Are we stronger or weaker

[wallyjakeman]

Stronger squad, weaker starting line-up IMO.

 

[StartingPrice]

I'm aware Saha was released rather than sold but its irrelevant to the point I'm making. He's not in the squad any more.

I completely agree with your assessment of the individual players but that's not what I'm saying.

We've been left with an unbalanced and weaker squad.

IMO we should have either
A) bought sig, Dembele and Dempsey to replace Saha, krancjar, pinnaer as well as buying modric/vdv replacement. Or,

B) accept that players such as Dempsey, sig and Dembele go straight in the first team while bringing in other players to supplement the squad.

We're in 4 competitions next year and I think avb will attempt to take it seriously. A couple of injuries and our squad will be left wanting, with the likes of Bentley coming in. Which is a scary thought.

And that is very nearly what we did. The Moutinho deal fell through, apparently, because of third party ownership and a paperwork error by Porto - otherwise fee and terms agreed.
If it had gone thought I think the window would have been good. As it is, my opinion (and it's all about opinions) is that, in effect, Dembele, Sigs and Dempsey, who are all likely to get 1st team action, have replaced two very, very good 1st team players - because the rest you mention hardly, if ever played. So I think the 1st team will be a bit weaker, but the squad a bit stronger, when they are bedded in.

 

[kdspur]

people slowly relasing what modric brought to the table.. major factor why we are so shit so far... im hoping dempsey can bring something but have feeling he will be played out of position somewhere and while all players signed are very good players we needed to replace modric with world class and vdv with world class..

 

[StartingPrice]

people slowly relasing what modric brought to the table.. major factor why we are so shit so far... im hoping dempsey can bring something but have feeling he will be played out of position somewhere and while all players signed are very good players we needed to replace modric with world class and vdv with world class..

I think most people realised

 

[eddiebailey]

We're in 4 competitions next year and I think avb will attempt to take it seriously. A couple of injuries and our squad will be left wanting, with the likes of Bentley coming in. Which is a scary thought.

or hopefully the likes of Caulker, Carroll, Townsend, Smith, Mason and Falque, or even Ceballos, Pritchard, Hall or Byrne will come in, which does not scare me at all. If you are going to have a policy based on bringing through youth you have to trust them some time, and we have some real talents coming through who I would hope to see start before deadwood like Bentley. These lads will have all kicked on from last season and offer us real strength in depth.

 

[parklane1]

As a squad we are definitely stronger

 

[Spurs_Q8]

+ Lloris = Very good addition to our Goalkeeping options, i think Carlo a bit let us down vs Chelsea 1-5
+ Vertongen = Upgrade on Ledley King, with all respect to Ledley due to his Knee condition.
- Dembley = downgrade from Luka, but shouldn't be that much considering to the fact Dembley is good shoter
? Sigurdsson = undecided here Vaart, his work rate really improved recently, but still problems over 90 mins.
+ Dimspey = a replacement for both of Kranjcar & Saha, this one player replacement for botg should Dimspey to involve more in the team, which help the player to be match fit more often than 2.

overally, the team is better in my opinion, specially when you see the likes of Cuelker replace Bassong/Nelson ..

But the must downgrade in our squad, Harry Redknapp to AVB ..

 

[daehanmingook]

I also worry about AVB. I don't want to slate him as a manager, but I think he's had some trouble adjusting to the British work environment. I think his way of working and communicating is currently more suited to a place like La Liga rather than the EPL. I suppose he'll begin to flourish once he learns the ins and outs of the EPL, but as it stands, he will struggle.

I just hope Levy and co. don't kick him out too early. I feel like AVB is a manager's version of a wonderkid. Huge potential but not quite there yet.

 

[Twizzle]

I dont understand why people say Lloris is such a huge acquisition.

Was Friedal really that bad last year ?

I dont recall him losing any games for us. He made one blunder that I recal but I dont think affected the outcome of the game.

Dont get me wrong, Lloris is a great signing for now and the future but Friedel has been pretty good too.

 

[SteveH]

I dont understand why people say Lloris is such a huge acquisition.

Was Friedal really that bad last year ?

I dont recall him losing any games for us. He made one blunder that I recal but I dont think affected the outcome of the game.

Dont get me wrong, Lloris is a great signing for now and the future but Friedel has been pretty good too.

Brad will give Hugo the time he needs to settle. Brad is no spring chicken though. I would think Brad know where he stands.

To be honest Hugo I thought had a drop in form in last few years? But could be talking out of my bum

 

[Twizzle]

hey, I do that all the time

 

[moomin]

I dont understand why people say Lloris is such a huge acquisition.

no doubt friedel has served us well and been steady but Lloris is one of the top 10 gk's in the world. all truly great teams have a great gk between the posts and we finally have ours. friedel hasn't made any gomes style blunders or anything but there's small things about him that keep him from being a top gk. plus lloris is a better fit for a team playing with a high line defense than friedel, and we got him for less than 10 million pounds. i think it's a bigger acquisition than most people on here are making it out to be actually

 

[StartingPrice]

I dont understand why people say Lloris is such a huge acquisition.

no doubt friedel has served us well and been steady but Lloris is one of the top 10 gk's in the world. all truly great teams have a great gk between the posts and we finally have ours. friedel hasn't made any gomes style blunders or anything but there's small things about him that keep him from being a top gk. plus lloris is a better fit for a team playing with a high line defense than friedel, and we got him for less than 10 million pounds. i think it's a bigger acquisition than most people on here are making it out to be actually

Plus, with Lloris between the sticks we have the promise of a top keeper in situ for a decade - think of the stability that offers (and, with all the best will in the World, and remembering I was one of the few who come out and said straight away that signing Brad was a good move, Friedel is never going to offer us that).
Plus,Purely by signing one of the recognised top keepers in the World, as opposed to one who looks promising, like the Octopus, and by paying one of the highest transfer fees for a keeper, it shows a high level of ambition.

 

[Blake Griffin]

the brains of the team have gone, we may as well have just gone for andy carroll as we're not going to pass our way through teams anymore.

 

[StartingPrice]

the brains of the team have gone, we may as well have just gone for andy carroll as we're not going to pass our way through teams anymore.

Dembele offers something in this regard, as, hopefully, will Dempsey (let's wait to so how these two perform regularly, eh).
Besides, as said above (and/or elsewhere), if we agreed a fee and terms over Porto and it was just a bit of faulty paperwork that kyboshed the deal, and as Moutinho clearly wants the EPL and AVB, hopefully we can complete that deal in January. And if not, someone similar. So, if we can get through to then, hopefully, we will be okay.

 

[Blake Griffin]

it was only the last day that went wrong. if we'd have ended the day with vdv and moutinho i'd have ben over the moon, if we'd ended the day with either of them i'd've been pleased ... but to end up with neither of them was a disaster and i can't believe we let it happen. i blame myself for being naive enough to think rafa going must mean moutinho is coming in.

 

[Wirral Spurs]

I also worry about AVB. I don't want to slate him as a manager, but I think he's had some trouble adjusting to the British work environment. I think his way of working and communicating is currently more suited to a place like La Liga rather than the EPL. I suppose he'll begin to flourish once he learns the ins and outs of the EPL, but as it stands, he will struggle.

I just hope Levy and co. don't kick him out too early. I feel like AVB is a manager's version of a wonderkid. Huge potential but not quite there yet.

I spent last season being irritated by him then laughing at him when Chelsea were rubbish. It's difficult to just instantly like and support him especially given the lack of confidence that is being instilled. If its a mistake, and will will find out soon enough if it is, then it is entirely that of Levy and the board.

 

[Wirral Spurs]

it was only the last day that went wrong. if we'd have ended the day with vdv and moutinho i'd have ben over the moon, if we'd ended the day with either of them i'd've been pleased ... but to end up with neither of them was a disaster and i can't believe we let it happen. i blame myself for being naive enough to think rafa going must mean moutinho is coming in.

All Levy's fault.

 

[Spurger King]

it was only the last day that went wrong. if we'd have ended the day with vdv and moutinho i'd have ben over the moon, if we'd ended the day with either of them i'd've been pleased ... but to end up with neither of them was a disaster and i can't believe we let it happen. i blame myself for being naive enough to think rafa going must mean moutinho is coming in.

Completely agree with this. I don't mind admitting I was gutted when we failed to sign Moutinho. I haven't felt that way since the Berbatov fiasco. It just left me thinking that we've made a complete pig's ear of the most important piece of business in the transfer window, and have been the masters of our own downfall.

I really hope I'm proved wrong but I suspect that missing out on Moutinho will ruin any chance AVB had of getting the team playing in the way he wants, which will lead to poor results, building pressure and anger from the fans, and eventually Levy sacking AVB for what is essentially Levy's mistake.

 

[YiddoInPoland]

On the notion of the squad, it is stronger, younger players, who will be here and grow over the next few seasons. As a team we are weaker for losing Modric and VDV as these are two world class guys who made a difference.

Moutinho would have been an amazing signing, but for the multitude of complex reasons it didn't happen. Now, blaming Levy is a bit of easy target IMHO (and i am neither pro or against Levy) as we do not know the ins and outs of the deal, what was being said, and it seemed like a lot of silly buggers going on from Porto's side (who now i understand why they sell players so highly as they own about one boot with the rest of the player being owed by parasites like Kia whatever his name is), chucking an extra couple of million when we were already around the 25m mark is easy to say for us, but i was around in the 80s when we almost went under for doing crap like that and i do not want to go back to that and the shit we had to endure for so long after it, jesus just look at the team we had only ten years ago and we still had some dross.

Also, we can't look at like for like in most cases, as the only player who would work like for like would have been Moutinho, but the system will change so will the players. Will AVB succeed, i don't know, but we should at least give him some time to figure out the team and what needs to happen.