• 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

Nicolas N’Koulou

Jordinho

Jordinho

Ron Henry
Staff member
Tottenham Hotspur are closing in on the transfer of Marseille star Nicolas N’Koulou, according to reports.

Spurs are looking to add to their squad in January as they target a Premier League title push.

And the 25-year-old defender has agreed a switch to Tottenham Hotspur, according to Calciomercato (via Le10Sport).

N’Koulou is out of contract in the summer so Marseille are keen to not lose him for free and have welcomed offers.

And a bid of £5.2million was accepted for the centre-back.

http://metro.co.uk/2016/01/07/nicol...to-tottenham-hotspur-transfer-report-5608842/
 
the dza said:
Maybe it makes sense if we sell Fazio.
Click to expand...

It makes a lot of sense. Dier is now a Midfielder and Fazio is not trusted. So we just have Wimmer as back up. Also the fact he is young, and almost out of contract makes it a good signing financially as well. But would it stunt CCV's possible promotion in the future? we need to leave space in our squad for the youngsters to keep coming through.
 
Sandman said:
It makes a lot of sense. Dier is now a Midfielder and Fazio is not trusted. So we just have Wimmer as back up. Also the fact he is young, and almost out of contract makes it a good signing financially as well. But would it stunt CCV's possible promotion in the future? we need to leave space in our squad for the youngsters to keep coming through.
Click to expand...

How old is CCV? If he's like 18, then I'm guessing he's 2 seasons away from getting a sniff of first-team football.
 
Gutter Boy said:
Not considering how little Wimmer has featured so far, and that Fazio has been nowhere near the bench

Alder, Verts, Wimmer + Veljkovic/2CV/Dier is plenty
Click to expand...
We have been incredibly lucky in this respect.... It's not unusual for a club to have both centre halves injured. If this were to happen to us then we would either be pairing Wimmer with Dier, thus weakening both the centre of our defence and the centre of our midfield, or we would be putting in a player who is not yet ready for PL football (Veljkovic/Carter-Vickers).

If and when Fazio leaves then I think it would make sense for us to bring in another specialist centre half. That allows us to leave Dier in midfield and get CCV out on loan where he can develop far better than hoping for the odd game at Spurs. It seems that Veljkovic is leaving anyway so we should probably take him out of the equation. Even if he signs a new contract and stays I think, like with Carter-Vickers, a loan move would be best for his development anyway.
 
Gutter Boy said:
Not considering how little Wimmer has featured so far, and that Fazio has been nowhere near the bench

Alder, Verts, Wimmer + Veljkovic/2CV/Dier is plenty
Click to expand...

Well, no. Dier is a midfielder now, we don't want to have to move him to cover injury considering how important he has been for us in midfield.

Veljkovic and CCV are totally unproven, we have no idea if Poch would even consider them for the team at this time. So if Fazio goes, that leaves Toby, Vert and Wimmer. If the jury is still out on Wimmer and Toby or Vert get a bad injury, we are left short.
 
I'm kind of with GB on this, I understand we have been lucky with injuries, but Fazio is nowhere near the starting line up, why buy another centre back? As has been mentioned if we get really unlucky, e.g. 3 injuries to centre backs at the same time in the next 4 months (unlikely), we can always drop Dier back there for the odd game. That is obviously not ideal but when you have 3 injuries in the same position it's not going to be ideal. There's no way we could keep another senior centre back happy. The only way this one makes sense for me, is if Fazio is sold then this guy replaces Fazio's role.
 
Gazza Dazzla said:
I'm kind of with GB on this, I understand we have been lucky with injuries, but Fazio is nowhere near the starting line up, why buy another centre back? As has been mentioned if we get really unlucky, e.g. 3 injuries to centre backs at the same time in the next 4 months (unlikely), we can always drop Dier back there for the odd game. That is obviously not ideal but when you have 3 injuries in the same position it's not going to be ideal. There's no way we could keep another senior centre back happy. The only way this one makes sense for me, is if Fazio is sold then this guy replaces Fazio's role.
Click to expand...

Agree, and if we sign this fella, I think that's what would happen.
 
Gazza Dazzla said:
I'm kind of with GB on this, I understand we have been lucky with injuries, but Fazio is nowhere near the starting line up, why buy another centre back? As has been mentioned if we get really unlucky, e.g. 3 injuries to centre backs at the same time in the next 4 months (unlikely), we can always drop Dier back there for the odd game. That is obviously not ideal but when you have 3 injuries in the same position it's not going to be ideal. There's no way we could keep another senior centre back happy. The only way this one makes sense for me, is if Fazio is sold then this guy replaces Fazio's role.
Click to expand...
Assuming Fazio is leaving (which looks to be very likely seeing as how we were happy to agree a fee with WBA for him in the summer and him hardly featuring since) then it would only take two injuries to see Dier forced to play centre half. We then change/weaken two key areas in our team instead of just the one.

I think you have hit the tickle my balls with a feather with your last sentence. It seems that we are actively trying to sell Fazio.
 
Last edited:
Finney Is Back said:
Assuming Fazio is leaving (which looks to be very likely seeing as how we were happy to agree a fee with WBA for him in the summer and him hardly featuring since) then it would only take two injuries to see Dier forced to play centre half. We then change/weaken two key areas in our team instead of just the one.

I think you have hit the tickle my balls with a feather with your last sentence. It seems that we are actively trying to sell Fazio.
Click to expand...

Yea if we sell him it's only two, but if he stays it's 3 injuries. If we sell him then yes, I agree we need a senior defender.
 
There's no point in another cut-price mediocre wage-thief squad-padder though. Surely Poch has demonstrated what he thinks of Stambouli/Fazio type signings.

A trim squad and backing the academy prospects is the new mantra.

Using Bentaleb is CM and moving Dier back to CB is not a bad option at all.
 
the dza said:
Veljkovic and CCV are totally unproven, we have no idea if Poch would even consider them for the team at this time. So if Fazio goes, that leaves Toby, Vert and Wimmer. If the jury is still out on Wimmer and Toby or Vert get a bad injury, we are left short.
Click to expand...

Veljkovic has already played in the EPL and 2CV has been in EL squads.

They were the two outstanding defenders at the U20s world cup last summer.

If they aren't good enough to be 4th choice, I really don't know what is. More Ricardo Rochas and Ryan Nelsens?
 
Gutter Boy said:
Veljkovic has already played in the EPL and 2CV has been in EL squads.

They were the two outstanding defenders at the U20s world cup last summer.

If they aren't good enough to be 4th choice, I really don't know what is. More Ricardo Rochas and Ryan Nelsens?
Click to expand...

Veljkovic has about 30 minutes of Premier League football to his name -- he came on in the 88th minute when we were 4-1 up at home to Sunderland, and he came on in the 62nd minute when we were 3-0 up at home to Aston Villa. Both appearances were in 2014. He had 3 sub appearances on loan at Middlesbrough and 3 games on loan at Charlton, then got injured. He has had no senior football to harden him up and make him ready for the Premier League. He is nowhere near ready to step in at centre-half for us in games that matter, imo. Compare to Alli, who had two full seasons in league one before coming into our team. Maybe he's Baresi in waiting, but we don't know and Poch hasn't seen fit to use him at all, where he has given time to someone like Onomah.

CCV has just turned 18 (on the 31st December last year, apparently). He hasn't a single minute of senior football to his name.

So no, imo neither of these players are good enough to be 4th choice CB. They need a loan move or maybe in the case of CCV, they need another year before they are ready to step into our first team. I think Ledley was about 18/19 when he made his debut for us, and he started off in midfield under Graham. And it's a big leap to say that CCV is the next Ledley.

So I would discount those two youngsters. If we keep Fazio, no problem, but if we sell him, we should buy someone who is come in and ready to play. It doesn't have to be Ryan Nelsen or a youngster, there is a happy middle-ground.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back