More bang for our buck: Pochettino’s Wilfried Zaha alternative?

Success is obvious.. UCL far outweighs any domestic cup in terms of prestige/financial rewards.. just ask Arsenal

How about we qualify 20 straight years before we become jaded with that?

Cups will come.. it's not like we haven't been close numerous times

 

I love Arry and was disappointed to see him go.. but in some ways he fired himself.. with his constant courting of the England job while the wheels fell off his club side

He should have been England manager.. even now

 

The wheels weren't falling off necessary, in his final season; Spurs finished 4th...it was just an odd year in that Chelsea won the champions league and finished 5th.

Redknapp was trying to push the club in the right direction in terms of spending on good quality players and expanding the wage structure in order to be competitive. All fair points and ones that need to be address this time around.

Poch has just been able to build a lot of cache and is going about addressing such issues holding lots of the right cards.

 

If we are led to believe that Poch has been given around 150 mil in spending this summer, what's going on? I believe we just missed out on a very talented footballer; Fabinho going to Liverpool for 43mil? This is a shame, if we do lose Dembele....someone like Fabinho would have been a great fit.

 

If I recall correctly.. after Redknapp was cleared by the courts Spurs thumped Newcastle in celebration.. it was then that his England love in began in earnest.. he could not help himself.. and Tottenham won something like 1 of their next 10 games

Arsenal.. who had been floundering.. won 9 of 10.. and the rest is unfortunate history

 

Until we actually lose somebody I personally am not overly concerned presently

The main question marks for me are left back (if Rose departs) and central midfield (if Dembele goes). We will require top class replacements at both positions if we don't wish to regress.

Alderweireld does not necessarily need to be replaced if he leaves as there are already very good alternatives.. I wouldn't be against signing de Ligt though while we still can afford him.. he will clearly be a superstar in the years to come

 

Well, the current team we have right now is not good enough to challenge. The bar has been lifted much higher, just look at what Man City did this season; and they are still looking to improve...Liverpool is doing the same, Van Dijk, Kieta and Fabinho coming in. All players of good quality.

I think we need to be alert and wonder what we'll do to compete. I like Dembele a lot and how he runs out midfield, lots of times last season...our team went the way Dembele went. We need to find another deep lying midfielder who can challenge Dembele or offer something different. Winks is a good prospect, it seems to be that he may be a bit too fragile...hopefully he proves me wrong and goes on to have a great season.

 

City are way ahead of anyone right now so whilst they have all the money and the players I cannot see anyone getting close to them. Liverpool are getting better and better and I expect them to be a comfortable 2nd with their new signings.
That will leave us utd Chelsea and the goons if they get a back four in order as also rans.

 

I hear you Remy but City have set the bar historically/ridiculously high.. in terms of us challenging for the title next year a lot will depend on them

I do believe you almost always need a new signing or two just to freshen up.. but there is still potentially a good deal of improvement in the team (ie. should no one go) from last year

For example.. a few key players have still not peaked (Kane Alli Dier).. a fit and healthy Rose (best LB in EPL).. perhaps even a fit and healthy Alderweireld (best CB in EPL).. Wanyama and Lamela fully fit (quality squad players).. Lucas fully integrated and starting (I rate him very highly).. Sanchez will improve.. Aurier should improve.. and so on

As things stand.. with our preferred formation of a 4231.. it is difficult to greatly improve upon our current squad without spending the hugely inflated sums required that we don't have.. Fabinho is indeed a good player.. but is it worth spending 40M on someone who at very best would only provide an incremental improvement?

Of course it is highly unlikely everyone stays.. so some quality additions will be required.. and in Dembele's case.. someone world class

 

If Toby , Dembele , Rose to name a few go we have to match that quality in replacements JUST to stand still at best.
With them in the side the squad beyond the 1st team is light let alone with them gone.
There's plenty to do if we are to progress , the likes of DeLigt , Sessengon etc seem to be less likely by the day and are currently of the level to be added to- not to replace 1st teamers.
Martial may be an improvement at 2nd Striker but he's barely been tearing up trees at Utd seems to have gone backwards but potential is there.
Sissoko Lamela Jannssen Llorente N'Kodou all need moving on way before the likes of Toby etc but then that's not how we work with the powers that be.

So this Brave new Risk Taking window is still nowhere to be seen.

Mawson & Grealish heavily linked......

Says it all really

 

Going back to the original post it seems Villla are in deep financial trouble and if Grealish could be picked up on the cheap then it woukd be a decent investment at around 15m plus add ons but wouldn't be worth it anywhere near the 40m quoted. Personally think Drinkwater could be a better target in that midfield area providing we keep Dembele. I think we are very strong in centre mid just lack some depth and drinkwater is a solid all round box to box mid at this level and a premier league winner to boot.

On the days other transfer rumours.

Matthias De Ligt is the one name that seems to keep popping up and seems to have legs to it. The stumbling block being his fee. Selling a world class centre half for 50m and replacing with a rookie at the same price doesn't really make sense to me given that it's a lot of money out of the budget for a player who would not be guaranteed to start unless we move to a back 3 in which we don't have the wing backs to play.

Shaqiri is just a big no no from me but looks a typical Levy esque signing if not only to turn a quick buck in 6 months.

Zaha has been quoted at 70m plus and given his stats are absolutely dwarfed by that of Sonny and again would be not guaranteed to start I'd avoid like the plague. Already flopped at one big club.

Martial is a player I'd really like but only see it happening as part of the Toby deal. He definitely has world class written all over him with Poch mentoring him. Apparently United don't want to sell to us as a top four rival so we should repay the favour and keep our Belgian no 4 or sell abroad for less.

Joao Mario linked as part of a Dembele swap. Not even going to entertain that myth.

Soloman Rondon with at 12-16m release clause and 10 Premier league goals at a very poor offensive side in WBA is a decent punt and we've had too many punts go wrong of late. He'd certainly offer more than jansen and llorente.

 

We don't need him Fran. PL winner ? Yes he is, but so are Wes Morgan, Robert Huth, Christian Fuchs and Danny Simpson and I wouldn't touch ANY of them with a 40 foot pole. Leicester's PL win has been documented to death so I won't go into it further other than say that Drinkwater can't get a regular side in a relatively poor Chelsea team.

 

I wouldn't touch either of the above either but they have shown they have mentality that ALL our squad have not to press and that is to ACTUALLY WIN SOMETHING. That mentality added to his breeding at man utd and he's a steady performer in all aspects of midfield where ours are limited in one department. I'd judge him on his time at Leicester rather than an injury Chelsea campaign. Maybe had he been used more when fit they may have gotten top four. He performed well in his starts v the bigger sides.

 

First big signing done- 5 years and 200k per week. Makes a statement and he wouldn’t t have done it if mopo was off. (IMO)

 

Mega signing for the club hopefully the other big names will follow. Toby?? Fingers crossed. Keeping our stars was always the main business of this window. Poch said he wanted to get his players in early before prices inflate after the world Cup so time is ticking on that front.

 

And maybe if Levy/ Lewis had loosened the purse strings this time last year we would have held onto Kyle Walker and also sidestepped the Toby nonsense that we're currently going through. Remains to be seen if H's raise is a one-off, though I'm not sure that others won't want a measure of relativity in their packets. Interesting times round the corner.

 

If by some miracle we do hang on to the likes of Alderweireld, Rose and Eriksen (but Dembele can retire to Italy or China with my blessing - he's been semi-retired for the last six years anyway), it will obviously be good news, but it can hardly be called progress - we slipped one league position and several points last season, and are likely to slip further without improvement in several positions, including keeper. Kane may have signed a long contract but he's surely not going to hang around indefinitely if a top four place is the summit of our ambitions, and against the Mancs, Liverpool, Chelsea who seem to come good every second season, and Arsenal probably back in the mix with a new manager, we'll have our work cut-out to achieve even that. Standing still is the same as falling back when all our rivals are strengthening, to state the bleedin' obvious.

 

Are we still calling renewed contracts 'signings' Harry is only just being afforded the Market Wage he's deserved the past 3 seasons.

 

Well done Felon, you turned it into a negative- chapeau!

 

That is pretty much the gist of it all. This definitely a big step, this will allow us to be competitive to a degree in the market and allow us to keep our top players. I am excited, Poch is really making a mark on this club and on DL.