Player Watch Player Watch: Micky van de Ven

[HildoSpur]

If we do actually manage to pull off this signing and Tapsoba I'll be genuinely thrilled at our business this window.

 

[robotsonic]

Personally I feel like a deal for both VDV and Tapsoba is as much dependent on whether we can get a Conor Gallagher up the pitch as much as it is on finance or any other fuckery.

We need to be a bit careful with HG options within the squad. Pretty sure a few here are building squads in their minds that see multiple positions "sorted for years", but in reality sees us end the season in European competition with James "Madders" Maddison as the only HG player under contract.

 

[Stevospurs18]

Not quite understanding why we haven't pulled the trigger on VDV yet. If we are ideally want to sign both players, why are we holding off on VDV? Seems to me like Tapsoda is the no1 target, and VDV is held as backup incase we don't get Tapsoda for a fee we like. Otherwise, you'd think we pull the trigger on VDV and continue negotiating with Leverkusen for Tapsoda. I think if we can agree a few for Tapsoda, then VDV won't happen and we'll get a cheaper option in. Would love to have 3 first choice quality centre backs (Romero, VDV & Tapsoda), but with only domestic games I can't see us using a large chunk of budget on a 3rd choice centre back.

 

[BENNO]

Lots of posts saying we need to get the VdV in now to integrate into squad, which is a totally valid point but do we know if VdV is even training with Wolfsburg yet after his U21 appearances then a holiday ?? if he is, then yeah, he could be doing the same at Spurs, but if hes not back with them yet, then clearly he wouldn't be training with us either. I can't find anything on google to confirm either way, only thing i can see is Wolfsburg play a friendly at Freiberg on Saturday which may or may not shed some light on things.

 

[Japhet]

You may well be right but if there's any position we need to spend big on *right now* (and for the last several seasons) it's CB.

Absolutely. We're so close to having the jigsaw completed which makes it all the more frustrating when our rivals are outspending us hand over fist.

 

[spursville]

I can only imagine that we're hoping to sign both him and Tapsoba but it's pushing the budget too far right now.

'Pushing the budget' for one of the richest sporting clubs in the world. It really is a sad state of affairs.

 

[DJS]

Absolutely. We're so close to having the jigsaw completed which makes it all the more frustrating when our rivals are outspending us hand over fist.

Yeah if we keep Kane I’m pretty happy with our squad aside from centre back.

If we can sort that I reckon we could have a real go!

 

[Johnny J]

Lots of posts saying we need to get the VdV in now to integrate into squad, which is a totally valid point but do we know if VdV is even training with Wolfsburg yet after his U21 appearances then a holiday ?? if he is, then yeah, he could be doing the same at Spurs, but if hes not back with them yet, then clearly he wouldn't be training with us either. I can't find anything on google to confirm either way, only thing i can see is Wolfsburg play a friendly at Freiberg on Saturday which may or may not shed some light on things.

He would likely cut things short to start sooner with us. Skipp and Udogie both did after the u21 tournament.

 

[CheshireSpur]

Personally I feel like a deal for both VDV and Tapsoba is as much dependent on whether we can get a Conor Gallagher up the pitch as much as it is on finance or any other fuckery.

We need to be a bit careful with HG options within the squad. Pretty sure a few here are building squads in their minds that see multiple positions "sorted for years", but in reality sees us end the season in European competition with James "Madders" Maddison as the only HG player under contract.

Forster, Austin, Dier, Davies, Rodon, Spence, Skipp, Sessegnon, Devine, Maddison, White, Kane

Of course some of those mentioned may leave/go out on loan but I think we'll be okay for HG options fella

 

[Scot-Spur]

We could realistically sign VDV, Tapsoba and Veiga/Gallagher and *if* we shifted the deadwood wouldn’t be much in the red.

 

[Albertbarich]

We could realistically sing VDV, Tapsoba and Veiga/Gallagher and *if* we shifted the deadwood wouldn’t be much in the red.

No offence mate but that sounds like a shit song.

Wouldn't go at all.

 

[Ginola+Tonic]

The frustrating thing here is if we end up signing VDV after all this it’s a lot of time wasted when we could’ve pushed for it through earlier.
Feel like we’re playing with fire juggling all these targets, why not just pick the one we want and go for it?

 

[fletch82]

My tuppence worth.
We want both but have allocated a budget for both which isn't quite cutting it so one is shaved down as much as we need but the other isn't yet so the haggling continues

 

[Japhet]

My tuppence worth.
We want both but have allocated a budget for both which isn't quite cutting it so one is shaved down as much as we need but the other isn't yet so the haggling continues

Same old, same old. From what I can deduce, Levy is stalling the VdV deal as we continue to chase Tapsoba. Can quite easily see us losing out on both if it goes on much longer.

 

[Cinemattis]

If Trix’ second source is right, it’s actually quite a shrewd way of keeping all parties warm and possibly be able to end up with the result we all want: getting both Tapsoba and vdV.

Obviously we would’ve wanted them both before the tour, but you know what I mean.

 

[Maxtremist]

Same old, same old. From what I can deduce, Levy is stalling the VdV deal as we continue to chase Tapsoba. Can quite easily see us losing out on both if it goes on much longer.

Whilst I agree to an extent, if we have a set budget (for whatever reason) then I'm not against trying to get targets A and B rather than just settling for target B.

With Trix's ITK also saying we can go back to the original offer, seems like we are aware that if we can't pull off our main goal we can still get something. And like with the Raya deal, seems like we're comfortable enough to move to a different target/strategy if it seems viable.

It's far from perfect and definitely risky, but it's not looking that bad so far from the updates.

 

[spursville]

More likely the delays in bringing in both new CBs is so we don’t get screwed on price of outgoings (esp Sanchez) when people realise we are over stocked and need a fire sale.

Levy would want all deals to be simultaneous (and confidential) which is always very tricky to achieve.

Levy and management have to take responsibility for not selling some of these players much earlier (including when Poch suggested a clear out). After literally years, many players are now effectively deadwood and the club should take the hit and just get them off the wage bill. In fact they may even actively decide to look for other clubs if VDV and Tapsoba are brought in. A 'bigger' club would perhaps send a few to train on their own etc., send them a clear message and take a hit on the wages.

 

[Wig]

Same old, same old. From what I can deduce, Levy is stalling the VdV deal as we continue to chase Tapsoba. Can quite easily see us losing out on both if it goes on much longer.

What if the ends justify the means? If the tactic of haggling means we can get both our top targets then it will be worth it. We need to wait and see the end result, but what does seem to be clear is that Tapsoba is the primary target otherwise we'd have already completed the VDV deal.

 

[worcestersauce]

Seems to me the line all along has been we need CB's but Ange wants to look at our existing players. With Ali Gold's latest about us being interested in taking both Van de Ven and Tapsoba maybe it means he's looked at our existing CB’s and now knows they're not up to it.

 

[KingNick]

Seems to me the line all along has been we need CB's but Ange wants to look at our existing players. With Ali Gold's latest about us being interested in taking both Van de Ven and Tapsoba maybe it means he's looked at our existing CB’s and now knows they're not up to it.

with some, he will already have known they weren’t up to it even before training started. It wouldn’t take watching many clips of Sanchez to identify his obvious discomfort on the ball to know that he would not suit the new style and would find it difficult to suddenly find the required skills