Ok boys, I got a hammering for my previous article, but I welcome debate and though our opinions may differ, we are all united behind the love of our club.
Some of the comments were about transfer targets, with more than one member saying that we cannot compete with Chelsea and City due to the money they can throw around. Fair enough. We cannot compete with Man Utd due to their success. 100% yes. We cannot compete with Arsenal due to their new stadium, larger revenue and the Wenger factor. Some might disagree. But right now, how many ‘world class ‘players would choose to join us, rather than Arsenal?
So where does that leave Spurs in the transfer market. Are we destined to sign players who are past their best, on the downhill slope of their career? Or unproven players who no-one else is after? How did we end up with Modric, VDV and Bale? Well the simple answer is we got them before others realised their worth. VDV was a different case, a truly one off transfer at a very low price minutes before the transfer window ended. So how exactly do we compete in the transfer market and what is our transfer policy. More importantly, what should our transfer policy be?
If any of you think we will sign Lukaku for £35m, Rossi for £30m or Aguero for £40m, you are clearly deluded. Whilst there is no harm in showing ambition, it has been proven that putting all your transfer eggs in one basket has well and truly left us with egg on our face. We knew in January that we needed a striker. We failed to get one and looking back, a striker who would have scored 10 goals could well have made the difference between Europa and Champs league football. So why did we chase unrealistic targets, why not realistic ones and by that I mean someone who could have come in and done a job for us. Not set the world alight, but a good striker who would have done better that crouch and Defoe. Look at Demba Ba for example.
You might accuse me of lacking ambition, but as you know, we cannot buy our way to the top. So ambition for us means one step at a time. Crucially, each step must be a step forward and upward, and even though they may be small steps they must be progressive steps. Last season 4th and CL, this season 5th and Europa. We could well have finished 2nd this season. It was within our capability and we just ran out of goals as our stats of 14 draws show. If we had turned some of those draws into wins, we would have definitely qualified for CL this season. So this means our transfer policy or lack of one clearly failed in January.
So again, I go back to how did we end up with Modric and Bale? Lennon, Kaboul, BAE are 3 players who have developed from having potential into international players. The Answer , was director of football. Someone who can identify targets, and bring in players before they become world class and out of our reach. Whatever you say about Arnesen and Comolli, the basis of our squad was brought in by them. And by and large most of them are still there, meaning that they must have been good buys.
Harry for me is not a manager who can identify the next Modric, the next Bale, or indeed the next Kyle Walker or Naughton. This seems like the only solution for me as our standing in the transfer market is below the ‘big clubs’. We need to find the gems and polish them. We are never going to attract the world`s best, so we have to find our place in the market. Yes, we can attract good players, but now we may even be behind Liverpool in terms of spending and signings. If you think it can’t be done, I just need to remind of what Wenger has done since he has taken over. Since they last won the league, there has been no trophies but champs league football every year, on the cheap. Arguably, they have 2 world class players in Fabregas and Nasri. But the rest of the team? Are they better than us. Man for man, I would say not. But the table does not lie. They have built the infrastructure at Arsenal and are producing the kids as they have done for a few years. We need to put something in place sooner rather than later. The future of the club depends on it.
Written by Vicspur
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