Transfer Market Dwelling

[SlunkSoma]

I think Sven actually went into the editor before he decided to manage City, created Elano and signed him....wait.

 

[idlepete]

The summer was all about sorting out a left sided player (Bale), and getting in more CB cover (Kaboul) which we succeeded in doing as well as bringing in more youngsters for the future (Boateng, Rose, Taraabt etc).
No one was complaining at the time, and no one could forsee our injuries, lack of form of key players, and general ineptness.

Ooh! Ooh! *Waves hand in the air* I was! And so were lots of others as I recall. Our main problem last season, and this, is our total lack of a cohesive midfield. It took Jol half a season to find a midfield system that came anywhere near to working. We needed a midfield general to replace Carrick, which we never did, and a LW, and both had to be ready to slot straight into the first XI (no-one could have forseen Bale exceeding all expectations, and even if they did, we have to be careful not to burn him out), more than we needed cover for King, more superkids or a £16m striker. None of those were inherently bad things - we just didn't address our problems.

 

[SpursManChris]

He seemed to be fairly cheap and would have provided an immediate link with Berbatov whilst Bale settled in.

The point that I forgot to mention. A national team partnership. Would read eachother like a book, would have been perfect.

 

[SEANSPURS1975]

I definitely was complaining about our sham of a transfer window. We needed to sort our central midfield before anything. How Jol (or whoever) thought in any way Jenas and Zokora were the way forward in midfield is beyond me. They simply are not good enough as a combination. Whether they would be any good with another partner is another debate though I doubt it.
We desperately need a top class central midfield general who can dictate our play.

 

[Spurs4Life23]

Jenas is a waste of space. I agree with idlepete our midfield needs to be better than it is, we another player like Carrick who can thread balls through to the front men - coz this aint happening at the moment. Jenas takes too many (poor) touches and then ends up giving the ball away.

I think Petrov would have been a decent signing if our defence wasn't so patchy, we could have coped with Bale making forward runs if we had the quality of players in our other defenders.

 

[Darrkespur]

I actually think our buy young with sell on value approach, which up until now has been genius and made us one of the most promising teams in the league, is beginning to turn round and bite us in the ass. We don't have any experience anymore. Robbie Keane is probably our savviest player and even he isn't that old. Chimbonda and Lee are the oldest and though lee is decent he's not a leader and Chimbonda can't marshall himself, let alone the rest of the defence. We needed this season to break our 'we need to sell them on' mentality once or twice, bought a good 30 year old CM or CB and reaped the rewards of a more organised, worldly-wise team. In midfield and defense, you need a leader. We don't have one.

 

[SpurSince57]

It depends what you want, really, doesn't it?

It's quite interesting comparing Sven's buying policy this summer with ours, because whilst everyone is currently raving on about Petrov and Elano, they're forgetting that Pearce left a very firm foundation behind him. He might have had dreadful judgement when it came to strikers, but building a defence was another matter, and City's was pretty solid last season, which was just as well.

Dunne gets sneered at by some of our resident experts, but he's solid and hugely experienced, and combines superbly with Richards; in front of them you have Hamann, who's been a rock. Without those three, Elano and Petrov would be nowhere near as effective (and you also have the highly impressive Ireland and Thomas). In fact, aside from two very useful full-backs, Elano and Petrov, the City's success has come from a core of players who were already there. On the downside, Bianchi looks like he's going to be another in the embarrassingly long list of crap City strikers and Bojnov, through no fault of his own, looks like he's going to be out for the whole of the season.

The key players, though, are surely Hamann and Dunne, bags of experience at the heart of things, just where you need it, and just where we don't have it. Jol mentioned that we considered both Chivu and Distin, and whilst it's doubtful that Chivu would have picked us ahead of Inter, we must surely have been in with a good shout for Distin if we'd really bothered. And was there really no experienced CM, someone in the mould of Tugay or Hamann, that we could have got in? Just about everyone on SC was unanimous in believing these were the signings we really needed to make, and I simply refuse to believe that both Jol and Comolli failed to realise what was apparent to us lot.

Whilst I think that Levy's policy has been correct as far as the long term goes, as far as the here and now is concerned it's left us long on potential, short on players who will make an immediate difference where it's required.

 

[Legend10]

It depends what you want, really, doesn't it?

It's quite interesting comparing Sven's buying policy this summer with ours, because whilst everyone is currently raving on about Petrov and Elano, they're forgetting that Pearce left a very firm foundation behind him. He might have had dreadful judgement when it came to strikers, but building a defence was another matter, and City's was pretty solid last season, which was just as well.

Dunne gets sneered at by some of our resident experts, but he's solid and hugely experienced, and combines superbly with Richards; in front of them you have Hamann, who's been a rock. Without those three, Elano and Petrov would be nowhere near as effective (and you also have the highly impressive Ireland and Thomas). In fact, aside from two very useful full-backs, Elano and Petrov, the City's success has come from a core of players who were already there. On the downside, Bianchi looks like he's going to be another in the embarrassingly long list of crap City strikers and Bojnov, through no fault of his own, looks like he's going to be out for the whole of the season.

The key players, though, are surely Hamann and Dunne, bags of experience at the heart of things, just where you need it, and just where we don't have it. Jol mentioned that we considered both Chivu and Distin, and whilst it's doubtful that Chivu would have picked us ahead of Inter, we must surely have been in with a good shout for Distin if we'd really bothered. And was there really no experienced CM, someone in the mould of Tugay or Hamann, that we could have got in? Just about everyone on SC was unanimous in believing these were the signings we really needed to make, and I simply refuse to believe that both Jol and Comolli failed to realise what was apparent to us lot.

Whilst I think that Levy's policy has been correct as far as the long term goes, as far as the here and now is concerned it's left us long on potential, short on players who will make an immediate difference where it's required.

And there was me thinking it was left winger, left winger, left winger!

 

[SpurSince57]

And there was me thinking it was left winger, left winger, left winger!

Oh, I simply took a LW/LM as understood.

But would you disagree with the rest?

 

[Legend10]

Oh, I simply took a LW/LM as understood.

But would you disagree with the rest?

No, most of it I agree with.

However all Spurs sites were just crammed with LW threads instead of the we really need a top draw DM which was clearly our most pressing area followed by an experienced CD.

Personally I wouldn't have gone for Dunne as i felt we needed a CD with pace to play alongside Daws if King was out and that a Dunne & Daws would have been to slow. I did fancy Distin for this option and voiced it at the time.

As far as our midfield goes I honestly don't think right now that anybody would significantly improveit as we are playing so deep they have an impossible job. And Tugay and hamman as good and experienced as theyare would be slaughtered playing in central midfield for us at the moment as they simply couldn't coverthe ground required because of our deep defending.

 

[Rocksuperstar]

For £16.5m i did expect someone with slightly better shooting boots than Stephen Hawking, but i still have my fingers crossed it's Bent feeling the pressure of the position the club's in. He does have great vision to move into space, it's just never the space the balls being played into :shrug:

That said, he did show some glimpses of being the provider, if Defoe hadn't been... i dunno, lets say he'd been drinking, i can't be arsed with that debate.

Keeper wise, we've recalled Alnwick now, so maybe the club have decided to take his career at the Lane seriously now - Cerny ain't getting any younger and, whilst Robbos out, it'll give wee Ben a chance to see what it's like on the bench.

This window i think we need to admit to ourselves that, now he's getting a taste for blood, Kaboul is getting caught out of position too often and would serve us far better as a vicious defensive midfielder. If indeed Ledley is on the come back then we only need to worry about it for so long, but as i said, whilst Rocha can do a job, he's not the man to take us forward. Gardener should be offski - thanks Tony, but you should go get first team football in the Champ's mate. If Kaboul is to be more in the midfield role, giving the grit our gentle giant Huddlestone can't provide, then a new central defender wouldn't go a miss, and i think another try for Micah Richards would be worth it - young and massively talented. Can't see him being cheap and, as far as i remember, he's more than happy at Citeh, but we should ask nonetheless. If not, how about seeing if Toon want to let Steven Taylor go?

It's funny, Kaboul and Huddlestone - same age, vastly different players. Kaboul seems to have slotted right into the agressive side of the game, which is another reason i'd like him to be further away from our box, whereas Hudd, with his immeasurable footballing brain and creativity, just doesn't seem to have the passion at all (although he's getting better). Right now i think dropping Kaboul into the holding role behind Malbranque in the middle is an attractive prospect, so maybe our midfield doesn't need as much work - we have lots of options, lets put it that way. Bale appears to be enjoying the left wing, looking more effective there than at LB, the rare occaison he's got to play there. He links well with Lee too, which is a good sign.

I hope Defoe signs another deal, and why we're offering Berbatov a new deal already is beyond me - he's got, what 2 more years at least left on this one? :shrug: i dunno.

Bent to sort his shit out, Keano to keep being Keano.

So, sum it up - one decent, young, center back and keep the rest in the pot for a rainy day.

 

[SpursManChris]

I really think City are going to take our top 5 place from us. They are rocketing. And whilst this is happening, all the mid table grade teams are getting better as well. We have competition galore this season.