Levy to reform scouting procedures

[Blake Griffin]

i'll never like this committee bollocks, i'm open to being proven wrong but i'd far rather just have the manager and his head scout picking players for the team, not the balance sheet.

 

[yido_number1]

Fuck, it gets on my tits when those 7 players are categorised as flops/failures and it's said that we wasted all that money.

If we sold those players on the transfer market today, here's what i think we could recoup from that 100m or so outlay...

Eriksen- 15-18m
Lamela - 10-15m
Chadli- 8-10m
Capoue- 10m
Soldado- 10m (Maybe more in Spain)
Paulinho- 8m
Chiriches- 5m (Probably true but I'd take a mars bar and they pay for his travel.)

Total- 76m (Maximum)

I think you got a bit carried away so I put my opinion in to even it up. Some of those players may well go on to improve and be worth more but at the moment I think that is realistic. We may get more for some of the lesser performers like Chiriches on previous rep and same for Soldado.

I think of those players only Chiriches and Paulinho are really expendable and likely to be sold. We will probably recoup a lot of the money we spent and hopefully re invest it wisely in a solid CB and able play maker type midfielder

 

[0-Tibsy-0]

Whatever people say about the lack of investment in players etc, for me the single best investment Enic have made and one that will be both financially beneficial in the long run for them but also beneficial to the future of our playing staff is the training centre. It won't have bought short term improvement such as spending the 50million on bringing a player of that quality in, but it could help to produce a higher quantity of Premiership quality players, with the odd special player too, in the future. Allowing for more spaces in the squad to be filled with home-grown talent thus allowing spending on fewer but more expensive/higher quality players.

This ties in with the latest 'ITK', and shows a couple of things - Why Poch was bought in. Why Spurs will stick with him. And a slight change of direction by the Club to allow ourselves to compete with Clubs despite not having billionaire owners pumping money at whoever they want.

 

[Flobadob]

I think you got a bit carried away so I put my opinion in to even it up. Some of those players may well go on to improve and be worth more but at the moment I think that is realistic. We may get more for some of the lesser performers like Chiriches on previous rep and same for Soldado.

I think of those players only Chiriches and Paulinho are really expendable and likely to be sold. We will probably recoup a lot of the money we spent and hopefully re invest it wisely in a solid CB and able play maker type midfielder

Completely disagree with your valuation of Eriksen, i'm pretty sure he was in the top 3 or 4 for goals/assists for midfielders in the PL last season at the age of 21, he's worth far more than 15-18 million IMO. I can see why you don't agree with 20m for Lamela because he's inconsistent, but if you're going to say Soldado could go for more in spain i could apply the same logic to Lamela in Italy, plus he has bundles of potential. I also think it's pretty unfair to put Chadli in a similar price range as someone like Robert Snodgrass? He's worth 12 million at the very least IMO. Capoue and Soldado's valuations are difficult to place really as one moment they can look good and then the next they are non-existant, so it's difficult to say what their value might be. I do think the media will have a much bigger influence on Soldado's value though, as they just haven't stopped slagging him off, whereas i've barely seen/heard a word regarding Capoue.

I wasn't suggesting we sell them all, just stating that i don't think (if you take what they are likely to be worth in the transfer market into account) you can say we have wasted all the bale money. We may have wasted some of it, but i actually think it may be a valuable lesson that our academy is actually more than capable of producing players to have a role as squad players and their is no need to pay ridiculous wages and transfer fees for average players that we don't even know will actually fit in with the teams style once they get here

 

[Mustard]

All that needs to happen is the idiot making the constant wrong decisions buggers off.

I wonder who that can be?

 

[Snarfalicious]

I personally wish Levy would delegate/split responsibilities.

For instance, designate Baldini as the guy who sells players and Levy as the man who negotiates for incoming players. Or vice versa. We have two men capable of handling themselves in negotiations and we have such a need to shift players while also making progress in bringing players in. I've got no clue if that's how it's working currently, but for me it reads as a scatter-brained approach given we routinely seem to sell/buy without a real direction in mind. It needs to be far more productive throughout a window, and maybe if Baldini is in charge of sales we can actually, you know, sell players as opposed to holding on to their wages for another year because we didn't get that extra million on the fee.

 

[yido_number1]

Completely disagree with your valuation of Eriksen, i'm pretty sure he was in the top 3 or 4 for goals/assists for midfielders in the PL last season at the age of 21, he's worth far more than 15-18 million IMO. I can see why you don't agree with 20m for Lamela because he's inconsistent, but if you're going to say Soldado could go for more in spain i could apply the same logic to Lamela in Italy, plus he has bundles of potential. I also think it's pretty unfair to put Chadli in a similar price range as someone like Robert Snodgrass? He's worth 12 million at the very least IMO. Capoue and Soldado's valuations are difficult to place really as one moment they can look good and then the next they are non-existant, so it's difficult to say what their value might be. I do think the media will have a much bigger influence on Soldado's value though, as they just haven't stopped slagging him off, whereas i've barely seen/heard a word regarding Capoue.

I wasn't suggesting we sell them all, just stating that i don't think (if you take what they are likely to be worth in the transfer market into account) you can say we have wasted all the bale money. We may have wasted some of it, but i actually think it may be a valuable lesson that our academy is actually more than capable of producing players to have a role as squad players and their is no need to pay ridiculous wages and transfer fees for average players that we don't even know will actually fit in with the teams style once they get here

I don't think we've wasted the money and think a lot of the players will prove to be worth more than they were when we brought them. I just think at the moment nobody would pay the same fee we got for Modric for Eriksen that is inconsistent. I think Eriksen could go on to be the next big player we sell, (After Hugo and Jan) but he isn't there yet.

Soldado will still have a good rep in Spain as he is very good in that league and Athletico and Valencia (with their new money) could take a punt on his previous class and pay decent money. Lamela could go for more but there is no money in Italian football anymore and they usually don't sign big money players from outside of Italy. I think the last big money moves were maybe Higuain and Tevez. They usually keep the money in the league and sign cheaper players from outside.

 

[yido_number1]

I personally wish Levy would delegate/split responsibilities.

For instance, designate Baldini as the guy who sells players and Levy as the man who negotiates for incoming players. Or vice versa. We have two men capable of handling themselves in negotiations and we have such a need to shift players while also making progress in bringing players in. I've got no clue if that's how it's working currently, but for me it reads as a scatter-brained approach given we routinely seem to sell/buy without a real direction in mind. It needs to be far more productive throughout a window, and maybe if Baldini is in charge of sales we can actually, you know, sell players as opposed to holding on to their wages for another year because we didn't get that extra million on the fee.

Levy is never gonna trust anyone else to set prices or have a say on what we are selling players for. That is fundamental to the financial well being of the club and something he is probably targeted on.

 

[SteveH]

it's not rocket sciences as West Ham and Southampton have shown.

 

[StartingPrice]

There is nothing in that article whatsoever. It seems they're using the fact Darren Eales is leaving for matters "unrelated to his work at Spurs. He is leaving for personal reasons" to cobble some trash article that's basically going back to the old wasted the Bale money. It's just the Daily Mail using any old excuse to have a dig at us and slate our players. Nothing to see.

Y'know, I read this article this morning (and some of the mimics) and that is exactly how I interpreted it.

The only substantial information in it is that Eales is going to the US, but concedes that this is precisely FA to do with any inherent need or desire to restructure scouting. There is a reference to Jonathan Beaker having already left, but no attempt to relate this to the scouting network. And then a thinly disguised rehash of the wasted Bale money story (or, agenda, as I prefer to consider it) - and still failing to recognise any perspective other than that they replaced Bale who was on tremendous form and therefore they are all failures it they don't all come in and immediately hit tremendous form. There is not reference to the return of Ian Broomfield - now surely that was a major restructuring of scouting. No mention of the change in job-title and remit for Steffen Freund - from the summer, which also involves the international scouting network. And the startlingly banal observation that Franco Baldini will still be head honcho.

The conclusion, IMHO, is correct - just an excuse to rehash the wasted Bale money scenario and have a dig at us. Twat!

 

[jonnyp]

Many seasons too late, and I've got little faith they'll actually fix this problem. Why is Baldini still with the club?

 

[HobbitSpur]

Personally I have not been impressed by Baldini!
Comolli was better IMO!
But if this true, then I agree that we need re-shuffling and I'm glad Broomfield is back.

I am not sure who is better or worse. The only thing that I would say is that it appears to me that it is the tail wagging the dog a little. Baldini was hailed because of his contacts, however why are we basing opinion on contacts and the content of his little black book?

Surely a manager should be the one defining what areas he needs adding to/improving and what attributes these players should have specifically.

I find it almost comical that we have enough midfielders to even tire Jordan out, yet we have a severs lack of forwards/defenders. Surely this is demonstrative of a scouting/recruitment policy that resembles a Goat Rodeo!!

 

[ShaunL84]

Fuck, it gets on my tits when those 7 players are categorised as flops/failures and it's said that we wasted all that money.

If we sold those players on the transfer market today, here's what i think we could recoup from that 100m or so outlay...

Eriksen- 30m £25m
Lamela- 20m £17m
Chadli- 15m £12m
Capoue- 15m £8m
Soldado- 10m £10m
Paulinho- 8m £10m
Chiriches- 5m £7m

Total- 103m 89m

Fixed but I think selling all seven and signing 7 new players wouldn't be a great move but I will do it anyway as I like transfers.

Wilfred Bony - £19 million
Morgan Schneirderlin - £24 million
Yehven Konoplyanka - Free Agent
Kevin De Bruyne - £20 million
Marek Hamsik - £26million

Bony
Konoplyanka-Hamsik-De Bruyne
Schneirderlin-Mason

 

[SteveH]

Levy is never gonna trust anyone else to set prices or have a say on what we are selling players for. That is fundamental to the financial well being of the club and something he is probably targeted on.

Levy will always control the financial side of things, rightly so.

Hindsight would always be nice to have and with this in mind, I personally would not have pulled the plug on any of the players we have bought at that time. I personally did not know much about Chadli and Lemala so it would have been hard for novice like me to call. But the rest looked good buys for the club - with Soldado and Ericksen looking like standout buys at the time.

Changing personnel in the transfer department is all well good but for me we need to increase the focus on the psychological aspects of the incoming/proposed transfer targets, as much as the physical. It has been the inability of these new players to adapt and settle which is at the root of our current problem.

 

[StartingPrice]

Levy will always control the financial side of things, rightly so.

Hindsight would always be nice to have and with this in mind, I personally would not have pulled the plug on any of the players we have bought at that time. I personally did not know much about Chadli and Lemala so it would have been hard for novice like me to call. But the rest looked good buys for the club - with Soldado and Ericksen looking like standout buys at the time.

Changing personnel in the transfer department is all well good but for me we need to increase the focus on the psychological aspects of the incoming/proposed transfer targets, as much as the physical. It has been the inability of these new players to adapt and settle which is at the root of our current problem.

A fair number of folk seem to judge everything on The Now - a player is as good or bad as his last performance, the performance of the team in any given match is permanently exactly where the team and club is at, etc.

In one way or another, every single one of the signings we made with the Bale money looked like a good signing to a substantial portion of the footballing World at the time. Some of them still do. A point I have made elsewhere is that in many ways we seem to be in a comparable situation as when Ramos was dismissed and Redknapp hired. Then we had an influx of new players who didn't hit the ground running, but which included Kaboul, Modric and Bale, one of whom was shipped off to Pompey, and the other two of whom were constantly criticised (modric for being too light weight for this league and Bale for being a useless injured Jonah who should be sold to Notts Forest - how did that work out?).

 

[DaSpurs]

it's not rocket sciences as West Ham and Southampton have shown.

This. As much as each of their successes has dug under my skin, I appreciate that they are proving that a) it isn't about buying top shelf quality, but rather specifically and appropriately addressing your needs within the context of the way you intend to play, and b) it's really not that fucking difficult.

We signed some clearly talented players last summer, but we absolutely did not address our needs nor tailor our additions to be compatible with the squad at the time. We have made far too many purchases lately on the premise of potential rather suitability to the squad and the Prem, and I like to think/hope the board has in fact recognized this and is reevaluating this policy, as it has backfired tremendously. Trying to make the machine work with missing cogs, however small, while covering them up with glamorous pieces of equipment has simply never been a good plan.

 

[NEVILLEB]

Levy's had over 10 years to build an effective transfer team.

I'll hold my breath.

 

[Nine while nine]

The club’s head of analysis Jonathan Beaker has already left the club and has moved to Australia, but Levy has plans to restructure his scouting policy in the coming weeks.

I'm confused. If Beaker was our head of analysis, then what role does Dr Bunsen Honeydew play?

And how many more muppets do we employ?

And does that explain why the crowd at White Hart Lane is full of moaning old gits who remember the good old days when the entertainment was better?

 

[tiger666]

Fixed but I think selling all seven and signing 7 new players wouldn't be a great move but I will do it anyway as I like transfers.

Wilfred Bony - £19 million
Morgan Schneirderlin - £24 million
Yehven Konoplyanka - Free Agent
Kevin De Bruyne - £20 million
Marek Hamsik - £26million

Bony
Konoplyanka-Hamsik-De Bruyne
Schneirderlin-Mason

Just like that.

 

[ackie]

I am not sure who is better or worse. The only thing that I would say is that it appears to me that it is the tail wagging the dog a little. Baldini was hailed because of his contacts, however why are we basing opinion on contacts and the content of his little black book?

Surely a manager should be the one defining what areas he needs adding to/improving and what attributes these players should have specifically.

I find it almost comical that we have enough midfielders to even tire Jordan out, yet we have a severs lack of forwards/defenders. Surely this is demonstrative of a scouting/recruitment policy that resembles a Goat Rodeo!!

You know that our gaffer wants Morgan Schneiderlin a midfielder. If that is the case, we should sell Paulinho! Buy Jay Rod and sell Townsend!
And yes I definitely agree with you that we really lack forwards and defenders!
Whether it's the little black book or the managers wish, I just want us to get the right players and play the right football and win something!