Transfers Summer Transfer thread - 2024

[JDefoe]

their current status is that of squad players and none of them are a lock for the 1st XI. Odobert is the closest which makes sense as he actually has a full season of prem football under his belt and we’re not that talented out wide.

Spurs fans are funny, everyone else is allowed to play their young prospects (Garnacho, Mainoo, Rico Lewis, Lewis Hall, Morgan Rodgers, and so many others I could name) and get their flowers for it but when it comes to your own club you start doubting immediately.

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There’s a few qualifiers I’d like to make here on those examples you mentioned - #1, just generally, whataboutism of other clubs isn't a productive exercise. Other clubs can do stupid things and that doesn't make our decisions any better in a vacuum. I evaluate Spurs and Spurs alone as we all should.

#2 - The players you mentioned are pretty much all academy players or bought for small fees, and have been at the club for a long time. Hall the only exception. Someone like Mainoo has been fully integrated with the system for years now and so has Lewis. This leads into my 3rd point, which is...

#3 - those players do NOT make up the bulk of transfer activity for their football clubs this summer. What we've done is spent close to 90m on 3 young players, invested high fees in them and expect them all to come in and hit the ground running. Do you see the difference in squad planning?

#4 - We needed to IMPROVE massively this summer. That's the whole thing here. Yes I am high on these young players as are most but the whole takeaway from last year was that we were not good enough, especially in the 2nd half of the season. Yes these kids might be great in spurts but for us to truly take a next step and kick on, they all need to be great, right away.

 

[Richard Arlison]

Honestly the player I wanted as an upgrade on Davies was Lloyd Kelly, but he chose Newcastle. I think VDV at LB is another temporary solution until the right player “who wants to play for Tottenham Hotspur” (Ange’s words not mine) comes along.

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Semenyo absolutely destroyed Kelly at LB the other day. He'd have been a decent option for LCB cover but he can't play LB in this system. Not in a month of Sundays. And they are paying him >100k pw.

Hincapie would have been the one for me but maybe he didn't want to come like you said. If they just didn't try to get him, honestly that would be a let down. Can't avoid that tbh.

 

[Yorkshire Yid]

Really below average window. The floor didn’t raise as much as it needed to, at all. Okay we got a lot of outgoings but that should have been a given

We’re seriously gambling on some breakouts from our young players, as well as no injuries to our defence. Super risky

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I don't think it's below average. Only big holes for me are LB and RW. But Johnson was bought last year for 50m we ain't gonna give up on him yet.

LB still the big issue big drop of from Undogie to Davies

 

[TeamSpirit™]

Would you be saying it’s a massive risk to rely on Doue if we’d signed him?

Because Odobert is more experienced and we actually know he’s a threat at premier league level so he’s much less risky.

Was it a risk to take Dele and put him in the team based on what he showed on a pre season tour? Because Gray had the same amount of Championship football on his CV before he showed the coaching staff in pre-season that he can be in the rotation now.

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Gray has more credentials now than Dele did at the time, Dele played in League One, he never played in the Championship.

 

[Richard Arlison]

As of tonight, we still have Reggie as emergency cover for LB for domestic ties.

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Not been in a match day squad and wasn't taken on a tour. He's gone mate. On loan or permanent is the only question.

 

[JDefoe]

Just another point on young players. I am massively high on Bergvall and think he genuinely may be an Eriksen level gem in the making but it’s like some of you have never watched 18 year olds play senior football before. They will make crucial mistakes. They will get bullied by bigger players. They will have struggles and ups and downs, especially away from home in unfamiliar environments.

Gray and Odobert do have English league experience but the exact same is true for them. They just aren’t grown men, neither mentally nor physically. We will rely heavily on these players walking into rocking stadiums of 60,000 people in foreign countries and performing at an elite level. And as I said before, them making mistakes and having growing pains is a guarantee. It is a feature, not a bug.

I hope it all works out but understand that it will not be smooth sailing all year. We play such a high intensity risk prone style as well which only exacerbates it. They will cost us matches and they will make big time mistakes... that's just the reality of it.

 

[Richard Arlison]

Gray has more credentials now than Dele did at the time, Dele played in League One, he never played in the Championship.

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Right. Gray was team of the season in the Championship btw.

 

[nasm_f]

You should have really taken in what was said before you came charging at me like a bull.

He clearly said the floor has been raised slightly .

And young players given the right environment, will improve if the coach believes in them, this is nothing new, we saw it under Jol and Pochettino.

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There is no guarantee of young players improving the level of the team, it is a gamble as the poster stated, a gamble which a team claiming to be competing for trophies shouldn't be taking.

IMO Last season we were screwed mainly because Dier, Emerson, Skipp, Hojbjerg, Lo Celso, Bryan & Solomon were found to be wholly inadequate doing what Ange wanted. What good is experience if you can’t do what the Coach wants in the first place?

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You've listed 7 squad players there who made 121 appearances between them last season and they've been replaced by 3 teenagers and you think this constitutes a guaranteed raising of the floor because of what happened under Poch and Jol?

Solanke is good because Richarlison cannot be relied on to stay fit.

If you look up at my posts in this thread, I’ve already spoken about my concern over the left side of defence. There’s still work to be done and we are far from the finished article.

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In this we are agreed.

Perhaps it is YOU who needs to take time and read before you start labelling others…

you know how to read right, you ignorant fuck? (word to Andy Dufrense).

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I stand by what I wrote, the level of the first team hasn't been improved anywhere near what it could have been, the depth has been half heartedly addressed by pinning a lot of it on teenagers coming good as well leaving clear positional depth needs short as per and it will cost us again. If that's good enough for you then we clearly have different thoughts on where the club should be aiming.

 

[Shadydan]

6/10 window

 

[JackJones’Locker]

Not been in a match day squad and wasn't taken on a tour. He's gone mate. On loan or permanent is the only question.

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All this is true BUT we still have slots for non-HG players and everything’s gone absolutely dead on him. Not a link except for Türkiye and Brokelona in weeks.
Perhaps something will come up last minute but it wouldn’t be the first time we’ve had to reintegrate a failed transfer back into the squad.
I’m not saying it will happen but I’d prefer this to releasing him.

 

[TeamSpirit™]

There’s a few qualifiers I’d like to make here of why those examples you mentioned - #1, just generally, whataboutism of other clubs isn't a productive exercise. Other clubs can do stupid things and that doesn't make our decisions any better in a vacuum. I evaluate Spurs and Spurs alone as we all should.

#2 - The players you mentioned are pretty much all academy players or bought for small fees, and have been at the club for a long time. Hall the only exception. Someone like Mainoo has been fully integrated with the system for years now and so has Lewis. This leads into my 3rd point, which is...

#3 - those players do NOT make up the bulk of transfer activity for their football clubs this summer. What we've done is spent close to 90m on 3 young players, invested high fees in them and expect them all to come in and hit the ground running. Do you see the difference in squad planning?

#4 - We needed to IMPROVE massively this summer. That's the whole thing here. Yes I am high on these young players as are most but the whole takeaway from last year was that we were not good enough, especially in the 2nd half of the season. Yes these kids might be great in spurts but for us to truly take a next step and kick on, they all need to be great, right away.

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Define “great”, because as it stands Gray & Bergvall aren’t going to be be starting week in week out, all they have to be for now is an improvement on Hojbjerg and Skipp and that’s not hard at all.

Odobert is 19 but he’s got a year of prem experience under him and has less adapting to do.

Neto is a crock (his inevitable injury is going to hit like Escobar’s finest), Eze is wholly unsuited the the role we needed filling.

Our first XI was very good last year, it was the bench/squad that got us into trouble. We’ve had a clearout of the deadwood (2 to go) and they’ll probably address the LCB issue in January.

 

[Richard Arlison]

All this is true BUT we still have slots for non-HG players and everything’s gone absolutely dead on him. Not a link except for Türkiye and Brokelona in weeks.
Perhaps something will come up last minute but it wouldn’t be the first time we’ve had to reintegrate a failed transfer back into the squad.
I’m not saying it will happen but I’d prefer this to releasing him.

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He's exactly the type of player that clubs wait until deadline day for. The price will come down or the loan fee with with no obligation will be so cheap because we just need him off the wage bill.

 

[TeamSpirit™]

Just another point on young players. I am massively high on Bergvall and think he genuinely may be an Eriksen level gem in the making but it’s like some of you have never watched 18 year olds play senior football before. They will make crucial mistakes. They will get bullied by bigger players. They will have struggles and ups and downs, especially away from home in unfamiliar environments.

Gray and Odobert do have English league experience but the exact same is true for them. They just aren’t grown men, neither mentally nor physically. We will rely heavily on these players walking into rocking stadiums of 60,000 people in foreign countries and performing at an elite level. And as I said before, them making mistakes and having growing pains is a guarantee. It is a feature, not a bug.

I hope it all works out but understand that it will not be smooth sailing all year. We play such a high intensity risk prone style as well which only exacerbates it. They will cost us matches and they will make big time mistakes... that's just the reality of it.

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And that’s fine by me. It’s not me saying we should be on City’s level in year 2 after losing our Talisman.

 

[Richard Arlison]

Just another point on young players. I am massively high on Bergvall and think he genuinely may be an Eriksen level gem in the making but it’s like some of you have never watched 18 year olds play senior football before. They will make crucial mistakes. They will get bullied by bigger players. They will have struggles and ups and downs, especially away from home in unfamiliar environments.

Gray and Odobert do have English league experience but the exact same is true for them. They just aren’t grown men, neither mentally nor physically. We will rely heavily on these players walking into rocking stadiums of 60,000 people in foreign countries and performing at an elite level. And as I said before, them making mistakes and having growing pains is a guarantee. It is a feature, not a bug.

I hope it all works out but understand that it will not be smooth sailing all year. We play such a high intensity risk prone style as well which only exacerbates it. They will cost us matches and they will make big time mistakes... that's just the reality of it.

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Willing to bet Bergvall makes less mistakes all season than I've seen Hojberg make in one game.

Every time PEH came on as a sub or started you just knew there would be one hospital pass or he'd just outright give it to your opponent in a fucking dangerous position.

 

[TeamSpirit™]

There is no guarantee of young players improving the level of the team, it is a gamble as the poster stated, a gamble which a team claiming to be competing for trophies shouldn't be taking.

You've listed 7 squad players there who made 121 appearances between them last season and they've been replaced by 3 teenagers and you think this constitutes a guaranteed raising of the floor because of what happened under Poch and Jol?

In this we are agreed.

I stand by what I wrote, the level of the first team hasn't been improved anywhere near what it could have been, the depth has been half heartedly addressed by pinning a lot of it on teenagers coming good as well leaving clear positional depth needs short as per and it will cost us again. If that's good enough for you then we clearly have different thoughts on where the club should be aiming.

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Tell me good sir, what would you have done to make us title challengers this season?

 

[Rafa’sWand]

Right. Gray was team of the season in the Championship btw.

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Gray wasn’t in TOTS. I watched him 15-20 times last season, he didn’t stand out really in any games but gave a 6-7/10 every game whilst being played at RB or CM when needed. For a young lad of 17/18 he did very well. I don’t think he’s quite good enough for us yet to get lots of minutes in a PL squad, should be at Leeds for another season.

 

[TeamSpirit™]

Right. Gray was team of the season in the Championship btw.

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And Bergvall was called up by Sweden, Odobert was in the Olympic squad and we know what Kompany thinks of him, and Yang has been called up to the Korean senior side.

Give my young exciting talent (and all the growing pains that come with it) over experienced mediocrity anyday.

These guys aren’t Josh Onomah or Tom Carroll. Stop acting like they are.

 

[Ed Vanderlay]

6/10 window

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Agreed , one quality experienced signing away from an 8. Levy always leaves us short it seems , sometimes disastrously so , sometimes by a vital cog or 2 . Ironically it’s more frustrating when he does what is asked, as in does deals early and then puts the brakes on . One gets lulled into thinking this time we might actually go for it .

Clearly I still prefer doing business early rather than late from a practical point of view, just wish we would complete the jigsaw just once .

 

[Skippa18]

6/10 window

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Is 5/10 standing still?

 

[Richard Arlison]

View: https://x.com/footballconfid1/status/1829280972061438220

Is it somehow possible to agree with most of this and yet somehow still feel positive about the season and the direction of the football team?

Because that's me right now.

I don't think the club invests to the same level that it charges fans and I don't think the club is investing in the way you'd expect from a club that's desperate to win big trophies.

But in the same breath, I can see that the players we have brought in and moved on, ALL fit within a plan and it's a plan consciously constructed within the parameters set by the economic model of the club.

Ange said he needs a specific type of psycho that wants to prove they can come to a club like Spurs with the unique situation it has and show they are the ones who can win here. He has the same mentality. I am buzzing to watch us play every week and the talent in this squad is properly, properly exciting. For now and even more so the future.