The Daily ITK Discussion Thread 20th July

[shelfmonkey]

Aston Villa agree with you

Other clubs aren't paying for a brand new stadium while also staying within their budget.

According to the club (it's been mentioned by one or two ITKers, I believe, on here) the funding for the stadium was not going to affect transfer funds.

 

[dace]

Cannot see why everyone is so bent out of shape with the supposed missing out on Martial.
We may have offered everything MU want and they are just not interested in selling.
Exactly the same as if MU bid on Kane.
Poch will understand all this.

 

[king26]

I thought Levy was smarter than this

he is

 

[SpartanSpur]

Will you care if it means we then can't afford a central midfielder and have no replacement for Dembele? Will you understand if all we can afford is Andre Gomes?

Trix made an excellent post on overpaying for players:

http://www.spurscommunity.co.uk/index.php?threads/jack-grealish.132973/post-5911092

Trix made an excellent post I agree. Even herc said we'd need to be creative to get our best possible amount of incomings. I get the impression any need of creative accounting for a perfect window is redundant at this point.

We have supposedly been budgeting these kind of funds for Martial anyway (as well as a decent CM) so why not move it to the next target?

I have a suspicion that Eriksen is going to be playing deeper in quite a few games plus we have Harry Winks coming back to fitness. I also think Poch sees Grealish as a player to convert to a deeper role, much like Jol did with Dembele. If we weren't considering shaking things up a bit formation wise I'd imagine Son, Moura and Lamela would be deemed enough.

I have yet to see us reliably linked with any CM that would cost £50m+. I'd love us to go and grab a Kovacic or Savic or Thiago instead but that's all fantasy right now, they are probably all much less likely than Martial ever was. Guess we'll have to see what Rebrab was suggesting. I'd happily be proved wrong that's for sure.

 

[cider spurs]

Great news regarding Son. As for the less than positive latest ITK, I'll wait until windows ended before deciding whether to kick a squirrel in the nuts, or, pour myself a large one.

 

[daryl hannah]

he is

He invests in what he knows. Happy to find an extra £400-£500m for the stadium, but not happy to see success on the football pitch (zero net spend, again?).

(We finished 23 points behind City).

 

[WiganSpur]

Son contract is obviously good news in itself, but could link to incomings. I was convinced the club would wait on the contracts until the TW was over as an fan appeasement tactic if it ends up being disappointing.

 

[Moonie]

I really appreciate all the ITK positive or otherwise. I still think some here need to keep their heads on though.

We don’t need wholesale changes, we finished third last year behind City and Utd, who are light years ahead in terms of income and power. A stable and happy squad could be more important than spunking millions on new additions that may or may not work.

We have heard Levy has promised to back Poch, could that backing be rewarding the current players with bumper contracts to keep them? This is happening.

Also Poch isn’t stupid he may well have instructed Levy to get Zaha for example, Levy could then well have said “they want £70m for him” Poch could then turn around and say no it’s too much we can turn to plan b or whatever. no one really knows exactly what is going on behind the scenes in a very complex business that is football.

Since ENIC and levy have taken over we have slowly progressed without getting ourselves in any financial trouble, we are healthy well run club and I’m happy with that.

 

[tiger666]

He invests in what he knows. Happy to find an extra £400-£500m for the stadium, but not happy to see success on the football pitch.

Levy isn't happy if we succeed on the pitch. That's what you're saying?

 

[Moonie]

According to the club (it's been mentioned by one or two ITKers, I believe, on here) the funding for the stadium was not going to affect transfer funds.

Levy himself has confirmed transfer funds are from a different pot to the stadium build. This was last year iirc. Can’t get more ITK than that!

 

[Finchyid]

You are correct, £69,999,999.99 is the going rate

In 6,999,999 instalments

 

[U.S. Spurs Fan]

Both Trix and Herc have recently said Grealish is basically done and agreed to. With Villa announcing today that they are close to agreeing to a full sale to Middle East group, you have to wonder if the goalposts will be moved on this transfer too? That would be fitting I guess the way this window has gone so far.

 

[FibreOpticJesus]

Levy himself has confirmed transfer funds are from a different pot to the stadium build. This was last year iirc. Can’t get more ITK than that!

 

[BunionBoy]

Hi this is Daniel levy here I regularly browse this forum i appreciate all your kind comments.

Just to let you know i am just about to conclude a deal that will see me ordering a nandos fino pitta using a voucher code
That will get 25% off and 10% cash back.

I am buzzing at this deal - please use the voucher code #iamatight**** at the checkout.

.....joking aside come on Daniel please let's give us fans something to cheer about.
Zaha is just what we have needed for a long time! Stop messing about and get that tiny cheque book out...

 

[Favour]

People really need a reality check in this thread.
We have sold no one, meaning we are no weaker than last season.
Teams who finished below us have bought early as they are trying to play catch up on us, city have signed another winger because they can, man utd are trying to buy players to hold their position.
Just because liverpool have spent millions on players doesnt mean its going to work out for them. See us and the use of our bale money.

Our young squad is a year older, we will have kane back who missed a large part of last season, moura will hopefully be more up to speed, sanchez will be better after a season under his belt not to mention winks, lamella and rose coming back into the fold.

We will probably lose a couple of players and these are more than likely going to be replaced. If not, we have a very capable youth system to call upon, people are screaming for onomah, edwards and kwp to be given a go but also want to fill our squad with shiny new signings.....we cant do both without major sales.

If as ITK have said, we have 6 leave and 3 join, we will be very balanced and will go into the new sason with a strong squad. If we sell a couple and sign no one with only youth for back up, we will still go into the season with a very strong squad.

Maybe we should save our crying until after we see how our established squad does

I understand your points however, if the teams around us strengthen whilst we stand still, then surely we are then weaker than last season?

 

[leemason2302]

I see this posted elsewhere.. We're trying to sell our players at 2018 prices and buy players at 2008 prices

 

[daryl hannah]

Levy isn't happy if we succeed on the pitch. That's what you're saying?

For reasons known only to him!

 

[pffft]

I'd like to say that I can't believe the meltdown in here, but I've seen enough transfer windows that not only can I believe it, but was actually expecting it.

Sometimes it's necessary to take a step back and look at the itk we get in conjunction with how we've seen the club act for several years. Taking this into account, the most important itk we've had all summer isn't the "we'll be spending big, we're buying superstars, we're backing Poch" stuff, it's the thing that Trix has been telling us all summer- that we will be doing our deals late, because we pretty much have to.

We have a pretty good idea of where Trix's info comes from, and that being the case, why anyone would choose to disregard what he's been telling us seems a bit daft to me. We aren't a top tier club, and unless/until we can change that, we are always going to be on the list of top players' second-choice options- so we need to wait until the big clubs have done their business before we can move for whoever is on our list that hasn't gone elsewhere.

It's a necessary evil, and no amount of wailing about our business, Levy, our targets, falling behind other clubs, starting badly, or anything else is going to change that. I personally have enough respect for Poch's intelligence to think that he completely understands this, and therefore I have to be a little bit worried by Herc telling us that Poch isn't happy. Something somewhere isn't right, but what that is we just don't know; although I do struggle to believe that Poch was expecting us to have signed everybody he wanted by now.

Now obviously this is all personal opinion, but I'm not seeing anything this window that I haven't seen many times before, and I'm not seeing anything that I wasn't expecting. Every summer we get the optimistic itk, everyone gets excited about it, and then a few weeks down the line we start to hear more realistic things and everyone loses their shit. Yet the one constant every window is Trix telling us how we do business, and why we have to do it that way. Sometimes I think people deliberately ignore an evident truth because they don't want to believe it, and that's just a ridiculous way to look at things. Temper your expectations to be in line with where you know we are as a club, and take anything that doesn't gel with that with a bucket load of salt. You know, like you've been told to do a hundred times by the people who know what they are talking about in regard to handling itk.

We're all grateful for every piece of info that any of the itks give us, and yes it's nice to hear that we're building up, that deals are close, that we're going to love the business we do this window...and yes, it would be fantastic if it came to pass. But having seen the way the club has operated for many years, that people expect anything to be different this time round is frankly bewildering. And the meltdown is, as ever, absolutely hilarious.

 

[sausage]

I understand your points however, if the teams around us strengthen whilst we stand still, then surely we are then weaker than last season?

That's based on the definition of "strengthen".

The more a talented squad plays together, the stronger they can get. Throwing multiple signings together and expecting it to equal a "stronger" squad is fundamentally flawed. It's just as much about familiarity and chemistry as it is talent.

 

[LexingtonSpurs]

Both Trix and Herc have recently said Grealish is basically done and agreed to. With Villa announcing today that they are close to agreeing to a full sale to Middle East group, you have to wonder if the goalposts will be moved on this transfer too? That would be fitting I guess the way this window has gone so far.

I actually don't think that the two are related. Villa have a cash crunch that could be helped by a sale, but they also have FFP rules that will only be satisfied by player sales.