Levy, ENIC and DC

JollyHappy said:

So what has happened to Delle, Eriksen and Jan's supposed new contracts? I was expecting them to be announced by now!

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You can understand the reluctance of these players and their agents to sign on for long periods of time when they see the hash we make of our approach to both buying and selling players. I doubt they'll extend their contracts for fear of being stuck when Levy demands ridiculous prices or clubs simply won't deal with him.

There were so many noises we had money we were targeting martial Zaha etc. I can’t believe all the ITK was wrong. Imo I think they had their targets which were probably quite specific and limited like martial and a top CM. When those deals didn’t happen you then have to say is it worth buying next level down CM for £35m. Basically you’re then talking players like drinkwater or cook. And is that really better than dembele/winks/Onomah not really so why waste the money. My only quibble is you could upgrade Llorente for £20m. I’d have taken rondon or ings. Trying to be optimistic if the money was there, next summer we should have at least £200m to spend ?

Lilbaz said:

What it is is having no money to buy players because we are paying for the stadium. We have not even started on the southern phase yet. Do you really want to have a zero net spend for the next 3-4 years? We got away with it because we had the likes of pritchard, townsend, mason etc... coming through the ranks that we sold. Now a lot of our youth players are going abroad for nothing. Kane obviously also helped.

If something doesn't change then we will regress.

I had thought that the increased revenue from the stadium would mean that we could invest in the squad but doesn't seem to be the case.

So i would like new owners that can pay off the stadium and invest in the squad. We don't need a sugar daddy continually pumping money in just one that will give us a level playing field and let us invest the money we make as a club into the team.

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When you consider that the amount we make as a club is still not even close to competing with United or City what you want sounds like a half measure to me. I don't mind either option as I've said but don't sell our soul for jack shit, at least make sure we're competitive if we're doing it.

We can't both be taking shortcuts to success and do it the right way at the same time.

I would have preferred a shiny new player or two, but given how far Levy has taken us I feel he's earned 3 or 4 years grace. If we fall out of the Champions League next year, I'll still be happy with Levy as long as we get back again the year after. So much has been about the stadium over the last few years, it would be ridiculous to get rid of him just when his plan is coming to fruition. We don't know how badly the failed naming rights deal has affected us, but without that confirmed income, maybe it was just better to be prudent. And being prudent meant that we couldn't afford the targets that would improve us.

"Audere est facere". "The game is about glory". "...we of Spurs have set our sights very high, so high in fact that even failure will have in it an echo of glory". All of these mean different things to each of us I think. Many feel that means we should stop messing around with business stuff, get a rich owner to come in and just go for it. Buy the players, try for glory and see what happens.

This may sound like I have an open invitation to Levy to let him have his way with me anytime he likes, but I believe that Levy is going for a real dynasty. Proper long term winning of trophy's, done the right way without buying the league with Monopoly money. If he can do that, then I think that would be real glory. That's real daring. And if he fails, then the stadium, the training ground and the fantastic team that we currently have will be the echo of what could have been.

My prediction is that we will now become a target for the media. Any time we draw instead of Win, this transfer window debacle will be raised. Any time we lose, this transfer window debacle will come up.. They'll keep asking and asking 'do you feel this was due to not having players that could unlock their defense'. Or 'do you feel your team were at a disadvantage in terms of quality " etc etc... And eventually they will get Poch to crack and he'll probably drop his guard and say something for them to write about and create more unnecessary pressure. Pressure he doesn't need.

And to be honest, I'm kind if glad. If this is what it takes, good.
If Poch and Levy thought they could conquer the league /cups with the squad that looked I'll equipped last season then they are deluded.

All the season ticket holders that spend vast sums to see a great team in this great stadium being built have been duped. We have a good team but absolutely by no means is it a great team to grace such a great stadium.

Arrogance is what I read about the decision by us not to buy anyone. And they are right!
To think we couldn't improve on the players we have is laughable!! You're telling me there were no better players out there to buy since May for the likes of Jansen? Sissoko? N'Koudou?
Do me a favor!! I'm not buying it for one second.

Poch had dug himself a deep hole by not having plan B or even plan C players to buy when the inevitable preferred players couldn't be bought. And Levy imo is probably ultimately too blame for not pushing and suggesting we do have 2nd and 3rd choice players to buy that Poch does like and is happy with. The transfer board have failed and ultimately that failure will result in changes come the end of the season - make no doubt about it.

One could argue that no stadium sponsorship could be too blame but they've said time and again they'd plenty of money for buying new players and the ITK have all consistently said there's money too, so my personal feeling is that it's so bizarre that wet didn't sign anyone that I almost feel Levy and ENIC have got a buyer lined up and are willing to sell up in the near future.

Cos if they don't I can't see either Poch or Levy being around come the end of the season with no trophy and no champions league spot.

Colston said:

When you consider that the amount we make as a club is still not even close to competing with United or City what you want sounds like a half measure to me. I don't mind either option as I've said but don't sell our soul for jack shit, at least make sure we're competitive if we're doing it.

We can't both be taking shortcuts to success and do it the right way at the same time.

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We are estimated to make £400m this year similar to liverpool and not far off city. Utd are further ahead but the gap has closed significantly.

If there was 1 player we should have bought, who is he? And which club bought him instead of us?

Mattspur said:

If there was 1 player we should have bought, who is he? And which club bought him instead of us?

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Bale.

Levy didn't want to sell cheap therefore he can't buy before selling due to squad places and HG quotas. We might offload players abroad now (VJ/LLorente/Sissoko/GKN) and buy in january ... but if you have money to spend why bothering about selling cheap ? A part of me think it is all about Levy's pride but can't see a businessman mixing personal feeling and business intelligence...

Mattspur said:

If there was 1 player we should have bought, who is he? And which club bought him instead of us?

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Not saying we could have got him, but Mahrez would have given us a real extra dimension.

Definitely a very tricky project trying to replace Nkoudou!
The scouts must be searching high & low

Spurrific said:

How else do you think we improve? Are we the only club that has players that are able to get better with age?

It is absolute arrogance from the board to not invest. If we get off to a slow start this season, the atmosphere is going to be fucking toxic because there will be a clear scapegoat for it all - and it’s the chrome dome gnome.

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We have a young squad and most young players get better with age. Especially when they have a coach like Poch

Mattspur said:

If there was 1 player we should have bought, who is he? And which club bought him instead of us?

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Only Grealish but then he's the only one who we had a firm link to.

thelak said:

There were plenty worth buying - we didn’t offer market rate

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It’s not just the transfer fee though, agent fees are out of control and I’m glad we aren’t stoking that fire line Liverpool are

cockerel downunder said:

We have a young squad and most young players get better with age. Especially when they have a coach like Poch

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Feels like we have been saying forever that we have a young squad that will get better.

cockerel downunder said:

It’s not just the transfer fee though, agent fees are out of control and I’m glad we aren’t stoking that fire line Liverpool are

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cockerel downunder said:

It’s not just the transfer fee though, agent fees are out of control and I’m glad we aren’t stoking that fire line Liverpool are

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Maybe, but Liverpool have put themselves in a position where they potentially could win the league..

RamsesV said:

Levy didn't want to sell cheap therefore he can't buy before selling due to squad places and HG quotas. We might offload players abroad now (VJ/LLorente/Sissoko/GKN) and buy in january ... but if you have money to spend why bothering about selling cheap ? A part of me think it is all about Levy's pride but can't see a businessman mixing personal feeling and business intelligence...

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I think you're right about Levy not mixing personals into the equation. Plenty of us love that idea that the chariman is a capitalist monster more interested in his own ego than the success of the club, but I think that's a long way from the truth.

At the end of the day, none of us here know the details of what is happening with transfer deals and what the conversations between Levy and Poch sound like. The closest we get to that is the ITK snippets, but those must be seen as the chinese whispers that they are, even though they are passed on in good faith. It's interesting to read that BBC article about Man U (https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/45133827) which seems to directly contradict some of the things we were hearing here about Martial and Toby.

As fans we want the instant gratification of new players on the pitch. The chairman/management need to think longer-term than that though. Imagine we flogged Janssen on the cheap (maybe £7m, a £10m loss) to make space for a new player. That player turns out to be Grealish but we have to pay over the odds for him (£35m). When viewed as an overall transaction that's £45m for Grealish and an effective £20m loss on what our valuations of those players are.

That model isn't sustainable of course, so the business intelligence factor has to kick in and say that THFC should not do that deal because it's not beneficial in the long-term. And this is just considering the transfer fee which is barely half the picture. If we sign somebody on 150k per week you know that Alli and Eriksen are going to want similar in their new contracts. Then Toby, Hugo, Trippier et. al. and suddenly our wage control has vanished.

So my approach is to not look at this transfer window in isolation because I don't believe that's how life works. I like to look at the progression we have made on the pitch in recent seasons and try to identify the core components in that. Kane is a huge factor. Poch is a huge factor. I believe that our training ground is a huge factor. We still have all those pieces in place. I think that's the sort of business intelligence we have seen over the past decade or so - even if it is frustrating as a fan.