*Officially* we're the Ultimate Selling Club

[absolute bobbins]

ive read this twice and ive still no idea what you mean.

Definitive Bobbins would be my future heir, the rest basically means that we should be building for the future now so that we can enjoy that tomorrow (well, when the stadium is built) rather than holding onto players and doing nothing of merit with them.
Yeah it was shit when Modric and Bale agitated for a move and then left but there will be others and we'll be in a position where we'll be able to match their ambition and offer the wages and competitiveness.

 

[johnny69]

Yeah we won something

 

[markieboy]

I am surprised we don't buy more players and sell them on,according to those stats .....its easy money.

 

[ultimateloner]

I agree with Chinaman's view that we can nurture talent. That doesn't contradict what I said.

My point was simply that we don't keep hold of our best players for two reasons: 1) We fail to persuade them to stay, and 2) We don't always want to keep them.

It wasn't an either/or comment. There's been plenty of times when we've gone out of our way to keep a player (Modric when he wanted to join the chavs), and there have been other times when we've chosen to sell players. Nobody forced us to sell Bale in the summer. He still had several years left on his contract, and he would have been an idiot to refuse to play if we refused to sell him. We had a great offer, and Levy chose to take the cash and reinvest it in several new players.

I think the big problem we have is that we have a reputation for nurturing talent, then selling our best and brightest for a massive profit. It was one of the reasons Modric joined us in the first place. We've been able to attract promising young players, but they're looking to use us as a stepping stone. And when push comes to shove, we'll sell them if the offer is good.

I think its inevitable as long as it's a profitable model for us. We can't not take the money if it's good money.
I get your drift though. You are basically saying theres a danger that players increasingly expect to move on for us. But even so, that only happens if they perform well with us. So i dont see a big problem here. Not as sexy i guess as being able to have long time servants (since we aren't going to have club legends anymore) but doesn't hurt us going forwards.

 

[LiamJM10]

I'm assuming out of that €322

• Bale €100M
• Modric €40m
• Berbatov €40m
• Carrick €22m
• Keane €25m
• VDV €13m
• Kranjcar €7m
• Corluka €7m
• Pav €10m

That's €264, so not sure where the other €58m is

The numerous other players we've sold I'd imagine.

 

[jambreck]

I think a lot of people are misinterpreting this table.

It isn't indicative of Spurs being a selling club per se. It's simply indicative of the fact that we have had a huge turnover of players - constantly renewing, like a snake shedding its skin. Look at the other protagonists on the list - mostly a veritable who's who of the greatest clubs of Europe. Are they all "selling clubs" too? No, they're just always reinventing themselves; trying to stay ahead of the competition by buying new players and casting off rejects who, because they still happen to be very good players, still command big fees. That's largely what we've been doing too.

Of course, we have also sold three players for huge money during the period in question (assuming that the start date is inclusive of the summer 2008 transfer window) - Berbatov, Modric and Bale. But that wasn't the implementation of deliberate policy. That was merely responding to the reality of Spurs' place in the food chain and doing an outstanding job of squeezing the maximum return for the loss of a player that we didn't wish to lose.

 

[taidgh]

we're number 1! we're number 1!

 

[moomin]

this is massively skewed by bale.

kinda cool that we're #1 in sometime though hahaha

 

[sloth]

And we've reinvested that €322.1mn into the superb squad we have now

The squad may or may not be superb, only time will tell on that one, but personally I'm pretty optimistic about the seven or eight player core of the team.

I know these are well known examples, however, just for perspective, Suarez scored 4 goals in 13 matches in his first half season at Liverpool, one of which was a hat-trick, meaning he only got 1 in the other twelve, he followed that up the next season with 11 in 31 matches, hardly setting the world alight, but improving all the while. Henry got his move to Arsenal at the age of 22 and had a very sticky first few months, admitting he had to learn a whole new way of playing when he came to England. Tevez scored seven in 26 in his first season in England. Bergkamp 11 in 33. Which is not to imply that these facts back up the proposition that some of our players are of similar quality, they may or may not be, but it does demonstrate that unless you've the information over a longish time frame any assessment can be flawed, and in the above cases horribly so. It should be noted that a longish time frame can be more than two seasons, especially when a player is young or has been injured.

 

[Flashspur]

I'm assuming out of that €322

• Bale €100M
• Modric €40m
• Berbatov €40m
• Carrick €22m
• Keane €25m
• VDV €13m
• Kranjcar €7m
• Corluka €7m
• Pav €10m

That's €264, so not sure where the other €58m is

you aint no wheeler dealer

 

[Lufti]

The squad may or may not be superb, only time will tell on that one, but personally I'm pretty optimistic about the seven or eight player core of the team.

I know these are well known examples, however, just for perspective, Suarez scored 4 goals in 13 matches in his first half season at Liverpool, one of which was a hat-trick, meaning he only got 1 in the other twelve, he followed that up the next season with 11 in 31 matches, hardly setting the world alight, but improving all the while. Henry got his move to Arsenal at the age of 22 and had a very sticky first few months, admitting he had to learn a whole new way of playing when he came to England. Tevez scored seven in 26 in his first season in England. Bergkamp 11 in 33. Which is not to imply that these facts back up the proposition that some of our players are of similar quality, they may or may not be, but it does demonstrate that unless you've the information over a longish time frame any assessment can be flawed, and in the above cases horribly so. It should be noted that a longish time frame can be more than two seasons, especially when a player is young or has been injured.

The thing is, the problem, to a large extent, is with the players who've already been here for years. I think most would agree that the players who under perform on a regular basis include Dawson, Lennon, Townsend, Sigurdsson, Dembele, Rose.. We just haven't replaced them or strengthened in the areas which we clearly need for example LB, CB, LW, ST

 

[TheGreenLily]

We sold over £300 million in players and still don't have a LB, FFS

 

[benjani]

Top of the league! When do we collect our trophy?

 

[blobster]

We sold over £300 million in players and still don't have a LB, FFS

Not true..

We nurtured Rose from a bit pants to slightly below average now.

 

[TheGreenLily]

Not true..

We nurtured Rose from a bit pants to slightly below average now.

... yeah, we still don't have a left back

 

[jambreck]

... yeah, we still don't have a left back

We do.

He's on loan at QPR.

One of our bigger fuck ups this season.

 

[StartingPrice]

We sold over £300 million in players and still don't have a LB, FFS

Technically, we have three

 

[Ionman34]

Oh my fucking stomach hurts...

I think Spursh is actually Terry Gilliam.

That was so Python I nearly wet myself.

 

[Ionman34]

I think a lot of people are misinterpreting this table.

It isn't indicative of Spurs being a selling club per se. It's simply indicative of the fact that we have had a huge turnover of players - constantly renewing, like a snake shedding its skin. Look at the other protagonists on the list - mostly a veritable who's who of the greatest clubs of Europe. Are they all "selling clubs" too? No, they're just always reinventing themselves; trying to stay ahead of the competition by buying new players and casting off rejects who, because they still happen to be very good players, still command big fees. That's largely what we've been doing too.

Of course, we have also sold three players for huge money during the period in question (assuming that the start date is inclusive of the summer 2008 transfer window) - Berbatov, Modric and Bale. But that wasn't the implementation of deliberate policy. That was merely responding to the reality of Spurs' place in the food chain and doing an outstanding job of squeezing the maximum return for the loss of a player that we didn't wish to lose.

To an extent you are right Jambreck, but the fundamental difference is that those bigger clubs upgrade with better players whilst we have to gamble on potential. Such is our financial position.
They reinvent by choice, we reinvent by necessity.

 

[Mustard]

Dat Sainsburys dough.