The Daily ITK Discussion Thread - 2 July 2011

[Rogmeister]

Dn013 just sent me quite a lengthy personal message regarding his itk, he obviously believes his info and has gone to great lengths to try to win me over. I guess allwe can do is wait and see.

 

[THOWIG]

What's his Itk?

 

[dn013]

What's his Itk?

Bruce Buck believes that Levy is just trying to push up Modric's price and that Modric is for sale at the right price. Therefore Chelsea will continue to bid for Modric this summer.

And main reason why Modric is still a Spurs player, besides the low bid obviously, is Redknapp

 

[MightyModric]

Get Vucinic and Llorente and I will be a very happy Spurs fan.

 

[Spurrific]

Bruce Buck believes that Levy is just trying to push up Modric's price and that Modric is for sale at the right price. Therefore Chelsea will continue to bid for Modric.

Why would he tell you this?

 

[Hot-Spur]

Get Vucinic and Llorente and I will be a very happy Spurs fan.

Hell yeah :grin:

Or either one of those plus Rossi :hump:

 

[dn013]

Why would he tell you this?

Let's just say he works at somewhere other than Chelsea.

 

[THOWIG]

Bruce Buck believes that Levy is just trying to push up Modric's price and that Modric is for sale at the right price. Therefore Chelsea will continue to bid for Modric this summer.

And main reason why Modric is still a Spurs player, besides the low bid obviously, is Redknapp

Thanks.

 

[jimmy-jojo]

Bruce Buck believes that Levy is just trying to push up Modric's price and that Modric is for sale at the right price. Therefore Chelsea will continue to bid for Modric this summer.

And main reason why Modric is still a Spurs player, besides the low bid obviously, is Redknapp

Who cares what Bruce Buck thinks?

 

[THOWIG]

I'm Buck and I like to Fuck.

 

[StartingPrice]

I think the two questions below will be amongst the most speculated upon come August 1st:

Firstly, if we decide to stand pat this summer, and push forward with our current strikers, can we finish in the top 4?

If the answer to the above is no, what are the chances that Gareth Bale, Luka Modric, Rafael Van der Vaart, and Sandro will remain at THFC through 2012-2013 without Champions League football? What would the fallout from them leaving look like?

I know there are a number of very positive posters here who are exceptionally deferential to Levy and Redknapp when it comes to ongoing transfer business (we saw this last January when many backed the decision to not bring in a striker, or at the very least, agreed with the idea that Luis Suarez was not a good fit for us).

The confidence I've seen from these same above posters cooly asserting that they now expect players in the mold of Adebayor, Llorente, Rossi, Vucinic, as well as expensive, young, hotshots like Leandro, Marin, and Lukaku, to come to the club, is rather surprising to me.

I know it's soothing to assert that "this time is different," but this window is shaping up very similarly to our last few. Other clubs simply aren't going to meet our massive valuations of our deadwood. They know our financial situation and also know there are plenty of quality players out there they can get for much less money (take someone like D.J. Campbell and compare his eventual fee to what we want for Robbie Keane).

Realistically, we don't have until August 31st to bring in a new striker. No striker we need is going to be sold by his club at that juncture of the transfer window, and if they do contemplate selling to us, we will be quoted massive prices that Levy likely won't meet.

Interestingly, the scenario I see as most likely is that we sign no striker until late August and Levy's last minute deadline deal involves overpaying in the 15 million pound range for someone like Odemwingie or Gyan. Whether Redknapp would even start either one of them over Crouch, would eventually make for an interesting debate.

The other big issue, which I haven't seen discussed, is that our first 3 games are very difficult ones. With Crouch potentially starting against Everton, I could easily see us drawing at home or getting caught late by a counter-attack, like we did against Wigan, and losing. We'll be lucky to get any points from United and City with our current strike-force, so by the time an August 31st signing is ready to play, we could be looking at 1 point from 3 games.

Given the Modric saga, and all of Redknapp's issues, the last thing we need is a slow start to the season. The media vultures will circle and this entire thing could unravel.

Frankly, I've made this point before, but if Levy doesn't spend a significant amount of money on incoming transfers this summer, then his astute business sense should be seriously questioned. There is minimal short-term or long-term financial risk to spending cash this summer. One could even call it a smart, calculated risk, given the potential weaknesses of Arsenal and Liverpool. Making top 4 would eventually payback a 50 million pound investment this summer and in the alternative, even we don't make top 4, Modric and Bale will leave anyways, and we'll easily recoup that initial investment times two.

The only risk right now is standing pat and not upgrading our talent.

Some posters agree with this completely...I disagree with it completely.

This window isn't shaping up to anything...it's only just bluddy started.

There is an obsession on here that we won't be able to sell our dead wood, but I don't see where it is coming from. Newly promoted teams and teams at the bottom of the league are always looking for experienced reasonably high level performers. We have several who can hardly make our bench, but would were morethan capableof playing regulararly in a team that finished in the top 5 3 years out of four, won the Carling Cup and reached the final another year. That is because we have got better. The players we are talking about may not be good enough for a team looking to regularly finish in the top 4, but they are certainly good enough for at leat half the clubs in the division. And this is the Chairman who made a profit on Mido. Add all of these facts (n.b. facts, not doom laden prophesies) together and I believe it is far more likely that we will sell the dead wood, even if on some of them we don't make a profit. The hardest to sell with clearly be Bentley, the Chairman may have to take a hit on that one (I agree with those who have said he should take a hit just to get some players off the pay roll), but even that doesn't dent the general argument.

What is our financial situation then...you know, the one you use to justify so much of your prophesy. As far as I am aware, we had money to spend in January (quite a lot), we always have a Summer transfer kitty, we have CL money, and we have money from player sales. Doesn't sound that bad to me. If you are alluding to the fact that we didn't qualify for the CL you should be aware that at the start of the season Daniel Levy specifically stated that he had drawn a budget up to take the club forward and it excluded qualifying for the CL for a second year in it's financial forecasts. Besides, in a more general sense, I thought ALL Spurs fans recognised that Daniel Levy had run the club in such a way that we are one of the few big clubs in a seriously good financial state to meet the new UEFA regulations - where does that fir into other clubs knowing our financial situation?

Discounting this portion of your argument, and find it pointless to discuss the effect of not buying any forwards as I believe we will buy forwards, I don't see the point in discussing what will happen if we have to start the season with Crouch. Get a grip - all you have done is created the worst case scenario in your own head and then imbued ti with some form of life, like it is real. It is the old Spurs-fan fallacy, paint everything as black as possible, then ifit happens you can not be too upset, and with the added bonus of being able to say "I told you, I told you", and if it all turns out to the good you cna be happy anyway. Fine, if that is how you want to go - personally I'm prepared to be optimistic and face the consequences. But it isn't a logical argument, it is just a (reasonably) well worded presentation of a worst case scenario.

And for the record, I was in favour of Suarez in January,and I was also one of the few to back Levy, originally over the DOF policy, on these forums, when the majority opinion was totally against it, and to criticize him, for allowing too much of the buck to stop with Comolli when he sacked him, whern Levy should have faced more of a rap - and that was totally against the concensus, so, please, don't try to present yourself as some avant-gaarde rebel, and those who disagree with you as concensus Levy/Redknapp sycophants, eh.

Oh, and for the record, this bit made me laugh: "we don't have until August 31st to bring in a new striker. No striker we need is going to be sold by his club at that juncture of the transfer window, and if they do contemplate selling to us, we will be quoted massive prices that Levy likely won't meet." Let me see what the minimum number of words I can use to refute this is...okay, here goes - VDV £8 Million:hump:

 

[opensaysme]

Bruce Buck believes that Levy is just trying to push up Modric's price and that Modric is for sale at the right price. Therefore Chelsea will continue to bid for Modric this summer.

And main reason why Modric is still a Spurs player, besides the low bid obviously, is Redknapp

Bruce Buck can believe all he wants.

The truth of the matter is that Modric is not for sale at any price this summer.

Given Daniels statement I'd be very apprehensive to bid for Modric,
if Chelsea don't want the burden of any ramifications because of it.

 

[Spurrific]

Let's just say he works at somewhere other than Chelsea.

On a Sunday? Guy works 2 jobs on a 7 day week - commendable

 

[dn013]

Who cares what Bruce Buck thinks?

Buck offers 35m for Modric and then Modric hands in a transfer request - nothing we could do at that point.

I honestly don't believe Chelsea will get Modric this transfer window, but I thought it would be good to pass on information that Chelsea have not stopped their interest.

 

[dn013]

On a Sunday? Guy works 2 jobs on a 7 day week - commendable

If you really want the details then I can also PM you, with a detail of the actual place where he was at.....

 

[C0YS]

We need at least 2 new strikers imo. Our lot our worse than hopeless. But depending on who it was I may be happy with one.

They are not worse then hopeless, not even close to that. But we need to get better strikers then that. Or most importantly a striker who can play 1 up top, only Crouch out of our current lot can do that, but he doesn't score enough.

We only need one striker but two would be ideal, but in my comment I was reffering to for our starting line up. For VdV will play trequatista.

 

[StartingPrice]

Buck offers 35m for Modric and then Modric hands in a transfer request - nothing we could do at that point.

I honestly don't believe Chelsea will get Modric this transfer window, but I thought it would be good to pass on information that Chelsea have not stopped their interest.

What, you mean apart from say "you have 5 years remaining on your contract, and if Chelsea really want you that much they know we have said £50 million get us to pick up the phone":shrug:

 

[Spurrific]

If you really want the details then I can also PM you, with a detail of the actual place where he was at.....

Nah, I'm fine. No idea how anyone would recognise the guy, never seen him before personally. I believe you, he just sounds like a total prick.

(Side note about the adverts at the bottom of this page, somebody said they're smart ads determined by what I search online. Well on the bottom I get inter-species porno and house-hunting ads, and I categorically deny looking for a new house)

 

[dn013]

What, you mean apart from say "you have 5 years remaining on your contract, and if Chelsea really want you that much they know we have said £50 million get us to pick up the phone":shrug:

Have we said 50m? Look the information I was given suggests that our Chairman is not as hellbent on keeping Modric as everyone here suspects. Maybe that is just CFC being rosy-eyed, or that could just be the truth. Look how much pressure 'Arry has been placing on Levy to make "3 top signings" "never sell our best players we will become WHU" etc.

 

[thfc1989]

If you really want the details then I can also PM you, with a detail of the actual place where he was at.....

Pm me please!