How can we balance organic growth and incoming transfers?

[Dave-F]

A centre forward and DMC squad players are the only players we need to add. (I'd quite fancy a smash and grab raid for Leigh Griffiths personally, but even at 25 his perhaps a bit too old for the current signing philosophy.)

If we managed to persuade a world class player in to join us on the back of Champions League football, then we'd all be very ecited. There's a few great players on the fringes of RM, Bayern, Barcelona etc who may well be interested.

But realistically, for the second year running, this summer is going to be more about who we keep than who we bring in.

 

[Shea]

Would Benteke represent a decent signing if Liverpool were willing to take a heavy loss on his sale?

It's possible he could recapture his Villa form with us and under Poch and with so many of his national team mates at the club he'd be more likely to buy in to the ethos of the club in regards to work rate etc

He would have to accept not being first choice, possible seeing as he's not at Liverpool either I guess but still more likely he'd want to move somewhere he could be that starter more

He'd be a useful option I think, has lots of prem experience and is proven both +ve and -ve in many respect but I think he has shown he at least has the potential to fill the hole that is glaring in our squad in terms of striker depth (we could even play more of a four four two if we wanted at times)

I guess if it were between him or Batshuayi for potential young Belgian strikers there's certainly a case to be made for Benteke - at times he has looked sensational in the EPL and despite going very much off the boil at times for Villa and throughout his time at Liverpool he's shown he has the ability and physicality to do well

He is taller, only 3 years older (perhaps closer to his prime)

I am not sure how much Liverpool would be prepared to swallow, but if he were available for around 16m I'd be interested considering Marseilles will want a lot for their man and he's completely unproven

I don't know enough about Harrison - but I'd like him and or Edwards to be in and around the squad this season, perhaps see them in preseason. It would be nice to see Harrison emerge as our 3rd choice behind a bigger name signing like Batshuaui or Benteke for sure

 

[StartingPrice]

Would Benteke represent a decent signing if Liverpool were willing to take a heavy loss on his sale?

It's possible he could recapture his Villa form with us and under Poch and with so many of his national team mates at the club he'd be more likely to buy in to the ethos of the club in regards to work rate etc

He would have to accept not being first choice, possible seeing as he's not at Liverpool either I guess but still more likely he'd want to move somewhere he could be that starter more

He'd be a useful option I think, has lots of prem experience and is proven both +ve and -ve in many respect but I think he has shown he at least has the potential to fill the hole that is glaring in our squad in terms of striker depth (we could even play more of a four four two if we wanted at times)

I guess if it were between him or Batshuayi for potential young Belgian strikers there's certainly a case to be made for Benteke - at times he has looked sensational in the EPL and despite going very much off the boil at times for Villa and throughout his time at Liverpool he's shown he has the ability and physicality to do well

He is taller, only 3 years older (perhaps closer to his prime)

I am not sure how much Liverpool would be prepared to swallow, but if he were available for around 16m I'd be interested considering Marseilles will want a lot for their man and he's completely unproven

I don't know enough about Harrison - but I'd like him and or Edwards to be in and around the squad this season, perhaps see them in preseason. It would be nice to see Harrison emerge as our 3rd choice behind a bigger name signing like Batshuaui or Benteke for sure

That's a difficult one to call.

On the one hand, he might not have been at all suited to Rodgers' style - as many pointed out before he even signed for them. And that was what, basically, what shot Benteke's confidence. And Poch showed with Licky Rambert that he could get a pretty basic forward who was decent at some of the basics that just happened to dovetail with his system, holding the ball up and bringing others into play primarily, then it wasn't a huge hindrance that he wasn't a World class striker banging goals in from every angle. He fitted his role in the team, which is everything to Poch, and weighed in with a few goals as well. Surely a Benteke with some confidence restored would be able to fit in to that system, too. On the other hand, there is more in common between Poch's and Klopp's system that between Poch and Rodgers, but Benteke has still looked clumsy and out of his depth. That could just be a confidence thing - but it could also be just simply that he was the vocal point of a very limited Villa team and has been found out in the great sifting house in the sky/pitch where some lower table/lower league strikers look exceptional when being vocal point to a countering side but get found-out when asked to play for a high-up team that has far more onus on attacking.

The big thing for me, just because I think Poch knows what he's doing, is that Poch (and, by inference, Mitchell) clearly think that Batshuayi fits the bill, and, Lacazette aside, he appears to be preferred choice. And we know he has absolutely zero interest in stop-gap alternatives to his choices. So it would all be on whether Poch would consider him to be a viable alternative, who he could get the confidence flowing back into, or not. Personally, I'm not sure that he would consider him as a viable first back-up as he has already failed at a similar level so it would be a bit of a gamble. Maybe third choice, but, as you know, if Bentéké might not really want to play second choice, I hardly think he would accept third. Looks more like a Leicester signing to me.

As for Harrison, keen observers don't believe he is ready yet. And there was the story (I think McDermott told it) where Poch looked on at training and then said out loud so that Harrison would hear 'he's a bit lazy isn't he'. I think the idea of this was to give him that little jolt to start questioning his effort and trying harder without confronting him directly. But that doesn't suggest to me someone ready to step up by August. More like someone who would have to up his game for at least a season to really get Poch's attention.

I am, of course, just guessing though

 

[Archibald&Crooks]

The Transfer Rumours and ITK sections of Spurs Community will be open shortly and consistent with previous years we don't have transfer related threads in Spurs Chat when that happens.

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