Match Day Thread Tottenham Hotspur v Wolverhampton Wanderers

Our position in the table is fantastic when considering our current form. Although with just one win against a top ten side (and three losses), plus a poor CL campaign thus far, you can't help that some of us are concerned when it comes to facing any half decent side, especially when we're literally scraping wins against the dregs of the division. Still, Poch deserves a medal for getting us where we are at present what with the amount of **** he's had to deal with, with regards to injuries, fatigue and zero strengthening in the summer.

Without sounding like a broken record, it's imperative that come the first week of January, we make a couple of signings to help out this struggling squad. We can't continue with this midfield for the whole season, it'll kill us.

 

[QUOTE="Dier Hard, post: 12261245, member ]
we're literally scraping wins against the dregs of the division. [/QUOTE]

I agree with your main points. But I’m not sure there are any “dregs” these days. No easy matches for anyone!

 

Don't hold your breath.

 

For sure, no team is essentially "easy" in the division, nor does anyone have a divine right to win a game based on stature alone but the nature of some of our wins/ performances against some of these sides have been far from convincing - and it's then shown when we've actually faced a side who are in good form.

 

I'd genuinely be amazed if we don't do anything this January, mate. Up until the summer just gone, I've felt we hadn't needed to do much in the past 4 or 5 windows but with some players in decline and others not up to the task, fresh blood is definitely needed. Especially at CM, arguably two CMs (definitely one) and also a DM.

 

Yeah there are.
West Ham, for a start.

 

You mean that West Ham have some easy matches????!!!! I know they win games occasionally, but I don’t think it’s ever easy for them!!!

 

There's the small matter of an overrunning stadium that still has no confirmed completion date with us having to pay the FA to play at Wembley until further notice. With operational costs much higher than anticipated, I doubt the club will splash the cash.

I hope I'm wrong but I expect little activity this January. With too many unknown quantities, the board won't be willing to risk spending money we don't have. Talk of compensation fees from the contractors (if any) will take years to sort out.

 

You was showing the same kind of enthusiasm and certainty during the Summer with transfers and now you have shifted it onto January

Our problems were there in the summer...did Levy need another 6 months just to make sure?

I think it's more likely Levy thinks we have done great so far so don't need strengthening. Let's be honest that's closer to his way of thinking.

 

Only saw the MOTD highlights, but we got away with one there (the offside) .
Not a pleasant day out for Foyth - but both tackles were far from the
"train wreck" challenges that the Auriers of the world put in.

Not sure whether Alli and Eriksen are still not 100% fit, so Pochettino
is trying to save them for the PSV game (in which case his use of the
squad this week has paid off) .

 

The club should then release a statement now with regards to a lack of funds for transfers, while that'd be annoying to hear, I can at least be appreciative that the club are keeping us in the loop.

Right now I'm still under the impression we have money. Before the summer window, Levy was quoted in a THST meeting saying there were separate funds for stadium and transfers. We had a failed £25m for Grealish which suggests there was at least £25m available to spend. Robbie Keane also said when doing some punditry before a game that he knew we were chasing "3 or 4" players but that they were all too expensive, suggesting again we had money, just not enough.

 

Again, that's not going to happen for several reasons. If there's no imminent completion date for the stadium, any statement made may have to be retracted if more issues arise and costs spiral. Projects like this have so many variables, anything could cause another delay or increased spend.

Also, surely saying "sorry we're skint right now" sends a poor message to fans, the players and the coaching staff. it would kill morale. Sometimes it's just best to keep quiet until there's a clearer picture, which right now we don't have.

The key word here is "before"... all that has changed. At that time, the club felt we would be moving into our new stadium in September. All this happened before the stadium overran and failed critical safety systems, because it was rushed and contractors were under pressure to deliver the impossible. Now we're hearing of rumours circulating about increased loans and restructured repayments.

Just take a look at the various videos on the stadium progress. The pace of work has slowed, the outstanding work is being done at a normal pace now. The club learned the mistakes they made from trying to rush this thing to completion. Now they know they can't rush it for fear of another major cock up.

So the official word is... it'll be ready, when it's ready. That amounts to a very uncertain picture on the balance sheet. If... if there's money to spend, I'd be staggered if it's anything significant. January is a very difficult window to sign players at the best of times. If we do get any, we may find one or two bargains or a couple of gems from the lower leagues. But don't expect a marquee signing that'll go straight into the first team. That's just out of the question at this time.

 

Have to remain optimistic

All seriousness, despite I expected/ hoped for a big signing to accompany the new stadium, I don't think anyone expected us to not sign a single player.

What's been made worse is that the problems of last season have gotten worse, making the failure to stengthen in the summer look a poorer decision by the day. Dembele, Wanyama and Winks all let us down last season, Dembele was declining, Wanyama and Winks were injured and when they weren't, they were ****. The same three are still a problem, especially Dembele and Wanyama. Dembele is now borderline useless, Wanyama's barely kicked a ball and Winks, barring a couple of games, just isn't up to the desired level.

I don't think Levy thinks we don't need to strengthen but I think he's just being incredibly cautious with money, which I don't blame him for to some extent but at the same time he needs to keep fans in the loop as to how finances are. Fans expect strengthening this January after the dry spell in the summer, if he at least says along the lines of "really sorry, stadium has impacted spending" we'll be aggrieved but at least understanding. Right now, other than reports in the press, fans are still under the impression there's money to spend and so are fully expecting him to do so.

 

I think it's reasonable for us to have expected some delays or some issues with the stadium build. If this thing went off without a hitch, I think it would have been a small miracle.

I know it's disappointing that we signed no one this summer, but we have to look at the bigger picture. Once the new stadium is completed and open for business, it WILL be a game changer. Short term pain, long term game. I promise you that once the ground is open and we've moved into our new home, a few years down the line, this season will be long forgotten.

I've said it before and I'll say it again... the mistake Levy made this summer was not delegating transfer business to someone else. He's too much of a control freak. If he just focused on the stadium build and let someone else handle transfer dealings, I think we'd have 2 or 3 new faces around right now. All the ongoing build issues were a distraction and ultimately, he dropped the ball.

I just hope it doesn't cost us on the pitch. Early signs are, it might.

 

I don't think that our issues with signing players are necessarily about bringing people in.
The makeup of our squad is such that we need to move players on before replacing them and we were unable to do that.
That may change in January, but I wouldn't put any serious money on it.

 

You put the stadium purely in the "losses" part of the balance sheet, due to costs of hiring Wembley etc. However we do not know what penalty clauses the contractors have violated by not finishing the stadium in time. It's seems unlikely that Levy would not have signed a contract that does not time penalties. And I would not be at all surprised if those penalties were substantial enough to cover hiring Wembley.

 

While he's made some costly mistakes in recent weeks, which other players cop the blame for because Narratives, one thing that Trippier really deserves criticism for at the moment is his habit of making a mistake that leaves a teammate in no man's land he'll always try and blame them for the situation his mistake caused. He's done it at least twice in the last week, blaming Lloris after his mistake led to The Sheikh Mansour Team scoring the only goal on Monday and yesterday there was the moment where his knock down sandwiched Winks between two Wolves players so his attempt to pass it was intercepted, Trippier's response was to stand there yelling at Winks while two Wolves players were bearing down on an isolated Foyth

 

No, "costs" is not the same as "losses".

I covered the penalty clauses in a previous post. Whilst I have no doubt they exist, how much the club receives and how long until they receive it is an entirely different issue. I suspect quite some time, so it's certainly not money in the bank we can count on now.

The club recently increased their stadium loan by a further £100m due to the delays so right now, yes it is a cost and it is a liability, albeit a short term one. But one that has to be factored in before taking any decisions on new player acquisitions. Loans of that scale accrue pretty sizeable interest as well.

http://www.sportspromedia.com/news/spurs-stadium-news-bank-loans

 

There's so many things all going on at once that it's very difficult to understand the club's finances and how they'll play out right now. There are some certainties...

• Whether it's NFL, concerts, boxing, E-Sports or whatever, there's going to be a new income stream from 16 events a year. That's money over and above anything that we've ever had before and it should be significant. With concessions, etc. lets say £25-30m. On it's own, removing the issue of interest, that would pay off our maximum borrowing in about 25 years.

• There's going to be stadium sponsorship money, whether next week or next season. A figure of £40m p.a. was bandied about for the whole collection of stadium/training ground related sponsors about a year ago. Now that the Wembley sale is off, I think that potential sponsors will be looking again at what the offering gets you and recent confirmation that Qatar Airlines are wanting to get into the PL sponsorship market place is likely to 'stir the pot' a bit. I think that there's some big news coming on this front.

If you add in those extra incomes at say, £50m per season, even with interest, the stadium's bought and paid for well within 20 years, without the necessity to affect what we're currently earning and without deducting the value of the hotel, housing, Sainsbury development, etc. which are worth a significant sum and are always forgotten by the gutter press in their 'Tottenham Debt Shocker' articles.

Then, you can chuck in what buying an NFL franchise would cost and disappear into daft figures. However, this isn't the Arsenal development and Levy's been very clear that the club won't need to sell players to pay for the stadium and barring some catastrophic, unforeseen events, he's almost certainly right. We're moving up the pay scale massively and securing Dele on a 6 year deal shows that the club's in no financial problems, despite the headlines.

 

He's not the Messiah he will get cross if you start chanting.