Transfer Rumours transfer thread fact and fiction

Janssen Watch
The club's all but officially announced he's finished with us, as the squad page on our website not only reveals he's not been given a number for the season, but his profile photo is of him wearing last season's kit.

Before anyone asks, even GKN has a number and an up-to-date squad photo (although, weirdly, while our U18s have up-to-date photos our U23s don't)

 

According to Sky, GKN to Mainz with an option to buy.

 

Express claiming that Spurs will accept £180 M for Eriksen from RMadrid

 

Sorry, we've fulfilled our quota of bad news this year.

 

Would that be the same Express who, a day or two ago, were screaming how Eriksen would be joining PSG for £100m?

 

Here's the latest take on why we failed to bring in any players during the transfer window that's doing the rounds: Poch's position was that, if we couldn't sign the exact players he was after, he wouldn't settle for signing a player for the sake of signing a player.

On the face of it the pieces do fit together well:
* De Ligt had Mino "****" Raiola sniffing around (even though he's no De Ligt's agent) so it's likely that would've turned into a transfer fee arms race
* Ndombele had triggered the clause to make his loan permanent sometime during the season, so Lyon held the cards from the outset
* Grealish was a case of a chairman wanting to be the one to defeat Levy
* Pavard's value skyrocketed the moment he became a regular in France's World Cup team

On top of that we do have a recent history of single season bit part players that were obviously signed as a cheap alternative to a player who wound up elsewhere, most obviously Stambouli and N'Jie being cheap alternatives to Schneiderlin and Martial who made as much of an impression to the team as Ocean's 8 did to anyone who sat through the lazy and pointless exercise that apparently forgot how a three-act structure works.

On the other hand, though, there is a point where that comes across as cutting your nose off to spite your face. For example, given we were linked to them late in the window, Stanislav Lobotka looked like a player capable of adding to the team due to his game being best described as a hybrid of Dembele and Scott Parker, while Sander Berge has a hell of a workrate and has the sort of direct passing from deep that our team sometimes needs as there's nobody in our midfield capable of doing it and he's also U21 so wouldn't be an issue for our squad registration until next season. So would signing either of them really been the end of the world?

 

I kinda get that but surely you could have a decent plan b in case the top target becomes unavailable.

 

If our Plan A was De Ligt and Plan B was Pavard that would certainly explain the lack of a centre back coming in, because circumstances rapidly took us hurtling towards Plan C which is definite N'Jie Territory.

A similar thing could have been the case with central midfield as there were strong rumours of an interest in Bryan Cristante, who was on loan at Atalanta from Benfica for the latter half of last season - but as soon as the transfer window opened Atalanta not only executed the option to make his loan permanent, but then promptly loaned him to Roma in a deal with a compulsory purchase clause.

Of course, that does leave open the obvious question why our two main central midfield targets were both players who could have feasibly joined another club in the summer.

 

I think that his refusal to go to Brighton on loan last season killed his career with us. Was a really stupid decision. Would have been a regular starter for them and if he did well would have pushed his claim to play at Tottenham. Going to Turkey was never going to do that.

 

so not only will we sell...we will sell while we can not replace him for 5 months ....oh and we will get £80m more than 2 days ago (is the £ that ****ed against the Euro? )

 

Still think it's a shame. I think there's a decent player there once settled and with a full preseason. As ever there may be stuff behind the scenes that justify this, but on what I know it is a pity. Another who gave his all for the shirt. A couple of goals early and he could have flown.

 

No way is he going. We don't even have a replacement in the squad.

 

There is one lingering question about GKN being sent to Mainz: who fills in as Son's understudy?

Lamela is the obvious name given he played on the left for Roma (five years ago...) but the combination of him being injured as well as also understudying Moura on the right is a tad problematic, or do we give Georgiou the spot and incur the wrath of people whose only knowledge of football comes from playing FIFA because he's only got a 60 overall rating and a potential of 75?

 

Here's an idea... we agree to sell Eriksen but he only goes to Madrid in January, whilst sending Modric the other way plus a cut price deal for Bale. Other than that, tell them to sod off.

 

But in January we say that Eriksen is injured so we send them Danny Rose in his stead.

 

I've seen it suggested elsewhere that we could pre-buy players for the January window - which while sounding like a good idea on paper, doesn't that also mean we'll be spending several months hoping that a player doesn't get injured?

On the subject of the transfer not-a-window-but-it-is-to-everyone-else, TheSpursWeb have done a Daily Mail by taking Poch's comment about players leaving by the end of the month in which he specifically mentioned GKN...and just omitted that part about GKN so they could publish some clickbait to keep the Toby/Dembele/Rose departure stories going another few days.

 

Clubs have scouts watching players of months before planning a transfer bid, so the process is rarely every a snap decision. In most cases, players end up remaining fit after several months of courting, negotiations and a final deal brokered. That's normal.

Also worth remembering, we've bought players and loaned them out for a season or more on several occasions, where they could easily get crocked during that time and end up useless when they come back but they don't (Harry Kane anyone?). If we just concern ourselves about what might happen, nothing will ever get done.

 

Rose is the wrong position. Senors please welcome Mousa Sissoko.

 

The Sun continue to run the 'Lucas Moura to Real Betis' story. I'm still to be convinced that MP sees him as a Spurs player but I'd be shocked if we let the bloke go at this point, especially for what Betis could realistically afford.

We shall see..........................................

 

Real should definitely go for Sissoko. Then sell us Bale.

Then they can sing:

Despiértame antes de que te vayas. ¡Quién necesita a Bale cuando tienes a Sissoko!