Fortune favours the 'Brave'

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1 week left until the window slams shut.

Are we actually going to sign anyone?

Even by Levy's standards this is getting desperate to say the least. What on earth have the club been doing since the 17th May????

All the nonsense coming from Pochettino about what he meant by 'Brave' and that it was down to free interpretation is as insulting as it is pathetic.

Cullen being unleashed or being sent out from ENIC headquarters to tell people how great Levy is and that any criticism of him will not be tolerated.
And then telling us about the Academy like it's a hive of world class talent- still working on a 'if you say something enough times people will begin to believe it ethos....

The victim card Pochettino is playing is such a cop out distancing himself from the sheer lack of organisation or planning.
He's slithered and slipped his way through too many an interview for me now, for a man of supposed 'principle' he might want to start by saying what he means and meaning what he says instead of deflection and deviation tactics.

(Perhaps if his in game tactics were as good we may have actually won something)

So far the only real thing to happen to our paper thin squad is that 8 of the starters have played tournament football all summer, have had very limited rest and no pre season and of course the news that Son will not be available for large spells.
And Pochettino uses soundbites that we are trying to improve....

Bemoaning the early closure of the Transfer Window as 'Difficult'?
Levy voted for it, they've both known since September 2017 it's closing early, the world cup doesn't take a genius to work out it takes place every 4 years and this summer was the 4th year in the cycle.
Yet Pochettino likes to play that it was all a big surprise to him and how unfair it all is.

Everyone else has got on with business while we don't seem to have any idea or clue as to what's going on anywhere.

Contemptuous/Negligent springs to mind , this is not good enough period!

5th season from Pochettino ahead, the building, improving, learning and project talk has very little weight to it anymore.
I have no sympathy for someone that is 'happy wit tha sqa' that doesn't deliver, that is flimsy beyond the 1st team, has shown nothing to suggest they are winners and shows little to no interest in becoming winners.

If top 4 is now the holy grail we've become Arsenal without the pre success , failing to deliver that and we've built a billion pound Theatre of Cheese for what to continue on the path of being 'competitive' ?

It's a shambles , Poch & Levy get your heads out of the sand and get some quality reinforcements in to be serious contenders you pair of Frauds!

 

To be a Spurs fan is to be an eternal optimist. This is the best squad and the best coach we have had in a very long time, but it’s starting to crumble and a few quality reinforcements are urgently needed if we are to improve.

Every year I hope that we will do our business early in the window so that the new players will have a chance to bed in and our coach can work his magic, before the new season. But every year we are late. We will probably buy a few minor players on the last day, thus rendering them useless for the first half of the season. Therefore it will be another poor start costing us valuable points at the end of the season. Why do we do this every year? In any other commercial enterprise heads would roll and rightly so. Either give someone else the responsibility for all transfer dealings or leave. Times up Daniel, your choice.

 

Whats the point of recruiting for the sake of it and in this market paying joke fees for players who arent going to get close to the first 11 is not worth it. I think you need to be grateful for what levy has done for the club, do you want to end up like portsmouth or leeds no you dont. 850 million for the stadium but we all know its going past the 1billion mark. As for Poch, its the first time where we have had a plan in place for the future even after he goes. When Harry was in charge there was no investment into the future of the club no unlike now. Stadium costs has 100% played a part but you have to look at the positives. You are sounding like a person who would start moaning about something else if so called “strengthened”

 

Are you seriously still banging the look at Portsmouth drum?
Grow up , our situation is nothing like theirs was or ever will be.
Despite pleading poverty for decades we are indeed a very rich club.
And at least we should expect is competitive investment in the 1st team squad. Every summer no matter the market.
We have a good 1st 11 that has proven it can finish top 4 while there's been a wobble at the top and has proven it can hold its own in the CL but beyond this it's lacking , to settle for this and not bolster is defeatest and with others improving/adding actually makes us even weaker.
Recruiting for the sake of recruiting? Only a loyalist would come out with such nonsense, you recruit to improve and to improve you recruit quality, if you've not planned or prepared to do that then you're inept.

 

Look at where we before poch. Tim sherwood and avb. So yes I am allowed to refer other clubs past experiences and by the way no need to get all angry about it. We might be a rich club but it doesnt mean financial restrictions dont come into play. Yes of course I would like strengthen the squad but just spending money on players is not needed unless they are willling to accept they wont play or wait for there chance. How many quality players are there on the market lets be honest. We are far from inept 3rd 2nd 3rd operating on different circumstances than the other clubs is amazing. Cant please everyone obviously

 

Not that I was a fan of either AvB or Sherwood they weren't exactly awful in terms of league position both finishing top 6 while there was a stronger more established top 4 AvB even bettered 1 of Pochs 3rd places points wise.
And the aforementioned were picking up pieces of dismantled sides where the best players had been sold off.
The rose tints surrounding Pochettinos achievements are very questionable.
Singing the praises of someone who's done relatively well while the rest have all spluttered is over egging it.
Now the top clubs are regrouping we either strive to improve properly or we risk falling back to your dark days of AvB & Sherwood will you be happy then?

 

The guy who wrote this blog needs to lighten up a bit otherwise he will end up like Harry Hotspur! Always moaning! LOL.

There is still a week to go. If Spurs have signed no one by the time the window closes then is the time to bellyache. I presume Spurs are keen on Premier/Championship talent. That makes sense as so often talented players playing in other leagues often take time to acclimatise and often they don't ever adjust. For example a star like Di Maria (there are many others) failed to perform to his usual high standards in the Premier League.

Another thing to remember is that deals take time. Both sides will haggle over the price and the selling club might only sell when they buy a replacement. On price even moneybags Man City refused to pay Leicester the price they were initially quoted for Mahrez in January. They weren't prepared to pay more than £60m and have finally got their man for that price. Spurs, like every other Premier League club is run as a business. And all successful businesses haggle over price.

 

Just because a player is a star performer in Spain, or Italy, doesn't mean he will reproduce that form in the Premier League. Look no further than Di Maria and Falcao. Big money signings that were flops. Other players take up to a season to acclimatise to the Premier League.

 

And apologists that make up excuses, who dress up failure are becoming like poor man's Arsenal fans - deluded and embarrassing

 

I don't understand the whole shortened window is a hindrance nonsense. It's not.. Its a level for all EPL clubs and gives managers longer to integrate players. The 8 World Cup players should all be back now also IMO. Eriksen and Son cone back early willingly. Even the argument European clubs have an advantage also is rubbish as if our deadline is closed you simply do not sell abroad as its too late to bring on a replacement isn't it.
I get the feeling poch is as frustrated as us. He clearly needs to sell in order to buy not just financially but squad quota wise as we have too many foreign players in our 25 and one English man short. Transfers for Toby and in particular janssen haven't materialised and I suppose wage bill wise we cannot afford to have players on the books who are ineligible to play due to the numbers game. Probably we're asking too much, clubs know we're desperate to shift and also fed up with levys hardball nonsense. For me, I'd say if we could add a centre mid and a winger and keep the squad together regardless of leaving next summer for free or on the cheap we would have cover all over the pitch and could contend on all fronts using a 4141 formation with alli and eriksen playing deeper in front of wanyama or dier and with 2 out and out goalscoring wingers in son and martial/perisic/zaha/pulisic etc.

 

We dont have many problems in our squad the others apart from city do and of course i dont want us to fall back to the avb days plus I dont think we will due to the fact we are a more attractive proposition than we were then to high level coaches/managers. To be honest I personally think the standard of the premier league when avb and sherwood were in charge was at its lowest ever and also we were terrible.

 

Good point about the English quota in the squad, something I was thinking about this week too. Having lost Walker last season and likely Rose before the window shuts its a cert that some English will have to be recruited this week.
Rumour of the day seems to be Lewis Cook coming in from Bournemouth for £30m. I genuinely like the sound of this as I rate the lad having watched a fair bit of the Cherries last season and whilst not the 'world class' signing most would wish for he can certainly play PL. He's an ideal replacement for Dembele and his age fits in with Levy's passion for buy-em-young attitude.
However, I also don't see Bournemouth willing to part with his services...

 

And this I agree with , problem is we are Good but not quite Good enough as has been proven last 3 years where there's been plenty of opportunity due to an establishment identity crisis.
But what's the point of having got to a stage to attract better players 1s that can kick us on and not using it?
We were genuine title challengers 16/17 and we did nothing to keep pace on that it was touch and go we'd make top 4 until the closing couple of games this season all due to other clubs improving and us standing still.
The transfer buisness so far has been non existent from us again and others have improved again, also with son out and WC hangover we are gambling massively.

 

Three regular first teamers (two of whom, Rose and Alderweireld, have previously been voted best in their positions in the entire PL) have made it clear that they want to leave Spurs, but all now seem likely to stay, and them remaining won't strengthen the team, because all will justifiably feel that Levy's 'sell high, buy low' fixation has cost them their best chance for the big pay day that they never had at WHL. While I don't feel any sympathy for them personally, I can't see how pricing them out of the market helps Spurs; Dembele is finished, Rose isn't the player he was two seasons back, and Alderweireld has criticised Pochettino for cold-shouldering him when he was fit again earlier this year (and we all know Pochettino's ego comes before everything else, certainly before the best interests of the club), so he won't be welcomed back to the fold - instead of £100 million in the kitty, we'll have a group of disgruntled Adebayors, seeing out their contracts. We're also reported to be trawling the likes of Bournemouth and Villa for players with 'potential' (potential to be sold on, no doubt), so how can any genuine Spurs fan be happy with the current situation? Top four in the coming season with the current squad will be little short of a miracle, and Pochettino's five year project will be a perfect pyramid - two years up to second in 2017, and two years down to who knows where in 2019 - that's progress, ENIC style.

 

Levy and poch are both recognized as top operators in their respective positions nit only in premier league but worldwide. Poch coveted by the best club in the world and you are slating his abilities. Laughable. Your ignorance to the role Levy plays on a day to day basis is obvious and embarrassing. This isn't football manager or FIFA mate. There are real financial implications and limitations involved that you clearly have no understanding of. I just hope levy and Co Dont bow to the pressure put on by ignorant fans and end up paying over the odds for average players (ie sissoko). If quality players are not available Id rather sign no one at all or sign a stop gap on loan or for cheap. Bar central midfield we are strong throughout the squad with lamela and Lucas expected to have a bigger influence this year and hopefully alderweireld integrated back into the team. Same old spurs fans being unrealistic expecting massive big name transfers and then slating levy when it doesnt happen. Poch and Kane just signed long term contracts. We are moving into new state of the art stadium. We haven't lost any players and have a team capable of challenging for premier and champions league. Im choosing to be happy and optimistic about the year ahead. A signing is a bonus not a requirement. As for people like the author enjoy your pessimistic existence criticizing men who have accomplished more in one day than you have in your life.

 

Good post! I am gonna play devils advocate though because for my own sanity I need to!
Firstly I will defend Poch because I truly believe other than identifying who he wants in, and out and informing DL that's where his transfer involvement begins and ends.

As far as nil transfers to date. I think once the Toby want away fiasco began and Utd being the main contenders to lure him up North with a £160k 4 year deal Poch's dream addition, Martial became a real reality and the whole windows focus. Although its likely no money will change hands Martial will be another player at The Lane on over 100k, close to 130k now that DL has relented and loosened the wage purse-strings all of which needs to be taken into account due to the extended cost with the new stadium. My point! Grealish and Martial have been our 2 main targets for different reasons but both are "complicated" deals but I think we will see both at The New Lane for 18/19 season!

Naïve? Probably but I need to believe this for the next 7 days for my own sanity!

 

It always amazes me how people think they know you from posting on a football blog.
You say this as if I am not successful?

In my personal life I'm not a dreamer I'm an achiever.

So I'll give you some pointers-
To succeed doesn't mean being thankful you are better off than you were when you had nothing, it doesn't mean we're doing ok now so why try more, it doesn't mean acceptance of second best and being optimistic/content about it, you get to the top by not accepting and being thankful for the above- that is not negative or pessimistic it's being hungry for success/achievement.

But I'm not going to make assumptions of you based on your outlook

 

Don't let the fact the two top operators in their field were the two top operators who indeed signed sissoko in the first place detract from the story though...

 

Lewis Cook may indeed not be world class as may not Zaha and martial but clubs do win titles with non World class players ie Victor moses Danny drinkwater for example. Fact is its about thickening up a squad that lacks quality rather than numbers outside our starting 11 plus one or two more. The fact that cook and martial are still only young makes them exactly the type we should be looking at.

 

Let's see; 'Levy and poch are ...top operators', and that means that only even 'topper' operators are entitled to criticise them? You can't criticise anyone in any context unless you're better than they are in their field? The Talty household must be an interesting place, with no one expressing any opinion on TV programmes (because they're presumably not producers, directors or actors), or politics (or are they all MPs at least?), or whose brand of baked beans they prefer (because you're presumably not Mr Heinz or Mr Branston, or are you?). By your own logic you not entitled to be positive either, because your knowledge of anything on which you're not an acknowledged expert isn't sufficient to justify any opinion whatsoever, but that clearly doesn't stop you, so keep up the good work - I'm sure Levy loves his lovers as much as they love him.