What I wanted most from the window was for Poch and the key players to stay/sign new deals and some cover at CM to replace a fading Moussa - I got some of what I wanted.
I really hope this means a focus on bringing through youth rather than players like GKN and Llorente. If it does and if we don't sell any key players to Europe then I'm mildly disappointed but generally optimistic.
All in all 7/10 I'd say - assuming we don't sell anyone important over the remaining few weeks.
By not throwing money around like it's going out of business I think we've done the right thing ensuring we don't get mugged off in the future. Bayern Munich always have wonderful players yet their transfer record is less than ours I believe. Show your hand and what you're willing to pay and teams from all over the world will top up what they'd be prepared to accept by a further £10m-£20m.
If we continue sticking to our guns we may miss out on class but we won't pay over the top for showponies & flash in the pans. In the future when Tottenham come calling teams will know they need to treat us with more respect when negotiating because we value and respect monies worth. Like it or not it is the right thing to do both short, medium and long term under Levy's & ENICS ownership
but when we bought Eriksen and Lloris they weren't the top drawer players they are today and they were not the finished article they progressed here. You are always going to gets hits and misses. Its actually about strenghtening the squad and we absolutely should be able to buy people who do that. Even players who are of a similar standard but are fit and play consistently. I am very worried about CM Dier is just about good enough, Winks, we'll see. Wanyama and Demebele cannot be relied on for fitness. Sissoko isn;t good enough.You are missing the point.
It's not about "helping", it's about buying the best of the best we can possibly afford, and if there's nothing fitting that bill then we wait.
It's not about trying to buy the best of the best, then settling for good if nothing comes up.
That's how we end up with Sissoko's and Janssen's and Llorente's.
We are waiting for more Eriksen's, more Lloris', more Sanchez's.
Top drawer players who are only affordable every now and again.
We will buy less and sell less from now on I believe, but picking and choosing and having the bottle to wait out the shitstorms is what's going to allow us to keep up with the $
That's what I took from Poch interview and our business this summer anyway
What I wanted most from the window was for Poch and the key players to stay/sign new deals and some cover at CM to replace a fading Moussa - I got some of what I wanted.
I really hope this means a focus on bringing through youth rather than players like GKN and Llorente. If it does and if we don't sell any key players to Europe then I'm mildly disappointed but generally optimistic.
All in all 7/10 I'd say - assuming we don't sell anyone important over the remaining few weeks.
I'll try to keep this as objective as possible, mostly to use this as a time capsule to reflect on come May.
Our transfer system is broken. Not only because we didn't sign anyone, but because it's an inefficient business model for an organization of this size. Our youth system is struggling, not flourishing, and Poch shouldn't have to give a thought to who is or isn't going to be signed by the time we're one week from the start of the season.
Transfer window: Today is horrible, but the reality of a window doesn't set in for weeks, months even. It's now difficult to see how we could be significantly better than last year, but easy to see how we could be potentially worse after a busy WC and accumulated injuries.
Levy: What a horrible idea (in any business) to have one man responsible for a new multi-million £ structure, hiring/firing top staff, supervising financials, and transfers for a (supposedly) £2B organization. We need a dedicated, top class, empowered DOF—end of.
Poch: For a man who has given every second of every day of the last 4 years to this club AND garnered great success with limited resources for what is now a top-level club, Levy should be moving mountains to support him. I really don't understand where Poch stands atm, but I don't see how no ins/outs is an example of moving mountains.
If we get top 4 and nothing else, it's easy to see why he would want to move elsewhere. If we win a trophy, he can honestly say job done and wipe his hands of having to ever deal with Levy again.
Squad: Window aside, what a fantastic summer for our players. Lloris winning the WC, England in the semis, Belgium in the semis, Kane with the Golden Boot, and Tripps surprised a lot of people.
Still, I don't buy that Kane is playing as well as he did before the injury. And Tripps shined bc 1) he's good but 2) the WC is slower paced than the EPL and while he may have improved mentally, it's foolish to assume we now have a world class RB.
Dembele, Winks, and Wanyama are not 100% physically reliable and should not be treated as such for some time. Llorente and Sissoko are apparently still here.
Toby: Great, we didn't sell to ManU. If he plays, then we have the best CBs in the league and a tactical flexibility of 3 at the back again should Poch want it. However, if he sits the bench and there is even the slightest chance of this being a distraction to the squad, he should be sold overseas in January for his release clause price or more.
Youth: While Skipp and Amos were impressing, many of our best talents were, or are going to be, shipped out the door. Everyone knows about Edwards and Griffiths (top U18 scorer last year) but maybe less so Bennetts, Forson, and Madueke.
If we're losing talents because of "personality issues" — uh, they're kids. If the youth academy isn't teaching them discipline within the trade, then who do we expect will? And if it's because Poch isn't letting them through to the first team but we also aren't signing anyone, then we have a serious problem (FYI: we have a serious problem).
Hitchen: Surprisingly little coming up about our him throughout all of this, but I can't stop thinking: what is he doing here? Levy doesn't follow through with a single recommendation, or (less likely) he couldn't provide any?
Direct Competitors: I don't care what anyone says, Liverpool had a fantastic window. As JJ said, "[Liverpool] have completely overpaid (again) and have a lot more money and completely screwed the market but fair enough to them as they can obviously afford it." If they can deal with the financial consequences, they not only got their needed players in—they did it early and helped paralyze the market for almost every other team at their level.
Meanwhile, Chelsea also bit the financial bullet and have built what is likely to be one of the most competitive midfields in the world while appointing someone who will know exactly how to make the most of it (unlike, say, Mou).
SC: Let's be real, a lot of the reason people are angry is because, like me, they spent an entire summer here reading thread after thread and now it feels like it was massive waste of time. Because it was...and wasn't.
I understand as well as anyone here the excitement for a new piece of ITK, but can no longer justify my time spent here (journey) with the inevitable reality (destination). For a long time I have mistaken transfers for football. Sure they're related, but ITK, media, Twitter, etc. doesn't owe us anything and more often than not leads nowhere.
Ultimately, the end result is the same for a fan who follows ITK and those who don't, and the difference in which those learn about something concrete is often no more than a day apart. So love it for the journey, or find a new summer hobby—which is exactly what I'll be doing next year.
Massive thank you to the mods and the ITKs who make this place what it is. Donating now and COYS
Mate, I get that you are upset that we didn't strengthen but I'm not sure there is a need for this?So what a 6/10 would be selling all our best players, and a 5/10 would be a nuclear holocaust
I totally understand that, I suspect the difference is that I have never been convinced that one or two new names would take us to this fabled next level and suspect we'd actually get in a couple of make weight types - so I'm relatively pleased.
Obviously if a genuinely special player became available and was willing to sign up to our wage structure - which is improved but still not up there with the big boys as far as I know? I also am concerned about our midfield but I think that Levy and Poch have earned my trust and if they are confident then I have to be too.
Poch seems reasonably calm and happy here
I appreciate that and I do take your point that a couple of signings won't guarantee that we win a trophy. My concern is just that perception amongst the players that we aren't looking to compete and that there should be as much competition for places as possible not just to replace injured players with other experienced players but to ensure that players don't rest on their laurels. This greater emphasis on youth (I thought that we were doing pretty well with that already) is all very well but I have my doubts that we'll win anything soon with too much reliance on youngsters. I know that people will remember Alan Hansen's comments about the kids at Man united all those years ago but how often does that happen?
Mate, I get that you are upset that we didn't strengthen but I'm not sure there is a need for this?
What I wanted more than anything was not to break up the team - a very real prospect in previous years, particularly when many of our players did well at a World Cup. It would appear that lots of people on here have taken that for granted - as a given. This is fair enough but I didn't (and I do recognise that the window isn't closed yet) and that's why the score is perhaps higher than others.
I wanted us to strengthen the squad and I'm disappointed that we weren't able to do so but Poch seems reasonably calm about the whole thing and whilst I know the writer gets a lot of his information direct from Spurs - it doesn't seem to be quite as doom and gloom for the manager as for many here.
Lastly, I'm a real fan of bringing through youth players and I'm hoping that not bringing in more dead wood to block their path will help with this.
https://www.football.london/tottenh...icio-pochettino-jose-mourinho-behind-15010719