Transfer Rumours transfer thread fact and fiction

I think we can change it if someone leaves but can only select from the current nominations....

 

The irish Independent are reporting we've made an £180k offer for Shamrock Rovers' 16-year old goalkeeper Gavin Bazunu, who I made a passing reference to on Deadline Day when it was reported he'd be heading for The Sheikh Mansour Team (which he obviously didn't if he's still at Shamrock)

I maintain what I said at the time, though: how many academy goalkeepers do we need? Currently we have...
Alfie Whiteman (U23)
Brandon Austin (U23)
Tom Glover (U23)
Jonathan de Bie (U23/U18)
Charlie Freeman (U23/U18)
Joshua Oluwayemi (U18)
Kacper Kurylowicz (U18)

Add to that we invited Isak Middtun Solberg for a trial over the summer, so unless Bazunu is a Donnarumma-level prospect our hoarding of youth goalkeepers is starting to look a little bizarre

 

Is it as weird as not being able to find NEW STRIKER since, what, when Berbatov left a decade ago.
Shoot enough bullets you’ll hit something eventually

 

I thought Pav was a good buy, not on Berba’s level obviously but still a good purchase by the club, £13m and averaged a 1-3 ratio I think. The rest have been toilet.

 

Pav was ok and seemed to have a decent enough personality (he smiled a lot) which i think endeared him to fans more than he deserved.

As a player i think the best one was Soldado. We just didn't play to his strengths and he couldn't score for toffee.

 

I intially also thought Soldado didn’t have much service but then I realised he was just terrible. Missed countless chances including a number of one-on-ones. English football just wasn’t for him.

 

in fairness we brought Defoe back in that time, Adebaypr was decent when on loan, Crouch was decent as was Pavlochenko (excuse spelling).

Crouch was good...and defoe returned after Berbatov left as did Keane

 

I remember when we bought him that Michael Owen, who saw him up close when they were both at Real Madrid, said he wouldn't cut it at Spurs. Trust him to be right that once.

 

His one on ones were terrible. He thrived on crosses from what i saw of him when he was good. We'd moved away from wingers and crossing when we brought him in. He was a bad buy (for us and him, because we destroyed his confidence) but there was a player in there when we bought him

 

Crouch got THE goal but I think Pav was better overall. Crouchy was a just a likeable guy as well, academy product and even though he only played two seasons, I don’t think many would argue he’s a bit of a legend.

Yeah good shout on JD. I’d still have him back now.

Keane was really poor when he returned from Pool. Those six months at Pool just ruined him.

 

Crouch was fantastic for us for various reasons.

Linked up brilliantly with Defoe, scored at a decent rate and worked his arse off.
First man on defensive corners and it's not easy to avoid the lanky bastard!
The players all seem to love him too, which is very valuable.
Maybe we should've brought him back?

 

Still can in Jan

 

Can't help but think he'd be a good influence around the place - level headed, committed to fitness and a hard training regime...... (& Yes I'd luv him back at Spurs)



And my all-time favourite

 

I would have zero issues with that if it happened. Likewise with Defoe (again) and even Keane (again).

They may be getting on and will be nowhere near their best but those guys just “get it” at this club, they know what it means to play here and even if they likely wouldn’t be able to make the biggest of impacts on the pitch, they’d be ****ing amazing to have around the place.

 

You're right - those 3 really 'get' the club. Even Berbs showed some of that in media interviews when he came back for the last game at WHL.

But Crouchie and JD just love the club - and we love them!!

 

Imagine Crouch without that lightning pace!

 

The part that sticks out most is that, according to rumours anyway, Baldini said Christian Benteke would be the striker we needed - but LAdPCeVB insisted that it was Soldado we brought in, even though Soldado was essentially an upgrade on Jermaine Defoe but what we needed was a player capable of holding up the ball (although to be fair, Benteke is hardly the ideal striker for that role either)

The logical conclusions from that scenario is that either it was an ill-advised power play from a manager who thought Baldini was getting too much power, or a sign that we had a manager who didn't understand the system he was implementing.

 

slightly disagree on Keane. He was good from Jan 09 until Nov 09...iirc he pissed Harry Redknapp off by organising a xmas piss up agsinst his orders and involved less experienced players.
Redknapp pretty much kicked him out after that.

 

Luckily he landed on his feet at another one of his boyhood clubs.

 

I just don’t think he looked right when he returned. His best years were alongside Berba but he was still class before the Berba partnership, something seemed missing when he rejoined from Pool for me.