The Daily ITK Discussion Thread - 31st May

[talkshowhost86]

I agree, and I have faith in AvB to spot a player of potential. My concern is that this chase started before AvB's time and its more a Levy signing that an AvB one.

If indeed AvB is totally backing the move thats good enough for me, even though he wouldnt be my top choice should we have decided to risk it a bit more in the transfer market - never been very impressed with what I have seen.

Totally willing to give signings the benefit of the doubt, but that doesnt mean some signings dont leave me a little uneasy or questioning. I guess thats borne of seeing us sign Rasiak, Saha, Postiga and their ilk.

That's my only concern as well, although the more I think about it the less I can come up with a reason why Levy would pursue him so much if the manager didn't want him.

Maybe the fact that successive managers have wanted him suggests he's actually quite good.

 

[Hoopspur]

We can't have it both ways though. There's been a lot of criticism from fans for signing players like Dempsey who are seen as low-risk, so maybe we do need to take a risk for once.

We've also been scouting this guy for 3 years now so surely we must be certain that we think he's good enough.

Are you sure? I found this.......

"Signed from Stoke City in 1980, Crooks forged a lethal partnership with Steve Archibald in the glory days of the early 1980s. It was still the case of 2 out of 3 of course as history tells us, as it nearly didn't materialise as Tottenham had been looking at Leandro Damiao as a viable alternative, but contract negotiations with his future parents prevented the transfer.

Loss of form and the form of the likes of Brazil and Falco, coupled with the fact we were once again looking at Damiao saw Crooks lose his place in the 1982-83 season and the arrival of Clive Allen instead of Damiao meant he started the 1984-85 campaign in the reserves".

 

[The Scarecrow]

I remember when we were linked with a double swoop for Cavani and Kjaer and an awful lot of people were down on Cavani as his record wasn't great either domestically or internationally.

Point is, these are the type of deal's a club like us can do realistically - it may pay off handsomely or not as the case may be but people really need to get a huge dose of realism in this transfer window and not be so glass half empty all the time.

I remember we had been linked to Cavani before the WC in 2010, so I sat down to watch him in particular when Uruguay played, and I wasn't very impressed. I much rather wanted us to sign Suarez. Of course, Suarez turned out to be a decent player, but Cavani is better IMO. So I must say I'm a tad ashamed of my poor scouting skills.

Anyway, the fact that we didn't go in for him when he was under the radar (at least more than he is now) is still bugging me, but at the time we had a very different manager, and I think AVB knows a good player when he sees it.

Another thing to remember is that when I was unimpressed by Cavani, he was 23 years old. So is Damiao, and there are sever other strikers who have had "late" breakthroughs. Falcao signed for Porto at the age of 23, and how old was RVP when he started to bang them in for fun?

This post evolved a lot as I wrote it, and my initial point disappeared a bit in several others, but if we sign Damiao we can very well end up with him being or Falcao. I wouldn't mind that.

 

[CowInAComa]

That's my only concern as well, although the more I think about it the less I can come up with a reason why Levy would pursue him so much if the manager didn't want him.

Maybe the fact that successive managers have wanted him suggests he's actually quite good.

Why? Because he is Daniel Levy, and this is his latest unfinished round of 'chairman wars'

A no-surrender fight to the last minute of every transfer window

 

[felmani26]

I remember we had been linked to Cavani before the WC in 2010, so I sat down to watch him in particular when Uruguay played, and I wasn't very impressed. I much rather wanted us to sign Suarez. Of course, Suarez turned out to be a decent player, but Cavani is better IMO. So I must say I'm a tad ashamed of my poor scouting skills.

Anyway, the fact that we didn't go in for him when he was under the radar (at least more than he is now) is still bugging me, but at the time we had a very different manager, and I think AVB knows a good player when he sees it.

Another thing to remember is that when I was unimpressed by Cavani, he was 23 years old. So is Damiao, and there are sever other strikers who have had "late" breakthroughs. Falcao signed for Porto at the age of 23, and how old was RVP when he started to bang them in for fun?

This post evolved a lot as I wrote it, and my initial point disappeared a bit in several others, but if we sign Damiao we can very well end up with him being or Falcao. I wouldn't mind that.

Good post.

Some players just need that change of scenery and different coaching methodology to perhaps bring out the best in them.

Clearly Leandro is a talent and the question will be whether we can make that talent flourish in our colours and with AVB at the helm alongside some of our great players, I'm going to be optimistic and say, yes because ultimately, any signing a club makes you have to believe they will improve the side.

 

[eViL]

Why are people being down on Damaio all of a sudden?

Because there are no new YouTube compilations available.

 

[ilikeost]

Oh god... After yesterdays surge of ITK todays drought so far has been unbearable! I need my fix, please, just a little taster!

 

[rawhide]

Because there are no new YouTube compilations available.

Or because we might actually sign him...

 

[spurs9]

I remember we had been linked to Cavani before the WC in 2010, so I sat down to watch him in particular when Uruguay played, and I wasn't very impressed. I much rather wanted us to sign Suarez. Of course, Suarez turned out to be a decent player, but Cavani is better IMO. So I must say I'm a tad ashamed of my poor scouting skills.

Anyway, the fact that we didn't go in for him when he was under the radar (at least more than he is now) is still bugging me, but at the time we had a very different manager, and I think AVB knows a good player when he sees it.

Another thing to remember is that when I was unimpressed by Cavani, he was 23 years old. So is Damiao, and there are sever other strikers who have had "late" breakthroughs. Falcao signed for Porto at the age of 23, and how old was RVP when he started to bang them in for fun?

This post evolved a lot as I wrote it, and my initial point disappeared a bit in several others, but if we sign Damiao we can very well end up with him being or Falcao. I wouldn't mind that.

Just to add to this, Falcao had a record of 1 goal every 2.33 games in Argentina before moving to Porto when he was 23. Leandro has a 1 goal in every 1.79 games at the same age.

I have seen countless posts wishing we could do a Porto and sign a Falcao or Jackson Martinez before they are out of our reach, well maybe that's Leandro.

 

[WiganSpur]

No ITK is better than negative ITK

 

[playboypaul]

This is like cold turkey....

Nearly a whole 24 hours since our last ITK.

 

[Parkie]

This is like cold turkey....

Nearly a whole 24 hours since our last ITK.

It was better before that damn ITK tracker - now I feel it is mocking me.
Counting away the hours since someone said something vague about a player I've never heard of...

 

[spurs9]

does seem strange no one else is willing to put up any serious money for him, and we dont seem to have any rivals this time around either even though his value is dropping.

A potentially risky signing i think.

Porto didn't have any rivals when they signed Falcao. If I remember correctly, we were linked with him a year before for a value higher than Porto paid for him, so you could argue that his value was dropping too.

 

[sweyid]

If we loan Carroll out I hope it's to a club that plays a good brand of football, i.e Swansea, and that we have a recall in January option on the loan.

 

[Roynie]

just a shout out to all the ITKers in the house.

Going for my morning dump i about 15. Would you mind adding some tastey reading material.

Regards,

Do you need a piece of wood to chew on whilst you're there ... ?

 

[kcmei]

calm before the mini-storm

 

[Parkie]

If we loan Carroll out I hope it's to a club that plays a good brand of football, i.e Swansea, and that we have a recall in January option on the loan.

I'd like to see us have the two players per position plan that AVB apparently has but also have some of the youth available: Carroll, Coulibaly, Coulthirst, etc to come on and show what they can do - we need to give them a chance.

 

[Waiwonder]

Lets just casually ask the beast on how good he thinks damiao is

 

[Bonqerz]

Hey guys, first time poster, long time watching these pages in particular. Watching these youtube compilations of Damiao (I live in Australia so Brazilian league isn't exactly on... anywhere really) one thing I notice immediately is that he seems to be a proponent of right place right time. And essentially I think that is what we are missing. I'm sure most would agree that for our ambition our current strike force probably wont get the job done due to their inconsistency. On a good day Defoe's shot is hard to stop and Manu can be unplayable (recent Chelski game as an eg) but these are few and far between. I see a lot of posts pointing out that LD doesn't set the world on fire. But does he need to? With Bales ability to create something out of nothing, what we really need is a consistent presence in the final third that will get onto the end of the final pass and somehow or another find the net, not matter how glorious or scrappy. And looking at it, he seems like that type of player. Granted, his stats in the Brazil league aren't prolific, but neither was Falcao, Henry or RVP at the same age (that's all I could be bothered to look up). You could also argue that he may not be getting the service our midfield could provide at Inter, and also that his skill set isn't suited for their league, much like Falcao at River Plate. Either way, I know I will be stoked if we sign him, because whether or not he is a success statistically, it shows we are willing to take a risk in the name of progress.

 

[Roynie]

Internacional rejected our bid in january (£20m). Why would we get him now for £17m?!

I would love to see him in a Spurs-shirt but i´m afraid im not going to

Where the hell are you getting these figures from, he is worth nowhere near that, I thought it was £14million in jan accepted

IIRC deals in Brazil are done in US$ so the 20m would have been US$ which, at the current exchange rate = £13.1M. So if we have got him for less than that then it's a good deal, IMHO. Whilst you can't say there have been no bad players that have played forr Brazil, there aren't that many. He has shown he has the touch and skill, we just need to make sure he is motivated.