Vital Spurs Debate Section

Match Thread – Spurs Take A Second Bite At The Pacos de Ferreira Cherry

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Tottenham Hotspur’s start to the 2021/22 campaign has hardly been blistering, but you can certainly describe it as steady with two Premier League wins from two against Manchester City and Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Nuno Espirito Santo appears to be settling in well at White Hart Lane and we are undoubtedly more defensive in approach, but whether or not that changes when Harry Kane is back up to speed, is open for a bit of debate.

There’s still plenty to sort out off the pitch though and that’s not just limited to the ongoing Kane saga as few would think we are finished in the transfer market, particularly if we look at squad depth with an expectation that Nuno will continue to rotate wildly, ala the almost embarrassing no show against Pacos de Ferreira in the Europa Conference League.

And that is a pressing concern as we welcome them to home soil this Thursday and we already have a 1-0 deficit to overturn. Play as we did in the first leg, well, let’s just hope we don’t.

Pacos de Ferreira...

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German striker Jurgen Klinsmann spent two years at White Hart Lane in separate spells, but how many league goals did he contribute?

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  • TK says:

    where do we get the dosh to rebuild, Niall? We could sponsor a bake sale. Marmite sandwiches both for those who love that HK is staying and for those who hate that he is.

  • BelgianSpur says:

    Stan – I’m not Bergwijn’s biggest fan and I’ll be the first to admit that he hasn’t done enough so far.

    I’m perfectly happy for others to call him out on that. But if your solution to that is Adama Traoré, I fail to see the logic.

    Last season, Traoré played in 37 PL games (2643 minutes or an average of 71,43 minutes per game – suggesting most of those games were starts). He scored 2 goals and recorded 3 assists, or one major contribution every 528 minutes.

    Bergwijn played in 21 games last season (1211 minutes or an average of 57,66 minutes per game – suggesting he started less often). He scored 1 goal and recorded 4 assists, or one major contribution every 242 minutes.

    It’s all fine and well saying Bergwijn “can’t score for toffees” (no, not OK, by the way), but if Traore is your solution, he’s arguably even worse in that respect.

    Traore may well do other things in the build-up which sometimes fail to register on a stat sheet – point well taken. But there is no getting around that his end product is terrible, especially if that is the argument you are going to use to knock Bergwijn.

    In fact, looking at other deals around the league, I reckon that the 2 wingers bought by Villa (Emi Buendia, 15 goals and 17 assists in the Championship last year and Leon Bailey, 9 goals and 9 assists in 30 Bundesliga games last year) would both have been better, and cheaper, bets than Traore would be.

  • Niall D says:

    TK
    We need to sell (I think) now in in order to get players in, unless it’s more loans or freebies.
    For me whilst I did like Kane for a long time and respect what he did for us, I just feel that now was the right time for him to move on, we won’t get 100 mil next season for him, probably 80 mil or so.
    I would’ve been of the opinion to get 120 or 130 mil plus a player but it didn’t happen.
    Whilst we do require another striker, it is now not as desperate as the other positions needed.
    I just wasn’t overly impressed with how he behaved over the “closed season” toward his parent club and if he and we are in a honest he wanted away.
    I just hope he doesn’t give half hearted performances until Summer 2022 like others have done.
    BTW
    Keep up with the philosophy stuff, you could be up there with, Thales, Solon, Bias, Perinder, Chillon (of Sparta) etc and become the eighth sage….
    But in all seriousness chum some of your stuff makes me access some forgotten histories.

  • Geofspurs says:

    TK …. I can’t help wondering where your remark that Kane did not impress you because of his behaviour over the close season comes from. Do you actually know what exactly happened between Kane, Spurs, and City, during this period? I don’t, apart from all the conflicting media reports that made the entire situation even more confusing. It seems a rather disrespectful assumption on your part to someone who has given, and is still giving, so much to our club. He has done nothing in the past to suggest that he would fail to continue giving his best efforts in the clubs interest.

    I certainly would not agree with you that this is the right time for him to go. Apart from needing his goals, he is the only reliable creative midfielder at the club, which is a bit weird in itself. Kane is known and reliable. If he went, he would be replaced by the unknown. Barring injuries he probably has another four or five good years ahead of him. What’s not to like or look forward to in that.

    But, apart from that, it is all about his life. Like most people, he will do whatever is in the best interests of himself and his family. That is his right.

  • Geofspurs says:

    TK/ND …. Oops, sorry …. that comment was obviously for ND!

    • TK says:

      Your comment had me wondering. lol. Thats okay, though. I often have others wondering. lol again.

  • Hot Tottingham says:

    Geof.

    The summer ’21 transfer window is 12 weeks long. Why has Kane waited right until the final week of this TW to make his statement about staying at Spurs? Why was he not available to be picked to start our first 2 PL matches? Why have neither Kane, THFC or City denied any of his transfer speculation. Even now, it’s obvious to most that there has been a lot of truth in all of this will he or won’t he malarky. It’s just the finer details that we are not party to.

    Even so, I will support him as before. But I have been personally expressing my want for him to leave since before the end of last season. And for similar reasons to Niall. I just believed that it was a good time for Spurs to move on in a non-Harry direction and see where it takes us.

    You say that we need Harry’s goals. And of course many Spurs fans will echo that. But we don’t. We just need goals, they don’t have to be Harry’s goals. And we also need to concede less goals, with or without him.

    In the past 2 seasons Harry has continued to supply plenty of goals. And last season even added a good supply of assists. And yet in those 2 seasons we have finished in lower PL positions than we have seen, since Kane has been a regular 1st teamer. We have indeed gone backwards. And no matter how odd, contradictory and counter-intuitive it sounds, I think that Harry, whilst on his mission to be a top PL goalscorer and carry on breaking other records along the way, has benefited himself more so, than he has the club.

    I like Harry and I like watching him play for Spurs and scoring his goals for us. But I genuinely wanted a new look Spurs going forward. And he just makes it all the same old, same old… Will Harry achieve this or that? Will Harry win the GB again etc, etc… I want it to be more about Tottenham, not so much about Harry Kane. And £150m or close to it, would have been a huge help to the club in this.

    But, it is what it is. And we move on.

    Up the Spurs and er… Up the Harry Kane! 😉

  • Hot Tottingham says:

    … and who knows? Maybe Harry can help and assist our own Dane Scarlett tonight, in scoring his 1st Spurs hat-trick!

  • Geofspurs says:

    HT …. The way I see it is that Kane waited until now to say he was staying because he was hoping for a move which, for whatever reason, did not happen. Now that he knows, he has made a statement.

    I agree (obviously) that we have gone backwards but, without Kane on the pitch for the last couple of seasons, I think we would have been much further back.

    Most clubs seem to build a team around one or two star players, unless they are City or Chelsea and have unlimited funds. We already have a star player in Kane. We payed brilliant football under MP with Kane in the team. It’s not his fault that we have not achieved what we had all hoped for. The problem there lies in our TW dealings, or lack of, in recent years.

    I’ve thought for some time that if we found a genuine (consistent) striker we would have a ready made creative MF in Kane. I think that selling the world class player we have, to bring in one or two players who would need to be exceptional for us to achieve success, might be too risky. But I suppose everything about football is a bit risky!

  • BelgianSpur says:

    What worries me about the Kane situation is that keeping Kane is now going to be marketed as the “win” of the transfer window. If we do nothing else in the window, the club’s point of view is going to be “well at least we managed to keep our star player”. It’ll be an excuse for failing to do anything more in the TW.

    That’s not going to change the fact that the squad needs an injection of talent, even with Kane in it, as our performance in the last 24 months can attest.

    So far, the only real improvement to our 11 is Romero, and all the other players we have signed (Gollini, Gil) or are reportedly close to signing (Sarr) have been made with an eye on the future.

    If we fail to bring more players in, the club’s conclusion can only be the following:

    1. Our squad is good enough as it is, and any failure to win anything in recent years is down to our previous managers. Not only is that a formidable statement about our previous managers in itself, but it also implies that Nuno is finally the man to take our squad to another level, doing things the previus 3 managers couldn’t. Surprising to say the least, considering Nuno wasn’t exactly our first choice.

    2. Our squad isn’t good enough, but we are unable to do anything about it unless we get players off our books first.

    As much as I can accept that this is a reality for most clubs, this table (https://www.transfermarkt.com/premier-league/fuenfjahresvergleich/wettbewerb/GB1) shows that our net transfer spend in the last 10 years averages out at roughly 16 million pounds per season, below all of the other top 6 clubs of course, but also below the likes of Aston Villa, West Ham, Everton, Leicester, Wolves and Newcastle, and on par with the likes of Brighton or Crystal Palace.

    All of those clubs have had to deal with Covid, and several have renovated their infrastructure as well. Perhaps not to the same degree as we have, but it goes back to the point of really needing gold faucets in a football stadium and “losing track of priorities”…

    I find out activity so far very underwhelming. I am not questioning the quality or the potential of the palyers we have got, but I think we are still well short of finishing the “painful rebuild”.

    Given that Romero’s deal is a loan, we actually have a positive net transfer spend this window. Where is the short-term ambition?

    • 62rovinella says:

      Totally agree with you on that….I’ve seen nothing to really excited me transferwise…same old trying with nought going over the line…same old spursy window so far…🙄🙄🙄🙄

  • jod says:

    We still need a back up for Kane, we still have the problem that any centre forward who is any good won’t want to be a backup. We also have to consider whether Dane Scarlett or even Troy Parrot is likely to make the grade and if so when, you don’t want to block the route. The problem with no backup is you end up playing Kane too much which leads to injuries which has been the story of his career. Its about depth, if you want to field a strong team in a meaningless third tier European competition its easy to rotate wide players, we’ve got enough of those. But with no back up at centre forward the manager has a problem and that’s when you have the danger of overplaying Kane, which has come back to bite us before.

  • Niall D says:

    Hi Geoff
    We’ll agree to disagree here, I’m much in the same camp as HT here.
    Re Kane I feel he could’ve came out much earlier and dispelled any rumours, I know he doesn’t need to but given that for many he is “Mr Spurs” I think to a degree he disrespected the club.
    Why didn’t he play in the first two games??
    Re selling Kane, I feel that he is, just about his optimum worth just now, we as a team are in desperate need of a rebuild and that money could’ve gotten us two or three very good players who between them may get more goals than Kane. Will we get £150 mil next season for him?
    Because the way its going we’ll still need about 3 or 4 players next year.
    If you also remember over the last few seasons he has been injured around March /April every time for very important games.
    However he is a Spurs player for now and I will support him, but just a bit let down, If I were TK I would maybe be comparing it to catching a loved one having a flirtation with someone else.
    But he’s our player COYS.

  • TQ2Spurs says:

    BS….I have no doubt that option 2 is likely the case, it’s clear from the business done so far (with Sarr maybe the exception although we have sold a number of academy players) we have been removing someone from the squad and wage bill before signing replacements. It seem we are possibly having difficulty offloading those we want out which is delaying signings.

  • Geofspurs says:

    BS … I certainly agree that keeping Kane isn’t enough and we need to bring two or three players in …. but I don’t know how that’s going to happen.

  • TK says:

    The Kane saga of the last few weeks had no winners. Certainly Spurs didn’t win, and even more certainly Kane didn’t win. Even VS commentators didn’t win. One and all have been diminished in one way or another. But this much is clear (for now): He’s here, he’s (still) one of us, and he’s still one of the best talents in the world. I hope he leads to world in goals this season.

    Nuno: give the man a bit more rest than he’s been getting. In the past couple of seasons his only rest has come because his ankles have demanded it. Perhaps the ankles will stand up better (literally and figuratively) if they get a bit of recovery time. A fatigued body is a body at risk of injury. If only we could find some 17 year old wonder child to play every fourth match in Harry’s stead. Do what needs to be done to keep this our Harry (yes, that’s the right expression for today) from breaking down.

    As to Kane: turning back into a Spurs hero for all of history is still in the cards if you play to your usual standards. Go for it, lad. Most of this will be forgotten by most of us if you stay and break Greavsie’s club record.

    My HK fear all along has been than his best could soon be past if his body is pushed past its limits. Every one of us has different limits. We’ve seen Harry pushed to the limits of his body too often. We already know the risk. Let his career last a bit longer than it will if he’s pushed past the limits.

  • TK says:

    As Aristotle once didn’t say: without praxis logos is not worth spit in a bucket. Translation—the best laid plans that a manager has still need to be implemented on the pitch. Plans alone aren’t spit in a bucket.

    No, wait. That’s a comment for a different site–perhaps a discussion about the Monty Python riff on the philosopher’s football team. Or perhaps a seminar at the Oxbridge Zoo.

    Socrates, by the way, was my favorite Brazilian player of all time– for his attitude as well as for his skills on the pitch. He was a pretty decent medical man, as well, and he opposed the miliitary dictatorship. What a triumvirate of triumphs in one life time. I’d sign him in a minute as a footballer or as a man.

    Not Socrates, the teacher of Plato and thus of Aristotle. You know, the important Socrates who word short blue pants and a yellow jersey.

    This riff was for those who would be disappointed in me if I didn’t go off in some (un)expected odd direction. it’s hard work being an old man trying to continue in a decade’s long childhood. Keeping it fresh can turn things stale, I’m afraid.

  • TK says:

    Ah, and welcome back, Harry. Too bad the summer break had to be extended the way it was. But now, it’s back to play. Glad you’re on OUR team. You’d have made a lousy Citizen up north. Real citizenship requires being a bit more revolutionary than you seem, sort of like the Brazilian Socrates.

    A goal that puts us past Paços de Ferreira would be a nice way for a mini celebration of your return to where you’ve belonged all along.

    It’s okay, I ran away from home once in my childhood. Got in a lot of trouble, but no one noticed. But you…. Everyone noticed everything. Keep your head down, unless you’re watching the ball on the pitch.

  • TK says:

    Today: 3 x 1, home team moves on in this miserable little pretense for a European competition. Kane and some 17 year old with goals.

  • jod says:

    There still seems to be this “buy anybody” philosophy. If you already have enough fast wide players why would you buy another one you don’t need ? If a player you do need, say a backup and maybe future replacement for Kane isn’t available why would you blow the cash on a player in a different position ? You are still going to need that player next season, maybe more. Cash is a finite resource that can only be spent once but some comments seemed to be based on an assumption there’s always more available, only true if you are Man City. Liverpool showed how you spend. They identified Virgil van Dijk as a key recruit, he wasn’t available so they just kept the cash in the bank for a year and bought him once he was.

  • BelgianSpur says:

    TQ2Spurs – That was the point I was making. The mere fact that we are in this position in the first place – ie so cash-strapped that we can’t afford to invest in the squad before we sell anyone – is a problem in itself.

    If we actually have some money, but we are just refusing to spend it out of principle until somebody else is sold – that’s even worse.

  • BelgianSpur says:

    jod – Our squad still has enough holes in it, that spending the money on another position wouldn’t necessarily even qualify as blowing the money. It would just be called an upgrade.

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