I haven't paid close attention to Delph. One of those "meh" players as far as I've been concerned. I know that he has broken into the England squad but has he really improved so very much? Is he really so much better than what we've already got? Is he really the kind of player who can take us that one step higher, into the top four?
If the answer to all of those questions isn't an emphatic "yes", then I don't see the point. I'd rather that we look elsewhere. Delph would be an easy kind of signing; a safe signing; the kind that doesn't require much research. He would be exactly the kind of signing, in fact, that you'd expect if Harry was still manager. But we've moved on from that, surely. It's the whole point of having appointed Mitchell - black box, algorithms and all.
And if Mitchell genuinely can't identify anyone better and if the answer to the above questions still isn't an emphatic "yes", then I'd far rather that we give our youth graduates a chance. Harry Winks, Milos Veljkovic, Josh Onomah, Luke Amos, Will Miller.......all of them central midfielders of various types and all highly promising. Spurs as a club would gain far more in the long term from carefully giving opportunities to these youngsters, and perhaps suffering a few bad results along the way, than by buying yet another competent but run of the mill player who doesn't elevate us any higher than we already are.
If the answer to all of those questions isn't an emphatic "yes", then I don't see the point. I'd rather that we look elsewhere. Delph would be an easy kind of signing; a safe signing; the kind that doesn't require much research. He would be exactly the kind of signing, in fact, that you'd expect if Harry was still manager. But we've moved on from that, surely. It's the whole point of having appointed Mitchell - black box, algorithms and all.
And if Mitchell genuinely can't identify anyone better and if the answer to the above questions still isn't an emphatic "yes", then I'd far rather that we give our youth graduates a chance. Harry Winks, Milos Veljkovic, Josh Onomah, Luke Amos, Will Miller.......all of them central midfielders of various types and all highly promising. Spurs as a club would gain far more in the long term from carefully giving opportunities to these youngsters, and perhaps suffering a few bad results along the way, than by buying yet another competent but run of the mill player who doesn't elevate us any higher than we already are.