What's new

Tottenham are actually having the best summer - even with no new signings

npearl4spurs

Believing Member
Sep 9, 2014
4,191
10,973
Spurs seem to be having a disastrous summer campaign, but the truth is entirely different: Tottenham have enjoyed the best transfer campaign of any Premier League club by retaining their star players.

Read the full article at ESPN
 

npearl4spurs

Believing Member
Sep 9, 2014
4,191
10,973
The most significant points of the article, but the whole thing is a good read and makes some larger points for the PL and football.

A chairman or manager pointing to "not losing players" as reason to celebrate is considered something of an excuse or cop-out but it's the primary objective for every football club. Everyone has given up claiming they're "not a selling club" but really, every club in Europe, with the exception of Real Madrid and Barcelona, is now a selling club.

In recent years, Tottenham have previously been forced to cope with the loss of almost every genuine superstar they had: Dimitar Berbatov, Luka Modric, Gareth Bale to name just three. Keeping your star players is far better than signing a star player: there's no risk, no period of adaptation and no need for others to adjust their game to cope with a new arrival.

What's most striking is that Spurs' key players haven't even been linked with other clubs: there's no will-he-won't-he saga involving Alli or Kane. Desperately convincing a want-away player to leave can be disastrous too: the uncertainty hampers tactical preparations and harms team spirit, the player performs poorly because he doesn't want to be there, and the club eventually sell the player the following summer at a knock-down rate because his contract is closer to expiring.

It's not simply about avoiding sales, but about avoiding the possibility of sales.

In that respect, Tottenham have played a blinder. They have lost one player -- Kyle Walker -- but Spurs were compensated with a truly staggering amount of money, £50m.
They'll surely be able to purchase a comparable replacement for that type of money while they currently boast an impressive understudy in Kieran Trippier (who recently signed a contract extension) anyway.

One of the most frequent cliches used to encourage clubs to sign new players is "if you stand still, you go backwards." That's unquestionably true, but improving isn't simply about signing new players. The most crucial improvement can equally come from individual players gaining more experience -- Tottenham have a number of players approaching their peak years, for example -- and from teams becoming better collectively due to more experience of playing together.

Tottenham are arguably the most tactically harmonious team in the Premier League. During Mauricio Pochettino's three years at the club, the points tally has gone from 64 to 70 to 86. There have been some crucial signings, certainly, but more than anything, Spurs' improvement has been about their collective understanding of Pochettino's tactics. The way they've become excellent at various concepts in turn -- pressing, defending, attacking, tactical versatility -- is about far more than a couple of new arrivals.
 

shelfmonkey

Weird is different, different is interesting.
Mar 21, 2007
6,690
8,040
At first, when I read the headline, I thought 'what a load of bollocks!', after reading it I have to agree. Although I believe we do need a couple players, the writer makes some very salient points. Good article.
 

TottenhamMattSpur

Well-Known Member
Aug 31, 2012
10,925
16,007
I'm sick to death of the transfer market.
Club spends obscene money on players that have never stepped foot in that country. Pundits piss themselves.
Has it done clubs that much good in the last few seasons?
 

Dougal

Staff
Jun 4, 2004
60,346
129,923
Transfers are just a part of the story. There's a lot more to get right at a club and only if you get the balance right do you have any success. We could sign two players in the next month and have everything else in place and we're as well, if not better, equipped for the new season as someone who has just splashed £200m. Yes, you have to bed players in, but our settled squad can buy those players a bit of time. And we have fringe players from last season who are bedded in and out to prove their value. I'm fairly happy with it all and am amazed that every time someone asks me about my team they go straight to the fact we haven't got anyone in and we'll be rubbish next season because of Wembley. Let's just ignore the fact we have the best team in the country over the last two seasons who are another year older and wiser.
 

greywizard2020

Well-Known Member
Jun 9, 2003
331
709
As boring as it may be, I'd have thought that this is actually the dream scenario: a largely tight-knit squad that needs tweaking with only 1 or 2 signings to enhance the setup.

With the ludicrous turnover of managers it has become the norm for new staff bringing in their desired targets & that has meant a huge upsurge in the finances thrown around. I would be quite happy if, for instance, Poch promoted Walker-Peters as our 2nd FB/WB along with giving the likes of Onomah, Shashoua & Edwards more game time. This would be far preferable to a situation similar to when we sold Bale.
 

Dougal

Staff
Jun 4, 2004
60,346
129,923
There's a lot said around this time of year about what is right or wrong but when it comes down to it it what happens during the season that counts and for all the talk of the reemergence of Liverpool, Arsenal, Man United and Man City is the last couple of years it's still us that have made the most progress under Poch. Despite finishing 3rd and then 2nd it looks like we're flying under the radar again. Fine by me.
 

jamesinashby

Well-Known Member
Jun 5, 2017
465
985
Look on the bright side. If we don't buy any one we won't have added to the misfits! The other side of the coin, however, it will have taken away much of what we like to moan about! lol

COYS
 

TottenhamMattSpur

Well-Known Member
Aug 31, 2012
10,925
16,007
United under Fergie weren't prone to wholesale changes every single summer.
They rarely lost players and just added (mostly) quality when it was available.

The constant changing is the problem, not the cure.
Look at them since he left. First season half the squad retired/left and Moyes only signs Feleni. Shit.
Then LVG buys half the globe at around £300m.
Shit.
Now Moureen breaks world records and signs players left right and centre. They won 2 2nd rate cups and and finished 5th. THE RICHEST BIGGEST CLUB ON TH PLANET WITH THE CHOSEN ONE. FIFTH.

When are pundits going to connect the dots?
Barcelona and Real sign the odd superstar each summer, not 5-10 of them.
 

Macwally

Well-Known Member
Aug 31, 2012
101
259
United under Fergie weren't prone to wholesale changes every single summer.
They rarely lost players and just added (mostly) quality when it was available.

The constant changing is the problem, not the cure.
Look at them since he left. First season half the squad retired/left and Moyes only signs Feleni. Shit.
Then LVG buys half the globe at around £300m.
Shit.
Now Moureen breaks world records and signs players left right and centre. They won 2 2nd rate cups and and finished 5th. THE RICHEST BIGGEST CLUB ON TH PLANET WITH THE CHOSEN ONE. FIFTH.

When are pundits going to connect the dots?
Barcelona and Real sign the odd superstar each summer, not 5-10 of them.
They were even worse than that - 6th in the league
 

1882andallthat

Well-Known Member
Feb 2, 2009
2,821
4,157
Whilst I would tend to agree that you don't buy for the sake of buying I'm not sure how many of us really know whether or not Poch is entirely happy to have KWP as back up for Trippier in the event that he is injured.

It may be said that Dier also can play at RB, Poch has made no secret of the fact that he likes to have two RB's and LB's not just to either rotate but to immediately step up and hit the ground running, Dier was not deployed in that capacity and we did need both Trippier and Davies to step up when Rose and Walker sustained injuries.

What I'm not entirely comfortable about is whether we had a clear plan once we knew Walker would be leaving, this must have been known pretty much around the the near end of last season. DL must have known at some time before negotiations concluded that he would deal with City.

If all parties within all tiers of our management are and were fine with KWP stepping up to fill that gap I'm fine, but if that is not the case, there can be few excuses from our end as to why a replacement wasn't brought it to coincide with Walker's eventual departure, as the importance of getting a good pre-season in has often been stressed by Poch and the coaching team, and not losing ground early on in the league.

I for one will not be happy if we have not recruited a said replacement when it was the plan to recruit one all along and a vital 6 weeks pre season training is lost that cannot be made up, and that leaves us with no credible options should Trippier get injured or should we need to rotate, because the cover option is not up to speed.
 

yiddopaul

Well-Known Member
Dec 28, 2005
3,418
6,654
United under Fergie weren't prone to wholesale changes every single summer.
They rarely lost players and just added (mostly) quality when it was available.

The constant changing is the problem, not the cure.
Look at them since he left. First season half the squad retired/left and Moyes only signs Feleni. Shit.
Then LVG buys half the globe at around £300m.
Shit.
Now Moureen breaks world records and signs players left right and centre. They won 2 2nd rate cups and and finished 5th. THE RICHEST BIGGEST CLUB ON TH PLANET WITH THE CHOSEN ONE. FIFTH.

When are pundits going to connect the dots?
Barcelona and Real sign the odd superstar each summer, not 5-10 of them.
Agree. It's like the media hate us because of how we're building. It's shocking really, you'd at least expect the people in the sport, pundits etc, to acknowledge and praise what we're doing as the way to go, but instead, they think that being rich is what's impressive, as if they've earn't their success. Guarantee, if we suddenly got bought out by the mafia or Saudi's, they would suddenly be impressed.
 
Top