There's even more to sending out three and bringing in 2. That means there's a roster spot for an academy prospect if one is catching Conte's eye.
I will miss Alli. When he was playing well he was simply a joy to watch. Fun, verve, creativity, beauty. When it was lost I kept watching for the old Alli to return. Glimpses seen, but never consistently. Sad. I want him to be a great footballer because I believe that's really possible for him. Fare Well, Dele!
I won't miss him because he is a disgrace. He basically downed tools and was stealing his salary from the club. I will miss the talent unfulfilled. If he applied himself, he would be an automatic selection in this squad. His first 2 seasons, he scored 28 goals in 70 appearances and then only 23 in 111. He reminds me of Adebayor, a player who if he applied himself, would have been one of the best, but for some reason wouldn't, mainly because he was a high-paid dickhead. I have no time for rich athletes who couldn't give a flying. That scene with Jose in the Amazon doc summed him up perfectly. It was the only time Mourinho made any sense in his time at Spurs.
Harsh. But I must concede that moving him on provides very little - if any - remorse. And that is seldom the case with me; especially with a player with history at the club. Ndombele? Good riddance. LoCelso? He's more of what's typical for me ... there's a player in there ... why aren't we seeing it? There's a player in Ndombele, too, but he just can't be arsed. Dele's somewhere in between. He's not been used much in the same ways that saw him at his best, so maybe it's not just about effort ... but maybe it is, and how long ya gonna give it? Anyway, good luck to him. I hope he does well at Everton, a club who's successes I don't disparage. If it didn't affect our bottom line, I wouldn't much care about Ndombele's footballing future. But it does, so I hope he makes a fist of it back in France.
If Harry Winks is getting picked ahead of you in a mediocre squad, it's not because you're not being used properly, it's because you lack desire and effort, and there is no excuse for that. He had that hunger when he came here from MK Dons, but once he got his juicy contract, he decided he was king of the manor and checked out.
Re Dele, I just think we changed the way we played and he couldn't or wouldn't adapt. Watching him one or two-touch a long pinged pass from Alderweireld into the net was beautiful, but for whatever reason his game of runs into the box stopped happening and the rest of his game simply wasn't as good. If he's played to those strengths he'll be a success again imo. I wish him the best. I don't think he became Bill BigBollocks, but only time will tell. I hope Lamps gets a tune out of him.
Winks is good but needs certain players alongside him to function properly. Lo Celso and Ndombele also have really good players in there somewhere. Not working here, move them on. I read a great quote in the comments from Dele's Everton transfer. It was something like; 'You can join Everton or restart your career Dele, you can't do both.'
I don't know what Conte and his staff have done with H. Winks, but he is doing stuff he never did before, like making meaningful passes forward, tackling opposing players and covering a lot of ground. So the coaching definitely had something to do with it but the player also has to have the desire to improve and work, which is clearly something that is lacking with Dele. And his decline started once he signed his big contract after his third season.
Nature's first green is gold Her hardest hue to hold Her early leaf's a flower But only so an hour Then leaf subsides to leaf So Eden sank to grief So dawn goes down to day Nothing gold can stay.
It doesn't matter how much talent you have or where you play, if you don't want to work and lack desire, and just want to collect your paycheck, you will be a Dele/ Ndombele/Adebayor. One of the reasons we had success under Poch was that he got these kinds of players out of the club. Conte is doing the same thing.
C'mon, Winks did all of those things - and did them better - under Poch, before he got hurt. I'm ecstatic that he's finding some form again, but it's hardly as though he's showing something heretofore unknown. The reality is that a football side (and team) can be a complex thing, and we really don't have a clue (or at least nothing more than a clue) as to how things go, save the results come matchday. The same player, trying to play the same way, can look great in certain sides, and appear rudderless in another. When someone like Adebayor cruises up in his Rolls-Royce, smiles at the staff, and jogs off to train with the reserves, it's a fair bet that he's coasting. But we don't know how hard Dele's been working, we only know that whatever effort he's putting in isn't working. And that's reason enough to move him on ... but it doesn't validate criticizing his character. Maybe he's gotten the big contract and is just dialing it in, but we don't know that. People have spent the last few season ripping Winks apart, and among the criticisms of his inability to find a teammate going forward were implications that he simply couldn't be bothered to do what it takes to be effective. I don't know, of course, but present evidence suggests that was nonsense. Dele, it turns out, lost form at roughly the same time as a number of our better players (and the team, in general) lost form. Eriksen had to move on to find it again ... but find it he did. Toby needed a new manager before coming good again. Things change. It's complicated. And none of us, if we're honest, really knows anything beyond the results. Ndombele looks like he can't be bothered, and has done under three managers, now. That's good enough for me ... out you go. But he'll probably look great again in France. So what ... he just won't try in England? Maybe. Or maybe it's something else. Who knows?
Incidentally, the reason that Poch purged the likes of Lennon, Kaboul, and Capoue wasn't because they lacked desire and didn't want to earn their pay. It was supposedly because they didn't buy in to Poch's vision 100%; he saw them as dissenters, not lazy. Holtby, to be fair, was said to be 'not serious enough', so maybe we can file that under 'lacking desire', but even he wasn't accused of sloth.
I read a lot about how hard Dele was working in the off season to improve his fitness. I don't think the problem with him was lack of effort. Not this season, anyway. N'dombele isn't made for a league where all 10 outfield players have to run all the time. Lo Celso, I just don't think he's good enough for England. But really I think it comes down to what Conte calls "trust." Could he trust N'dombele to give 100% effort? I think the answer is clearly no. Can he trust Skipp and Hojbjerg to always give 100%? I think so. And the two guys we brought in seem like they can be trusted to give 100% effort. Sometimes more effort overcomes more skill. See our matches against FC Mura and the like. I'm pretty happy with the window overall. Really hope Lo Celso and Ndombele don't come back. Paratici has enough to do without flogging those guys to every team in Europe.
If you are not getting into a Conte team, you are either not good enough or you are not putting in the effort. I will trust his judgment based on his record. With Dele, it was clearly the latter and it wasn't just under Conte. Why should I have any sympathy for a talented player pulling in 150K a week and not putting in the effort? Eriksen had simply run down his contract and wanted a move - he was basically a dead man walking in a Spurs shirt.