The Daily ITK Discussion Thread - THE LAST MINUTE OF THE LAST HOUR OF THE LAST DAY 31st August 2012

[Axl Rose]

Yeah it's fucking gutting that we didn't get Mouthino, especially as it seemed like a done deal this afternoon. But what about Hugo Lloris, that's a fucking HUGE signing, captain of his county & one of the best keepers in Europe, we're lucky to pull this off he's top class!

 

[nightgoat]

yes because BF is so bad at mo and was priority..not the case

When Brad turns 42 at the end of the season, how many world class 25-year old goalkeepers do you think will be available to us for £8m?

 

[brasil_spur]

Has everyone forgot we have signed a world class keeper...

Dust needs to settle first.

If someone had said 2 months ago that we were going to sign: Lloris, Verts, Sigurdsson, Dembele, Dempsey & Ade this window i'd have been over the moon. Losing VDV was the only real shocker, but then he has been looking very injury prone as of late and frankly i can deal with one shock loss.

 

[Dan Yeats]

Dempsey is a very nice "bonus" signing.

I disagree FWIW. Over the course of the season, I think Dempsey will be absolutely key, and a more important signing than getting both of Dembele and Sig - although not more important than getting one of them IYSWIM.

Not sure I've explained that very well! I mean that out of those 3 signings, the most important was getting one of Dembele or Sig, who can fill some of the attacking void in midfield. After that, Dempsey is the next most important. The extra midfielder is the "bonus" signing IMO.

 

[Mullers]

If I was AVB I'd walk, this is an absolute load of old bollocks.

 

[Spursidol]

Dembele does not score goals

oops, agreed. But still glad we signed him as he is a good player and, importantly, available.

 

[mpickard2087]

and also talk me thru this bulls...t deal we have with madrid..eh what a joke we look... what does it give us

Its only the ill-informed who assumed that we would be getting players in this partnership. Its more about sharing coaching and various other stuff with each other. We have a similar deal with Internacional, that hasnt made it any easier to sign first Sandro and now Leandro has it?

 

[venablesphil]

I have at least 40 on my ignore list.

I've just put my first member on ignore - it was strangely satisfying!

 

[sbrustad]

Official Everton ‏@Everton
BREAKING: Everton sign Vadis Odjidja-Ofoe on season long loan, subject to ratification


And we can't sign someone 2 and a half hours later...why?

Well, someone at the FA probably sanctioned the transfer because they want the commentators to struggle.

 

[Mate]

Jol laying into us and the way we have dealt with them!

 

[Mr Pink]

I agree, still at least Dempsey > Saha.

Bloody right, I think some forget how good this guy was last season. He's 29 as well, so still got a good two/three seasons at the very top level left in him.

He works like fuck as well, he'll fit AVB's pressing requirements and off the ball duties. I like him, I really do. Think he's going to play behind Ade with Siggy on the bench, and at times he may play the right forward role if we go down that route.

But playing behind Ade, we are going to have a serious aerial threat in the box now when Bale whips in a ball.

I think we'll score more goals this season, might not be as easy on the eye but could well prove more effective - offensively and defensively.

 

[Glenn_Purvey]

Big game today !!

Coys

 

[stonecolddeanaustin]

Ok then, so going by a fair few here the latest transfer should be Levy out. But who to get in I hear you (or me at least!) ask....

Here's some examples of what we could end up with:

Randy Learner: backed Villa for 2 years then gave up when they didn't get champs league and is now bringing them close to relegation level.
The Arsenal board: Done sweet FA for years with regards to spending money (apart from the stadium perhaps) and are lucky to have a manager that's made them fortunes on transfers.
The new yanks at Liverpool: Threw away a load of cash in their first season but now have nothing to spend and are showing zero ambition (not even £6mill for Dempsey!!)
Bill Kenwright: Spend bugger all year after year and is fortunate enough to have a good manager that can handle this.
The Galziers: Burdened the club with loads of debt and without whom Man U would probably be up there with Barca.
The old yanks at Liverpool: Took a top European club to the verge of bankruptcy in the space of 3 years.
Mike Ashley: Fat useless &*(* that's got lucky with a good scouting team.
Tony Fernadez: Spending well beyond his means to no doubt lead QPR to ruin
etc etc etc

The only boards in the premier league that are "better" than ours are City and Chelsea's and to be frank I would not want to see Spurs run that way. Even if I did, going down that route means you're equally as likely to end up with some jokers like the Venky's at Blackburn or the numerous idiots they had at Portsmouth to take them to the verge of ruin.

GET SOME FCKING PERSPECTIVE PEOPLE!!!!

Rant over and good night.

 

[TheAmerican]

Couldn't we have bunged them £1.2m in used £50 notes?

I know it's a lot of money but we made a profit this window after all...

I don't get it either. Seems as though if Levy really wanted to get it done, it would have gotten done. Can't be mad though, we can only look forward from here. Forget all this.

 

[King of Otters]

you know if we started seriously working on moutinho and willian oh I dont know, say 2 months ago, they would both be spurs players now

anyway add them to the list of players we tried to sign at the last possible minute because it worked well once with VDV.
goodnight folks, enjoy the game against Norwich tomorrow were we have 70% possession but fail to score more than 1 goal!

We probably did start work on them two months ago, it's just that Levy picks up negotiations a couple of days before the window shuts in the hope of driving the price down. Aulas confirmed as much today.


It's annoying and Levy takes it to absurd levels of brinkmanship but we clearly can't afford to slap our balls down on the table and buy top talent outright. Liverpool and Arsenal, arguably bigger clubs than ourselves, are in the same position.

 

[spivmaster]

I disagree FWIW. Over the course of the season, I think Dempsey will be absolutely key, and a more important signing than getting both of Dembele and Sig - although not more important than getting one of them IYSWIM.

Not sure I've explained that very well! I mean that out of those 3 signings, the most important was getting one of Dembele or Sig, who can fill some of the attacking void in midfield. After that, Dempsey is the next most important. The extra midfielder is the "bonus" signing IMO.

Dempsey is also a helluva fighter, he's going to give us some great grit and leadership...something we often seem to be lacking.

 

[SonicSarr]

Another big disappointment about the failure to sign Moutinho, and the sale of VDV, is that it's dampened the reception of Lloris.

I think Hugo Lloris and Jan Vertonghen were both top class signings that the club have done incredibly well to arrange. Unfortunately instead of adding to our star-studded team they - along with Bale and Sandro - pretty much constitute it.

They must be gutted. Like me.

 

[venablesphil]

Jol laying into us and the way we have dealt with them!

Have you got a link?

 

[Bus-Conductor]

Shelfy I think you're picking the positives as best you can but you can't ignore what we've been left with. We all expected Modric to go but not VDV too, not until recently and we thought we'd be bringing in one creative at least for these 2 top drawer players leaving. We really are quite a different team now, and honestly I don't think we're a better one. Yeah we'll do ok, yeah AVB will get the best out of them hopefully, but the hearts been ripped out of our team a bit. Every time we get so close we take a smack in the teeth and it's hugely frustrating, especially considering we've spent fuck all net this window (I think we've made a small profit).

I understand Mouts was expensive and difficult but what about contingencies? Similar but cheaper players who could've done a job in midfield on the ball? Arsenal compromised on Arteta for example but he's decent and a similar player would've helped us. In AVB's system we require a ball playing midfielder such as he had at Porto and as he wanted at Chelsea - we haven't got one unless you count Dembele but he's a very different player who likes to dribble.

I'm hoping AVB gets the best out of what he has as we all do. But whenever I see clips of the team from last season I'm gonna be a bit sad because we won't see football like it for the forseeable future and maybe not again for some time.

But wasn't that exactly what (15m) Dembele was Steve. The "Arteta" contingency ? Not exactly the same as Moutinho (and I think both would have been nice) but a very decent alternative (and hardly bargain basement at 15m). And isn't Sigurdsson the contingency plan for the loss of VDV ? I wouldn't swap him, but if it's contingencies you want - we have them don't we ?

I'm not over the moon either, I think VDV will be an even harder package than Modric to compensate for, but I don't think we had a choice with either player, and I don't think any of the first choice options were easy for us to do. We have signed Adsebayor now and Dempsey is at least a better back up than Fraser Campbell was.

I think a midfield that included Dembele/Sandro and Moutinho would have been damn good, and clearly, clearly we worked hard to make Moutinho happen. I'm a tad disappointed but there is a reason we have to do deals like this, it's the only way we can afford them. Sometimes It's a choice of trying to get a top quality player at a discount or making your contingency options your first choices. Moutinho was 32m until yesterday. Lloris was 15m etc.

 

[doom]

Can loan deals be made until 1pm? Any chance of loaning our sort after midfielder? Do we still have Hudd btw? Can anyone summarize the outs?