Summer 2020 Transfer Thread

  • 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...

    Get involved!

Latest Spurs videos from Sky Sports

Sort by date Sort by reaction score
cretinousgoat said:
With all due respect, nobody can take you seriously if you are calling Ollie fucking Watkins a great modern forward !

He's a reasonably young english prospect. That's it. Nothing great about him right now so let's not over-egg the pudding. Jesus christ!
Click to expand...
I mean I was quitely obviously referring to his skill set and overall profile.

He's decent, not amazing, not terrible Good option to have though.
 
Igula said:
This one still baffles me today.

City for example, for them 25m is nothing, Toby can play the ball from the back so is a perfect fit and would have been an upgrade on Otamendi, Stones and Garcia. I still don't know why a team like that with a clear need would not have gone for him. He would have been huge for them this season and instead they ran out Fernandinho at CB repeatedly including the CL game in which their back 3 looked terrible.
Click to expand...

Or even Utd at the time, who were really short of half decent CB's for ages.
 
Igula said:
I think the biggest issue I see with the Liverpool situation is that they (to my knowledge) have not let it get to the point that they are missing out on a need. Yes they set a price on moved on from Lewis but they then immediately went for a player who was of similar (or better) quality and covered that back-up LB need.

When they identified they needed goaltending and CB help. boom they went out paid what it cost and got two world class players.

I may have missed someone or just not heard because I am not as close to that club as I am to Spurs but they also don't seem to have as many players hanging around the club either wanting out or them not wanting them. When Coutinho showed signs of discontent he was gone, when Sahko, Skrtel, Mingolet, Karius shown not be good enough they were moved out.

They seem to always have a plan, be ready to act on it and certainly have a plan b or c ready to go.

Our issue is that when we play hardball and won;t go over our price (which is fine) when then don't seem to have a new plan or alternative. We are left with no striker complaining about how tough it is to make moves. When guys we have need to be moved we worry about getting top price or how we can manage without their mediocre talent.

I think a lot of it is likely hindsight in that Liverpools moves have worked out but when you look back at them you can see how they clearly had a plan and were unafraid to make a few risky/controversial moves like moving out big name or even just solid squad guys to get to where they want to go, when the first plan didn't work they moved on, when they needed that first choice they got it done. For us it just seems a little hodgepodge and woe is us. Listening to Levy and Hitchens whine about how hard the transfers are was pathetic, I mean you want to be a world class club of course things are going to be hard, that is why you are paid (presumedly) super high salaries.
Click to expand...

Liverpool use the exact same three man transfer committee system as we do - now that's hardly surprising it was put in place for them by Michael Edwards, the man many feel is responsible for their success and the man who spent four years turning Spurs from mid table to our first top four in two decades .... It's well known that DL threw a wobbly fit when Comolli headhunted Edwards to Liverpool, and that him joining is when their 'moneyball' approach began ... Comolli soon got the bullet but Edwards stayed and for most people in the know it's him not Klopp who has transformed their squad.

When Salah was identified by the Liverpool transfer committee, Klopp said no he preferred Brandt, Edwards said we should go with Salah and Edwards had his way, in fact Edward's system brought in Salah, Mane and Firmino when club after club had overlooked them .... Liverpool's best signing of the last decade is Michael Edwards by a country mile, sadly they got him from us.

Edwards will tell you the transfer market is hard - he probably learned that from Levy - in fact Liverpool owe a huge amount of their success to the skills Edwards developed under Levy, Levy's mistake was losing him.

We now have our new 'Michael Edwards' with the promotion of Steve Hitchin, he was schooled under Edwards and Levy and will use the exact same methods Edwards took to Liverpool - the first big signings he has produced are Bergwijn, LoCeso, Clarke, Doherty, Hojbjerg and Fernandes .... that's not so bad.
 
The Outsider said:
Liverpool use the exact same three man transfer committee system as we do - now that's hardly surprising it was put in place for them by Michael Edwards, the man many feel is responsible for their success and the man who spent four years turning Spurs from mid table to our first top four in two decades .... It's well known that DL threw a wobbly fit when Comolli headhunted Edwards to Liverpool, and that him joining is when their 'moneyball' approach began ... Comolli soon got the bullet but Edwards stayed and for most people in the know it's him not Klopp who has transformed their squad.

When Salah was identified by the Liverpool transfer committee, Klopp said no he preferred Brandt, Edwards said we should go with Salah and Edwards had his way, in fact Edward's system brought in Salah, Mane and Firmino when club after club had overlooked them .... Liverpool's best signing of the last decade is Michael Edwards by a country mile, sadly they got him from us.

Edwards will tell you the transfer market is hard - he probably learned that from Levy - in fact Liverpool owe a huge amount of their success to the skills Edwards developed under Levy, Levy's mistake was losing him.

We now have our new 'Michael Edwards' with the promotion of Steve Hitchin, he was schooled under Edwards and Levy and will use the exact same methods Edwards took to Liverpool - the first big signings he has produced are Bergwijn, LoCeso, Clarke, Doherty, Hojbjerg and Fernandes .... that's not so bad.
Click to expand...

Its very good either.

Liverpool may use the same 3 man system that we supposedly do but they obviously use it better than we do.

I also don't see John Henry being as involved as Levy is, I wonder if Liverpool has a guy with zero football knowledge playing a key role on who they do or don't sign.
 
TheSpurEst said:
I absolutely don't get why people are so pumped about Watkins?!?! Just cause he is youngish and English?

He scored goals in lower level and in case of many goals he had so much time and room... And even then I did not feel that "Oh gosh what a brilliant solution".
I don't remember when it happened last time but I got bored even watching his highlight reel. Mediocre shots, soft headers and balls softly rolled next to the post. Combination of stronger defenders and better keepers, I think he would struggle in EPL.

Ofc I get that highlights are not all there is,but if even those are unimpressive.... I don't know.
Click to expand...

Are people "so pumped" about Watkins?

Most here see him as a better option to others we have been linked to such as Wilson, King, Diallo. Or see him as a better option than the nobody we have in that role. Not sure that counts as being so pumped.
 
Igula said:
Its very good either.

Liverpool may use the same 3 man system that we supposedly do but they obviously use it better than we do.

I also don't see John Henry being as involved as Levy is, I wonder if Liverpool has a guy with zero football knowledge playing a key role on who they do or don't sign.
Click to expand...

Pretty sure Henry plays very little role whatsoever in transfers. Other than sign the cheques. Levy's role is a lot more all encompassing or it has been which is why the recent re-shuffle has been made.
 
Igula said:
Its very good either.

Liverpool may use the same 3 man system that we supposedly do but they obviously use it better than we do.

I also don't see John Henry being as involved as Levy is, I wonder if Liverpool has a guy with zero football knowledge playing a key role on who they do or don't sign.
Click to expand...
Levy doesn't chose players based on his scouting knowledge and never has done. He sets the criteria of what he wants at the club - young players, who will grow, have sell-on value, etc - but nobody has ever suggested he gets Statsbomb out and tells Jose he should sign player A because of his expected assist xG.

And to say Levy has zero football knowledge is pretty stupid. He has been at the centre of the industry and knows the game inside out in the business sense, and recruitment is as much to do with business as it is scouting.
 
Igula said:
Its very good either.

Liverpool may use the same 3 man system that we supposedly do but they obviously use it better than we do.

I also don't see John Henry being as involved as Levy is, I wonder if Liverpool has a guy with zero football knowledge playing a key role on who they do or don't sign.
Click to expand...


For what it's worth, we also had Ian Graham (head of recruitment analytics at Liverpool) at Spurs for four years or so too.
 
Rebrov_Likes said:
Levy doesn't chose players based on his scouting knowledge and never has done. He sets the criteria of what he wants at the club - young players, who will grow, have sell-on value, etc - but nobody has ever suggested he gets Statsbomb out and tells Jose he should sign player A because of his expected assist xG.

And to say Levy has zero football knowledge is pretty stupid. He has been at the centre of the industry and knows the game inside out in the business sense, and recruitment is as much to do with business as it is scouting.
Click to expand...

But he does negotiate transfers with other clubs. He should probably leave that entirely to someone like a Mike Edwards and focus his attention on running the business side of the club.

The problem i feel is Levy got burnt with the Commoli Director of Football position and ever since then he's never fully trusted anyone else to do that side of it.
 
TonySoprano said:
Pretty sure Henry plays very little role whatsoever in transfers. Other than sign the cheques. Levy's role is a lot more all encompassing or it has been which is why the recent re-shuffle has been made.
Click to expand...

According to Levy himself (and Hitchen said the same in the doc the other night) Levy's chief role is to set the financial parameters. It doesn't matter if this is Levy, Henry or Henry's chief exec, that process isn't going to differ much in that respect, the financial parameters will always be set by people with ultimate responsibility for the clubs finances.

And as we have seen this window, Liverpool are currently negotiating hard or walking away from 15-20m deals. That's definitely not their manager or DOF's choice, that's because whoever sets the financial parameters is cracking the whip.
 
Rebrov_Likes said:
Levy doesn't chose players based on his scouting knowledge and never has done. He sets the criteria of what he wants at the club - young players, who will grow, have sell-on value, etc - but nobody has ever suggested he gets Statsbomb out and tells Jose he should sign player A because of his expected assist xG.

And to say Levy has zero football knowledge is pretty stupid. He has been at the centre of the industry and knows the game inside out in the business sense, and recruitment is as much to do with business as it is scouting.
Click to expand...

Listening to him talk about the Chrisitan Eriksen situation it appears he certainly is involved in the value placed on our players. Reading the Modric article it appears he was involved in the negotiations for his deal as well.

Personally I think he should stay out of all of that. I think that him sets the criteria for what he wants at the club is a poor idea but obviously is his right as owner. As an owner I prefer he sets the budget and allows the football people to work within that. If they need more then maybe he gets involved to find out if it is worth it to spend over the budget. If there is a player like Harry Kane that could effect the business dealings of the club then sure he could be involved in that decision but outside of that he should be out of the transfer business.

And sorry he does have knowledge of the soccer business but he doesn't have any skill or ability in terms of evaluating players. I think we have seen with how much we have bungled the transfer business but apparently been very good with our business business that there is a hell of a lot more to recruitment than business. I think that a lot of the errors that are made are likely due to business decisions over football decisons.
 
Igula said:
Its very good either.

Liverpool may use the same 3 man system that we supposedly do but they obviously use it better than we do.

I also don't see John Henry being as involved as Levy is, I wonder if Liverpool has a guy with zero football knowledge playing a key role on who they do or don't sign.
Click to expand...
Yup - Mike Gordon

Liverpool transfer committee key players are Michael Edwards, Barry Hunter and Dave Fallows. I know Michael but know nothing about the other two. Mike Gordon the President of Fenway is the Chairman of the committee he mirrors the Levy role and controls the purse strings .... John Henry is like Joe Lewis hardly involved at all.

Do you know anything about how big business football clubs operate?
 
The Outsider said:
Yup - Mike Gordon

Liverpool transfer committee key players are Michael Edwards, Barry Hunter and Dave Fallows. I know Michael but know nothing about the other two. Mike Gordon the President of Fenway is the Chairman of the committee he mirrors the Levy role and controls the purse strings .... John Henry is like Joe Lewis hardly involved at all.

Do you know anything about how big business football clubs operate?
Click to expand...

Yes
 
Igula said:
Yes - I also don't see John Henry being as involved as Levy, I wonder if Liverpool has a guy with zero football knowledge playing a key role?
Click to expand...
I must say you hide your knowledge very well - you don't even know the difference between the owner and the chairman - but hey guess that's not important right?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom