With Tottenham Hotspur opening up the 2020/21 Premier League campaign with a very disappointing defeat to Everton on Sunday, attentions quickly turn to our Europa League Qualifying Second Round tie against Lokomotiv Plovdiv on Thursday.
Qualifying rounds are never the nicest and you generally tend to meet a few teams who, with the greatest of respect, you’ve never actually heard of before, so whilst the assumption is usually ‘a cricket score’ – the matches themselves can often play out quite differently.
Manager Jose Mourinho will be looking for a comfortable and steady victory here to boost spirits and bed in our new signings but it’s definitely one of those games for fans where it’s an ‘avoid a banana skin’ moment at all costs and if it’s not pretty, just scrape through somehow.
Plovdiv...
Win
Draw
Lose
That’s probably never been more true after our opening day defeat as after last season’s struggles, we need some confidence and momentum as it still hasn’t quite clicked for the manager formerly known as the ‘Special One’.
With that said, it’s never ‘just’ the manager, it might be early doors and some players take a bit longer than others to get up to speed, but there surely can’t be any excuses for this one….can there?
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A Bit Of A Spursy Opening To The Season As Everton Take The Spoils – Match Stats
Interesting now what JM said the other day about a new FWD/STR signing even playing with HK10 – now with these Bale return rumours – makes much more sense – that said would still not rule out completly us signing an out and out STR also (probably unlikely but you just never know) and possibly a CB (hopefully LCB) on top – let’s wait and see!
Loving the agent quote of “it’s where he wants to be” – referring to US of course LOL! He’s bloody home-grown on top which is another massive bonus also! Let’s hope Levy can get it over the line (around £300K still a massive outlay for us weekly if Real do indeed finally agree to pay the other £300K and also wonder how HK10 especially might take it – maybe need to give him a new contract, Sonny too for that matter and we’re already re-negotiating with Lloris, our other world-class player so for me this would most probably make quite a bit of sense IMHO of course).
No way does Dele leave though – no way whatsoever – that’s completely ridiculous!
Salivating at the thought of Hoj, Lo Celso, Dele, Sonny, Bale and HK10. Covering: Winks, Sissoko, N’Dom, Lamela, Bergs and Moura – bloody quality for sure LOL!
As for Reguilon I already said how much he impressed me for Spain recently on here and would be another quality full-back signing – finding it very strange though – 2 super attacking full-backs in Doherty and Reguilon coming into the squad and probably the 1st team also – so much for boring, boring JM LOL!
Don’t necessarily mind the buy-back clause especially if helps snare him from the clutches of Man Utd and given they still have Marcelo, Mendy, etc – how likely are they to come back for him in the allotted 2 year’s – would not expect it – but if they did so be it and it’s because he’s played a blinder for us in that time and we’d still make a profit so fine by me worst case (not to mention Sess and Cirkin possibly developing much further in that time also to counter the risk of losing Reguilon back to Real if he was indeed quality – so WIN-WIN for me for sure)!
HT – based on our quick conversation on the other older thread – some great news from Portugal tonight – Benfica lost 2-1 to PAOK away meaning they are already somehow out of this season’s CL – LOL – problem is once they get settled having made so many signings, etc (expensive one’s at that especially for a Portuguese side) think they will most likely be a direct rival to take down the EL later this season……. hope not and again hopefully it’s us that does that, but got to get past Thursday first and so on and so forth……….!
Exciting, really exciting but even though apparently both deals agreed now, wages still to go, etc and don’t want to get my hopes up too far until they are at Spurs lodge/Hotspur Way holding the shirt up, etc as usual…………….!
any good golf courses in North London, bale is driving ASAP, I hope he will be putting on the famous white shirt.
123….there are numerous superb golf courses around North London and across the UK. The Grove just outside Watford will be perfect for him.
with all these fixtures, bale will find it hard to get a round of golf in.
If these deals go through, and its probably still a big if, Jose will have Bale, Son, Moura, Dele, Lo Celso, Ndombele and Bergwijn as attacking options at his disposal, that’s a quality list of players, i don’t want to see any negative tepid displays anymore, time for Jose to get them all fit and firing, he is getting paid 15mill a yr to do so.
Rio Ferdinand on the need to have pace at the back centrally in at least 1 of the 2 CB’s:
“And then I think a centre-back. That area, for me, is where there’s a lack of real, genuine pace and I think the best teams around at the moment have a player in one of the two players that play [at centre-back] in a four that has genuine pace normally.
“I think Liverpool are the team that’s dominated this season.
“The two centre-backs can be sat on the halfway line, they’re sitting there purring, waiting to be taken on in a foot race back to the goal and they back themselves.
“And with that, what that does as well, it’s not just about pace – knowing how to defend as well – but what that allows is more players to be able to go forward and pin the other team back in the opposing team’s third, which is, the way the game is played today, very critical.”
Now then with Toby and Dier as our main 2 – where is the supposed pace coming from?
Furthermore if we do indeed buy Reguilon and he starts at LB which could be highly likely, the same with Doherty at RB, both love bombing forwards, which in turn will leave our 2 CB’s that much more exposed and given neither has any pace – something surely has to give (even Hoj who will help protect and cover them in DMC has no real pace either) thus either we drop 1 of them and play either Davy or Tanganga as the other CB or we go out and buy another one (which is what I would like to happen anyway – especially a pacy left-footed LCB to replace Vert’s so that we have at least 1 proper LCB in the squad again and ideally with pace as well on top)!
Suggestion : seeing we’re scouring from the top end in La Liga (namely at Real Madrid) why not try and raid their arch rivals in Barca and take the supposedly available – Umtiti?! I don’t know what he’d cost – but what a bloody signing that would be on top of these other 2 also – even if lately he has been injured a lot (especially knee problems which is of course a cause for major concern but……..) and would command a wage of at least £200K a week to match what he’s on currently at Barca, etc! Maybe a loan deal with a buy clause in 12/24 months (these deals much more common these days in fact) perhaps depending on how he goes and adapts and the knee(s) hold out with regular play, etc?! Would love for it to happen for sure!
Alternatively let the club scout’s do their job LOL!
It has crossed my mind that JM might play 3-5-2 though with the 2 Real signings coming in if they go through that is (eg):
Lloris
Sanchez Toby Dier
Doherty Reguilon
Hoj Lo Celso
Sonny Bale
HK10
Definitely a possibility and a worthwhile alternative consideration…………….!
Anyway let’s just get Bale and Reguilon through the door and also anyone else if also inbound and then worry about it – here’s bloody hoping LOL!
As with Umtiti – probably best to loan Bale for 12/24 months and then just get him on a free (if still worthwhile) in 2 year’s time when his “super” contract with Real is up! If he can stay fit and on form no reason why we can’t get a good 3-4 year’s still from him judging by others like Ronaldo, Robben and Ribery, etc lately (especially Robben as always been injury prone and still played top level for Bayern until aged 35)!
EJ …. You didn’t mention Dele or King once in your last post …. are you going off them? That’s a good point about the need for at least one centre-back to have speed. It’s essential for teams playing a high line and pressing. Mind you, the way JM is setting the team up we don’t need anyone to sprint back because they are all there already!
I’m not sure if there is something wrong with me but I am more excited by the Reguilion deal than the Bale deal. Reguilion is a quality full back and a massive upgrade on what we have.
Bale on the other hand seems to me a desperate vanity signing. He has hardly played for two years, despite that fact he is constantly injured and I struggle to see how he can cope with the demands of the premier league. There are several glaring weaknesses in the squad, re-signing Bale does nothing to address them. As desperate a measure as firing Poch and hiring Mourinho. COYS
Geof – LOL mate – if JM/Levy, etc get in Bala and Reguila LOL then surely we are going super attacking especially with Dohers and Reguila at full-back, etc not to mention all the attacking talent in the squad/side on top – let’s just hope we get these 2 deals sorted ASAP – no messing about and then take it from there – going to do a bit more reading on this, etc via News Now and then should come back in a bit – see what’s going down on here, etc…………!
DH/EJ …. Not at all excited about Bale if he returns. Given his age, injury history, and lack of games, it does seem an impractical move considering the cost involved. There are far too many questions that need exploring first. How consistent can he be and how would his performance now compare with the last time he wore our shirt. It’s a big risk but who knows.
EJ……..the goal we conceded to Everton once again highlights something I’ve been banging on about for ages, it’s not pace we need at CB right now, it’s someone who can defend high balls into our box from set pieces. We have been dreadful in this respect for a long time now, we seem to have put the emphasis on CB’s who can play the ball out from the back on the floor rather than performing a traditional aerial defensive role.
As regards Bala – already said just look at Robben – played at Bayern pretty regularly until 35 despite being constantly injury prone – much more than Bala for sure and they still persevered with him through-out!
Also Bale actually played 42 games in total for Real in 2018/19, granted only 20 last season but apparently in the post lock-down tests he was consecutively the fittest player they had – so I’m actually not that concerned injury wise – not to mention his constant stop/start time lately at Real will not at all help him to gain full-on proper match fitness (meaning much more likely to break down and get injured, etc especially during matches) nor gain top form for that matter – so coming to us and being pretty much guaranteed consistency again might well be the re-making of him both in terms of overall fitness but also overall contribution and form also!
Very much looking forward to it – just hope we can agree something as regards his mammoth wages -which for sure are the main sticking point in this deal!
Even though don’t know how we’ll finance £300K a week given the hit we’re going to take especially for this coming season’s accounts (above all ATM with stadium’s still closed and not knowing when they will fully re-open, etc), nor the effect his wages might have on other’s in the squad also – still happy to see him return and just hope (although to be honest pretty much expect for now still) for him to be able to continually perform to a very high standard for at least another 2-3 seasons for sure!
Geof, I have generally been anti Bale returning for the same reasons you give but we shouldn’t overlook the possible knock on effect in terms of positivity it might bring to the squad resulting in improved performances all round.
TQ – I would have thought what you describe is actually 1 of Dier’s forte’s indeed at the end of last season (after the re-start) when he first started playing at CB regularly again – he did seem to win a lot of high balls and get his head on the end of most things at the back………!
For me it’s Toby and Dier alternating, with the pacy Davy/Tanganga partnering in alternation also…………!
Will be interesting to see if we get Reguila what happens with Davies and Sessegnon especially but even Cirkin also.
Is Davies perhaps going to be re-deployed as a LCB (I might be OK with this because he’s pretty solid defensively – 2 problems with this though are he’s only 5ft11 which TQ means he’s not going to win everything in the air as you would like and he’s also devoid of pace like Toby and Dier also………..)! If so, Reguila and Sess to fight it out for LB with Cirkin 3rd/4th choice.
Maybe Davies fights it out with Reguila at LB and perhaps Sess gets loaned out (not that I’m overly happy with this but might just be what the lad needs unfortunately – a good long run of games, etc) with Cirkin being 3rd choice?!
All speculation ATM of course…….!
Personally I would still love to get in a proper left-footed LCB specialist – but look for the likes of height, strength, speed, composure, etc – for me Umtiti (at 6ft just a tiny bit short but has everything else so height is passable) would be a cracker especially on a long loan deal to start off with, even if his wages are high especially for a defender and he’s partly injury prone lately also – quality is quality and if he gets his fitness back we’d be onto a bloody cracker………!
Seems we were very close to signing Giroud in January, he must surely be surplus to requirements at Chelsea now following their recruitment of Werner. Wouldn’t be a bad striker option and showed he can still perform at the highest level in the season recently finished. Have a word Hugo!
TQ – I said ages ago on here I’d take Giroud for sure – nothing has changed at all!
What will Chelski want for him though after re-signing him for another season – maybe similar to the Luiz deal with Arse last season after doing exactly the same and re-signing him earlier in the summer to then later sell him on – around £10m or so?!
Soon to be 34 but probably still good for atleast 2 season’s more in the Prem for sure if not more (definitely top pro who looks after himself 100%) – we paid £12m and around £100K for Lloro not that long ago for 2 season’s also and for not very much productivity and then let him go on a free on top – so what’s the difference of doing similar with Giroud?!
Better and definitely much more proven Prem STR – although he did make it sound a bit iffy about possibly joining us………….!
Wages I reckon around £100K so should not be too much of a problem – not exactly Bala-esque LOL – although it does all add up in the end and time’s be bloody hard ATM…………!
EJ……..for me Sanchez is probably our best defensive header at the moment and also has the best pace amongst our current CB’s. Dier is probably better than Toby in the air and is definitely better than Jan was but then he had many other qualities the others don’t have.
In an ideal world a LCB who is both good in the air and has pace would be very welcome. While height can be a good attribute for a CB it isn’t necessarily the deciding factor, there have been a number of top CB’s who have been below 6ft but have great timing and anticipation and also have appear to have springs in their heels!
Regards the re-signing of Bale, a lot on here are saying no, but methinks the majority of Spurs fans want him back, simple as that.
TQ2S, your comment on re-signing Bale is true what you say, improved performances, from increased pressure of a world class player signing on the dotted line.
People have to realise today’s footballer is an athlete now, super fit, thus playing way past the age of 31, just saying.
In general if, note if, it happens I think it will be very good for Spurs as a club and as a squad. COYS