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Dele Alli

But that's it, they aren't related (i.e. Dele & Lamela)

- Would you not trade Dele (if we keep Kane, Son & Bale) for 1 (not even 2) top level CB? (think Dele/Sanchez/Rose out -> 1 CB in) I would all day long
- Similarly Lamela simply isn't going to generate enough money, is happy to fight for his place and be rotation, so absolutely could see him staying.
I would indeed (though I think we are going to have to sell Son this summer as he’ll be going into the last 2 years of his contract then).

in fact selling Son and taking Deepay from Lyon on a free would perhaps be a very sensible move in terms of proving the funds for our rebuild. Deepay’ s wages on a free would probably be no higher than the contract we’d offer Son as well.

I would get rid of Lamela as well however. He is neither good enough or (more importantly) fit often enough to clog up a precious overseas space in our squad.
 
I would indeed (though I think we are going to have to sell Son this summer as he’ll be going into the last 2 years of his contract then).

in fact selling Son and taking Deepay from Lyon on a free would perhaps be a very sensible move in terms of proving the funds for our rebuild. Deeply’ s wages on a free would probably be no higher than the contract we’d offer Son as well.

I would get rid of Lamela as well however. He is neither good enough or (more importantly) fit often enough to clog up a precious overseas space in our squad.

I'm not fussed one way or another re Lamela, I think we know what he is, but we need to not lose fact that the one thing about this squad that is better vs. previous years is the depth

- I'd keep Kane, Son (if we can), Bale (if improvement continues), PEH, Ndombele, Reguilon, Aurier
- Dele fits into his own category as he's a valuable asset that we could cash in on that doesn't affect first team
- Davies, Lamela, Lucas, Bergwijn, Doherty, Vinicius are all good backup options, you might sell one but selling too many would create you more issues
- Sanchez, Sissoko, Winks you just outright sell
 
I'm not fussed one way or another re Lamela, I think we know what he is, but we need to not lose fact that the one thing about this squad that is better vs. previous years is the depth

- I'd keep Kane, Son (if we can), Bale (if improvement continues), PEH, Ndombele, Reguilon, Aurier
- Dele fits into his own category as he's a valuable asset that we could cash in on that doesn't affect first team
- Davies, Lamela, Lucas, Bergwijn, Doherty, Vinicius are all good backup options, you might sell one but selling too many would create you more issues
- Sanchez, Sissoko, Winks you just outright sell
They’re not though....
Davies plays the game at a snails pace. Him covering Regulion is a huge drop off and means we need to completely change the way we play - always a terrible thing.
Lamela, horribly one footed and injured for half the season. Not reliable at all. Cut loose.
Doherty, slow, poor defensively, cannot dominate his flank. As with Regulion/Davies a drop off in quality that means we need to change the way we play. Cut loose and bring in a player more similar to Aurier (admittedly a lower priority than the left hand side however).
Vinicius. Will cost us valuable transfer fee money to keep (perhaps quite a bit of our budget). I don’t think we can afford to be wasting it on him.
 
They’re not though....
Davies plays the game at a snails pace. Him covering Regulion is a huge drop off and means we need to completely change the way we play - always a terrible thing.
Lamela, horribly one footed and injured for half the season. Not reliable at all. Cut loose.
Doherty, slow, poor defensively, cannot dominate his flank. As with Regulion/Davies a drop off in quality that means we need to change the way we play. Cut loose and bring in a player more similar to Aurier (admittedly a lower priority than the left hand side however).
Vinicius. Will cost us valuable transfer fee money to keep (perhaps quite a bit of our budget). I don’t think we can afford to be wasting it on him.
Agree with all to this although I do think Doherty needs time to settle
 
Agree with all to this although I do think Doherty needs time to settle
A player with umpteen seasons in England and a year of PL football prior,to us should not need time to settle.

Interestingly enough I noticed their second goal yesterday he loses a (weak) tackle to Lindegard and then casually jogs back. Had that been Aurier the Aurier player thread would’ve been full,of ‘weak’, ‘lazy’, ‘doesn’t care’, etc.... doesn’t happen with Doherty though for some reason? Wonder why that is?
 
A player with umpteen seasons in England and a year of PL football prior,to us should not need time to settle.

Interestingly enough I noticed their second goal yesterday he loses a (weak) tackle to Lindegard and then casually jogs back. Had that been Aurier the Aurier player thread would’ve been full,of ‘weak’, ‘lazy’, ‘doesn’t care’, etc.... doesn’t happen with Doherty though for some reason? Wonder why that is?
It’s exactly how Aurier used to defend you mean? I mean there are plenty of people slating Doherty besides yourself and that’s fine.

Personally I think when we sign a player we shouldn’t be writing them off too soon. Especially when as you say he has played on these shores for some time, but it was in a different system admittedly. I mean unless he has now become a bad player?
 
It’s exactly how Aurier used to defend you mean? I mean there are plenty of people slating Doherty besides yourself and that’s fine.

Personally I think when we sign a player we shouldn’t be writing them off too soon. Especially when as you say he has played on these shores for some time, but it was in a different system admittedly. I mean unless he has now become a bad player?
What attributes do you see in him that you like and think makes him a Champions League level player?
 
Which attributes? Pace? Power? Passing? Dribbling? One on one defending?
His defending was good
I mean he okayed really well when they w at us both times and also scored
He was good with the ball and good running too
But he did have a settled team around him and was comfortably in his role
 
They’re not though....
Davies plays the game at a snails pace. Him covering Regulion is a huge drop off and means we need to completely change the way we play - always a terrible thing.
Lamela, horribly one footed and injured for half the season. Not reliable at all. Cut loose.
Doherty, slow, poor defensively, cannot dominate his flank. As with Regulion/Davies a drop off in quality that means we need negative the way we play. Cut loose and bring in a player more similar to Aurier (admittedly a lower priority than the left hand side however).
Vinicius. Will cost us valuable transfer fee money to keep (perhaps quite a bit of our budget). I don’t think we can afford to be wasting it on him.

This is where you and I struggle mate, you are a dreamer (not a bad thing), I'm much more pragmatic

- Lets say we address the CB issue, get a backup keeper and sort the Son, Bale and Dele situations this summer (that is 5-6 high profile transfers/transactions)
- We make decisions on Sessegnon & Skipp
- We try to offload Winks, Sanchez & release Rose

On top of that list, you want to

- Sell/release our backup RB, utility LB/CB cover, AM and the most successful backup striker we have had in what 7 years?

So you are advocating in a Covid window with a manager still to prove himself (or new manager) to do 12+ transfers?

Individually there is logic in some of your observations, doing it all in one go, just isn't' going to happen
 
This is where you and I struggle mate, you are a dreamer (not a bad thing), I'm much more pragmatic

- Lets say we address the CB issue, get a backup keeper and sort the Son, Bale and Dele situations this summer (that is 5-6 high profile transfers/transactions)
- We make decisions on Sessegnon & Skipp
- We try to offload Winks, Sanchez & release Rose

On top of that list, you want to

- Sell/release our backup RB, utility LB/CB cover, AM and the most successful backup striker we have had in what 7 years?

So you are advocating in a Covid window with a manager still to prove himself (or new manager) to do 12+ transfers?

Individually there is logic in some of your observations, doing it all in one go, just isn't' going to happen
I see no point in having Davies in the squad. He is a very average player who cannot adequately replace our first choice because he doesn’t have anything like the same attributes, this means we have to change the way we play. Sessegnon can cover Regi. Let’s sell Davies and generate some funds.

I’m not sure we need a ‘backup’ keeper. I think we might need a new first choice one (or at least one who can properly challenge Lloris)
The existing backup striker will cost us £20m+. If money was no object then we might as well keep him, but unfortunately money is very much an object. If we spend the money on Vinicius then we probably can’t afford to address our glaring weakness in the centre of defence.

1 x keeper (both Lloris and Hart stay)
2 x CBS (any two of Dier, Toby and Sanchez can go)
1 x backup striker (whether Vinicius or A.N.Other - and personally I don’t think we can be spending the money to make Vinicius perm)
1 x CM (Sabitzer would mean all of Winks, Sissoko and Lamela could go IMO). Skipp of course comes back from his loan.
Left back we’re fine as Sess comes back (so punt on Mr Average Ben Davies and raise some funds). Rose is released.
Right back, I’d rather we upgraded Doherty but it’s not a massive priority, I just think that in a further year’s time he’ll be worth very little.

For a team without Daniel Levy running things that number of transfers is possible. Alas we’re not that lucky!
 
This is where you and I struggle mate, you are a dreamer (not a bad thing), I'm much more pragmatic

- Lets say we address the CB issue, get a backup keeper and sort the Son, Bale and Dele situations this summer (that is 5-6 high profile transfers/transactions)
- We make decisions on Sessegnon & Skipp
- We try to offload Winks, Sanchez & release Rose

On top of that list, you want to

- Sell/release our backup RB, utility LB/CB cover, AM and the most successful backup striker we have had in what 7 years?

So you are advocating in a Covid window with a manager still to prove himself (or new manager) to do 12+ transfers?

Individually there is logic in some of your observations, doing it all in one go, just isn't' going to happen


It was never going to happen all in one go, and the age differences between Kane for instance at one end and Jan and Toby at the other meant that if we took too long to get it right the top players we had weren't going to peak at the same time.
If we aren't careful by the time we get in a solid base in defence and bed them in Kane and son will be past their peak.
Ndombele and reggie are our stars of the future and those are the ones we should be building around and making plans for.
 
This is where you and I struggle mate, you are a dreamer (not a bad thing), I'm much more pragmatic

- Lets say we address the CB issue, get a backup keeper and sort the Son, Bale and Dele situations this summer (that is 5-6 high profile transfers/transactions)
- We make decisions on Sessegnon & Skipp
- We try to offload Winks, Sanchez & release Rose

On top of that list, you want to

- Sell/release our backup RB, utility LB/CB cover, AM and the most successful backup striker we have had in what 7 years?

So you are advocating in a Covid window with a manager still to prove himself (or new manager) to do 12+ transfers?

Individually there is logic in some of your observations, doing it all in one go, just isn't' going to happen
Dreaming is thinking if we don't make wholesale changes things will improve. [emoji28]

More seriously I agree with Finney's mindset. There's a ton of dross in the side that rarely impacts positively. At the same time I agree with you there is no way we make all of it happen, especially with slow laboured over negotiator Daniel Levy at the helm.

We do need to address things in priority terms CBs is a must but I think we can lose 2 of Lamela, Moura, Bergwijn and Dele and suffer no loss to squad quality. Some of those players can also generate semi decent fees so maybe it's something we should seriously look at.
 
Dreaming is thinking if we don't make wholesale changes things will improve. [emoji28]

More seriously I agree with Finney's mindset. There's a ton of dross in the side that rarely impacts positively. At the same time I agree with you there is no way we make all of it happen, especially with slow laboured over negotiator Daniel Levy at the helm.

We do need to address things in priority terms CBs is a must but I think we can lose 2 of Lamela, Moura, Bergwijn and Dele and suffer no loss to squad quality. Some of those players can also generate semi decent fees so maybe it's something we should seriously look at.

Fair enough mate, but go look at how bloated United, Scum and other squads are

- Buying the right players is tough
- But dumping players is even harder, especially if they are on decent wages

7 senior players +couple of youth players is the most I think we have ever done in any window, at risk of beating the dead horse .. to expect to double that in a covid window?

Prioritize -> CB -> 2nd/challenging keeper -> ST -> CM, anything beyond that is bonus ..
 
Indeed Raziel, squad management is a lot of balls to juggle. Managing people and emotions while getting things done is not so straight forward.
 
The time to try flicks is when you’re on top in the game, getting it up to the edge of the opposition’s pelanty area consistently but not actually creating any good chances. When it is something special that is going to get you a goal.


Hmmmm
The worst thing for me was him getting bullied off the ball far too easily then just jogging back when they were on the attack

PEH did that earlier on too

Not good enough
 
I would be vastly surprised if we make as many sells/buys that some are suggesting. The priority imo is a keeper and another CB and then see where we are placed for money, it is obvious to us all that there are players here that stunk the place out under Poch and are now doing the same under Jose.

Toby, Sanchez are not the future and we will have to see if Rodon get a few more games before the season ends to see if he is, its a worry that Lo Celso seems to be another sick note and we will have to see how he goes for the rest of the season before deciding on the CM position and if we will need more back up there.

I would also keep Vinicius but i guess that depends on how much he will cost, i think he has done well in the limited time he has had here. The full back positions are not that bad, Aurier, Reggy, Davies and Japhet are good enough and i would wait and see if Doherty improves.
 
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