Summer Transfer Wish List

jari17 said:

Where is that guy I had a big argument about whether Dembele signed for Dortmund couple weeks ago. Show up you coward, remember when I said he had signed and you questioned me where are you now?

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THFCSPURS19 said:

Really good article on Batshuayi and Lacazette- Some images/graphics have been left out but here's the link so you can see them (http://www.fourfourtwo.com/features...y-batshuayi-who-your-club-should-sign-summer?)

Rated! Alexandre Lacazette vs Michy Batshuayi: Who your club should sign this summer

Premier League clubs are circling the two outstanding Ligue 1 strikers, but which one would prove the best addition for your club? Ligue 1 expert Andrew Gibney rates away...

With 38 Ligue 1 goals between them this season, it’s no surprise that Michy Batshuayi and Alexandre Lacazette have been linked with a string of clubs this summer.

Lyon, however, are hoping that qualification to the Champions League can persuade Lacazette to stay for another season, but Marseille know that their poor campaign will invite offers they simply can’t refuse.

But who is the better striker, and more suited for life in the Premier League? We break down the key areas...

Goalscoring prowess

Lacazette: 31 Ligue 1 starts, 21 goals – 137 minutes per goal (2015/16)

For the first few months of the campaign it seemed like the 24-year-old was suffering from that tough Second Season Syndrome. Expectations were high off the back of a 27-goal campaign but injuries, poor form and general unhappiness meant that he only scored five times in the opening 15 games – three of them coming against Saint-Etienne.

Under Bruno Genesio, however, Lacazette is back to his best – he’s plundered 11 goals in nine games, and last season was the first Frenchman to score 20+ goals in the league since 1998. 8/10

Batshuayi: 32 Ligue 1 starts, 17 goals – 173 minutes per goal (2015/16)

With nine goals in just six starts last season, it was always going to be interesting to see how the Belgian reacted with a step up in game time.

Batshuayi’s minutes on the pitch have tripled, and after 11 games of the current campaign it looked like his goals haul might too.

Marseille have struggled, though, and the pressure on his young shoulders has become a little too much. The goals dried up and the criticism followed – his winner against Reims on Saturday was only his sixth league strike of 2016. Without a decent supporting cast, it’s not exactly a surprise. 7.5/10

Big-game experience

Lacazette: 18 Champions League apps (4 goals), 18 Europa League apps (4 goals)

This will be Lacazette’s seventh season as part of the Lyon squad – he has come through the youth setup and paid his dues as a winger along the way. Once a starter, the 24-year-old has proved himself as a man for the big occasion.

Lyon and the player were struggling earlier in the season, but he still found a way to score a hat-trick in the Rhone derby – something he didn’t manage last season. The Champions League came at the wrong end of the campaign for the striker, with only one of his four goals in the competition coming this season. Lyon were poor and the results showed that. 7.5/10

Batshuayi: 1 Champions League app (0 goals), 17 Europa League apps (7 goals)

As a super-sub, Batshuayi built a reputation for scoring goals when it mattered – seven of his nine goals last season came in the second half.

Two late equalisers to grab a point

This campaign 10 of his 17 have come after the break, including 90th-minute equalisers against Toulouse and Saint-Etienne. He also gave OM the lead when they faced Paris Saint-Germain in Week 9 – something Lacazette has never managed – although they went on to lose 2-1.

He may not have similar Champions League experience, but he was a huge factor in Marseille gaining results in this season’s Europa League. 6.5/10

Temperament

Lacazette: 172 games for Lyon; 24 yellows, 2 reds

A local boy through and through, Lacazette was unhappy when OL president Jean-Michel Aulas told the world about the player’s reluctance to sign a new bumper contract. A deal was eventually reached, but the disruption – as well a back injury – affected his mood and form.

It looked like his heart wasn’t in it, and perhaps he had stayed a season too long. Lacazette has shown fine character since to turn his season around, however, helping Lyon qualify for the Champions League group stage and becoming a leader of this young team in the process. 8/10

Batshuayi: 62 games for Marseille; 9 yellows, 0 red

Last year, having joined with a blossoming reputation, it was refreshing to see a young striker accept his role as a substitute and do his best to make an impact whenever Marcelo Bielsa called upon him.

This year, as Marseille’s one and sometimes only striker, he has taken that burden in his stride. He still cuts the figure of a frustrated player at times, but who wouldn’t in this current team? Batshuayi makes bad decisions at times and consistency has been missing, but he tries to keep a smile on his face. 7.5/10

Potential

Lacazette: Lyon (172 games, 72 goals), France (10 games, 1 goal)

The striker turns 25 at the end of the month, and yet it’s still uncertain as to whether he’ll be picked by Didier Deschamps for Euro 2016. He has scored 53 goals in three full league campaigns, and now the only question that remains is whether he can perform this well outside of France.

It’s hard to make a case against him, but there is no hard evidence to suggest he can still go on to be one of Europe’s best strikers at the highest level. That, however, will only be proven once he makes his move. 7.5/10

Batshuayi: Marseille (62 games, 26 goals), Belgium (3 games, 2 goals)

The Belgian forward has scored 26 goals in just two seasons with Marseille, an excellent return for a 22-year-old and why he is attracting so much interest from around Europe. He’s big, strong and good on the ball, but is also fast, can pass and is good in the air – close to a complete striker.

Batshuayi has benefited from playing a lot more minutes this season, which is what has helped him develop. Now, you feel he needs better players around him to improve further. 8.5/10

Premier League suitability

Lacazette: 5ft 8½in, 73 kg

This is the biggest question mark over Lacazette’s head. Under Hubert Fournier, he found success playing in a two-man attack, with trickery and pace around him. He likes to drift left, turn to face goal and create little triangles – about as far removed from a targetman as you can get from a No.9.

After Genesio took over in January, Lyon reverted back to playing three up front and Lacazette has had to adapt – which he has done magnificently. However, as much as he is now the focal point of the attack, everything is played in triangles up there. With young forwards Maxwel Cornet and Rachid Ghezzal alongside, the style suits him.

One of the reasons that he hasn’t played much for France is that he’s not a traditional No.9, but not a winger either. La Liga worked for Antoine Griezmann and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has come on leaps and bounds in the Bundesliga, and those leagues look like better options. 6/10

Batshuayi: 5ft 11½in, 78 kg

There are definitely elements of Batshuayi’s game that you can see in the success of Romelu Lukaku in the Premier League. He’s a powerful runner with a strong upper-body – two big attributes a top English club would want.

He is also younger and used to playing as a backup to more established strikers at club and international level – something that would be quite handy at White Hart Lane. He is also, however, a player who could help take West Ham to the next level alongside his ex-Marseille team-mate Dimitri Payet. 8.5/10

Verdict

Breaking it down and working out the key skills of each attacker, you have to believe that in the long-term it’s Batshuayi who could be a revelation in the Premier League. He has the raw attributes and the profile to not only cope, but excel in England.

Judging each player on their current ability, Lacazette just edges it.

Both are supremely talented, exciting players, however, and their clubs have helped get the best out of them along the way. The question now is who – and how badly – wants their services for next season.

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Rod101 said:

I'm sure that this will cause a torrent of optimistic ratings (or worse) to rain down on me, but having read that and looked at the various clips etc, I think that there would easily be room for both at Spurs. Batshuayi would obviously rotate with Harry and be the big, physical no.9 cover that the squad obviously needs.

Lacazette however would be ideal for a LW/RW slot to provide that devastating pace on the break and seems strong and fairly tricky in his close control. I wouldn't mind seeing him as cover for Alli too, as I can imagine him bombing passed Kane/Batshuayi looking for a through ball (think Alli against Stoke).

Now whether we could afford both is very debatable, but they'd definitely add depth and real cutting edge to the squad. And potentially stop one of our rivals bringing one of them in and stepping up.

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THFCSPURS19 said:

The thing is that other clubs can offer Lacazette the chance to be their main man- that won't ever be the case with us and he's at the stage of his career where he's going to make his big move.

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THFCSPURS19 said:

The thing is that other clubs can offer Lacazette the chance to be their main man- that won't ever be the case with us and he's at the stage of his career where he's going to make his big move.

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Indacupfortottenham said:

Wijnaldum would be a good upgrade to our back up options in midfield I think.

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yankspurs said:

It wont ever be the case with us? Are you sure about that? He can play in the AM as well, and theres always the possibility that Poch might change his tactics like alot of managers do to keep things fresh and keep the opposition on their toes.

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Indacupfortottenham said:

Wijnaldum would be a good upgrade to our back up options in midfield I think.

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THFCSPURS19 said:

It will always be Kane.

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Rod101 said:

I'm sure that this will cause a torrent of optimistic ratings (or worse) to rain down on me, but having read that and looked at the various clips etc, I think that there would easily be room for both at Spurs. Batshuayi would obviously rotate with Harry and be the big, physical no.9 cover that the squad obviously needs.

Lacazette however would be ideal for a LW/RW slot to provide that devastating pace on the break and seems strong and fairly tricky in his close control. I wouldn't mind seeing him as cover for Alli too, as I can imagine him bombing passed Kane/Batshuayi looking for a through ball (think Alli against Stoke).

Now whether we could afford both is very debatable, but they'd definitely add depth and real cutting edge to the squad. And potentially stop one of our rivals bringing one of them in and stepping up.

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Spursidol said:

Thanks for that.

Think this is the only bit of ITK which was negative re Bentaleb - most of the rest was unspecific but said things along the lines of 'Bentaleb is going nowhere' suggesting that he was seen as part of the future.

I suspect that there is a lot of truth about his contract/wages and 'entourage' as we saw other sources for that too, and the bit about being annoyed at not being in the first team is no bad thing - we want players to aspire to being in the first team and compete to doing so.

The bits I doubt as I can't recall other sources are that 'his attitude was suspect in training' and 'he wasn't committed to Poch's vision and high standards' - which doesn't gell with other ITK reports that we wanted him to sign a new contract (and he did), if these two bits of ITK were generally true, I think Poch would have frogmarched him out of the squad.

Bentaleb is young and ambitious, so it wouldn't surprise me if later in the season that his going to ply an international (where he got injured again) just before playing for Spurs after injury, was not appreciated by Poch, but I doubt if that's a killer to a Poch-Bentaleb relationship. Truth is that he only played a couple of games at start of the season, which he didn't start well in (but the whole squad started slowly in the first 4 games or so of the season - as a loss and 3 draws showed in the opening 4 games) before being injured for pretty much all the rest of the season other than a few cameos coming back from various injuries. Meanwhile the likes of Dier made huge advances to cement a CM position, and even the likes of Carroll showed decent form as a CM so competition in Bentaleb's chosen position was intense.

Assuming Bentaleb is happy to fight for his position, I suspect Poch will want to keep him and if fit, and following a decent pre-season , Bentaleb can be a good CM option for us next season where we'll want a strong squad with options in all positions.

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jari17 said:

Where is that guy I had a big argument about whether Dembele signed for Dortmund couple weeks ago. Show up you coward, remember when I said he had signed and you questioned me where are you now?

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Bus-Conductor said:

We have also had players like Alli, when interviewed not so long ago, saying Bentaleb is one of the hardest working in training. Also said he's the player that hates losing the most, a quality very much in keeping with the Pochettino ethos.

I can understand that he may have got the hump about his situation this season, and that may have meant a relationship deterioration of some degree (maybe minor) but anyone who's followed Bentaleb's career, knows that laziness or lack of application just isn't generally part of the kids make up.

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SlumDilla said:

This past season has humbled him. This has been a tough season for him through injuries. He will come back stronger next season, don't be suprised to hear that he reports to pre season camp a week or two earlier than the rest.

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jari17 said:

Where is that guy I had a big argument about whether Dembele signed for Dortmund couple weeks ago. Show up you coward, remember when I said he had signed and you questioned me where are you now?

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am_yisrael_chai said:

He is off fixing a broken clock which is also right twice a day........

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Francis Gibbs said:

3 in please
Quality striker
Upgrade on Lamela
Better option from the bench in the middle of the park

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