What the pundits & media are saying about us

hellava_tough · Aug 7, 2017

stov said:
Wages. We don't have the income to attract players that would improve our first team. If we do splurge 200k a week on an unnamed world class player then all the existing players will be looking for a wage rise.
Players. I honestly can't think of any available player who would improve our first team. There are plenty of players that could improve our depth but will they be happy to play second fiddle to our first eleven?

But would that change if you were trained in analysing players' ability, given a scouting team and associated resources to help you identify these players and given a year to 18 months (or longer) timeframe to work within?

I'm not having a go at you personally, just think these types of argument are a little 'straw-man' when you consider that there are well-resourced professionals who do this for a living. If they can't identify key-targets, then why are we paying them?

Which brings me on to the next point...

Once the targets have been identified, another group of professionals are employed to get a deal done so said players can be signed. Again, if they can't do that then why are we paying them?

kmk · Aug 7, 2017

LexingtonSpurs said:
Someone last year posted a great article that explained why the size difference matters - If I am feeling industrious later I'll go look for it. But, the gist of the article explained that the vast majority of the extra space - that now has to be covered - is in the middle of the pitch.

This one?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/22646131

nicdic · Aug 7, 2017

Andy Dunn has predicted us as PL winners.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/footb...ns-writers-say-10943923#ICID=sharebar_twitter

hellava_tough · Aug 7, 2017

nicdic said:
Andy Dunn has predicted us as PL winners.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/footb...ns-writers-say-10943923#ICID=sharebar_twitter

Could be

However, I think for that to happen Kane would have to continue his excellent development and score 35 league goals, or perhaps alternatively the likes of Alli, Son or Jansen step up their goalscoring exploits

stov · Aug 7, 2017

hellava_tough said:
But would that change if you were trained in analysing players' ability, given a scouting team and associated resources to help you identify these players and given a year to 18 months (or longer) timeframe to work within?

I'm not having a go at you personally, just think these types of argument are a little 'straw-man' when you consider that there are well-resourced professionals who do this for a living. If they can't identify key-targets, then why are we paying them?

Which brings me on to the next point...

Once the targets have been identified, another group of professionals are employed to get a deal done so said players can be signed. Again, if they can't do that then why are we paying them?

The problem is the world is much smaller now. Most top clubs have an extensive scouting network and there is not much value in the European market anymore. Hence we take punts on njie and the like. Sometimes they succeed dier sometimes they fail njie.
If you want to improve the first team of a top 4 club you need to pay a premium. There are not many unknowns like modric left.
For squad depth, why punt on overseas players when we have youth players who can fulfill that role at the faction of the cost of an njie or gkn.

whatislifewithoutspurs · Aug 7, 2017

stov said:
The problem is the world is much smaller now. Most top clubs have an extensive scouting network and there is not much value in the European market anymore. Hence we take punts on njie and the like. Sometimes they succeed dier sometimes they fail njie.
If you want to improve the first team of a top 4 club you need to pay a premium. There are not many unknowns like modric left.
For squad depth, why punt on overseas players when we have youth players who can fulfill that role at the faction of the cost of an njie or gkn.

When we are insisting on a 1-week trial on Ousmane Dembele you know the problem lies with us, not the world, not others' network nor the market.

parj · Aug 7, 2017

nicdic said:
Andy Dunn has predicted us as PL winners.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/footb...ns-writers-say-10943923#ICID=sharebar_twitter

What a crock of shit. Not one chose spurs for champions league. Cocks

stov · Aug 7, 2017

whatislifewithoutspurs said:
When we are insisting on a 1-week trial on Ousmane Dembele you know the problem lies with us, not the world, not others' network nor the market.

What is this based on? The squawka article i saw presents this as fact but there aren't any quotes.

talkshowhost86 · Aug 7, 2017

I can understand pundits putting City, United and Chelsea ahead of us simply because of the farcical money they are spending, but not sure why so many seem to think Liverpool will finish above us.

We finished 10 points above them last season and they've signed one player who was cack in his previous efforts in England.

If they keep spending maybe, but seems odd to make that call at this stage.

talkshowhost86 · Aug 7, 2017

whatislifewithoutspurs said:
When we are insisting on a 1-week trial on Ousmane Dembele you know the problem lies with us, not the world, not others' network nor the market.

Yes...you are quite correct to make such a massive judgment based on that one thing.

nightgoat · Aug 9, 2017

McNumpty's done his 'predictions'. Only surprise is that he doesn't have Liverpool winning the league by February.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/40816204

Of course Liverpool will be completely unaffected by the imminent sale of their best player and the added effect of actually being in Europe for once. We're going to plummet down the table.

TaoistMonkey · Aug 9, 2017

talkshowhost86 said:
I can understand pundits putting City, United and Chelsea ahead of us simply because of the farcical money they are spending, but not sure why so many seem to think Liverpool will finish above us.

We finished 10 points above them last season and they've signed one player who was cack in his previous efforts in England.

If they keep spending maybe, but seems odd to make that call at this stage.

And you wait when we pull 2nd again but we bottled it!

nightgoat · Aug 9, 2017

talkshowhost86 said:
I can understand pundits putting City, United and Chelsea ahead of us simply because of the farcical money they are spending, but not sure why so many seem to think Liverpool will finish above us.

We finished 10 points above them last season and they've signed one player who was cack in his previous efforts in England.

If they keep spending maybe, but seems odd to make that call at this stage.

And a defender from a team that conceded 80 goals last season.

E17yid · Aug 9, 2017

Fuck, Merson has us in the top 4.

adamsky · Aug 9, 2017

This popular idea that we only have a strong first XI is starting to grate a little. I saw one pundit specifically mention that we need to improve the 12th, 13th player etc... Whilst we no doubt would like to improve the squad I am curious as to who has a better back up than Son, Lamela, Winks, Davies other than City

talkshowhost86 · Aug 9, 2017

adamsky said:
This popular idea that we only have a strong first XI is starting to grate a little. I saw one pundit specifically mention that we need to improve the 12th, 13th player etc... Whilst we no doubt would like to improve the squad I am curious as to who has a better back up than Son, Lamela, Winks, Davies other than City

Whilst I agree we have strength in some areas, I'd say our '2nd XI' is weaker than the other top teams.

Some of this is up for debate but arguably our second team is:

Vorm
KWP
Carter Vickers
Wimmer
Davies
Dier
Winks
Sissoko
Son
N'Koudou
Janssen

Is that strong enough? For me it needs a bit of a boost if we're to challenge the mega bucks teams.

adamsky · Aug 9, 2017

talkshowhost86 said:
Whilst I agree we have strength in some areas, I'd say our '2nd XI' is weaker than the other top teams.

Some of this is up for debate but arguably our second team is:

Vorm
KWP
Carter Vickers
Wimmer
Davies
Dier
Winks
Sissoko
Son
N'Koudou
Janssen

Is that strong enough? For me it needs a bit of a boost if we're to challenge the mega bucks teams.

Agree, we do need to strengthen but things are not as bad as being made out. Two or three decent signings, not necessarily world beaters, and we would suddenly look very healthy depth wise

brendanb50 · Aug 9, 2017

talkshowhost86 said:
Whilst I agree we have strength in some areas, I'd say our '2nd XI' is weaker than the other top teams.

Some of this is up for debate but arguably our second team is:

Vorm
KWP
Carter Vickers
Wimmer
Davies
Dier
Winks
Sissoko
Son
N'Koudou
Janssen

Is that strong enough? For me it needs a bit of a boost if we're to challenge the mega bucks teams.

The notion we have nothing off the bench is being a bit overdone but IMHO we do lack some real impact from that list. The defensive players are all more than able stand-ins and potential starters when on form - not much to change there except our potential RB cover.

Dier & Winks are both more than capable, Dier would add stability and Winks a bit more drive into the MF but neither likely to 'change the game' as such - not really their roles.

Son is definitely the key man there - the main one who could bring a goal/assist to the game.

The others are as yet unproven for us. Doesn't mean i've written them off and i hope if they all stay, they all push on a bit this year but if one of our first XI is out, and those players stand in, we have very little beyond that - hence why so many are keen to add 2/3 key players bringing what we hope will be additional competition and quality to the team.

degoose · Aug 9, 2017

talkshowhost86 said:
Whilst I agree we have strength in some areas, I'd say our '2nd XI' is weaker than the other top teams.

Some of this is up for debate but arguably our second team is:

Vorm
KWP
Carter Vickers
Wimmer
Davies
Dier
Winks
Sissoko
Son
N'Koudou
Janssen

Is that strong enough? For me it needs a bit of a boost if we're to challenge the mega bucks teams.

Actually that is not bloody bad at all. Maybe improve on KWP and Carter-Vickers with some players with more experience but it's still good.

talkshowhost86 · Aug 9, 2017

degoose said:
Actually that is not bloody bad at all. Maybe improve on KWP and Carter-Vickers with some players with more experience but it's still good.

Yeah it's certainly not bad by any stretch, but I think there are some areas that we could definitely improve on.

There are three players in there who haven't proven themselves yet in KWP, Carter-Vickers and N'Koudou. I think we'll have to take Poch's view on these players as he'll have seen them more than most of us, but from what I've seen I wouldn't want to rely too much on N'Koudou, and there's always worries about a young centre back.

Sissoko is the obvious problem, so with doubts over him and N'Koudou, I wouldn't mind seeing a talented wide forward coming in, which was presumably why we were looking at Balde, and will now maybe persue the likes of King and Grey.

Barkley would also offer another option in midfield both going forwards and possibly a bit deeper, and we've then hopefully got Onomah coming through next season after his loan spell.

So yeah, 3-4 players and I think we've got a very good squad, although without those additions I think we are at risk of being a bit light in crucial areas.

In other words....big 3 weeks for Poch and Levy.

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