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The Summer Transfer Window POST MORTEM THREAD

barry

Bring me Messi
May 22, 2005
6,505
15,345
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.

Can't stop laughing
 

Kspur

Well-Known Member
Jul 13, 2014
498
739
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

Nice try Daniel.
 

spacessships

Incredibly Unknown Member
Jan 31, 2013
437
1,703
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 (y)
 

RamonVega'sShinners

Well-Known Member
Aug 29, 2012
170
364
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
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.
 

lukadownthelane

Well-Known Member
Jul 17, 2008
2,813
5,608
Can’t see us winning anything under ENIC. Good business plan, but don’t think they have the capital to take us to a championship winning squad. Would thank them for what they’ve done, but I would love a sugar daddy now!
 

barry

Bring me Messi
May 22, 2005
6,505
15,345
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.

So what a 6/10 would be selling all our best players, and a 5/10 would be a nuclear holocaust
 

djee

Well-Known Member
Nov 24, 2004
624
1,797
Laying my cards on the table, I am a fully fledged, BSoDL. That said, our chairman must shoulder the overwhelming blame for what was, in no uncertain terms, an appalling transfer window. But parking this for one moment, I would raise the following:

This window also showed how difficult it is for the bigger sides in this market.
- City paid top of the market for Mahrez but would not be dragged into a bidding war for several other targets - reportedly refusing to be bullied by Napoli to raise their fee to match CFC for Jorghino.

- Even Liverpool yes, they pulled off a masterstroke in signing Keita in January for a fee that although huge, would have been almost 25% more this window. Fabinho looks good but for that money is he much better than Can that went on a free? Alisson, a super player still came for a monster fee to solve a goalkeeping nightmare. Despite chucking obscene money around the place, even they couldn't deal with Aulus and the silly fee he demanded for Fekir. Furthermore, Liverpool after spending an absolute fortune have a massive issue with their squad with numerous players on big wages and surplus to requirements. They have shown ambition but it really is bang or bust for them in the next year or so.

- CFC bought in quality players in the end but the huge fee for the keeper smacked of desperation. Kovacic was more luck than judgment in the end and a product of some haggling with Madrid over the Courtois deal. Jorghino was one for the new manager but again - they paid nearly 10m more than what City had offered to get it over the line. Like Liverpool, their challenge will be to shift many players on their books through loans. Perhaps their biggest victory was keeping Hazard.

- Utd had a mare really. They are perhaps still the biggest club in the world yet to only (of any note) bring in Fred (good player) and Dalot - both for significant fees, is a poor return. They too, refused to play ball with the inflated prices quoted for them - specifically Milinkovic-Savic and Maguire.

- Arsenal had a good window actually in terms of bringing in experience. Torreira looks excellent value but other than that, they were mostly modest buys to fill gaps. They ended up getting rid of players for either nothing or next to nothing simply to manage the wage bill.

Outside the 'big 6' - lots of money was banded about; many of the deals done by clubs desperate to survive. The likes of Everton and West Ham have spent big on players that really don't warrant the fees/wages they are on. You also sense that the deals are not a commercially sane as those conducted by a bigger club i.e. high sell on clauses or massive agent fees. The market is unsustainable and will burst to leave many of these clubs in huge peril; short-termism by under pressure chairman and directors.

We did fail to get rid of several players that we thought would have suitors lined up. Clearly, it appears that we wanted a club from China to pay a premium for Dembele; Rose and Toby may have funded a big move for some high profile replacements for the squad. Ultimately we also are paying for poor purchases in previous windows and the offers for Janssen just didn't come from Turkey as anticipated nor did any concrete bid for Sissoko or GKN.

I do fear that our bigger issue is Eriksen who with 2 years left on his contract could force us to sell within the next 12 months. The priority must be to extend his stay with us. Alli one senses will put pen to paper and along with Kane, be priced out of any move for the foreseeable future.

I would say that the figures we hear about do not reflect reality and are far more complex/murkier than they appear. I do believe that in some ways, one positive (perhaps clutching) is that our refusal to play ball on the inflated fees or undervalue our payers may serve us well going forward - selling/buying clubs know we won't be taken for a ride (Sissoko aside!).

It has been a real stinker of a window and despite all the above, the one man with the most influence at our club is chiefly responsible. I genuinely believe he was willing to spend and improve the first team but he played it wrong. That does not mean he should be vilified because he clearly gets much right than wrong with our club.
 
Last edited:

George94

George
Feb 1, 2015
3,661
19,454
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 (y)

I genuinely agree with every single word here.

Well executed.
 

YiddoInPoland

You got some statistical evidence to back that up?
Aug 6, 2011
3,041
6,401
I am a fully paid up member of the BSoDL brigade, no way you can discount our trajectory under level over the last 10-15 years. But i cant make heads or tails of this window, especially the info from @Breezer that we just pulled out of deals this morning.

The current market is the new reality and we need to be able to find a way to deal with it, this summer did not work obviously. I can't understand how we were not able to find even one player that improves the team and doesn't cost £100 million, to the extent that i have no idea what level pool of player we are actually in for anymore, because i get we are not in the top tier, but surely the tier below (at a push) and the one below have players that are attainable and will improve us, even if we only signed one.

We have a great team, and we have retained them with some coming back into the fold, but we also have a couple of areas that need addressing/strengthening and we look like we havn't even come close.

One big criticism i have of Levy is the smoke and mirrors that he (and the club) pull. Fans are not stupid, and you can tell them the new stadium will not effect the transfer budget, but this window looks like that is not the case at all and it didn't take long for a scenario like that to become very toxic for that lot up the road when a similar message was fed to them, and there is no use having the best facilities in the country with that level of toxicity around.

Obviously, i come from this from a totally blind position, i have no idea who we were actually in for, what happened to what and its a little confusing that @Hercules has a different position from @JJetset with regards to the outcome/laying of blame and how we got to the place we are, but then again different sources have different perspectives so i guess it is not that surprising the messaging is different.

Whilst i am disappointed we have not signed anyone (everyone loves a fucking signing, even the N'Random ones), i am a little bit more concerned with the message it sends both the manager and the players with regards to the ambition of the club, becuase the optics of signing no one is bad, fuck we even had Rose last year go public with his disillusion and we actually signed players then! so i hope it doesn't have a negative impact there.

Anyway, whats done is done, hope we are able to maintain the level we have done and see what that means for the season.

COYS
 

muppetman

Well-Known Member
Jul 29, 2011
8,899
24,803
So what a 6/10 would be selling all our best players, and a 5/10 would be a nuclear holocaust
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
 

SamR

Well-Known Member
Jan 31, 2006
1,214
2,440
My main concern is competition for places.

9-11 players are pretty much mark penned to the team sheet and lack real competition behind them to push their game forward.
Any injuries and we are looking light. Lamela, Wanyama, Winks, Rose have all been out for ages - who knows if they will rediscover their form. I really can't see how Poch can be happy with the window.

That's really the disappoint for me and no disrespect to some of the fringe player, but if we are really pushing youth through now, why not let Sissoko & GKN go to make real room and have cash available for January...
 

Metalhead

But that's a debate for another thread.....
Nov 24, 2013
25,351
38,294
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?
 

parj

NDombelly ate all the pies
Jul 27, 2003
3,586
5,861
As much as people say Levy shouldn't be in charge of transfers, didn't ITK confirm that Poch didn't want DoF? Don't get me wrong, Levy fcuked up but surely Poch wuld have learned from previous windows and agreed to someone to get transfers done with him identifying the players
 

Lenn0n

Well-Known Member
Jan 9, 2011
244
342
Wow reading this thread I feel people have got overwrought by the transfer situation. We have a very good squad, ref the number of our players having significant roles in the latter stages of the world cup. Hard to make improvements. Buying a player like Grealish (for example) might have added 5 to 10% on what we have for one player. At best we were only ever going to get 2-3, and even if we did sign 2-3, how many of these would have featured regularly in the startup? Hence the net effect of signing a couple of £50M players would have been minimal.

Granted If we could have signed a world class player, that one individual could would have made a material difference. Looking at the premier league transfers this year, how many of our competitors have signed world class players in this window? Not many - Im not sure if I can think of one.... perhaps a goal keeper here or there. We were never going to do a £100M + deal this year.

If Poch however can get an extra 3-5% from several players, and 1% from all, we would be doing better than signing a few pot boilers. We have a great manager and a new stadium, world class training facilities, a stable squad. We are building momentum. The youngsters have headspace.

As for all the flack Levy is getting, I see his role as building a financially stable, self improving platform - getting the long term fundamentals right. He is doing this.

We have much to be pleased about.
 

YiddoInPoland

You got some statistical evidence to back that up?
Aug 6, 2011
3,041
6,401
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?

Not directed at you as i know you were just addressing something else.

The Hansen kids comments need to die now, it was a different reality then, the two eras are not comparable at all.
 

TEESSIDE1

Married, new job and Spurs on the up!
Jul 3, 2006
15,089
18,780
This window has been like my summer... so much promise and ending in an unmitigated disaster.

Spurs - we’ll make statements signings for the new stadium.

Me - given a £50k gift by my parents. Looking forward to buying a house with my partner.

Spurs - targets not at the WC but waiting to post WC, hmmm

Me - partner devotes life to God.

Spurs - transfer plans start to look like we don’t have a clue what we’re doing.

Me - partner has a breakdown, gets violent and displays traits of bipolar and borderline personality disorder.

Spurs - shit hits the fan, we don’t sign anyone.

Me - had a lovely weekend away with my partner, tells me she loves me and asks me to never leave her. 2 hours later she texts it’s over and leaves whilst I’m at work. No explanation nothing... she’s had an exorcism apparently and God will sort her out.

So yeah this summer from a Spurs and personal perspective has been the most disheartening experience of my life.
 

barry

Bring me Messi
May 22, 2005
6,505
15,345
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

No disrespect to you my friend, I just found your rating hilarious. You actually brightened my day.
People are either having a meltdown about not signing anyone, or trying to put a positive spin on it, and then your post was just so nonchalant. Just what i needed.
It was something that really tickled me, so my sincerest apologies if I've offended you.
 
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