Player Watch - Djed Spence - Genoa

[Mycroft Jones]

Seems like Levy finally has met his match.
Ridiculous if thats true.

Last time they faced off Spurs offered Middlesbrough £13m+ for Stewart Downing but Gibson wouldn't do the deal, they ended up with an unhappy player that they sold to Villa for £10m when they were relegated. Villa sold him for a reported £20m 2 years later. Gibson is no match for Levy.

 

[Hercules]

According to O’Keefe on Twitter… (no idea how to add the image/tweet here)

Not quite. Would be easy if it was just being 2 mill apart. They want PL debut bonus, CL debut bonus, Eng call up bonus & X per appearance in each. Plus a sell on %

He is spot on!

 

[philip]

I'd like him, but I'm actually quite happy with Doherty and Emerson Royal.

 

[ShelfWatcher]

We're not desperate for a RWB if Doc gets back to his best. He was sensational before his injury. And Emerson did fine on our tricky run in.
Those last three games, the defence played so well.

 

[ShelfWatcher]

Most of the SCG were writing Spence off last season.

 

[Pochemon94]

We're not desperate for a RWB if Doc gets back to his best. He was sensational before his injury. And Emerson did fine on our tricky run in.
Those last three games, the defence played so well.

Here’s the thing, Emerson I don’t have any problems really defensively, he’s solid but going forward is a freaking black hole, Doherty if he can get back to the form he was pre injury I’d be completely fine with

 

[Timberwolf]

We're not desperate for a RWB if Doc gets back to his best. He was sensational before his injury. And Emerson did fine on our tricky run in.
Those last three games, the defence played so well.

Even if Doc gets back to his best we seriously need another attacking RWB.

We have games thick and fast next season and Conte will be subbing the wingbacks loads. Royal is a decent enough full-back but he's seriously limited going forward which can really hurt Conte's system. We'd be weakening our attacking game every match the minute we brought him on. Also Doherty was only good for about 3-4 matches last year - what if he turns back into a pumpkin or isn't the same after his injury? Or what if he gets injured again?

We'd be mad to not sign a RWB this window, which is why we will whether it's Spence or someone else.

 

[we_all_loved_freund]

Last time they faced off Spurs offered Middlesbrough £13m+ for Stewart Downing but Gibson wouldn't do the deal, they ended up with an unhappy player that they sold to Villa for £10m when they were relegated. Villa sold him for a reported £20m 2 years later. Gibson is no match for Levy.

He is a match for him, if Levy didn’t get what he wanted. A negotiation isn’t about not letting the other person get what they want (that’s just called an ego), it’s about getting what you want.

Levy, time and time again fails to understand that football is a small world and you can’t always just beat somebody up when you have the chance. The transfer market is more akin to the political world than the business world. We are probably paying the price with Spence of pissing Gibson off when we fucked around with Downing. What goes around, absolutely comes around in football.

 

[VancouverSpurs]

According to O’Keefe on Twitter… (no idea how to add the image/tweet here)

Not quite. Would be easy if it was just being 2 mill apart. They want PL debut bonus, CL debut bonus, Eng call up bonus & X per appearance in each. Plus a sell on %

It does sound crazy. But I would be careful with the details. How much do they want for each? Millions? I don't know. These things all depend on specifics.

I do wonder about whether Levy pulls these same sort of shenanigans in negotiations as well. I remember reading Aulas and others talking about how Levy was constantly changing the deals just as soon as you thought you'd agreed to something. Probably why we struggle to offload players so badly.

Assuming that it is millions, then sure, walk away. I wouldn't agree to a sell-on on principle. But then actually walk the hell away. Don't keep coming back again and again.

 

[cjbyid]

Why wouldn't we fly him out if it's done next week? not sure that makes sense.

We're only in Korea for one week gold said so he was just assuming he'll start his pre season at the training ground and integrate with the squad once they're back!

Providing it actually gets done.....

 

[Timberwolf]

While it's not ideal, it's not the end of the world if our new RWB doesn't make it to Korea. They would still have 3 weeks of pre-season before the season starts, so they'd still get a decent amount of time.

If we can get Lenglet tied up that's 5 new signings in for pre-season, which is miles better than we've ever managed before. When we sold Bale we bought Eriksen, Chiriches and Lamela on deadline day and both Soldado and Capoue right before the season started. Looking back, it's no wonder we were a disjointed mess.

 

[JW72]

I believe that I heard that on Chris Cowlin's YT show. Sorry, can't find the link to the exact show.

Here's a link to show that we initially offered 40 million which Kenwright rejected - https://www.skysports.com/football/...ttenham-complete-60m-deal-for-everton-forward.

My point isn't that Levy can't do fast deals. He obviously can (Van Der Vaart and more). The issue is that he has bad chemistry with certain people (Aulas, Gibson, Peace and others). Doesn't mean some of those deals don't work out. But they are tortuous, especially when we are trying to become a more professional and streamlined outfit where getting people in for pre-season is prioritized more than saving a million here or there.

Thanks. It sounds like a fairly obvious negotiation tactic though. I'm sure any bid to sign a prize asset will result in frustrations for the selling club. Just sounded like the "Kenwright storming out of the dinner" line might have been apocryphal.

 

[ShelfWatcher]

I said I was out, then they pulled me in again .. Sometimes it ain't so easy to quit
We want Spence, they want more money, no simple solution..

 

[Ginola+Tonic]

Come on people!!!

RWB was and still is one of the most important positions in Contes system and important we upgraded there, everyone knew it.

Saying Doherty and Emerson Royal are good enough is strange.

We must upgrade at RWB

 

[taidgh]

We're only in Korea for one week gold said so he was just assuming he'll start his pre season at the training ground and integrate with the squad once they're back!

Providing it actually gets done.....

It's like 3k to fly commercial. I suppose it depends on when he gets done, but I'd think it would make sense to get him over unless there's only like a day left on the trip. I suppose it comes down to timing.

 

[ShelfWatcher]

Doherty is plenty good enough, and Emerson is good cover. Is Spence better than either?

 

[DiamondLites]

I really do not agree that Doherty and Emerson are good enough options, we absolutely need to upgrade the RWB position. No place for sentiment. Emerson is fine as a defensive first option and seems like he brings positive vibes to the squad. Doherty had a nice stretch but prior to this he was a disaster, and he is coming off an ACL injury as an older player he’s not going to be at the physical level he was before until at least halfway through the season, if ever

Spence was/is an attractive option due to the home grown quota, but if Boro are being twats I’m not overly fussed

 

[e2nd]

For me Doherty/Emerson is too unpredictable for the new season. Considering where we are at now with squad depth; last thing we want is having a weak link at RWB for top 4 rivals to expose.

 

[eddiev14]

I am bemused by our RWB hunt. To the majority of us this was the most important position to strengthen coming through last season.

Emerson is capable defensively but for most of the season was frankly laughable in the final third. Doherty came in and did well for a few games and would probably be a dependable back up, assuming he gets back to that level again after his injury.

When we were linked with Spence it initially to me looked like one of those opportunistic ‘one for the future’ signings. The guy has no PL experience, no CL experience and by all accounts is pretty raw.

However we’ve not really been linked to any other RWB this window (barring some tenuous early mutterings about Singo and Dodo), which is what has surprised me most about this window.

Does that mean that this guy is our number 1 target for RWB and the options next season will be Doherty/Spence if we get it done?

I trust Conte but to me that doesn’t look much stronger than last year IMO - he is putting a lot of faith in a player who is getting on a bit and can be patchy, and another who is totally untested.

Also, in the scenario where Perisic and Doherty get injured the pairing of Sessegnon and Spence looks a bit… ? if we’re trying to challenge.

Anyway, I’m sure many will disagree, but I just find it pretty surprising that a top quality, experienced RWB hasn’t been our primary use of funds this summer, given the impact that position can have in Conte’s system and the cash we supposedly have available.

 

[wrd]

We just need to go again and send them an email saying "take it or leave it_final_finalled_v8_lastchancegibbo"

I'm sure once they become aware that this, this is the time we will are definitely walking away from the table that they'll be paying us to take him.

Personally I'm still in the Paratici fucking has enough and lands Hakimi camp but I'd still be very happy to land Spence after all the su..