With an aggregate victory over Pacos de Ferreira in last night’s Europa Conference League clash, it turns Nuno Espirito Santo’s start to life at Tottenham Hotspur from good, to quite impressive.
Three wins from four as we head towards September, is no bad return, especially given the confusion and issues we have to deal with – although thankfully the future of Harry Kane is now off the table until at least next summer. Everyone hopes the squad is added to, a most have their preferences for who we move on to help cashflow, but for now, it’s all eyes to Watford.
It’s been a mixed start for the Vicarage Road outfit with a win and a defeat from their opening two ties, so arguably ‘form’ is in our favour for whatever that counts for at this early stage of the season, but the return of Kane is a massive confidence booster on top of what has been a defensively steady beginning.
Let’s see if we can make it three PL wins from three and then get a bit more business done.
I’ve just read that if our two loan deals are to be made permanent, which I think is very likely. (That’s for Gollini and Romero). Then THFC would then have made this its largest ever TW spend. And by a long way. At just under £117m. That is a substantial sum when we consider how little we have earned from the sales.
And this, of course, is also at a time when our finances have taken such a huge and negative hit.
And so in this respect, it is all quite impressive to me…
This is just the start of our rebuild. I can only feel positive for it. Sorry!
Actually, I’m not sorry at all… 🙂
Despite my disappointment about not signing and attacking midfielder I am also feeling positive about the squad changes. We were supposedly linked to a move for Neves late in the window and for me this would have been the cherry on top of the cake, a great playmaker with a wicked shot on him who can contribute a few goals over the season.
Geofspurs – Actually we are all human, but only some of you live in a fantasy world.
DoncasterHotspur – Actually Atletico haven’t signed Griezman, they have him on loan with an option to buy. So all they are committed to is paying his wages for a year. Cavaniga cost £34m including add ons. Barcelona didn’t actually sign Mbappe did they ? So all your waffle amounts to is one French player sold for £34m. Careful of the reality gap, it seems to be getting wider.
Hot Tottingham – There are different kinds of loan deal. What the Gollini and Romero ones do is defer payment for a year, they were always going to be permanent moves. It makes sense, with the ground now open our finances will be in better shape in 12 months. You can contrast that with the Oliver Skipp loan which was always going to be just that, 12 months to get experience then back to the first team.
It seems as though fans of ManC., Man U, Chelsea and Liverpool also live in fantasy land Jod. But their fantasies will bring rewards. Our fantasies will bring players we are sadly lacking. One has to speculate to accumulate.
Sadly we have the miserly, cheapskate Levy controlling everything which means we always miss out on the one or two players who would make a massive improvement to our mediocre squad.
Well for me I’m not in fantasy land, as I asked how many of these players were in anyone’s top 10 for Spurs.
We have a good squad and Manager yet bemoan how we’ve played over the last few games.
With these players we have, the simple thing is that I don’t know how they are going to do.
We had Bale last year who scored more goals per min on the pitch than Kane, yet there were those on this site that didn’t want him back.
Sabitzer wasn’t a vast amount of money, but could’ve been a valuable virtually proven asset.
So did we do well this TW, I don’t know, did we appear to do what we usually do, buy a young player and hope we can double our money, for me yes.
My other issue is, if our squad was so good why did no one want any of them, we virtually gave away four players this year, Rose, Aurier, Lamella, and World Cup winner Sissoko.
For me we need some one to ad that bit of confidence in mid field a proven RB as the two we had were poor, a CD, and back up striker.
There were those out there not for fantasy money, but somehow we missed them.
I’m entitled to be underwhelmed, just as some appear to be content.
Hopefully these guys will come through.
Jod – it was Madrid that didn’t buy M’bappe not Barcelona. It is already evident you don’t read other peoples posts before you send them, you don’t seem to read your own either.
I’m just happy I don’t live in the world that you live in – zero personality, zero humility. You must be an absolute joy to live with.
Niall…..sadly it’s not just about identifying players such as Sabitzer and buying them, they have to want to come to us as well. It seems we were interested in bringing in the exciting young attacking midfielder Moriba to the club, we probably offered more in terms of transfer fee and wages but he chose to go to RB Leipzig anyway, apparently they were prepared to pay his agents a huge commission but we weren’t.
Niall – In answer to your question about Nuno and all of the new players we have bought, being (or rather not being) on anyone’s wanted list. I didn’t have any such lists myself of preferred managers or players. I never do and never will. And I certainly don’t or won’t ever be deceived by, or impressed with what is speculated upon in the media. I know that most of the so called ITK’s end up knowing not much more of an eventual outcome, than I, you or anyone can take a guess at. Or at the very least, if there was any truth to a particular rumour, it so obviously doesn’t mean it will become a reality. There are far too many factors and variables involved. Even more so than ever, since Covid hit the fan!
Besides which, most of the speculation around Spurs in this summers TW seemed to be based on the assumption that City would be forking out close to £150-160m on Harry Kane. And when I suggested a few weeks ago that even Harry himself probably didn’t even know yet exactly what was to eventually happen, it seems I was right.
And to talk of those few players that you suggest nobody wanted to buy. Well, as well as them, where were all the offers for the likes of even Kane himself, Son, Hugo, Dele etc, etc… Why are these guys not being tapped up? Is it because no one would ever want them also? Of course not.
Clubs are in debt. Some of them seriously so… Covid is a reality in all this. As well as stupidly heavy over-spending from the likes of Real and Barca for so many years that finds them both a billion and more in debt right now. And all the knock-down effect that has had on the rest of the football world… And yet here we are and in a position whereby the club can apparently balk at over a £100m or so offer for Kane and insist he is not for sale unless the crazy asking price is fully met. This to me is impressive from Spurs, given the current financial state of affairs. Not just at Spurs but for almost all clubs, big and small, around the world…
And yet for Spurs, we still look to be one the most stable and self-sufficient clubs there is. If not THE most stable and self sufficient. This is highly commendable in my book…
Anyway, TW’s never excite me… Buying and selling, is not really the main sport for me… It’s all about watching the Spurs playing a game football for 90 mins and more. No matter who we did or didn’t buy or sell… 😉
HT, a very good thought out agreeable post there, well said.
As we have started the season pretty good, basically with last seasons left over players, I am looking forward to when our new lot find their feet and are in the team/side of then match.
I honestly believe we are going to have a good season, looking forward to it, and it is only the start of our rebuild. COYS
We have retained one of world’s best strikers and brought in some young and some seasoned performers in some problem positions. That’s not bad. Lo Celso had some great games last year when fit and obviously well thought of in Argentina so he could be a key cog in the machine. All of the squad have shown flashes of quality but too many crumbled under pressure and made basic errors. Jose couldn’t fix this but Nuno seems to have instilled more self belief and as I said previously, determination. The old cliche about it being a team game is dead right. Few players have the ability to play well in a poor team. How many times have we been flying one minute only to fall apart the next. Rotating out guys if they lose form is the key to maintaining momentum so hopefully the squad depth is now right. I
LT….rotation is key as you say, that includes Kane if he is out of form or carrying an injury.
The squad depth is almost right, assuming Ndombele can be rehabilitated, but we still lack experienced cover for Kane. Some might say Son can cover the number 9 position but we normally rely on the Kane/Son partnership in the PL and neither can play in all of the competitions.
HT
You sort of answered your own question, where were the offers for Kane, Sonny etc, to my knowledge and as you say we can’t guess at media speculation, and to my knowledge they weren’t up for sale, however what I am aware of that the players I named were actually for sale and that is my issue we got very little(if any) money for them.
My issue re our signings actually isn’t the signings themselves, it’s our history in many of our acquisitions, particularly in young players, the likes of Clarke, N’je, N’Koudu, Froyth.
There just haven’t been enough Hojbergs.
I just thought that we could’ve lured the likes of Ings, I thought we had more to offer than Villa.
I think that we failed in many ways to actually cover our weak spots. There were players out there for around the dosh we spent who could cover these positions.
For me and some others we didn’t get the Moderic /Erikson player or the reserve or second striker plus the nailed on Right back.
So I feel that whilst we did spend some money, I’m unsure that it was in the right places.
Perhaps I expected more out of Italy from Paratici.
With that said I am content with our results so far and I feel that a lot of players have stepped up to the plate. I feel as a unit we are improving in being (I suppose) defensive on the front foot. As LT said earlier.
As I said I gave Nuno a cautious welcome and so far he has done OK.
And indeed we were the best run club in England (financially) prior to COVID, I have alluded to this many times. We do as I said in my post have a decent squad.
But as others have said we could’ve gotten a game changer in.
DL thought he was getting a “game changer” when he hired Mourinho. The best laid plans, as they say, don’t always work out.
For me, the greater pleasure comes from building from the ground up. Bringing in a super star late in their career for big big money is the least pleasurable way to win the big prizes. Bringing in CR7 to Spurs today and winning the league wouldn’t bring me nearly as much pleasure as winning it with a home grown HK. Or with an HM Son who’s grown so much since coming to us.
Different glow when they really feel like ours than when they’re rent-a-cuppers. Who can care as much about mercenaries as we care about the boy next door we’ve watched growing up?
bring in 4 or 5 younger players who can settle in together over four years and win us a few items here and there. a cup here, a league there. I’m already smiling.
Niall. because we didn’t get in the kind of a player that you call a “game changer”, It doesn’t necessarily mean that we didn’t try…
As for Ings? Why would a man who spent most of his time at Liverpool, injured or sitting on the bench, want to come to Spurs just to mostly sit on the bench and watch Harry and Son play? He left Liverpool for the Saints, because he wasn’t getting a look in, ahead of the likes of Salah and Firmino. The man wants to play, not watch!
And it would be the same for many players. Except those that are maybe edging toward the end of their career. Such as Llorente. Or those just starting out, like Scarlett or Parrott.
But, I am like TK on this. I would much rather see a 17 year-old Dane Scarlett sitting on the Spurs bench, than a 29 year-old Danny Ings.
By the way, I used the word tapped up for players like Dele and Son etc. For example, Dele was being gossiped about all last season, about possibly going to PSG. But I don’t think he was ever put up for sale. Kane himself wasn’t put up for sale… Hence we had Pep stating that THFC were not even willing to negotiate with City for Harry’s sale.
I think we can’t possibly expect much more from Paratici in such a short space of time. But who knows. It may turn out that he has played a blinder already. We have already brought some very highly rated young players into the club this summer… And there will be more to come.
TK, HT
I think we all want this, and to a degree with the exception of Sir Alex Fergusons famous Man U team full of academy players, it hasn’t happened too often, even then they needed to bring in the the game changer in Cantona how many games did they win at that time 1-0 Cantona scored.
But in brining in Skipp and Tananga, that’s not bad for any club to bring through two academy players at once in our first team given we have Kane as well that’s at least 3 academy players on the field and possibly more on the bench.
But there is nothing wrong in wanting a decent player to come into our team and if he comes in and plays well for us I don’t feel guilty about it.
Re Ings, I wasn’t suggesting him as a bench warmer he could easily play alongside Kane or Sonny or both and replace either in a change of tactics, in fact I wasn’t particularly suggest him but I was using him as an example of who was out there at decent money to fill a much needed position. Plus there is a fair chance that Kane will go over the next year which then leaves that position open.
Re tapped up players and who we negotiated for we’re back to media speculation and the famous so called ITK. In reality we don’t know what if anything was offered for our players.
In short I think whilst we may have shopped well, it seems looking at we have done what we usually do and speculated, I’m not saying the buys we got were poor purchases, point is I don’t know, but I suppose we could say that about any player for example van der beek isn’t exactly setting Man U alight.
My issue was that we appeared to fail in spending our money in the right positions that were needed.
We don’t have a back up if Kane gets injured or if he needs rested. We haven’t replaced the Erikson position /player properly.
The back up striker for kane,
How much you willing spend on him?
We all know the back up striker would be benched for 80% of the time.
Are they/board willingly be on the bench for high wages and high price tag.
Regarding a mf game changer… Nuno and Lloris (french wc winner) should try to talk tanguy around, his attitude could be a number of things, such as a new baby / wife problem or upset at mussa leaving, feeling pressured.. We need him to get belief in nuno & team, with training and some form back he will get 1st team game time. Remember he was a big player at his prev. club and at spurs he is behind HK10, Lloris etc. so some encouragement from the team players (sonny as he had similar adaptation probs.) and TLC should see him respond. It worked for dele as an example so a turnaround for him would be great for spurs.
Any player who is willing to come to Spurs and sit on the bench with few opportunities to visit the pitch is not a player we want (unless they are young and show promise). Wrong attitude. Wrong ambition.
Personally, I like the look of the squad we are taking forward and am quite optimistic. I guess, with my incredible knowledge of football, that means we’ll be relegated!
Let’s hope Harry plays the first two England games and is left on the bench for the third.