The Daily ITK Discussion Thread - THE POST MORTEM EDITION

[cranester]

Great great window. In May the thought of selling Bale would´ve had me panicked, but the sale (even though it hurts) has payed for a massive upgrade of the team. We now have double cover (triple if we include players out of position with some versatility) for practically every position. As arse-fans were commenting after Tbilisi - our squad is perhaps the strongest in the league together with chavskij and shitty. Our starting eleven might not be up to scratch yet, but I´m confident that the Chavskij-match will be nothing like the arse game. The players will have gelled and the team will be balanced and our boys will have a real shot at winning (I´d say favourites).

When it comes to our pal Kia and his victim Willian - I´m not that bothered. Consider Eriksen a much better buy.

A quick look at our transfers:
Paulinho - future mainstay of Brazil´s midfield together with Sandro. Will set the league alight. Incredible box to box midfielder who should work well in a double pivot with Sandro or Capoue, or as a part of a mid-three. Should score a fair amount of goals as well - we´ve all seen he´s got it in him.

Soldado - Exceptional striker - truly world class. We have already seen his famed coolness from the spot, but he seems to have added something to his game. He actually works for his teammates, something he has been criticised for not doing previously. We still haven´t seen what he can give us, though. We will, however, once the team gels and he can get some through balls.

Chadli - massive talent. Still hasn´t shown what he did in Eresdivisie, and I think he will need mroe time than most to hit his stride. Unfortunately, I believe his best position in the PL is the central role behind a striker - a position we have rfilled. Still done well, and will be an important part of the team. And don´t compare him to Bale - it just isn´t fair.

Capoue - what can I say? He´s given Sandro a run for his money (knowing Sandro, he will be the one encouraging Capoue to take his place. Sandro´s just that great a guy ^^). With the international break the injury shouldn´t take too big a bite out of his season either. The by far most important thing with Capoue has to do with my fingers, though. With him in the squad I´m not running the risk of major infections from nailbiting whenever Sandro goes down.
Chadli
Chirik..ch..s..es Vlad - I don´t know, I really don´t. But Barca wanted him a while back, and AVB seems to believe in him. The little I´ve seen looks promising.

Lamela - OH MAH GAWD! Truly incredible. It is entertaining to read the first pages of his thread... Of all our signings, this was the most impossible one. This kid is one of the future stars of world football - his technique, vision and left foot will serve us well, and his work rate vs. arse was better than what I´ve seen in Rome (though he was clearly not settled yet). that said, we need to be patient. He has experience with expectations and a tough crowd, but this is a kid in a new league, new country, new language. Give him some time and he will be a new Bale.

Eriksen - OH MAH GAWD AGAIN! My favourite transfer this window. We´ve got speed (Rose, Lennon, Lamela, Kaboul, Walker), we´ve got muscle (Sandro, Capoue, Paulinho), we´ve got defensive finesse (Vertonghen <3), we´ve got the players with the skill to force their way past opponents (Dembele, Lamela, Paulinho), and we´ve got the strikers (Soldado, Defoe). The one thing we truly lack, or should I say lacked, was that clinical picker of passes, the one woth the vision. Now, with Holtby back, we´ve got two - one of them who in my mind will turn out to be one of the great footballers of his generation.

The Eriksen paragraph in many ways sums up the window, but there´s one thing +d like to add. Of the top ten players aged 18-22 most likely to be world class - we just signed two.

Chadli a great talent? Been to every game apart from away in Tblisi and I can't see what he offers! Very unlike a Tottenham player to me...

 

[WestBelfast Spurs]

so many formations to choose so many options in players, think we are going to be many a geeks pick on FIFA 14

 

[Mr Pink]

Now that deadline day has been and gone we can reflect properly.

For me its been an incredible window. I know Sunday was hard to take, but in all honesty we controlled large periods of the game, even if it was pretty passive and we were blunt and unimaginative going forward. The point is we look a hell of a lot more solid and the great teams are built from the back, generally very hard to beat and have real strength down the spine of their side. We have that now, its the creativity in advanced areas that we are missing desperately.

Cue Eriksen, Lamela and a more experienced Holtby. If we are to finish in the top four this season these players will be pivotal. We have the power and robustness now, we need the finesse and intelligence in the final third. Absolutely imperative if we are to get the best out of Soldado.

The squad is looking very good, exceptionally good in fact. Exciting times, and if Eriksen and Lamela have encouraging starts it could come together a lot quicker than we think.

 

[EJWTartanSpur]

Really want us to push on with stadium now so hopefully we won't have to sell the likes of Eriksen, Lamela et so when they are in their mid 20s !

 

[Spurger King]

Great window for us.

Thanks to all the mods for their hard work. Probably the last SC transfer window for me and I'll miss A&C regular descents into madness, and JJ's 3 AM snippets.

COYS

 

[HobbitSpur]

Their fans spammed down every social media after they bought that dude, with something like;

"Wenger sold Gervinho to Roma so Lamela could join Spurs which allowed Bale to go to Madrid so Arsenal could sign Ozil " and hashtagged it #WengerKnows

......and we subliminally ordered Wenger to sell Gervinho to Roma so Lamela could join us which allowed Bale to go to Madrid so Arsenal could sign Ozil which hid the fact that we were taking Hulk on loan #Arsenalfansaretossers

 

[Marcus_spur]

Chadli a great talent? Been to every game apart from away in Tblisi and I can't see what he offers! Very unlike a Tottenham player to me...

Yup. But I agree, as I wrote. He still hasn´t shown his ability, though he has shown some promise. With any luck he´ll hit the level he kept in eresdivisie soon enough.

 

[Mr Pink]

Great window for us.

Thanks to all the mods for their hard work. Probably the last SC transfer window for me and I'll miss A&C regular descents into madness, and JJ's 3 AM snippets.

COYS

Why mate?

 

[ValenciaYid]

Chadli a great talent? Been to every game apart from away in Tblisi and I can't see what he offers! Very unlike a Tottenham player to me...

Must remind you of Bale in the early days then?

 

[Shanks]

What happened to POTL as we didn't hear from the fella after the Willian stuff...

 

[SpursTillIDie1882]

Start of Window if we knew this :

Spurs : Lamela, Soldado, Paulinho, Eriksen, Capoue, Chali and Vlad (we all knw in the back of our minds Bale would be off, and lets be honest we knew the money being spent was bale money !! as much as we tried to deny to ourselves )

Scum : Only Ozil @ £42M ....

We have pretty much strengthened in every dept bar LB, (although people complain they were crying for him back last season etc ... so fickle )

7 Top Quality Players whereas they habve brought in one albeit Top quality aswell, but he is not a defender, not a goal keeper, not a defensive mid, and scoring goals hasnt been an issue for them.

 

[Francis Gibbs]

So the smoke and mirrors window
The positives as DL/ENIC would position it ...
A world record fee extracted for the best player we have had in a generation from our 'partners'
7 internationals signed, with the clubs transfer record broken 3 times.
I think that's probably it as they would not mention the fact we actually saved money this window.

let's assess how things developed during the window....
AVB obviously with supposed support from Levy ' Bale not for sale' but rumours start
of a circa £85m world record bid.
Bale makes it clear as soon as this happens he wants to leave and whilst openly not agreeing to this
it was obviously clear to Levy this was a deal he was going to accept but wanted to appear to play hard ball and recognises his golden chance had arrived to spend money without investing so ''releases' intel that we are prepared to push the boat out this window 'uncle Joe wants to make a statement' type stuff. However all he was actually going to do was invest the Bale money.
So he sanctions the purchase of good players but not Tier 1 players using the Bale money which given the sum was pretty obvious would break our transfer record which sets myopic fans hearts all a flutter acclaiming Levy as the greatest chairman that has lived - a perfect storm for Levy spends bugger all, keeps the continued allusion of investment alive up to deadline day with the uncle joe money and has adulation of the BSoDL type fans - a beautiful piece of manoeuvring for this I take my hat off to him I really do.

However, what I would have had great unadulterated admiration for would have been,
No we are not going to sell Bale, he has 3 years left and yes I will invest ENIC money to build a team around him and if he decides he still wants to leave next year I will then cash in.
However, the temptation to be a 'hero' and the continued reluctance to invest just proved too great.

BSoDL do your worst ....

 

[Makkaveli101]

I also would like to thank the mods for all their hard work during the window. Excellent community, and whilst always doing their jobs - they also bring a lot of humour and passion for Spurs to the table. There's no football site like this one, that's for sure.

 

[Francis Gibbs]

l

where's the dickhead rating??

let me know when you find it

 

[SpursTillIDie1882]

Must remind you of Bale in the early days then?

Exactly, also i doubt is is Chadli fault he keeps moving inside and leaving a gap on the left, Siggy does too so im assuming as both do they have been instructed too, so i dont think they can be blamed for it. I think its a tactic that is useful however but needs to be used but only for small periods of the game, we need to mix it up keep the other team on the backfoot guessing, we are too predictable at times.

 

[Francis Gibbs]

Must remind you of Bale in the early days then?

Bale always had that extra 2 yards of pace that Chadli doesn't have

 

[absolute bobbins]

What happened to POTL as we didn't hear from the fella after the Willian stuff...

Might not have had any information to give

 

[absolute bobbins]

Bale always had that extra 2 yards of pace that Chadli doesn't have

You don't think it's a bit early to judge him, no?

 

[ecce_tottenham]

so many formations to choose so many options in players, think we are going to be many a geeks pick on FIFA 14

This geek included

 

[Francis Gibbs]

You don't think it's a bit early to judge him, no?

Not judging him as to what he might end up being, but it can't be said he is like Bale who always had the physical attributes to be a success. I don't need to watch a season of Chadli to know he doesn't have that burst of pace