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Sorry but when has Lewis Cook been "great" as someone pointed out on here. Good premier league player ? Yes. Certainly not the calibur of player I expect a CL Top 4 team supposedly going for the title to chase. If Grealish and Lewis Cook are our targets and type of players we are chasing, then I really despair this window. We are waiting all this time for no news, then we are being treated to news of Lewis Cook or Grealish as our signings. All rather familiar and depressing.
Change his name to Louis Cookinho, and sign him up!
FWIW: No team in the PL deliver more crosses than us last year, 825 of them (ave 21 per game!!!)!!! (This is my main gripe with how we played last year especially with Tripps and a back 4, it was horrible to watch so many crosses flying into the box going to absolutely no-one or being dealt with by ease with a defensive block. They were either punted in too early from deep or not from behind the oppo (this is important difference between him a back 3 or back 4, if he gets behind oppo then great, if not then it's shite)). With so many crosses reigning in on goal why did Llorente stay on the bench? (the real answer to this was the quality of them being delivered, they were by and large shite and even if Llorente was on the pitch I doubt he could have scored as they sailed over his head.Clubs that need/want him- No, my point was to use them as an example. I just don't follow all the teams in the world. So being honest to myself, I could not say who might need him. From very general viewpoint it might look like teams would not need him, while being more into some clubs actions, you might realize smth different. So I believe there would (and actually are) teams out there (in addition to Bayern) who could want him.
I think you just proved the point because -
a) Wagner is... very medicore player. I mean he was just brought in to have someone else there on top of Lewano one (except himself) regards him as top player, and Martial is lightyears ahead of him
b) James Rodriquez is not even closely competitor for Martial - he plays way deeper than Martial does. One is basically a metronome / orchestrator of the attacking play and other is the one finalizing moves / giving assists.
Martial position - well, he has a position. Maybe you just don't want to see it
Without a doubt I agree that he is not on top of his game right now. Nor was he at that in last season. He is low in confidence and has not established place in the squad first and foremost (only after that we can talk about his main position on the field). And despite that (!) and his limited playing time (1600 minutes in EPL) his end product was equal to Zaha, who wast the "star of the show" in his team. That is partly why I'd like us to sign Martial - if he delivered that while not being "on top of his game", imagine what he could do playing under Poch and from the shoulder of Kane (who is, let's face it - far superior partner than Lukaku)
CF situation - I partly agree with you. But I see question being "why did we even sign Llorente" rather then why we never played on his strenghts. I've read Poch book. I've watched his interviews and how the teams play under him - he has his philosophy, and I just feel he will never resort to lot of crosses and long ball upfield. Ofc I might be wrong but this is my impression. So we'd need a versatile forward player which Martial is in my books (this is arguable). He is technical, but not lighting fast. He has really good shot on him whenever having room. He has a great footballing brain. Though he does not have quite equal physical power to Kane. So there are some differences but I could see him fitting into our plan better than options tried until now (Jannsen, Llorente) and also diffrerent from using Son/Lamela/Alli on top.
As for long balls, we do play quite a few, we are bang in the middle of the stats compared with other PL teams. When Toby plays we are in the top quarter, although we all know that these are diagonals rather than a ball into the mixer old school stylie.
Bottom line for me is, and I have no problem with it, is whoever we target to play upfront should have the attributes of Kane, at least they should have the ability to play with ball to feet and interchange with those around him (dropping deep, spinning out wide to either wing), in addition to this they absolutely must be able to press, IMO we are at our best when Kane is pressing (I don't think he did much of this last year). It's crystal clear that we do not change our general approach to our style and an old school plan b striker is simply wasted in our ranks. I honestly don't think our CF back-up is an issue because of this. Lamela, Son, hopefully Lucas, Dele, Kane and some extent Eriksen all swap and interchange with each other, anyone we look to bring in should have the ability to play in these positions (everyone in that list bar Eriksen has played as a CF or off a CF for us and have produced by scoring gaols or assisting them).
Whether that's Martial or Zaha is very debatable. At least on current form Zaha is the player who comes closest to this description. My doubts about Zaha is that he will come from top dog to a bit player with it all to prove, has he got it in him to shine, on evidence I'd say no. Martial at least should feel "free" if he left Utd., this alone could be what he needs mentally. I honestly don't know, neither players get me excited to be honest but I accept both have youth on their side, which are their biggest attraction for me given the write environment.
Same every year mate. Will probably finish 2nd or 3rd again, maybe semi-finals of the Champions League. Clubs a fucking joke. Levy out now
Do you not understand that we need HG players?
We will still finish top 3 with the squad we have anyway, in my opinion.
City aren't being caught. There's almost no chance.
Still have one of, if not the best defence in the league. We have the best striker, one of the best attacking midfielders in the world and a strong central midfield.
Of course adding to that can help us perhaps compete in the domestic cups and Europe but league wise. We are fine.
I've found those really moaning about the clubs lack of spending big on World class signings are those who are first to praise Poch and the team for the fact so many young players in the England squad play for Spurs etc. (PS not a single one of those cost over 7m)
It's as if most are just sheep. If we finish 3rd or even 2nd again next season by just signing Grealish, what's honestly the excuse then? If we had signed Bale for £100,000,000 we'd won the league?
Honestly at times, these people make me want to see us sign world class players only to finish 6th just to see the reaction. I imagine it'd be Pochs head as opposed to the players they wanted.
City aren't being caught. There's almost no chance.
Still have one of, if not the best defence in the league. We have the best striker, one of the best attacking midfielders in the world and a strong central midfield.
Of course adding to that can help us perhaps compete in the domestic cups and Europe but league wise. We are fine.
I've found those really moaning about the clubs lack of spending big on World class signings are those who are first to praise Poch and the team for the fact so many young players in the England squad play for Spurs etc. (PS not a single one of those cost over 7m)
It's as if most are just sheep. If we finish 3rd or even 2nd again next season by just signing Grealish, what's honestly the excuse then? If we had signed Bale for £100,000,000 we'd won the league?
Honestly at times, these people make me want to see us sign world class players only to finish 6th just to see the reaction. I imagine it'd be Pochs head as opposed to the players they wanted.
Pretty much every player in Spurs current squad was not perceived as great when arriving at Spurs - Vertonghen and Eriksen out of a weak Dutch league, Alderweireld who flopped at Athletico Madrid, Dele from a league 1 side, Rose snapped up from a bust Leeds club, Trippier from Burnley....plus Kane from our Academy but rejected before that and on loan by lesser sides etc.
We've done rather well with that model.
Less successful spending big money....
Don't mind Lewis Cook.
I think he's not too dissimilar to Winks. At this stage in his career probably better too. I'm all for it.
Poch would have him in the England squad on a regular basis within 6 months. He's someone the England squad has needed for a while too.
If the reports are true and signing him doesn't hinder Winks' progress than no problems at all.
I happen to prefer signing the likes of Lewis Cook than unknown French imports like Stambouli. Having our squad full of British players is somrthing to be proud of to be honest.
I think he's not too dissimilar to Winks. At this stage in his career probably better too. I'm all for it.
Poch would have him in the England squad on a regular basis within 6 months. He's someone the England squad has needed for a while too.
If the reports are true and signing him doesn't hinder Winks' progress than no problems at all.
I happen to prefer signing the likes of Lewis Cook than unknown French imports like Stambouli. Having our squad full of British players is somrthing to be proud of to be honest.
Yeah but Cook actually performed better in real senior football.
*I want neither of the three
But we haven't won anything mate. This model has done us well to a certain extent, but when we are really in need to win a trophy or get passed the later stages of a cup competition, these group of players go missing time after time.
Why? Because we don't have enough true world class players or match winners.
Buying Lewis Cook and bloody Grealish is hardly going to push us up a new level is it ? If we really want HG players, then we go for a couple of youngsters to feel that void, leaving us with funds to buy genuine top quality. Infesting our squad with players like Grealish and Cook will get us nowhere.
You cannot fill your HG quota with just youngsters because they are classed as youngsters. That's a completely different HG quota
Also the same Onomah who struggled in the Championship while Cook looked an outstanding prospect while actually playing and playing well in the Premiership.
Give me exposed form against men over performances in youth football any day.
He didn't really struggle at CM though, he struggled at AM but having said that had only 2 less goals and assists than Grealish when he came on as a sub in like half of his games. The same Grealish that we want to buy and was a certified starter when fit
Well my point still stands. Very underwhelming the names being mentioned. Liverpool buying the likes of Fekir, Allison , Keita, Fabinho etc .... all genuine quality, whilst we are pissing about the last 2 weeks of the window flirting with Jack Grealish and being linked to Lewis fucking Cook
Don't tell me we don't have enough HG players, we suppplied half the bloody England team at this World Cup. Just can't believe people are happy with what's going on at the moment ?
We have seen time and time again, these group of players are a great team, but go missing when the going gets tough. There is clearly something missing that is preventing this spurs team winning trophies. It needs genuine quality, not these championship type players that will do nothing to help the club step up and actually achieve something,