Franco Baldini

[billyiddo]

many claimed there was one reason that we were anywhere near the top 4 last season, i remember seeing plenty of "mid table if it were not for Bale" type posts during and since - well we lost Bale in the summer so if Spurs minus Bale equals mid table then we're already seeing a good return from our summer window activity, surely?


DoF is a long term role, would be silly to judge on one windows worth of transfers in what was a rather extreme set of circumstances. we don't even know who picked and chose the targets we signed - he might just have finalized the deals.

i don't think it's fair to judge a player on 6 months worth action (or sitting on the sidelines in some cases) and it makes even less sense to judge the guy who 'brought them in' over that time scale.

 

[Cochise]

We bought too many players. Lets face it our squad is too big and not balanced (imagine if AVB had had his way and we didn't get Chiriches). I'm convinced Eriksen was only brought in because he was good value and Chadli too. We know Soldado and Paulinho were AVB driven purchases and Lamela was sanctionned as one for next season as AVB felt he would take at least 6 months to settle. Our season has been a mess for a while now, but I don't think it's down to Baldini, I doubt he went off buying players left right and center off his own initiative.

 

[Baleforce]

We bought too many players. Lets face it our squad is too big and not balanced (imagine if AVB had had his way and we didn't get Chiriches). I'm convinced Eriksen was only brought in because he was good value and Chadli too. We know Soldado and Paulinho were AVB driven purchases and Lamela was sanctionned as one for next season as AVB felt he would take at least 6 months to settle. Our season has been a mess for a while now, but I don't think it's down to Baldini, I doubt he went off buying players left right and center off his own initiative.

good point, maybe Chelsea are being smart for sending so many out on loan

 

[Gutter Boy]

another great appointment from Levy

seriously, over 100 million spent and wtf is there to show for it.............

The best squad we've had in modern times. The 3rd best squad in the league IMO (better than Arsenal and Liverpool's).

For decades we've had really crap players carried by a brilliant individual or two - Gascoigne, Sheringham, Ginola, Berbatov, Modric, Bale.

Now we have a top squad of 22 very good, versatile, young players.

All we are lacking is a leader to mould them into shape (and a LB).

If we were to list out the summer signings, does anyone think they can identify who wanted who?

For instance most are certain Lamela is Baldinis choice

IMO:

Paulinho - Baldini with AVB
Soldado - AVB with Baldini (1st choice was Villa, the committee then pushed Benteke, but AVB preferred Soldado)
Chadli - The committee (Pleat, Rosenthal, Timmeh etc; AVB seemed to want Bernard IIRC)
Chirches - Baldini with AVB
Capoue - AVB with Baldini
Lamela - Baldini with AVB
Eriksen - The committe (AVB clearly wanted Willian)

 

[JerusalemMan]

Eriksen - The committe (AVB clearly wanted Willian)

I do wonder how things would have shaped up had we not been gazumped by Chelsea and Willian's wretched agent.

Some of our ills can probably be traced all the way back to Chelsea fluking the Champions League victory and so resulting in Hazard opting for them instead of us as we did not have CL football to offer. Hazard and Bale last season...

There's so many individual things, any one of which could have proved critical had they gone our way.

 

[metalgear]

i don't think we will know for sure, the media, the agents, the club and even the coaches often say what they have to say to promote a deal, its just the name of the game.

baldini i would think is part of the committee
sherwood and avb will have big inputs, but logically baldini ought to have the biggest say as he was supposed to have oversight in the clubs overall footballing progression from youth to U21 to senior team.

i wonder though about the "masterplan" ... for every position there would be consideration how to plug gaps from player purchases or from the junior players. I wonder if this was a cause of conflict between AVB and Sherwood, given their different roles and goals. Still Baldini should have a major role in managing the expectations and reconciling the differences between AVB and Sherwood....

... my wild guess is that levy undermined baldini's masterplan and therefore management of avb and sherwood; avb had yet to assemble a balanced team and wanted more purchases while sherwood sang the right song with a promote from within policy.

what does baldini do? at this stage i think his role is reduced to just a negotiator and chief scout for the club i.e. Levy's puppet.

 

[milo]

i don't think we will know for sure, the media, the agents, the club and even the coaches often say what they have to say to promote a deal, its just the name of the game.

baldini i would think is part of the committee
sherwood and avb will have big inputs, but logically baldini ought to have the biggest say as he was supposed to have oversight in the clubs overall footballing progression from youth to U21 to senior team.

i wonder though about the "masterplan" ... for every position there would be consideration how to plug gaps from player purchases or from the junior players. I wonder if this was a cause of conflict between AVB and Sherwood, given their different roles and goals. Still Baldini should have a major role in managing the expectations and reconciling the differences between AVB and Sherwood....

... my wild guess is that levy undermined baldini's masterplan and therefore management of avb and sherwood; avb had yet to assemble a balanced team and wanted more purchases while sherwood sang the right song with a promote from within policy.

what does baldini do? at this stage i think his role is reduced to just a negotiator and chief scout for the club i.e. Levy's puppet.

What I heard was that as AVB came under more pressure he became more insular and stopped communicating and working effectively with anyone outside his group of Portuguese coaches. I don't have anything I can link to to support this.

With Baldini only joining the club in the summer, I doubt that he had time to develop a master plan. I suspect that he is only recently fully settled in his role.

 

[indianspur]

The best squad we've had in modern times. The 3rd best squad in the league IMO (better than Arsenal and Liverpool's).

For decades we've had really crap players carried by a brilliant individual or two - Gascoigne, Sheringham, Ginola, Berbatov, Modric, Bale.

Now we have a top squad of 22 very good, versatile, young players.

All we are lacking is a leader to mould them into shape (and a LB).




IMO:

Paulinho - Baldini with AVB
Soldado - AVB with Baldini (1st choice was Villa, the committee then pushed Benteke, but AVB preferred Soldado)
Chadli - The committee (Pleat, Rosenthal, Timmeh etc; AVB seemed to want Bernard IIRC)
Chirches - Baldini with AVB
Capoue - AVB with Baldini
Lamela - Baldini with AVB
Eriksen - The committe (AVB clearly wanted Willian)

Paulinho, Soldado and Lamela. :-k would it have been so terrible not to have signed them and relied on Thudd, Defoe and Townsend instead?Could have saved 70 mill

 

[Huddy]

Paulinho, Soldado and Lamela. :-k would it have been so terrible not to have signed them and relied on Thudd, Defoe and Townsend instead?Could have saved 70 mill

On paper they are a big upgrade but the reality is they have so far failed to impress. It wouldn't surprise me if come the summer those three are gone anyway engineering moves to other clubs who will happily snap them up.

 

[indianspur]

On paper they are a big upgrade but the reality is they have so far failed to impress. It wouldn't surprise me if come the summer those three are gone anyway engineering moves to other clubs who will happily snap them up.

we will be lucky to get 15 mill for Soldado and the same for Lamela, very lucky.......Paulie just about holds his value

 

[Lost Mango]

Paulinho, Soldado and Lamela. :-k would it have been so terrible not to have signed them and relied on Thudd, Defoe and Townsend instead?Could have saved 70 mill

And we would probably have been as badly off but who can say?

Defoe is past his best. Just because Soldado hasn't worked (so far?) doesn't mean that JD didn't need replacing. AVB obviously thought that as does Sherwood, otherwise he wouldn't have allowed him to go to Toronto.

Townsend - to me the jury is still out. His crossing is average and his shot selection/timing woeful when he is on the right. He has potential but half a decent season at a relegated team and some cameos for us and England doesn't a top class player make - yet.

Thudd - one I would possibly agree with but his mobility was the issue, no? Paulie is much more mobile but doesn't have his range of passing. Thudd was a catalogue of injuries that our 'renowned' medical staff could never seem to fix. Can understand why he was moved on.

Soldado could have been Torres mkII a la Anfield, Paulie was hailed by the general media as a Brazillian Lampard - second guessing now is fairly futile and a bit like shooting fish in a barrel.

 

[Lost Mango]

we will be lucky to get 15 mill for Soldado and the same for Lamela, very lucky.......Paulie just about holds his value

So we make a million or 2 on Soldado, a loss on Lamela (depending on how much was up front and how much on bonuses) ..... down by maybe £10 million on a speculation that didn't quite work out. Oh well.

 

[Gutter Boy]

Paulinho, Soldado and Lamela. :-k would it have been so terrible not to have signed them and relied on Thudd, Defoe and Townsend instead?Could have saved 70 mill

It's way too early to tell. Remember how average Bale, Modric, Carrick and Berbatov were during the first six months of their careers with us. Just think, we could have saved that £40m and stuck with LeeYP, Zokora, Mendez and Mido.

The manager situation has screwed them over quite a lot, but if we can protect them till after the summer, I'm sure all will flourish next season if we get someone capable of installing a vision and system on the squad.

Paulinho, Soldado and Lamela are all great players. I really liked Huddlestone, Defoe has always been terrible and Townsend is currently ineffective (still not one assist in his career yet IIRC). If we revisit this in a year's time, I'm sure £70m will look like a great investment.

 

[Raziel]

It's way too early to tell. Remember how average Bale, Modric, Carrick and Berbatov were during the first six months of their careers with us. Just think, we could have saved that £40m and stuck with LeeYP, Zokora, Mendez and Mido.

The manager situation has screwed them over quite a lot, but if we can protect them till after the summer, I'm sure all will flourish next season if we get someone capable of installing a vision and system on the squad.

Paulinho, Soldado and Lamela are all great players. I really liked Huddlestone, Defoe has always been terrible and Townsend is currently ineffective (still not one assist in his career yet IIRC). If we revisit this in a year's time, I'm sure £70m will look like a great investment.

Wow, I'm agreeing with GB ..

Defoe's last 18 months or so have been very poor, and he's not going to improve, Hudd is a legend only in the minds of Spurs fans (reality is exactly where he is) and Townsend had a couple of decent games where he looked good, but still managed to frustrate everyone with his stupid shooting.

Paulinho, Soldado, Lamela are all more proven, all potentially much higher quality.

Question is not can we get our new signings to work, it's can we get the team to work, if so, the signings will come along.

 

[Mumorn]

I thought Paulinho signed/offered for before Baldini came in?

 

[Kingdawson]

It's way too early to tell. Remember how average Bale, Modric, Carrick and Berbatov were during the first six months of their careers with us. Just think, we could have saved that £40m and stuck with LeeYP, Zokora, Mendez and Mido.

The manager situation has screwed them over quite a lot, but if we can protect them till after the summer, I'm sure all will flourish next season if we get someone capable of installing a vision and system on the squad.

Paulinho, Soldado and Lamela are all great players. I really liked Huddlestone, Defoe has always been terrible and Townsend is currently ineffective (still not one assist in his career yet IIRC). If we revisit this in a year's time, I'm sure £70m will look like a great investment.

How?

Soldado was still not scoring from open play under previous management, Lamela was still not getting games despite being fit and Paulinho was still doing the invisible act. The only thing that's changed now is that Lamela is injured.

 

[Gutter Boy]

How?

Soldado was still not scoring from open play under previous management, Lamela was still not getting games despite being fit and Paulinho was still doing the invisible act. The only thing that's changed now is that Lamela is injured.

More that they are technical players now being asked to play in a smash 'n' grab limited-possession system (if you can call it that). Our approach now suits much more direct players - but other than Townsend and Lennon we don't have that many of them.

 

[Gutter Boy]

I thought Paulinho signed/offered for before Baldini came in?

Baldini was appointed 19 June. Paulinho came on 6 July.

By all accounts Baldini was out there doing the negotiating. He also has a strong relationship with Corinthians - quite a few of his Roma signings came from there.

 

[Mumorn]

Baldini was appointed 19 June. Paulinho came on 6 July.

By all accounts Baldini was out there doing the negotiating. He also has a strong relationship with Corinthians - quite a few of his Roma signings came from there.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/fo...azil-and-Corinthians-midfielder-Paulinho.html

and this is from the 14th June..

 

[Cochise]

From what I recall, Paulinho was first linked with us in November 2012.

I agree with GB. Making a decision on these players now is stupid, given that none of them have played in the EPL prior to joining us. Some players will adapt immediately, others will take longer and some will not manage it at all, but usually that decision is made after a couple of years. Lamela for instance has been under used and is now injured, to make a decision on a player after they have played a handful of games for a struggling team under a struggling manager (may sound unfair but it did look like that near the end) is madness.

Use Eriksen as a marker. Under AVB he had some good performances and some annonymous ones. Under Sherwood he has been excellent for the most part. Now Paulinho and Lamela have barely played for Sherwood, let alone had a run of games in the new setup, so maybe we should wait a bit longer. Heck apart from the Hull game even Soldado has looked a better player, yeah he's missed sitters but he's grabbed assists and been a big part in our approach play. He's been way more involved in matches since TS took over.