Does indeed speak (pretty good!) English. Seems to have a strong character and good mentality. Liked that interview. Just please be more Buffon/ Donnarumma. PLEASE!
Looks like I can start saying Newcastle dodged a bullet and that I never wanted Maddison in the 1st place. Classic football fan mental gymnastics Essentially.
Getting the GK sorted was a nice start. I suspect we’ll look to wrap up Maddison and a CB (Tapsoba and the Dutch kid seem to be the ones to the fore right now) and then the outgoings will come more into focus. We have a lot to shift. As for other incoming business, I think we really need two left sided CBs. Getting both the ones I mentioned above might be a bit of a false dawn as they’re both young, likely expensive, and have no experience of the PL. I wonder if we’ll look to get one of them early and then just see how the market plays out. You’d think Lenglet on a cheap deal won’t be an option that goes away and might be sensible as a rotation option given he’s broadly more experienced and obviously now knows the league and club. Further forward we probably need another winger regardless of what happens with Gil (assuming Perisic will head off and not stay around to be backup to Son at LW). If Gil goes I’d argue we need two. Definitely the kind of situation where I feel like using that option on Danjuma might have been smart, but that ship has sailed now. I haven’t really seen us linked with anyone. For the midfield, I suspect a lot hinges on what happens with Hojbjerg. If a good offer came in I wouldn’t be against accepting it for a player who doesn’t have an perfect fit in Ange’s system and who has been a solid, if largely unspectacular, servant to the club. I’d really like us to get Alex Scott from Bristol City and it might give us an opportunity to send Devine on loan the other way and get him that experience for a year. We have to work out what to do with Sarr too, its still difficult to tell what kind of player he really is and I think he really just needs to go somewhere and play. Loads still to do, but I imagine the club’s aim is to have the GK, LCB and AM sorted before we head off on tour, as they are the key starting XI incomings. Obviously if Kane goes then that completely changes the dimension of what we need to do in the window and the decisions that need to be made, but at least if he goes, we’ll have a lot of money to spend.
Romano’s given a here we go soon for Maddison. Verbal agreement on a £40m fee. Final details of add-ons to be sorted plus the payment structure. Noiiiice!
Maybe I'm biased but breaking the premiership goal scoring record while at Tottenham is a bigger achievement than picking up a Bundesliga medal with a team that wins it at a trot every year
I fluctuate a lot on how I feel about it. I think it's a magnificent achievement to get the record at Spurs, though he'd need one hell of a season to get it with us if he doesn't sign a new contract. On the side of staying as well, I think the narrative around Kane as not a trophy winner was written years ago and it doesn't matter what he does now. A Bundesliga with Bayern won't change that. A PL trophy with another club probably would, though it would also be used as a stick to beat him with, that he had to leave Spurs to win it (especially as he'd likely leave to a club that had won it before. I could see the media buying into a Man United redemption arc led by Kane but if he went to City or Chelsea and won it then it wouldn't be the same). No matter his contribution to that hypothetical win, the narrative is that he isn't a big game player, so unless he pulls off an Augero, people will always diminish the achievement. Ultimately the only thing that rewrites the narrative would be a PL with Spurs or multiple cup wins with Spurs. The flip side of it is that Kane doesn't appear to be a man particularly bothered about what others think of him. He likely wants the record AND to guarantee himself a trophy (or trophies) before he retires. The Bundesliga is a top 5 league and would look good on his mantlepiece. I do think he really wants the record though so I think he's far more likely to stay in the PL and look for a move next summer, unless by some miracle he signs a new contract with us. If he does, I think it'll go right down to the wire, as to whether we're on the right track with Ange. But there's only one club in England that would near guarantee him a league title over the course of, say, a 3 year contract, and unless Haaland moves on next summer, that route is closed to him.
You can compare the stats for Kane at Spurs vs Lewandowski at Munich, ordinal season by season. Then similarly you can compare squad strengths. On this front, I suspect that only for 3 PL seasons max (the 16/17/18 ones) did Kane have a squad attack comparable in supply potency to that of Munich.
Holding the record will be amazing and Kane will cement his legacy in English football for likely decades (unless Haaland stays at City for 7+ years and continues scoring at the rate he is). But I think to go down as a true great and legend of the game, especially in the wider community, you do need to win a team medal as ultimately it’s a team sport. Prior to the WC there was talk amongst the footballing community that said you couldn’t consider Messi as the GOAT whilst he hadn’t won the WC which I felt was utter bollocks but it shows the mindset of the wider footballing world that no matter how good an individual is, if they don’t win the pinnacles of the team game they’ll never get the recognition they deserve, regardless of what individual honours they win. If Kane goes Bayern, wins a couple Bundesligas and Pokals, plus a possible CL, then he cements his reputation as one of the best strikers in footballing history - not that he already isn’t in my eyes, but the team honours would dispel any doubts. Theoretically he could spend a couple years with Bayern, win a bunch of things and then come back to Spurs and still get Shearer’s record, because I’ve long maintained Kane can continue until he’s 34-35 providing he gets no significant injury.
Lenglet Watch Sport (the Spanish one) has today decided we have an agreement in place for a three-year contract, although the final fee isn't set
Maddison in front of a base of Bissouma and Bentancur with Son, Kane and Kulu ahead of him is a combination we honestly deserve to see for at least a season after the ****e we've endured. I just hope it happens.
