Season review, what needs to be done and expectations

Something to add to the "what needs to be done" part of my OP is an improvement to how we manage our youth. Badly lost our way over the past three or so years and in that time we've lost some top, top talents for absolute peanuts whilst ruining the development of others.

When you think that along with the success of Kane, we managed to make a lot of money from our academy with the sales of Mason (£13m), Townsend (£12m), Bentaleb (£17m) and Pritchard (£8m). The last of those was sold about four years ago.

Since then we've lost Edwards - who's killing it in Portugal. Onomah - who's really coming into his own at Fulham after a tough start. Binks - who's gone straight into the XI at Montreal. Madueke - who's done unreal for the PSV youth sides and featured 4 times for the first team too. Plus the likes of Griffiths, Bennetts and Oakley-Boothe. We lost all of those for probably a combined total of less than £10m, albeit we have a 50% sell on clause for Edwards that should net us a few £m in the future.

Add in the **** show of management of KWP and Skipp over the years and it's made for a frustrating time. KWP started to look promising under Hassenhuttl since the restart, yet had we loaned him out a couple years earlier he'd likely be featuring a lot for the first team right now. Whereas Skipp should've been loaned out at the start of this season with the aim of reassessing this summer.

I want to us go back to how we used to operate, where a number of players went out on loan and many went in groups to certain clubs, namely Swindon, Yeovil and Orient. The Football League is going to be really tight with finances due to COVID so the loan window is going to be huge for a number of clubs, we need to strike up partnerships and start sending players out to get them experience. It worked for Livermore, Caulker, Mason, Kane, Townsend, Rose, Walker, Pritchard etc and I think it'll work with those in the U23s/ U18s. Etete, Parrott, White, Cirkin, Walcott, Bennett, Markanday, Austin and others I've forgotten to mention should be considered for loans if they're not going to be in the squad for Europa matches next season and ideally where 2 or 3 can move together.

We've got a really promising academy with decent coaches (although replacing McDermott is going to be tough) and the best facilities available but we're wasting it all with poor management. Needs changing.

 

The biggest positive with Sissoko is he will run through a wall for the team, and sometimes you need players who will run themselves into the ground for 90 minutes, be it battling against a stubborn opponent or hurling themselves in front of everything in order to maintain a narrow lead

I know I used the Nereo Rocco quote already today, but sometimes it bears repeating considering the ubermensch subscribes to a similar philosophy: a winning team consists of a goalkeeper who saves everything, an assassin in defence, a genius in midfield, a goalscoring forward and seven donkeys who run all the time - and in the context of that quote, Sissoko is one of the donkeys

 

I don't think he causes the problems, Aurier does and Sissoko is often there to rescue him. The obvious solution is to play Sissoko at right back himself! Then we could actually have a midfield two which would make Winks better too.

 

Agreed. Not having a DoF is costing us I think.

 

A DoF isn't the issue, after all we didn't have one under The Honest and Humble Saint Harris of Redknapp - the issue is that as soon as a player turns 18 their development basically stops dead

Some of this can be connected to several of our academy coaches being spirited away in a short space of time (Alex Inglethorpe to Saltypool being the obvious one, with Kieran McKenna to Man Utd another one), but it does have to be said that there has been a lack of direction in our academy for a while, so unless they get plucked out of the academy and put into the first team like Bentaleb, Winks, Skipp or Tanganga were they're in this limbo where they're too good for Academy football but lacking something for first team football

 

One of the DoF's key tasks ought to be directing the academy coaching. Who is doing that now?
Look at the signings made by Harry and that will tell you why we need one.

 

On the transfer front we definitely need a DoF.

Though I’m not sure they’d have much to do with the youth development side of things. I’d imagine it’s between the first team manager and likely head of youth plus the U23/ U18 coaches as they’ll assess who they think is first team worthy/ potential first team worthy/ needs a loan to assess etc.

Whoever is in charge though needs to go back to how we used to operate, it’s what brought the most success for the academy, whether it was playing for the first team or making us good amounts to reinvest.

 

That falls under the remit of the Head of Academy, which is Dean Rastrick

However, there's an obvious issue that needs addressing...correction, two obvious issues that need to be addressed: John McDermott was wearing two hats last season, Academy Manager and Head of Coaching, yet with him joining the England setup in the very near future we need to have those roles filled PDQ

 

Ati

Sissoko as RB isn't a bad shout tbh. Agree about Aurier, i'm hoping he will be moved on this summer and a replacement (I want Aarons) is signed.

 

Sissoko can't cross the ball

 

He can’t pass or shoot either

But he can run so would rather have him as RB than in midfield

 

It’s amazing how pathetic Sissoko actually is on the ball for a PL midfielder playing for a team talking about winning big things

his work rate alone just can’t cut it

squad player for rainy days or for doing a certain job but no way is he good enough to be mainstay in our midfield. Winks is also a squad player and useful for certain situations because their stats just don’t stack up effectively enough in the attacking department to be the main men

a midfield has to contribute in more ways than running about

I think we need someone like Coutinho for the games where we can’t find a way through teams that have turned up for the draw...Lo Celso doesn’t seem like he has the required amount of assists in him. I find his execution a bit tame..good build up work but in and around the box...not enough bite to be that main man picking locks...maybe over time

but Jose doesn’t have time

 

Both aren’t good enough. Like I said before it’s a sad state of affairs watching them two play when for years we were spoilt watching Modric/ Parker/ Sandro/ Dembele/ Wanyama. I’d rather Sissoko over Winks though if I had to choose. He at least has intent to make things happen and his bailing out of Aurier on many occasions has been vital, plus he has a couple goals and one or two assists this season, ‘Winkiesta’ on the other hand clocked up an impressive 0 goals and 0 assists.

As for Coutinho, I agree, almost as if we’re missing your best mate, Eriksen, lol. If we can do a deal where Barca give us Coutinho and maybe Semedo/ Rakitic for Tanguy, or just Coutinho and cash, **** actually I’d probably even take a straight swap if that was the only option, then I think we should accept. I think Tanguy can be a brilliant player but I’m also worried he’ll never cut it either. Too risky in my opinion. Coutinho in front of Lo Celso who’s next to a DM would be a sexy triangle.

 

we are defo missing a prime Eriksen, I was hoping Dele would have some of that in his game but I honestly think his career has hit a brick wall, his game just isn’t easy on the eye anymore

Lo Celso needs quality support or in true Spurs fashion we will over burden him with a key role and burn him out mentally.

 

I’m worried about Dele. We saw flashes in Jose’s early games that he could perform under this manager, and I think he’s got enough credit in the bank to deserve a full season under the manager to prove himself, but if you compare his game now to a few years back he looks half a yard slower in body and half a second slower in thought.

I said on another thread that if we had to sell one big player this summer I reckon most of us would say Dele (Tanguy doesn’t count as big) and I stand by that. Not saying I want him to go this summer, just that he’s got a lot to prove this coming season.

 

Dele ain't a fraction of the player Eriksen is/ was, sadly. I think you lot all know how much I rated Eriksen anyway, for me he was one of the best in the world, his ending just tainted many people's views on how much of a brilliant player he was. I knew replacing him was gonna be difficult, I'd hoped Ndombele and Lo Celso would've covered the creative side but their injuries/ fitness/ form has meant they've been unable too this season. As for Dele himself, he's a player that peaked early I think and has now been found out, had a little bounce under Jose but that quickly went dead and it's three years of inconsistency now, just not good enough any more. I'd take £40m-£50m for him if someone was willing to pay it.

 

In terms of loans, the important thing is to make sure we find suitable clubs to loan them to

From this past season, we can definitely say that we picked the right clubs for both Luke Amos, Jack Roles and George Marsh as they became fixtures in the squad which will have benefitted them in their development (and, let's be brutally honest here, potentially benefitted the club in terms of raising their prospective values) yet on the other hand we botched both of Anthony Georgiou's loans and it took two attempts to get CCV a suitable club to be loaned to

It's hardly a recent thing, either, for example Massimo Luongo getting PTSD from being loaned to Mccartheyball Ipswich or Ryan Mason being loaned to Lorient (and I am still convinced that was because somebody wasn't paying attention when somebody proposed a loan to Leyton Orient) served little purpose other than maybe getting a couple of hundred quid a week off the way bill

 

You really don’t like Winks but using stats for goals and assists to slate him would mean Lo Celso isn’t very good either.

Coutinho plus money or plus Semedo for Ndombele? Surely that’s not gonna happen as the deal would be Ndombele plus money for Coutinho?

 

Ndombele appears to have value, while Coutinho doesn't. Nobody wants to buy him, for some reason.
No idea why that's the case and it isn't for Ndombele, but there you go.

 

Yeah he's dogshit. Of course stats don't tell the whole story at times but we all know what Lo Celso offers us, similar when Modric was here. Though to be fair you were writing Lo Celso off after about five games, lol.

Not according to the media, sounds like they're desperate to get rid of Coutinho and they've held interest in Ndombele in the past. The contract situations and age of the players work in our favour too.