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Eberechi Eze

I don't think like most other teams they really care about PSR anymore

Surely Lego Head has to deliver this year or be sacked after now spending around £1bn in the 6 years he has been at the club

When/will the US bubble burst? In short, Americian intersets who've made a lot of money out of US sports have looked at the PL and seen it is has the highest global viewing figures. The logic is, if we are making all this money from US sports and the PL has many many many more viewers, we can't go wrong investing in these clubs.

Then there is a race to try to secure promenence. With the top teams established as global entities.

But...unlike the US there isn't a wage cap. And the PL isn't as simple to monitize. Without clubs being able to sell their own matches /streaming, revenue is limited, and costs (wages) are unlimted. As we know PL clubs don't ever make money. Once this realisation drops, the goons and other US investors may start to be more realistic.
 
No one is saying there wasn’t eventually a deal agreed with Villa. The point is around needing to win the negotiation and not paying what you’re prepared to pay anyway, earlier on, to get it sorted. And therefore reducing the likelihood that circumstances can change around you, outside of your control.

There was a great conversation yesterday about Levy (Steff led the charge). It was about Levy's lack of football operational leadership and it's impact on the outcome over the years. I also call out his lack of football DNA. When you think about that negotiation debate, to us, our outcome of the sale is about improving what happens on the football pitch. It is bigger than any other driver in our minds because we are football people. We can probably see that the difference of £10m in the Grealish conversation would be worth every penny on the pitch when he was at that age. Here's the problem. Levy probably can't. He's not football brain led and inevitably can't tell a Grealish from a Sissoko.

I called out Matthew Collecott as well. My instinct is that he brings the worst out of his boss. I bet the 2 of them sit their on a zoom call at 11pm playing the permutations and combination games on the player sale. They come up with every scenario and tactics they should use to "win". It always feels like they don't understand the most basic principles of sales.
 
I dunno, I don't buy that their go-to move when faced with losing one of their two strikers for a couple of months was to buy a 70m AM - i think the injury is a red herring. Maybe it kicked them in to gear sooner than they would have otherwise but I suspect in that case that after tonight's EL game it would have then been after the weekends PL game and so on.

In the end it is all possible. What is impossible to fathom is how -if this was the case- we didn't see it.
 
There was a great conversation yesterday about Levy (Steff led the charge). It was about Levy's lack of football operational leadership and it's impact on the outcome over the years. I also call out his lack of football DNA. When you think about that negotiation debate, to us, our outcome of the sale is about improving what happens on the football pitch. It is bigger than any other driver in our minds because we are football people. We can probably see that the difference of £10m in the Grealish conversation would be worth every penny on the pitch when he was at that age. Here's the problem. Levy probably can't. He's not football brain led and inevitably can't tell a Grealish from a Sissoko.

I called out Matthew Collecott as well. My instinct is that he brings the worst out of his boss. I bet the 2 of them sit their on a zoom call at 11pm playing the permutations and combination games on the player sale. They come up with every scenario and tactics they should use to "win". It always feels like they don't understand the most basic principles of sales.
Collecott is a member on here, so maybe he'll let you know. He used to post in the stadium thread when all the planning applications were going through
 
You know what the question should now be?

...who should we sign instead who'll help us go and win at the emirates? Maybe the Monegasque. Of the other players linked he seems the most rounded (apart from Rodrygo).

Levy and the transfer team will be hurting too. How they use that energy and who we emerge with, will be crucial. It is possible we end up in a better place.

How can they improve the squad so we can win against the goons?
 
Collecott is a member on here, so maybe he'll let you know. He used to post in the stadium thread when all the planning applications were going through

Yeah, wouldn't want him to compromise himself in that way. Not fair, especially as he wears the 2 hats.

My point is that success or failure needs to be measured on delivering the outcome. If I think of this in mini phases, I see the stadium years, COVID years followed by the years of sizeable squad churning and the investment in youth. These years are now about the quality over quantity outcome after the previous heavy lifting. Are we perhaps seeing our club struggle in this area with only one player in this category snapped up this summer? It's a different environment than landing an Archie Gray from Leeds.
 
Apparently not well tonight, WALOB

Oliver Glasner has said Eberechi Eze called him this morning to pull out of tonight's Crystal Palace's game.

They play Fredrikstad in the first leg of their Conference League play-off at Selhurst Park tonight.

Speaking to Channel 5, Glasner said: "Honestly, I expected he would start today for us.

"But he called me this morning and said that he doesn't feel well to play in the evening. I have to accept it. Everything else, you have to ask the chairman.

"I have to accept it, if a player tells me he is not ready to play."
I don’t get this. Isn’t it standard practice if the deal is at the medical stage then they don’t play. Why the need for this whole I’m sick malarkey?
 
Yeah, wouldn't want him to compromise himself in that way. Not fair, especially as he wears the 2 hats.

My point is that success or failure needs to be measured on delivering the outcome. If I think of this in mini phases, I see the stadium years, COVID years followed by the years of sizeable squad churning and the investment in youth. These years are now about the quality over quantity outcome after the previous heavy lifting. Are we perhaps seeing our club struggle in this area with only one player in this category snapped up this summer? It's a different environment than landing an Archie Gray from Leeds.

It's a complex market for us to be shopping in - we need/are targeting top level PL proven talent in order to improve the team, which is a small pool of players to be shopping in and by their nature these players will likely attract interest from 'better' clubs/teams - i want to stress that this isn't about making excuses but more so assessing the situation - we stole a march/got lucky with Kudus and very nearly with MGW as well but with Eze it went the other way, Saudi Sportswashing Machine are having the same trouble seemingly, bigger clubs/better teams targeting the same players and blocking them off - maybe currently we'd have better luck targeting players of this calibre from abroad and taking the risk on them adapting to the league? It's got to be a wider pool of players to be choosing from - you just need to be on point with the scouting due to the lack of experience on the league.
 
It's a complex market for us to be shopping in - we need/are targeting top level PL proven talent in order to improve the team, which is a small pool of players to be shopping in and by their nature these players will likely attract interest from 'better' clubs/teams - i want to stress that this isn't about making excuses but more so assessing the situation - we stole a march/got lucky with Kudus and very nearly with MGW as well but with Eze it went the other way, Saudi Sportswashing Machine are having the same trouble seemingly, bigger clubs/better teams targeting the same players and blocking them off - maybe currently we'd have better luck targeting players of this calibre from abroad and taking the risk on them adapting to the league? It's got to be a wider pool of players to be choosing from - you just need to be on point with the scouting due to the lack of experience on the league.

What you write is totally fair.

Rice, Havertz, Calafiori, Jesus and now Maudeke, Eze, Zubimendi and Gyokeres is converging on half a billion spend (guess). It's not as if the frustration stops when you land players in this higher market space.

The players you talk about are there overseas. I remember when Barella was transitioning from Cagliari to Inter 5 years ago. Spurs weren't ready back then to attract these type of 22/23 year olds. We should be now. Just like we have in the bottom half of the Prem and in the Championship, these players are there. I always wanted Barella. Such a good fit for the PL. Younger versions of him must be out there.
 
What you write is totally fair.

Rice, Havertz, Calafiori, Jesus and now Maudeke, Eze, Zubimendi and Gyokeres is converging on half a billion spend (guess). It's not as if the frustration stops when you land players in this higher market space.

The players you talk about are there overseas. I remember when Barella was transitioning from Cagliari to Inter 5 years ago. Spurs weren't ready back then to attract these type of 22/23 year olds. We should be now. Just like we have in the bottom half of the Prem and in the Championship, these players are there. I always wanted Barella. Such a good fit for the PL. Younger versions of him must be out there.

It doesn't even need to be the 22/23 year olds - if we're 'willing' to sign 27 year old Eze then we can presumably go for the more established players on the continent - though maybe with the added risk of adapting to the league the no resale value hits harder there? But still, outside of a few of the elite clubs on the continent you'd have to think a PL club in the CL would turn the heads of plenty of players abroad.
 
It doesn't even need to be the 22/23 year olds - if we're 'willing' to sign 27 year old Eze then we can presumably go for the more established players on the continent - though maybe with the added risk of adapting to the league the no resale value hits harder there? But still, outside of a few of the elite clubs on the continent you'd have to think a PL club in the CL would turn the heads of plenty of players abroad.

I think it depends on contracts and salaries though when you fish in that pond. Using my example, Barella already earns 200k a week, but what a signing he would be at Spurs as a 28 year old attacking midfield winner. At the other end you have Nico Paz at 20. He's on 18k.

I'm always cynical about the late twenties players. We can't get the elite ones like Barella. Then you get the Thiago Alcântara types. You pay them an absolute fortune and get no value for money. Moutinho might be the best good example of one that worked well. I see more negatives than pluses though when I look back at the purchases of these players. I'd rather that younger age group from abroad in our model.
 
I think it depends on contracts and salaries though when you fish in that pond. Using my example, Barella already earns 200k a week, but what a signing he would be at Spurs as a 28 year old attacking midfield winner. At the other end you have Nico Paz at 20. He's on 18k.

I'm always cynical about the late twenties players. We can't get the elite ones like Barella. Then you get the Thiago Alcântara types. You pay them an absolute fortune and get no value for money. Moutinho might be the best good example of one that worked well. I see more negatives than pluses though when I look back at the purchases of these players. I'd rather that younger age group from abroad in our model.

I believe this is the sort of place we'll go now...I want to believe we'll also get a Savinho but even I might be wising up. If Garnacho is still around on August 29/30, want to bet we go in for him?
 
It's a complex market for us to be shopping in - we need/are targeting top level PL proven talent in order to improve the team, which is a small pool of players to be shopping in and by their nature these players will likely attract interest from 'better' clubs/teams - i want to stress that this isn't about making excuses but more so assessing the situation - we stole a march/got lucky with Kudus and very nearly with MGW as well but with Eze it went the other way, Saudi Sportswashing Machine are having the same trouble seemingly, bigger clubs/better teams targeting the same players and blocking them off - maybe currently we'd have better luck targeting players of this calibre from abroad and taking the risk on them adapting to the league? It's got to be a wider pool of players to be choosing from - you just need to be on point with the scouting due to the lack of experience on the league.

I think that's a really fair argument TBH. It's the lane we know best. And we are at a weird place. Realistically we are not right now a top 6 club on the pitch. We are, however, a top 5 club off it, maybe more. Making that gap smaller is the objective and, I have to assume, is the thing we're going towards. Detatching emotion from it, Eze to the goons makes sense. Let's face it, if they cannot win the league this year then it is essentially disasterous for them, and in that regard, Eze is a shorter term punt to get it across the line. I am not sure what our average age is but it has be younger than (for example) them?
Your last bold-faced sentence above is on point.
 
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