Tottenham in the Summer Transfer window - 2013 edition!

[The Mighty Thor]

Today in the gossip is the first official mention I've seen that Spurs need two strikers,something I've been saying for months and now AVB has confirmed it. Rodrigo is the latest and I like the look of him. He's young which is what we need for the future and yes we need a fairly experienced man but not Villa,he's too "experienced" imo. Damiao and Rodrigo sounds good to me.

Liverpool will have striker problems as Sturridge won't recover and Suarez is linked with a move. Even with Sturridge fit I don't see him as a match winner for Liverpool. They too will need two strikers the way things are going.

Let's do something and quickly,it looks like AVB has the right idea about what we need for the future.

£85 mill is the latest gossip about Bale,I say take it. We could get some excellent replacements in for that.

 

[The Mighty Thor]

Today in the gossip is the first official mention I've seen that Spurs need two strikers,something I've been saying for months and now AVB has confirmed it. Rodrigo is the latest and I like the look of him. He's young which is what we need for the future and yes we need a fairly experienced man but not Villa,he's too "experienced" imo.. Damiao and Rodrigo sounds good to me.

Liverpool will have striker problems as Sturridge won't recover and Suarez is linked with amove. Even with Sturridge fit I don't see him as a match winner for Liverpool. They too will need two strikers the way things are going.

Let's do something and quickly,it looks like AVB has the right idea about what we need for the future.

£85 mill is the latest gossip about Bale,I say take it. We could get some excellent replacements in for that.

 

[Sir_Red]

£85m is an obscene amount for a player. Just imagine if he were to get a run of injuries next year or a slight dip in form? That fee would lower massively by next summer. Just think what you could do with 85 bloody million! Thats 3 very very high quality players easily. I actually think I would fear you more with 85million in the bank for this summer than sticking with Bale next year.

 

[The Mighty Thor]

Right Sir. Let's take the money and settle down as a team ending all speculation about Bale's future. I have a feeling that you might figure more strongly next season than last but you need some new faces.

 

[No Kane No Gain]

If Bale wants to stay then as long as he signs a new contract then we should keep him, regardless of the offer. He's a top player and our top player, the idea of nudging him towards the door because we got an offer that suits us seems ridiculous to me. I can't see ua being offered a deal for that amount though and if we did, it would be all tied in clauses.

 

[LockStock]

If Bale wants to stay then as long as he signs a new contract then we should keep him, regardless of the offer. He's a top player and our top player, the idea of nudging him towards the door because we got an offer that suits us seems ridiculous to me. I can't see ua being offered a deal for that amount though and if we did, it would be all tied in clauses.

I agree with you completely. Flip sake. Some of us fans can't be pleased. Bale hasn't requested a move or thrown his toys out of the pram. I say keep him and continue to build as we would have if Modric and or Berbatov hadn't behaved like children.

This article is a good read, and refreshing in the sea of "Bale was made / born for (insert 'big' greedy club here)" articles and comments from lazy journalists and past it players.

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/news-and-comment/sam-wallace-watch-out-gareth-moving-to-madrid-for-money-may-be-bad-for-your-career-8641511.html

 

[NSIS]

I agree with you completely. Flip sake. Some of us fans can't be pleased. Bale hasn't requested a move or thrown his toys out of the pram. I say keep him and continue to build as we would have if Modric and or Berbatov hadn't behaved like children.

This article is a good read, and refreshing in the sea of "Bale was made / born for (insert 'big' greedy club here)" articles and comments from lazy journalists and past it players.

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/news-and-comment/sam-wallace-watch-out-gareth-moving-to-madrid-for-money-may-be-bad-for-your-career-8641511.html

Fortunately, I believe Perez is running for re-election unopposed, which takes some of the pressure off him. However, like all Real presidents, he will still be under obligation to produce a marquee signing. Let's hope it's not Bale!..

 

[The Huddlefro]

Even if the figures now being touted for Bale are accurate we still shouldn't sell him. Its not about the money, its about the statement of intent. And even if we had £85 mill and CL football I'm not sure we'd spend it properly. Without CL I'm almost certain that we wouldn't get enough top quality in to justify the sale.

 

[humanbeingincroydon]

I agree with you completely. Flip sake. Some of us fans can't be pleased. Bale hasn't requested a move or thrown his toys out of the pram. I say keep him and continue to build as we would have if Modric and or Berbatov hadn't behaved like children.

This article is a good read, and refreshing in the sea of "Bale was made / born for (insert 'big' greedy club here)" articles and comments from lazy journalists and past it players.

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/news-and-comment/sam-wallace-watch-out-gareth-moving-to-madrid-for-money-may-be-bad-for-your-career-8641511.html

"That is Madrid, the greediest, neediest child in the nursery."

And yet the greediest, neediest nanny just left...

 

[PowerSpurs]

Even if the figures now being touted for Bale are accurate we still shouldn't sell him. Its not about the money, its about the statement of intent. And even if we had £85 mill and CL football I'm not sure we'd spend it properly. Without CL I'm almost certain that we wouldn't get enough top quality in to justify the sale.

If our intent is to become a better club then selling any player for more than he is worth is the right action. For £85m we could get something like Hulk, Willian and Villa and still have enough for a creative midfielder.

 

[humanbeingincroydon]

If our intent is to become a better club then selling any player for more than he is worth is the right action. For £85m we could get something like Hulk, Willian and Villa and still have enough for a creative midfielder.

Or someone could make up a rumour than Mourinho wants Jack Wilshere at Chelsea, and hope that carries enough weight to nip the Bale to Real Madrid stories in the bud for a few weeks.

Wait, I just did that - now we need to wait for a tabloid hack to read the forum and we're in business!

 

[LockStock]

If our intent is to become a better club then selling any player for more than he is worth is the right action. For £85m we could get something like Hulk, Willian and Villa and still have enough for a creative midfielder.

You are correct to some degree, if we only consider the mathematics, but would Hulk, Willian and Villa want to join our non-champions league club if we remain in the habit of selling our best players?

I think not.

Keeping Bale is the key at this point. If we had managed a champions league place, maybe it would make more sense. Now, it would be a silly move.

Just my humble opinion.

 

[The Huddlefro]

If our intent is to become a better club then selling any player for more than he is worth is the right action. For £85m we could get something like Hulk, Willian and Villa and still have enough for a creative midfielder.

If we had CL football I might be more inclined to agree with you, as it is though I'm not. It's your opinion though, fair enough. Two reasons why I don't share it:

1. I don't think we'll be able to attract those players without playing in the CL. Certainly not the likes of Hulk anyway. It's fairly obvious that he wants to leave but everyone knows that and I shouldn't imagine he'll be short of offers if/when he goes. Offers from clubs that will, in all likelihood be able to offer him top level football straight away.

2. We might be able to afford the fees but I doubt we'd be able to put out for the wages for any decent length of time.

Willian went to Anzhi in January btw. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willian_Borges_da_Silva

I absolutely agree that we should normally be looking to sell a player for more than he's worth, but Bale is an exception, and has to be IMO. As a symbol of the club's desire to progress, and that we won't be giving in to the desires of the many in the footballing/journalism world who seem to want Bale out, even for silly money.

There will be life after Bale if he goes, of course there will. But I don't have the confidence in the board and our own position as a club to say that we should cash in and get 3 starters of serious quality in to compensate for the loss.

 

[lennypops]

85m might be starting to get into the realm of absurdity where you'd have to consider selling. However I think it's all too easy to say "Well that'll pay for four or five excellent players". On a computer game, where the only factors are prices that are set by the game's algorithms, this might be the case.

In reality we all know that a) Spurs find it hard to attract top, top talent; b) Spurs have a knack of spending big money on crap - would it be right to say that most of our double-digit signings have been flops? (Bentley, Bent, Pav, Palacios, Keane, Rebrov spring to mind); c) four super-star players' wages are, er, four times more than one super-star players' wage. So those four superstars are gonna be earning, say, 100k a week each. That's 20m A YEAR; d) If clubs know that we've got 85m in our pocket, so to speak, prices for us will rocket. I can see us being quoted 20-30m for strikers that aren't even much better than what we've got.

I know the theory that selling when your asset is over-priced sounds good. But Spurs are not a club that can go out and buy players as good as Bale. Sure the theory might work for Man Utd but all they have to do is click their fingers and they can spend 20-30m on very risk-free, very high quality players WHO WANT TO JOIN THEM.

If Bale's over-priced now chances are he'll still be pretty damn valuable next summer and the summer after.

I'd rather have one cast-iron, guaranteed superb player who already fits into the team and who we know works than three or four punts on players who may well not work out and will hugely increase the wage bill (if they're the quality of players we'd need to replace Bale).

 

[remembercolinlee]

85m might be starting to get into the realm of absurdity where you'd have to consider selling. However I think it's all too easy to say "Well that'll pay for four or five excellent players". On a computer game, where the only factors are prices that are set by the game's algorithms, this might be the case.

In reality we all know that a) Spurs find it hard to attract top, top talent; b) Spurs have a knack of spending big money on crap - would it be right to say that most of our double-digit signings have been flops? (Bentley, Bent, Pav, Palacios, Keane, Rebrov spring to mind); c) four super-star players' wages are, er, four times more than one super-star players' wage. So those four superstars are gonna be earning, say, 100k a week each. That's 20m A YEAR; d) If clubs know that we've got 85m in our pocket, so to speak, prices for us will rocket. I can see us being quoted 20-30m for strikers that aren't even much better than what we've got.

I know the theory that selling when your asset is over-priced sounds good. But Spurs are not a club that can go out and buy players as good as Bale. Sure the theory might work for Man Utd but all they have to do is click their fingers and they can spend 20-30m on very risk-free, very high quality players WHO WANT TO JOIN THEM.

If Bale's over-priced now chances are he'll still be pretty damn valuable next summer and the summer after.

I'd rather have one cast-iron, guaranteed superb player who already fits into the team and who we know works than three or four punts on players who may well not work out and will hugely increase the wage bill (if they're the quality of players we'd need to replace Bale).

I kind of get your point but have a biggish disagreement about flops...
Bent was not a flop in my opinion...wrong player for us but we made our money back...but Lloris reportedly cost £10m; as did Berbatov; Defoe returned for £13m and Modric cost £15.5m....as for wilson, well in my opinion his career pretty much ended when his brother was murdered so I wouldn't include him as a flop either...not having a dig at you just think I dont see it quite as clear cut as you...but as for Bentley

 

[seanDCFC]

I kind of get your point but have a biggish disagreement about flops...
Bent was not a flop in my opinion...wrong player for us but we made our money back...but Lloris reportedly cost £10m; as did Berbatov; Defoe returned for £13m and Modric cost £15.5m....as for wilson, well in my opinion his career pretty much ended when his brother was murdered so I wouldn't include him as a flop either...not having a dig at you just think I dont see it quite as clear cut as you...but as for Bentley

I forgot how much Bentley cost, just googled it. £15 mill holly ****

 

[lennypops]

I kind of get your point but have a biggish disagreement about flops...
Bent was not a flop in my opinion...wrong player for us but we made our money back...but Lloris reportedly cost £10m; as did Berbatov; Defoe returned for £13m and Modric cost £15.5m....as for wilson, well in my opinion his career pretty much ended when his brother was murdered so I wouldn't include him as a flop either...not having a dig at you just think I dont see it quite as clear cut as you...but as for Bentley

Yeah - well of course I cherry-picked the worst ones and know what you mean about Bent. Yes we got our money back but he did not add anything to us as a team or club hence he was a bad signing. Not as costly a flop as some might have you believe but a flop nonetheless.

Here's a list of all the players Spurs have signed for 10m plus:

David Bentley
Luka Modric
Darren Bent
Robbie Keane
Mousa Dembele
Jermain Defoe
Roman Pavlyuchenko
Wilson Palacios
Hugo Lloris
Sergei Rebrov
Dimitar Berbatov

Out of those 11 I'd say 5 of them worked out well (Modric, Dembele, Defoe, Loris, Berbatov - and there's still time for Moussa to have a crap season and turn that into 4. What? Me? Pessimistic?!).

Point is that big money signings seem have a 50/50 chance, at best, of being a success.

 

[lennypops]

Forgot Jan! (Or, rather, the website I lifted that data from did).

But then again another website claimed Gomes was 10m (?) so maybe they cancel each other out.

Oh my God - just been reminded that we spent 9m on Hutton. Been a bit sick in my mouth. Around the 10m mark seems to be the ideal "chuck money at ****" number for Spurs.

 

[redwhiteandermblue]

I'd rather have one cast-iron, guaranteed superb player who already fits into the team and who we know works than three or four punts on players who may well not work out and will hugely increase the wage bill (if they're the quality of players we'd need to replace Bale).

Well said. I'd also rather have the best player in the league, especially as the PL will have a game a week on a major network in my country. Keeping Bale for as long as possible could help the club grow significantly. NBC's going to market the league, and the route Americans (and others) use is to market the best player.

Incidentally, though I know nothing about it, I find myself wondering if the situation is that Bale does want to stay, and Levy and/or Lewis and others are wondering whether they wouldn't be better off taking the money and running. Is that a ridiculous idea?

 

[NSIS]

It's extremely difficult to put a "value" on a player like Bale. He is one of the handful of players anywhere in the world who can single handedly change an entire game, as we have seen so many times this season.

As with Messi & Ronaldo, to name the most obvious comparisons, everybody knows how dangerous Bale is. They try to legislate for him, negate him, whatever they can to stop him. Sometimes opposition sides are largely successful for the majority of a game. But, take your eye of him, relax for one minute, and we all know the damage he can do.

With opposition defences tied up trying to neutralise Bale, had we had a more effective strike force this season we would surely be in the C.L.

IF he makes it clear that he wants to go then, I think we would be unable to keep him. But to push him towards the exit because he's "overvalued" is just plain stupid, IMO.