Christmas Wish List

[Rorschach]

Edit: @Rorschach , I believe this is the information you were looking for with regard to Williams.

A passable summary.

 

[DubaiSpur]

I haven't seen hardly anything of this guy but I saw some highlights from an old Copa match there yesterday I spotted Williams trying to press the opposition backline. And he was fast. Damn fast. Ridiculously fast.

Sounds perfect for us from your description.

A passable summary.

Given that the post was basically 'he's awesome, here's a video', I'll gladly take that.

 

[Pirate55]

40m? In January? It's like some of you want to be disappointed

You are right. I will be disappointed if we don't buy a striker to share the role with Kane and we miss out on CL positions by a point or two. If that situation occurs, it will show we have learnt nothing from our recent past mistakes and we will only have ourselves to blame.

 

[Pirate55]

Remember that Pochettino was the man that when everyone and the transfer committee wanted a DM this summer said "nope" because £5m Dier moving to that position seemed like the best available solution to him.

We haven't seen nearly the best of Clinton or Son yet imo. We haven't seen anything from Pritchard yet. We have gotten results with the current squad.

But the solution going into January? Spend up to £40m? Is this really the expectation that makes the most sense based on what has brought us success so far?

Remember that of our most expensive signings recently (Soldado, Lamela and Paulinho) only Lamela looks on his way to becoming a success and it's taken quite some time to get to this point (how many times did you give up on him?). Would a high profile signing like that - surely someone that would demand playing time even during a settling in period - necessarily be positive for our results this season?

I'm all for supporting Poch. But again we see these numbers being thrown around like the primary way to support Poch is to just go out and spend big money, in January even.

I agree with billy, it really does seem like you want to be disappointed.

I think you made missed my key point. I believe you and I agree that we need a Kane lookalike not another number 10 or 11 as we are well stocked with those. I want us to really push the boat out to get the No 9 Poch wants and not be hamstrung by Levy's usually prudent tight fistedness. Hence I want what Poch wants - and in this one particular instance don't want us not to succeed for monetary reasons alone.

 

[billyiddo]

You are right. I will be disappointed if we don't buy a striker to share the role with Kane and we miss out on CL positions by a point or two. If that situation occurs, it will show we have learnt nothing from our recent past mistakes and we will only have ourselves to blame.

The point was you're talking about us spending 40m in a January window, on one player, a back up player no less, 10m more than our record signing... that's raising your expectations to such an unrealistic level you can only be disappointed.

 

[milo]

I think you made missed my key point. I believe you and I agree that we need a Kane lookalike not another number 10 or 11 as we are well stocked with those. I want us to really push the boat out to get the No 9 Poch wants and not be hamstrung by Levy's usually prudent tight fistedness. Hence I want what Poch wants - and in this one particular instance don't want us not to succeed for monetary reasons alone.

How do you know Poch wants a £40m finished product striker? Does that fit in with the other signings we have made under him or what he has said publicly?

 

[Pirate55]

The point was you're talking about us spending 40m in a January window, on one player, a back up player no less, 10m more than our record signing... that's raising your expectations to such an unrealistic level you can only be disappointed.

No - the point I am making is that we should not be constrained by monetary constraints in Jan to land the player Poch wants - even if it means spending big. No 9s don't come cheap - even young raw ones and it is a key position for us and one where we have absolutely no cover whatsoever .

 

[Pirate55]

How do you know Poch wants a £40m finished product striker? Does that fit in with the other signings we have made under him or what he has said publicly?

See the answer above.

 

[milo]

No - the point I am making is that we should not be constrained by monetary constraints in Jan to land the player Poch wants - even if it means spending big. No 9s don't come cheap - even young raw ones and it is a key position for us and one where we have absolutely no cover whatsoever .

So if we sign a young forward, that none of us were particularly aware of but Poch says that he wants, you will be happy.

 

[billyiddo]

No - the point I am making is that we should not be constrained by monetary constraints in Jan to land the player Poch wants - even if it means spending big. No 9s don't come cheap - even young raw ones and it is a key position for us and one where we have absolutely no cover whatsoever .

But we do have monetary constraints, to ignore those and talk of 40m backup number 9's is unrealistic and is ultimately setting yourself up to be disappointed - we were working on a 23m ish deal for Berahino, a deal which was to be spread out over 4 years (because of the financial constraints we have) we're not now miraculously going to be in a position to throw 40m at the same position - we'll be in the market for a forward, that much was clear at the end of the summer window when Poch said it was a position we were looking at strengthening.

 

[Pirate55]

So if we sign a young forward, that none of us were particularly aware of but Poch says that he wants, you will be happy.

Certainly.

 

[Pirate55]

But we do have monetary constraints, to ignore those and talk of 40m backup number 9's is unrealistic and is ultimately setting yourself up to be disappointed - we were working on a 23m ish deal for Berahino, a deal which was to be spread out over 4 years (because of the financial constraints we have) we're not now miraculously going to be in a position to throw 40m at the same position - we'll be in the market for a forward, that much was clear at the end of the summer window when Poch said it was a position we were looking at strengthening.

Read my original post again. Nowhere did I say we must spend 40million on a player. The fact remains that this is a key position for us and even raw No9s that can score goals cost big money. I don't want to hear we missed out on a key Poch target because Levy won't spend an extra couple of million that is all.

 

[milo]

Certainly.

I'd expect us to try to sign someone who fits that profile in January.

We know that it is going to be a tough window to sign players. What would be your preference if we cannot secure our targets; make do with what we have or sign a striker who is not in our long term plans?

 

[billyiddo]

Read my original post again. Nowhere did I say we must spend 40million on a player. The fact remains that this is a key position for us and even raw No9s that can score goals cost big money. I don't want to hear we missed out on a key Poch target because Levy won't spend an extra couple of million that is all.

You totted up the money we bid for Berahino and the potential sales in Jan and said 'we have say 40m to buy a forward, don't blow it'

The problem is we don't have 40m to spend on anyone - we barely had enough money to cobble together a deal for Berahino that West Brom would accept because of our lack of up front money - IF we sell Faz and Townsend we'd likely be able to put together a more acceptable offer for a forward in the 20m ball park area - BUT as per my initial reply to you, if you're going in to the window thinking we're flush to the tune of 40m to strengthen our back up for Kane then you will only be dissapointed

 

[Pirate55]

I'd expect us to try to sign someone who fits that profile in January.

We know that it is going to be a tough window to sign players. What would be your preference if we cannot secure our targets; make do with what we have or sign a striker who is not in our long term plans?

It would be foolish in my view to make do with what we have - especially with Clinton out for at least a month. We must sign a no 9 in Jan - either a short term buy (not my preference) or a star of the future (which is likely to cost big money and which I would prefer).

 

[milo]

It would be foolish in my view to make do with what we have - especially with Clinton out for at least a month. We must sign a no 9 in Jan - either a short term buy (not my preference) or a star of the future (which is likely to cost big money and which I would prefer).

I just can't see the club or Poch sanctioning a move for a short term signing to cover a position for one month.

 

[Gutter Boy]

I just can't see the club or Poch sanctioning a move for a short term signing to cover a position for one month.

Especially for a player whose in a development role and hasn't really featured that much.

Going on past record, if anything Poch will just promote Coulthirst into the squad for a few weeks (he already took him to Qarabag)

 

[braineclipse]

I think you made missed my key point. I believe you and I agree that we need a Kane lookalike not another number 10 or 11 as we are well stocked with those. I want us to really push the boat out to get the No 9 Poch wants and not be hamstrung by Levy's usually prudent tight fistedness. Hence I want what Poch wants - and in this one particular instance don't want us not to succeed for monetary reasons alone.

No - the point I am making is that we should not be constrained by monetary constraints in Jan to land the player Poch wants - even if it means spending big. No 9s don't come cheap - even young raw ones and it is a key position for us and one where we have absolutely no cover whatsoever .

You're completely speculating about Levy's prudent tight fistedness though.

What Pochettino has actually said and done, the players he has succeeded with at Southampton and Spurs to me paints a picture of a fairly prudent careful head coach. He is a part of the transfer committee that decided against "pushing the boat out" on a new DM this summer. Seemingly primarily because of Pochettino's influence on the committee.

It continues to be crucial for us to find good value in the transfer market. For someone to be a "Kane lookalike" or young talent to be Kane's backup it really doesn't make much sense to "push the boat out".

The claim has been made in the past that Levy should have just pushed the boat out for Lovren or Schneiderlin for example. Because Pochettino wanted them. However no one has gone beyond pure speculation in claiming that Pochettino actually wanted us to pay over the top/push the boat out for those players. Similar claims now about a striker imo.

Levy showed as late as with the Son deal that he's willing to pay big money for the player the transfer committee decides on if that seems like the best deal for the club.

 

[milo]

@braineclipse With regards to a DM, Levy confirmed as much here:

"I think most people were hoping that we were going to buy a defensive midfield in the summer, but one of the skills of Mauricio is that he understands exactly what’s in that dressing room," Levy explained.

"He said to me [in the summer]: ‘I don’t want a defensive midfielder. I am very comfortable that I can make Eric Dier into a top defensive midfielder.’

"I think if we asked most people [before the season started], they would have said he was wrong. We have to give credit to Mauricio for his skill, and you have to trust his judgement."

http://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2015/12/0...s-what-tottenham-hotspur-boss-mauricio-poche/

 

[braineclipse]

@braineclipse With regards to a DM, Levy confirmed as much here:

"I think most people were hoping that we were going to buy a defensive midfield in the summer, but one of the skills of Mauricio is that he understands exactly what’s in that dressing room," Levy explained.

"He said to me [in the summer]: ‘I don’t want a defensive midfielder. I am very comfortable that I can make Eric Dier into a top defensive midfielder.’

"I think if we asked most people [before the season started], they would have said he was wrong. We have to give credit to Mauricio for his skill, and you have to trust his judgement."

http://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2015/12/0...s-what-tottenham-hotspur-boss-mauricio-poche/

That's pretty much was what I was referencing yes. I only added the "seemingly" as I don't fully trust post-hoc explanations to why transfer deals went the way they did.