The Daily ITK Discussion Thread - 20th July 2015

brasil_spur said:

You really think that there will be no players either leaving or joining us within the next 3 weeks? I find that highly unlikely.

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Leaving, I think we will shift people, but I'd be very surprised if we had any incomings before the season's start.

Here's a longish post from COYS. I take it that Brad is our very own Mr Friedel? Some quite interesting....

For those not on coys anymore, Brad visited the Atlanta Spurs pub and gave an impromtu Q&A after. Posted by Peapod and although quite long I thought it was interesting. Brad is a great guy! Hope he stays associated with Spurs for a long time

"Let's see what all I can remember.

Winks, Onomah, CCV and Glover are all currently training with the first team, being evaluated in their development. CCV is close to ready to make the first team, but probably a year off.

Don't believe everything you hear in the press. He denied Kaboul Cabal story as we currently know it, but did mention that some players tried to go around Pochettino to Baldini/Levy, and those players then didn't play for a month. Also, Liverpool never offered Sterling anything near what the club leaked to the press.

Pochettino hates the sort of player who calls up on Sunday and asks why he didn't play. Poch's answer to that player is likely to be "Because I pick the team"

On the other hand, a player who comes in and trains hard on Monday and Tuesday and stops by his office Wednesday to ask why he didn't play is likely to be invited in, shown training and game footage and given specific things Poch is looking for, and if he works on those he will be given playing time. Those guys are Poch's guys, and a lot of the people leaving this summer are the other sort.

There is a very good feeling among Poch's guys in the direction of the club, and that has been reinforced this offseason by the players who are leaving. Friedel said it's more important right now who is heading out than who is coming in, but he does feel that we have to get another striker and/or combination of players who can get us another 10-15 goals. AVB didn't want Dempsey to leave for exactly this reason

Poch at times last season persisted with younger players irrespective of wins and losses to get them game experience at the top level, as he was building a foundation for the future.

Adebayor to Villa has legs and may happen, but if it does expect Soldado to stick around along with bringing in another striker.

About Soldado: "He ticks all the boxes -- technical ability, tactical awareness, social skills within the squad, and he was mentally strong when he arrived (this has changed somewhat due to the scoring drought). He trains really well, and it just hasn't happened in the games." Nobody seems to be able to figure out why.

He's disappointed int he development of the USMNT. Believes they should be way better than his 2002 WC quarterfinals team, but says it's pretty clear that team was quite a bit better than the current squad.

He thinks there are too many MLS clubs, and that they should have less to improve the quality of the product.

He's been offered coaching jobs at a few clubs, but turned them down. Would only consider an offer where he had faith in the people above him. Happy working his 5 year deal with Fox -- you never know what might happen though

Oh yeah, he talked at length about when Hugo was signed, and he was still playing. Brad was originally brought in to play 1 year. Hugo was bought to be the future keeper (at a really great price due to Lyon's financial troubles) but AVB actually told Levy he was fine with keeping Friedel and using that money for other players. AVB kept playing Friedel, Hugo went to Levy and asked why he was bought if he wan't starting, and Levy said the manager picks the starting players, not me. Deschamps started leaning on AVB, and eventually he saw an opportunity after they had just beat Man U to sit Brad for a game and play Hugo, and it evolved from there. Brad and Hugo got along really well, especially because Brad speaks French.

That's a synopsis of a long story/answer...someone else may have some more detail on that one.

On Tim Sherwood:

He's exactly the same at training as we see on gameday. He's always going to have issues with players because some players don't like being told "You're bad at what you do".

He also said he could still play if a team really needed him (he's currently been training for a half Ironman), but his body enjoys the lack of jumping around and falling on the ground, and so he actually feels better now than he did while playing."

nailsy said:

I like him so I'd be happy if he stayed, but I think he probably should move on as it doesn't seem to be working out for him here. If he does stay I hope that we address why he's not scoring -either by looking at the supply line, or working on his positioning and timing of runs.

I also wonder if Hernandez could be the late striker signing as he's currently out with a broken collar bone so we couldn't put him through a medical yet.

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Chicharito will be in MLS next season.

Lilbaz said:

Fredericks is so much better than the scottish 2nd division. He's also in the last year of his contract.

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Agreed, the standard of the 2nd division is woeful compared to South of the border.

However, as someone who has regularly attended matches in this division, I'll tell you that its no walk in the park. When teams play Rangers it's a special occasion and can be a real battle. As has been the case for the past 3 years, there's no easy games for them.

Add to that, Rangers are a huge club with massive expectations next year, so don't think he won't learn anything if he goes there.

A lot of doom and gloom about ain't there..... Kaboom has gone, capoue has gone, paulinho has gone, rumours of adebayor going, lennon going, chiriches going (well a few days back at any rate), that's a reason to celebrate surely .... could only get better if we bought back naughton and sold him all over again.

ali z on soldado: Right offer with us getting a replacement in and he is gone. No doubt we want Ade out first for a host of reasons.

I would be delighted in Soldado stayed and was given another chance.

People forget that these players are human beings. He hasnt turned into a bad player over 2 years. He just hasnt had the run of success yet to allow himself to play a natural game. If we keep the support and he was to find his form then we could all be in for a very pleasant surprise

I would only want Soldado to go if Roberto himself accepted an offer from Spain to go back. He can stay as long as he wants in my book. Pro's pro.

ryantegan said:

I would be delighted in Soldado stayed and was given another chance.

People forget that these players are human beings. He hasnt turned into a bad player over 2 years. He just hasnt had the run of success yet to allow himself to play a natural game. If we keep the support and he was to find his form then we could all be in for a very pleasant surprise

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Agreed, thing is the pressure is massively off him now...we still need another striker though even if he stays, we need a player with pace to get in behind teams...If Pedro is available we should be trying for him.

Bobbins said:

Speak of the devil!

Not having a go personally at @GetSpurredOn but this stuff does make me laugh. "Reading further into the comments" of a bloke on the Internet?

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No offence taken. I probably didn't word it too well. I didn't mean reading between the lines, when I said reading further into the comments, I meant further along the paragraph towards the end of the post, not that I was reading deeper into what was being said without actually being said and all that malarkey.

Hoopspur said:

Here's a longish post from COYS. I take it that Brad is our very own Mr Friedel? Some quite interesting....

For those not on coys anymore, Brad visited the Atlanta Spurs pub and gave an impromtu Q&A after. Posted by Peapod and although quite long I thought it was interesting. Brad is a great guy! Hope he stays associated with Spurs for a long time

"Let's see what all I can remember.

Winks, Onomah, CCV and Glover are all currently training with the first team, being evaluated in their development. CCV is close to ready to make the first team, but probably a year off.

Don't believe everything you hear in the press. He denied Kaboul Cabal story as we currently know it, but did mention that some players tried to go around Pochettino to Baldini/Levy, and those players then didn't play for a month. Also, Liverpool never offered Sterling anything near what the club leaked to the press.

Pochettino hates the sort of player who calls up on Sunday and asks why he didn't play. Poch's answer to that player is likely to be "Because I pick the team"

On the other hand, a player who comes in and trains hard on Monday and Tuesday and stops by his office Wednesday to ask why he didn't play is likely to be invited in, shown training and game footage and given specific things Poch is looking for, and if he works on those he will be given playing time. Those guys are Poch's guys, and a lot of the people leaving this summer are the other sort.

There is a very good feeling among Poch's guys in the direction of the club, and that has been reinforced this offseason by the players who are leaving. Friedel said it's more important right now who is heading out than who is coming in, but he does feel that we have to get another striker and/or combination of players who can get us another 10-15 goals. AVB didn't want Dempsey to leave for exactly this reason

Poch at times last season persisted with younger players irrespective of wins and losses to get them game experience at the top level, as he was building a foundation for the future.

Adebayor to Villa has legs and may happen, but if it does expect Soldado to stick around along with bringing in another striker.

About Soldado: "He ticks all the boxes -- technical ability, tactical awareness, social skills within the squad, and he was mentally strong when he arrived (this has changed somewhat due to the scoring drought). He trains really well, and it just hasn't happened in the games." Nobody seems to be able to figure out why.

He's disappointed int he development of the USMNT. Believes they should be way better than his 2002 WC quarterfinals team, but says it's pretty clear that team was quite a bit better than the current squad.

He thinks there are too many MLS clubs, and that they should have less to improve the quality of the product.

He's been offered coaching jobs at a few clubs, but turned them down. Would only consider an offer where he had faith in the people above him. Happy working his 5 year deal with Fox -- you never know what might happen though

Oh yeah, he talked at length about when Hugo was signed, and he was still playing. Brad was originally brought in to play 1 year. Hugo was bought to be the future keeper (at a really great price due to Lyon's financial troubles) but AVB actually told Levy he was fine with keeping Friedel and using that money for other players. AVB kept playing Friedel, Hugo went to Levy and asked why he was bought if he wan't starting, and Levy said the manager picks the starting players, not me. Deschamps started leaning on AVB, and eventually he saw an opportunity after they had just beat Man U to sit Brad for a game and play Hugo, and it evolved from there. Brad and Hugo got along really well, especially because Brad speaks French.

That's a synopsis of a long story/answer...someone else may have some more detail on that one.

On Tim Sherwood:

He's exactly the same at training as we see on gameday. He's always going to have issues with players because some players don't like being told "You're bad at what you do".

He also said he could still play if a team really needed him (he's currently been training for a half Ironman), but his body enjoys the lack of jumping around and falling on the ground, and so he actually feels better now than he did while playing."

Click to expand...

Thank god for Deschamps on Hugo, then. Any reasonable, non xenophobic person would probably admit we could have used Dempsey that year as we couldnt score or no one got into the box for shit while Dempsey had a knack for getting into the box in his season with us. 1000% agree with Brad on MLS, but not for this thread.

Interesting that the malcontents thought going to Levy/Baldini would help them. Schmucks. Good on Daniel and Franco for going to Poch and siding with him.

I personally feel Brad could end up coaching in our academy soon, if he wants it, that is.

Joeyboey said:

I appreciated the sentiment but we cannot go into next season with only Mason, Bentaleb, Veljkovic and Alli as our 4 CMs with an average age of 20.5. It would be a disaster.

We simply must add someone at CM with experience and if it looks like we're not going to do that like him or loathe him we have to keep hold of Dembele.

The last thing we want is to add any players who may become deadwood in a years time but I find it hard to imagine that there are only a handful of players who can play our system and that all of those players are unobtainable. If that's a case we must be using the most inflexible and rigid system in football.

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Get Lampard and immediately the ave age goes to 25...lol

gilzeantheking said:

Jasper on SO

Soldado will NOT be sold unless we have an agreement in place on our target. If Ade goes I doubt that will change. There is another versatile striker we have been in discussions that may be near it end of window. That is the reason why we won't let Soldado go, who Poch and squad loves, unless we are able to swiftly sign another whilst we continue to negotiate on the one that will go to near end of window. Unless things change of course.

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Most underwhelmed.

Why would we want to keep an expensive, non scoring bench warming striker? The Soldado project just didn't work out and despite the love-in he may have with Poch, keeping him is plain daft.

Hoopspur said:

Poch at times last season persisted with younger players irrespective of wins and losses to get them game experience at the top level, as he was building a foundation for the future.

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Also why 4231 was/is being persisted with until it is totally ingrained, as will be our primary shape.

Gaz_Gammon said:

Most underwhelmed.

Why would we want to keep an expensive, non scoring bench warming striker? The Soldado project just didn't work out and despite the love-in he may have with Poch, keeping him is plain daft.

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Gaz, who are we going to get that is a better player or a better fit for our team?

Everything we hear about him is positive. The squad loves him. He has the very best experience in the game. Friedel and everyone else says he has all the tools, all the football intelligence, all the work ethic needed to succeed, but inexplicably hasn't. He doesn't demand playing time that we know of and he has supported Kane's meteoric ascent to the hilt, FFS

We all but know now he didn't cost the full 26m and his wages aren't all that high either. Roberto Soldado is way down on the pecking order of players we ought to be selling.

That bleating goat is at it again....

The Goat

We've heard that there are offers for Lennon from two Turkish clubs. Everton have been stalling but West Ham are now firmly interested.

Gaz_Gammon said:

Most underwhelmed.

Why would we want to keep an expensive, non scoring bench warming striker? The Soldado project just didn't work out and despite the love-in he may have with Poch, keeping him is plain daft.

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We should sell both, if we can get 2 in. But what's the harm in keeping Bobby if we only get 1 in?

Praying Lennon doesn't end up at West Ham. Ideally include him in any deal for McCarthy, failing that Turkey.

gilzeantheking said:

The Goat

We've heard that there are offers for Lennon from two Turkish clubs. Everton have been stalling but West Ham are now firmly interested.

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£8m and the spammers can take him. £5m for the Turks.