Realistically - if we've accepted we'll sell him next summer, the reality is we'll definitely get £25M for him from someone whether he plays 40 matches or 0 matches. If we're content to sell at £25M then we're in a position where it doesnt really matter at all if he gets his head down and plays great or fucking counts flower petals during training. The onus is entirely on him to prove to us and others what he deserves. Else he could end up playing for Valencia.Oh boo hoo we didn't sign anyone. Now we're a laughing stock and that reflects badly on ME!
-
The Fighting Cock is a forum for fans of Tottenham Hotspur Football Club. Here you can discuss Spurs latest matches, our squad, tactics and any transfer news surrounding the club. Registration gives you access to all our forums (including 'Off Topic' discussion) and removes most of the adverts (you can remove them all via an account upgrade). You're here now, you might as well...
Latest Spurs videos from Sky Sports
It’s the fault of all those that voted to leave the EU. We could have had Bale and Pele otherwise.
Take your point .... but
so many important players able to walk next summer or the summer thereafter
That's just not reality .... Toby will be 32, Jan 32 so not 'dead' but well past their best ... Llorente, Vorm, Janssen meh do we care? ....
Dembele maybe good for 20 games a season, but he'll be 32 as well ....
Eriksen is the risk hence the desire to have him sign a new contract ... if not then 150m would not seem an unreasonable price ....
IF we lose Eriksen anytime soon then a big name 100m plus CM will be required, if not the squad can cope .....
I'm not disagreeing that we need to 'freshen-up' the squad, the point made was that far from having 'important players able to walk next summer' we actually have every player in the squad under 30 (except Eriksen) already signed up on long term contracts ....
Poch's statement about 'being brave' may well have meant doing nothing .... only he knows ....
so many important players able to walk next summer or the summer thereafter
That's just not reality .... Toby will be 32, Jan 32 so not 'dead' but well past their best ... Llorente, Vorm, Janssen meh do we care? ....
Dembele maybe good for 20 games a season, but he'll be 32 as well ....
Eriksen is the risk hence the desire to have him sign a new contract ... if not then 150m would not seem an unreasonable price ....
IF we lose Eriksen anytime soon then a big name 100m plus CM will be required, if not the squad can cope .....
I'm not disagreeing that we need to 'freshen-up' the squad, the point made was that far from having 'important players able to walk next summer' we actually have every player in the squad under 30 (except Eriksen) already signed up on long term contracts ....
Poch's statement about 'being brave' may well have meant doing nothing .... only he knows ....
Give me a whistle
pleb
pleb
ill try to choose my words more carefully in the future.
to me, 3-4 key players that could be in situations where they leave or have to leave is many though.
Could care less about Llorente or Vorm contracts expiring. Jannsen hopefully can be sold for near break even.
Shouldn't be too hard in this environment right?
I'm not sure we've really replaced Dembele at all yet. Winks and Wanyama are very injured lately.
Eriksen is a worry to me. Barca and RM seem to be very interested in him.
Sure we have many younger players locked down, but we'll be a lot weaker without any of Toby, Dembele, or Jan. You think Winks and Foyth and Mystery-LCB-we-don't-even-have-yet are ready to step in at that level? I hope they do well, but they definitely aren't anything like "experienced vets" yet.
we have a lot of transitioning in the squad to do in the next calendar year or so.
Not sure if this will cheer people up, put things in perspective or put a dampener on things to come but I found it quite interesting and it could hopefully shed a little light on where things possibly stand and what we've got in store for us over the next few years if things aren't done right with the long term in mind:
Since 2000 when Woolwich started buying land for the Emirates they have sold 20 of their players to clubs where the player went onto bigger things after leaving Wengers nomad clan. These players are:
Anelka
Petit
Overmars
Vieira
Ashley Cole
Diarra
Reyes
Henry
Hleb
Kolo Toure
Adebayor
Sagna
Clichy
Nasri
Fabregas
Alex Song
Van Persie
Vermaelen
Oxlade-Chamberlain
Alexis Sanchez
Tottenham in the same time have only sold 6 players to bigger clubs with those being the following:
Carrick
Keane
Berbatov
Modric
Bale
Walker
Two things I take from this are that we really may need to sell and watch our money transfer wise over the next few years in order to fund the stadium over the next decade as painful as that reality may be, that Woolwich really fucked themselves over by not drawing out their loans to be over a longer period of time or that they were extraordinarily stupid with a lot of their retention strategies when balancing football with business. A large majority of the players they sold once they were out of Highbury left on a free or with 12 months left of their contracts apparantly so were hugely devalued by the decisions Woolwich made when either selling them earlier or tying them down to longer deals when they still had peak years ahead of them.
17 of the players they sold were sold after they moved into their new stadium, with only Anelka, Overmars & Petit moving before they moved to the Emirates and with Oxlade-Chamberlain being the only one to be sold after all their loans had been paid off it seems (I remember reading somewhere that their debts got paid off in 2016 or something).
I'm not sure how well or much of player sales got reinvested for new arrivals but the fact they had to let so many top class players go for next to nothing with 12 months or less left on their deals shows how vital it is for us that Levy keeps getting all of our stars signed up long term. I get the feeling that this is a key reason why we've seen the club offer extensions so quickly after players signed previous deals, which seems to be a common trend with well performing players of ours. Reward the players, give them what they deserve and in doing so protect the club at a very delicate time of growth when all else around you is booming and going a bit berserk financially because of it.
Not sure if this is positive reading or a bit of a smack in the chops whilst you all eat your cereal but either way it could help hush those prick gooners that will be giving stick out for not buying anyone this summer. Most of our boys are contractually committed to by our club and transfer inflation is at an all time high compared to back then so there's far less risk of ballsing it up like their gormless lot seem to have done dwindling down superstar contracts. The only one we need to secure now is Eriksen. Get him tied down and all of our most prized assets are going to be valued at a genuine premium in today's market as all have at least 4 years left on their current deals at a minimum.
Not all doom and gloom boys and girls, stick the number 20 down their throats if any of them get lary with you today. Our contract extensions seem to be more valuable to us keeping within fighting distance than any new signing would at the moment, it might be wise to brace ourselves for similar over the next couple of years.
Since 2000 when Woolwich started buying land for the Emirates they have sold 20 of their players to clubs where the player went onto bigger things after leaving Wengers nomad clan. These players are:
Anelka
Petit
Overmars
Vieira
Ashley Cole
Diarra
Reyes
Henry
Hleb
Kolo Toure
Adebayor
Sagna
Clichy
Nasri
Fabregas
Alex Song
Van Persie
Vermaelen
Oxlade-Chamberlain
Alexis Sanchez
Tottenham in the same time have only sold 6 players to bigger clubs with those being the following:
Carrick
Keane
Berbatov
Modric
Bale
Walker
Two things I take from this are that we really may need to sell and watch our money transfer wise over the next few years in order to fund the stadium over the next decade as painful as that reality may be, that Woolwich really fucked themselves over by not drawing out their loans to be over a longer period of time or that they were extraordinarily stupid with a lot of their retention strategies when balancing football with business. A large majority of the players they sold once they were out of Highbury left on a free or with 12 months left of their contracts apparantly so were hugely devalued by the decisions Woolwich made when either selling them earlier or tying them down to longer deals when they still had peak years ahead of them.
17 of the players they sold were sold after they moved into their new stadium, with only Anelka, Overmars & Petit moving before they moved to the Emirates and with Oxlade-Chamberlain being the only one to be sold after all their loans had been paid off it seems (I remember reading somewhere that their debts got paid off in 2016 or something).
I'm not sure how well or much of player sales got reinvested for new arrivals but the fact they had to let so many top class players go for next to nothing with 12 months or less left on their deals shows how vital it is for us that Levy keeps getting all of our stars signed up long term. I get the feeling that this is a key reason why we've seen the club offer extensions so quickly after players signed previous deals, which seems to be a common trend with well performing players of ours. Reward the players, give them what they deserve and in doing so protect the club at a very delicate time of growth when all else around you is booming and going a bit berserk financially because of it.
Not sure if this is positive reading or a bit of a smack in the chops whilst you all eat your cereal but either way it could help hush those prick gooners that will be giving stick out for not buying anyone this summer. Most of our boys are contractually committed to by our club and transfer inflation is at an all time high compared to back then so there's far less risk of ballsing it up like their gormless lot seem to have done dwindling down superstar contracts. The only one we need to secure now is Eriksen. Get him tied down and all of our most prized assets are going to be valued at a genuine premium in today's market as all have at least 4 years left on their current deals at a minimum.
Not all doom and gloom boys and girls, stick the number 20 down their throats if any of them get lary with you today. Our contract extensions seem to be more valuable to us keeping within fighting distance than any new signing would at the moment, it might be wise to brace ourselves for similar over the next couple of years.
Last edited:
Or what? Do you think we'd be trotting out Shaquile Coulthirst as striker if Harry hadn't blossomed. And who spent the money on a kid no one had really heard of from MK? (Money likely left in the budget because we arent run by a cunt who signs blank cheques the day the transfer window opens, but I digress)
It's ridiculous how many people think each and every decision/occurrence happens in a vacuum. Thank fuck Harry blossomed, or where would the goals come from? As if Levy wouldn't have continued trying to find an answer striker as he had in nearly every window between Berbatov and Kane. Good thing Poch has out us in the CL, or we'd be circling the drain....because Levy wouldn't have fucked off any manager that came in and failed to reach that level...yanno, like he did every manager before Poch.
Ridiculous the level of shite some people spout. Each decision and result effects the next one. Case in point - if Walker decides he loves Spurs and doesnt leave, no one really ever thinks of Trippier as more than a squad option and he doesnt get called up by Southgate. Cahill likely starts at the WC because Walker plays on the right, and England's standout performer is eating crisps on his couch watching the Lions disappoint and crash out of the group yet again.
Nothing happens in a vacuum. We exist within the butterfly effect. Stop trying to bottle shit up in a neat package.
All income isn't spend every year, you can save up money. That's why the idea of us having to take on debt to have positive net spend is so ridiculous. Are you telling me that the club hasn't made a single pound it could save up in the last 20 years?
Meh. Underwhelming TW but part of that’s down to what we’ve been conditioned to expect/want.
What I do sincerely hope, having spent many an hour this summer reading literally every post on this thread (not on twitter so I rely on the good folk here to post relevant tweets) is that the next TW thread has more gossip/opinion on who we should/shouldn’t sign and less cunt off’s about semantics of what Poch said etc.
I like a good cunt off as much as the next guy and they can be very funny at times. But surely the cunt off’s in this thread should be around whether Martial or Zaha would be better or whether using Sissoko as one of our midfield two would be better than Grealish.
Such a large portion of this thread was taken by people who found themselves in one of two extremes - apologists for the club/levy/Poch and those who were angry with them. Whilst I’d imagine the actual view of most wouldn’t have been that far apart to begin with (we’re all ultimately desiring the same goal - success for Spurs) the tone of the ‘debate’ meant that both sides got so entrenched in their ‘position’ that it ended up with rational posters on both sides looking for any chink in any answer/bit of news to further ‘their argument’. What made a lot of it so boring is the minutiae of what was being argued about.
TL/DR fair enough. Guess my plea is next thread of this nature would be welcome if the arguments were more on topic
COYS
What I do sincerely hope, having spent many an hour this summer reading literally every post on this thread (not on twitter so I rely on the good folk here to post relevant tweets) is that the next TW thread has more gossip/opinion on who we should/shouldn’t sign and less cunt off’s about semantics of what Poch said etc.
I like a good cunt off as much as the next guy and they can be very funny at times. But surely the cunt off’s in this thread should be around whether Martial or Zaha would be better or whether using Sissoko as one of our midfield two would be better than Grealish.
Such a large portion of this thread was taken by people who found themselves in one of two extremes - apologists for the club/levy/Poch and those who were angry with them. Whilst I’d imagine the actual view of most wouldn’t have been that far apart to begin with (we’re all ultimately desiring the same goal - success for Spurs) the tone of the ‘debate’ meant that both sides got so entrenched in their ‘position’ that it ended up with rational posters on both sides looking for any chink in any answer/bit of news to further ‘their argument’. What made a lot of it so boring is the minutiae of what was being argued about.
TL/DR fair enough. Guess my plea is next thread of this nature would be welcome if the arguments were more on topic
COYS
No one's paying over 30m for a championship player imo
Out of the mouths of wives
My Mrs is watching the news where they made a big thing of Tottenham not signing any new players to which she said 'you don't need any new players, you've got Harry Kane'.
When you know, you know
My Mrs is watching the news where they made a big thing of Tottenham not signing any new players to which she said 'you don't need any new players, you've got Harry Kane'.
When you know, you know
I think you might well be looking in the wrong place for profit, player acquisition and retention is not a profitable part of running a club, you may point to the Bale money but when you factor in the cost of retaining the players, then it's really a question of how much we're prepared to lose. It is different in the case of feeder clubs who factor in selling expensive players to keep their club going.
The profit is derived from sponsorship, TV deals and match day revenues. It's of course linked to the quality of the product though, a team playing good football will attract more neutral fans and garner more televised games. One could argue that players are like a marketing cost.
I think one of the biggest factors to affect our transfer window is down to the equal division of TV rights money. Smaller clubs now have a huge incentive to stay in the league, even 6 or 7 years back if you saw a decent Watford player,£10 million would have them melting and driving the player to your door, now they're taking £50m for Richardson and no one is sure that represents a good investment.
Essentially it's created an environment where top end championship teams and bottom half Premier teams are able to say no when a bigger team comes calling for their best talent. Look at how few sides in this league have sold to Barcelona or Real this season, so far at least!
Sorry
Nabil Bentaleb
I tend to agree with
MemphisWill
on this one, I think people give ENIC a bit of a rough ride and don't appreciate how difficult it is cracking into the top 5/6 in the most competitive league in the World.Under Levy we have finished in the 9th or higher 14/17 seasons, whereas before ENIC took over we'd only achieved that 3/9 times. We've also had 5 top 4 finishes during that time under 2 different managers and finishes in the top 5 10/17 seasons so we are always competitive with those top 4 slots.
Pochettino is a wonderful, visionary manager, he's everything we need to progress forward but he shouldn't take all the credit for getting us to where he has so far, a lot of that credit should go to Levy as well.
I actually think most decisions Levy has made regarding management have been good ones. He's hired good managers and sacked them when they'd run their courses for different reasons. The only area I sometimes question is his penny pinching sometimes leaving us with a not so great reputation to deal with and I do find this window a bit baffling but a lot of what he does is done with a lot of professionalism and a lot of class with the clubs best interests always seemingly at heart, even if fans initially tend to disagree. I think he's done well in times that have seen big sides like Sunderland, Villa, West Ham, Leeds and even Woolwich compared to what they used to be find themselves in pretty poor states for different circumstances.
Poch is class but Levy for me is pound for pound the best Chairman at a well run football club that doesn't have an endless flow of money there is on these shores. He's done a marvellous job getting Spurs from the limping mess I remember us being to a globally respected football club that will soon be home to the 2nd largest stadium in the land.
It would have been nice to see us kick on, but it hasn't happened and we just have to hope it was the right decision to be made by our owners yet again. Only time will tell.
So not signing him was the right thing to do then? Personally I think he's worth the punt I can see him having everything at raw level it takes to be a genuine star but I can also see where the battle was lost with Villa simply refusing to sell. He was the perfect choice for Spurs and sadly we missed the boat this time around for whatever reason that may be. Onwards and upwards, we still have our top 3 squad intact
I didn't really see the hype so no wasn't bothered missing out on him.
Definitely when u see what Madison went for to Leicester who I thought was a better player.
I think both have genuine quality but I think that Maddison could find the step up to be a little difficult. Grealish has so many tool and a real elegance to his game. All he needs to do is fine tune his attacking potency and understand the importance in what he does off the ball and it'll click for him. Out of the two I think Grealish has more chance of making it to the top but Maddison is a really good prospect as well. Time will tell which one ends up a better player but I'd rather Grealish over Maddison, he's the one that really caught my eye whenever I watched Championship games last year
Sold out so quickly as well, if I recall correctly.
Now that it's three years on, can I be nostalgic for the heritage sash yet?
I brought one and couldn't be happier!
Though last year one is very nice as well. Most likely this year will buy last years version (rly don't fancy weird stripes on the bottom of this years!)
Blanchflower please come on and justify this shit show of a window. Please tell me how we don’t need signings and how we will push on. I need a laugh
Obviously I would have liked us to / we should have have signed someone, Zaha and / or Grealish would've been my choices as i think they fit the 433 we seem to be trying to switch to and we could add them into the squad without being forced to leave someone out under the home grown rules.
Both of them seemed to be available and we've fucked up not getting them.
That said, the window has also proved that the people in our squad who thought they were massively underpaid and were going to get great offers from everyone are deluded - they'd spent a year telling everyone United were signing them and nothing materialized. If they had been in as demand as they thought they were we would've had a much easier transfer window.
Good luck to Alderweireld and Rose running a million laps of the training pitch over the next few weeks, a long way back for them with Poch imo.
Agree...
The REASON Kane stepped up was because he was determined as fuck to make sure he made the grade... not because we had other strikers at the club...
The REASON we'd even bought in players like Ade, Soldado, Jannsen and even Llorente was 'cos, until Kane came along, our Youth academy just wasn't producing the calibre of striker needed...
I think the 'proven goalscorer' thing is a bit overrated if I'm honest... Soldado and Llorente were proven, yet just didn't quite fit in with us...
Janssen, let's face it, was a Dutch version of what some feared Kane would be; a 1 season wonder.... and HAD Janssen done well early on, we'd probably be looking at Kane as the 'one who got away' as he was banging them in left right and centre for *Palace/Watford/Southampton
*insert Mid-table PL club here!
Luckily for us, Kane proved otherwise, and Janssen will in all likelihood be moved on.
But one 'hit' Striker out of 3 or 4 misses (Soldado, Jannssen & Llorente + Ade to an extent) just goes to show how hard it is to get that position right!
So after watching countless hours of goalkeepers from around the World, analysing which one would be a gem of a find for Liverpool FC, they opted to spend what was at the time a world record fee for one of the most recognised and most talked about goalkeepers on the planet.
Something tells me that he ain't very good or that they weren't goalkeeper vidoes he was watching in the early hours of having the office to himself you know. Absolute frauds the lot of 'em
Something tells me that he ain't very good or that they weren't goalkeeper vidoes he was watching in the early hours of having the office to himself you know. Absolute frauds the lot of 'em