Morgan Gibbs-White

[Bishop]

No. He knows we’ll struggle to challenge for the PL while ENIC are in charge. It’s not what they’re about.

It was meant to sound aspirational in a non-specific way (a bit like the ‘game-change’ we could expect post-stadium) and to placate a section of the fan base disposed to having faith in what he says.

It was a load of BS. I dunno why anyone would take it serious. Levy has no clue how to push the club to win the league.

 

[parklane1]

I’d love to know the answer to that question.

Maybe it was something to do with the payment terms? Eg the release clause needed to be all upfront, and we made an all upfront bid? When we don’t structure any other deal like that? So even if we went up in increments, it would have set alarm bells off that we were only doing it for this particular player?

But yeah I really have no clue. The whole thing is extremely weird.

Just like most [ if not all of us], however it will not stop the ones who have to blame Levy for everything from having yet another bitch.

 

[Glenda's Legs]

One thing I could never figure out is why we didn’t just bid a few mill under the clause and then negotiate from then on? If we eventually hit the number that matches his release clause then we’d be in the clear right?

That only makes sense though if we knew the release clause was confidential and that we weren't supposed to know the amount?
If we didn't know that, then why would we waste time offering less?
(Assuming of course there was a release clause).

 

[Bedfordspurs]

That only makes sense though if we knew the release clause was confidential and that we weren't supposed to know the amount?
If we didn't know that, then why would we waste time offering less?
(Assuming of course there was a release clause).

Seems that we dint activate all the clauses … maybe because we didn’t know

 

[thfcsteff]

There is no CCA-Stellar

CAA-Base is (mostly) soccer and CAA-Stellar is (mostly) non-soccer

Home - CAA Base

caabase.com

CAA Stellar

CAA Stellar is a world-leading sports agency.

www.caa-stellar.com

Seems to me that Spurs triggered a clause and offered MGW a rise from £80kpw to £140kpw or whatever... then Marinakis offered him £200kpw.

Follow the money.

Base and Stellar have different client lists under the same CAA umbrella. MGW is at CAA Stellar.

https://www.transfermarkt.us/caa-stellar/beraterfirma/berater/190

The likes of Eze, Maddison, Porro, (Ange when he was here), Sonny, and others in our squad are with Base.

As I understand it, they were once just Base and Stellar, the CAA merger brought them together but the 'sub' depts/agencies kept their original player lists is my understanding.

My personal view of this is that the main reason for the rooster-up with the clause (whatever it was) is that it happened on the side of CAA that we usually don't deal with; had it been the Base side, I suspect the info would've been, well, 'clearer'...

We're all guessing as no-oneknows what was in the clause. What we know unequivocally is that the player didn't want to push hard enough for the move, we didn't want to push hard enough to get it over the line, and Marinakas could not lose two key players so quickly. I have little issue withthe whole thing. It didn't work out and their odious chairman defended his turf, just as our chairman has ours on several occasions, most notably City and Kane (albeit there was no clause but the intent to stop the player moving was just as resolute versus a player who wanted the move but was not prepared to go on strike to force it).

 

[Muttley]

We booked a medical for this player thinking that we’d met a release clause. And we failed to sign that player because the owner on the other end of the deal accused us of doing some underhanded stuff. That owner successfully resisted our interest and got that player to sign a new contract.

I get that as Spurs fans we want to play something down where we’ve taken our licks. But this very obviously is not the sort of thing that happens every year. Someone, somewhere along the line has miscalculated something on the Spurs end. I don’t think we actually did anything illegal, but I do think if we actually wanted this player then we made a complete hash of it.

Like, the silence from the club afterwards was taken as a ‘we obviously have a plan and we’re just letting it all play out in a professional way’ and actually it looks like once we shot our shot, we just backed off! I genuinely think this was Levy being interested because the price was so good relative to the player. And it was a punt to see if we could rush it through. We did not act like a club that actually wanted to get this deal done.

It's not that actually. This all comes down to governance in football. We either have it or we don't. We have this stupid situation where the PL are acting as a governance body where in reality they should just be an admin function. The FA should be the governance that maps all the way up to FIFA. Player contracts and the rules of engagement around them should be centrally governed so we never find ourselves in a position where a club thinks they met a release clause and that doesn't stick. As for the words "secret contract", FIFA should manage around that. They should either ban them or build in a mechanism where a club can show interest and therefore have access to all clauses.

This stuff frustrates me as we now have so many chefs in football that it is totally chaotic. I don't blame Levy or Marinakis, or even the player. It is the system that is letting everyone down as the decision rights are too distributed in the governance model.

 

[harr1984]

And it also answers a common complaint from supporters regarding the limit of his ambitions.

Come on Bill, a chairman saying we want to challenge for the league means naff all - literally anyone can say that.

Actions speak louder than words. This league is now more competitive than ever, the money and players being signed by the big boys who are genuinely looking to win the league is crazy. We are poles apart from those ambitions, we are at best challenging for a top 6 place. He can say what he likes, until he changes his investment strategy that is the reality.....

 

[billyiddo]

Come on Bill, a chairman saying we want to challenge for the league means naff all - literally anyone can say that.

Actions speak louder than words. This league is now more competitive than ever, the money and players being signed by the big boys who are genuinely looking to win the league is crazy. We are poles apart from those ambitions, we are at best challenging for a top 6 place. He can say what he likes, until he changes his investment strategy that is the reality.....

He has to follow it up with the right intentions of course - but at the very least he has now openly set that as the goal, that has always been called in to question. There has always been complaints that the target has always been said to be to challenge - now it has been set to win.

 

[lurker of old]

The proof of Spurs' intent will be in the pudding. At the moment it looks pretty flaccid, because we clearly failed to land a player we wanted. Lots of time to go etc but the Gibbs-White thing appears to be a case study in how not to buy a player....let's hope our attempts at sales go rather better.

 

[harr1984]

He has to follow it up with the right intentions of course - but at the very least he has now openly set that as the goal, that has always been called in to question. There has always been complaints that the target has always been said to be to challenge - now it has been set to win.

Tbh I didn't take it in the same way as you, I think it was said in an off the cuff type of way - 'Why not challenge for titles too' rather than it being said as if part of some mission statement. I honestly think anyone who takes what he said in that clip literally is going to be disappointed.

As you can see with MGW, we still aren't going to go that extra mile in terms of wages (can debate about whether he is worth it or not, the fact is the big clubs who are challenging will extend themselves a little to secure the players a manager wants) and will be forever acquiring players who fit into our wage structure which is your Maddison/Solankes etc decent players, but will not get you challenging for titles in any way shape or form....

 

[Bedfordspurs]

Tbh I didn't take it in the same way as you, I think it was said in an off the cuff type of way - 'Why not challenge for titles too' rather than it being said as if part of some mission statement. I honestly think anyone who takes what he said in that clip literally is going to be disappointed.

As you can see with MGW, we still aren't going to go that extra mile in terms of wages (can debate about whether he is worth it or not, the fact is the big clubs who are challenging will extend themselves a little to secure the players a manager wants) and will be forever acquiring players who fit into our wage structure which is your Maddison/Solankes etc decent players, but will not get you challenging for titles in any way shape or form....

I don’t think we have a clue as fans on the wages side
Did we even get a chance to match Forests offer? I doubt it because u don’t think we were speaking to him once they put the blockers on us

 

[glorygloryeze]

My worry was this signing was only being pursued because of opportunism rather than part of an ambitious strategy that is truthful about what gaps in our squad/team needed to be plugged to push on upwards to challenge for the top 4 etc.

I'll wait until the end of the transfer window to judge overall, but suffice to say, its looking all too familiar...

 

[RunTMC]

My worry was this signing was only being pursued because of opportunism rather than part of an ambitious strategy that is truthful about what gaps in our squad/team needed to be plugged to push on upwards to challenge for the top 4 etc.

I'll wait until the end of the transfer window to judge overall, but suffice to say, its looking all too familiar...

I think AM is a huge issue for us. Kulu will miss most if not all the first half of the season. Maddison has constant issues with form and fitness. Right now we don’t have a reliable AM in our squad. That’s not to say there aren’t other gaps of course.

 

[billyiddo]

Tbh I didn't take it in the same way as you, I think it was said in an off the cuff type of way - 'Why not challenge for titles too' rather than it being said as if part of some mission statement. I honestly think anyone who takes what he said in that clip literally is going to be disappointed.

As you can see with MGW, we still aren't going to go that extra mile in terms of wages (can debate about whether he is worth it or not, the fact is the big clubs who are challenging will extend themselves a little to secure the players a manager wants) and will be forever acquiring players who fit into our wage structure which is your Maddison/Solankes etc decent players, but will not get you challenging for titles in any way shape or form....

Taking it back to MGW then, considering that contact would have been made between the two parties with a deal in principal agreed before we'd consider putting in a bid with the club then I don't think we can say that this level of signing (or wage) is beyond us - personally I don't consider MGW or Kudus to be worlds apart from the level of player we have been signing anyway, PL proven/not yet at a big club and not attracting serious interest from the big clubs - a profile of player well within our scope.

 

[Gutter Boy]

I think AM is a huge issue for us. Kulu will miss most if not all the first half of the season. Maddison has constant issues with form and fitness. Right now we don’t have a reliable AM in our squad. That’s not to say there aren’t other gaps of course.

Kulu is due back after the first international break, so will hopefully only miss 3 games.

 

[harr1984]

Taking it back to MGW then, considering that contact would have been made between the two parties with a deal in principal agreed before we'd consider putting in a bid with the club then I don't think we can say that this level of signing (or wage) is beyond us - personally I don't consider MGW or Kudus to be worlds apart from the level of player we have been signing anyway, PL proven/not yet at a big club and not attracting serious interest from the big clubs - a profile of player well within our scope.

The level of signing? I agree that should be within our range. The deal in principle agreed was based from his previous contract, not from the 200k he is now getting. The example with MGW is about the wages, sure we pay around 50-60m for a player whose wages can fit in with ours but will not go to the next level with wages, unless you've already proved yourself here for years first. We are talking about challenging for the title (well if you want to take Levy's comment at face value), and until we loosen up the wage structure you're not going to acquire a title challenging squad....

 

[ricky2tricky4city]

The proof of Spurs' intent will be in the pudding. At the moment it looks pretty flaccid, because we clearly failed to land a player we wanted. Lots of time to go etc but the Gibbs-White thing appears to be a case study in how not to buy a player....let's hope our attempts at sales go rather better.

Can you spell out exactly what happened in the MGW transfer to come to such defined conclusions?.

As near enough everyone else is scratching their heads.

 

[billyiddo]

The level of signing? I agree that should be within our range. The deal in principle agreed was based from his previous contract, not from the 200k he is now getting. The example with MGW is about the wages, sure we pay around 50-60m for a player whose wages can fit in with ours but will not go to the next level with wages, unless you've already proved yourself here for years first. We are talking about challenging for the title (well if you want to take Levy's comment at face value), and until we loosen up the wage structure you're not going to acquire a title challenging squad....

You think we were afforded an opportunity to counter offer? Cute

 

[Yiddo]

I really hope we are not pinning our creativity on Kulu.

 

[harr1984]

You think we were afforded an opportunity to counter offer? Cute

Who knows what went on behind the scenes, but it sounds like you do. History tells you we don't go to that level, but of course conveniently this was the time we would have. We can take MGW out of the equation if you want, we don't pay the wages for top players and until we do we are not going to be competing for the title....