Spurs Banter Archive August 07 2014

 

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07 Aug 2014 16:44:49
Team for next season?

GK - Lloris
RB - Walker
CB - Mussachio
CB - Vertonghen
LB - Davies
CM - Schneiderlin
CM - Holtby
AMR - Lamela
AMC - Eriksen
AML - Depay
ST - Soldado

Unlikely we will get all 3 of Muss/Schneid/Depay but on paper it looks very nice indeed. Honestly believe Holtby deserves a run in for the new season as his work rate and desire is second to none and also been very impressive in pre-season!

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I like it BW.

Maybe change Holtby for me.!A little bit lightweight & cannot boss the midfield keep Sandro. I wouldn't read to much into pre-season games & to be fair our opposition pre-season hasn't been a real test if we're all honest.

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I agree Sandro should be kept but with Poch's style of play I can't see Sandro being able to play the role of coming deep inbetween the CB's to play the ball out of defence as well as the likes of Schneiderlin. I suppose we'll have to see how we go about it but none the less, we definitely have strength in depth across the field.

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Change the CMs and it looks good. Schneiderlin is to expensive and Capoue is better than him. Holtby is 3rd rate, if Michael Dawson was a midfielder he would be a Lewis Holtby. Sandro all day.

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07 Aug 2014 23:36:27
Your wrong about Holtby.

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Holtby isn't bad, but is a bit of a headless chicken at times! Give Capuoe a chance!

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If fit Sandro has to play, top 2 or 3 DM in the league when fit, reads the play so well and breaks up the play like the beast he is.

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Decent looking starting XI but would prefer Capoue & Schneiderlin in the middle, bit of muscle and able to boss the middle of the park. Still don't see Soldado being able to play as lone striker but service last season was shocking so maybe with some decent service he could show what he is really capable of.

Possible starting XI?

Lloris

Walker Mussachio Vertonghen Davies


Schneiderlin Capoue

Lamela Depay


Eriksen

Soldado

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Craigh, now that's a team I agree with?

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That would be nice Craigh, just need to get the cheque book out now.

If we can get our 3 playing like Oscar, Hazard, Willian and Soldado to play like Jimmy Greaves we'd be in with a shout.

All If's, But's & Maybe's. But good shout fella.

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09 Aug 2014 16:07:25
I know we're still far from done deals on the likes of Schneiderlin & Depay guys but surely the resources are they to purchase these guys and especially if that's the targets Poch has identified. I know we spent a lot last season but our "net spend' was next to nothing so here's hoping Levy backs the new manager in the next few weeks as I'm sure he promised him when he was signing on the dotted line.

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07 Aug 2014 16:40:21
Really hope we can pull of the Depay signing, exciting news IMO. young player with bags of potential.

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Potential earner for L#vy you mean

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07 Aug 2014 14:25:09
I have often expressed doubts about the effectiveness of constant heavy spending on players, so I have compared our spending with our league positions over the past 10 years. For my analysis, I have assumed that a league season starts in July, when the summer transfer window opens.

If I look at gross spending, our 5 highest spending years produced an average League position of 7, but our five lowest spending years resulted in an average position of 5.4.

If I look at net spending, our 5 highest spending years resulted in an average position of 6.8 and our 5 lowest of 5.6.

This analysis of a very small sample does not prove anything, but there is actually a slight negative correlation between spending and league position.

In the first 5 years our gross spend was £234.7m and our net spend was £100m. Our average League position was 7.6.

In the last 5 years, despite price inflation, our gross spend was slightly less, at £212.7m, and our net spend was only £1m. Our average League position was 4.8.

It seems that 10 years ago we made a substantial gross and net investment to improve the standing of the club. Once that had been achieved, we have continued to make a significant gross investment but no net investment. This has been sufficient to keep us competitive, but has not quite cemented our place in the top four.

I know many people will argue that a bigger investment in the past 5 years would have made the difference, but I remain sceptical.

Last season we made our biggest ever gross investment, and acquired 7 new players, breaking our transfer record three times, but achieved our worst League position since 2008/09.

We still do not know how good some of those players will ultimately turn out to be, so it would be premature to add new players in their positions until we have found out.

Last season our defence looked to be the weak link so we have added a new goalkeeper and a couple of defenders. That suggests we have got our priorities about right.

But I see no reason to tinker with the midfield until Paulinho, Capoue and Lamela have shown what they are really capable of doing.

Similarly, if we are going to give Soldado a second chance to prove himself, we should only consider an additional striker if he has great promise or represents exceptional value for money.

I think the only reason to spend heavily this summer is if we suddenly lose key players, like Lloris, Vertonghen and Eriksen, to bigger clubs. Thankfully, nothing like that has happened yet and I hope nothing will, so I will be content if this turns out to be a relatively quiet transfer window.

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I think Paulinho has showed what he is capable of, not a lot, and if anything at all, it's done very slowly!

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Why can't our fans see that we do need to spend big money. And the money spent must be spent wisely by the manager not L#vys targets. We have a good promising manager in Pochettino and L#vy let's him down straight away by not pulling up for Greizman. He also was savvy to the 3rd party involved in/with Machussio (spelling) but he continues to stall. "o I tried but. We'll win nothing with L#vy

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George1

Most fans on this site would agree with you. I am very much the odd man out. I would just make three points.

First, we can only spend big money if we have big money. We don’t. Check our Annual Reports (they are easy to find).

Second, new signings bring no guarantees, so you cannot just ignore the financial risks.

Last July, everybody agreed that a new striker was a top priority and there were a number of options available, including Remy, Bony, Michu, Benteke and Villa. Check their records last season. As it happens, none of them would have made any real difference to us.

Eventually, we paid a club record for Soldado, but he played so badly he lost his place to Adebayor, and his record last season was better than any of those expensive alternatives.

Third, spending big is not the same as spending wisely.

Since the start of the Premiership era we have broken (or equalled) our transfer record on 9 occasions: Ferdinand, Postiga, Rebrov, Bent, Bentley, Modric, Paulinho, Soldado and Lamela.

Ferdinand was a great player but missed too many games and was seldom more than half-fit. Postiga and Rebrov were both disasters. Bent was in and out and only made a limited contribution, while Bentley was another disaster. Modric was a triumphant success. Paulinho has done OK (but no more), while Soldado and Lamela, for different reasons, were both disasters last year.

Only one of our 9 record signings has made a significant difference so far. The same is probably true of most other clubs.

The only clubs that have been able to buy success are the World mega-brands or the ones with super-rich sugar daddies.

If it was easy for a club like Tottenham to buy success, more clubs would have done it.

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You've been L#vy'd

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KM - George. You may find this a good read.


When you take a look at the finances it's a wonder how Levy is still so secure in his job. Since the start of the 2001-2002 season up until last season Tottenham have spent £634 million on new players. Granted they're still some way behind Man City (£831m) and Chelsea but they have an almost identical outlay to Liverpool (£634m) and Manchester United (£640m) and are £270m ahead of Arsenal (£371m).

This considerable splurging, regardless of the money recouped, has garnered one Champions League outing and a League Cup win. A competition which Birmingham, Swansea, Middlesbrough and Blackburn have all won under Levy's watch. without shelling out over half a billion on new players.

Levy appears to have a reputation as an expert talent spotter, selling Gareth Bale for a £70m profit will feed in to that, but the four most expensive players he has brought were either failures or have yet to make a significant impact.

Spurs' Top Four Signings

Erik Lamela (£26m): 17 games, 1 goal
Roberto Soldado (£26m): 36 games, 11 goals
Darren Bent (£22m): 79 games, 25 goals
David Bentley (£20m): 62 games, 9 goals

Then there are the managers. Daniel Levy has sacked three consecutive managers who were actually enjoying success. Tim Sherwood (59.09%) and Andre Villas-Boas (53.7%) were pushed out despite having the 2nd and 3rd highest league win %s in the club's history. Only Frank Brettell, who managed the team in their inaugural season back in 1898-99, has a better record with 62.79%. Harry Redknapp played a large part in his own departure by courting the England job whilst still employed at White Hart Lane but Levy didn't hesitate to sack a man with a 58.55% overall win rate. The 7th best in the club's history.

Levy's next choice, Mauricio Pochettino, arrives having enjoyed a successful season with Southampton. A successful season where his side had a 38.33% winning percentage across all competitions. An improvement on the 32.92% from his three seasons with Espanyol. The argument is that these were smaller clubs with fewer resources than Tottenham and once the Argentine applies his entertaining brand of football to the Spurs squad everything will finally click in to place at White Hart Lane. Just like they were going to do with Harry Redknapp. and Andre Villas-Boas.

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06 Aug 2014 23:39:22
What are the chances of the destro, mussacio or depay deals actually happening ed?

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{Ed002's Note - Measured how?}