The Daily ITK Discussion Thread 8th August

[ItsBoris]

New signings don’t come with guarantees (see Llorente, Sissoko, and absolutely shit loads of other players at other clubs including our rivals).

Yes signing players doesn't guarantee anything, but not signing players does guarantee nothing. Pearls don't lie on the shore.

 

[Gbspurs]

<channels Deilia Smith>

A message to the fans who said we had plenty of time left. We need a signing out here. Where are you? WHERE ARE YOU? LETS BE 'AVIN YOU!!!!

 

[matthew.absurdum]

<channels Deilia Smith>

A message to the fans who said we had plenty of time left. We need a signing out here. Where are you? WHERE ARE YOU? LETS BE 'AVIN YOU!!!!

Bassong to Norwich is still one of my favourite deal

 

[SpunkyBackpack]

Bassong to Norwich is still one of my favourite deal

Is he available for the Newcastle game?

 

[Spurs_Bear]

Is he available for the Newcastle game?

Absolutely no way Levy would let him play.

 

[Messy11]

Ugh. Just fucking ugh...

As per Grey Fox, the new Villa owners insisted Grealish wasn’t sold whilst they were negotiating. We couldn’t have sealed Grealis, even if we’d have wanted to. Zaha has gone nowhere, and we were potentially never in the running (there are any number of reasons why - don’t guess, it’ll end in tears). Martial is not to be discounted.

Kovacic is clearly a sweetener for the Courtois deal, where Chelsea have had to pay double for a replacement which is clearly a downgrade.

New signings don’t come with guarantees (see Llorente, Sissoko, and absolutely shit loads of other players at other clubs including our rivals).

West Ham and Fulham are desperate to stay in the Premier League so are throwing money at it in the off chance it works.

If we don’t sign anyone, it’ll be a shame. An opportunity missed. A fuck up. But it’s not the end of the world. Genuinely, it isn’t. But you’d never guess that from the wrist slitting in here.

Got to agree with this. For sure there are 2 or 3 possible additions that could have materially strengthen the team/ squad. However, and this is from Poch himself "either a player gives you something specific you're lacking, or you're better off not signing anyone"

I don't think anyone, including the ITKs is close enough to the discussions going on between Poch and Baldy to know whether the main targets are still available or were ever really available or if the back-up plans and others on offer make sense to sign.

The ITK from earlier in the day suggested 2 expected in possibly 3 (including Martial). We know that Grealish seems to be off - not the end of the world, given the AM options we have in Moura, Lamela, Son, Dele & Eriksen. There isnt any reason to doubt that Martial for Toby couldn't still happen + one further CM (perhaps one that has yet to be announced by ITK?), but given Dembele offer has been accepted (presumably pending a suitable replacement) it seems reasonable to think that DL and Poch will confer and only let him go if it wont weaken the team in their view.
We could easily end up with 2 in tomorrow, so the reaction today has been pretty disproportionate given (i) our track record of late signings (ii) the high degree of negotiation needed to persuade Utd to trade Martial / Toby - this was always going to the wire as Utd need to be desparate to sign Toby before ever agreeing to give us Martial.

It's possible, even probable, that there will be no one in and if so its an opportunity missed for sure. However, we have a squad that includes 8 WC semi-finalists, the best striker in the league, the WC winning captain and the prospect of an awesome new stadium, the envy of pretty much every one in the league - the mood in the squad should be buzzing , but some of the comments in here would make you think we're about to be relegated.

Its questionable that we aren't still a considerable way ahead of Chelsea, who have a new manager, a weaker keeper, haven't really fixed their issues upfront and have to bed in an entirely new midfield, who wont be used to the Prem pace or intensity. So chin up folks and lets see what happens in the next 19hrs or so...

 

[Dan Stallworthy]

As the window draws to an end I’m still curious what happened to the ITK from the Jan window about big things in the pipeline and multiple big announcements into the summer (or am I imagining it)

Unfortunately as much as I and everyone else appreciates the ITK and I do believe they are ITK (so this isn't a dig at ANY of them) A lot of it is going to be used to keep us coming back on the site, if they were to say in January "one summer signing" it would dramatically reduce the traffic on the site at its busiest time - the summer.

Them saying "150m net spend", "very busy summer" and so on gets everyone on the site, refresh, refresh, refresh = ad revenue + more donations. It really is simple and does not take a genius to work it out.

That being said.. They do us all a service so whether some things are exaggerated or somewhat false, it keeps us entertained in a forum we love.

 

[ItsBoris]

I'd say right now you don't have to be an itk to see history repeating itself again. If you've been around a few years and aren't the hopelessly optimistic type, then you probably recognize the situation as thus: we thought we would get Grealish (probably as a 2nd choice after we missed out on some unnamed first choice), we screwed it up and don't want to take the hit of paying what they are asking for, and now probably won't make any signings except maybe something uninspiring out of left field.

To be honest I'm not that worried as I don't think we needed many players (except a CM), but the bigger problem is that the reason we are getting by without spending money is that Poch is doing a good job with developing the players we do have. If that makes Levy more reluctant to spend money in the transfer market, then we have the unfortunate situation of not backing a manager who is clearly worth backing. Therefore, not allowing ourselves to live up to our potential as a team. We should be aiming higher imo.

 

[stormfly]

Why do I have the feeling we’ll sell Toby and Rose and end up with Luke Shaw and Chris Smalling? It’s been that kind of window.

 

[Jay78]

Poch wanted signings. Irrelevant if anyone on here agrees or disagrees with him, that’s what he wanted and if we sign no one, there lies a big issue IMO.

 

[Parkie]

Im not living in the uk im in another time zone then you.. So no not at four.

Yeah - I thought of that afterwards!
Have a lovely dinner and remember, most places have free WiFi!

 

[Rob]

Unfortunately as much as I and everyone else appreciates the ITK and I do believe they are ITK (so this isn't a dig at ANY of them) A lot of it is going to be used to keep us coming back on the site, if they were to say in January "one summer signing" it would dramatically reduce the traffic on the site at its busiest time - the summer.

Them saying "150m net spend", "very busy summer" and so on gets everyone on the site, refresh, refresh, refresh = ad revenue + more donations. It really is simple and does not take a genius to work it out.

That being said.. They do us all a service so whether some things are exaggerated or somewhat false, it keeps us entertained in a forum we love.

That is absolute rubbish (and pretty offensive to both everyone running the forum and the ITKs).

We pay a fortune for the server to be able to handle these next couple of days. We'd make far more "profit" by paying for a cheap server and limiting traffic as much as possible.

 

[brasil_spur]

Can’t believe it’s got to the stage where I’m just clinging to the desperate hope we’ll get Grealish over the line and not sell any decent players.

Not really what I want or expect from a top four club.

Worst of all is after tomorrow we could still be vulnerable to bids from abroad for some key players until the end of the month.

Yeah, I know, I’m a little fucking ray of sunshine me.

I think the sensible ones amongst us are all feeling the same. The biggest tragedy for me is that this comes at the same time as moving into our new stadium, where we could have made a real statement of intent.

That being said having been privy to how the club conducts some of its off the field business dealings recently this doesn’t surprise me one bit. The only positive I take is that I know off the field when backed into a corner with no other options the club will pay up the cash to get something done. Unfortunately I think this likely just means well overpay for Grealish tomorrow.

Shame.

 

[spud]

I'd say right now you don't have to be an itk to see history repeating itself again. If you've been around a few years and aren't the hopelessly optimistic type, then you probably recognize the situation as thus: we thought we would get Grealish (probably as a 2nd choice after we missed out on some unnamed first choice), we screwed it up and don't want to take the hit of paying what they are asking for, and now probably won't make any signings except maybe something uninspiring out of left field.

If - as you seem - you are prepared to believe it when the ITKs tell us that we are in for Grealish, why don't you believe today's ITK that we didn't 'screw it up' at all? That while the change of ownership was being negotiated the incumbents wanted a moratorium on selling players, and are now refusing to honour an agreement that they had with the player to sell him for 25m.

You can't have it both ways.

 

[simsy886]

Unfortunately as much as I and everyone else appreciates the ITK and I do believe they are ITK (so this isn't a dig at ANY of them) A lot of it is going to be used to keep us coming back on the site, if they were to say in January "one summer signing" it would dramatically reduce the traffic on the site at its busiest time - the summer.

Them saying "150m net spend", "very busy summer" and so on gets everyone on the site, refresh, refresh, refresh = ad revenue + more donations. It really is simple and does not take a genius to work it out.

That being said.. They do us all a service so whether some things are exaggerated or somewhat false, it keeps us entertained in a forum we love.

Where are these geniuses at?

 

[gibbospurs]

Maybe very fine restaurant has sky sports, no?

Bet it has WiFi. Toilet time

 

[pffft]

Why do I have the feeling we’ll sell Toby and Rose and end up with Luke Shaw and Chris Smalling? It’s been that kind of window.

A window where we've sold some players and signed some players?

It really hasn't been that kind of window at all now, has it?

 

[Wirral Spurs]

Unfortunately as much as I and everyone else appreciates the ITK and I do believe they are ITK (so this isn't a dig at ANY of them) A lot of it is going to be used to keep us coming back on the site, if they were to say in January "one summer signing" it would dramatically reduce the traffic on the site at its busiest time - the summer.

Them saying "150m net spend", "very busy summer" and so on gets everyone on the site, refresh, refresh, refresh = ad revenue + more donations. It really is simple and does not take a genius to work it out.

That being said.. They do us all a service so whether some things are exaggerated or somewhat false, it keeps us entertained in a forum we love.

I was quite good friends with Paul Barber when he was Commercial Director. He always said DL was pretty secretive and kept his cards very close to his chest. He would never discuss financial arrangements with anyone outside of the business and was guarded about pretty much everything, like it's a private family business. Let's just wait and see what transpires tomorrow, one thing I would say is that he is very intelligent (Cambridge first in economics I think) and he will be acutely aware of our feelings and the need to compete at the top level.

 

[Mr Pink]

I'm so excited I can't sleep tonight

 

[Dirtysanchez6]

The lack of itk less than 24 hours before the window closes is worrying