The Daily ITK Discussion Thread - POST MORTEM EDITION

[Bromavinci]

Not at all.
Trying to get the exact real story about why it fell over and i was told it was done by someone who would know whether it was done or not!
I'm as gutted as the next fan that it fell over but i do believe we did well this window.
Shame about Rafa but as said all along it was about his family so no point getting upset or saying we forced him out etc
Great moves getting Dembele and Lloris in too!
Daniel will never change and anyone else done a deal or been responsible for a deal for over a million pounds before?
we dont have the funds of city and Chelsea and i didnt see any other top clubs buying lots of players.

Well yes actually. Nothing remotely close to football, but complex deals with many factors and stakeholders. I just fail to understand how we can have months of posturing and positioning with the full knowledge of a deadline, and miss it by 4 minutes!

It smacks of 'getting the best deal possible' or 'penny pinching'! Note the comments from the Lyon chairman to give some insight as to what it must e like with Levy on the other side of the table.

I'm not suicidal but I'm confused as to how a deal so obviously complicated is scuppered by 4 minutes?

 

[bubble07]

Bubble you've left Lennon out of your sig mate!

Ah crap

 

[Archibald&Crooks]

It's hard to be excited when you've wagered all your testicles and lost

 

[Graysonti]

Also the worst for players going out. Modric, Rafa, King

It's got to be expected to atleast bring in alot of good talent, and REPLACE who we've lost. We didn't.

On Positive

Vdv - IMO falling fast. Immobile and I think his legs are going

King - worst season ever last year - wont be missed year on year

Rat boy - meh

 

[bomberH]

Ah crap

And he's just signed a contract extension this morning.

 

[stoddle]

Lennon new deal...he's played 270 games for us...wow, how time flies.

 

[faze_coys]

VDV immobile

why does he ALWAYS cover the most ground in our matches.

King worst season ever? Until christmas he was BRILLIANT. then he got that knock and was done for.

Ratboy - a player we will never replace.

 

[vonn]

After all the ins and outs the one thing that worries me is our lack of technical creativity in central and wide midfield. Obviously Moutinho would have filled that gap in the centre and I'm disappointed that we couldn't get the deal done, for whatever reason. All the players we currently have for these positions are more power and/or pace types and I really think we will miss a bit of guile and know-how on occasion. Of course we still have Huddlestone but considering we have been trying to get shot for the last week or so it's hard to see him figuring.

Anyway, the above apart I'm generally OK with our dealings. No point getting down about Modric and VdV as both wanted to go for well documented reasons. I think Dembele will be an absolute monster for us and getting both Lloris and Vertonghen signed up was great business. Add those three to Sig, Adebayor and Dempsey (plenty of goals there) and I'm more than hopeful we'll be OK.

 

[Greenspur]

I know I shouldn't be surprised... but HOW/WHY do we still have Jenas and Bentley.... for the LOVE OF ALL THE FOOTBALLING GODS...Why can we not shift these players?!?!?!?

Because nobody wants them.

 

[Greenspur]

I think we will be much stronger without the ball, dembele is better than modric at charging players down and tackling. Him and sandro will be tough to match, even parker too. Dempsey is a clever player who will give us a different edge up front, again he works extremely hard off the ball.

What happens when we get the ball?

 

[michaelden]

I feel bad for Hudd now. What for him? Perhaps a club in Ligue 1 might take him on loan? Their window is still open (as is Russian league window). Would it be better for him to stay here with it unlikely he'll get played, or go to the Championship on loan, which would be a bit demeaning.

Also the weirdest one for me was Danny Rose on loan. If BAE is going off to the ACN why wouldn't we keep Rose around just in case? Not one to get worked up about but, a bit odd.

Why bad for Hudd? What's the deal?

 

[Klinsmannic]

Moutinho was a f*** up, no matter how you look at it.

However, we need to move on. That means Dembele must step up and be our superstar midfield playmaker, and will play alongside Sandro. I 100% believe he has the quality to do it. Also need to remember that Ade has the ability to drop short and create, and watching videos of Dempsey overnight tells me that he is a lot more cultured than I thought.

Overall, our business means that we need to play ever so slightly more direct now than AVB initially planned, which might not be a bad thing imo. By direct I mean running at players more, using crosses and people like Dempsey to burst into the box.

We will surprise a few people this season, in a good way.

However, save us all if Dembele gets injured *shudders*. AVB needs to find a massive stock of cotton wool to last until January...

 

[leonspurs]

It's hard to be excited when you've wagered all your testicles and lost

Dont worry A&C just make sure your not around when they come to collect ;0)

 

[Hot-Spur]

Feeling abit meh this morning about the whole thing, it has been a very good window but it could have been a great window had the Moutinhio deal went through. Don't know what went wrong but if it was personal terms not being agreed then that makes its very very frustrating, and you have to wonder why it was left until the last day. I would have thought the minute Modric left we would have been going all guns blazing to get him. And if it was proving to difficult have someone as a back-up, but we never seem to have a back-up

We have a very good team just look abit lightweight in terms of a playmaker and a proper Ade replacement upfront. Shame we couldn't have used our "relationship" with RM to get a midfielder or striker even on loan.

 

[bigfrooj]

VDV immobile

why does he ALWAYS cover the most ground in out matches.

King worst season ever? Until christmas he was BRILLIANT. then he got that knock and was done for.

Ratboy - a player we will never replace.

Rafa would burn himself out and get slower and slower, hence why he was always subbed. He was wonderful in the first season but he never looked at peak fitness. I love the fella so will not criticise further. I never got the love-in for Modric; he did some great things occasionally but at the end of the day is an above average midfielder worth £16.5 m of anyone's money. King is the King, no discussion.

 

[brasil_spur]

Have we really got just 2 strikers at the club now? Along with no back up to Benny and no back up to our wide players the make up of our squad looks really strange.

On the positive side think Dembele and Lloris will be very good signings, completely underwhelmed by Dempsey.

No we haven't.

Dempsey is a forward, we're only going to play with one 'striker' so all is not so bad on that front.

Verts can play back-up to Benny as can Naughton.

 

[$hoguN]

So here we are, the morning after the night before. Barring any miracles it seems we have missed out on Moutinho, and are left in a somewhat strange position. In this window we have encouragingly seen a lot of clutter go in the form of Corluka, Krancjar, GDS, Nelsen, Saha, Pienaar, etc., and have coupled this with losing our 3 World Class players, with VDV's departure providuing a real kick in the balls. So I guess the question is how does the squad look now after our new arrivals and long list of departures?

I think all but the most mentally retarded of us would agree that we have taken a significant step forward in the goalkeeping department. In Lloris we have signed one of the World's best GKs for an extremely reasonable price. As a keeper Lloris represents the exact sort of player AVB would have been hoping for, so I'm sure he will take Friedel's place in the side and make us much more solid.

In defence, we have lost our talisman, a living legend, in Ledley King. Although this is a great shame, I don't think anyone can argue that we have done a great job in replacing him. Vertoghen is an extremely cultured CB along with a leader on the pitch. Given time I can see him becoming our captain and one of the best in the PL. We should also be delighted that Caulker appears as though he will be given his chance this season by AVB, a manager who understands that football is now a squad game, so I personally believe we are stronger at CB than last season. Even at fullback I believe we have strengthened this summer by bringing Naughton and Smith into the fold, both are capable young fullbacks who are at their best going forward, which AVB must be very pleased about.

In the striker positions I think it is clear that we needed one more, especially with Adebayor probably going to the ACN in January. However staying positive we should all be delighted to have Adebayor, he was fantastic last season and should be even better in the new system we are playing IMO. Also it appears Leandro now wants to come, so hopefully a pre-agreement can be reached so we can add the Brazil number 9 to our side in January, *fingers crossed*.

On the wings Townsend provides us with limited cover, but after careful thought I think Dempsey will do a cracking job for us out here. Although the guy is no VDV, he is a very composed finisher, has a booming shot/free kick on him, and even wins headers. I think he could be a real coup, and score lots of goals coming inside to meet crosses from Bale.

I think we all can agree we will shift to a 3 in midfield now, with a DM, playmaker and AM being utilised. At DM we remain in a strong position with Sandro, Parker and Livermore. In the AM slot we have Siggurdsson who looks to be a really good player, but plainly does not have the vision of VDV, fortunately he does have goals in him and takes a great set piece, and with Dempsey as cover, I believe we are weaker here but have lots to be positive about. I guess that finally moves on to the playmaker role which we are undoubtedly lacking in, we clearly tried hard for Muotinho but the fates were not on our side, so we are now left with Huddlesetone and Dembele. I remain unconvinced by Dembele's end product, but cannot deny he has a lot of skill and is capable of unlocking a defence with his trickery. I think his more direct approach will make us more penetrating against smaller teams and his defensive abilities may make us harder to beat. It may be me being overly optimistic, but I feel that although we no longer contain the WC talent in midfield, together they will be greater than the sum of their parts.

All in all it has been a positive window for us, yes it has been laced with heartbreak, but if we remain competitive till January, 1 or 2 high class additions may Spur on us to greater things in the new years. COYS.

 

[DiscoD1882]

It could be worse... We could be Arsenal fans...

 

[Hot-Spur]

Btw thank God there is a ignore button on here, I have added to my list quite substantially

 

[Original # 10]

I got wasted last night. Forgive my ignorance. Please tell me we bought a striker?