Tom Huddlestone and Aaron Lennon are the best English prospects in the Prem. I hope they attract the most ambitious players in Europe to our famous club. The Prem is considered the best in the world. I'd like to think any prospects like Taarabt will demand to come to Spurs as a first choice.

like the sound of him

left to see if i'm gonna like the sight of him

Hopefully, prospects like Taarabt do not view Spurs as a stepping stone to greener pastures. A couple more Carrick-like transfers would be poor for the club's image. With a policy of buying talented prospects rather than the finished product comes the inconsistancy of development. The Spurs' faithful will have to be very patient:rofl: !!! What will prevent future exits? I don't know that loyalty has a place in today's game but the following wouldn't hurt.....brave ownership, consistant management Jol/Allen/Comolli; outstanding fan support; success on the pitch and a new stadium.

not if we take our potential on towards success

From the quotes i've seen he expects to get 'maximum playing time' which is the main reason he chose us over the Arse and Chelsea. It will be interesting to see if a) he does get a lot of first team action and b) how good he is when given the opportunity.

Yes, especially considering this is only a 6-month loan deal, which suggests either that Lens don't really want to sell him and have just done this to keep him happy for a while, or that Spurs want to take a good look at him before making up their minds to pay whatever inflated price Lens are demanding. If, as I suspect, it is the latter, then I don't see him playing in the first team too much, not in the crucial second half of the season. Unless he turns out to be another Maradona.

I wondered when I first read about this deal whether the loan element was a result of Taarabt's reputation for causing disciplinary problems - that MJ and co. wanted to see whether he would accept instructions and keep his mouth shut.

Then I read a suggestion that the loan is just a temporary mechanism, because the club is not permitted pay a fee to Lens until the player is 18 - no idea whether there is any truth in this.

If we stay in 2 or 3 cup competitions for much longer, we may need him. Or he may find himself on the bench for when we need to chase games. As you say, unless he's another Rooney or Maradona, I can't see him leapfrogging the likes of Malbranque on the left ... but that's what we thought about Lennon before we saw him play.

Agree with much of the sentiment in drnbean's post, we can't afford to sell another big player in the way that we did with Carrick. It invites the big teams to believe that they can poach our players and it lessens our impact as a team who want to break into the elite four. We've got to keep building a team, not look to off-load our best performers. I don't blame Levy etc for letting Carrick go, I didn't want him to but I think in the situation as it was, maybe we had to and in that case we had Huddlestone waiting in the wings. The money allowed us to strengthen in other areas too, so it could have strengthened us in the long term, even though it damaged us as a team in the short term.

It is true also that whilst the players are developing there will be inconsistency and that is a massive feature of our current campaign. That is why when a player develops more consistency as Carrick had it is not viable to sell them. At the moment we have Robbo (if not so much of late), Chimbonda, King, Dawson and Keane as the only players who have sprung to mind that are consistent in games. In there I'd say Dawson still has a little way to go.

Further afield we have players like Berbatov, Jenas, Defoe, Lennon, (Tainio, Davids and Mido - barring injuries) who are generally quite consistent but still don't always look completely at ease with what they are doing. Then further down are players like Lee, Huddlestone, Zokora, Ghaly, Davenport and Murphy who often look far from settled.

For me, at this present moment we only really have two players who are currently settled/consistent and who are on good form-Dawson and Chimbonda. Malbranque, Defoe and Bertabtov could potential be added in this bracket at this time. Basically we need to get it so we have 11-15 players in our squad who are settled/ consistent high performers. Who have been at Spurs for a couple of years, know the team, know each other and have experience of the English and European competitions. We now have the talent, but we need to harvest it through to fruition if we are going to suceed in winning trophies and being successful.

So to answer the question, what will prevent future exits? It will be brave and clever ownership (which we appear to have with Levy), consistent management (which I hope we will continue to have in Jol and Comolli), outstanding fan support (which on the whole is there) and future developments coming through (i.e. the training ground and new staduim plans). It is these things, which should help us to attain success on the pitch and ensure that loyalty to the developing Club is retained. If the management and the players can see that success is coming and development is nearing, then there should be no reason to want to move to another club.

There is one over-riding factor that kept Henry at Arsenal last year and that was the new staduim. It offered change and new development at the club. Without that, he would now be at Barca. We need to have plans in for a new staduim or massive development of the Lane to be ready within say four years. Otherwise players like Lennon, Huddlestone may seek to move to play in front of a further 30-40,000 people each week. If they can see themselves being legends at a legendary club then they will stay. We need to do everything we can to accomodate the picture in their minds of Tottenham being the club that people will look back on as the team of the era. (i.e. Us in 60s, Liverpool in 80s, Man U 90s. We need to show them that we can become the team of the 10s (2010 onwards). THe concept that they could be the catalyst to that rise and then fulfill their own potential with us is what will keep them at the club.

There are many levels to this term loyalty.

With Taarabt's laon, we have an option to buy which I envisage will include a pre-arranged set price. I trust Comolli to have organised that. Hopefully we will get to see the lad at somepoint soon, maybe in the reserve friendly?

Well in that case, that kind of confirms my second theory. In which case I wouldn't expect to see him play in the first team any time soon, more likely in the reserves. They will want to make sure he is someone we want to keep, as otherwise trying to make room for him in the first team will just mean more disruption if he ends up not staying in the summer.

We think alike. I hope the ambitions of the club go beyond mid table w unrealized promises. To get there requires a new stadium 60000+. Ars#$% have made the plunge and as a result will remain light years ahead for some time. I fear the Spurs faithful do not realize the significance and importance of prompt planning and action. It should be letter writing campaign, banner marching, up in arms type of stuff rather than....WHL is quaint and I'd hate to see us move.