looked at by the likes of Madrid imo.

 

I don't doubt that AVB will probably move on after restoring his reputation, but after his episode at Chelsea, + the fact that the Madrid heirachy is nuts, AND their team is full of ego's... it could well be deja vu if he went there.

He's not stupid!

 

One player who has left the club already is Dean Parrett who has been released from his contract.

 

Do you know what happened with him and Swindon, Spurcat? wasn't he bizaarely sent back, despite being excellent for them?!

 

Yeesh, must've been bad what he did at Swindon then.

 

He's already on trial at Palace.

There are a couple of rumours from Swindon fans reported on Spurs Community - one that he had a big time Charlie attitude that wasn't reflected on the pitch, and the other that he got drunk trashed a hotel.

 

A few years back after Parrett made his Europa debut against Shakhtar, I heard a rumour back then that he suddenly became a bit arrogant and thinking he was a big time Charlie, so the rumour of him being like that at Swindon doesn't actually surprise me.

Noticed we let Byrne go to Swindon too, think they've acquired a good player there. Certainly worth a mid-table Championship team in my opinion, so they won't be needing a new RB now should they get promotion!

 

Swindon? Win the playoffs? Score a goal in the playoffs? Get promotion?

I heard nothing about Parrett. I'll ask the father-in-law when I see him next.

 

Yes, he played for Palace under 21 side yesterday. ,

 

The media are reporting today that Villas-Boas wants Rose back in the side for next season.
Considering the rumours that Sunderland were ready to bid £8m for him, I wonder if this is genuine or an attempt to get them to make a more realistic bid?
He's done very well there, he's the England U21 left-back and a replacement would cost us more than that.

 

it comes down to whether he's good enough to step up to the top 4 challenge, PNP. It's a tough call; the same applies to Townsend. I think they are deserving of squad places, but it's a risk relying on youngsters if we're serious about a champions league fight.

Our rivals have a first choice big name in that position who've much more experience at a higher level.

Evra
Clichy/Kolarov
Cole
Monreal

Even Everton have Baines!

We have to compete with that IMO, not hope for the best. The "hoping for the best" tactic isn't really working out for us. It's such a fine line between what's deemed as success or failure.

 

How do you get them experience,play them,if they are good enough you will soon find out,as we have with Naughton

 

If ever there were a cobbled together side, consisting of 5 CMs (plus Lennon) spread over the field, it would be ours this year. Last year's squad was so much more "a place for everything, and everything in its place."

I agree we have got to make some choices. Just among our players, it's entirely possible that the following players prove to be the key playmaker and/or CM next year, not counting Bale, (who is, what now, a second striker "given a free role"?), or Dempsey, for whom the phrase "entirely possible that he proves to be the key CM" is a little strong:

Dembele
Holtby
Huddlestone
Gylfi
Carroll

And out wide, on both sides put together, we have

Lennon

Logic would indicate that we exchange 1-3 from the first list to get 1-3 more on the second list.

I worry that the player who may actually prove to be AVB's ideal deep lying playmaker is Carroll, and he's got buried on the depth chart with the signing of Holtby and re-emergence of Huddlestone.

 

it's not as simple as that though, Tots. There's a lot of money at stake. supposedly the CL is worth £30 mill in revenue each season. we've made it once in the last 3, which could soon be once in the last 4. so potentially we could have missed out on £90mill by the end of this season. - because we don't make a net spend and actually compete in some way. Yes we spend money, but only the profits that come in from selling our best players. just as 1 or two of our positions look sorted, we sell those players to strengthen elsewhere, but then have a whole new set of holes in the team. - "leaking bucket" I once referred to it as.
We've not given ourselves the best chance at competing and the end of each season has been like groundhog day, bar the season we made it into the CL. But even when we got in, we did nothing to cement ourselves and push on.
Naughton has been pretty poor this season. Yes he's been out of position and there are valid reasons not to be too harsh on the guy, but do you fancy another season where we adopt the same tactic as we have for the last few, and find ourselves having the same conversations this time next year?
Yes, these youngsters need to be in the squad and need to be playing COC games, FA cup games and some Prem games. But for the most part, we need that 1st choice strength to compete with the quality of our rivals to give ourselves the best chance. Would any of the teams around us others take Rose from us and put him in the first team? - It's extremely unlikely I'd say.
I'm not slating the guy as he's looked excellent this year, as have a few others. But our current policy isn't working and we are the ones who always have to face disappointment because we don't put ourselves in the best position possible, which is a result of spending next to no money.
Arsenal have it spot on and are in a similar position to us. Fans might not like it, but our clubs are quite alike in so many ways. They've got monreal who is and experienced left back who's played european football, and gibbs who is an up and coming young player. - The two interchange between games.
We need to replicate this. (Presuming BAE is on his bike)
The same applies all over the pitch IMO, whch is why Townsend will also be a good squad player to have in the wings (excuse the pun) giving us balance.
As I said earlier, the step up to a top 4 push is a big difference. It's not just the youngsters that this applies to. Gylfi and Demps are 2 other prime examples that haven't exactly set the world alight. £14 mill they cost us. Did anyone really feel that we had two exciting signings in those two? I felt optimistic with Gylfi, but we've been shown again how there's also a fine line between "half decent" and "very good quality".

What's more costly,

a) £14 million on 2 half decent players that we hope do a job, but who don't end up living up to our expectations, and are part of a group that results in us not getting CL football,

or

b)£20-23 million on two similar, but highly rated players that are part of a team which secure £30 million in revenue at the end of the season?

Well, both are risks, but the point is, we've tried the "a)" policy for some time and it isn't working out. It feels like we just don't do enough and waste money.

Some might say,"ok, well what about Vertonghen and Lloris who were signed for the same £8 mill or so but have turned out to be great signings". - Well, it's no surprise to me. The former came from Ajax having played European football and was labelled as one of Europe's top up and coming centre backs. The latter was the highly sought after french international goalkeeper (and still is). - We did well getting those prices and they are two exceptions.

Gylfi and Demp's CV's can't compete with the two mentioned above and it's no surprised that they've not been fantastic.

Sometimes you get what you pay for. I just want us to learn from our mistakes and make sure we give ourselves the best chance of competing. As I've always said, I'm not asking the club to do a City or Chelsea, but come on, we need to spend something. There's a reason why we're in this position every season.

Learn from it Tottenham.

Rant over.