Comolli: Tottenham’s scouting network is a joke around the world

[TaoistMonkey]

This surprises. I'm mystified as to how you became such a fan last year.

I like him as a person and as a player. I know you don't see it in him but I like his passion and what he brings to the team. I also like his off field persona. Even when he's struggling he still sticks a pic up of all his new spurs baby clothes he's brought for his new baby. He may not have had the impact of VDV but to me is a very similar person. Old enough and mature enough to give 100%.

 

[eddiebailey]

Now, only Chadli is producing. Chiriches, Paulinho, Capoue, none look like they'll ever be what we need. Eriksen may come good on the basis of last season but right now looks so far away from that. Likewise Lamela, you can see the ability and the attitude, but for all the will in the world he's yet to give a real indication that he'll get to where he needs. Soldado, the only one who was proven at a high level, has scored 6 goals, barely plays now and looks devoid of confidence.

Yet all are considerably better than Gilberto or Rocha.

Comolli was hit and miss at best, and while some came good (very good) he was completely incapable of signing players who could address our immediate needs and slot straight into the first XI and improve us, which was his job. (I am not giving him any credit for Berbs.)

 

[SteveH]

remind me did we sack him?

it's like talking to Jamie Radknapp!

 

[SpurSince57]

St. Etienne's co-chairman on Damo:

"Damien spent €22 million [£18.7m] of our money on seven players in summer of last year. Only one is a first-team regular now. We gave him the keys to our club and are now in financial difficulties. My own view of Damien is he favours size and strength as the qualities he goes for first. Perhaps, he will do better with more money at his disposal at Liverpool than he did with us."

I've no time for this fraud.

 

[Metalhead]

St. Etienne's co-chairman on Damo:

"Damien spent €22 million [£18.7m] of our money on seven players in summer of last year. Only one is a first-team regular now. We gave him the keys to our club and are now in financial difficulties. My own view of Damien is he favours size and strength as the qualities he goes for first. Perhaps, he will do better with more money at his disposal at Liverpool than he did with us."

I've no time for this fraud.

I wonder how these things work. Is it a case of when a club is going through a difficult patch, the football media seeks out disgruntled ex-employees who are willing to offer a negative soundbite or does the ex-employee think that it's a good opportunity to stick the boot in and contacts the football media?

 

[Kendall]

I like him as a person and as a player. I know you don't see it in him but I like his passion and what he brings to the team. I also like his off field persona. Even when he's struggling he still sticks a pic up of all his new spurs baby clothes he's brought for his new baby. He may not have had the impact of VDV but to me is a very similar person. Old enough and mature enough to give 100%.

Sick attributes

 

[TaoistMonkey]

Sick attributes

That was more about the man and why I will continue to support him. He still cares about THFC which I doubt many players do.

 

[Kendall]

That was more about the man and why I will continue to support him. He still cares about THFC which I doubt many players do.

Do you really think so? I'm really not sure. He has run abaaart a bit more this season in general, but for a long time he was a passenger and didn't really move at all. Just because he gets mad with himself doesn't mean he truly cares. If anything, it's hampering his composure.

 

[TaoistMonkey]

Do you really think so? I'm really not sure. He has run abaaart a bit more this season in general, but for a long time he was a passenger and didn't really move at all. Just because he gets mad with himself doesn't mean he truly cares. If anything, it's hampering his composure.

Yeah I think so. Must be hard coming from a team where your team mates know pretty much every run you're about to make to a team where they are so desperate to impress they'd rather take that extra touch.

For Soldado to impress more would be to score more goals but I think most of his touches so far are tying to lay others off and set up others goals.

He's between a rock and a hard place.

 

[looklikemodric]

its well known about the scouting network.

the year we appointed avb we sacked broomfield we ran the club with a handful of scouts. there was four that i knew of, one belonged to avb, two were young goalkeeping scouts (still at the club i believe) and the fourth was a combo of freund/ferdinand/ramsey.

the story that leaked in regards to updating our scouting network is a few months late we started in the summer with broomfield coming back. the structure is changing which should show in januarys transfer window.

mel johnsons an interesting name he was sacked the last time we tried to "re-vamp" the scouting network! which failed misrably. he didnt leave for liverpool he got sacked and went there. i think mel was the one who compiled the scouting reports on a certain gareth bale.

i am NEVER critical of.levy but this is twice or maybe the third time he has ripped out our scouting system. this time he needs to leave well alone. it takes years to build up a good network for god sake.

 

[jolsnogross]

The empty suit has nothing to offer in terms of footballing advice. He'd like a job, but nobody with half a brain would take him on. Wenger said he was the best self-promoter he'd ever come across and his gigs at Spurs and Liverpool proved that. A regular gig on the Alan Brazil show is about his level of footballing insight.

 

[chinaman]

On Bentley, he had been a very productive winger in the previous two seasons and people were talking about him being a Beckham successor (although never being as good). The guy gave up, he got comfortable and gave up. You can't legislate for that, there wasn't any indication that he would do that before he signed, so whilst it was a mistake, I just feel that he is one of those rotten eggs that really didn't care enough. When we signed him, his stock was high.

And he would not have been a total write-off if Levy had the sense to take a loss and sold him early on when some team was offering 11 million pounds.

 

[jonathanhotspur]

So what is our current scouting system? Do we any scouts or do we just look at who Liverpool are after and go for them?

It used to be Tim and Les. Now we're down to the bare bones.

 

[danielneeds]

its well known about the scouting network.

the year we appointed avb we sacked broomfield we ran the club with a handful of scouts. there was four that i knew of, one belonged to avb, two were young goalkeeping scouts (still at the club i believe) and the fourth was a combo of freund/ferdinand/ramsey.

the story that leaked in regards to updating our scouting network is a few months late we started in the summer with broomfield coming back. the structure is changing which should show in januarys transfer window.

mel johnsons an interesting name he was sacked the last time we tried to "re-vamp" the scouting network! which failed misrably. he didnt leave for liverpool he got sacked and went there. i think mel was the one who compiled the scouting reports on a certain gareth bale.

i am NEVER critical of.levy but this is twice or maybe the third time he has ripped out our scouting system. this time he needs to leave well alone. it takes years to build up a good network for god sake.

Four scouts?!! That is truly terrifying...

If I ran the club the first thing I would do is find the money to have 40-50 scouts. Crazy, absolutely crazy...

 

[tdk101]

One deal that I find a huge missed opportunity: Mario Mandzukic. He was extensively scouted by Spurs and was available for under 10 mil from Wolfsburg. It was pretty much reported that Wolfsburg was waiting for an offer from Spurs and was ready to get rid of him. Spurs never made an offer and the rest is history. Our striker problem would have been sorted for years. Instead we bought Adebayor permanently that year. Just frustrating....

 

[dagraham]

Four scouts?!! That is truly terrifying...

If I ran the club the first thing I would do is find the money to have 40-50 scouts. Crazy, absolutely crazy...

Particularly when moths come out of your wallet when you open it.

Seriously, I find it an astounding lack of strategic thinking when a club that is run in such a risk averse way and is obsessed with value in the transfer market chooses to neglect its scouting network.

On the other hand, then we wouldn't be able to pursue the try hard and fail to sign so many "top targets" strategy. Cynical? moi?

 

[dirtydave]

Can't we send out some of our spare foreigner midfield legion to tap up their old leagues? Paulinho must know a few contacts in Sao Paulo and I'm sure he'd be only too happy to go home after the mild frost we had this morning. I think there's a bogof deal on Brazilians at the mo too.

In all honesty, the footie manager thing mentioned on page 1 does make me wonder. Every time I buy a Bakkali, Zouma, Fierro, Ferreryra, Jovetic or a Fernandez on FM, their names seems to crop up 6 months later in real life before they eventually sign for Chelsea and usually become a behemoth.

 

[Stavrogin]

What did the amazing scouts Damien had in Spain, Italy and Argentina ever turn up for us?

That's the point. Show us the results, stories don't win matches.

We seem to be making very similar types of signings regardless of how many scouts we have. It's not as if our transfer policy has massively changed recently.

I suppose the big difference is that in the past some of our big signings came off (Berbatov, Modric) whilst none of our current big signings are working out (Lamela, Soldado, Paulinho). However, I strongly doubt this is because of our scouting network! And i'm sure that with the right manager they can come good.

Kind of makes you think that the most important signing is the manager, huh?

 

[CheeseGromit]

When the smell of blood id around the vultures shall come

 

[striebs]

Damiel Commoli , Talk Sport ....

I can't believe I'm commenting on this guff .