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Player Jamie Donley

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Airfixx said:
We either buy one or change strategy (on pitch).... Hinging our season upon Devine would be crazy (and grossly unfair on him).
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So who could we buy that would be more convincing?
We could try for Foden I guess ... he seems to be getting edged out. Olmo has been linked in the past, can't see that happening. Grealish, but people have been making the good point that you might not want him in London with 300k a week in his pocket given his lifestyle.
So if we buy someone we are going to be taking a punt anyway.
 
WillWilliams said:
In a season we had a guaranteed 50 games we started the campaign with 18 senior outfield players.
1 of those was Sergio Reguilon. Plus Bentacour was facing a guaranteed ban of some description.

If you think that constitute a strong squad then fair enough. Ange seemingly did as well.
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I’m Ange’s biggest defender but there’s no arguing that he put his back on the line with way more kids in his team than is reasonable to expect success in 4 competitions and he didn’t have the survival instincts to prioritize the league over the Carabao early on when the injuries hit
 
Crockett said:
So who could we buy that would be more convincing?
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.........Then what?

Crockett said:
We could try for Foden I guess ... he seems to be getting edged out. Olmo has been linked in the past, can't see that happening. Grealish, but people have been making the good point that you might not want him in London with 300k a week in his pocket given his lifestyle.
So if we buy someone we are going to be taking a punt anyway.
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So by proxy; you'd not be perplexed if we bought an unproven U21 who struggled to establish themselves at Plymouth?

(*I understand AF is already here, but there's still levels to any so-called 'punt' much the same.)
 
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Airfixx said:
.........Than what?



So by proxy; you'd not be perplexed if we bought an unproven U21 who struggled to establish themselves at Plymouth?

(*I understand AF is already here, but there's still levels to any so-called 'punt' much the same.)
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It's an interesting discussion. We know all about Alfie, there are no mysteries like there could be with a new signing, so I take the point that the current staff don't seem willing to trust him for reasons I don't really understand.
I thought he was very good v Reading, but even if people agree the line will probably be it was only Reading in pre-season. Give him 90 minutes v Bayern and let's see what happens.
 
WillWilliams said:
Too often last season it was boys against men.

I fail to see how playing more kids would have helped. Loan them out. Most of them aren’t CL standard or anywhere close to it right now.
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It would probably have helped the squad to avoid a lot of injuries. I don't get why he kept playing most of the first team every week even after he (according to him self, in hindsight) dropped the ambition in the league.

If we are talking about this coming season. I agree, loan out the youth and get a few more starters in.
 
Smogz said:
It would probably have helped the squad to avoid a lot of injuries. I don't get why he kept playing most of the first team every week even after he (according to him self, in hindsight) dropped the ambition in the league.

If we are talking about this coming season. I agree, loan out the youth and get a few more starters in.
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We can’t change last season. But we can learn from mistakes.

CL football means we can’t play kids like we did in the EL. It’s very simple. We need more senior players.
 
SpiderSpurs said:

View: https://x.com/SpursOfficial/status/1953018393822675405?t=myglRvviZNpcPet3d8w_Ew&s=19
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Best of luck to him, lets hope he kills the Championship.

With Maddison out and Kuluisevski not due back until September (but might not be match fit then), I had hopes Frank would keep him at Spurs with a guarantee of say 1,500 minutes (if we are playing 60 matches 5,400 mins as we did last season) that's easily doable. But not to be


View: https://x.com/stokecity/status/1953022070327263579
 
glacierSpurs said:
Sighz, another season of wait to watch him play in our colours. Totally makes no sense now with Madders out long term, unless we are signing two no.10s. We are not even close to signing one...
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If he’s not good enough right now and they think the best way for him to improve is to be playing more regularly than he will at Spurs it makes perfect sense.

I really don’t get the concept of us playing sub par football players just because they came through our youth set up.

We are playing CL football. We need elite men.
 
WillWilliams said:
If he’s not good enough right now and they think the best way for him to improve is to be playing more regularly than he will at Spurs it makes perfect sense.

I really don’t get the concept of us playing sub par football players just because they came through our youth set up.

We are playing CL football. We need elite men.
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It's just a lesser of two evils scenario, people would rather endure potentially watching sub-par youngsters from the academy than sub-par players bought for millions, which is what people have grown to expect from our transfer dealings.

Neither are ideal, but the first option has a greater upside.
 
WillWilliams said:
We are playing CL football. We need elite men.
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The problem is we don't do elite.
Herclueless said:
It's just a lesser of two evils scenario, people would rather endure potentially watching sub-par youngsters from the academy than sub-par players bought for millions, which is what people have grown to expect from our transfer dealings.

Neither are ideal, but the first option has a greater upside.
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This 👆🏻
 
Herclueless said:
It's just a lesser of two evils scenario, people would rather endure potentially watching sub-par youngsters from the academy than sub-par players bought for millions, which is what people have grown to expect from our transfer dealings.

Neither are ideal, but the first option has a greater upside.
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If that’s the case I guess there is just an acceptance of mediocrity now within our fanbase.

Levy has kicked the life out of people. They deserve better.
 
WillWilliams said:
If that’s the case I guess there is just an acceptance of mediocrity now within our fanbase.

Levy has kicked the life out of people. They deserve better.
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It's exactly that.

We're expecting shit, but it might as well be being served by ones our own.

If nothing else, a youngster getting meaningful minutes in the PL, unless they are catastrophically bad, will almost automatically get you a £10m+ based solely on having played at that level.

Instead we send them on shit loans, and the one's that do actually do well get flogged for pennies to Champo relegation fodder for ~£1m and 10% of fuck all down the line.

Look at the fees we got for Winks and Skipp ffs, around £40m for a pair most fans couldn't wait to be shot of!

Donley and Devine, given how absolutely bereft we are of even just a living breathing body in their area of the pitch, should be kept here and given minutes, if they do well then great, we've solved a problem, if they don't excel then we'd still get more of a fee than we will after a successful loan to Stoke.

I still fume from time to time how much we spent on absolute wasters at right back following KWPs few outings in the side where he got MOTM each time, when we could have just kept him, used him, and he'd have had to really outdo himself to be any worse than Aurier, D'OHerty, or Emerson Royal.
 
Herclueless said:
Look at the fees we got for Winks and Skipp ffs, around £40m for a pair most fans couldn't wait to be shot of!
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This is the crux. Those two were both decent players and got slated by our fans for being poor.

I’ve got Norwich supporting friends and family. Norfolk is almost like my second home. Skipp bossed that league. They were gutted when he left.

Winks had a horrible injury and was never really the same player.

Josh Onomah is the other side of that “keep players here” coin. What did we get for him? What did he do for our team? Did you love seeing him play?
 
WillWilliams said:
This is the crux. Those two were both decent players and got slated by our fans for being poor.

I’ve got Norwich supporting friends and family. Norfolk is almost like my second home. Skipp bossed that league. They were gutted when he left.

Winks had a horrible injury and was never really the same player.

Josh Onomah is the other side of that “keep players here” coin. What did we get for him? What did he do for our team? Did you love seeing him play?
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He didn't play though, so I don't think really applies to the point I was making.

Just keeping them here to train and watch from the stands, yes, absolutely pointless.

So if the choice is between playing a youngster, who doesn't do anything amazing for the season but costs nothing in fee and is on low wages, allowing us to focus our funds on the most key areas of weakness, and eventually likely to pull in a decent fee on the back of the experience, or signing someone mildly better, but also doesn't really move the needle over the course of the season, at the cost of ~£20m - £30m, and a hefty wage, then the youngster is a more attractive proposition.

They're not the only two scenarios obviously, but it's what we've come to expect from our club's transfer dealings.

Right now, apparently we are looking to loan out Vuskovic, and yet are still also apparently looking to bring in another cb. Are we bringing someone in to challenge Romero and VDV? Unlikely, so are we going to spend another £25m on a Danso like backup? It's baffling.

We currently have no "10", but some have pointed out how foolish it could be to go out and spend the £40m - £60m you'd need to get an established player in that position when those injured will eventually return. If not now, then when will be the opportune moment to give Donley some minutes.

He could go to Stoke and ride the bench all season, and some would use that as confirmation he wouldn't have contributed much here, but it's just not that simple.

Kane had plenty of rubbish loans, became elite here though when he got his chance.

So much of a youngster breaking out comes down to simple luck, right place at the right time. We seem to ignore those moments and prefer to spend our money on average dross from elsewhere, which is strange considering the supposed thriftiness of our owners.
 
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