On the plus side we’ve had a better transfer window than Real Madrid who lost their coach and star player and they won the Champions’ League, so …
http://www.skysports.com/football/news/11095/11456642/reo-griffiths-leaves-tottenham-to-join-lyon Reo Griffiths joins Lyon on a 4 year deal. He scored 33 goals for our under 18 side last season and one of our most promising youth players. He wanted out to get regular football I think and rumors that he had an attitude problem, good luck to him though.
A lot of chatter around today about Lewis Cook from Bournemouth, 30m the rumoured cost. As a young, immensely talented English player on the fringes of the international team he very much fits the profile. Really comfortable on the ball, I quite like the thinking - he's a bit like Harry Winks in my book, a 2 way midfielder not scared to get stuck in but more than useful going forward. Between the two of them there's an obvious succession plan in place for Mousa.
He sounds like the kind of player you buy when you realize you're not going to get either Kovacic or Grealish.
Reports are Grealish is still in play, with Chelsea being thrown in for fun. Most of these are like predicting where the wind will send a leaf...but money talks and Villa has less than Tottenham or Chelsea.
I think the reality is finally setting in on what a burden the new stadium is going to be to our transfer dealings (something about pachyderms in rooms comes to mind). If we are talking rumours about players like Jack Grealish and Lewis Cook we are in deep doo-doo. Poch did get his with his new contrat, but he may live to regret not taking RM up on their offer. With less than a week to go until the window shuts and the heart of the team still on summer holiday and no new signings, we could be in for a rude awakening at the start of the season.
Not the least but surprising, but sounds like Toby to United is a done deal. Based on United’s pre-season it might very well end up a case of “be careful what you wish for” Now with £60m to play with can we sign someone? And not Grealish for £40m.
£25m you mean? Due to the homegrown rule for the champions league squads and we are short of them (Dier doesn't count as homegrown)this move kinda makes sense, though we will have to go over £30m to get him. In this market that is not totally insane but he won't be a starter since he hasn't proven he is good enough to start for us yet.
Looks like Spurs snookered themselves with their transfer strategy (if they ever had one). I am now convinced that the new stadium is going to have a negative impact on the ability of the club to sign the players we need to move to the next level. Basically, the strategy was this: sell Toby, Mousa and Danny and hope to recoup 130-150m pounds, and then go out and buy the players Poch had earmarked. Well, because of Levy's intransigence over Toby's fee, Man U have backed away, knowing they can get him for 25m next summer, without having to haggle with Levy. Rose is basically worthless after his poor season and WC. It now looks like our best hope for a signing is Jack Grealish. What should have been a straight-forward signing for a cut rate price at the beginning of the window, with Villa in desperate financial straits, may not happen, thanks to the greed of Daniel Levy who thought he could drive the fee down even lower. Every time we are on the verge of something special at this club, we find a way to throw it away. Sigh.
It's going to be a long hard season and a top 4 finish very unlikely. Given that we are missing so many players for the Newcastle match on Saturday it could be a bad start to the season, shameful.
One thing that strikes me as genuinely odd is the Toby/Martial impasse. Taking the media reports with a grain of salt of course, but it appears all the following are true. Each player wants to leave their current club Each manager’s relationship with the player has deteriorated likely meaning both players will not be starters Each club has expressed a desire to sign the opposite player I certainly understand not wanting to sell to a rival, but surely in this instance it’s at least a somewhat equitable trade where both teams are hurt and both teams benefit. The only point of contention would be is there a difference that warrants cash going in one direction; to which I'd say Toby would be a starter and Martial would not so sling over £10m and call it a day. And opening the new stadium to Liverpool who had a massive offseason could kick off the stadium Wembley-hoodoo style could just exacerbate an already complicated season. I’m not privy to all the goings on at the club, but this is maybe the most important season for Tottenham in decades yet the offseason approach has been one of a club that’s coming off the back of a treble.
I was going to wait until the end of the window before judging it but forget it. There's nothing Levy can do in the next 24 hours that can compare to how to everybody else has improved. If this team somehow qualifies for the 2019-20 Champions League it will be the single greatest accomplishment of Poch's career, player or manager.
We assume other teams have improved... sometimes, it seems to me that the transfer market equates to the shuffling of a deck of cards. Lots of movement, but no clear outcome in the cards redistributing in a way that particularly benefits a team. They may look beneficial, until the hands get played. How many times have we seen players come to teams with extreme expectations of contributions, only to see them do practically nothing, lose their starting role, and eventually be quietly sold for pennies on the dollar? The only thing we really know is that teams have bought players. Just as Spurs did with the Gareth Bale money, we bought a ton of players and few of them panned out. IMO, Spurs experience is the common experience. Until the season gets going, we don't know if all these player moves have made a difference.
Apparently there’s a loophole in the transfer deadline. Clubs will still be able to sign players on loan through 31 August. I harbor absolutely no illusions that will materially change things for us, but it is an additional 21 days to torture ourselves with silly Twitter rumors.
The players and manager will have greater insight than I, but to from the outside looking in the failure to strengthen the squad sends a clear message from Levy that winning the league is not a priority this season. Cliche to be so doom & gloom, but I think this is will be a point in our history we’ll look on as point where we should have been bold and instead retreated. I’m sure somewhere in the new stadium To Dare is To Do will be prominently displayed. Shame our owners didn’t heed that advice. Ultra-cynical view, ENIC is setting Tottenham up for sale and don’t want to incur anymore debt/restrict their ability to pay down the debt on the new stadium. They’ve paid out £51m to Sugar and ~£18 to Stelios which took their stake to 51% and apparently have increased that to 85% since then. AEG came close once, with the NFL field and new stadium they might come calling again.
April 21: May 13: May 24: #thfc BREAKING: Poch & his staff have signed new 5-year deals until 2023. He has received assurances from Levy that there will be significant funds to spend this summer to take the club to the next level. A host of key players set to follow.— Dan Kilpatrick (@Dan_KP) May 24, 2018 July 30: August 9: #thfc Key MP quote: "It's difficult to understand that Tottenham didn't sign or sell players players. Sometimes in football, you need to behave differently. If we're happy with our squad and we cannot improve our squad, it's better to keep our squad together."— Dan Kilpatrick (@Dan_KP) August 9, 2018 Full circle.
It was a great summer for Pochettino. he got his big contract and knows if Real or any of the big clubs come calling, he can leave whenever he wants. A lot of empty and contradictory talk from the gaffer as you can read in the previous post. It was a bad summer for the club and the supporters. With no new signings and the heart of our starting XI heavily involved in the WC, we are in for a difficult beginning to the season, and have sent a clear signal to our top rivals that we are weak. Basically, it comes down to this simple equation: New stadium = no new signings = bye, bye, CL and to our top players.