Transfer Rumours transfer thread fact and fiction

None of this is correct...and I'm out at that point.

 

Convenient Denial Watch
Has anyone else done the 2 + 2 = 4 with Romero yet?

At the weekend Sevilla had an interest in Sanchez (so, for the sake of argument, let's call it a £20m fee) and that's when Romano said the only holdup with Atalanta over Romero was the structure of the add-ons and bonuses as they had accepted our base fee

Then on Monday night Chelsea offer cash + Zouma for Kounde, and by complete coincidence that's when we're supposedly getting cold feet over Romero

It's almost as if there's a connection between the two, yet Romano et al daren't say it and are instead covering their backsides with talk of Milenkovic to save face, while that certain fringe which have loud opinions about our owners are deliberately overlooking it because that gets in the way of a good couple of dozen retweets because they think nuance is what you call WIndyCOYS for daring to suggest the ubermensch isn't the bestest manager to every manage Spurs...

 

Are you sure about that?
Mace reveals faults holding up Tottenham stadium | New Civil Engineer

Faulty wiring is far less due to cutting costs and far more to do with time crunch - and saying that Levy was pushing the construction team to get 14 hours work done in a 10 hour shift, that's a very different accusation entirely (and, based on the berk who installed my boiler eighteen months ago, there's also the possibility it's less to do with Levy pushing down from above as it is them wanting to get onto a new job PDQ)

 

A lot of the structural concrete was precast away from the site so it would have had rigorous QA so should be superb. Hopefully the reinforcement is made of steel, as aluminium has a different coefficient of linear expansion to concrete, steel is similar. Aluminium won't work.

 

There's a reason I went in hard on this

Saying we scrimped and/or fixated on detailing honestly has nothing to do with the stadium build, as detailing can only exist when the stadium is standing to attach them to - and, at that point, it's utterly meaningless because the vast bulk of the cost has already been spent on the build itself
On the other hand, saying we were cutting corners left and right during construction, that's a very different accusation - and, if every last penny of steel, concrete and wiring is accounted for and correct, potentially litigious

The former is like saying the Titanic disaster was symptomatic of Bruce Ismay faffing about with the bed linen, the latter is saying they cut costs to get it into the water ASAP (and, in that case, both are untrue, but that's not important right now...)

 

I don’t really know what you expect him to say mate. Romano is probably more clued in than most as to what conversations are going on, and how advanced certain discussions are, but nobody can see the whole picture until a deal is signed, not even the clubs, agents and players involved. I doubt he’s holding off on a tweet because Uncle Roman is pointing a gun at his balls under the table. Fab isn’t gospel but he’s fairly clued in.

There’s almost certainly a connection though as Romero is a big fee and we’d want to have Sanchez gone (or as good as) in order to offset a lot of that. Just as we included Lamela in the Gil deal and told Hart he could leave while signing Gollini. I don’t think we need to recoup 100% of incoming fees, there’s clearly some money there, but I don’t think we want to get caught short financially. Money is tight everywhere and Sanchez is a major saleable asset. We’re going to need multiple CBs this window I think, between Foyth/Toby we’ve probably offset a young prospect, and selling Dave will help us offset a decent proportion of the fee for a more certain starter like Romero. If his prime suitors start looking elsewhere then it’s no surprise we’re suddenly a bit more price-sensitive.

 

Do we need Dele in this different role though are we just trying to still get use out of a player who's flattered to deceive for about three full years now?

I personally find it tough to see Dele in a Spurs Best XI nowadays. Not that all of the options are great in areas but if we assume Hojbjerg is a guaranteed starter and Skipp is returning with the intentions to be one sooner or later, how do we fit Hojbjerg, Skipp, Dele, Ndombele and Lo Celso into a two or a three man midfield? Some of these won't play and I'm not sure Dele is deserving of yet another chance, that said I'm not exactly fighting Ndombele or Lo Celso's corners either. It does feel a little like insanity for me though by trying the same players and expecting different results. I'd rather the club tried cutting losses on the two big money flops (or at least one of them) and possibly even try a find a buyer for Dele too, then reinvest in a couple new midfielders but I don't see any of that happening this summer as there's other we need to get rid of as a higher priority. With the options right now though, I'd go with a Skipp and Hojbjerg pairing with Hojbjerg given a bit more licence to go forward as we saw him do so for Denmark and trial Lucas as the more advanced midfielder/ number ten, I think he's looking really good when running and playing more centrally (and I thought that during a period of last season where he got games there) and then the club can either use Bergwijn/ Gil on one flank with Son on the other.

I also think it's worth pointing out Dele isn't young any more, not in football terms anyway, at 25 he should be reaching (or already be in) his best form and yet he's severely regressed from where he was at when 19-21 years old. Just how much longer can we give him?

 

Nah I agree to an extent. The midfield will be interesting this year for sure. It’s hard to tell because Nuno hasn’t had all the players together yet but it looks like a 433 with two grafters (Skipp, Højbjerg, John, who else? Winks?) and a more creative 3rd (Dele, Tanguy, Gio, though he did the grafting role for Argentina too, I think).

Maybe Nuno sees something in him, maybe Dele isn’t a lazy trainer right now, we don’t know. I think Lucas works as a 10 or a wide player but not an 8, so I’d like us to think about selling one of Gio, Dele and Tanguy (as well as Sissoko, Winks looks like he’s staying unless a bid comes in) and use that to buy a bit of an all rounder.

 

As I mentioned a few days back, when Romano said Plan A was Romero while Plan B was Milenkovic, Tomiyaso & Zouma that felt like what wrestling fans call "Plans change" (which is the phrase Dave Meltzer uses approximately 17 times a week when stuff in the Wrestling Observer proves to be pure speculation on his part)

In terms of offsetting, so far it works out as
Foyth - £15m
Toby - £13m/£10m/£3m (depending on who you believe - and, as said before, The Sun are the only one banging the £3m drum)

At the very least that's a straight offset for the £15m for Milenkovic, at most that offsets most of Milenkovic & Tomiyasu - but the only way to offset the Romero fee is the fees for Sanchez, Foyth and Toby

If I were somebody who dealt in speculation and had both Patreon and Twitch channels to profit from it, the obvious suggestion is that we're hoping to have bids for Sissoko and Aurier so that we can offset the Romero pricetag with or without selling Sanchez, because at that point Sanchez is paying for Tomiyasu or Milenkovic with some left over

 

Troy Parrott having a medical at MK Dons today , something tells me that the lad is not going to make it at the club , I sincerely hope I'm wrong

 

I've still got high hopes for him to be honest. Still only 19. We've seen some of our current and former first teamers struggle when out on loan at times so I won't read too much into it at the moment. Sometimes a player just needs that right fit, hopefully MK will be just that.

 

It looks like one holding midfielder and two progressive ones to me, at the moment.
Hojbjerg/Skipp for the former role and Lo Celso/Ndombele/Alli/John for the other, assuming that Winks and Sissoko leave.
You'd assume that we'd add another body in there if people do go, but I guess White, Devine and Bowden could push for a place in Europe or the cups.

 

I still like the look of him. Good movement and a good instinct for goal. Hope he gets a more productive loan this time.

 

Confirmed now, good luck to the lad. Does also need to be said, Mike McGrath has been bang on lately, gotten the scoop on a few Spurs things quicker than anyone else.

 

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...is it bad that DH got there before me as I was trying to find the gif link?

 

I hope that DH and yourself are right but that's our last 3 managers who have loaned him out , believe me if he takes the Harry Kane route I will be delighted as I like nothing better than a home grown player coming through the ranks , time will tell

 

I agree. If we got Pjanic then we would have a good variety of players for those roles. We are not getting a player as good as even the current Dele for less than £50m. I see signs that he can get back to his former self.
I also agree with @Dier Hard that he looked better with Eriksen and Dembele in the team. The reason is simple though....those players were excellent and needed watching by the opposition, as did Kane and Son. Dele was the most inexperienced of the five and so got the most space. If Lo Celso or Ndombele step up a bit and Gil or Lucas play at top form then whoever is in the Dele role will look much better.

 

I do get the feeling that Dane Scarlett has moved clear ahead of him in the pecking order

 

I see what you're saying here but if theoretically Lo Celso or Ndombele do finally step up (I'd say they need to step up more than a bit though) then does Dele even make the team?

Our primary choices for the three spots in midfield are Hojbjerg, Skipp, Dele, Lo Celso and Ndombele. I think we can more or less all agree that Hojbjerg is the one who's guaranteed a spot out of any of them. That then leaves two spots between four. Personally I'd have Skipp as one of them, some may disagree with that of course but if Ndombele and/ or Lo Celso do up their games, will Dele even be in the side to potentially benefit from it?

I guess what I'm saying is who do people think our first choice midfielders will be? Whether it's in a 433 or a 4231? For me it's Hojbjerg, Skipp and then possibly Ndombele as I think talent-wise he has more than Dele or Lo Celso, even if he does lack the work rate and fitness but if (big IF too) he irons that out then I think he's the best choice to play alongside the likes of Hojbjerg and Skipp, especially as those two are all action and can somewhat cover a luxury player which Ndombele certainly is.

 

I think you've hit the nail on the head in describing Dele as a 'system' player. And DH has added some excellent points Re how the personnel we had kind of made it inevitable we'd get the best out of Dele.

My view on him is that he is at his best when drifting into the pockets of space created by other players. With Dembele and Kane attracting 2-3 opposition players, Son dragging 2 more wide and Eriksen able to pick out the spaces subsequently created, Dele absolutely thrived.

During our midfield injury crisis of 19/20 and again more recently, he has been deployed in a far deeper position, often asked to get moves going rather than finishing them off. And he clearly doesn't like it. He lacks the composure, strength and in all honesty work rate to stick to a central position and so ends up drifting really far too wide. He even did it last night against MK Dons and the end result is a vast wasteland of space between him and whoever is playing CM. And when he drifts to the left wing, as he did last night, his complete lack of a left foot means he'll have to drift back infield when on the ball, which is what Bergwijn also does, which helps the opposition keep things nice and compact and divert danger to congested areas.

I'm not saying he played badly yesterday, quite the opposite. What I am saying is watching him playing like that against a League 1 team, I struggle to see it working against elite level PL opposition. He's fine starting moves off against a defence that gives the ball away for fun. Did the same against Marine last year. But most PL level teams will be able to deal with him in this new role with ease, simply ushering him outfield onto his weaker foot or blocking off the outball infield, knowing that his long range shooting isn't good enough to pose a threat.

Maureen's system was atrocious for him as by definition a counter-attacking side doesn't intricately create pockets of space for others to exploit, it relies on players with speed and excellent finishing to exploit an opposition already out of position or over-committed upfield. Dele lacks the pace and goalscoring ability to shine in such a system.

It's a real conundrum. I think we'd be open to sell if the right offer came in, but with his current form and a deflated market I doubt that'll happen. Unless Poch does us a favour at PSG.