It’s interesting, reading that through. Wolves are different to Leicester and Liverpool but what strikes me about the latter two is that both sold big players in order to finance their activity - Liverpool with Coutinho and Leicester with Kante and Drinkwater and more recently Maguire. We sold Walker, sure, but apart from that...Eriksen left at a stage where we couldn’t get a good fee. That’s about it. I think some of our scouting has been sub-par, no doubt, but a failure to move players on (either wantaways in their prime to finance moves, or the likes of Wanyama who were just finished) has also seriously impacted us in terms of funding and the composition of the squad. It’s a two-way street after all.
It is a two-way street. Here's the catch-22 we've gotten ourselves stuck in over the past 5-6 years: We can't afford to shell out on top drawer players. We also (generally speaking) refuse to allow key players to leave mid-contract, especially to rivals (Walker being the exception that proves the rule). Selling key players the moment they want out, even to rivals, would secure funds for top drawer players. But we (generally speaking) refuse to allow key players to leave, especially to rivals. So we can't afford top drawer players. ...QED most of our incoming signings over the past 5-6 years have been lucky bargains (Toby, Wanyama etc.) or young players on the cheap we hoped would come good (Dier, GKN, Foyth etc.), and our success rate has hovered below the 50% mark all along. If we want to act like a big club that doesn't sell players unless it wants to, we have to find an alternative source of revenue to bring players in when we want to. That's what a big club does. We currently don't have that and, if Levy's comments are to be believed, we won't have it for a while yet either. It is worth remembering that by selling Carrick, we could afford Berbatov. And by selling Berbatov, we could afford Modric. Did we strengthen United by doing so? Yes. Would they have simply gone out and found equivalent alternatives anyway had we refused? Again - yes. Did we improve in the post-Carrick and post-Berbatov eras? Again - yes.
And if I chose a particular three years for Spurs, I would get the same answer. Look at the signings Liverpool made over the previous 3 years. You will get my 40% success rate on average. Look at Chelsea, Arsenal and Man Utd and it's a whole lot worse. You are confusing lucky streaks with skill. You only have to think about the process for buying a player to see why this must be true. The buying club sees him once or twice a week during matches. The selling club sees him every day. To buy him you have to pay a higher salary and compensate the selling club for losing him. It is ridiculous to expect this to work out well more than half the time as the whole picture is skewed against the buyer.
I don't think that anyone can compare themselves to Wolves at the moment, as they're basically illegally part-owned by a super agent.
I agree with what you've said about Levy and what he said in the THST meeting is literally the last thing anyone wants to hear. With that said, if he truly believes that significant investment isn't required and he can just pluck 3 or 4 more Tanganga's, then he'll cement any doubts people have had about him whilst also losing the vast majority of those who've defended him over the years. There is a poisonous atmosphere around the club at the moment and showing zero to little intent to rectify our hideously bad defensive situation will only make things worse. A GK, RB, CB, LB, DM and ST is needed this summer. I don't care how or who he has to fund for those moves (Kane, Son and Lo Celso aside), just get it done. Anything less will be a failure. I'm expecting to be let down of course but naturally just like every summer, I build the hope that maybe we'll get what we need.
I'm beginning to think that Kane may have to be sold to fund the re-build, given that: he will fetch a ton of money he has spent a large chunk of the last few seasons on the treatment table having him in the squad dissuades other strikers from joining us
He spends a large chunk injured because he‘s constantly overused and never rested, eventually in this league that’ll take its toll. I’m not sure the latter is true. Janssen and Llorente were both very happy to join whilst it seemed like Giroud was keen too but Chelsea wouldn’t sell. Edit: Plus, if Levy sold Kane at this moment in time, there’d be an uproar. I’m not against selling some key players but in my opinion Kane is off bounds, at least for this summer. I also highly doubt Jose would’ve accepted the job if he wasn’t given guarantees over Kane and Son’s immediate futures.
I'm beginning to think that I once again have to point out that the 2008-9 season happened Not for the first time...
There would be an uproar but does Levy care? And what should we do if Kane or Son don't get reassurances of hefty investment over the summer and one or both of them does the unthinkable and hands in a transfer request? I sometimes worry that we are far too collectively naive about the above potentially happening. Son is a year older than Kane and didn't grow up supporting the side. Meanwhile I see many (including myself) use the argument that Kane will stick around to 'make up for lost time' - almost some sort of sentimental sense of duty having been out for so long. Who knows - maybe he's been sitting at home, taking stock of his declining injury record, thinking to himself 'the all action nature of my game and physicality of the PL mean I probably don't have as long as I thought I did at the very top'. This summer will be a trying and testing one. Rival clubs can smell our weakness and discord. I wouldn't be at all surprised to see the Madrid or Barca tapping up machines kick into action next month, just as they did with Bale.
But of course, nobody is thinking that the vultures will be looking at de Bruyne or Sterling this summer...
None of us are naive to it, Spurly’s done a thread on it as it wouldn’t be a complete surprise if Kane did want out. But willingly selling him (or Son) this summer would quite frankly be Levy’s lowest point at Spurs, and he’s had a fair few. He wouldn’t be able to claw his way back from that. If a legitimate transfer request is made, different story but other than that Kane should be completely off bounds with regards to selling.
Oh boy, somebody on r/coys needs to self-isolate if this is their suggestions for the summer Aurier - sell Dier - sell Gazzaniga - clearly better than Hugo so should be first choice Gedson - cancel his loan Lloris - sell Lucas - sell Ndombele - sell Sanchez - sell Vertonghen - release Winks - loan ...however, when I say "self-isolate" it's not due to Chinese Death Flu, I mean he needs to remove himself from his keyboard before he starts sharing Harry ****espout articles - especially given how arsey he gets with anyone suggesting that selling off half the squad isn't as smart a decision as his FIFA-addled brain thinks it is
Aurier - keep unless we sign two RBs. So basically keep. Dier - not arsed if sold or not but a DM is needed regardless. Neither keeper has covered themselves in glory, one can go, not arsed who. Cancel Gedson? **** off r/coys user. Lucas - yeah if we get our money back. Ndombele - no. But fatty needs to fix up. Sanchez - no, just no. Vertonghen - agreed, release... Farewell, legend. Winks - loaning him would be stupid. Make some cheddar from him.
In terms of Aurier we don't necessarily have to sign two RBs, just one: if we continue using the asymmetrical FBs we have options for the sitting FB in Tanganga and Foyth (and Eyoma is certainly part of the conversation) which means we need to focus on an attacking one, be it Aarons or Atal or whoever plays RB for the usual options when it comes to our signings which would currently be either Zeki Celik at Lille, Noussair Mazraoui at Ajax, or we pick up Thomas Meunier when his PSG contract expires in the summer
I can see Foyth being sold. Whilst I’m not too keen on the idea of Tanganga changing positions every match, would rather he stick to one and grow in it, CB would be my preference for him. As for ins, Aarons would be my preferred pick. Like the look of him, English, already had a season in the Prem and will surely improve. Will feel like signing Walker again in some respects.
If we're going to take an accountant's approach, I can see one possibility Sell Aurier and KWP, which will bring in around £30m Sign Aarons and Meunier, and as Meunier's on a free we spend on Aarons That way we'll sign two RBs yet somehow be in profit Alternatively the other suggestion is cash + CCV for Aarons & Godfrey, which will future-proof our back line for a good few years
You don’t get it do you? You actually think people want to stick around due to sentiment and a shiny new stadium De Bruyne/Sterling play for a team already winning things oh and the vultures have questioned the futures of certain players at City due to the possible Euro ban...don’t get paranoid
The same option applies to the other fullback position too, as Meunier's teammate Kurzawa is also out of contract.