Us and Arse in talks with Jan Vertonghen

[Spursidol]

There must be a host of less glamorous options that can upgrade our team and squad and do a job even if they don't seem like world beaters

Cisse was expensive ish but he wasn't on the agenda of the biggest teams and Newcastle have pulled off a master stroke signing him it appears thus far, same can be said about Ben Arfa, Cabaye, Ba and Tiote.

Canvani was available for not so much a few seasons ago and by all accounts we could have signed Rossi for a fraction of what we supposedly tried to sign him for later after his hattrick at the Lane.

Players will always be out there, talented but still emerging and in need of a bigger club to take a gamble on them before they become world class. Ok the gamble won't always pay off but until such time we are in a position to pay top wages and offer CL football and title challengers for the top players we have to remember who and where we are and do good business rather than chasing our tails to sign players who won't come.

Agreed, but do we have a good enough scoting network to find enough of them. Maybe we need a top DoF again (maybe re-hire Frank Arnesen from Hamburg ?).

 

[wadewill]

im being realistic, and no foreign player would come to us over arsenal in a straight choice. yet.

arsenal are still well above us as far as the continent are concerned.

 

[HappySpur]

There must be a host of less glamorous options that can upgrade our team and squad and do a job even if they don't seem like world beaters

Cisse was expensive ish but he wasn't on the agenda of the biggest teams and Newcastle have pulled off a master stroke signing him it appears thus far, same can be said about Ben Arfa, Cabaye, Ba and Tiote.

Canvani was available for not so much a few seasons ago and by all accounts we could have signed Rossi for a fraction of what we supposedly tried to sign him for later after his hattrick at the Lane.

Players will always be out there, talented but still emerging and in need of a bigger club to take a gamble on them before they become world class. Ok the gamble won't always pay off but until such time we are in a position to pay top wages and offer CL football and title challengers for the top players we have to remember who and where we are and do good business rather than chasing our tails to sign players who won't come.

Great post. And I think we would do ourselves a bigger favor in spending money on the best scouts than the best players that will come to us. Except for Hazard. But then again, why is it that we don't have the scouting system in place to find Hazard three years ago. Well, that's not fair. A lot of teams obviously missed him. But if we can get a better set of scouts then we can hopefully find more of these gems and develop them. The key to the FFP/EPL-quota rules is getting kids in at 16, 17 and 18. While Comolli did a so-so job with it, at least he was building up our youth corps. I don't want him, but I would like to see us headed back in that direction. We do have some promising kids coming through and the ones we can't use, we will make a profit on....but we need to keep the in-flow consistent and make the quality even better.

 

[Spursidol]

I thought he was doing well at Birmingham?

I think he is - most of the last 3 months he has kept nathan Redmond on the bench (Redmond was cited in the last TW as the man Spurs had to get for wing cover by many on SC), altough recently the two have sometimes both played, one on eithr wing.

 

[stevenurse]

With our bigger stadium, higher wages, definate champions league and international partner....oh wait

 

[StartingPrice]

rry...but I really hate this kind of self-deprecating defeatist attitude - you can't see anyone choosing us over them because we are neck-and-neck with them and have an exciting team?

 

[Spursidol]

Great post. And I think we would do ourselves a bigger favor in spending money on the best scouts than the best players that will come to us. Except for Hazard. But then again, why is it that we don't have the scouting system in place to find Hazard three years ago. Well, that's not fair. A lot of teams obviously missed him. But if we can get a better set of scouts then we can hopefully find more of these gems and develop them. The key to the FFP/EPL-quota rules is getting kids in at 16, 17 and 18. While Comolli did a so-so job with it, at least he was building up our youth corps. I don't want him, but I would like to see us headed back in that direction. We do have some promising kids coming through and the ones we can't use, we will make a profit on....but we need to keep the in-flow consistent and make the quality even better.

Eden Hazard (and his younger brother Thorgan) have beeen known about for several years as potentially great stars, so nop real scouting effort required.

Agree with you about picking them up younger and think Spurs have been bringing in a few over the last 12 or 18 months. Not sure whether some of them are as world beating as I would like but some do look really good such as 16 year old Serbian CB Milos Veljkovic who played several games in pre-season for us as well as excelling in Next Gen Series.

Aside from resources into scouting Spurs need to put more thought into developing the kids - many of the loans this season have not worked out as well as last year because imo the player and club were not as well matched. Of course thios could be because Spurs now have more professionals and academy lads than ever before (next year circa 40 professionals and 30 in the academy)

 

[Dan Ashcroft]

But his compatriot Hazard is joining us in the summer.

Not compatriot. One is Flemish, the other Walloon. They don't even speak the same language.

 

[StartingPrice]

Not compatriot. One is Flemish, the other Walloon. They don't even speak the same language.

Dan I asked you a direct question about Tim Sherwood, have you answered it yet?

 

[Mr Pink]

Koscienly has been excellent for Arsenal this season, this guy won't be walking into the Arsenal side instantly that's for sure.

 

[Dan Ashcroft]

Dan I asked you a direct question about Tim Sherwood, have you answered it yet?

What is it? I don't know much about him other than he was a gutless knob (particularly in his treatment of Freund) who I really disliked as a player.

 

[StartingPrice]

What is it? I don't know much about him other than he was a gutless knob (particularly in his treatment of Freund) who I really disliked as a player.

It's in the Tim Sherwood thread...perhaps you could look it up.

 

[felmani26]

Koscienly has been excellent for Arsenal this season, this guy won't be walking into the Arsenal side instantly that's for sure.

Absolutely this - if anything, Koscielny has been the standout defender for Arsenal this year and whisper it quietly, Arsenal have a very impressive defence when everyone is fit, including Chesney!

 

[Mr Pink]

Absolutely this - if anything, Koscielny has been the standout defender for Arsenal this year and whisper it quietly, Arsenal have a very impressive defence when everyone is fit, including Chesney!

I know mate, they really do.

If they can keep RVP this summer they're going to right up there next season.

 

[AngerManagement]

Agreed, but do we have a good enough scoting network to find enough of them. Maybe we need a top DoF again (maybe re-hire Frank Arnesen from Hamburg ?).

It seems to me to be the way ahead, I don't see any reason Harry could not work with a DOF

its surely not that dissimilar to his current relationship with Levy, in terms of him identifying players he may want or types of players he wants and letting levy/dof deal with trying to bring them in and or Levy/DOF bringing players to his attention for him to ok before they sign.

The only reason I could see for the system not working would be clashes of personalities and the two (Harry and the DOF) being unable to work cohesively together or ego and stubbornness from Harry not wanting to have a DOF around (maybe feeling undermined)

Really for the good of the club I feel this needs to be reintroduced for our long term success, doesn't have to be a high profile appointment just someone capable of taking care of business effectively and working along side a manager and easing transition periods when a new manager is brought in.

 

[kishman]

Not compatriot. One is Flemish, the other Walloon. They don't even speak the same language.

Whatever! Both play for the same country.

 

[spursandbarca]

there are good defenders someone like albert botia from sporting gijon. but redknapp only buys 30 somethings that preferably played for him before

 

[Bus-Conductor]

I liked what I've seen of him. Shame.

 

[FMA]

Great addition to the squad if we can convince him to sign. I think Caulker has the potential to be the better centre half, but Vertonghen's versatility effectively makes him three signings in one because he is accomplished at left back and central midfield as well.

Finishing third would have made the world of difference in getting him to sign on the dotted line - a factor that Arsenal have in their favour, as well as the fact that Vertonghen would have taken advice from Vermaelen and Bergkamp (now on the coaching staff at Ajax) both of whom would have guided him towards Arsenal.

We cant compete on the wages front either, I read somewhere that Djourou is collecting 50k a week at Arsenal. If that's true then Vertonghen can command well in excess of that amount.

If Arsenal get Vertonghen and M'Villa then they will be a force to be reckoned with next season.

 

[Dare!]

Hopefully we can reel him in. If not, we've got Caulker.