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Player James Maddison

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Papafeels said:
Right idea, right players? Not so sure. Bergvall is really the only one who looks like as close to a sure thing as you can get. Tel, Odo, Gray (more hopeful of, but still), Takai, Drag.... Not so much. That's a lot of money spent.
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Think the one positive of this 'sign em young' approach is it will be easier to find a market for these guys if we do decide to sell.

None will be on big wages and as they're still young, plenty of clubs will be interested.

Reckon we could get our money back (or close enough) for Dragusin and Odobert. Probably can instantly double or triple our money on Takai after half a season of Bundesliga football if he keeps playing. Gray and Tel might be a bit trickier as we paid decent money for them both but I reckon we could find buyers and get a reasonable fee for either if we did decide to move them on.

Meanwhile players like Bergvall (if he can stay fit) and Vuskovic are already worth multitudes of what we paid for em. Would prefer not to sell either, mind.

From a purely business perspective I can see how Levy and the club were drawn to this more Chelsea-like model. With the low wages involved there's far less risk in signing kids. Problem is, we've not signed enough quality first teamers to properly compete while the kids are still developing.
 
Raiders said:
The post is not asking for money for the surgery but it kind of is a hail mary at getting it; which is absolutely right any parent should do anything. The club/players should fund the surgery.

She didn't put the link for the go fund me in the post but it is here...

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Wonder if the club could share via its social media platforms? Even better they could offer to donation match
 
Timberwolf said:
Think the one positive of this 'sign em young' approach is it will be easier to find a market for these guys if we do decide to sell.

None will be on big wages and as they're still young, plenty of clubs will be interested.

Reckon we could get our money back (or close enough) for Dragusin and Odobert. Probably can instantly double or triple our money on Takai after half a season of Bundesliga football if he keeps playing. Gray and Tel might be a bit trickier as we paid decent money for them both but I reckon we could find buyers and get a reasonable fee for either if we did decide to move them on.

Meanwhile players like Bergvall (if he can stay fit) and Vuskovic are already worth multitudes of what we paid for em. Would prefer not to sell either, mind.

From a purely business perspective I can see how Levy and the club were drawn to this more Chelsea-like model. With the low wages involved there's far less risk in signing kids. Problem is, we've not signed enough quality first teamers to properly compete while the kids are still developing.
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Yea, agreed with what you said.

But I think it can also be taken up a level. And to do some actual squad planning to balance out the youngsters with potential with seasoned pros. And it would also take some more ruthlessness as well.

What I mean is - we knew Son was off. We knew Tel did not have super successful loan. We knew we'd need more sure-thing players even after adding Kudus to our ranks. In this part of the squad we knew we had Odobert and Moore - both young. So it felt like pretty easy decision not to buy Tel and put that money into buying someone that would be a ready-made option. But we failed to ignore all of that while knowing that Madders and Kulu are out for long. And as a result we are 35 games into season and we still don't have a fucking clue (nor any actual contribution) from LW position.

Similar things apply to midfield for example. It was fairly clear fairly early on that Bissouma will not play any real role for Spurs ever again. And justifyably so. Just fucking push him out then. Don't drag it out, include him to squads etc. OK, we messed up with him overall. Take the 5-10 mil from Turkey and force him out. After him being stupid and unprofessional, its hardly the case of not wanting to upset anyone. And then after that - we brought in Palhinha quite early, then we do have likes of Sarr, Gray, Bergvall + Bentancur. It was fairly expected (I knew it quite clearly and voiced my opinion too in last week of summer window) that we would actually need a good passing/possession oriented CM to be able to partner Palhinha and it would take pressure off from Bergvall too. And also given how limited Bentancur was in anything, we should have started looking to sell him for maximum value...

But ofc we did no such things in either position.
In winter I felt that we took step in right direction with selling Johnson who extremely obviously was nowhere near good enough to be a starter... buuut here we are 2 weeks later... without replacing him :D .
 
TheSpurEst said:
Yea, agreed with what you said.

But I think it can also be taken up a level. And to do some actual squad planning to balance out the youngsters with potential with seasoned pros. And it would also take some more ruthlessness as well.

What I mean is - we knew Son was off. We knew Tel did not have super successful loan. We knew we'd need more sure-thing players even after adding Kudus to our ranks. In this part of the squad we knew we had Odobert and Moore - both young. So it felt like pretty easy decision not to buy Tel and put that money into buying someone that would be a ready-made option. But we failed to ignore all of that while knowing that Madders and Kulu are out for long. And as a result we are 35 games into season and we still don't have a fucking clue (nor any actual contribution) from LW position.

Similar things apply to midfield for example. It was fairly clear fairly early on that Bissouma will not play any real role for Spurs ever again. And justifyably so. Just fucking push him out then. Don't drag it out, include him to squads etc. OK, we messed up with him overall. Take the 5-10 mil from Turkey and force him out. After him being stupid and unprofessional, its hardly the case of not wanting to upset anyone. And then after that - we brought in Palhinha quite early, then we do have likes of Sarr, Gray, Bergvall + Bentancur. It was fairly expected (I knew it quite clearly and voiced my opinion too in last week of summer window) that we would actually need a good passing/possession oriented CM to be able to partner Palhinha and it would take pressure off from Bergvall too. And also given how limited Bentancur was in anything, we should have started looking to sell him for maximum value...

But ofc we did no such things in either position.
In winter I felt that we took step in right direction with selling Johnson who extremely obviously was nowhere near good enough to be a starter... buuut here we are 2 weeks later... without replacing him :D .
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Yeah totally. if you remove the whole youth thing, the squad building has been pretty atrocious. Basically stocking up on LWs, CBs and Number 8s, each blocking one anothers path to minutes while ignoring other positions where we're desperately lacking.

I do not remotely understand the supposed "logic" behind some of these moves.
 
thinktank said:
In his last vid on his channel he slipped it in that things were going better than people think.

Could be back mid-end April for the crunch end of the season if he maintains that track.
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April would be around 8 months which is average for an ACL. 6-9 months is the average for top pros but some have done it in 5 months which would be now like Xavi and Baggio did it in 4 months. Not suggesting we push Maddison but if he is ahead of schedule as some are it would be before April.
 
Tomo said:
April would be around 8 months which is average for an ACL. 6-9 months is the average for top pros but some have done it in 5 months which would be now like Xavi and Baggio did it in 4 months. Not suggesting we push Maddison but if he is ahead of schedule as some are it would be before April.
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No need to push him at all. If I was Madders, I'd request leaving it this season. You do not want to be associated with this shit show... and let's be honest. Maddison is as far removed from a Frank type player as you can get.
 
We are genuinely missing the players that give a shit and hold themselves to a standard like Maddison and Kulu.

Unfortunately, their injuries mean we may not see them again at the quality they once were.

Next season, no matter what division, I want to see players that play for the shirt, irrespective of quality.

I don't want high quality mercenaries like VDV that down tools when the going gets tough.

I want young, hungry players who see Spurs as a springboard for their career.

Rip it up and start again.

Invest in Moore, Williams-Barnett, Lankshear and Hall.

Make Danso captain. He strikes me as more a type of leader than Romero.

Build from the ground, up.

Next year, our focus should be Mikey Moore and Lankshear
 
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James Cook said:
We are genuinely missing the players that give a shit and hold themselves to a standard like Maddison and Kulu.

Unfortunately, their injuries mean we may not see them again at the quality they once were.

Next season, no matter what division, I want to see players that play for the shirt, irrespective of quality.

I don't want high quality mercenaries like VDV that down tools when the going tough.

I want young, hungry players who see Spurs as a springboard for their career.

Rip it up and start again.

Invest in Moore, Williams-Barnett, Lankshear and Hall.

Make Danso captain. He strikes me as more a type of leader than Romero.

Build from the ground, up.

Next year, our focus should Mikey Moore and Lankshear
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You say this now, but those types of players were never good enough when we were 3rd-6th because we weren't winning the league.

The likes of Dier, Winks, Hojbjerg, Trippier, Emerson, Sanchez, Lloris, Tanganga, Bergwijn, Foyth, Rodon etc were all pretty much hounded out of the club for not being league winning material as 6th was failure. Some of them really did give it their all too.
 
James Cook said:
I want young, hungry players who see Spurs as a springboard for their career.
Rip it up and start again.
Invest in Moore, Williams-Barnett, Lankshear and Hall.
Make Danso captain. He strikes me as more a type of leader than Romero.
Build from the ground, up.
Next year, our focus should Mikey Moore and Lankshear
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So this was the purpose of the new multi sports and entertainment venue.
To become the wealthiest feeder club in the world 😆

Jesus Christ. Some of our fans are such losers we deserve to be where we are

:ange-facepalm2:
 
James Cook said:
We are genuinely missing the players that give a shit and hold themselves to a standard like Maddison and Kulu.

Unfortunately, their injuries mean we may not see them again at the quality they once were.

Next season, no matter what division, I want to see players that play for the shirt, irrespective of quality.

I don't want high quality mercenaries like VDV that down tools when the going gets tough.

I want young, hungry players who see Spurs as a springboard for their career.

Rip it up and start again.

Invest in Moore, Williams-Barnett, Lankshear and Hall.

Make Danso captain. He strikes me as more a type of leader than Romero.

Build from the ground, up.

Next year, our focus should Mikey Moore and Lankshear
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I kind of get what you're saying but I don't think that "seeing Spurs as a springboard for their career" is the strategy that one of the wealthiest clubs in world football with a high ceiling has.

People should want to play for us because we are an elite club who are constantly in the top tier of European football and winning trophies. You do not get to that stage in 2026 by building a squad around unproven kids.

You get there by bringing in top players who are also well rounded individuals, axing any player who either isn't good enough and/or lacks the required mentality and instil a strong identity and culture in the club, starting with manager, to a core leadership group. It's impossible to have a squad of 25 "elite" players so it's very important that our academy is producing players with the potential and ceiling to develop and rotate into that group. There is certainly a place for players like Moore and Lankshear if they fall into that category. I don't want us pissing away £40m on prospects anymore, I want big money spent on top quality, established players and more money invested into the academy that produces talented lads who get us and are proud to put on the shirt when given the opportunity.

That doesn't happen overnight. It starts with the club understanding the problems that the club has (which sadly, I don't think is the case with Lange and Vinai as they're part of the problem) and bringing in the right manager with the skillset on and off the pitch to fix it. Then back them long term to build the squad in their image and instil their culture and identity. This summer should be used to cut out the rot (by axing players who are chronically injured, toxic influences and/or clearly not good enough and investing in a core that can be built on over the next couple of seasons.

I fully agree with your point about wanting to see players who want to play for the shirt. Young and hungry, sure. But I also think there's a place for more established senior players fitting that criteria that are able to see us perform at a higher level from the start. It's also imperative that those players form a leadership group that everyone in the squad looks up to and aspires to be like.

Brad Friedel touched on it recently, if you've got senior pros blanking your manager, refusing to shake his hand after a loss and a club captain that has instilled a culture of fear, turns up late to training and shit talks the club on social media then you've set that standard. Other, more impressionable players will look at that and due to a willingness to fit into that group, will just end up replicating that behaviour. Romero should be the first out the door, with the door slammed in his face.
 
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