Player Paulo Dybala

[Nick-TopSpursMan]

I know it won't happen but imagine if we signed Dybala and Lo Celso but also kept Eriksen

We would have Man City level depth (and fit the HG quota as we would have 17 foreign players including Davies for CL):

Lloris/Gazzaniga/Whiteman (HG)

Aurier/KWP (HG)
Alderweireld/Sanchez
Vertonghen/Foyth
Sessegnon (HG)/Davies (HG)

Lo Celso/Winks (HG)/Dier
Ndombele/Sissoko/Skipp (U21)

Eriksen/Lamela
Dybala/Alli (HG)
Son/Lucas

Kane (HG)/Parrott (U21)

 

[Hazelton]

It won't happen but if we signed Ndombele, Lo Celso, Dybala and Sessegnon, all while keeping Eriksen and having him sign a new deal, holy shit. That would make up for the last couple of windows and then some.

 

[ClonedFromSandrosBeard]

...But fuck imagine if it happened though.

 

[Johno1470]

...But fuck imagine if it happened though.

Don’t do it to yourself

 

[ebzrascal]

Are under 21s counted in the 25? If not we could also keep Rose which would be awesome!

 

[KILLA_SIN]

Okay I've been putting some thought into this one.

What we know so far:

• Something is happening. Reporting and confirmation from Dan Kilpatrick, Ally Gold, ITKs (JJ/Gards), and sources in Italy would indicate this is not bullshit.
• Dybala is away on vacation following Copa America and is set to return next week for discussions with Maurizio Sarri about his role under the new manager. (Source)
• Dybala had a down year last season by his standards as he was shifted out wide to accommodate Ronaldo. Sarri, as we saw last season, prefers to play a rigid 4-3-3, with Ronaldo currently believed to be the lone striker. Though Sarri has suggested they could play 4-3-1-2 to accommodate Dybala. (Opinion: I'll believe that when I see it, we all saw how stubborn Sarri was last season.)
• On the radio in May, Dybala's brother said, "There is a big chance that Paulo will leave Turin, he needs a change. He was very comfortable in Italy but he isn't any more – like many other Juventus players. Problem with Ronaldo? No, off the field there is no problem with Cristiano. The problems are on the field: Paulo is young, he has to play." (Source)
• This is the most tenuous portion, but suggestions from both Gards and Tancredi Palmeiri that Juventus are the ones offering Dybala to us. (Opinion: This indicates it isn't us trying to pressure Betis about Lo Celso, but rather a chance to potentially take advantage of a previously unforeseen opportunity).

Why it makes sense for Juventus:

I'll start with Juve as it is my gut feeling that they are driving this currently.

• Signing Cristiano Ronaldo has changed everything about Juventus. As a club, Juventus believes themselves to be in the class of Real Madrid and Barcelona, but they are miles behind them financially. In the Deloitte money rankings, Madrid tops it with €750m in revenue, whereas Juventus is in 11th with €394m in revenue. We're in 10th with €429m in revenue and that was before the CL Final. Ronaldo is Juve's gambit to step up earning potential, Agnelli has said as much. (Source)
• Financial services firm KPMG estimates that, including the transfer fee, amortized over the duration of his contract, Juventus will pay around €340m, or €85m a year for Ronaldo’s services.
• Post-Ronaldo signing, in 2018, Juventus made a loss of €19.2m compared with a profit of €42.6m of the previous season.
• According to Goal (source), as of January 2019 Juventus spends €264m a year on wages, compared to Tottenham spending €148m. Once again, we are similar sized clubs in terms of revenue. Additionally, Juventus this summer has signed De Ligt (€350k/week), Ramsey (€450k/week) (source), and Rabiot (€250k). Higuain is also back at the club after being loaned and he is on €175k/week and they are desperately trying to shift him, with little luck so far.
• Juventus are still being relatively intensely linked to Chiesa (50-60m), Icardi, and Pogba.
• With the context that they could be looking to sell and that Dybala isn't a natural fit for Sarri's system or alongside Ronaldo, it's very reasonable to think that Juventus might jump at the opportunity to get 70m+ for Dybala.

Why it makes sense for Dybala:

• As previously noted, his fit alongside Ronaldo hasn't been great and Sarri's traditional system isn't a natural fit.
• If he does want to leave, it's not an easy situation to upgrade on. I doubt he'd stay in Italy if he leaves Juve, Real Madrid and Barcelona won't buy him. City, Liverpool, Arsenal, and Chelsea are highly unlikely to be options. Bayern are looking for wingers and deeper-lying midfielders. I think that essentially leaves four potential clubs: PSG, Atletico Madrid, Manchester United, and Tottenham.
• I get the sense that PSG are in holding pattern for big signings while the Neymar situation plays out, Atletico seem to be focused on signing James Rodriguez for that position, United would probably want Dybala but they don't have CL and also are after so pretty big signings like Maguire.
• So you have Tottenham who have an Argentine manager, fully Spanish-speaking coaching staff, and potentially three other Argentine players. We are the CL-runners up and one of the up and coming clubs in world football. He's supposedly on £120k/week at Juve, so we'd be likely be able to give him a raise to somewhere between £150-200k based on what we've given NDombele and are supposedly offering Lo Celso. We're an extremely attractive option for him I'd imagine.

Why it makes sense for Tottenham:

So this is definitely the toughest part to square, I'd imagine that we are very interested in the fact that he's been offered to us (once again, the assumption I'm working off is that he's been offered to us) but will struggle to make it happen.

• Footballing-wise, I actually think he's very clean fit in our system if we are going to continue playing the diamond we saw last year and so far in preseason. He's a natural fit in the 2 with either Kane or Son. Dybala is the right age profile for us as well.
• We're clearly willing to spend this summer and considering our paltry net spend these past few years, we do have money. Do we have enough?
• Being offered a top player in world football like Dybala can lead you to move heaven and earth to get the deal done. Maybe it changes our plans and we make an unexpected sale or Levy is willing to make an exception and dig deep into the pockets.
• The AIA deal, Nike deal, and presumably the stadium rights deal could have us in much better financial position than we realize. Levy said today at the AIA event that he is ready to focus on the football side and spend.
• Pochettino and our spanish-speaking coaching staff has to be a huge draw here.
• We have a very clean wage bill, it's roughly the same size as Everton's and well below the other top 6 clubs. Most importantly we don't have albatross contracts like other clubs. Arsenal is playing Ozil 350k, Mkhitaryian 180k, Bellerin 110k, Kolasanic 100k, Xhaka 100k. Our worst contracts are maybe Aurier and Wanyama at 65k? I think we have the space to bring in big wage players.
• Llorente made 100k/week last year, Dybala probably wouldn't cost a ton more than that.

Obviously, everything looks easier on paper. But I think there are a lot of aspects that are favorable for us in this case. Just need a little luck and a few things to break our way. Making the CL-final and finishing the stadium was gigantic for us, we're not the same old Tottenham anymore.

When you stack it up like that it doesn't seem totally implausible

 

[Living Legend Colm G]

I know it won't happen but imagine if we signed Dybala and Lo Celso but also kept Eriksen

We would have Man City level depth (and fit the HG quota as we would have 17 foreign players including Davies for CL):

Lloris/Gazzaniga/Whiteman (HG)

Aurier/KWP (HG)
Alderweireld/Sanchez
Vertonghen/Foyth
Sessegnon (HG)/Davies (HG)

Lo Celso/Winks (HG)/Dier
Ndombele/Sissoko/Skipp (U21)

Eriksen/Lamela
Dybala/Alli (HG)
Son/Lucas

Kane (HG)/Parrott (U21)

I think you forgot Bale

 

[Young Nasty Man]

My god -- the thought of a video dubbed, "2 Paulo's, 1 European Cup".

 

[bigpalacios]

Do the papers usually pop up with stories at about 10.30pm?

Maybe journos will have done some more digging today and we will get something tonight.

 

[am_yisrael_chai]

I suspect if it’s done and the bulk of our business has been concluded, the stadium naming rights deal will be announced in the week running up to the Villa game.

Totally agree

 

[am_yisrael_chai]

Yep, because theres nothing a sponsor would love more than paying to sponsor a team and the team not mentioning it.

Defeats the idea of an actual sponsor no?

Sponsors want publicity, what better publicity than to be announced at the same time as a record breaking transfer of a world class player.

 

[King of the Lane]

Usually im very optimistic with signings. I was one of the only ones saying we will sign Ndombele when everyone was saying no chance. However....this one is never going to happen so im refusing to even consider it.

 

[rossdapep]

Do the papers usually pop up with stories at about 10.30pm?

Maybe journos will have done some more digging today and we will get something tonight.

There does seem to be late activity with our club. Countless times a story or speculation has started with a late release or late bit of ITK.

 

[pelayo59]

It's GFFN, but Amoyal is from Di Marzio. Probably Pepe, hopefully also Dybala

 

[THFCSPURS19]

It's GFFN, but Amoyal is from Di Marzio. Probably Pepe, hopefully also Dybala

They say they are using his phrase, not that the info is coming from him.

 

[pelayo59]

They say they are using his phrase, not that the info is coming from him.

But he's translating Di Marzio news to English.

 

[TheSpillage]

I can’t believe I’m getting sucked into the hope but I sort of am. There’s this bit in my tummy that keeps flinching and, all sodding day, I keep checking to see if we have signed him. Even though I know we won’t.

38 years old.

What a fucking twat. When will this stupidity end?

 

[hughy]

I can’t believe I’m getting sucked into the hope but I sort of am. There’s this bit in my tummy that keeps flinching and, all sodding day, I keep checking to see if we have signed him. Even though I know we won’t.

38 years old.

What a fucking twat. When will this stupidity end?

Mid-fifties.

 

[ThereIsOnlyOneBent]

This has Isco kind of rumour written all over it. Happens every year. Of course we should look for those kind of opportunities when they arise but those deals are extremely hard to get over the line. Van der Vaart probably last time we were able to make such a signing. was worth the wait thou!

 

[THFCSPURS19]

But he's translating Di Marzio news to English.

They are making a joke based on the fact Amoyal uses that phrase. He has nothing to do with French news.