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Real Madrid clear out! Spurs Targets??

ChrisW81

Active Member
Feb 16, 2006
441
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Hello All

Just seen this on COYS what do you all think???

The daily MARCA forward to the Real Madrid prepares a great 'home run' in the winter market.

According to Roberto Gomez has revealed the club will open the white door in January to Diarrà, Dudek, Baptista, Saviola, Soldado and Drenthe, but moves that the problem is that none of them wants to go. For Madrid cases of Drenthe and Soldado are the most urgent.

The high profile of them all greatly complicates an assignment or transfer, but the message they are broadcasting from the club when these players are just getting into plans Schuster is no account with them and the best thing is that consider any exit. The strategy is more than obvious: it is tightening the rope so that some of the players understand that it is best pursued a destination in another team.

http://www.google.com/translate?u=h...llo/1062302.html&langpair=es|en&hl=en&ie=UTF8

I seriously wouldn't mind Drenthe and Diarra.
 

Flatters

Racist Troll
May 4, 2005
27,001
50
The title is rather misleading. None of them are even reported as being Spurs targets.
 

yanno

Well-Known Member
Aug 1, 2003
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2,877
Drenthe was bought at an extremely overinflated price (around 14 million Euros) on the back of the Euro21 Championships last summer. Schuster has hardly played him, preferring Marcelo at LB and Robinho at Attacking LM. Plus they also have Heinze and Robben nearing full fitness.

Problem #1: Real would doubtless want to recoup much of that inflated transfer fee;
Problem #2: what has Schuster seen on the training ground that makes him unwilling to give Drenthe much gametime?

Diarra has been a regular under Schuster, so I'd be surprized if he was available.

Soldado is relatively inexperienced, but unlikely to be any better than what we have. Saviola is talented but primarily a fox in the box, quite similar to Defoe, and he's on huge wages.

Dudek is no better than Robbo on form. And Wenger decided Baptista wasn't up to the EPL.

So, I'd only be interested in Drenthe, and only if Real are prepared to let him go for half of what they paid.
 

nickspurs

SC Supporter
May 13, 2005
1,608
1,389
But we did surely run the rule over Drenthe before he went to Real...

With the wonderboyo from Wales I'm not sure he's that interesting any more.

Agree that the rest aren't really targets. Plus Real Madrid irritatingly seem to be able to make a profit or break-even on even the most disastrous purchases which means top-dollar prices I don't want us to pay.
 

chrissivad

Staff
May 20, 2005
51,646
58,072
The title is rather misleading. None of them are even reported as being Spurs targets.
agree, should be in General Football.


And i would think its more of a case of who would want to come to us than who would we want :cry:
 

yanno

Well-Known Member
Aug 1, 2003
5,857
2,877
It seems no-one has picked up on what Juande's reported as having said in both the Grauniad and Torygraph this morning:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtml?xml=/sport/2007/11/29/sfntot129.xml

The crucial quote from Juande is [my emphasis]: "The opportunity to sign good players at this time is very difficult because the good players stay with the good teams," Ramos said. "At the end of the season, there could be some players of the level that would interest us. "

So, if these players are available from Real Madrid in the January transfer window, the question is surely whether they are of "a level that would interest us"? My answer is that they would all be worth considering, but the only ones who would improve our current squad balance are Drenthe and Diarra. And as above, I wouldn't pay the King's Ransom that Real paid for Drenthe because he's a young player and clearly not the finished article (aka Kaboul). And I would be very surprized if Diarra was available, and would be willing to go to a non-CL club.
 

Spursking

Well-Known Member
May 16, 2004
5,431
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If it is true that Real Madrid want to offload M.Diarra, then we should go for him. My number 1 midfield target since he played for Vitesse Arnhem.

What a good player he is, and it would be a dreamsigning for me, as this is the player I have always wanted most of all central midfielders.
 

SpurSince57

Well-Known Member
Jan 20, 2006
45,213
8,229
Great idea! Then we could get rid of Zokora!

Perhaps Real would take him in part-exchange.
 

Spursking

Well-Known Member
May 16, 2004
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Zokora and Diarra would be a perfect central midfield, and would be suited for the Premier League style of play. Two tough and agressive players with pace and vision.

Diarra has a great vision of the play, and could be our playmaker.
 

yanno

Well-Known Member
Aug 1, 2003
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Zokora and Diarra would be a perfect central midfield, and would be suited for the Premier League style of play. Two tough and agressive players with pace and vision.

Diarra has a great vision of the play, and could be our playmaker.

It's precisely Diarra's lack of vision, and his limited passing range, that are the reasons why a proper midfield general like Bernd Schuster may be considering getting rid of him. Diarra was a Capello buy, and a Capello type of CM. He is strong and aggressive, a destroyer. But Gerry Armstrong is forever banging on about Diarra's creative limitations, and I concur.
 

joey55

Well-Known Member
May 20, 2005
9,675
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Zokora and Diarra would be a perfect central midfield, and would be suited for the Premier League style of play. Two tough and agressive players with pace and vision.

Diarra has a great vision of the play, and could be our playmaker.

I rate Diarra, but that has to be one of the most stupid comments you've made (and that is saying something). The idea of using him as a playmaker is like asking Huddlestone to play as a wing back.
 

Spursking

Well-Known Member
May 16, 2004
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It's precisely Diarra's lack of vision, and his limited passing range, that are the reasons why a proper midfield general like Bernd Schuster may be considering getting rid of him. Diarra was a Capello buy, and a Capello type of CM. He is strong and aggressive, a destroyer. But Gerry Armstrong is forever banging on about Diarra's creative limitations, and I concur.

I have been following Diarra so many years now, and I know his qualities. I wanted him already when he played at Vitesse, and after he moved to Lyon he got his real name, and at that time, he was one of the best midfielders in Europe. The pairing Diarra/Essien was the perfect combination, and what a team they had at that time!

Diarra/Zokora would also be a great combination, and I know that Diarra has a great vision and passing range. He is a complete midfielder that any team should want to have in their team.

I am so eager when I talk about this, because this is a player I have had as my favorite so many years now. You can call him my Number 1 choice. I know how good he would make us, and I know that he was one of the reasons why Lyon was rated as the best team in Europe a few years ago. The team as a unit was perfect, but Diarra was a main factor in the team.
 

yanno

Well-Known Member
Aug 1, 2003
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I have been following Diarra so many years now, and I know his qualities. I wanted him already when he played at Vitesse, and after he moved to Lyon he got his real name, and at that time, he was one of the best midfielders in Europe. The pairing Diarra/Essien was the perfect combination, and what a team they had at that time!

Diarra/Zokora would also be a great combination, and I know that Diarra has a great vision and passing range. He is a complete midfielder that any team should want to have in their team.

With all due respect, Spursking, just because you've been watching a player for years, doesn't mean that you can attribute qualities to him that he patently doesn't have. I've watched Juan Roman Riquelme for years, and I'd never say he was a fantastic all-action, hard tackling midfielder - because he obviously isn't. Ditto, Diarra is NOT a visionary playmaker.

And having now watched Zokora for well over a season, I'm still waiting for him to show me that:
i) he can press effectively;
ii) he can tackle effectively;
iii) he can pass accurately over a distance of above ten metres;
iv) he can shoot;
v) that he has the foggiest idea what to do after he goes on one of his trademark eyecatching surging runs, which inevitably end up with him either falling over or passing to the opposition;
vi) he can read the game.
What Zokora does have is great speed and athleticism, and he did very well as a spare CB in the second half at West Ham. Unfortunately, this is little use to Spurs as we are unlikely to play a 3-5-2 on a regular basis. And in the first half, Zokora gave his usual poor CM performance: failing to cover Kaboul for the Spammer's goal, and going on a surging run which as usual ended with his having no clue what to do when he arrived near the opposition goal...
 

Spursking

Well-Known Member
May 16, 2004
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You have the right to have your own opinion about Diarra, but I know what a quality player he is, and that he actually can fit into the category "Playmaker". It depends on which players you play around. In Lyon he did not actually have the Playmaker role, because they had Juninho Pernabucano in this role. In Lyon, the unit was the key, and they had players with a great teamunderstanding. Diarra and Essien was probably the best central pairing in the world at that time.

If he was a Tottenham player, he would have been a playmaker type.
 

yanno

Well-Known Member
Aug 1, 2003
5,857
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You have the right to have your own opinion about Diarra, but I know what a quality player he is, and that he actually can fit into the category "Playmaker". It depends on which players you play around. In Lyon he did not actually have the Playmaker role, because they had Juninho Pernabucano in this role. In Lyon, the unit was the key, and they had players with a great teamunderstanding. Diarra and Essien was probably the best central pairing in the world at that time.

If he was a Tottenham player, he would have been a playmaker type.

I agree it's all about opinions, and noone is infallible - not even the Pope...

That said, you've just acknowledged that Diarra was not used as a playmaker at Lyon. He is also clearly not used as a playmaker at Real Madrid - that role falls to Guti or Sneijder or even Gago, but not to Diarra. Given that, I'm intrigued as to why you think Diarra would be a playmaker at Tottenham? Because the implication is that you think we're a pretty poor team.

Now it's true that Huddlestone is the only CM we currently have who is a true playmaker, and in the Hud's case, he still has a lot to learn. But Big Tom has a range of passing that is already superior to Diarra's, and potentially far far superior.
 

joey55

Well-Known Member
May 20, 2005
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Spursking, even at a small club like Vitesse, Diarra still had a midfield destroyer role, as Theo Janssen was the playmaker. You simply don't know what you are talking about.
 

The Apprentice

Charles Big Potatoes
Mar 10, 2005
11,143
15,618
You're right Spursking, he's a magnificent playmaker. Always probing with clever passes, incisive balls through, dribbling past men.

Can't believe you lot can discredit SpurKing, he's been following this guy closely for years now. A lifetime of scouting effort. He's his number 1 pick which should be good enough for the great unwashed.
 

ChrisW81

Active Member
Feb 16, 2006
441
110
The title is rather misleading. None of them are even reported as being Spurs targets.

Your right none of these are reported as Spurs targets, but if this is true what does everyone think about the players that might be available??

Sorry for any confusion.
 
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