Why Spurs may not miss Sandro the Expendable

Sylvester Stallone’s 2010 movie The Expendables told the high-octane story of elite mercenaries who’d crush, kill and slaughter their way to justice.

To take this definition, “the Beast” Sandro of Tottenham Hotspur would not seem out of place in Stallone’s motion picture, many would argue.

However, this is not the slant that I wish to take of the Brazilian in this piece. To consult the Oxford English Dictionary, their definition of “expendable” reads – “something of relatively little significance, and therefore able to be abandoned or destroyed” or in other words – “replaceable”.

“SANDRO, REPLACEABLE?! WHAT NONSENSE” I hear you say. But I think it’s time for Spurs fans to realise that the Beast is in fact - expendable.

Sandro Social Media Storm

Rumour, tweet, re-tweet, hell-raised before a meltdown and various disagreements.

This seems to be protocol for Spurs supporters on social media when an unpopular viewpoint/rumour is brought to our attention. And today it was no different!

Yesterday, Sky Italia reported that Rafa Benítez’s Napoli want to sign Sandro, and have made a £7.5m bid, but Tottenham won't sell for less than £16m.

With insiders at the club suggesting that we’re willing to sell for the right place, partnered with the fact that Sandro is keen on playing in Serie A, fans have come the conclusion that the Beast is on his way out.

What next? Cue countless tweets being exchanged between fans – half arguing Sandro is the best thing since Ade’s salute, with others pointing out that he’s just a ****, injury-prone Bentaleb.

Okay, so the latter may have been an exaggeration, but their point was based on the fact that Sandro could be replaced – and I will admit that I have to agree.

Are we prioritising personality over play?

You love Sandro, I love Sandro, but why is it we love him?

Do we love him because of what he does on the pitch, or what he does off the pitch? Is it because of the impact that he has in 90 minutes of every game, or because of his best clips on Spurs TV and what he writes on Twitter?

The majority of fans love the Beast, because of his qualities as a human-being and not solely as a professional footballer.

That’s not to say that Sandro is a poor footballer, but I think Spurs fans would miss Sandro more (if he left), for what he does off the field of play, rather than what he does on it.

What would be missed…

In professional football these days; passion, pride and commitment is a dying art, and fans worship players who play for the name on the front of the shirt than simply the name on the back. And Sandro is definitely from this mould.

In his most valid quote, after numerous howlers, Tim Sherwood said of the Spurs squad, after their 4-0 defeat to Chelsea, that there was a - “Lack of characters, too many of them too nice to each other. You need to show a bit more guts and not want to be someone’s mate all the time.”

And who was first to respond from the dressing room? Sandro – the natural leader, this is something that would be missed.

However, I recall many Spurs fans stating of Michael Dawson, something along the lines of -“Yeah, he’s a leader and loves the club, but that alone, isn’t enough and doesn’t warrant you a place in the starting XI” etc. etc.

Now, don’t think that I’m putting Sandro in the same boat as Dawson, but what I’m asking is - has Sandro really done enough to warrant a place in our starting XI from performances alone?

The Beast as the expendable

Injury has blighted Sandro’s spell at WHL, and has prevented him from getting a decent run in our starting XI.

Injured days turn into weeks, weeks to months and months into an entire season, and fans are left hopelessly dreaming of what “could have been” if Sandro had been fully fit all season. But alas, it is no more than dreams alone.

In opposition of DimTim and Sir Les, my personal opinion is that defensive midfielders, anchor-men, regista’s are NOT overated in modern football, and remain a key-part in today’s game.

For me, important interceptions and crunching tackles are just as enthralling as an Eriksen-thunderbolt or a Lloris finger-tip save, and these qualities above, possessed by Sandro, are both pleasing to the eye and warming to the heart.

Yet, does this mean that Sandro is irreplaceable? I think not!

Rewind 28 months, or 2 and a half years to be exact. Luka Modric became the spear-head to an all-firing Spurs attack, thanks to one Scott Parker. Parker was labelled the indispensable bolt in the Spurs clock.

During the 2011-12 season, Super Scott smothered incoming attacks, retained possession for his team, whilst putting his body on the line. During this period was Sandro missed by fans? I would say no!

It was only when Parker legs had buckled under AVB, allowing the fragilities in his game to be exposed that fans called upon Sandro to step into this holding midfield role. And now, all of a sudden, Sandro is a player that is seemingly “irreplaceable” amongst section of the home support.

Capoue a replacement closer to home

One point made on Twitter, was that defensive midfielders do not come cheap, and that we’d have to fork out more than £16 million to replace Sandro if he were to leave.

Bentaleb’s name was mentioned as a replacement, and those defending the Beast were unsure whether to laugh or cry behind their Twitter accounts.

Although Bentaleb has raw potential, it seems that we have overlooked another defensive-midfielder hindered by injury, and that is Etienne Capoue. If Sandro is to leave WHL, I myself would tip Capoue to be the ideal replacement in that midfield role.

In his 12 appearances in a Spurs shirt last season, Capoue made an average of 2.2 tackles per-game, 2.5 interceptions per-game and 2.2 clearances per-game. In comparison, Sandro in his 16 appearances averaged lower, with 1.5 tackles per-game, 1.8 interceptions per-game and 1.5 clearances per-game.

In attack, both players averaged 0.4 key passes per-game, with Capoue making an average of 44.1 passes per-game and Sandro a little lower at 36.2.

Capoue statistically matches up very nicely next to Sandro and I genuinely believe that he has the ability to make that holding-midfield spot his own – whether or not the Beast boards a Naples-bound plane this summer.

Sandro, as a player and a person is one of a kind, but Spurs fans are foolish to think that he is irreplaceable.

 

Bentaleb is NOT a DMC. He showed that he was NOT capable of doing this job effectively and is more of a Paulinho clone and would be very good backup for him.
Capoue is unproven and at this stage has to be regarded as second choice to Sandro
Sandro has NOT had a decent run in the team since his return from injury and TS's dislike of protection for his CDs and hence his form has been unsurprisingly patchy and IMO Tim disliked Sandro's dressing room impact
as he rubbed Tim the wrong way . not to mention Tim's suicidal refusal to use a DMC for so long.
IMO it would be INSANE to sell Sandro for any price at all and the fact that Chelsea are keen also backs up my point.

 

For me, Sandro is one of the best players in his position in the world ! Few are better than him and while I agree that capoue may adequately bill the void, I would completely disagree with letting him go. A lack of playing time for whatever reason - injury, manager selection etc has prevented us from seeing his true worthiness for my spurs. Can you imagine Man U with out Roy keane, ArseAnal without viera or bayern without effenberg - such is my regard for Sandro. Let's hope he does get a prolonged run in the side and with a little bit of luck(injury wise), I'm sure he will come good for us COYS !

PS my other worry would be how to fit dembele and paulinho in the same midfield, 1 has to be dropped to allow ericksen to assume the attacking mid role, it'll be interesting to see how pochettino utilises our squad though

 

I'd get rid never been big on him personally to injury prone and too interested in social media. Capoue deserves a go let him go to chavs long as its part if a deal for lukaku. If not let him go to Italy he wants out anyway

 

I would really like to see Sandro-Paulinho as the "2" in a Pochettino 4-2-3-1. That said, I would only entertain Spurs letting Sandro go if Capoue, who I think could be great given enough regular time, definitely stays. Of course, therein lies something of a catch-22: if Sandro is given regular time, then Capoue probably WON'T be given regular time. So, what to do with Capoue? Not sure they both have a place in the Spurs' first team...

 

Would like to hang on to Sandro - he gets stuck in and doesn't wimp out of going in for tackles (sure it has cist him in bookings etc - but that shows his compassion for the club and the game). I am not a big fan of Capoue and would like to see the Sandro / Dembele partnership revived for all games - they were awesome when both fit If you believe the rumours there are two angles - Chelsea want him for £8m (try doubling it Jose/Roman - stop trying to mug us off), strange a couple of weeks ago they wanted Paulinho.
The other team who want 'the beast' is Napoli - who according to reports want to swap him for some unknown name of a midfielder of theirs plus cash. Hang on Rafa why should we sell/give you Sandro and you fob us off with one of your flops (I expect) of a midfielder, why don't you want to hang on to your player and are so keen to offload him onto somebody else.

 

Would be gutted to see Sandro at Chelsea. Lets face it good HM with his abilities to break up play arn't a dime a dozen and we've got one of the best in the world in Sandro. Unfortunately Sandro has had a wretched year with injuries as well as the previous managers lack of interest with the players abilities and the position itself so it should be understandable that at 25 he might feel that he's at the crossroads of his career. One of the things I wanted from the new manager was that he would be able to keep our best players at the club and give him some assurances that he's an important part of this team not just as a player but as a leader as well, no one brings as much passion and commitment to the field as Sandro, letting him go would be insane.
From what ive seen MP rates HMs as being an important part of the team and I think most would agree something that missed last year, so I believe that we need to keep both Sandro and Capoue. there will be enough games to rotate them and keep them on the pitch as well as (fingers crossed) possible injuries. Both are excellent players, in Capoue I think weve got a great player for the future, maybe even a real box to box player.
Keep the beast.

 

Sandro is class.
You might not have thought much when Parker was making crop circles at every ground he played at, but to think that you are in the majority is simply wrong.
He is one of the best defensive midfield players in world football, to be underused when fit while Parker played regularly was a travesty.
To call him injury prone is again wrong taking a leaf from you ( source http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/prone). Likely or liable to suffer from, do, or experience. Sandro played 68 club games, in the two seasons prior to joining us. He also played 32 international matches for Brazil (at various levels) including 17 full caps between 2009-20012. He has played close to 80 games for us in four seasons. Two of which under Harry where he wasn't first choice but was fit to play (as Brazil were using him regularly). This past season where he was returning from a career threatening injury. The period prior to that where he was fit and playing regularly saw him exibit every week play of the highest quality.
I have no doubt that if he is able to fully recover from that injury we will see that level of play return to his game. There is a reason managers who know about winning Rafa and Jose are interested as they know he has what it takes to enhace their sides.
We have a serious lack of character in our side. When people are advocating signing this player or that they seem oblivious to the fact that character is as important if not more so than skill. I think we need to recruit more players with his mentality if we are to progress as a side not lose one of the only players we have with it!
So in my opinion you are wrong and Sandro is virtually irreplaceable. (Adj Impossible to replace).

 

Sandro is the hardest sick note in the league. A Top enforcer when fit and before his injury he now looks a yard well off the pace and was just commiting a lot of fouls this season. Is he going to get back to the same level again? Im not so sure.
I wasnt impressed at all with his outbursts in the social media very unprofessional and it does seem hes more interested in twitter than his game at times. Hes a likeable character but im wondering if it would be a good time to move him on seeing as were over crowded in the middle anyway and for me there are big questions over his fitness.

 

We would be crazy to get rid of Sandro. Apparently some of our fans thinks he's not good enough for Tottenham yet two CL sides managed by CL winners (Mou's Chelsea and Benitez' Napoli) think he's good enough for them? But no, Tottenham should sell their most experienced midfielder and buy some fancy name to replace him because he's 'expendable'. Because that worked so well last season.

Be very wary of selling players with bottle. You'll end up getting smashed by every single big team.

 

Don't sell him .. Give him the armband .. Captain if i ever seen one .. Injuries do seem to be an issue with the big fella tho ..

Biggest prob for spurs or anyone else trying to get into champs lge is it took 80 points to get there last season .. Thats more or less a title winning season just to get 4th .. Not much mention of that anywhere .. Massive ask for spurs to achieve that ..