Transfer thread for 2016-17 season

The Guardian is reporting the deal for N’Koudou is done. I’m a bit mystified about the search for wingers in general, and why we would get this one in particular. Lately we seem to enjoy both sending them away (Lennon, Townsend, and now perhaps Clinton on loan) and bringing them in (Clinton and apparently N’Koudou). Is Pochettino preparing a Plan B with two strikers and pacy wingers as Redknapp had? It would seem very unPochettino, but he does seem to be adaptable. The things I like about N’Koudou are that he’s 21, that he supposedly tackles back well and that he’s supposedly two footed. It would seem strange that we would loan out the left winger who’s learned our system for a year and bring in a new one. I don’t understand why we’re looking for any midfielders, since it’s clear we have a couple too many already, and I like the ones we have. Nevertheless, there have certainly been games when bringing in a pacy dribbler like Townsend was a good move. I’ll just have to trust in our excellent recent transfer record...except that the one area where things haven’t worked out lately is wide midfielders.

 

I have to admit that I haven't the foggiest clue what this lad is like as Ligue 1 is about as entertaining as a tyre with a slow puncture. But the whole thing does seem a bit strange as you say. I assume this means we can say farewell to Chadli - useful player and excellent finisher but if what you say about N'Cluedo is true, he doesn't compare in terms of pace, work rate and tracking back - all of which are more important ingredients to the Poch cuisine than having an eye for goal.

We absolutely didn't see enough of Njie last year to be able to justify sending him out on loan. That drop of the shoulder, burst of pace and inch perfect cross in the City game suggested that there's a talented young player in there who has just been really unfortunate with injuries.

Time will tell but Eriksen, Alli, Lamela, Son, Njie, Onomah and NCluedo with Pritchard and currently Chadli too all vying for 3 positions is clearly unsustainable. Does this spell the end of the road for Pritch too?

 

I'm pleased to see us prepared to move Clinton on. Was he ever going to make it with us? I don't know. When I saw him (and it wasn't often), I didn't see why we'd have paid money to put him in ahead of Onomah or Pritchard. He always struck me as a 'last-minute' panic reaction to not making progress on Berahino. He had talents but they weren't stand out talents that screamed at you that the guy was going to rip defences apart. He had pace and he played a gorgeous pass to Lamela for his goal against City but was that enough?

Obviously, for Mauricio, it wasn't. Like Stambouli and Fazio, if you don't show it then it's taxi time. Okay, so we'll lose a few £million on him but better to accept that and get rid rather than have another Bentley hanging around for years. I've seen it described as brutal and that's probably right. Successful football managers don't let sentiment and being fair get in the way of winning. If George-Kevin looks like he can increase our attacking options and goal threat, I'm pleased to see him arrive and hope we can get in a couple more - particularly Yunus Malli. Now is a good time to exploit our CL buying power and take the odd calculated gamble. We scouted Dele Alli and Kevin Wimmer and got ourselves real bargains. If there are others out there that we can identify and purchase for significantly below what we might be able to sell them for, then we'd be foolish not to do so. One Dele Alli covers a whole fistful of Clinton N'jie's.

 

Has N'Jie even had 5 PL/UEFA starts in total last season ??

 

I think that's a bit harsh on Clinton. The combination of injuries he picked up last season - one right at the beginning and another bang in the middle - essentially condemned his first season to obscurity before he'd had a chance to prove himself. He also wasn't helped by the fact that most of his cameo performances came late on in games that we were desperately chasing against oppositions usually entrenched deep inside their own half - neither factor suits his style of play at all and I wouldn't be surprised if his confidence took a knock as a result.

 

Brutal? Yes, sure. We've no idea what he shows in training but Mauricio Pochettino and John McDermott know. They think we can upgrade. That's good enough for me.

I'd rather we were a little brutal than a soft resting place for the injury prone, sick, lame and slow-developing. Arsenal can afford to pay players to play 5 games a season, we've obviously no such intention. If we loan him to OM and he sets the world alight, fantastic for him and us. If not, there's no loss. It sets the bench-mark high and that's no bad thing.

We can't afford to be too sentimental guys. when it's your time to go....

 

There's a difference between being brutal/clinical and simply being harsh. Your point about training also errs on the side of harshness because again - he was signed at Levy O'clock so didn't get a pre-season, and subsequent injuries stripped him of an accumulative total of about 4 months of training throughout the season.

'Brutal' is looking at a Lamela after one season and saying 'well, we know what he did last year and we know that he's only young and is in his first season, but bloody hell that doesn't look like a £30m signing - screw it we'll cut our losses and sell him to Inter'. 'Harsh' is looking at a player who we've seen all of 1 hour of football from - not much less than Poch and his team will have seen on the training ground - and deciding that he isn't good enough. I don't think anyone can say that for sure just yet and judging by NCluedo's token highlight reel he looks like another, slightly shorter Njie.

Put it this way - would you sooner sell Chadli or Njie?

 

TBH, I haven't seen enough of N'Jie to make that call....

 

Bayern President Rum and Egg confirmed today that Dortmund have opened formal talks to sign Gotze, so I guess that's that little pipe dream over.

 

Was listening to the radio yesterday. Some Journalist was saying Gotze was offered to Spurs. We declined, I think he has a bit of the Podolski about him. Talented but not the right attitude to be a top player.

Glad we declined, if true.

 

L'Equipe have jumped on the N'Koudou story (via Google Translate): https://translate.google.com/transl...dou-om-fonce-vers-tottenham/707338&edit-text=

The best way to look at him is as a Chadli replacement: he carries decent goal threat from the left (as he was the only OM player not named Bastardayi to score double figures last season), but he's also noted for defending from the front - and that's where things start to make sense, considering how Chadli's defensive contribution has always been non-existent. He certainly makes sense from the perspective of squad depth: he can maintain The Press (something a lot of our second string couldn't do last season), having someone who can throw in some crosses adds a dimension going forward, and he can chip in with some goals.

As for Gotze, to be honest as much as I'd have loved to see him at WHL, I'd have preferred to see Mkhitaryan as he looked a more Poch-friendly option - so here's hoping Moronho deploys him as a wing back and utterly wastes him.

 

I'd not complain if both were upgraded. That's the trick in my view - locate your weaknesses and buy the best players you can find to improve those areas. Last pre-season it was obviously the ridiculous amount of goals we were shipping. Two centre halves later...strong back line.

This season, we need more pace and goals for the 3 behind Kane/Janssen. One in and hopefully another two to follow? Then, we're properly ready to go again. Mauricio Pochettino's not here to mess about. We will be successful, he demands it.

 

Looks too much like he should be blowing trumpets in medieval paintings. That’s a fatal flaw, IMO.

 

As someone who lives near Punxsatawney Phil, making me an expert on the subject, I’d say there’s something Groundhog Day-ish about the fact that he’s also (by family origin) Cameroonian, that he cost the same amount of money, that his name also begins with N, that he has that same bird crest hair style, and that the second letter of his name is also "’". Or should I say ’’’. Or ’.

If I were N’Koudou and I saw a Cameroonian pacey attacking player with a blue jay hair style and a last name which involved a capital "N" and an apostrophe emerge in Ligue 1 next year, I’d be thinking my Spurs days were numbered. Particularly if I’d spent more or less the entire season injured.

 

I appreciate that it goes against Poch's philosophy in the market, but I would love to see an experienced, wise old head coming in with plenty of CL nous on their CV. We cannot overstate the impact and importance of Gallas and VDV's arrivals for our maiden CL voyage - the former in particular was immense in the 2 legs against AC Milan, in Ledley's absence, he stepped up to the plate and dragged the rest of the team over the line with him.

 

Thomas Vermaelen could fit the bill?

 

100%
Gallas was a rock in those games, alright - and in the 3-2 NLD win when he finished the last 15-20 minutes on one leg pretty much as I recall.
We could have done with that attitude in the last few games of the season and don't think we would have imploded quite so dramatically. (Either that, or Costa would have been laid out!! )

 

If he is like Gallas definitely...if he is like Rickets, Bentley or Adebayor then go wash your mouth out

 

If we can get more pace and goals without giving up the strengths of the current three then I wouldn't disagree. But someone who can do that as well as having the good features of Eriksen, Lamela and Alli might not even exist and if they did would cost serious money. The current back-ups are improvable but I think Son could benefit a lot from a second season and Pritchard could be a really good player if given time. That leaves Nacer Chadli and Clinton N'jie. I can see the former being shipped out and it is probably quite a good plan to get Clinton a loan deal: coming back from injury is never easy and doing it from a role as substitute or second choice just adds to the pressure. If he gets back to full fitness and form playing somewhere else that's a great result