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Franco Baldini

Spurs are leaving us for dead in this transfer window. Maybe we should just sign Daniel Levy and be done with it. #afc
— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) August 20, 2013:ross:
 
Spurs are leaving us for dead in this transfer window. Maybe we should just sign Daniel Levy and be done with it. #afc
— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) August 20, 2013:ross:

ugh, did he actually say that? What a scummy mother****er, should at least wait until we finish above them before dishing it out like that, full on ****.
 
I am definitely feeling the media love tonight, not sure if its an honest love-in or a sly dig at ****nal.
 
am i right in thinking that he not really signing 'hidden gems' seeing as no one is hidden anymore these days what with footballs exposure

plus he has more money to use than any of our past managers have ever dreamed of.
 
liverpool paid £22.8 million for suarez. unheard of until this year. more likely redknapp turned him down because we could not afford him then.

He turned him down because after much deliberation, he (and his staff) didn't feel his assets outweighed anything else about him. They didn't fancy him. Now, whether you agree with the decision or not comes down to taste I think. Hindsight is harsh on the decision, but there is a chance that Suarez and VdV in the same squad would've ended in tears, and perhaps Bale would never have developed more confidence. The one thing which cannot be denied is that he did have the chance to sign him before the dippers...

On another topic, one thing which has shifted hard in North London is in the player recruitment department. Baldini is closing deals for quality players, **** cannot, and have not since Dein quit. HE was their closer, but they do not have one anymore. Baldini is a genuine closer. What a shift...
 
He turned him down because after much deliberation, he (and his staff) didn't feel his assets outweighed anything else about him. They didn't fancy him. Now, whether you agree with the decision or not comes down to taste I think. Hindsight is harsh on the decision, but there is a chance that Suarez and VdV in the same squad would've ended in tears, and perhaps Bale would never have developed more confidence. The one thing which cannot be denied is that he did have the chance to sign him before the dippers...

On another topic, one thing which has shifted hard in North London is in the player recruitment department. Baldini is closing deals for quality players, **** cannot, and have not since Dein quit. HE was their closer, but they do not have one anymore. Baldini is a genuine closer. What a shift...

absolutely agree

big shift indeed. Dein has been a big loss for Ars and Wenger. No-one should underestimate Baldini's influence in transfer dealings. We are signing quality players despite the prospect of losing one of the worlds best players, plus we dont offer CL wages and of course we dont offer CL football at the moment. Baldini must be very very convincing and gets deals done with a minimum of fuss. Brilliant!!
 
am i right in thinking that he not really signing 'hidden gems' seeing as no one is hidden anymore these days what with footballs exposure

plus he has more money to use than any of our past managers have ever dreamed of.

this Bulgarian chap we were linked with, Nedelev, is a name that has come out of the blue. Im sure there are more out there, but right now i think we are concentrating on buying established players
 
Baldini - ooh ooooh, Baldini ooh ooooh - from Roma to Spurs - he stole Levy's purse - Baldini oooh oooooh... :D

(Patent pending)
 
Baldini - ooh ooooh, Baldini ooh ooooh - from Roma to Spurs - he stole Levy's purse - Baldini oooh oooooh... :D

(Patent pending)

The TRUTH as to why AVB and Baldini have money to spend!


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Arsenal v Tottenham: Franco Baldini factor could be the key to a north London shift in power towards Spurs

This was meant to be the summer when Daniel Levy worked out how to pay for the construction of a new 60,000-seater, £500 million stadium for Tottenham Hotspur. Instead, he sanctioned the rebuilding of a new team.

This was meant to be the summer in which Arsène Wenger spent the £70 million - a figure Arsenal themselves divulged - in the hope of turning his team into Premier League title challengers.

Instead, as he prepares for the north London derby at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday, he has signed two players, both free transfers.

Wenger is still trying to add to his squad, with bids flying in for the likes of Schalke’s Julian Draxler, who will cost more than £40 million, and another being considered for Real Madrid’s Kaka.

But the strategy has been very different - unplanned - and there is little doubt that Spurs’ squad are as strong, if not stronger, than Arsenal’s ahead of the derby encounter on Sunday.

Tottenham Hotspur , and particularly Levy, can afford to feel satisfied. His biggest recruitment task this summer was expected to be sanctioning the request of head coach Andre Villas-Boas for a technical director in Franco Baldini - the Portuguese has wanted to work within such a system ever since he arrived in England, at Chelsea, in 2011 - and arranging the naming rights for the new stadium.

During Spurs’ post-season tour to the Bahamas last May, Levy, Villas-Boas and the club’s principal backer, the billionaire Joe Lewis, held a meeting to decide their strategy, in the wake of missing out on Champions League qualification.

“We had meetings over there to outline the future,” Villas-Boas confirmed. “So I think it was the beginning of what was still being put together this season.”

At that time the club’s main targets were to sign David Villa - who, instead, joined Atletico Madrid - and Zenit St Petersburg’s Hulk before the option of taking another Brazilian, Paulinho, opened up.

There was a distraction as Paris St-Germain came calling for Villas-Boas, which may have hurried along the appointment of Baldini, but Levy has always hankered after such a structure.

The real game-changer this summer was the strength of Real Madrid’s interest in Gareth Bale.

The Welshman had been expected to stay another year – Levy even had a letter from Real president Florentino Perez saying they would not bid – but the manner in which Spurs handled Madrid’s aggressive approach will go down as an object lesson in how to turn a negative into a positive.

The noises from Real were that a £60 million bid for Bale would be submitted but both they and the player knew this would be rejected: Lewis had already indicated that Bale did not need to be sold in order to finance a spending spree.

Then two things happened that altered the landscape: Real went much higher with their bid and, significantly, Bale agitated to leave.

Spurs’s strategy from then on was undoubtedly a combination of Levy’s determination, Baldini’s influence and Villas-Boas’s measured approach.

They would deal with Real, but only on their terms and, most crucially, only when they had strengthened on the field. Having failed in their attempt to take players from Real in return, the message was clear: money in the bank was no good to them if they were weaker on the pitch. Baldini got to work.

“He was a person that I was pushing from the day that I arrived here last season,” Villas-Boas says. “Unfortunately, for contractual reasons [Baldini was at Roma], it wasn’t possible to bring him. I think the impact was immediate, the way he moved himself within the market and the knowledge and experience that he has. I think he has great credit to what has been done as well.”

Deals were pushed through, some of which would have faltered without Baldini. Seven signings, all significant and considered, were made, with three players joining on Friday alone. While many of their rivals have dithered, Spurs – under their overhauled structure – have proved dynamic and decisive.

“The impact of a technical director is great in a modern football club,” Villas-Boas insists. “Not only dealings with agents but dealings with other clubs, the restructuring of the scouting network.

"Also the constant communication that we at the top, the manager and technical director, can have with our players also improves, so you can only benefit from that kind of impact.”

No one at Spurs is getting carried away and Villas-Boas accepts his team are a work-in-progress, even if he agrees that the squad are stronger than last season. “We have a style of player but we have to work on it with these players, which we haven’t had time to do,” he said. “All of our games that we’ve played, we’ve trained and recovered. At the moment we still have to put together a team that can work.”

But what of Arsenal? They should not be written off - their team are strong even if the squad lack depth - but their lack of new arrivals has led to louder rumblings of discontent among fans, which will only grow louder if they are beaten by today.

Wenger is deeply sceptical of employing a director of football, and his combative views hint at the heart of the problem at his club, where deals falter when they appeared to be close to completion.

It reveals not only his desire to remain almost unilaterally in control but also an intransigent outlook – he will not cede power even if it is to help him and the club. Wenger appears caught in time as others improve and streamline the way they work.

“A director of football buys the players,” Wenger says, revealing an old-fashioned opinion. “When they don’t work you are guilty for them not playing well. If it works the director of football has bought well! I’m not against having people to help me buy and sell.

“I cannot do it all. I am not Superman. But the final decision has to belong to the manager to decide who comes in and who goes out. He is responsible for the style of play and the results.”

Sunday's result will not be decisive. But given the changes in the two clubs, a Spurs victory could finally signal a shift in power.


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/tottenham-hotspur/10278183/Arsenal-v-Tottenham-Franco-Baldini-factor-could-be-the-key-to-a-north-London-shift-in-power-towards-Spurs.html
 
We are fans so we make predictions about a signing becoming an excellent player and we can afford to get it wrong. But if your are the Director of Football is a different matter altogether. Methinks Baldini has some questions to answer. How come we have spunked £25m on Soldado and Emirates Marketing Project with all their wealth spend just £16m on Negrado and sign a beast up front? Heck he already has 19 goals this season and not a penalty in sight

Of the 7 summer signings I would suggest only 2 players have attained a passmark so far, Eriksen and Vlad
 
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It's too early to say yet. Lamela could be toast or sliced bread, we don't know.

And if you swapped Soldado and Negredo's teams they would probably be performing vice versa too. Soldado never had a sniff under AVB's systematic system of systemic systemization
 
We are fans so we make predictions about a signing becoming an excellent player and we can afford to get it wrong. But if your are the Director of Football is a different matter altogether. Methinks Baldini has some questions to answer. How come we have spunked £25m on Soldado and Emirates Marketing Project with all their wealth spend just £16m on Negrado and sign a beast up front? Heck he already has 19 goals this season and not a penalty in sight

Of the 7 summer signings I would suggest only 2 players have attained a passmark so far, Eriksen and Vlad

I'd say the players each haven't been given time to establish their worth to the team yet. I'll admit I've been quick to jump on a few peoples backs probably too quickly. Let's give them a chance
 
We are fans so we make predictions about a signing becoming an excellent player and we can afford to get it wrong. But if your are the Director of Football is a different matter altogether. Methinks Baldini has some questions to answer. How come we have spunked £25m on Soldado and Emirates Marketing Project with all their wealth spend just £16m on Negrado and sign a beast up front? Heck he already has 19 goals this season and not a penalty in sight

Of the 7 summer signings I would suggest only 2 players have attained a passmark so far, Eriksen and Vlad

He now has 20!
 
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