parklane1
Tony Galvin
I agree, they were our best CB partnership last season.
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Toby Alderweireld
- Thread starter Jordinho
- Start date
I agree, they were our best CB partnership last season.
Mumorn
Vic Buckingham
Cameron Carter-Vickers. Our best youth prospect.
Yoof
Tony Parks
Pritchard and Veljkovic are certainly the closest to the first team of the youngsters, but then they are 22 and 19 respectively. Carter-Vickers(17) is part of the next wave, one of quite a few the club has high hopes for.
Mumorn
Vic Buckingham
pritchard is like 6 years older than him..
NaijaSpurs
Les Ferdinand
I think Veljkovic might have something to say about that
There are plenty of others who might have something to say about that. But, as things stand, I think I agree with Mumorn. Of all the very promising players coming through, I am more hopeful that 2CV will reach the highest level than any of the others - injuries allowing.
As to direct comparisons between 2CV and MV, the first thing to be said is that they are both outstanding prospects. But there are two reasons why I believe that 2CV could be the better of the two. Firstly, he is two years younger but already performing at a very high level. Secondly, he has one string to his bow that MV lacks: genuine pace. Nor is he one of those pacy defenders who is consequently lazy or irredeemably stupid in his positioning. And that just makes him the more complete player of the two, IMO.
Edit: oops, apologies for the off topic post.
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Mumorn
Vic Buckingham
Only player who comes close to potential is Onomah. Veljkovic? No.
DublinSpur
Scott Parker
Suggestions now that Mourinho might be interested in Toby Alderweireld, but that we are still front-runners to sign him.
If it's true that Chelsea are looking at him, then (IMO) we are most certainly not front-runners. No matter how much I love our club, I can't deny that just like Willian, most players will sign for Mourinho-managed, Champions League participants... for higher wages... if offered the choice.
The more I read about Alderweireld, the more I want him at Spurs. So I'll be disappointed if this is true.
If it's true that Chelsea are looking at him, then (IMO) we are most certainly not front-runners. No matter how much I love our club, I can't deny that just like Willian, most players will sign for Mourinho-managed, Champions League participants... for higher wages... if offered the choice.
The more I read about Alderweireld, the more I want him at Spurs. So I'll be disappointed if this is true.
Whether or not there's any truth in it, the itk on Toby is suggesting that we aren't in for him and that all the stories in the media are agent driven.
And that seems right to me. We should have enough at CB with Verthongen, Dier, Fazio and Wimmer, with Veljkovic or 2CV as backup.
DublinSpur
Scott Parker
All of which might be true, but there is certainly an argument to be made that Carter-Vickers is still a year or two away from the first team, and that Veljkovic is at a crucial stage in his development where he'd be far better served by a season at someplace like Norwich or Watford where he's likely to feature regularly - as opposed to spending the next year on the bench and getting a handful of run-outs in the Europa League.
You might be right about Veljkovic. He needs regular, high level games under his belt at this stage of his career. But I really think that 2CV could do a job for us already, filling in as and when necessary - especially for Europa League and League Cup games. He is way ahead of his years, both physically and mentally. He has looked comfortable whenever promoted to a higher level. He even played for the U.S.A under 23 team while still only 16 against Brazil, in Brazil, and handled it with aplomb. And aged only 17 he was, along with Veljkovic, the best central defender in the recently finished FIFA under 20 World Cup.
So I am confident that, if called upon, he would not let us down. In fact, if given the chance, it wouldn't surprise me at all if he proved to be good enough to become more than a mere backup option for lesser games and injury crises.
I'd be wary of Carter-Vickers having too much exposure too young. A 16-year old forward like Rooney being thrown in is ok as any screw ups aren't likely to be fatal. But all it takes at that age, even if he's handled everything with aplomb (or even because he's handled everything with aplomb ie he's not had to go through a hard time), is one game up against a wily quality forward like, say, Costa, Pelle, Sturridge, Giroud or even someone like Crouch or Walters to bully him into having a complete mare from which his career never recovers.
Well, for starters I wouldn't expect 2CV to be dropped in at the deep end against the best or most physical forward lines. Much more likely that he'd get his chances in the lesser games against carefully chosen opposition. But even so, I think you worry too much about the effects of the occasional bad game. I saw the entirety of Ledley's career at Spurs. And in the early days, he made a number of major blunders and was occasionally bullied by an experienced striker. But he learned from each of those experiences and quickly got over them. 2CV is from much the same mould. We don't need to handle him with kid gloves.
We've got into a bad habit in this country of not trusting our young players. It's one of the reasons why our national team struggles. It's not that we don't have the talent. It's that we too rarely give them the opportunity. We have to be braver. We sometimes have to accept short term risk in the pursuit of long term reward. Not every young player needs to go out on loan for two or three years before being ready. Some will benefit far more from playing alongside superior team mates while learning to cope with the pressure and expectation that exists at our level.
Anyway, to bring this back on topic, I see little point in buying Toby unless we are going to sell Fazio (and itk suggests that that is not currently on the cards). Five senior centre backs would be overkill and inevitably lead to discontent - quite apart from blocking the path to the first team squad for our incredibly promising youth graduates.
parklane1
Tony Galvin
That would be a shame if its true, it would not surprise me though as Toby is that good and the perfect player to replace either Terry or Cahill who are getting near their sell buy date.
Maybe but Toby would be a better CB than any of Those you've named....
Is Cahill that old?!