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SpursCommunity Jedi Master
- Jun 8, 2003
- 6,734
- 4,132
... has been the best I have ever had the pleasure of being involved in from a supporter's perspective. It has taken over from the 1994/95 summer by quite some margin. We are finally addressing problems we have known about for years and rectifying them - and not just with a touch of patch up and gloss - we are bringing in absolute quality all over the squad. It's quite incredible how the sale of one player can contribute towards the assembly of one of the most frighteningly able teams I think many of us have witnessed.
In 2011 I claimed that the team that thrashed Liverpool and then beat Villa at Villa Park was the best I'd ever seen in all my years supporting Spurs:
Friedel; Assou-Ekotto, King, Kaboul, Walker; Bale, Modric, Parker, Lennon; van der Vaart; Adebayor
We have since brought in one of the best goalkeepers in the world in Hugo Lloris, stiffened up the spine of the midfield with Capoue, Dembele, Paulinho and of course the returning Sandro. We've replaced Legend King with a 2012/13 Team of the Year centreback Jan Vertonghen along with a very classy ball playing Romanian International defender in Vlad Chiriches. Brought in creative wing forwards in Nacer Chadli and Erik Lamela - the latter touted as the Argentinian Ronaldo with the potential to be one of the world's best, as well as progress the rise of Andros Townsend. We have finally replaced Dimitar Berbatov with a striker whose goal scoring abilities in Spain were unmatched over the last 4 years against rival players - netting him 60 goals - Roberto Soldado. Add to that the potential of more signings including Christien Eriksen, Alen Halilovic and Fabio Coentrao.
That team from 2011 at the time was just brilliant. Now look at how we're progressing. Gareth Bale at that time wasn't even the star of the show. It was Modric and Rafa that were getting the plaudits from the fans.
We've broken our transfer record 3 times in the same window. No more referring to David Bentley or Darren Bent in our history books, although Luka Modric did cost us almost the same.
We may well be a selling club but that goes for any team who need to balance the books or simply cannot stand in the way when a player has such a desire to leave; Liverpool struggled with Owen, Manchester United struggled with Ronaldo, Arsenal struggled with... everyone.
We've rid a lot of the deadwood and sold a good few "squad players", but what we've done is replaced them with quality. Real quality. This is now finally becoming a Villas-Boas squad, constructed with his vision. I now look back on Harry's time with us and how we look today, and although I was happy with our meteoric rise under Redknapp, Jordan and Bond, I really do much prefer the set-up we have at the club now. A young, clearly very gifted and intelligent manager with a focus and mindset on doing something positive. A manager who actually insisted on Franco Baldini coming in to help scout and recruit players and get us over hurdles we've hit hard over the last few years in these transfer windows.
I'll actually be quite disappointed when the window closes on September 2nd. For all the frustration and anger we expressed during the first months, the last few weeks have been nothing short of amazing. To repeat my opening line, without doubt the best experience of a transfer window I have ever witnessed.
In 2011 I claimed that the team that thrashed Liverpool and then beat Villa at Villa Park was the best I'd ever seen in all my years supporting Spurs:
Friedel; Assou-Ekotto, King, Kaboul, Walker; Bale, Modric, Parker, Lennon; van der Vaart; Adebayor
We have since brought in one of the best goalkeepers in the world in Hugo Lloris, stiffened up the spine of the midfield with Capoue, Dembele, Paulinho and of course the returning Sandro. We've replaced Legend King with a 2012/13 Team of the Year centreback Jan Vertonghen along with a very classy ball playing Romanian International defender in Vlad Chiriches. Brought in creative wing forwards in Nacer Chadli and Erik Lamela - the latter touted as the Argentinian Ronaldo with the potential to be one of the world's best, as well as progress the rise of Andros Townsend. We have finally replaced Dimitar Berbatov with a striker whose goal scoring abilities in Spain were unmatched over the last 4 years against rival players - netting him 60 goals - Roberto Soldado. Add to that the potential of more signings including Christien Eriksen, Alen Halilovic and Fabio Coentrao.
That team from 2011 at the time was just brilliant. Now look at how we're progressing. Gareth Bale at that time wasn't even the star of the show. It was Modric and Rafa that were getting the plaudits from the fans.
We've broken our transfer record 3 times in the same window. No more referring to David Bentley or Darren Bent in our history books, although Luka Modric did cost us almost the same.
We may well be a selling club but that goes for any team who need to balance the books or simply cannot stand in the way when a player has such a desire to leave; Liverpool struggled with Owen, Manchester United struggled with Ronaldo, Arsenal struggled with... everyone.
We've rid a lot of the deadwood and sold a good few "squad players", but what we've done is replaced them with quality. Real quality. This is now finally becoming a Villas-Boas squad, constructed with his vision. I now look back on Harry's time with us and how we look today, and although I was happy with our meteoric rise under Redknapp, Jordan and Bond, I really do much prefer the set-up we have at the club now. A young, clearly very gifted and intelligent manager with a focus and mindset on doing something positive. A manager who actually insisted on Franco Baldini coming in to help scout and recruit players and get us over hurdles we've hit hard over the last few years in these transfer windows.
I'll actually be quite disappointed when the window closes on September 2nd. For all the frustration and anger we expressed during the first months, the last few weeks have been nothing short of amazing. To repeat my opening line, without doubt the best experience of a transfer window I have ever witnessed.
