Summer 2013 signings thread

[Raziel]

So who else should we have gone for at the time, who would realistically have come to us?

Remember we have to shop at Co-op, when 4 teams in our league can shop at M&S

Look at CF. First we tried for David Villa, but he rejected us. Then we explored Benteke, but our coach didn’t fancy him and he’s had 2 terrible seasons since. So we went for Soldado, who was at that point the best striker in Europe not already at a club bigger than us. Hindsight is fantastic, but at the time Soldado looked like a superb signing

I think a certain group of the players were just for a different team/coach.

specifically the players who are slow on recycling and pressure game were not bought for that (AVB's possession, not Poch's)
Soldado was to be supplied by Bale imo, we thought we would get that one more year out of Bale as we did with Modric ...

 

[milo]

I think a certain group of the players were just for a different team/coach.

specifically the players who are slow on recycling and pressure game were not bought for that (AVB's possession, not Poch's)
Soldado was to be supplied by Bale imo, we thought we would get that one more year out of Bale as we did with Modric ...

I think that you are right that the game changed half way through that summer and we were playing catch up after that. These problems were compounded by having a DoF who had only just joined the club and a manager who wanted players that we could not afford.

 

[SpurMeUp]

Not record signings though. You're essentially saying that we took massive punts with the money. Its not that easy to get it right, but surely it's also not hard to avoid the devastating disasters we have ended up spending our three biggest outlays on. Okay, okay, Lamela isn't done, but he's looking like he's sliding that way. I don't think Poch is convinced by Townsend, but currently he's in the team ahead of Lamela. What does that say?

You can point to other teams, but seriously:

£26m = Soldado
£26m = Lamela
£17m = Paulinho

For a club of our size and spending power to invest that much in those three, it literally makes you want to cry. And this is where the decision-making HAS to be questioned. Sure, every signing has an element of risk. It's the opportunity that we had and the extent to which we tinkleed it all up the wall that gets me.

And I also think it seems to be that Levy has had his fingers well and truely burnt. It will be a while, if ever, that we return to spending over £15m on a player, if you consider what he said to the THST.

If you take a step back, being outside of the CL, we pulled off some pretty spectacular signings. Pool, who were in the CL (I think they were), missed out on their targets. We managed to bring in what seemed like three quality players - Paulinho bigged up by South American experts, Soldado the highest goal scorer outside of Barca and Madrid, and Lamela one of the worlds emerging talents. Granted it didn't quite work out like that!

But weigh up the actual cost against what we might get back, plus Eriksen, no doubt performance related fees, a lower Euro, and we will come out of this just fine. Pool on the other hand...they seem to have owners who have more cash than sense. Their transfer spend has been huge, dwarfed only by how massively ineffective most of their singings have been! With almost the same scenario, we're not in bad shape. If we can shift 4 players over the summer, possibly more, we'll be in a strong position thanks to the promising youth players on long contracts.

A shocking amount of money spent yes, devastating disaster, no.

 

[Maltese Falcon]

Soldado was to be supplied by Bale imo, we thought we would get that one more year out of Bale as we did with Modric ...

Where did this myth come from?

By the time we started negotiating for Soldado, we were pretty much sure Bale was going...

 

[SpurMeUp]

I don't think we're better off than Pool. I don't think they will end up having to get rid of anyone other than Balotelli. Lallana is a quality player. He's been very unlucky with injuries. Can looks a great prospect and I think Lovren will prove to be a good signing also. These players are proven Premiership performers, so there is the confidence that they will do it.

The difference for me is that our 3 biggest signings of ALL TIME look almost certain to be sold at a loss less than two seasons into their THFC careers.

Pool also have a bigger turnover and budget than us and can absorb transfer losses more easily.

Can was played at CB yesterday and Lovren was not in the team. When he's played their defence looks worse. Lallana will be on serious wages and cost way too much. He's a £15m player. Has done almost nothing for pool and looks fragile. Granted he can come good for them. But hardly a success. I'm not sure Lamela is almost certain to be sold. Or even Paulinho. Whether we'll be able to shift Soldado is also not certain. The three could be with us next season.

I don't disagree they have been a disappointment, but put it in perspective - with Eriksen a massive hit, likely lower than headline fees paid, plus okay resale values - it's not as devastating as it seems.

 

[Bedfordspurs]

Can was played at CB yesterday and Lovren was not in the team. When he's played their defence looks worse. Lallana will be on serious wages and cost way too much. He's a £15m player. Has done almost nothing for pool and looks fragile. Granted he can come good for them. But hardly a success. I'm not sure Lamela is almost certain to be sold. Or even Paulinho. Whether we'll be able to shift Soldado is also not certain. The three could be with us next season.

I don't disagree - they have been a disappointment - but put it in perspective, with Eriksen, likely lower than headline fees paid plus okay resale values and it's not as devastating.

Can looks classy but wasn't he one of the cheaper players?

Llallana is still a very good player but never worth the money they paid

The winger from benefica is awful

Balotelli will have to be brought off as no one will want him imo even in Italy as he will want big wages

The wings backs have hardly set the world alight

Lovren looks like the player that got dumped on his arse by soldado.. He looks poor

Can is by far and away the shining light and looks classy anywhere

origi may be a player but we won't know yet

 

[Rorschach]

So who else should we have gone for at the time, who would realistically have come to us?

Remember we have to shop at Co-op, when 4 teams in our league can shop at M&S

Look at CF. First we tried for David Villa, but he rejected us. Then we explored Benteke, but our coach didn’t fancy him and he’s had 2 terrible seasons since. So we went for Soldado, who was at that point the best striker in Europe not already at a club bigger than us. Hindsight is fantastic, but at the time Soldado looked like a superb signing

Agree with this. I was delighted when we signed Soldado. He looked a quality player for a few seasons at Valencia and about as good as we could have hoped to get.
His story could have been a whole lot different if things had gone a different way IMO. Under AVB he made a hundred runs and never got a pass and I think that broke him really. AVB's midfield was so obsessed with possession that trying any type of speculative ball to the striker almost never happened. He was feeding on scraps and when he got a chance or two and didn't take them it just compounded the problem. Even if he had taken say half of the easy chances he missed (which is not that much of a stretch) then I think we would have a different player on our hands now. The player we see today is a broken man devoid of any confidence whatsoever and will never get back to the level he was at before he joined us.

 

[Baleforce]

Where did this myth come from?

By the time we started negotiating for Soldado, we were pretty much sure Bale was going...

you don't spend 26m on a forward in a couple of weeks, that deal was started at least 6 months prior (or we really are a bunch of chancers)

 

[shaney]

We needed to spend the money and hold it in assets rather than cash or we would have been taxed on it. Given this, what transfer strategy do you think we should have adopted?

Well as I said, it should have been a transfer strategy that "did'nt" involve taking the huge risk of blowing £100m on 7 players who had never kicked a ball in english football. Thinking that 7 strangers to the premier league would work was ludicrous.

Are you seriously saying we could not have signed any players of similar quality who actualy had premier league experience ? Its not as if we got "bargains" by buying these players from abroad. Lamela ? Soldado ? Paulinho ? £70m just on those 3 which was blown.

 

[NWND]

I still think this hindsight thing and justification for signing these players is a bit like justifying the actions of the banks pre-credit crunch.

Yeah, sure, RBS (Spurs) didn't do due dil on ABM Amro (Soldado), but they (he) were one of the most successful banks (forwards) in Holland (Spain), they weren't to know the US sub prime mortgage market was about to go tits up (that Bale was about to demand a move to Real Madrid).

It really isn't good enough. I honestly don't see anything in Soldado and Paulinho to suggest that any serious football scout would believe they'd be successful in top level Premier League football.

Where the fudge was the due diligence. I was excited by all 3 signings, I thought the same as you all, that these were the best we could hope for at the time.

But we are NOT paid to assess players. The warning signs for me were fudging plentiful with hindsight. My point is that while I can with the benefit of hindsight look at Soldado, Paulinho and Lamela's pre-Spurs career to find many aspects that would suggest a high-risk of failure in moving to England, for a footballing talent scout, all of these should have been glaringly obvious at the time.

We're not talking about star-struck fans brought up on FM, Eurosport highlights and all that brick, we're talking the equivalent of HBOS chief risk officer taking a fudging bath in his Jacuzzi with 3 hookers and a bottle of champagne as he signs off on their sub prime acquisitions with a phone call and a cigar.

Paulinho. Where the fudge do I start with this guy? Scratch beneath the Corinthians and Brazil goals and we have:

*History of playing free roles in international teams or teams that play in barely competitive leagues played at walking pace.
*Shy personality and history of home sickness, failure and depression in his last club stint outside Brazil.
*Crys in his press conference announcing he's leaving Corinthians for Spurs and his wife apparently had to talk him out of quitting football at one point.

This guy was not seriously ever going to a good bet was he? £17M? The guy that authorised that needs fudging shot.

Lamela...doesn't get much better. Again, we have the shy, introverted personality, the guy can't go anywhere without his entire family. He's never been outside the Italian/Spanish environment. He plays the game at walking pace in Argentina and to an extent in Italy. Again he had a free-role at Roma.

Seriously, our biggest ever investment in this guy? I'm surprised he hasn't had a melt down already.

Soldado. Again, mentally and physically
we all should have been concerned. The guy is almost entirely reliant on service and he was 28 and never played outside Spain. Just a massive risk if you ask me.

I ask again, who signed off on this crap? I mean which FOOTBALL professional(s) said these deals were good to go?

 

[90291Spur]

It is quite staggering how bad our 'Magnificent 7' have been. Soldado is the only proper shocker for me because he had proved he could find the back of the net. He has missed so many sitters for us it is bordering on ludicrous. Paying so far over the odds for what we have seen from Lamela smells proper fishy. I would like to check Baldini's bank accounts to see if there was a lump sum deposited from his former employers after that one.

 

[milo]

Well as I said, it should have been a transfer strategy that "did'nt" involve taking the huge risk of blowing £100m on 7 players who had never kicked a ball in english football. Thinking that 7 strangers to the premier league would work was ludicrous.

Are you seriously saying we could not have signed any players of similar quality who actualy had premier league experience ? Its not as if we got "bargains" by buying these players from abroad. Lamela ? Soldado ? Paulinho ? £70m just on those 3 which was blown.

I'm not saying that at all but I am not the one criticising the signing that we did make. The signings that we did make did not seem that bad at the time and it looked like we were spreading out bets between established internationals and promising youngsters. It is all very well criticising out business in hindsight but without naming viable alternatives, I do not think it carries much weight.

 

[milo]

It is quite staggering how bad our 'Magnificent 7' have been. Soldado is the only proper shocker for me because he had proved he could find the back of the net. He has missed so many sitters for us it is bordering on ludicrous. Paying so far over the odds for what we have seen from Lamela smells proper fishy. I would like to check Baldini's bank accounts to see if there was a lump sum deposited from his former employers after that one.

Sadly, we paid the going rate for a young, highly rated inside forward. It is comparable to what Chelsea paid for Oscar, Hazard and Willian.

 

[90291Spur]

Sadly, we paid the going rate for a young, highly rated inside forward. It is comparable to what Chelsea paid for Oscar, Hazard and Willian.

Except those three have played really well and all of them look different class to Lamela.

 

[glorygloryeze]

I still think this hindsight thing and justification for signing these players is a bit like justifying the actions of the banks pre-credit crunch.

Yeah, sure, RBS (Spurs) didn't do due dil on ABM Amro (Soldado), but they (he) were one of the most successful banks (forwards) in Holland (Spain), they weren't to know the US sub prime mortgage market was about to go tits up (that Bale was about to demand a move to Real Madrid).

It really isn't good enough. I honestly don't see anything in Soldado and Paulinho to suggest that any serious football scout would believe they'd be successful in top level Premier League football.

Where the fudge was the due diligence. I was excited by all 3 signings, I thought the same as you all, that these were the best we could hope for at the time.

But we are NOT paid to assess players. The warning signs for me were fudgeing plentiful with hindsight. My point is that while I can with the benefit of hindsight look at Soldado, Paulinho and Lamela's pre-Spurs career to find many aspects that would suggest a high-risk of failure in moving to England, for a footballing talent scout, all of these should have been glaringly obvious at the time.

We're not talking about star-struck fans brought up on FM, Eurosport highlights and all that crud, we're talking the equivalent of HBOS chief risk officer taking a fudgeing bath in his Jacuzzi with 3 hookers and a bottle of champagne as he signs off on their sub prime acquisitions with a phone call and a cigar.

Paulinho. Where the fudge do I start with this guy? Scratch beneath the Corinthians and Brazil goals and we have:

*History of playing free roles in international teams or teams that play in barely competitive leagues played at walking pace.
*Shy personality and history of home sickness, failure and depression in his last club stint outside Brazil.
*Crys in his press conference announcing he's leaving Corinthians for Spurs and his wife apparently had to talk him out of quitting football at one point.

This guy was not seriously ever going to a good bet was he? £17M? The guy that authorised that needs fudgeing shot.

Lamela...doesn't get much better. Again, we have the shy, introverted personality, the guy can't go anywhere without his entire family. He's never been outside the Italian/Spanish environment. He plays the game at walking pace in Argentina and to an extent in Italy. Again he had a free-role at Roma.

Seriously, our biggest ever investment in this guy? I'm surprised he hasn't had a melt down already.

Soldado. Again, mentally and physically
we all should have been concerned. The guy is almost entirely reliant on service and he was 28 and never played outside Spain. Just a massive risk if you ask me.

I ask again, who signed off on this crap? I mean which FOOTBALL professional(s) said these deals were good to go?

Bolded bits = "Hi, i'm captain Hindsight"

 

[glorygloryeze]

Except those three have played really well and all of them look different class to Lamela.

Playing mostly with much better players across their teams, no?

 

[NWND]

Bolded bits = "Hi, i'm captain Hindsight"

Yeah, I say that in my own post. My point is that my hindsight, researching these guys personalities and backgrounds, should have been our clubs due diligence.

There is no way I'd have paid £17m for Paulinho knowing what I.know about his personality, his history of depression, his failure to make it in his first spell in Europe, his history of homesickness, the roles he had for Corinthians and Brazil.

 

[milo]

Except those three have played really well and all of them look different class to Lamela.

Again, hindsight, Lamela would have been classed in a similar category by many before he signed. Sadly there are no guarantees and so far this one has not worked out.

I'm not sure that I agree that Willian and Oscar have been that successful signings for Chelsea BTW.

 

[NWND]

Playing mostly with much better players across their teams, no?

Good players stand out in poor or average teams. Please also see Carrick, Berbatov, Modric, Bale etc...

 

[90291Spur]

Again, hindsight, Lamela would have been classed in a similar category by many before he signed. Sadly there are no guarantees and so far this one has not worked out.

I'm not sure that I agree that Willian and Oscar have been that successful signings for Chelsea BTW.

Definitely hindsight. From the little I have seen of Oscar and Willian they have played more intelligently and progressively for Cheat$ki than Lamela has for us. If I recall Lamela has been significantly responsible for a few goals - away against the Goons for example - something I don't recall from Oscar and Willian. I also don't recall seeing them dawdle on the ball as much as Lamela does. Neither has scored a Rabona in a competitive game though.