Satisfied with this window?

[mill]

3 years ago, we had a team with Modric, VDV, Adebayor, Bale, Lennon, and Sandro in it. 6 transfer windows later, we've sold Bale, Modric, VDV, and Sandro and the quality we have isn't on the same level. Imagine if we had kept those players and added 1-2 quality players in each subsequent window rather than selling all our best players. We could have bought Lloris, Vertonghen, Capoue, Eriksen, and a couple other quality players in that time frame well within our budget (while selling off a few unneeded players), and been in a far better position than we are now.

I just don't understand selling a player after they have evolved into one of the best players in the world in their position. Just utterly nuts, you can't replace them. It'd be like if Man United had sold off Giggs and Scholes once they turned into world class players. When that kind of good fortune lands in your lap, you can't just piss it away. That's my gripe with it, I'd be fine with the window if I felt we were seriously building a project for the future, but I can't help but feel like we're running the wrong direction on an escalator. The next ones sold will undoubtedly be Eriksen, Verts, and Lloris.

Part of the problem is we don't replace well, look at how athletico have lost quality striker after quality striker and always get a new one in, mandzycuk is off the mark for them.

Berbs, Carrick, modric, bale, vdv all poorly replaced to different degrees

We don't replace wel because we prioritise under market value players over what we need

 

[JUSTINSIGNAL]

The club can make them stay if they want to, as Southampton showed with Schneiderlin. Set an obscene price that no one will match, then leave it at that.

I'm convinced that this whole "we can't stop the player from leaving" excuse is a way for clubs to save face. It's been shown that clubs absolutely can keep players if they want to. But you need to have ambition, and be working toward a goal which those players can feel they are a part of.

We can keep a player as long as they have more than 2 years left on their contracts. Once they enter that 2 years then their value starts dropping and it makes no business sense to keep a depreciating asset.

And before you say "well Bale had 3 years left on his contract!". We received a world record bid. For a club of our size on limited resources it was an obscene amount of money and allowed us to upgrade the squad as a whole.

 

[ItsBoris]

We can keep a player as long as they have more than 2 years left on their contracts. Once they enter that 2 years then their value starts dropping and it makes no business sense to keep a depreciating asset.

And before you say "well Bale had 3 years left on his contract!". We received a world record bid. For a club of our size on limited resources it was an obscene amount of money and allowed us to upgrade the squad as a whole.

Did it though? We accumulated fewer points last season. And this season even with a better manager and the same players about I don't think we'll do much better than we did in Bale's last season.

 

[JUSTINSIGNAL]

Did it though? We accumulated fewer points last season. And this season even with a better manager and the same players about I don't think we'll do much better than we did in Bale's last season.

Do you think it would have been better to keep an unhappy player, who might not have performed as well, and would have eventually just ran his contract down?

I honestly believe if we would have received a £50m bid it would have been turned down but £86m is just too good to turn down. And it allowed us to buy the likes of Lamela and Eriksen who will hopefully become our next superstars.

If we get the same amount of points as Bales final season I will be happy enough. The teams around us are spending stupid amounts that we simply can't compete with. People really need to understand where we are in the food chain. If we finish higher than 6th we really have overachieved and it should be applauded.

 

[dagraham]

Did it though? We accumulated fewer points last season. And this season even with a better manager and the same players about I don't think we'll do much better than we did in Bale's last season.

Agree. Looking at the squad now and comparing it to the one circa 2010/11 I'd say there is no comparison. For all the sales of our world class players, our squad is now actually weaker overall.

 

[ItsBoris]

Do you think it would have been better to keep an unhappy player, who might not have performed as well, and would have eventually just ran his contract down?

I honestly believe if we would have received a £50m bid it would have been turned down but £86m is just too good to turn down. And it allowed us to buy the likes of Lamela and Eriksen who will hopefully become our next superstars.

If we get the same amount of points as Bales final season I will be happy enough. The teams around us are spending stupid amounts that we simply can't compete with. People really need to understand where we are in the food chain. If we finish higher than 6th we really have overachieved and it should be applauded.

But that's the key isn't it - hopefully. Whereas we had superstars in Modric and Bale and we sold them. If you are a club like Porto who are incredibly effective at identifying talent before it emerges, then it is fine to sell players who break through. But we don't have a way of truly replacing these players, we just hope that whoever we buy can be good replacements.

I don't expect us to finish 4th either NOW. But if we had taken the right steps in the past few years I do believe we could have consolidated a position in the top 4. Now the opportunity is gone imo.

 

[DannySafer]

We can't compete with a 36k stadium and no CL football. We can flirt with the top 4 but cannot establish ourselves because our top players like Bale will always be picked off by the richer clubs before we do. I was pissed off that the TW didn't yeald a class addition especially up front but then again why did I get expect us to? I don't know why I keep kidding myself and then get annoyed when it doesn't happen. We invest in potential and in AVB and now Poch, we have been searching for a coach who can transform them . I really hope that by the time the likes of Lamela and Eriksen hit the heights we'll be settled in our new stadium and will be able to hold on to them because we can afford to.

 

[JUSTINSIGNAL]

But that's the key isn't it - hopefully. Whereas we had superstars in Modric and Bale and we sold them. If you are a club like Porto who are incredibly effective at identifying talent before it emerges, then it is fine to sell players who break through. But we don't have a way of truly replacing these players, we just hope that whoever we buy can be good replacements.

I don't expect us to finish 4th either NOW. But if we had taken the right steps in the past few years I do believe we could have consolidated a position in the top 4. Now the opportunity is gone imo.

For the forseable future we will always be shopping in the 'potential superstar' pool. We just don't have the finances to buy the established stars. As for cementing our place in the top 4. I believe that would be almost impossible due to our wage structure. Whenever a player like Modric, Bale, Berbatov come along they will always want and also deserve to be paid mega wages that our infrustructure can't support. So it's a choice of keeping a unhappy player until their contract runs down and they go on a free, or selling them while they still have value and trying to find the next 'potential superstar'. With Levy trying to run a sustainable business he is always going to chose the latter option.

We are run like a Roma, Dortmund and Arsenal. We are always vulnerable to losing our best players so need to make sure our scouting systems are good enough to find talented players that will maintain our status as a top 6 side.

 

[mill]

For the forseable future we will always be shopping in the 'potential superstar' pool. We just don't have the finances to buy the established stars. As for cementing our place in the top 4. I believe that would be almost impossible due to our wage structure. Whenever a player like Modric, Bale, Berbatov come along they will always want and also deserve to be paid mega wages that our infrustructure can't support. So it's a choice of keeping a unhappy player until their contract runs down and they go on a free, or selling them while they still have value and trying to find the next 'potential superstar'. With Levy trying to run a sustainable business he is always going to chose the latter option.

We are run like a Roma, Dortmund and Arsenal. We are always vulnerable to losing our best players so need to make sure our scouting systems are good enough to find talented players that will maintain our status as a top 6 side.

Well when we lose these big players we need to look better into the skillsets of the replacements, Zokora in no way replaced what carrick gave us, same as pav/Campbell with Berbs, Modric and Dembele and VDV Sigs/Dempsey. Seems to me we get the money for them and embark on a scattergun search for undermarket value players to bring in in the hope we find the next star regardless of how they fit in the team and what they offer. IIRC JJ said we signed sigs without scouting him, got tipped off by Barnett and he had good stats, where's the coherentcy and planning in that? It's opportunism.

 

[Goofster]

Only thing that concerns me is that we sold Sigurdsson AND loaned Holtby without bringing in a replacement. As it stands we're quite short on attacking options from the bench.

 

[JUSTINSIGNAL]

Well when we lose these big players we need to look better into the skillsets of the replacements, Zokora in no way replaced what carrick gave us, same as pav/Campbell with Berbs, Modric and Dembele and VDV Sigs/Dempsey. Seems to me we get the money for them and embark on a scattergun search for undermarket value players to bring in in the hope we find the next star regardless of how they fit in the team and what they offer. IIRC JJ said we signed sigs without scouting him, got tipped off by Barnett and he had good stats, where's the coherentcy and planning in that? It's opportunism.

Well, we can't be that bad at it if you look at our average league finishes in the past 10 years!

 

[mill]

Well, we can't be that bad at it if you look at our average league finishes in the past 10 years!

Could well be better as well though

 

[Barry Mead]

Well, we can't be that bad at it if you look at our average league finishes in the past 10 years!

9 years ago we finished 5th, could have made 4th and CL but for a supposedly dodgy lasagne, yeah we managed 4th twice since but we have effectively been treading water for these last 9 years. We haven't progressed as a team
People go on about we made the leap from a mid table team to a top 5 team, that is all well and good but now we seem to be stuck in another plateau, it's really high time we stopped patting ourselves on the back for breaking out of mid table and instead start looking to become serious challengers for the title rather than one struggling to hold on to the coat tails of the top 4

 

[mpickard2087]

The only way we will consistently have a team of world class players in the near(ish) future is for us to 'grow our own'; more investment and more hard work put into the academy. The next few years should be interesting because its still early days in terms of our academy structure and the investment in it, this current batch of the last few years have finally got us a group of players in contention for first team places, the u18s and u16s have some very promising players that may be even better, and hopefully this conveyer belt of high-level talent keeps coming through. It might be a long term strategy but for me its the only way to compete at the top with where we are at as a club at present. Gain a competitive advantage from the academy, and then supplement this with a few buys and spend the cash wisely.

 

[ebzrascal]

I really really wanted us to sign a quick striker who plays on the shoulder of the last defender and runs in behind to stretch play. Apart from that the window was ok I guess..

 

[Coyboy]

I really really wanted us to sign a quick striker who plays on the shoulder of the last defender and runs in behind to stretch play. Apart from that the window was ok I guess..

You called?

 

[Maxtremist]

9 years ago we finished 5th, could have made 4th and CL but for a supposedly dodgy lasagne, yeah we managed 4th twice since but we have effectively been treading water for these last 9 years. We haven't progressed as a team
People go on about we made the leap from a mid table team to a top 5 team, that is all well and good but now we seem to be stuck in another plateau, it's really high time we stopped patting ourselves on the back for breaking out of mid table and instead start looking to become serious challengers for the title rather than one struggling to hold on to the coat tails of the top 4

Whilst I do agree that we need to progress, over the last few years the main team that has seriously progressed is City and we all know why that is. As much as we do want to progress, with the exception of new owners buying us and investing god knows how much in us, it's going to be difficult to push on and compete with the others.

The teams that finished above us all have more money than us (not including Everton) and then we've got Man Utd who have stupid money too. We finally seem to be relying on a good manager and coaching staff to improve on what we have and see if we can push on and compete that way (similar to Everton competing last year since they had a competent manager).

 

[Barry Mead]

Whilst I do agree that we need to progress, over the last few years the main team that has seriously progressed is City and we all know why that is. As much as we do want to progress, with the exception of new owners buying us and investing god knows how much in us, it's going to be difficult to push on and compete with the others.

The teams that finished above us all have more money than us (not including Everton) and then we've got Man Utd who have stupid money too. We finally seem to be relying on a good manager and coaching staff to improve on what we have and see if we can push on and compete that way (similar to Everton competing last year since they had a competent manager).

Of course competition is hard but that is why you have to work harder still, if we can't compete as well financially we need to be better at scouting, developing and coaching. Dortmund managed to win the title a couple of times in recent years despite the chasm in wealth between them and Bayern, likewise AM in La Liga last year, financially poor cousins to Real and Barca andof course Lille and Montpellier competing against PSG's wealth

 

[14/04/91]

I for one hope Pochettino is here for at least 10 transfer windows so I'm not going to get overly upset about his first one.

I think it was sensible. He clearly thought we needed defensive personnel and concentrated on that. Let's look long term, it would've been stupid to try and judge the current squad and make changes this quickly.
I'm sure he would've liked MS & JR and who knows they might still happen in Jan/next summer. I'm glad we didn't have any last minute plan b,c or d's.
We've got a talented squad, let's hope he can get them performing and we give the top 4 plus United and their ridiculous transfer 'policy' a run for their money.

 

[JUSTINSIGNAL]

9 years ago we finished 5th, could have made 4th and CL but for a supposedly dodgy lasagne, yeah we managed 4th twice since but we have effectively been treading water for these last 9 years. We haven't progressed as a team
People go on about we made the leap from a mid table team to a top 5 team, that is all well and good but now we seem to be stuck in another plateau, it's really high time we stopped patting ourselves on the back for breaking out of mid table and instead start looking to become serious challengers for the title rather than one struggling to hold on to the coat tails of the top 4

I agree we've plateaued but until we have the ability to simultaneously pay 3-4 players a 100K per week then its always going to be the way. Our top players will always be poached by the bigger clubs because we just don't have the infrastructure to match their ambitions. You can moan all you like about it but that is the reality.

We had a few years in and close to the top 4 but that was mainly due to Man City still developing as a superpower and chelsea and Liverpool both having slight declines. In the meantime look how much money those clubs have spent to get back into those top positions. It is far, far more than we could ever afford.

Look how much money Man U have spent in last 18 months to try and get back amongst the title challengers. Are you seriously suggesting we can compete with that?