Greg Stobart sheds some light on Tottenham’s summer transfer window

[only1waddle]

Nothing wrong with the question. Poch most likely wanted Schneiderlin and Rodriguez and it wasn't possible to get them. Just like AVB wanted Moutinho and Willan but got Dembele and Dempsey instead . No doubt that both coaches agreed with the signings but what were their options? Either you can have these players or nothing at all?
So in that instance it's not really surprising the coaches gave their agreement.

We've been through this before Mullers, Willian went to Anzi, a club with a bottomless pit of cash that season for 34.5 million, we had never signed a player anywhere near that sort of money and 99.9% of clubs in world football hadn't either, Moutinho i will concede as he was the style of player we desperately needed and would have been a better fit for AvB than Dembele, but please, let's stop quoting Willian as feasable that season, he clearly wasn't.

 

[Mullers]

We've been through this before Mullers, Willian went to Anzi, a club with a bottomless pit of cash that season for 34.5 million, we had never signed a player anywhere near that sort of money and 99.9% of clubs in world football hadn't either, Moutinho i will concede as he was the style of player we desperately needed and would have been a better fit for AvB than Dembele, but please, let's stop quoting Willian as feasable that season, he clearly wasn't.

He was feasible, he ended up going to a club who have a lot of money but he was feasable otherwise we wouldn't have been in for him. You could put the same argument when we lost out to Chelsea who have bottomless pit of money but we still nearly got him.
We had near enough 30 million from selling VDV, Corluka, Niko, Bassong and Piennar and another 33 million from selling Modric, so don't say the money wasn't there, because it was.

 

[Lilbaz]

He was feasible, he ended up going to a club who have a lot of money but he was feasable otherwise we wouldn't have been in for him. You could put the same argument when we lost out to Chelsea who have bottomless pit of money but we still nearly got him.
We had near enough 30 million from selling VDV, Corluka, Niko, Bassong and Piennar and another 33 million from selling Modric, so don't say the money wasn't there, because it was.

We didn't that money for any other players?

 

[Mullers]

We didn't that money for any other players?

Indeed we did, we bought Siggy when there was no head coach at the club, the money could have been used to buy Willan but it wasn't.

 

[Lilbaz]

Indeed we did, we bought Siggy when there was no head coach at the club, the money could have been used to buy Willan but it wasn't.

We needed to find a first choice goalkeeper. We got Lloris. £12m
We needed to find a replacement for Ledly. We got Vertongen. £9.5m
We needed a striker. We bought Ade. £5m
We needed a replacement for VDV. We bought Dempsey. £6m
We needed a replacement for Pienaar we bought Siggs. £8m
We needed a replacement for Modric we bought Dembelle. £15m

Which of those purchases would you have sacrificed (at the time) to bring in £30m Willian?

 

[Mullers]

We needed to find a first choice goalkeeper. We got Lloris. £12m
We needed to find a replacement for Ledly. We got Vertongen. £9.5m
We needed a striker. We bought Ade. £5m
We needed a replacement for VDV. We bought Dempsey. £6m
We needed a replacement for Pienaar we bought Siggs. £8m
We needed a replacement for Modric we bought Dembelle. £15m

Which of those purchases would you have sacrificed (at the time) to bring in £30m Willian?

Are you asking me what I would do if I was head coach?

 

[Lilbaz]

Are you asking me what I would do if I was head coach?

You stated that we had the money to buy Willian. Which is correct. I'm just pointing out we had more important areas of the squad that needed to be addressed with the money at the time. Gk, Defender and Striker all needed replacing, that money had to come from somewhere.

 

[Shadydan]

Ahh another Straw man argument from Mullers I see

 

[Barry Mead]

We needed to find a first choice goalkeeper. We got Lloris. £12m
We needed to find a replacement for Ledly. We got Vertongen. £9.5m
We needed a striker. We bought Ade. £5m
We needed a replacement for VDV. We bought Dempsey. £6m
We needed a replacement for Pienaar we bought Siggs. £8m
We needed a replacement for Modric we bought Dembelle. £15m

Which of those purchases would you have sacrificed (at the time) to bring in £30m Willian?

Looking at that I'd have rather had Willian than Dembelle, Siggs and Dempsey. Obviously at that point we wouldn't have known that Sandro would have gotten injured and with him, Hudd, Parker and Jake we had good cm options (and Holtby arrived in Jan) as attacking mids/wingers we had Bale, Lennon, Andros, Falque if needed and of course Willian if we had gone that route
Water under the bridge now but that would have been the route I'd have preferred

 

[Lilbaz]

Looking at that I'd have rather had Willian than Dembelle, Siggs and Dempsey. Obviously at that point we wouldn't have known that Sandro would have gotten injured and with him, Hudd, Parker and Jake we had good cm options (and Holtby arrived in Jan) as attacking mids/wingers we had Bale, Lennon, Andros, Falque if needed and of course Willian if we had gone that route
Water under the bridge now but that would have been the route I'd have preferred

You might be right. But Siggs and Dembelle were hot property at the time and Dempsey had scored 17 goals for Fulham. I can see why they did it.

 

[Barry Mead]

I don't think it's any coincidence there seems to be 2 home grown spaces in our squad, whether we have managed to come to any accord with Soton for January or we feel we can agree a deal and add both Snidey and Rodriguez then who knows, but I think we maybe can hold off on worrying if Poch didn't get the players he wanted until we see what happens January

 

[ronspurs]

people constantly forget that if we compete with a Russian club with a bottomless pit of money we end up breaking our wage structure, meaning our existing players get gassed up by their agents and then demand pay rises until it trickles down to the u21 squad.

 

[Mullers]

You stated that we had the money to buy Willian. Which is correct. I'm just pointing out we had more important areas of the squad that needed to be addressed with the money at the time. Gk, Defender and Striker all needed replacing, that money had to come from somewhere.

Is that what AVB thought or Levy thought or is this just your own view? Because when we brought Siggy he wasn't even appointed yet, I'm pretty sure a deal was negotiated for Verts when he wasn't at the club.

 

[Barry Mead]

You might be right. But Siggs and Dembelle were hot property at the time and Dempsey had scored 17 goals for Fulham. I can see why they did it.

I tend to feel both Siggy and Dempsey were more opportunity buys than planned buys despite both having had good seasons before we signed them. Dembele I always thought was one of those players who flattered to deceive, but I can see that the club might have felt he could develop into a decent midfielder he was rated in some quarters. So I can see he maybe was a player we had been watching and considering for a while
Who knows maybe the Siggy signing was a Levy opportunity deal and having spent that money made him reluctant to spend big on Willian who it appears AVB really wanted. Dempsey in the circumstances seemed like a sop for AVB because he didn't get Willian although how much AVB really wanted Dempsey is another matter. Levy with an eye on the US market and the seeming frowing appeal of football over there might well have bought a player that suited him and tried to sell the purchase to AVB on the back of his excellent season at Fulham.
I imagine with just the Siggy and Dempsey money and the £6.5 mill net spend profit that window we could have afforded Willian and still bought Dembele but I can envisage Levy looking at the cost of Willian and thinking there can't be much upside on resale value at that, whereas he might have felt Siggy had a resale upside and Dempsey at the price, though his age meant no upside, certain commercial considerations might provide an upside
I certainly don't think Levy is a fool when weighing up transfer options, but I do think his seeming desire to financially see a gain in every signing can cost us because it sometimes overlooks possible gains on the pitch

 

[Barry Mead]

people constantly forget that if we compete with a Russian club with a bottomless pit of money we end up breaking our wage structure, meaning our existing players get gassed up by their agents and then demand pay rises until it trickles down to the u21 squad.

You compete with a Russian club with a bottomless pit of money on the basis that you are in a stronger, much higher profile league and are based in a country with a far better lifestyle

If those can't convince a player to accept a lower wage then you give up, I think the biggest problem in terms of getting Willian at that stage was that Anzhi were the only club prepared to offer the money Shakhtar wanted

 

[Nocando]

Since you all put so simply, it seems running a football club is alot easier than we make it. Which begs the question what the hell is Levy and the rest actually doing? Why don't we overthrow the current crop and put Mullers in charge. Then we'd get any player we wanted.

 

[Mullers]

Since you all put so simply, it seems running a football club is alot easier than we make it. Which begs the question what the hell is Levy and the rest actually doing? Why don't we overthrow the current crop and put Mullers in charge. Then we'd get any player we wanted.

You wouldn't.
I also wouldn't mislead coaches into thinking they could get any player they wanted and I wouldn't expect them to deliver champions league football either.

 

[Nocando]

You wouldn't.
I also wouldn't mislead coaches into thinking they could get any player they wanted and I wouldn't expect them to deliver champions league football either.

Right you've definitely got my vote now. Your manifesto is unbeatable, well perhaps not in the foothball sense, which you allude to anyway.

 

[Mullers]

Right you've definitely got my vote now. Your manifesto is unbeatable, well perhaps not in the foothball sense, which you allude to anyway.

Yes! Another one to the anti levy list. 13 of us now.

 

[Kendall]

What the hell is this would've rather had Willian business? The guy has been bang average for Chelsea and would've been even worse for us.