The We8Campbell Memorial ITK Thread

[AdamB]

Levy has undermined his manager yet again.
You cannot get round that by posting a list of players with a favourable comment next to them. Any club can do that.

The relevant points are whether he acquired the targets identified by the manager, and most importantly whether he suficiently equipped the manager to achieve the agreed objectives.

We can only buy players who we are financially able to afford - which as we're trying to build a new stadium, isnt much at the moment. I said at the start of the the window that we wouldnt sign a £20m player and wont until the stadium is fully financed. Am sure AVB is aware from Levy of the financial constraints which we're operating under and therefore the low probability of being able to sign players who would improve the squad. Our squad is pretty decent so the only way of spending small amounts upfront and improving the squad is to either sign players like Holtby or Fryers who dont costs much for obvious reasons or to make offers for £20m players but with the payments spread equally over say 4 years or with a lot of the cash as add-ons, which again defers the upfront cash cost for us. The problem is that that isant attractive for the selling club.

Its a shame that so many people on here build their hopes up of a Moutinho or Damiao signing every window as it just means that they're disappointed at the end of the window. We wont be spending big until the stadium is fully financed. Am sure Levy has made AVB aware of this - just wish fans would realise it as well!

 

[braineclipse]

Levy has undermined his manager yet again.

You cannot get round that by posting a list of players with a favourable comment next to them. Any club can do that.

The relevant points are whether he acquired the targets identified by the manager, and most importantly whether he suficiently equipped the manager to achieve the agreed objectives.

Undermined?

Not being able to acquire the targets identified by the manager isn't the same as undermining him.

Do you know what the agreed objectives are? Do you know what targets AVB identified?

If AVB said that we desperately need a striker and that he then gave Levy a prioritizes list with Damiao at the top and someone like Kenwyne Jones and Levy got no one then I would agree that we have a problem.

There is no reason to believe that though. AVB has stated repeatedly both after the summer window, in this window and in between that he's happy with our squad and with our options up front. We have ended two windows with the current crop of strikers and forwards. That to me adds up to AVB being happy with what we have and that he only wanted us to bring in another striker if it was someone he thought was a clear cut improvement on what we currently have.

 

[indianspur]

Can see us signing Benteke in the summer

 

[Viper]

Can see us signing Benteke in the summer

By summer do you mean on 31st August?

 

[indianspur]

By summer do you mean on 31st August?

of course

 

[mudshark]

Stop being a queen, levy has done very well in backing his managers, we have the smallest stadium of the top 10 clubs, one CL qualification in our history and a massive capital project starting and one just finishing. In that context the shrewed signings of:
Lloris - one of the best keepers in Europe
Dembele - one of the best midfielders in the prem outside the top 6 teams
Dempsey - one of the most lethal attacking midfielders outside the top 6
Adebayor - a striker with huge prem/international/CL experience with proven record
Sigurdsson - one of the best prospects that appeared in the prem over the last few years
Vertonghen - one of the best defensive prospects in Europe
Holtby - one of the best creative prospects in Europe ....
....is really not bad and the manager can't really complain that much!

We are getting spoilt and ahead of ourselves as fans if we think levy should be signing £20 superstars left right and centre

Can't anyone have a fudging moan on here after a couple pf glasses of red wine without being pursued by someone dressed up as Daniel Levy's mother wagging their fudging finger? It was bad enough when we had Redknapp's old dear and all his aunties, hounding anyone with the slightest criticism. There used to be a football club over there.

 

[Rossi22]

When we sell Bale, will we become the first club to sell three £30m+ players?

 

[Baleforce]

Lazio maybe

 

[jimmyb]

This has been the story of Spurs in the transfer market for the last 20 years or more, though; there's always a vital piece of the jigsaw missing. Plug one hole, and open another; provide an answer, but at the same time, change the question. It's a cultural disease at the root of it, I believe. The inexorable spread of a corporate and business culture at the expense of one of football. It began with Sugar, and ENIC have continued it, because it's all they understand and all they're really interested in. Hence, we've ended up with one-size-fits-all solutions supplanting the footballing quest for horses for courses. One player is much the same as any other, after all; we're just haggling over price. If one of them seems to do well, and attracts media attention, his price goes up. If someone else is willing to meet that price, regardless of the impact it might have on the team, the board will cash in. I've always thought it rather ironic that a culture that places so much ostensible emphasis on team-building should have so little inherent appreciation of the subtleties that may be involved. They're more-or-less incapable of reflection though; it either works, and they are experts deserving of their success, or else it's someone else's fault and they're out on their arse and the next fall guy comes in to take his place. Unfortunately, the level of inflation in the market has all but made it a self-fulfilling prophecy, and placed a very high premium on the pursuit of purer strategies. AVB won't like having to play the hand he's dealt, of course, but you won't hear any dissent from him. He's a loyal wee middle manager at heart, and too sold on the importance of playing his part in the bigger picture.

Since when have Spurs "cashed in" on players unless either their contracts are running out or we no longer want or need them?

 

[jimmyb]

Can't anyone have a fudging moan on here after a couple pf glasses of red wine without being pursued by someone dressed up as Daniel Levy's mother wagging their fudging finger? It was bad enough when we had Redknapp's old dear and all his aunties, hounding anyone with the slightest criticism. There used to be a football club over there.

Can't anyone have a fudging moan about someone having a fudging moan?

 

[jimmyb]

We can only buy players who we are financially able to afford - which as we're trying to build a new stadium, isnt much at the moment. I said at the start of the the window that we wouldnt sign a £20m player and wont until the stadium is fully financed. Am sure AVB is aware from Levy of the financial constraints which we're operating under and therefore the low probability of being able to sign players who would improve the squad. Our squad is pretty decent so the only way of spending small amounts upfront and improving the squad is to either sign players like Holtby or Fryers who dont costs much for obvious reasons or to make offers for £20m players but with the payments spread equally over say 4 years or with a lot of the cash as add-ons, which again defers the upfront cash cost for us. The problem is that that isant attractive for the selling club.

Its a shame that so many people on here build their hopes up of a Moutinho or Damiao signing every window as it just means that they're disappointed at the end of the window. We wont be spending big until the stadium is fully financed. Am sure Levy has made AVB aware of this - just wish fans would realise it as well!

Mate, you keep on banging this drum as if it's fact.

It really isn't.

 

[harr1984]

Mate, you keep on banging this drum as if it's fact.

It really isn't.

This is what makes me laugh, the way so many talk as if they know our financial situation and why we didnt spend on player x etc. Lets be honest, noone outside of Spurs knows. Everyone on here is guessing as there are so many potential reasons as to why we haven't spent more this window. I have no idea, and neither really does anyone on here....

 

[Spursalot]

This is what makes me laugh, the way so many talk as if they know our financial situation and why we didnt spend on player x etc. Lets be honest, noone outside of Spurs knows. Everyone on here is guessing as there are so many potential reasons as to why we haven't spent more this window. I have no idea, and neither really does anyone on here....

Er, they could know. We released our financial details for last season so you could get a pretty accurate figure if you wanted to.


Personally i'm waiting for someone else to do it, and then i'll read that. Usually the swiss ramble guy.

 

[jimmyb]

Er, they could know. We released our financial details for last season so you could get a pretty accurate figure if you wanted to.


Personally i'm waiting for someone else to do it, and then i'll read that. Usually the swiss ramble guy.

To be fair, knowing our financial results isn't the same thing as knowing precisely how building the stadium will affect our ability to invest in the squad. Nor is it the same as knowing what DL will or won't do.

Best we can do is to rely on the educated guess.

 

[Jordinho]

Er, they could know. We released our financial details for last season so you could get a pretty accurate figure if you wanted to.


Personally i'm waiting for someone else to do it, and then i'll read that. Usually the swiss ramble guy.

Being a gooner he tends to take a slightly negative view of our financial state.

 

[Jordinho]

Oh my.

 

[AdamB]

Mate, you keep on banging this drum as if it's fact.

It really isn't.

I dont know about Spurs finances in particular however I have raised financing (largest would be several billion euros) dozens of times for clients to fund large capital projects, refinance debt, acquire other companies etc etc. I can therefore easily understand the position which Levy is therefore in when, at the moment, he is looking to raise capital to build the stadium and understand how, for a business the size of Spurs (which is quite small), it would be quite tough to raise a few hundred million. If lenders saw us starting to splash out millions on completely discretionary one-off items (ie Moutinho) it would make them a lot more reluctant to lend to us. Its why I havent been surprised that our spending has been constrained recently and expect it to carry on that way til we have raised the capital for the stadium

 

[mudshark]

Since when have Spurs "cashed in" on players unless either their contracts are running out or we no longer want or need them?

"Cash in" might be overly pejorative a term, granted. Let's see what happens with Bale in the summer before we get too bullish about lack of precedent, though. Modrić wasn't approaching the end of his contract, and his creativity certainly wasn't in the surplus-to-requirements category. Obviously, if a player is nearing the end of his contract, your hands are tied, but that's why you need to put a proper system in place to bring in adequate replacements before you get into that position, not wait till the cupboard's bare. We never seem to be able to do that. We always end up with vital pieces missing, and that's the source of the frustration, not the selling of particular players per se.

 

[mudshark]

Can't anyone have a fudging moan about someone having a fudging moan?

Your slip is showing, Mrs L.

 

[braineclipse]

Can't anyone have a fudging moan on here after a couple pf glasses of red wine without being pursued by someone dressed up as Daniel Levy's mother wagging their fudging finger? It was bad enough when we had Redknapp's old dear and all his aunties, hounding anyone with the slightest criticism. There used to be a football club over there.

You come on to the forum moaning (your words) about our chairman and you don't expect people to respond to you?

If you just want to voice your frustration into the wilderness without anyone taking you seriously or responding to you I would suggest twitter.