Player Watch: Victor Wanyama

[Bus-Conductor]

So you respect Poch as a coach but think you have superior judgement to him when it comes to player recruitment ?

I think I respect him more as a coach and improver of players than I do as a recruiter of players, at least so far, at least based on what I have been led to believe have been his personal choices here and elsewhere. I can't say I've been blown away by Mitchell and co either. Son for 22m ? Alderweireld was a great signing but we hardly needed an extensive rejig of the scouting network and analytics to recruit him did we. And I'm pretty sure a season or two of Dier playing CB he'd have been pretty close to developing into a very similar quality CB. Alli has been well worth the 5m, but Pleat seems to be taking credit for that one ?

Some of the targets last year were incredibly underwelming ? McCarthy at 20m e.g.

 

[Luka Van der Bale]

And most importantly the much overrated Vertonghen... Who I still believe is a liability and should be replaced by Wimmer.

Should be replaced by Wimmer, fair enough, a tight call and a valid opinion. A liabilty? Fuck me lol.

 

[sparx100]

Like the idea of an aggressive and defensive midfielder. He got sent off 3 times last season but as far as I can see he was not sent off in his previous 3 seasons, albeit he did collect 10 yellow card the season before which I assume had some suspensions associated with it.

Fine line between being aggressive and being a burden on the team. We need a player like him but Poch will have to get him to be more clever on the pitch.

 

[Khilari]

My friend who previously had links to the club tells me this one is most likely to happen but refuses to tell me how he knows. So not ITK, just a hunch I guess.

 

[bigfrooj]

My friend who previously had links to the club tells me this one is most likely to happen but refuses to tell me how he knows. So not ITK, just a hunch I guess.

Probably has Newsnow?

 

[Japhet]

Do you really think Poch is not capable enough as a coach or other footballers are so intellectually challenged they can't be taught - like Dier - to drop between CB's ? It's not exactly splitting the atom, AVB used to use a very similar tactic at times.

I have actually seen, and commented on Lesniak doing exactly this in a recent game for our U21's - I mooted that this was maybe Poch working with Mcdermott to get the development teams playing a similar way.

I trust Poch enough to make the right decisions for the team. If that means bringing in Wanyama that's fine by me. I'm sure he wants the development squad to embrace the same playing style but it's up to the coaching staff to decide if and when they make the grade. He bears a big responsibility trying to stabilise the position he has taken us to and I'm not surprised he's wanting to bring a player like Wanyama in who he obviously knows and trusts.

 

[Metalhead]

No Wanyama isn't cover for Dembele, but seriously who is? I'm not saying he's the best CM in the world but there's very few players that do what he does and I can't think of anyone we could sign to step in for him.

Wanyama, Bats/Jansenn and a player who can unlock defences and play in tight spaces would be a great window. I'd love someone who could deputise for Dembele but I'm struggling to think of options. Hopefully Bentaleb can bounce back stronger next year and go some way into filling his boots if required

It's staggering how influential Dembele has become in the last couple of seasons.

 

[am_yisrael_chai]

I think I respect him more as a coach and improver of players than I do as a recruiter of players, at least so far, at least based on what I have been led to believe have been his personal choices here and elsewhere. I can't say I've been blown away by Mitchell and co either. Son for 22m ? Alderweireld was a great signing but we hardly needed an extensive rejig of the scouting network and analytics to recruit him did we. And I'm pretty sure a season or two of Dier playing CB he'd have been pretty close to developing into a very similar quality CB. Alli has been well worth the 5m, but Pleat seems to be taking credit for that one ?

Some of the targets last year were incredibly underwelming ? McCarthy at 20m e.g.

Look at our actual, not quoted possible signings, last year:

Ali - I know he was signed in Jan but joined up in June - Huge success
Aldeweireld - Huge success
Trippier - Pushed Walker to another level and competent whenever selected - success
Wimmer - Did we notice Verts was out ? Another success
Son - was superb before his injury, struggled when he came back, I think he will prove to be a very good signing - Jury out
Njie - injured so impossible to judge

I'd say that is an amazing record of recruitment, one that is unmatched by any other manager / head coach in the last 12 months.

 

[Ledley's Right Foot]

https://sports.bwin.com/en/news/foo...on-in-pursuit-of-southampton-star,107162.html

This is quite an interesting read.

Whilst I'm not against Wanyama it could make sense to get this chap instead who would perhaps prove better as cover and allow Dier to continue to flourish?

Just a thought mind

Those stats look good but when you play in a team like Villa last season, who turned the ball over if someone sneezed at them, then your opportunity to tackle and intercept increases.

 

[millsey]

Does anyone get annoyed by cretins writing announce Wanyama, or whoever we are after, on the official Twitter feed? So embarrassing

 

[Ledley's Right Foot]

We are going to be playing 2 games a week for 90% of next season. In some positions we can rotate well and keep a settled team (e.g. Change 3-4 players per game but not entire 11 and ensure no player starts 3 games a week). So for defence, you don't need to rotate centre halfs as often but full backs you do. We have four great full backs. Rose and walker are clearly our top players but in many games trippier and Davies would be first choice, either way, we can keep them all fresh.

For midfield, we could rotate dembele and alli (although alli played further forward too) but for Dier's position, only dembele could do the role well. This meant both those players were over used and by game 34 it showed.

Wanyama plays the Dier role incredibly effectively. He doesn't need developing, he is first team ready and this is a no brainer. Depending on the opposition it gives us options and enables effective rotation without performance drop off. (E.g wanyama and dembele; dier and dembele; dier and alli; wanyama and alli) it also gives options to develop bentaleb in the box to box role.

Let's hope this happens because it means defence and midfield is done and we can concentrate all efforts further up the pitch.

 

[THFCSPURS19]

Announce Wanyama.

 

[THFCSPURS19]

Look at our actual, not quoted possible signings, last year:

Ali - I know he was signed in Jan but joined up in June - Huge success
Aldeweireld - Huge success
Trippier - Pushed Walker to another level and competent whenever selected - success
Wimmer - Did we notice Verts was out ? Another success
Son - was superb before his injury, struggled when he came back, I think he will prove to be a very good signing - Jury out
Njie - injured so impossible to judge

I'd say that is an amazing record of recruitment, one that is unmatched by any other manager / head coach in the last 12 months.

Bear in mind that BC objected somewhat to most, if not all, of those signings.

 

[glospur]

He does lack physicality but so did players like ...Kante

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA wow. If preferring Lesniak over Wanyama wasn't bad enough, you should have just stopped here. I doubt I've ever seen anyone be more wrong, Kante is close to the most physically impressive midfielder in the world at the moment, he is an athletic behemoth.

 

[TEESSIDE1]

The vast majority of Saints fans are crying about Wanyama coming to us, bless lol

http://www.saintsweb.co.uk/showthread.php?56701-Wanyama-to-Spurs-finally#.V2aChch4WnM

 

[Bus-Conductor]

Look at our actual, not quoted possible signings, last year:

Ali - I know he was signed in Jan but joined up in June - Huge success
Aldeweireld - Huge success
Trippier - Pushed Walker to another level and competent whenever selected - success
Wimmer - Did we notice Verts was out ? Another success
Son - was superb before his injury, struggled when he came back, I think he will prove to be a very good signing - Jury out
Njie - injured so impossible to judge

I'd say that is an amazing record of recruitment, one that is unmatched by any other manager / head coach in the last 12 months.

But which of those signings are credited or debited to Pochettino ? Signings he's instigated. According to Pleat it was him who convinced Levy to sign Alli for example. Did he instigate the signings of Son, Njie, Wimmer ? I don't credit him or blame him for those that he has not initiated.

I don't think Walker has gone to another level at all, his end product is woefully inept, and any improvement in his defending I put more down to Pochettino's coaching (who has changed the dynamics of his game - he now sees 30% less ball in games for example and shows better defensive awareness in terms of when to bomb and when not to).

Trippier/Njie - IMO we already had kids here who could have filled their remits, pushed the first choices (as you say), played the minutes they have and managers like Ferguson never had any problem trusting kids in those circumstances.

To call Son superb is ludicrous. If we ignore the fact that he cost a not inconsequential 22m (what would someone pay for him today ?) you could say as a back up striker he's done an adequate job on a handful of occasions when asked. As an AM he's been pretty erratic and clumsy and I would much rather see Pritchard play as an AM than Son any day.

Wimmer was a decent back up, a good value purchase.

And @THFCSPURS19



I had, and still have, reasonable reservations about some, but some of them I knew little about and said so and therefore didn't have strong opinions on them as players, more opinions on why we are squad filling with positions that I felt we could have promoted from within, and I still think that in some cases.

With Wimmer said I knew nothing about him but have a Cologne supporting friend who told me he didn't overly rate him. That is all I said.

The only one I'd seen loads of, Alderweireld, I liked, and said so, my only reservation was that I thought it would prevent Dier's development as a CB, which is where I assumed he would be playing (still hope he will eventually).

Son I was generally positive about based on the amount I'd seen him.

 

[tiger666]

To call Son superb is ludicrous. If we ignore the fact that he cost a not inconsequential 22m (what would someone pay for him today ?) you could say as a back up striker he's done an adequate job on a handful of occasions when asked. As an AM he's been pretty erratic and clumsy and I would much rather see Pritchard play as an AM than Son any day.

That I agree with.

 

[Bus-Conductor]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA wow. If preferring Lesniak over Wanyama wasn't bad enough, you should have just stopped here. I doubt I've ever seen anyone be more wrong, Kante is close to the most physically impressive midfielder in the world at the moment, he is an athletic behemoth.

You really need to engage your fucking brain sometimes. They were tailing about his physical presence not his athleticism:

Physicality is defined as the physical features of someone, or an intense focus on the physical body. An example of physicality is the way that someone looks. An example of physicality is an extreme interest in body building.

 

[THFCSPURS19]

But which of those signings are credited or debited to Pochettino ? Signings he's instigated. According to Pleat it was him who convinced Levy to sign Alli for example. Did he instigate the signings of Son, Njie, Wimmer ? I don't credit him or blame him for those that he has not initiated.

I don't think Walker has gone to another level at all, his end product is woefully inept, and any improvement in his defending I put more down to Pochettino's coaching (who has changed the dynamics of his game - he now sees 30% less ball in games for example and shows better defensive awareness in terms of when to bomb and when not to).

Trippier/Njie - IMO we already had kids here who could have filled their remits, pushed the first choices (as you say), played the minutes they have and managers like Ferguson never had any problem trusting kids in those circumstances.

To call Son superb is ludicrous. If we ignore the fact that he cost a not inconsequential 22m (what would someone pay for him today ?) you could say as a back up striker he's done an adequate job on a handful of occasions when asked. As an AM he's been pretty erratic and clumsy and I would much rather see Pritchard play as an AM than Son any day.

Wimmer was a decent back up, a good value purchase.

And @THFCSPURS19



I had, and still have, reasonable reservations about some, but some of them I knew little about and said so and therefore didn't have strong opinions on them as players, more opinions on why we are squad filling with positions that I felt we could have promoted from within, and I still think that in some cases.

With Wimmer said I knew nothing about him but have a Cologne supporting friend who told me he didn't overly rate him. That is all I said.

The only one I'd seen loads of, Alderweireld, I liked, and said so, my only reservation was that I thought it would prevent Dier's development as a CB, which is where I assumed he would be playing (still hope he will eventually).

Son I was generally positive about based on the amount I'd seen him.

Pochettino is obviously part of the decision-making of all signings. Anything Pleat says about him being responsible for the signing is rubbish. Remember when Poch went to the MK Dons-United match? Why do you think that happened?

Your point on Walker makes no sense. You say Walker hasn't gone to another level, but then recognise that he has improved defensively. Even if that was down to Pochettino, it's still Walker who has improved

I think Son is a very good player who has had a disrupted season, and he'll be much better next season. He's shown much more than Lamela did in his first season.

On Alderweireld, if I recall correctly, you frequently advised us to recognise that Alderweireld was part of a strong unit at Southampton, and that this may mean he wouldn't be as good at Spurs.

 

[raggy]

Pleat clearly had input on Alli... but Levy has said about 5 times now that Pochettino has the final decision on all signings. Plus I find it pretty hard to believe that Alli was only a Pleat thing, considering Paul Mitchell our head of recruitment was at MK Dons for the majority of Alli's time at MK. I think Alli was probably a unanimous decision from several people even though Pleat has somehow come out with the majority of the credit, probably because he's told the press that.

I don't know how Bus-Conductor can enjoy football when he has such massive doubts about everybody that's not an academy player, clearly he has no trust in the coaching or scouting staff at all or in Pochettino's judgement of players. Can't imagine following the club is any fun with so much doubt.