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Mauricio Pochettino

Wijnaldum and Mane signed for Liverpool the 16/17 season iirc - the year we finished second.

Would signing them instead of Sissoko and Nkoudou made the difference between 2nd and 1st? possibly....

Certainly would have helped our central midfield issues over the following seasons when Wanyana and Dier were both injured/ill regularly if we had someone like Wijnaldum to call on.

It probably would have done. But as i keep saying, they both CHOSE Liverpool over us.

Unless Levy unravelled the entire pay structure in place at that time - and even then there would be no guarantee they would chose us.
 
It probably would have done. But as i keep saying, they both CHOSE Liverpool over us.

Unless Levy unravelled the entire pay structure in place at that time - and even then there would be no guarantee they would chose us.

I understand that but it shows quite well where other clubs could invest and back their managers more than we could - which has been a topic of discussion these past few days.
 
I understand that but it shows quite well where other clubs could invest and back their managers more than we could - which has been a topic of discussion these past few days.

We still can't magically obtain Poch's first choice though if they chose other clubs.
 
We still can't magically obtain Poch's first choice though if they chose other clubs.

The point, is that Liverpool could blow us out the water with regards to wages which is largely why we missed out on them both and is an example of what we were up against at the time.

Liverpool had finished 8th the season prior, us 3rd fwiw
 
The point, is that Liverpool could blow us out the water with regards to wages which is largely why we missed out on them both and is an example of what we were up against at the time.

Liverpool had finished 8th the season prior, us 3rd fwiw

That is indeed the point. We couldn’t compete with them on wages. But also on prestige. As I said in an earlier post, even if all things were equal, I reckon any player would choose United or Pool over us. It’s unfortunate but is a harsh fact if life.
 
That is indeed the point. We couldn’t compete with them on wages. But also on prestige. As I said in an earlier post, even if all things were equal, I reckon any player would choose United or Pool over us. It’s unfortunate but is a harsh fact if life.

All things being equal you are quite right we will most likely miss out to the likes of Liverpool and United 9 times out of 10. But things weren't equal at that time, we were the team on the up, whilst Liverpool were bumbling around in mid table. This just further highlights the disadvantage we were at with regards to financial backing of the manager.
 
All things being equal you are quite right we will most likely miss out to the likes of Liverpool and United 9 times out of 10. But things weren't equal at that time, we were the team on the up, whilst Liverpool were bumbling around in mid table. This just further highlights the disadvantage we were at with regards to financial backing of the manager.

And underlines my point as to why we couldn’t sign many of Poch’s first choice picks. The financial backing required would have ruined our wage structure. Nothing to do with not backing the manager. The manager knew we were working in tight financial constraints. Once a Liverpool or United came in for a player, there was only one winner.
 
I have dealt with most of them in my previous post and gave detailed reasons. To deal with them in summary:

Moreno - chose to stay in Spain iirc. We didn’t agree a fee for him, there was no choice to make for the player.
Mane and Wynaldum - chose Liverpool. Only because we failed to match Liverpool’s wage offer though. Both players gettable.
Schneiderlin - chose United. That was one year later.
Barkley - chose Chelsea. That was also one year later.
Jay Rodriguez- wasn’t he badly injured? Yeah he did his ACL.
Grealish - possible blame on Levy*. Agreed (although I’d remove the ‘possible’ for that particular one).
Zaha - signed new contract at Palace and became ridiculously expensive. I agree this one was too expensive by a long way.
Berahinho - TTFFT ! I’m not saying he would’ve been a good signing (although he might’ve been). But the manager wanted him and he was buyable.

Edit: * and with today’s revelations, we may even have dodged a bullet here anyway!
 
I'm sorry but anyone putting forward wanting but not getting Jay fudging Rodriguez as a point in Poch's defense needs to be hooked off the stage of debate. He is / was nowhere near Saha's level and 'Arry was slated for managing to get his man there..The dude is perma crocked, not quick, not strong, not even a particularly gifted finisher.
It’s not a ‘defence of Poch’ it was Dubai giving examples of where Levy didn’t back his manger when it was within his gift to do so.
 
This is always going to be the problem when talking about possible signings of the past though isn't it? I feel that categorically the only players that we know 400% that we have bid for are the ones we sign.

It appears that it is us more than anyone solely because it's the club we support and as such will be surrounded by a stream of media content regarding Spurs but every high level club is interested in every high level player and has made a bid or put the feelers out according to some newspaper or website somewhere. What we chose to reference on here in favour of an argument is deciding what time the clock is right twice a day. I appreciate it's fun to speculate but it should be clear that's what we're doing unless genuinely privy to negotiations.

Even another chairman could be spouting gonad*s about a supposed bid (whether well received or not), it's a sales tactic that can be a catalyst for other moves. This is before we even start banging on about the press!!!
We went for Grealish (badly) instead of Maddison that summer. Could’ve learnt something off of Leicester to there in terms of quickly agreeing a fair and reasonable fee for a wanted player.
 
agreed . A great squad player. But who would you play him instead of during our heyday?

And Re Mane. If we had bought him, presumably we wouldn’t have bought Son. Who would you rather have?
Mane would’ve been instead of N’Koudou. I guess had we got him then Moura wouldn’t have been signed.
 
who would he have replaced ( even in a different formation? Our first XI chose itself imo:

........................Lloris.......................:

Walker......... Toby.......Verts.........Rose

............,,,Dembele ....Wanyama/Dier

Dele................Eriksen .........Son

.....................Kane..................

Oh happy days! bought a tear to my eye just typing that out!!!
It’s called having a squad.... not sure if you’ve noticed how many injuries we always seem to get?
 
That is indeed the point. We couldn’t compete with them on wages. But also on prestige. As I said in an earlier post, even if all things were equal, I reckon any player would choose United or Pool over us. It’s unfortunate but is a harsh fact if life.
I think if we’d matched the wages we may well have got one of the two.
 
who would he have replaced ( even in a different formation? Our first XI chose itself imo:

........................Lloris.......................:

Walker......... Toby.......Verts.........Rose

............,,,Dembele ....Wanyama/Dier

Dele................Eriksen .........Son

.....................Kane..................

Oh happy days! bought a tear to my eye just typing that out!!!

Ah yes, do you have any photos of the "Our supposed first XI look like a really f$cking good team on paper" trophy ceremony? It was a blast winning that year in year out so how could we swap any players for anyone?! ;)

If it wasn't for Walker being super human (in terms of physical attributes as we know he had the brainfart tendency) the right side would have been exposed even more than it was.
 
You have to laugh at the list some of the players we could/should have bought on here, too many fans listen to all the flimflam/rubbish of players we are linked with in the press/media.

You would hope that fans know that most of what they read/hear in those outlets that its flimflam. But we get the same old posters saying we missed out on this that and the other player, it makes you wonder if those same posters believe in the tooth fairy. :rolleyes:
 
You have to laugh at the list some of the players we could/should have bought on here, too many fans listen to all the flimflam/rubbish of players we are linked with in the press/media.

You would hope that fans know that most of what they read/hear in those outlets that its flimflam. But we get the same old posters saying we missed out on this that and the other player, it makes you wonder if those same posters believe in the tooth fairy. :rolleyes:

It's well known that both Wijnaldum and Mane were close to joining us before Liverpool came in.
 
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