• Dear Guest, Please note that adult content is not permitted on this forum. We have had our Google ads disabled at times due to some posts that were found from some time ago. Please do not post adult content and if you see any already on the forum, please report the post so that we can deal with it. Adult content is allowed in the glory hole - you will have to request permission to access it. Thanks, scara

Thomas Frank - Head Coach

Gazza Dazzla said:
We’re kind of on the same page here I think except maybe CF where I think Solanke and Richy is “ok”, if we cash in on Richy though then we defo should be in the market.

What’s the backing you had in mind?
Click to expand...

Do you mean monetary wise?
If so, i'd imagine at least £100M on ins, which might be partly offset by one or two sales, e.g. Son if we get a decent offer

Ignoring wages, City show that if you play your cards right you can get players needed for decent fees. It would be nice to make one buy whereby we beat a fair few of our top 4/5 competitors to which would show a) we mean business and b) are ambitious.
But that's a side issues, they key is we need 3 of those 5 positions if we want to maintain CL position, even win CL or win another trophy this season.
 
Gutter Boy said:
I think Bentancur and Kulu have starting dibs on #2 and #3.
Click to expand...

Bentancur can do a job, but i think he's actually wasted there somewhat. Kulu as a 6? When/where have we/you ever seen that??

Gutter Boy said:
And I think Frank might like Richy, especially as there's no obvious reasonably-priced alternative now Delap has gone.
Click to expand...
Yeah, perhaps. He'll need to step up though big time. And stay fit. Delap has shown he is far more durable, and that's why the more i think about we actually do need another CF...

Gutter Boy said:
I think we might only see 2, potentially 3 incomings.
Click to expand...
We'll see i guess, but we really must get anther rotation option for Udogie and another RW option who can take a player on at least
 
glorygloryeze said:
Bentancur can do a job, but i think he's actually wasted there somewhat. Kulu as a 6? When/where have we/you ever seen that??


Yeah, perhaps. He'll need to step up though big time. And stay fit. Delap has shown he is far more durable, and that's why the more i think about we actually do need another CF...


We'll see i guess, but we really must get anther rotation option for Udogie and another RW option who can take a player on at least
Click to expand...

Sorry, no. I mean Bentancur as the one to help ease Gray into his long term role, and Kulu as the #10 (with Maddison covering him). 8 we're sorted for with Bergvall and Sarr.

And I agree - RW and LB are the two absolute essentials. There rest is more potential marginal gains
 
Gutter Boy said:
Sorry, no. I mean Bentancur as the one to help ease Gray into his long term role, and Kulu as the #10 (with Maddison covering him). 8 we're sorted for with Bergvall and Sarr.

And I agree - RW and LB are the two absolute essentials. There rest is more potential marginal gains
Click to expand...

I see.
Not sure i agree, but fair enough i can see the logic
 
glorygloryeze said:
Do you mean monetary wise?
If so, i'd imagine at least £100M on ins, which might be partly offset by one or two sales, e.g. Son if we get a decent offer

Ignoring wages, City show that if you play your cards right you can get players needed for decent fees. It would be nice to make one buy whereby we beat a fair few of our top 4/5 competitors to which would show a) we mean business and b) are ambitious.
But that's a side issues, they key is we need 3 of those 5 positions if we want to maintain CL position, even win CL or win another trophy this season.
Click to expand...
Yea monetary. I think that’s reasonable and pretty much what we’ve been spending for our managers since Covid.
 
glorygloryeze said:
Well, do we realy ahve a CF who could walk into oher teams who'd challenge for top 4? Solanke atm, no, but i'd certainly hope Frank can improve him. If he's out, who plays CF? Doesn't look great after that imo
EDIT - TBF, i can see Johnson getting some more chances here under Frank, so that might help.

A centre midfielder that can create chances through the middle and not just from wide; Maddison on his day. But again, how do we compare to our top 4 challengers in this regard? Not great imo

Then a bonafide number 6 to compete with the likes of Caicedo, Rice/Partey etc. Yes, Ange's tactics made such a position poison, but we do need a good number 6.

Then left-back, nothing more to be said (apart from the fact that Spence does an admirable job there but he isn't left-footed and we can't get the best of him there).
Left-footed centre back to rotate with MVDV.

EDIT - I've even forgotten the Wing forward positions, especially on the right. More goals and dribbling ability needed on both sides (only Odobert can constantly take a man on and with pace)
Click to expand...
I dont think we are disagreeing. The point is we don't have a "hole" in the squad, what we lack is the 2 or 3 star level performers to really challenge. So Solanke and Richarlison are competent PL strikers. But yes, they're no Kane. Maddison and Kulusevski on their day but again they're no Bale or Eriksen. Bentancur is solid but he's no Modric or Dembele.

A hole to me is having to play players out of position as you don't really have a competent player who is a natural in the position. An example is Conte having to play Sessegnon and Emerson as wing-backs.
 
billyiddo said:
Now that they can't complain about transfer spend they've moved on to wages as a % of turnover, something that has never once previously been a point of reference in all my years discussing Spurs online.
Click to expand...
It just highlights how tinkle poor our recruitment is
 
Gutter Boy said:
Starting RW and backup LB are our only holes (Odobert is LW and I'm not sure Davies is anything other than a CB these days from your presentation).

It's quite unusual to have such a shipshape squad
Click to expand...
On RW if Frank prefers inside forwards i think Johnson could kick on there. And Kulusevski has shown he can be very effective there in the right system. We will have to see.
 
Silly McSilly Face said:
I dont think we are disagreeing. The point is we don't have a "hole" in the squad, what we lack is the 2 or 3 star level performers to really challenge. So Solanke and Richarlison are competent PL strikers. But yes, they're no Kane. Maddison and Kulusevski on their day but again they're no Bale or Eriksen. Bentancur is solid but he's no Modric or Dembele.

A hole to me is having to play players out of position as you don't really have a competent player who is a natural in the position. An example is Conte having to play Sessegnon and Emerson as wing-backs.
Click to expand...

You thought Sessegnon was in an unnatural position as left-wing back??
Agree re Emerson
 
  • Like
Reactions: DTA
Bishop said:
Maybe some have weaponised it, I just know it's always been a key thing for me. Transfer fees have always just been a portion of the debate.
Click to expand...

Whether it has come up in debate before or not (and it definitely HAS) I think there are two things:

Just like the wage budget can be lower because we’re in a cycle of younger players starting their careers with us, transfer net spend can be higher because we’re in a cycle of refreshing the squad. It’s much of a muchness.

I think rather than argue that wage budget has never come up as a point of contention, I’d like to see the debate on the merits of the topic. Otherwise it’s playing the man and not the ball. And the fact is that our wage spend total and to turnover ratio are lower RELATIVE to other clubs in the league we supposedly hope to compete with. And I don’t see how it can be credibly argued that it doesn’t hobble us in the transfer market, and ultimately hobble us from pushing on from the position we’ve been in for a long time now.

I really think Frank is perfect for the club’s strategy, so I’m looking forward to seeing what he can do. Although I do have a side point around maybe too much alignment could be a problem? Eg sometimes you need someone challenging other’s ideas otherwise your own weaknesses are everyone’s weaknesses? So alignment vs complementary fit is an interesting thing to think through. But I do think based on our wage strategy he’s a great appointment.
 
Gazza Dazzla said:
Yea monetary. I think that’s reasonable and pretty much what we’ve been spending for our managers since Covid.
Click to expand...

Yes, but last summer we bought one player who was expected to go into the first team straight away. All those positions i'm advocating have to be players who can start now, now in two years etc...
 
glorygloryeze said:
You thought Sessegnon was in an unnatural position as left-wing back??
Agree re Emerson
Click to expand...
I'm actually unsure where his natural position was if I'm being honest. Always thought he looked more comfortable further forward but then probably didn't have the quality to really nail that position down. Maybe if it wasn't for injuries he'd have done a Danny Rose and made it his own..
 
Silly McSilly Face said:
I dont think we are disagreeing. The point is we don't have a "hole" in the squad, what we lack is the 2 or 3 star level performers to really challenge. So Solanke and Richarlison are competent PL strikers. But yes, they're no Kane. Maddison and Kulusevski on their day but again they're no Bale or Eriksen. Bentancur is solid but he's no Modric or Dembele.

A hole to me is having to play players out of position as you don't really have a competent player who is a natural in the position. An example is Conte having to play Sessegnon and Emerson as wing-backs.
Click to expand...

I think Kulu could go down in our history books as a better and more important player than Eriksen.
 
Gutter Boy said:
I think Kulu could go down in our history books as a better and more important player than Eriksen.
Click to expand...
I mean that's a big call. I think of where Eriksen was at Kulu's age, which for us was 2015/16 and 2016/17 and he was consistently dominating and running games, dictating the play. I haven't seen that level from Kulu on a consistent basis yet and he's older than Eriksen was when he was doing it week in, week out.
 
Kulu is a difficult one - has a lot of good attributes but I'm not sure there's a position on the pitch that really gets enough out of them. He'd be behind Maddison in terms of no.10 and we've seen that out wide he doesn't really provide enough in terms of end product
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back