Great loan that’s become. Value probably doubled.
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Performance Loan Watch
- Thread starter The Fighting Cock
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Only if Ange was willing to give them opportunities. Lankshear stayed and got 2 starts in Europa and around 10 minutes off the bench over 3 matches in the Prem. Dorrington got 13 mins while 5-0 up against Saints but wasn't trusted to play against Tamworth or any of the Europa teams. Think Devine would have probably been seen as ahead of Donley to be recall if needed for numbers but midfield hasn't really been the area we've needed players. Phillips would have been an option for defence but like Dane he was cup-tied for both domestic cups and he's not club-trained so wouldn't have been able to play the Europa games.
The only reason I can think of that Will wasn't used more was to force Levy's hand into buying another forward.
Decision may turn out golden if Tel does the business and Will picks up loads of minutes at WBA and does well.
Just thinking about fate. If Will doesn't pick up that second yellow...
If they had stayed would they have grown as much as I believe they have with the loan. Donley would have probably played U21's or bench time so would he have been as match sharp as he is now?
Who knows but I'm guessing its better for us long term to have him on loan. I know you are talking about the recent short term but would Donley have got more minutes than the other young guys on the bench?
I think the manager should 'commit' to giving any youngster staying at Spurs (rather than going out on loan) a 'meaningful number of minutes' (which as an example) might be 800 minutes per season - preferably more ) playing with Spurs team to develop the youngster, which is the sort of minutes Mikey Moore will get.
With those sort of playing minutes committed to the manager can probably only keep 4-6 players at Spurs as there are not enough 'easy' games to play youngsters in.
Otherwise a good loan might well give a youngster say 2,000 minutes (Abbott at Notts County already has a little over 2,000 minutes this season, Donley already 1.600 mins in L1, 1,900 including FA Cup) .
This numbers are for a player aged say 18 or older.
Below aged 18, those minutes played numbers can be reduced - and they may share playing with first team to also playing u21's as well. Its also true that they are less likely to get good loans aged 17, so the opportunity to play to gain experience is much less available, which is why reduced number of minutes playing for Spurs first team is more logical. And in turn it means that manager can keep more 17 year olds at Spurs playing lower number of minutes.
Whilst not perfect, Harry Redknapp used to have about 6 youngsters on the fringes of first team (usually aged 17 or 18) and used in UEFA as it was then, and that seemed a good system to get first team experience in slightly easier matches (player included Kane, Townsend, Mason et al) and often used as a 'hurdle' to get a good loan later. Probably helped by 'arry not really taking uefa cup seriously so he wasn't so much bothered by results (he says tongue in cheek)
I have thought, for a very long time, that the F.A. and the EFL are to blame for a lot of this.
The EFL is currently made up of 3 x 24 team divisions. The Championship, League 1 and League 2.
72 clubs take part.
Teams taking part in The Championship find it difficult to transition to the Premier League, if they are promoted, due to the style of play, managerial tactics and type of player recruited to actually progress from this division.
Managers from The Championship, English managers in particular, find progression virtually impossible.
If 4 x 18 team divisions were created, instead of the 3 x 24 team divisions we have now, a style of play not too disimilar to the Premier League could prevail in The Championship.
The Premier League would need to be reduced to 18 teams too but the standard of The Championship would probably improve as a result of these very simple measures being taken.
This would reduce every Premier League club's fixtures by 4 games to 34 in a season.
Promotion and relegation could be reduced to two up; two down with the third bottom team in every division going into the play offs of the division below.
The format for the League Cup could then be altered to replace the 4 league fixtures with League Cup games.
If the League Cup had an inter divisional group stage, 18 leagues of 5 teams, with one team drawn from each division, it would guarentee the lower league clubs the extra fixtures they had lost through the reduction of the league fixtures.
The tournament could also be started in July; before the start of the season, instead of meaningless pre-season friendlies, which are often played at this time of year, in the build up to the new season.
The Premier League clubs, especially those on foreign tours, could allow their assistant managers to take the team fixtures played in pre season which allows them to develop their managerial skills against lower league opposition.
The best under 21's, under 18's and non international first team players could be used in the squads while senior players, involved in international games or injured, are resting.
If 4-6 of these League Cup fixtures were completed before the start of the actual season then the remaining two, decisive group games, could be played in the spaces allocated in September and October to the League Cup as it stands now.
The 14 group winners, with the best points and goal difference, progress to the last 16, and the 4 remaining group winners play off so that the two winning teams join the others in the last 16.
This would, in my opinion, improve the quality of The Championship and create increased progression opportunities for players, coaches and managers of all teams in the Premier League and EFL.
It would showcase talent in lower leagues to Premier League clubs and showcase talented under 21 and under 18 players, from Premier League academies to EFL teams.
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Turkeys and Christmas come to mind.
I can't see PL clubs meeting wanting to reduce numbers of clubs in PL from 20 to 18 (or any reduced number) - the weaker clubs would see it as greater chance they would be relegated to Championship where the tv money earned is a fraction of that earned by even the bottom PL club. And the same arguments apply to all the EFL clubs.
However Pl may, in effect, be forced to consider a reduction down to 18 simply because UEFA's changes to the format of EL and CL has increased numbers especially in the Group/League stage by 2 matches, whilst uefa/fifa are continually increasing the number of international matches by increasing the sizes of tournaments (1966 WC I think was 16 countries, in 2026 forecast to be 46 countries) so tournaments last longer ..... yet there are still same number of qualifying matches. The old friendlies have been converted into Nations League etc. The end result is players cannot cope - its one of the causes of injuries at all clubs this season ......... so the only way forward may be a reduction in size of leagues so as to rediue number of club matches.
However one of the issues of reducing the size of leagues is less money generated by clubs from match day revenues ...... yet I doubt if players will want to reduce their wages, which for clubs paying say 70||% or 80% of revenues in wages (which is fairly common - Vila pay 95%+ ..) will be essential. Yet the trend is still for players to expect higher wages.
So its a tricky proposition.
Interconnectivity he’s suffering with the flock despite the distance. One of our own
View: https://x.com/lastwordonspurs/status/1889986652384473262?s=46
View: https://x.com/lastwordonspurs/status/1889986652384473262?s=46