Writer: Bazza
There are certainly problems at Tottenham Hotspur and it’s probably fair to say that so little activity in the transfer market in previous windows didn’t help, even though last summer saw new arrivals Clarke was loaned back, Sess was injured and is still recovering, Lo Celso got injured before really getting more than a few minutes and even NDombele has had a minor injury. Add to that Foyth, who it seemed Poch was pinning his hopes on for the right back role who also picked up an injury.
All in all, there are enough problems to deal with, even allowing for both Eriksen and Toby wanting out and maybe, Rose, but a lack of suitable interest meant they stayed. Whilst it’s not good losing decent players it’s arguably worse having to keep them when they want to leave.
The plus side is that the injured players are all close to being fit and the players who want out have been so poor that Poch can simply drop them without getting accused of not picking his most experienced players.
Even if they are not offloaded in January (Eriksen, Toby, Vertonghen) if Poch wants them out they will be gone in summer regardless.
Maybe Wanyama, Rose and Aurier will be tougher to sell, both because they have longer contracts and there seems little demand in terms of clubs that they may want to move to, however, if they are not playing it might motivate them to consider other offered.
I really find the suggestion that Poch would want to sell Dier a strange one. He has been an excellent player since joining, but suffered a mix of injury and illness that set him back last season. He didn’t have a great game against BHA but he was hardly alone there, yet others have not had the lack of games and Dier needs a few games to get back to full match sharpness. His potential sale sounds more like a made up name to try and add an appearance of knowledge, rather than simply mentioning the same players that have constantly featured on the rumour mill so far.
It’s not all gloom and doom, clearly Poch needs to turn things around, but I think the fans will support him if he brings some fresh young players in, in place of some of the underperforming older, regular players, even if they take a little while to settle in. It also will give him a better idea of his most urgent needs in January.
The New Year is not an easy month to get players, so if say Foyth steps up at right back or Tanganga shines at centre-back, then maybe he can focus on replacing Rose and Eriksen in January and looking at the other positions in summer.
There are far too many negative rumours which, to some degree, is understandable but through the last year we have had a poor run of results, but few teams have really dominated us in that time, City for sure although we managed a draw somehow. Even Bayern first half was pretty much a close run thing, just second half it all went wrong. There’s still a lot of good players and Poch and his team are good coaches, they’ll get through it and we’ll come through stronger.
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