Player Watch Player Watch: Micky van de Ven

[Tucker]

Probably because he had only played a handful of senior top flight games before we bought him. This one is a real win for our recruitment department because they've identified the player based pretty much purely on attributes, and fit for how we intend to play. He only had one season of Bundesliga behind him, and a handful of games in the Dutch second tier, so he is very inexperienced for a CB. Him 'being very fast' wouldn't have been enough for most clubs to take a 40mil chance, but for us it was a massive tick because of how we play.

And as well as he’s done for us so far, he’s not without his flaws. He’s key to how we play because of his pace, and that in turn makes him look good when we play well. But like you say he’s still quite inexperienced, and isn’t the best in the air yet.

It’s exciting to see just how good he can become.

 

[Yantino]

The only way you keep players (any player) is by matching their ambition.

Kane, Bale, Berbatov, Carrick, Modric, Sheringham etc etc all left because they wanted to win things. Had we been winning then I would argue a number of those wouldn't have felt the need to leave. Kane especially.

And this is the same for any top player who's playing well in any team that isn't winning things. It's not exclusive to Spurs. Romero and VDV will stay / are much more likely to stay if we are winning things.

 

[dontcallme]

The only way you keep players (any player) is by matching their ambition.

Kane, Bale, Berbatov, Carrick, Modric, Sheringham etc etc all left because they wanted to win things. Had we been winning then I would argue a number of those wouldn't have felt the need to leave. Kane especially.

And this is the same for any top player who's playing well in any team that isn't winning things. It's not exclusive to Spurs. Romero and VDV will stay / are much more likely to stay if we are winning things.

Last time we won a trophy Berbatov and Keane left the next transfer window.

 

[Westmorlandspur]

If he keeps up his current form I wouldn't be surprised if he gets registered for the latter stages should we progress and a keeper drops out.

A keeper obviously has to be Forster because Austin and Whiteman are club trained so can stay in, Is Ange prepared to take a chance on Austin covering for poss Vic injury . He wasn’t previously and we would definitely suffer in the latter stages with an untried keeper in a quarter final for example.
Spence could get in if one of the squad has a bad injury come January .

 

[aliyid]

Alternatively, which top player did we manage to keep despite interest from a top club?

Son's the only one on the list and I think that's quite a special case given how we handled his military service and the loyalty that earned us.
Man U coming for Toby at a push maybe but was never that serious.

I'm under no illusions that Madrid haven't already started the ball rolling on Romero...

So you honestly don't think there was any interest from top clubs in Dele, Eriksen, Toby, Jan, Lloris, etc.... let alone keeping Kane for so many years.

There's nearly always interest and enquiries being made behind the scenes (as I'm sure you'll know better than most). The fact we haven't been a 'selling club' for a long time isn't because we've had poor players but because we've provided a good environment for the players so they're not actively asking their agents to put out feelers looking to leave.

 

[thelak]

Is it though? I can only think of two players we have “lost” since Bale went to Madrid in 2014\15. One was Kyle Walker. The other is Kane. But it is hard to argue we lost the latter. It was a situational decision. He’d already given us eight amazing seasons. And if he had forced the move through to City, that would have been a loss. But Levy stood firm. Then Bayern come along and offer us 90m for a player about to turn thirty in the last year of his contract and had no interest in staying once he was a free agent.

We aren’t that club anymore.

i would say we wanted to keep Eriksen too but he wanted out so we had to sell him to Inter

Lack of sales to elite clubs is down to our wages catching up but also partly a function of not having too many players of the requisite quality to be that desirable or injury free in recent years.

Son the only one really

Toby clearly wanted out at some point but no elite clubs came in for him

 

[spursyido1]

I remember someone on here shared that he'd been linked to Celtic in January of Ange's first season there, think there's a strong chance he was one that Ange really had his eye on when he came here too:

https://thecelticstar.com/loan-move...-solve-celtics-left-sided-defensive-weakness/

 

[Tucker]

He’s in Troy Deeney’s team of the week again this week.

 

[spurmin]

Martin Keown

 

[Bluto Blutarsky]

Ok, this made me laugh more than it should have - but this is from Ali Gold’s latest talking points:

Remember when Tottenham signed Micky van de Ven from Wolfsburg and his arrival barely caused a ripple? After his first game, former Swindon Town director of football Tim Sherwood labelled the young Dutchman as "wooden" and "slow on the turn".



Framing Sherwood as some two-bit has been seems appropriate …

 

[Donki]

Ok, this made me laugh more than it should have - but this is from Ali Gold’s latest talking points:

Remember when Tottenham signed Micky van de Ven from Wolfsburg and his arrival barely caused a ripple? After his first game, former Swindon Town director of football Tim Sherwood labelled the young Dutchman as "wooden" and "slow on the turn".



Framing Sherwood as some two-bit has been seems appropriate …

Clearly the rumours were true, the Gooner cannon on his cock! Wanker.

 

[teok]

He’s in Troy Deeney’s team of the week again this week.

The pinnacle of anyone's career.

 

[HildoSpur]

Ok, this made me laugh more than it should have - but this is from Ali Gold’s latest talking points:

Remember when Tottenham signed Micky van de Ven from Wolfsburg and his arrival barely caused a ripple? After his first game, former Swindon Town director of football Tim Sherwood labelled the young Dutchman as "wooden" and "slow on the turn".



Framing Sherwood as some two-bit has been seems appropriate …

God love Swindon Town is all I can say

 

[Rob]

Ok, this made me laugh more than it should have - but this is from Ali Gold’s latest talking points:

Remember when Tottenham signed Micky van de Ven from Wolfsburg and his arrival barely caused a ripple? After his first game, former Swindon Town director of football Tim Sherwood labelled the young Dutchman as "wooden" and "slow on the turn".



Framing Sherwood as some two-bit has been seems appropriate …

Everyone seen the clip of Timmy doing the "Cold" Palmer celebration? It's just begging for a comment/meme about his gilet

 

[Ledley's Right Foot]

Alternatively, which top player did we manage to keep despite interest from a top club?

Son's the only one on the list and I think that's quite a special case given how we handled his military service and the loyalty that earned us.
Man U coming for Toby at a push maybe but was never that serious.

I'm under no illusions that Madrid haven't already started the ball rolling on Romero...

I think this debate was relevant around the Berbatov era but I also think its history and we can all move on. We're now more similar to Liverpool, utd, Chelsea, and Arsenal whereby if Madrid, or maybe Barcelona come in with cash, and the player wants to go, there's not much to be done. It'll all be about the cash, the timing, how long is left on the player contract etc. We are not a feeder club to the rest of the league anymore, or to Europe's top clubs because finances are at least on a par, except that is for city and United. For city, if they really want any player, they'll get them. and united? well, at the moment, who would go?

We've all got ptsd from losing our best players at key times. I've certainly imagined what could have been if we kept berbatov when Carrick was at his peak, and modric, and Bale. <sighs> but that's not how our league works anymore, as we've levelled the financial playing field.

 

[dontcallme]

So you honestly don't think there was any interest from top clubs in Dele, Eriksen, Toby, Jan, Lloris, etc.... let alone keeping Kane for so many years.

There's nearly always interest and enquiries being made behind the scenes (as I'm sure you'll know better than most). The fact we haven't been a 'selling club' for a long time isn't because we've had poor players but because we've provided a good environment for the players so they're not actively asking their agents to put out feelers looking to leave.

Big difference in having interest and an elite club going all out for their
Number 1 target and willing to
Pay over the odds to get the player.

 

[SpursSince1980]

i would say we wanted to keep Eriksen too but he wanted out so we had to sell him to Inter

Lack of sales to elite clubs is down to our wages catching up but also partly a function of not having too many players of the requisite quality to be that desirable or injury free in recent years.

Son the only one really

Toby clearly wanted out at some point but no elite clubs came in for him

Well, there are numerous factors at play:
1. We can compete financially with the best
2. For a spell, we could compete with the best on the field and offer CL
3. The PL is the most financially lucrative football league by a WIDE margin
4. Resultingly, a number of 'Elite' European Teams can't bully us around as they once did
5. If we'd gone through the Poch Patch in the early-2000s, we don't keep hold of Lloris, Rose, Dembele, Kane, Son, Eriksen, Toby and Jan. Period. Not even up for debate.

VdV and Romero are elite CBs. They will stay with us until either there is one year left in their contract, or if the likes of Romero pushes for a move next summer to Real, with two years remaining on his contract, Daniel will accept nothing less than 100m. If not more. We don't have to sell and Romero isn't the sort of pro to throw his toys out the pram.

If City came calling for VdV in the summer, and I'm Daniel, I'd tell them that the starting price is: 120M, plus Ake and Grealish, and all of Haaland's hair.

 

[Nick-TopSpursMan]

Last time we won a trophy Berbatov and Keane left the next transfer window.

It’s not just winning things, it’s winning major trophies and competing at the top of the table.

When we won the league cup, we were a midtable team.

Under Poch we had that period where most of our starting 11 could get in any team in the world. We only lost Walker from that group in that period (and even that sounds complicated tbh).

If we compete at the top end of the table and actually get over the line and win an FA Cup, Europa League or ideally the league then things would change for us imo. It would be very difficult to sign one of our players, providing we also increase our wage bill along the way.

 

[dontcallme]

It’s not just winning things, it’s winning major trophies and competing at the top of the table.

When we won the league cup, we were a midtable team.

Under Poch we had that period where most of our starting 11 could get in any team in the world. We only lost Walker from that group in that period (and even that sounds complicated tbh).

If we compete at the top end of the table and actually get over the line and win an FA Cup, Europa League or ideally the league then things would change for us imo. It would be very difficult to sign one of our players, providing we also increase our wage bill along the way.

So if we were a much bigger and better club we’d be able to hold onto our players more easily?

Even Utd when at their best couldn’t keep Ronaldo from going to Madrid.

The discussion was about us keeping onto players if we qualify for the CL. This evidently isn’t true.

 

[aliyid]

Big difference in having interest and an elite club going all out for their
Number 1 target and willing to
Pay over the odds to get the player.

But if you're taking it at that level then you could also say that none of Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea, Utd, City have had that either