The Daily ITK Discussion Thread 5th June

[Adam Zampa]

@Hercules’s latest: we’re signing a plan b?! Great news!

Better then the plan Q.3 that sissoko was.

 

[Parkie]

Better then the plan Q.3 that sissoko was.

True
But, if we are genuinely looking to add players to give us a different angle of attack to use when we are not able to break down a team, that could be the best news of all.

 

[Lighty64]

Interesting ITK re Toby. I'm all in favour of us saying "you had your chance, you were a dick about it, now fuck off!". That is fine. HOWEVER - it appears that this is mainly due to his dad (and greedy **** agent). So, if Toby did apologise and promise to keep his Richard Williams-esque dick father away from any further dealings with the club (and possibly change his agent), then there is probably a chance to reconcile. It may be slim, but also worth a try, as it would save us bedding another CB in. That said, we should still buy de Ligt, as we need 4 top CBs.

Super optimistic early morning post.

I believe his dad is his agent

 

[EJWTartanSpur]

We have plenty who can do that already. There's been plenty of games this season where we've changed formation in games. Give me a excellent player who can only play in one or two positions over a "meh" player, as Hercules put it, who can play in multiple. We don't need to sign average players to make our play more unpredictable, which is overrated in the first place.

‘Meh’ is a vague and emotive term that is in the eye of beholder and is at least mainly perception based in this instance. It doesn’t necessarily mean we are signing average players and ultimately neither you nor I even know who these players are at this point.

If we buy players that are a success and cause us to be more unpredictable it can only be a good thing. We need to try and aim for the type of variety in skill, pace, power, vision and in the depth that Man City have, who are able to swap in and out tactically for different opposition on a weekly basis and we can’t go about it doing in the exact same way in which they have.

Maybe it’s just me, but I didn’t derive anything bad from Hercules update at all there even with the word ‘meh’.

 

[SpartanSpur]

Oh I agree and I’m certainly not against De Ligt, I just don’t think he would be our second choice CB, not for a long while. He would be my choice for a replacement for Toby and I would be very happy to get him, although I must say the rumoured price is crazy. The thought that we might spend, most likely, an odd 100 mil on a CD and a WF when we really desperately need at least one, if not two, seriously good CMs does worry me, but I understand, De Ligt and Martial are deals that don’t come around very often. I just hope we don’t priorities them above a high caliber central mid and end up having to cut corners.

A year ago if someone offered us effectively a straight swap with Toby and De Ligt everyone would have laughed. Shows how much football moves on in a year.

As I said in another thread I suspect our main CM targets are WC bound and that's why we haven't heard as much. Multiple ITKs have said it's a key area (some also saying 2 in) so I assume that there is a fair chunk put aside for that position. I suspect we'll get one in, in the hope that Winks gets fit and also knowing we can drop Eriksen or Alli back if better attacking options arrive. It does seem to be a bit of a mystery right now (Ndombele the only solid link).

Attacking option (Martial), De Ligt (replacing Toby), Quality CM (replacing Dembele) will be the chunk of our spend. Those 3 in the £40-60m bracket. Doesn't seem to be any other target areas right now.

 

[Lighty64]

Because Herc said
“We know our 2 priority signings we are trying hard to do (Martial & Lgit), but not totally in our hands.”
Sounds to me they are top of the list.

perhaps they are a priority in a sense that out of any other priority they are both not involved in the WC. others might be involved

 

[BuckeyeSpurs11]

Based off of previous ITK, Toby started out with Barcelona, PSG, City and United interested ..Barcelona resigned Umtiti and seem close to Lenglet. City cooled, PSG cooled and United deal proving difficult and they aren’t matching his demands therefore the backpeddling​

 

[ravo]

I believe his dad is his agent

Apparently it is Stijn Francis of Stirr Associates.

Bastard has left a bit of a stijn on our Toby...

 

[mark87]

Based off of previous ITK, Toby started out with Barcelona, PSG, City and United interested ..Barcelona resigned Umtiti and seem close to Lenglet. City cooled, PSG cooled and United deal proving difficult and they aren’t matching his demands therefore the backpeddling​

Sorry mate but that poem was shit.

 

[mark87]

Re toby. Hopefully this should make players think twice about being dicks if they know toby is trying to get the old contract offer back on the table, how often does that happen? Not often surely

The other players will see poch and levy not backing down and will probably think they won't want to be in a similar position themselves.

 

[LexingtonSpurs]

Based off of previous ITK, Toby started out with Barcelona, PSG, City and United interested ..Barcelona resigned Umtiti and seem close to Lenglet. City cooled, PSG cooled and United deal proving difficult and they aren’t matching his demands therefore the backpeddling​

This is Toby's fundamental problem (and Spurs' problem to a certain degree) - there are only a few clubs in the world where the players would consider it an upgrade, and where those clubs can pay the fees and wages demanded.


This is why it makes no sense for Spurs to automatically refuse to deal with either Manchester club - that would narrow the field, and drop the demand/transfer fee for players. Even when you consider the "big" clubs - you are realistically only looking at Barça, RM, and PSG as teams outside of PL, who can afford to overpay for players. Bayern do not overpay, Atletico do not overpay, the Italian teams generally do not overpay.

I'd rather sell to a Manchester club and reinvest the funds, than allow the Manchester clubs to buy elsewhere, which leaves Spurs with less money to reinvest. In this case though, it looks like Toby has nowhere to go...

 

[keithtighe93]

If we can keep Toby, we have to. Would be better than any signing we can make.

If Rose can be recovered/forgiven, hopefully Toby can too.

 

[Joshua]

It's easy for us to say "well just give him the contract then if he's back-peddling". But you gotta ask yourself, if your boss offered you a pay-rise and you stuck two fingers up to him thinking you'll be off somewhere more cushy in a few months, and then that doesn't quite materialise like you'd hoped. Reckon that pay-rise would still be on offer? Don't get me wrong I'd love Toby to stay, but can see why the club aren't running back to him with the offer of a new deal.

 

[yiddopaul]

This is Toby's fundamental problem (and Spurs' problem to a certain degree) - there are only a few clubs in the world where the players would consider it an upgrade, and where those clubs can pay the fees and wages demanded.


This is why it makes no sense for Spurs to automatically refuse to deal with either Manchester club - that would narrow the field, and drop the demand/transfer fee for players. Even when you consider the "big" clubs - you are realistically only looking at Barça, RM, and PSG as teams outside of PL, who can afford to overpay for players. Bayern do not overpay, Atletico do not overpay, the Italian teams generally do not overpay.

I'd rather sell to a Manchester club and reinvest the funds, than allow the Manchester clubs to buy elsewhere, which leaves Spurs with less money to reinvest. In this case though, it looks like Toby has nowhere to go...

Well, just maybe, he can get his head down, sign a new contract, and help us win trophies.

 

[LexingtonSpurs]

If we can keep Toby, we have to. Would be better than any signing we can make.

If Rose can be recovered/forgiven, hopefully Toby can too.

I think the challenge is squarely in Toby's camp - he has to prove he is committed to the project, and he is not going to be crying to leave in a year or 2. I don't know how he does that to Poch's and Levy's satisfaction.

But, I don't expect the club to be begging for Toby to come back...

 

[ButchCassidy]

Toby doing everything through his idiotic team to reconcile, and accept our original contract with no clause. Only thing, it is not on the table anymore.

If Toby is still trying to work through his “team” to reconcile with Poch then he’s a bigger idiot than even I imagined. You maybe, maybe, get one chance with a guy like that if you talk man-to-man, in person, after firing the moron who told you to double cross MoPo, you apologize and you accept whatever the consequences may be, training with the kids or scrubbing the toilets or whatever, and maybe on a good day he’d think about listening to you. Sending in the clowns to say, gee let’s talk about that contract you offered us before we f***ed you over, is just dumping garbage on the dumpster fire.

 

[WiganSpur]

I don't really like the idea of patching things up with Toby considering how he's behaved, but if it's a choice between that or letting him go to United I know what i'd choose.

 

[ravo]

I don't really like the idea of patching things up with Toby considering how he's behaved, but if it's a choice between that or letting him go to United I know what i'd choose.

... and therein lies our dilemma. He will markedly improve their average defence.

 

[yankspurs]

That's THREE posts I've had to delete asking ITK questions.

It's obvious a number of you still haven't read the rules. Fine. Don't bother. I'll be back in a couple of hours to ban the next few simpletons.

Nighty night.

I'm so excited for tomorrow's threads version of "twirls banstick" in the OP

 

[even steven]

Interesting the itk regarding Toby and De Ligt. I wonder if there could ever be a possibility where we could have both?
Play 3 at the back and rotate Sanchez/de ligt for a while, with them and possibly foyth being the next generation for 10+ years. Toby is fantastic and on footballing terms only, we all want to keep him. I know money can be spent better elsewhere if Toby does stay but De Ligt to me has the feel of when Man City signed Kompany. Will be interesting how it plays out.