The Daily ITK Discussion Thread - 30th November 2019

[Matecheck]

Getting Koulibaly would be a wet dream. Having an extremely solid CB pairing would, imo, also make it easier to integrate a young DM without too much pressure.

 

[Ionman34]

There's a lot of areas where we need to upgrade, but you have to start somewhere and the defence is usually the place to start when you're rebuilding the spine of the team.

As it stands, Koulibaly is the first identified and I highly doubt that that will be the be all and end all of our buying. We may not see too much more of the same class bought this window, but getting a player of Koulibaly's class is most definitely a step in the right direction.

 

[Haddock]

I'm ready to get disappointed and depressed again. Bring me that sweet flight radar ITK.

Seriously though. I, as many others on here, rate Koulibaly as on of the best CB in the world. I'd be truly amazed if this were to happen in January, if at all. Maybe the stars are aligned.

 

[SpartanSpur]

Levy got Mourinho in to try and get success with the bulk of the current squad, as such giving him a 28 year old CB in his prime makes sense. Every chance you still get 4-5 seasons out of him and in theory he should be ready to slot right in.

If we wanted to persist with only buying young players then we should have accepted the full painful rebuild with either Poch or another 'project' manager like a Nagelsmann.

They say it's hard to get quality in January but it sounds by all accounts that Koulibaly is available. Not just him but Soumare at Lille and Ferguson at WBA also. That could be the answer to our key weaknesses right there if we have the funds.

 

[Gbspurs]

There must be a decent DM who is out of contract in the summer or in 2021 that we could pick up for a decent price.

Is this Levy trying to save money on scouts?

 

[Timberwolf]

I just struggle to see Koulibaly choosing us. Surely there are bigger clubs who will offer him more money and guaranteed CL football. This will probably be his last big contract in football - is he really gonna take a punt on us given our current state? Utd tried to sign him for years and he didn't bite, so the Jose factor alone clearly isn't enough...

If we did sign him it would be pretty mental, though. Consistently thrifty when we were on the brink of the title then dropping the world record fee for a defender when we're languishing in 6th... If I was Poch I wouldn't know whether to laugh or cry.

 

[$hoguN]

dragon1 on koulibaly: The special one insists he’s the one , incredible how much levy buys into the Jose myth , getting levy to lump it on a 28 year old

also says 'not true' that its not happening/fee too high

If you hire him, you have to back him. Koulibaly would be a great signing, it would also show the squad that Mourinho isn’t playing games. They can’t perform they get replaced. I’d pull Jan’s contract offer too

 

[Gbspurs]

I just struggle to see Koulibaly choosing us. Surely there are bigger clubs who will offer him more money and guaranteed CL football. This will probably be his last big contract in football - is he really gonna take a punt on us given our current state? Utd tried to sign him for years and he didn't bite, so the Jose factor alone clearly isn't enough...

If we did sign him it would be pretty mental, though. Consistently thrifty when we were on the brink of the title then dropping the world record fee for a defender when we're languishing in 6th... If I was Poch I wouldn't know whether to laugh or cry.

That's because we have a reactionary chairman. Hence why he was happy to dust off the purse when we were languishing when Redknapp arrived but wasn't happy to do the same when we were thriving under Redknapp.

 

[Insomnia]

Fuck me, is it mandatory for someone to post this every time we're linked to a big name? It's boring as shit.

Maybe the transfer isn't gonna happen (most likely not), but it's a lot more fun than being linked to the Jarrod Bowens of this world, isn't it? Just enjoy the fucking ride. Que sera sera.

Sorry hun I'm tired

 

[carpediem991]

Koulibaly would be an exciting signing but i feel it would not improve us much when Aurier is playing RB and Sissoko, Dier and Winks still are our CM options. I hope there we invest...

 

[JCRD]

Getting KK would be great, certainly a statement of intent, but in all honesty with the kind of protection our defenders are getting he will also look shit.

Id rather spunk 50m each on a defender and DM... oh and a couple of full backs would be great please.

 

[topper]

Lets be realistic here. Koulibaly isnt going to come to a club whereby the supporters were recently accused of racial vilification by a fellow black centre half.

He plays in Italy were the abuse is much worse and currently the accusations have not been verified

 

[pelayo59]

Lets be realistic here. Koulibaly isnt going to come to a club whereby the supporters were recently accused of racial vilification by a fellow black centre half.

And mods please dont take this the wrong way. Im not trying to be deliberately start conflict in this discussion. I'm just stating the elephant in the room given the recent Chelsea game events and the troubles Koulibaly has had in Italy.

With that logic he would leave Italy where racism is more often. We also signed two black players in summer. And it looks like Rudiger misheard this

 

[Deleted member 22380]

With that logic he would leave Italy where racism is more often. We also signed two black players in summer. And it looks like Rudiger misheard this

Ok fair enough. I have deleted my post.

 

[Gbspurs]

Koulibaly would be an exciting signing but i feel it would not improve us much when Aurier is playing RB and Sissoko, Dier and Winks still are our CM options. I hope there we invest...

I think you have to move with what's available. How often are genuinely world class defenders available for teams like us? I'd much prefer we signed genuine quality than just filling gaps.

 

[Sandro30]

I don't agree with the comparison of "He's a Van Dijk esque signing, just do it".

1. We're not in a position where we need 1 or 2 star players to bridge the gap between us and the title leaders
2. Van Dijk was bought two years ago, yes he may be 28 now but he was bought at 26 and had the experience of the league. Van Dijk was a two contract signing if it worked out, if it didn't they could sell halfway through his first contract. If KK doesn't work out, we are struggling to sell him for anywhere near the outlay we put out. It's a massive gamble, regardless of his performances in Italy and the CL.
3. Our squad is a complete and total mess, we should not be putting a massive outlay on a CB, even less so someone of that age. KK would be a £150m signing by the time you include transfer fee, contract and agent fees. Unless we have a £500m pot (which we clearly don't and that's not even up for debate), we shouldn't be going anywhere near someone of that age and fee.

 

[rawhide]

Dov is back and is delivering quality ITK snippets.

 

[Japhet]

Koulibaly would be addressing the symptoms but not the cause. I'd sooner we spent the big bucks on a top quality DM.

 

[King of the Lane]

Yeah let's not go after one of the world's best CB's because we are spurs and some of our supporters would much rather pick up a 17 year old English player from Division 2. We always whinge about not going after the very best players and then when we are linked to them in the media and by ITK we just moan and find faults in them. This is why we can't have nice things.

 

[Lighty64]

We’re bordering on a skewed chicken and egg dynamic, at least that seemed to be the sentiment in the 2018 summer window. We had to sell to buy (the deadwood window) and now we’re even deeper into that dynamic in that we probably need to sell near recent starting XI players to buy (hopefully) effective players, except what the club deem the value of a player we might look to sell, doesn’t tally with interested market forces idea of the value of our players. So, do we buy first and trust the market to meet our valuation of players we want to sell, assuming these valuations are realistic enough, or do we wait until we’re content with what we’re being offered for the players we want to shift before we bring in our desired targets? At what point, if any, does this dynamic become a workable model for the club?

even if we have to sell the players at a loss, the players still have to want to go, and the buying club has to match what he wants in wages.

the way some go on in here, they blame Levy for not selling unless he gets the price he asks, yet don't take in the possibility that it's the players that are up for sale just won't budge