Spurs Banter Archive February 01 2013

01 Feb 2013 21:54:49
With frustration high after last night I've had a go at penning a song for west Brom game to lighten the mood in here.
To the tune of Gary NUMAN Cars
Odemwingie's in his car
He drove from Hawthorns
to QPR
But they locked all the doors
West Brom permission they won't
Give
In Cars
Odemwingie's in his car
With his agent he's peeved
He listened to you
It keeps him a joke until the end of days
In Bars
Odemwingie's in his car
When his move breaks down
Will you sign me please
Will you open the door
QPR
Odemwingie's in his car
Now he's started to think
About driving tonight
Although nothing was agreed
In Cars

Espur

01 Feb 2013 18:28:51
Lets all calm down and ask ourselves did we really want Damiao anyway, £17-19m is a joke for a player unproven in the prem not in the Brazil squad and not at his peak by any means - I think Villa paid a lot less for Benteke so why is our scouting network not finding these players? - I think the club turned down the chance twice for Michu!

We don't have to spend £20m on a striker but as usual we don't seem to find that low cost jewel like Berbatov and its about time we did even if we have to pay loads of add ons if he is the nuts.

I am glad we never spent that large sum on an unproven player because we can't just loan them out like Chelski (lukaku) but we can loan out cheaper players if found.

If Levy couldn't find an up and coming Benteke in this window why didn't he do a loan deal for someone, I would have had Bent back (dont laugh) or someone from abroad.

Looserpool only paid £12m for Sturridge this remains to seen if this a good deal but he is only 23 has played in the prem and is £4m-£5m cheaper than Damiao so a punt worth taking!

Levy HAS to deliver in the Summer big time or there is no point in the AVB project continuing.

Lets not start going on about the summer! If we fail to qualify for CL then who is going to want to come to us, especially when we lose Bale! Didn't Levy watch that game against Norwich? This is one player we can't afford to lose, he is exceptional and not only is Levy risking our CL place but also risking losing a player who every one will be after! One thing seems clear to me, either Levy is a crap business man as you have to speculate to accumulate, or that Levy and Lewis care not about the club or its supporters just the profits for themselves! We all have our opinions on that!
Oh and just to finish off, please don't preach about Obika and Harry Kane, neither of them are fit to lace the boots of a decent scorer!
Davo

01 Feb 2013 15:46:41
I have to say that the failure to secure a world class striker in this window is simply outrageous. As you know I have always been a loyal Levy supporter, and will remain so from a wider business perspective, but I have to say he has let the club down in their hour of need 3 consecutive times.

People are talking about the reported lose of £4.3m which is being attributed tot he lack of Champions League Football. Had we bought the required striker in the last 3 windows I doubt this would have been an issue. More importantly the loss is very meaningless and disguised in the fact that Modric for example left after June which was when the financial year ended.

Lets review te real facts of the club, and try to use the actual transfer figures and not some media spun hype. One thing we really need to consider is those players like King who left on massive wages, thus wouldobvious save millions eve if they did not generate sales revenues. King for example was paid £84, 875 per week which is £13, 240, 500 on a three year contract for example. Simply alloowing players like King, Nelson, Woodgate & Saha to leave frees up massive revenues of over £250,000 per week.

Last season we sold the following players;

Crouch - Stoke City £9, 944,000
Palacios - Stoke City £7, 920,000
Pavlyuchenko - Lokomotiv Moscow £7, 920,000
Hutton - Aston Villa £3, 960,000
Keane - Los Angeles Galaxy £3, 300,000

All we brought in was Scott Parker for £5, 456,000 and padded the team with freebies like Freidel, Saha and Nelson. In summary we bank £28m + the sponsorship additional revenues, the champions league successes and the league position. The total revenue that should have been made available to strengthen the team was slightly more than £57m.

This season we technically released many free transfers like Jenas, Saha, Nelson, Cudicini, Jansson and Alnwick. We sold £59, 294, 400 of players in the shape of Modric, Van Der Vaart, Dos Santos, Bassong, Krancjar, Pienaar, Corluka and Button. However we purchased £64, 460,000 of players in the shape of Dembele, Lloris, Vertonghen, Sigurdson, Adebayor, Dempsey, Fryers and Holtby. In reality we trimmed the wage bill slightly and therefore the actuarial project spend was infact a profit.

So over the last two seasons the club has managed to disguise circa £60m in actual available funds, and we are left with a team that is short in many positions. I do feel we are slightly stronger than last year overall, and the more youthful make up of the team should help to reduce our exposure to fatigue.

I do however feel we are very light with Sandro out for the season and Kaboul still out. Adebayor will soon be returning but his form as well as Defoe look suspect at best. Sigurdson looks ok as a squad player, Dembele keep threatening to be world class before going AWOL and we are reliant on Bale and Lennon to do all the work with no cover.

Not signing Damiao is crazy, failing to secure a player like Urby Emanualson on a free is plain stupid and charging the earth to our loyal fans and not investing on securing the future is just bad business. For if the Champions League is worth £30m+ to each club, surely the risk of not buying in a position we clearly need more depth and quality is mindless.

On a positive note I know that we can still secure 4th, albeit no thanks to Daniel Levy on this occassion. I pray that Holtby is 50% of the hype he has been recieving and Zeki Fryers can provide the proper support to challenge BAE. At last we might give naughton a chance to actually play in his natural position and challenge Walker. Vertonghen might soon be pairing with the beast Kaboul, Holtby replacing what we lost in VDV and Dembele stepping up with Parker to general the midfield. Lets hope the ANC has freshened up Adebayor and returns to start firing in the goals again.

Perhaps with Champions League secured, the summer might see us finally get the quality we need to push on to the next level.

The Oracle

Where is Damiao?

You said 100% already done deal.

Then you come on here spouting all this? It obviously wasnt a done deal or 100% so how do you expect people to take anything you say seriously anymore?

NorthernSpur

Great post Oracle. I must disagree with your outlay of £64 million on the players you listed last Summer. I make the total £52 million which would add an extra £ 12 million to your total which should be available. We can still get fourth but it will be some battle.

The Don

As a non-executive director how was the lack of activity explained/justified to you by the Chairman?

You do know the abuse will come regarding your predictions? dispite what you just said to be spot on!

And yet you still fail to admit you were wrong about Damiao, when you said that he was signed sealed and delivered ready to be unveiled. Do us all a favour, admit you talk tosh and never darken our doors again!

BMcA

Not signing Damiao is not crazy, signing Damiao for 15-20m would have been crazy.

Oh Oracle you confuse me. You don't even say we are GOING to sign Leandro, but that we HAVE signed him. So time and time again you post up rubbish like this. But then you post a commentary that I think is spot on.

We don't need the money at the moment, we have a sizeble war chest. We need a quality number 9 that can score goals when teams drop deep agaisnt us to nullify Bale and Lennon. Leandro or Negredo could do this, but instead we take the gamble of being found out like we were last year.


Good post, but I'm amazed you decided to show your face back here so soon after you were proven 100% wrong.

Wulf.

01 Feb 2013 14:57:51
So. AVB said he was happy with his striking options (Only Defoe at the time), we fail with Damiao bid and a day later we recall Harry Kane from Norwich. Deep inside AVB wanted a striker for definite but clubs would of wanted more ££ had he publicly said he wanted one. Overall AVB and us wanted Damiao or somebody similar. We have ended up with Harry kane. It's a shame really, but surely we will snap up a 10-20mil striker in the summer when we have champions league! let's continue to back the team and get one over those stupid gooners! YIDS!

Think I saw something that Kane had been back a week already and we had offered him on loan to several PL teams and none wanted him.

01 Feb 2013 12:51:20
Well I'm gutted no forward came this window and was hoping avb was keeping his cards close to his cheat when he said no forward will come in this transfer window but looks like he stuck to his word but no sure about levy yeah has taken the club forward over past 10 years but from the end of last year what happening ok harry go's after finishing 4! Get in avb don't give him the transfers he wants cause they Were Harry's apart from dempsey and that only happened last min cause we fall to get moutinho the player levy told avb he would do everything to get lol and now we have gone and got holtby I really like him is going to be great in pl and will only get better and at 1. 5 but levy will only be thinking money in the bank for when we sell him and I'm 100% sure he is covering his ass no cl sell bale get more then if we was in cl give avb 15/20 of it and put rest into new ground I for one want cl before we get our new ground we will attract bigger sponsors bigger name players to keep us a top 4 team for years to come
Coys go get top 4 and make us fans proud your the players we pay to see the team we love
Spurs T

01 Feb 2013 12:14:12
So here we all are exactly where most of us knew we would be today. Like the morning after hangover but the party was rubbish.

We are the people that make this club, we are the fans that go to the Emirates and are humiliated the fans that support Tottenham until we die. Blue and White Army thru and Thru.

I don't want people preaching to me about what we can and cannot afford and having reality checks.

The simple fact is one of two answers EITHER the current squad is not good enough? or The Current Coach is not good enough.

Of the current squad in my opinion only Lennon and Bale and latterly Scotty deserve their wages. Ou best player by a mile is out for 9 mths. The world class striker that we spent an age trying to prise from Man City is not firing. Defoe will never have the consistency to be a 20 goal a campaign striker. Siggy, Dembele, Dempsey and Verts are all playing Well below their ability, well below as currently is Walker. Naughton and Calker are not top notch. Loris is quality.

So there you have it. We were rubbish at QPR, did nt want it at Leeds and on;ly a Bale wonder goal saved us at Norwich.

I don't know how many more times I got to say it, they are not up to it, they got no hunger and no fight and it is the manager and Coaches job to get them to play to their proven abilities and show those characteristics.

As for Mr Levy he thinks he's smart but he's not, he is deluded. £50 mil in this window would have put us right in the mix and without Champions League we are done for so it is obvious that the owners do not care a monkeys about US the fans or pride. But because its our team we will go on putting up with this.

AVB is a good enough coach to get this team firing the talent is there and we are only 4th due to the mediocrity of those around us. Forget 4th place we have no chance. To half if we are lucky. The heads have already dropped its written all over them and don't anyone on here say they can't see and feel it coming

01 Feb 2013 08:49:40
I know all the top people at spurs and i'm well in the know.

Just spoke to my good mate levy and he told me a fee is agreed a fee with inter for Damaio for first day of summer window. That is all at the moment but i'm going to post this every day for the next 6 months because I have no life and I am very lonely.

The Boreacle

just kidding I have no contacts at all so know about as much as the oracle and the channeller which is just what I read in the paper

01 Feb 2013 07:34:07
1 ) levy or enic or both are an absolute joke. both in business terms and footballing terms, please someone buy this beautiful proud club and bring the art back to top flight English football. there is just no excuse for such short sightedness.
2 ) an act of genius knowing until the new stadium is built we couldn't sustain challenging for the title without getting into serious debt.
either way I know i'm seriously miffed.
anyone reckon its worth trying Sigurdsson up front?
its time for AVB to show his genius

01 Feb 2013 08:48:50
Oracle? Where for art thou. ? Get back into your box until June, my friend.

Damiao is coming, Damiao is coming we heard you insist. Instead the only thing we heard out of the Lodge last night was a collective sigh of relief as we finally, finally got rid of Jermaine Jenas, who for the last three seasons has pretty much used the club as his own personal ATM. Good old Harry, still helping us out!

Gomes too, out to Hoffenheim. Another few loan casualties departed meaning we have lightened the wage bill considerably in one fell swoop. Combine that with the departures of Modric and VdV, we've made considerable savings in salary expenses over the last six or seven months. But were we making room for a top, elite player? I had my hopes last night, but silly me, of course we weren't. The last few transfer windows have simply been seen by Mr Levy and the board as an opportunity for a cost cutting exercise. And to be fair, they have certainly trimmed the fat away.

But that still leaves us in the same position as we have been in for the last few seasons. We are flirts. We flirt with success, yet don't embrace it. We tease ourselves into thinking we're a big club, but yet we never seem to make it. Like many on this site, I felt that bringing in at least one striker and possibly a defensive midfielder would certainly have ensured we would finish were we are now, but all we have done is encourage the others around us that we have a wavering sense of purpose when we had the chance to dishearten the teams around us and knock them off their pedestals. Instead, we seem intent on helping Sky out. We'll keep the race for 4th place alive, don't you worry Mr Murdoch!

Speaking of Sky and the wider TV deal and the imminent bonanza it is going to deliver, isn't it sad to see teams like Newcastle and QPR spending like there's no tomorrow, simply to assure themselves of Premiership status? If we had shown half as much drive as them, we'd have been a shoe in for 4th. As it is.

All very disappointing if I'm honest. Look at the players we could have had for an outlay of less than £15m - Sneijder, Sissoko and Llorente. Jeez. Missed opportunities or what, 'eh?

But there's always a silver lining to the end of this window - one, no Hooper and what will undoubtedly be a self-imposed sabbatical for 'the Oracle'.

PS. Oracle, can you take that guy 'the Channeller' with you, please? He's as much of an a$$ as you.

Thanks for listening to the moans and groans, guys. Onwards and upwards. As usual, in the days after a transfer window, I guess all we can do as Spurs fans is keep the faith.

Can't wait until I win the lottery and offer to buy a player so that Levy doesn't have to worry about cost for a while.

01 Feb 2013 08:13:36
For those who are saying Levy out. . why don't YOU get out! Look at what the guy has done with us over the past 10 years or so. Going from a normal mid table team to challenging for a Champions League place for the past 4/5 seasons.

How dare you call for his head. He has spent minimal, yet has reaped so much reward from our squad.

He is doing business the RIGHT way.

He isn't giving into fan/media pressure and paying over the odds for normal or unproven players. He is keeping the books even and before you know it we'll be in our new 60,000 stadium.

Patience. In Daniel Levy I believe.

88

I can assure you that even those most loyal like me have list some faith in Daniel Levy. Failure to sign a striker when we are in pole position is just outrageous.

We all pray Adebayor and Defoe can turn it up in the run to the line. One thing is certain, Levy has rolled the dice on our future.

The Oracle

01 Feb 2013 06:58:00
Same old same old Tottenham. Levy can not do anything in out time of need top 6 if we are lucky. Not a fan of AVB as of yet but time will tell but as for our chairman get him out he is to closley linked with saving money for his bonus than making spurs in to a club it has the potential to be. COYS

01 Feb 2013 06:32:38
Banter please Ed!
Why do we do it? We go every week when we can, we buy the merchandise when we can, the food, the drinks,
and the crap that we get dealt by the club. We then get the supporters on the sites saying, well he has done this for us, and that, and where was we when Enic took over and where would we be know, and if this and that had happened last year we would have had champions league! Well I for one don't like dwelling on the past, I don't sit there on saturdays in the cold, the wet, the sunshine, thinking we have done this in the past be grateful. I don't drive hundreds of miles to games, pay out hundreds of pounds for tickets and shirts, thinking well done to the others for finishing above us each year! Yes Levy has got us on a sound footing, but he has also fu***d us over time and time again. Trying to move us against our will, bad mistakes in the transfer markets, not selling the dross for whatever he could get so they sit and pick up big money, etc! He isn't interested in the club, he is there to make money for the owners and its time we faced that fact. When we were sat there yesterday waiting for the news that the one player we needed might sign, he was probably sat in his big house or in a flash restaurant, with his phone off, writing his six monthly speech, ' we tried this and that, really we did, but it just didn't happen '. Not only has he let us down again, but he has let down one of the best managers in the PL. Still come the end of the season when Bale sails away ( who can blame him, club with ambition but no balls ) the bank account swells again. And then he might just buy us someone, six months late again, so they can join us in the Thursday night competition if we make it!
Still I suppose I better get ready for Saturday, empty the cash point, and HOPE, because if the results go wrong then, will we still be FOURTH?
Sorry for the rant but we have a club with the best supporters in the world, continually let down by the board / owners, who I have supported through thick and thin for 45 years,
Davo

Completely agree Davo, just done a post very similar myself. It's hard being a spurs fan sometimes, especially when the manager and fans don't get the backing from the board, but we soldier on!

Dom

01 Feb 2013 00:58:36
I am disgusted and bitterly disappointed. It is clear that we BADLY need a top striker and we should have money (£40 million from CL qualification and a great deal more in players sold then bought over the last two years, estimate another £20 million). What did we get. Two players costing £3 million and no striker. Sure we were treated to Levy's STUPID carry on of making an offer for Damaio on the last day and again too late just like Moutinho in the summer. It is not professional carry on and it certainly does not get the required result. We are also in danger of losing the respect of other clubs ie. Lyon were disgusted with Levy's behaviour in the Verts deal. We the supporters should protest by writing in our disapproval. We are a football club first and a business second.

The Don

Think you mean the Lloris deal.

Sorry, should have read the Lloris deal.

The Don