Antonio Conte: I can’t change Tottenham tactics with these players

[Neon_Knight_]

Mate - you may not agree but that is the going rate for players these days. It is ridiculous but if that’s the player that Conte wants then Levy needs to make it happen. Better to spend 40 on Porro than waste 20 on Spence or any other player that the manager doesn’t want and won’t end up playing.

Only six months ago, the going rate for Porro €8.5m ?‍

Backing the manager doesn't mean spending more than we can afford to on one player the manager wants, at the expense of being able to afford other players that the manager also wants. Every time we've stepped up a level during the PL era (under Jol, then Harry, then Poch), we've done so by signing talented players who don't carry massively inflated price tags. When we've spent big, the signing has flopped more often than not (Rebrov, Bentley, Bent, Soldado, Pavlyuchenko, Sissoko, Sanchez, Ndombele, Lo Celso etc.). Our most successful signings were steals, rather than a result of us taking big financial risks by paying market value for a proven player (and Porro is far from proven, with only a few months of impressive form at 23 years old).

I'm sure we both agree that the club should be investing more in the playing squad now that the stadium is finished, but we still have to be more savvy in the transfer market than our rivals. Matching their spending and success rates in the market means maintaining the gap on the pitch. We can only close the gap by exceeding their success rate...but have to do so while spending less money. If anyone thought we'd stop being underdogs the moment the stadium opened, hopefully they've realised that's not the case by now.

Signing Spence instead of a player Conte wanted was clearly a mistake (at least short-term) that we couldn't afford to make. It was particularly frustrating given that there must have been plenty of options for a more experienced (more ready) RWB in the same price bracket. Unfortunately, that puts even more pressure on the club to get it right now, which is likely to make them think twice about splashing £40m on a relatively unproven player. In a perfect world, we would have signed Porro at a much lower price last summer, instead of Spence - or have signed neither and spent big bucks on a top quality, experienced, proven player who would lift the level of our team.

 

[TonyK]

Only six months ago, the going rate for Porro €8.5m ?‍

Backing the manager doesn't mean spending more than we can afford to on one player the manager wants, at the expense of being able to afford other players that the manager also wants. Every time we've stepped up a level during the PL era (under Jol, then Harry, then Poch), we've done so by signing talented players who don't carry massively inflated price tags. When we've spent big, the signing has flopped more often than not (Rebrov, Bentley, Bent, Soldado, Pavlyuchenko, Sissoko, Sanchez, Ndombele, Lo Celso etc.). Our most successful signings were steals, rather than a result of us taking big financial risks by paying market value for a proven player (and Porro is far from proven, with only a few months of impressive form at 23 years old).

I'm sure we both agree that the club should be investing more in the playing squad now that the stadium is finished, but we still have to be more savvy in the transfer market than our rivals. Matching their spending and success rates in the market means maintaining the gap on the pitch. We can only close the gap by exceeding their success rate...but have to do so while spending less money. If anyone thought we'd stop being underdogs the moment the stadium opened, hopefully they've realised that's not the case by now.

Signing Spence instead of a player Conte wanted was clearly a mistake (at least short-term) that we couldn't afford to make. It was particularly frustrating given that there must have been plenty of options for a more experienced (more ready) RWB in the same price bracket. Unfortunately, that puts even more pressure on the club to get it right now, which is likely to make them think twice about splashing £40m on a relatively unproven player. In a perfect world, we would have signed Porro at a much lower price last summer, instead of Spence - or have signed neither and spent big bucks on a top quality, experienced, proven player who would lift the level of our team.

TL;DR