I wish my pennies were worth millions.
So do I (even thousands would suit me fine, really), but football clubs now operate in financial conditions where a million pounds' worth of extra expenditures, or even a few million pounds' worth, doesn't make much of a difference at all. The same goes for our club in what is ostensibly supposed to be a year of utilising our CL advantage to pursue players that normally wouldn't give Tottenham a second look (As we've done before with VDV, for example). I've said it before, but penny-pinching to end up with (sometimes) inferior players that would have come here anyway, CL or no, isn't setting a great example of backing the manager if it's expressly laid out that he was interested in players that we look to have ignored because we didn't want to pay for 'em.
Everyone in the buissness of football telling the world what is good for their cause (just listen to everything that have been thrown out of Mou´s mouth throghout the years), and the sames goes for Poch. But that doesn't mean he really meant it in the way he said it.
Ah, but there's the rub - we're told by everyone that the rags print rubbish that we shouldn't believe, and that's definitely true most of the time. But even when they print some half-credible stuff, we're told that it means little without direct quotes from the people involved. Now, when there are direct quotes from the people involved, it's still hard to believe because the people involved might have meant more (or less) than they let on.
We're all involved in basically speculating on what our club does, an unfortunate fact that will persist until greater transparency and fan ownership is ushered in across football, not just at Spurs. But if every source or utterance by someone involved isn't worth talking about, then there is nothing for us to do but spout platitudes and recriminations before and after games, no?
Poch namechecked Umtiti in the same interview. Have we let Poch down because Barca gazumped us too?
Perhaps. If I remember correctly, he said that it was 'clear' that a striker was our priority this summer, and that Batshuayi was very interesting in that regard, with high potential or something and good references from a number of people. He later went on to say (iirc) that the scouting department keeps tabs on talented players in Ligue Un, and name-checked Umtiti in that context as another talented player we were keeping tabs on.
The former seems more clearly substantiated than the latter, so there's a difference in intensity, I suspect; but in answer to your question, perhaps. Later in the window, if we sign a CB of similar talent and profile to Umtiti, or if Poch comes out and expressly lays out why he either didn't want Umtiti or we don't need a CB, then the doubt goes away as far as I'm concerned. If not...well, wouldn't be the first time. We only hear about manager-board disagreements after the manager leaves, unless they're exceptionally chatty (like Harry was). So confirmation, one way or another, may have to wait. But reasonable suspicion can still be a potent basis to argue from.
Or he was trying to force AZ Alkmaars hand?
This stuff was *way* before we were linked to Janssen, though. He came out with this interview in late April (iirc), and the Janssen stuff only really started when Poch was spotted attending the Ireland-Netherlands game a month later.
(of course I am ignoring the fact he now only has 1 year remaining on his contract).
