2012 - The Summer of Change

[Spursidol]

Virtually all UK clubs (other than maybe Chelsea and Man City) have relied on bank finance to help with paying the transfer fees to buy players in the past. That bank finance is no longer available or where it is, it is only available in a lot smaller amounts than before.

That means that clubs generally do not have the money to buy players from Spurs - if we can sell more than a handful of players I will be surprised. If we cannot sell many players or cannot get decent fees for them, it means we cannot afford to buy many players.

The same thing applies for other UK clubs and most European clubs (again exceptions funded by billionaires such as Paris St Germain) - hence the few player transactions where big money was paid on transfer fees.

Sorry guys but anyone dreaming of a massive clearout of players doesn't live in the real world.

I do believe we will get in a few good players - maybe even 6 but only if a couple are 'oldies' or out of contract ! Hence we need to focus our buying power on re-inforcing our weakest positions - 2 strikers and a CB.....and figure out how to solve the other areas.....and if we have some youth coming through it solves the problem even if its less 'macho' (nb as an example a number of posters were extolling the virtues of Redmond as wing cover for Spurs in the last TW, well Townsend has kept him on the bench on the last couple of months).

 

[Lo Amo Speroni]

deluded . seriously . i dont know where to start with that .

 

[kdspur]

we were nerver in with chance of league. seriously. we might have been 2 points behind or whatever it was but it may have well been 22. we dont have the players and people on here can blame harry, can blame club itself or blame refs, whatever. the 11 or 12 or 13 regular playing spurs players are not good enough as a team. end of.

we dont have rock solid reliable defence
we dont have goals in abundance from midfield
we dont have prolific striker
we need all this and more before we come even close to challenging.

we put ourself in a great position though but it was only matter of time before we fucked it up. it was inevitable. it strted with defoe sitter at city and with arsenal at our mercy we could have kicked on but steeped to a whole new low that day and never receovered since. no character or bottle for fight either

 

[Lo Amo Speroni]

we were nerver in with chance of league. seriously. we might have been 2 points behind or whatever it was but it may have well been 22. we dont have the players and people on here can blame harry, can blame club itself or blame refs, whatever. the 11 or 12 or 13 regular playing spurs players are not good enough as a team. end of.

we dont have rock solid reliable defence
we dont have goals in abundance from midfield
we dont have prolific striker
we need all this and more before we come even close to challenging.

we put ourself in a great position though but it was only matter of time before we fucked it up. it was inevitable. it strted with defoe sitter at city and with arsenal at our mercy we could have kicked on but steeped to a whole new low that day and never receovered since. no character or bottle for fight either

You clearly have some very strong views.

However I said we were challenging, not in with a chance. A team that is challenging for a title for the first time since 1987 (how old are you by the way) as late as February clearly does not need an overhaul. I feel you are allowing your anger at the current situation to cloud your judgement and therefore maybe some of your thoughts on the subject are a little deluded?

Hey, I could be wrong and the team that at times has lit up the premier league this year is a pile of poo.

 

[gibbospurs]

First things first people! We need a new manager, We def need to sort out the cb shambles, and our front guys. Modric will leave i think so he will need replacing. (someone who can chip in with a few goals even if he doesnt pass with the outside of his boot.) Problem is that we have not been slowly strenghtening the squad every window, hence it has now come to a point when we feel we need them all at once, Maybe a new manager can take a look at players like dos santos and get us playing the short balls llike rodgers and maybe try different things out? we are so predictable. its either bale bombing down the left or?? im not actually sure what else we try to do really. Even bentley could come good? When he use to actually play for us we use to set up 442 every game. (harry loves his 442.) He would maybe really excell in a 5 man midfield like blackburn played when he was impressing everyone. Banging on a bit here i know but maybe just a new manager and coaching staff and we could see some of these deadwood players revitalised!? I dunno, maybe clutching at straws.

 

[ReadieSpur]

Goalkeepers:
Heurelho Gomes - Sell
Carlo Cudicini - Sell
Brad Friedel - Sell

Defenders:
Younes Kaboul - Keep
Michael Dawson - Undecided
Steven Caulker - Keep
Kyle Walker - Sell
Benoit Assou-Ekotto - Keep
Kyle Naughton - Keep
Sebastien Bassong - Sell
Vedran Corluka - Sell
William Gallas - Sell
Danny Rose- Undecided

Midfielders
Gareth Bale - Sell
Tom Huddlestone - Sell
Aaron Lennon - Sell
Scott Parker Keep
Luka Modric - Sell
Sandro - Keep
Jake Livermore - Keep
Steven Pienaar - Sell
Rafael Van Der Vaart - Injury prone, undecided.
Niko Krancjar - Sell
Andros Townsend - Keep on condition he shows he is willing to learn to learn and develop

Strikers:
Jermain Defoe - Sell
Louis Saha - Sell

Sell/Release ? :
Gallas - Sell
King - Sell
Nelsen - Sell
Bongani Khumalo - Sell
David Bentley- Sell
Jermaine Jenas- Sell
Giovani Dos Santos - Sell

What we can't replace, give opportunities to those who have played in the Next gen competition and been doing spurs proud there. The first team players can just **** off, bunch of lazy money grabbing whores. At least we will have players with a bit of spirit giving it their all, especially if they have a renowned Manager to guide them and develop them.

Thanks Spursidol, I stole your list [/quote]


What the.....? are you actually serious? Brilliant, sell the majority of our players, hope we can replace them all, if not play a bunch of kids. Do you think you'll like the Championship??

 

[Gedi]

How are we going to accomplish all that in the last 6 hours of the transfer window ?

I know I'm late to this thread but that's a great post.

 

[TheGreenLily]

What we can't replace, give opportunities to those who have played in the Next gen competition and been doing spurs proud there. The first team players can just **** off, bunch of lazy money grabbing whores. At least we will have players with a bit of spirit giving it their all, especially if they have a renowned Manager to guide them and develop them.

Thanks Spursidol, I stole your list

What the.....? are you actually serious? Brilliant, sell the majority of our players, hope we can replace them all, if not play a bunch of kids. Do you think you'll like the Championship??[/quote]

The world is insane... so why not join it?

 

[ReadieSpur]

The world is insane... so why not join it?

But if everyone becomes insane... doesn't that mean insane becomes normal?

 

[ReadieSpur]

haha it looks like your quote is actually mine in your post!

 

[TheGreenLily]

haha it looks like your quote is actually mine in your post!

 

[TheGreenLily]

But if everyone becomes insane... doesn't that mean insane becomes normal?

Nope, just means I can get away with a lot more shit

 

[TheGreenLily]

The summer of change?

£500 in 1p coins MWAHAHAHAHAHA

 

[LukaKranjcar]

We dont need a massive summer of change and overhaul, that would do us more harm than good. What we do 100% need is an injection of fresh faces and the removal of the deadwood. Nothing extreme though.

My ideal scenario would be;

Get rid of Redknapp, he just doesnt have it tactically and cannot take us to where we aspire to be. If we get an decent (£30m+) offer for Modric, it pains me to say it but we have to cash in. Get rid of all the utter shite we have languishing around our reserves (Bentley, Gio, Khumalo, Jenas, Gomes, etc), be it sell or release.

Once we finally clear that lot out we can plan our attack on next season. Start by bringing in Brendan Rodgers, he may be practically unproven at the very top, but hey so are we! Give a clearly very talented young manager a chance to prove himself, much like he has done, fantastically, at Swansea and in my opinion we'll reap the rewards. Following him should be Gylfi Sigurðsson, would replace Modric with ease, would compliment our style of play and as we know Rodgers knows how to play him.

Next in should be Moussa Dembele, oozes class and has bundles of talent. Would cost nowhere near the amount the likes of Hazard, Remy etc would, would be much happier to come here and already performs in the Premier league.

The final targets id have on my list would be; Jan Vertonghen, simply perfect for the Premier League, would slot right in with our team and possesses a fine pass on him for a CB. Tim Krul, needs no reasoning really, fine goalkeeper with his best years ahead of him, a must if we wish to sort our GK'ing issues. Bring Adebayor in permanently (providing his wages are cut) and move for a backup/youngster e.g Jordan Rhodes.

Line up in our first game;

Krul​

Walker Kaboul Vertonghen Benny​

Sandro Parker​

Lennon VDV(C) Bale​

Adebayor​

​

Subs:​

Friedel​

Dembele​

Dawson​

Sigurðsson​

Corluka​

Rhodes​

Rose​

​

I wouldn't consider that an unrealistic team/summer. One things for sure, we need to move quick and have a plan laid out now really for us to move forward smoothly and hopefully successfully.​

​

COYS!​

 

[RichieS]

I posted this in a similar thread I started last week:

I would like to begin by saying that if by some miracle we managed to get Mourinho in to replace Harry you can pretty much write off most of this post!

Right, so area of discussion 1: Management.
I think we're pretty much agreed/resigned to the fact that after the events of the last couple of months, Harry is leaving at the end of the season one way or another. This obviously presents us with a massive decision. Regardless of whether we finish in the top 4, there doesn't seem a large choice of managers for us. It seems that we will almost be forced to go for an "up and coming" type, simply because there are no experienced high level managers looking for work at the moment.

To me, this issue then seems to raise a further question - do we return to the continental model i.e. as well as get a new manager, get a new DoF from somewhere too? I think we would all admit that we know less about this role than that of a manager, so would we face a similar problem there? Off the top of my head, I think that Begiristain is still out of a job - maybe he'd be the man. Furthermore, given Rodgers' documented links with Barca, could the pair of them form some kind of Arnesen/Jol type "dream team"?

For me, the choice of managers comes down to three: Lambert, Rodgers and, wait for it... AVB. I know AVB is a controversial suggestion, but the way he had Porto playing was excellent and given all the outside factors at Chelsea, it's hard to judge him on his time there.

Hot on the heels of this is area of discussion 2: Players.
Assuming that we go for a younger manager, presumably with an eye on the longer term, I think we can expect a certain amount of upheaval here. Modric will leave I think and I'm not confident that we'll keep Adebayor. That's two big players who will need replacing. I think we'll be able to keep Bale for at least one more season and I reckon vdV will be happy to stay.

The squad will certainly be freshened up. The main question here is can we expect something similar to Arnesen's first summer? From what I can remember of that year, it felt like every day I checked Teletext to find out we'd signed another three players! Certainly there are many on here who feel that a large number of players need replacing, and a rebuild could be on the cards.

The first team could feature Friedel, Walker, Kaboul, Caulker, Benny, Sandro, Parker, vdV, Lennon and Bale with Naughton, Gallas, Dawson, Huddlestone, Livermore and Townsend and whatever new signings we bring in pushing them all the way. I'd also keep Bassong and Corluka if they wanted to stay.

Would that necessarily be so much worse than what we currently have? With a couple of shrewd striker signings (certainly possible - just look at Newcastle's recent success in that department), a young replacement for Luka (Joe Allen perhaps?) and an appropriate tactical system, I would say not much, if at all.


So yeah, they're my thoughts on the matter.

 

[kdspur]

You clearly have some very strong views.

However I said we were challenging, not in with a chance. A team that is challenging for a title for the first time since 1987 (how old are you by the way) as late as February clearly does not need an overhaul. I feel you are allowing your anger at the current situation to cloud your judgement and therefore maybe some of your thoughts on the subject are a little deluded?

Hey, I could be wrong and the team that at times has lit up the premier league this year is a pile of poo.

old enough to know that we are spurs and never come close to winning the league in donkeys years and not likely to either now this eason or next 10 !! again we were not challenging. just cos we were 2 points behind united at one stage does not mean that. look at what united done. they took off , win after win, point and point , goal after goal.

you dont challenge for a league in february or march or whenever you thought we were in it, you fight and play to stay in the race not shit all the good work and play you done to that point. You challenge for the league in the last half dozeN Games, when the pressure is on, when character and ability and momentum and most importantly teamwork ans spirit take u over the line. we are a collection of individuals, passing the buck from bale to modric and vdv and back again

 

[InOffMeLeftShin]

dont rate remy myself.dembele wud be a good signing as wud hoilett.

not much character and real strength there though which is what we need most of all . its funny we are talking about players and alot of names mentinoned will already know where they will be next year. that there is no doubt.

with euro's on i expect a real quick start to summer which means last day again lol for signings,, the spurs way .. dont u just love it

Really? I think Remy would be awesome for us, so explosive and has excellent movement which is something we definitely need more of in attacking situations. Despite having two of the fastest players in the Premiership it's like they haven't been taught how to use their speed when they don't have the ball. I'm not sold on Dembele though, I'm trying to figure out what he would add to our side especially considering that we need more goals from midfield and he isn't exactly potent.

old enough to know that we are spurs and never come close to winning the league in donkeys years and not likely to either now this eason or next 10 !! again we were not challenging. just cos we were 2 points behind united at one stage does not mean that. look at what united done. they took off , win after win, point and point , goal after goal.

you dont challenge for a league in february or march or whenever you thought we were in it, you fight and play to stay in the race not shit all the good work and play you done to that point. You challenge for the league in the last half dozeN Games, when the pressure is on, when character and ability and momentum and most importantly teamwork ans spirit take u over the line. we are a collection of individuals, passing the buck from bale to modric and vdv and back again

Correct that we were challenging for the title. We were in the race and were doing well and I think that is the point Lo Amo Speroni was meaning. Our squad has the ability to play good football and win a string of games in a row to be in the race but as you say it is an entirely different thing to take that next step to actually challenging. This is the first time in a very long time, that we were at least in the race at some point in the season and that is because of the talent we have in the squad. We had to make that step before we can make the next, which is to find a way to get to the challenging stage (followed by the final step which is winning it and being consistently challenging for multiple trophies).

So this summer we have two major goals which means that we will have to approach the summer differently to we have in the past. Part 1 is to try to maintain our current level of ability with a potential new coach. So if we get a new coach and some of our players leave we will need to find other players that we can bring in to at least have a viable squad that can get us back in the race. Part 2 is to try and find difference makers that can take our club into a position to be challenging. That isn't necessarily players it could be the coach, someone who can utilise the individual talent we have and get them playing as a team. It could be a strong leader at the back who can gel together our group of talented yet frustrating defenders like BAE, Walker and Kaboul. It could be a 30 goal a season mega-striker. Hopefully it can be all of the above but it'll take something very special to get us to that point because it is a step bigger than the one we have already taken. It only took us 30 odd years to get to the point where we are in the race again so a betting man would probably agree with you that it is unlikely we will actually challenge in the next 10 years. But who knows? Nobody can really predict the way things happen in football and so if we had an epic summer we could make another step up but we need to do Part 1 of the rebuilding first and that means we can't wait until the end of the transfer window.

 

[not_tenth-again]

It'll never happen but IMO Bassong, Gallas, Nelson, Gomes, Dos Santos, Jenas, Bentley, Khumalo, Defoe, Pienaar, Rose are all expendable. I'm also expecting Modric to carry on as he did last year except that he'll be sold this time around. Dawson and Hudd back to full fitness. Naughton and Caulker back in from loan. And in a dream scenario Sahin, Vertonghen, Remy, Hoilett, Leandro and Lloris to come in.

 

[RJ1882]

I like Spurs idols post, seem very level headed, but I cant see how we wont have a dramatic summer.
We may get away with retaining our current 3 keepers, but realistically Cudicini and Gomes should go.
King is done, Gallas well past his best and Nelsen has stopped the gap while we wait for the return to fitness of Dawson and the return of Caulker.
Modric will probably go and will need replaced. Maybe not directly, as I think a base of Sandro and Parker is good enough and will allow us to strengthen our attacking options. An upgrade or competition for Lennon, a new striker or two.

The way I see it, definitely in our squad next season would be
Friedel
Walker Naughton Kaboul Dawson Caulker BAE, Rose
Lennon, Huddlestone, Sandro, Parker, Bale, Pienaar

Who could leave
Nelsen, King to retire, Corluka & Bassong probably sold
Pienaar, Kranjcar, Jenas, Bentley, Giovani - all need to play regularly, not good enough to be impact subs. Pienaar has proved this.
Defoe will want more game time, Adebayor may prove too expensive, Saha short term fix, may be retained for a further year.

Looking at that, we are likely to lose, or at least I hope we lose, a lot of our backup midfielders. They simply aren't good enough. Imagine the pace and creativity from Moses, Hoilett, Dembele in place of Bentley, Jenas, Giovani. Perhaps Townsend can offer something next season.
We need a quality centre half. A leader. Dawson and Kaboul are great beside a King or Gallas, but pair them together and they lose something. A partner for Kaboul, with Dawson & Caulker in reserve leaves us on pretty good condition.
I think Benny, as good as he is, can be a liability at times, and can be upgraded, but obviously not a priority. We do need cover there though. We have got away with having one RB and one LB in our squad since January.

Obviously we need to upgrade our strikers. Saha an ok back up, 3rd choice. But Defoe might want out and I think we should sell. I don't think we'll sign Adebayor. Too expensive, and while good, we need a proper CF. Someone to play the line. VDV was at his best with Crouch. Someone who he can play off. Adebayor drifts too much, so many times in Cup Semi final he was out left when he should have been leading the line. We need someone to play the box, link with VDV, be on the end of Bales crosses.

So a new Manager and coaching team
1 or 2 new GK
1 Cb, 1 LB
A Modric replacement, A winger
2 Strikers

Losing some of Nelsen/King/Gallas/ Corluka Bassong Bentley Jenas Giovani Kranjcar Pienaar Defoe Saha Adebayor?

I'd definitely say its a dramatic summer of change ahead.

 

[brasil_spur]

It does seem that player wise there is no room for:

Corluka, Cudicini, Gomes, Nelsen, King, Gallas, Bassong, Bentley, Jenas, GdS, Kranjcar, Defoe, Khumalo or Pienaar.

That's a lot of players to shift, although: Gomes, Cudicini, Nelsen, Gallas and King are less of an issue in that they are at the end of their contracts.

Corluka, Bassong, Kranjcar and Pienaar should all be sell-able for around £4-5m each.

Bentley, Jenas, GdS & Khumalo i think have to be put down as write-offs.

Leaving only Defoe as the one who might be harder to sell for what we will want and what he'll want in terms of a move. However i can't say i'd lose too much sleep if we kept Defoe for another season, he's shown he can be useful off the bench.

Bit of turmoil in the squad, but assuming all our players are fit for next season, actually the core of our squad will be players that are regular features for us, with a preferred starting line-up of something like:

Friedal/New GK​

​

Walker --- Kaboul --- New CB --- Ekotto​

​

--- Sandro -------- Parker ---​

--- Modric/VdV ---​

​

VdV/New RW ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- Bale​

--- Ade/New ST ---​

​

Subs: Friedal/New GK, Dawson, Caulker, Livermore/Huddlestone, Lennon, Defoe, Ade/New ST​

​

So that's only up to 4 new players (plus Caulker who is kinda new) in our starting line-up and bench.​

​

So whilst the squad will be getting an overhaul of players, actually the first 18 won't be - which i think is a crucial part to keeping some stability for next season.​