Player watch: Toby Alderweireld

[yankspurs]

Toby wants out. Thats why this is happening now. If he didnt, he’d have been fast tracked back. But he does want out so he’s getting the Kyle Walker treatment except our replacement is better than Walker’s replacement was so its not as glaringly obvious that we’re downgrading in crunch time due to a wantaway like it was last year.

Im really pissed at myself for missing the opprtunity on “carve and copy”

That’s on me. I’ll try to do better next time

 

[Marty]

-We've already got great players in his position. Argument this wasn't quite the case with Walker. At least we won't all be having heart attacks this summer as to whether we get a top CB in because of what we already have

It's disappointing but selling him has to be put under consideration now for those reasons above.

This point most of all. I wouldn't be scared at all going into a season with Jan and Sanchez as starting CBs, with Dier if we want to play a three and Foyth with a year's experience and a full pre-season emerging.

it would be sad to lose Toby but we would cope well.

 

[Ghost Hardware]

Assuming Toby goes and at some point Jan gets injured, i really wouldn’t be confident fielding a defence of Sanchez and Dier for any prelonged period of time. Saying that, I don’t see how we bring in someone like Tah. Where would he fit in, ahead of Sanchez or behind? And what happens to Foyth.

If Toby goes we will be weaker, Sanchez is incredible for his age and will be one of the best in the world, but he is not at Toby’s level and won’t be for some time. And I think playing alongside Jan helps him massively.

 

[allatsea]

Mirror linking him with Chelsea today. For no other reason than we play them tomorrow I suspect. Nobody falls for that anymore.

Levy will love negotiating with Chelsea. Start at 60 million and work upwards

It’s pretty obvious he’s been tapped up by some moneybags.

Moneybags club will have to pay Levy's price or Toby will still be here 1/9/2018 !

 

[worcestersauce]

Just read through that daily mail piece and I really had forgotten that he hasn't started in the prem for us since October, I know small margins matter and we have missed him but we haven't done too badly without him, there'd be a lot more wrist slitting about this situation had he not got injured.

 

[hutchiniho]

Yep, one of those classic carve and copy situations we're all so familiar with. First you carve, then you copy. Textbook.

Playing the Dave Gorman sayings game

Bowl in a china shop
Escape goat
Right for the gecko ?

Glad it was spotted

 

[kmk]

If he goes, there is no point getting depressed that we can’t hold on to our best players. Clubs with more revenue than ours have had to let players go: Liverpool (Suarez, Sterling & Coutinho) and Arsenal (Henry, Van Persie & Sanchez). Even Barcelona couldn’t hold onto Neymar.

Alderweireld is great but not irreplaceable.

 

[WiganSpur]

Assuming Toby goes and at some point Jan gets injured, i really wouldn’t be confident fielding a defence of Sanchez and Dier for any prelonged period of time. Saying that, I don’t see how we bring in someone like Tah. Where would he fit in, ahead of Sanchez or behind? And what happens to Foyth.

If Toby goes we will be weaker, Sanchez is incredible for his age and will be one of the best in the world, but he is not at Toby’s level and won’t be for some time. And I think playing alongside Jan helps him massively.

I think we'll definitely end up getting a CB in but personally I would just use Dier as a CB and buy one maybe two midfield players.

You're probably right about Verts but is it worth spending £30-40m for a squad player there? Foyth has shown promise and he's comfortable LCB, much more so than Dier is. I think the best way to play the Verts situation is to address that situation should it actually happen. If he did get injured in the first part of the season for example then we can buy in January.

For Verts cover, Foyth is probably as good as we can get in terms of someone that won't demand first team football every week.

Personally would go for Sanchez, Dier, Verts and Foyth with CCV used in cups due to his impressive displays for Ipswich. If we do get someone in it has to be someone comfortable on the left side and then i'd loan Foyth to someone who will give him the game time he needs.

Tactically if we sort left back out whether it's Rose or whoever, we also have the option to switch to a back three with Davies playing the LCB role that Verts normally plays.

 

[southlondonyiddo]

Toby is as fit as Walker was last season when he suddenly became our 2nd choice right back

 

[Sandros Shiny Head]

Toby is as fit as Walker was last season when he suddenly became our 2nd choice right back

Except he's actually not fit. He's played like 3 times against terrible opposition since his injury and was ropey in all of them

 

[rocklink]

So how could we ever win the league if we sell our senior players one at a season? We will always be that young side forever...

 

[rossdapep]

I'm not as convinced as some that we'd get a huge fee for him. When he played at the start of the season he didn't look the same player as in previous seasons and was much more error prone. The minutes he's played since his injury haven't been anything special either for us or Belgium and I think that's as big a part of him not playing as anything that's going on behind the scenes. If we want a top fee for him he'll need to perform well but at the moment it seems like he can't.

I'm not so sure, plenty of fans of other clubs are getting excited at the prospect of us losing him and don't know the ins and outs as much as do. They believe he's our best defender and a huge reason why we have been decent in defence. A lot that I know even think he's the best CB in the league, I'm pretty sure he'll be held in high esteem by other clubs too. A lot fans of other clubs don't realise that for the past 18 months Jan has been the better defender and we're always going to know more about his true fitness than what Toby's PR team will spin out.

 

[thelak]

Maybe basic salaries are quoted and the rest is done in such a way as to reduce tax? No idea.

It should still show up in published accounts though

 

[southlondonyiddo]

Except he's actually not fit. He's played like 3 times against terrible opposition since his injury and was ropey in all of them

Haha

Yep ok, if you say so

 

[RichieS]

Haha

Yep ok, if you say so

What's his excuse for playing like an absolute penis against Rochdale then? Injured or not he was phoning it in that day.

 

[Shadydan]

Toby is fit but he needs a run of games to get back to 100% match fit which is understandable.

 

[theShiznit]

Except he's actually not fit. He's played like 3 times against terrible opposition since his injury and was ropey in all of them

Agreed, he was given chances to up his fitness levels and looked poor in doing so, hardly inspiring Poch to throw him into bigger (more important) games.

 

[MyNameIsNicolaBerti]

There is no doubting the man's quality. But I think it has been clear for a while now, with the contract shenanigans and lazy efforts after injury, that dear Toby is letting his reputation as the league's best centre back get the better of him. I think Poch is right to send a message to him that we are about the team, the project. Not egomaniacs. Walker pulled it and he was out. Did our form really suffer? No, not really, especially when you consider we've essentially played all of our matches away from home this year.

I think Poch's message is clear. Shape up or get out. Project and club before prima donna bullshit. He wants to play in the world cup. Hell, he wants a move, time to knuckle down or otherwise get used to being frozen out. Fully behind Poch on this one.

 

[MyNameIsNicolaBerti]

I'm not so sure, plenty of fans of other clubs are getting excited at the prospect of us losing him and don't know the ins and outs as much as do. They believe he's our best defender and a huge reason why we have been decent in defence. A lot that I know even think he's the best CB in the league, I'm pretty sure he'll be held in high esteem by other clubs too. A lot fans of other clubs don't realise that for the past 18 months Jan has been the better defender and we're always going to know more about his true fitness than what Toby's PR team will spin out.

He IS our best defender, just as Walker was our best right back.

The myth that opposition fans hold onto though is that we don't have any talent to replace these players. We do and we are continually looking for more. Sanchez has been a star for us considering his age. Have we truly missed Toby? I'm not convinced we have and I don't think Poch is either....just as we haven't really missed Walker.

The real crime would be if we just relied on our star names and not prepare for depth or squad losses. Liverpool go and spunk absurd amounts of money on Van Dijk, and what happens if he gets a long term injury? They haven't gotya Snachez to come in. They're immediately weaker and reliant even more on their attackers to get them out of jail. That, I think, is the difference that other fans don't see.

 

[Shadydan]

He IS our best defender, just as Walker was our best right back.

The myth that opposition fans hold onto though is that we don't have any talent to replace these players. We do and we are continually looking for more. Sanchez has been a star for us considering his age. Have we truly missed Toby? I'm not convinced we have and I don't think Poch is either....just as we haven't really missed Walker.

The real crime would be if we just relied on our star names and not prepare for depth or squad losses. Liverpool go and spunk absurd amounts of money on Van Dijk, and what happens if he gets a long term injury? They haven't gotya Snachez to come in. They're immediately weaker and reliant even more on their attackers to get them out of jail. That, I think, is the difference that other fans don't see.

Toby hasn't been our best defender since 2016, that accolade belongs to Jan.