Well done Levy and co.

[dudu]

It will be 6 million over 5 seasons I have heard but the fee is still 30 million. I predicted that Winks will not get much game time before this transfer, even more so now.

The guy needs premiership minutes, he can't just be part of a disjointed side in the league cup, come on as the occasional substitution and and be expected to work miracles.

Why would our side in the league cup be disjointed? And who is expecting Winks to perform miracles?

I understand your frustration but this is all speculation right now and we havent really purchased anyone who is that similar to Winks anyway.

Considering we were trying to move on Carroll and we did move on Mason and Bentaleb I think Poch has made it clear where Winks is in that pecking order.

 

[NEVILLEB]

I think what some people are upset with is that Sissoko looked like a last minute panic buy. That we paid so much because it was on deadline day. That Paul Mitchell quit because he wasn't being listened to.

None of that may be true and we'll find out if the faith put in Sissoko is justified at the end of the season.

 

[SpartanSpur]

The more I think of it the more I think Poch will be delighted with his squad. Finally he can put out a bench full of players he can trust enough to start games, which is good as it seemed that he lost faith in some of our backups last season. He still lacks a playmaker if Eriksen isn't firing but he certainly has a better blend of forward options.

Wanyama and Janssen plugged two gaps superbly (assuming VJ finds his goalscoring boots soon).

Once the over-emphasis on transfers/transfer envy (Danny Murphy I'm sorry but you fell for both) dies down then I think we are in good shape, certainly better than last season.

Everything has just been exacerbated by the fact that Lamela aside our forward options (bar Lamela) are well off form so far this year. And yet despite that we are sitting on 5 points and held Everton away and Liverpool who tore Arsenal a new one opening day. This is because of our defensive strength. 9 point starts from the big three haven't helped also but I've seen all of them at different points and have not always been blown away aside from City's first half last weekend.

We scored 69 goals last season, Chelsea won the league with 73 in 2014/15. We aren't too short on the attacking front if players like Kane, Eriksen, Lamela and Alli hit form, plus we have Janssen in the mix now too. We are a racing car, Poch needs to get us purring, City/Chelsea/Utd just spent crazy money on a ready made hypercar.

Our squad was young and inexperienced last year, and far from it's peak. Fingers crossed they can improve again.

I'm worried our forward options may take too long to get up to speed for us to reach our goals, but if they do and stay there I genuinely feel we will be right in the mix for CL once again.

Spoiler: P.S.

Also, Sissoko came about because we managed to get £26m for two players dead set on staying all window, that money could not be counted on. Then consider Poch's insistence (and that we still tried for Isco) and you can't knock it IMHO.

 

[SpartanSpur]

Yep I was talking more about the midfield 2 rather than the front 4.

I just think we lack a midfielder who can pass from deep which would be very useful against certain teams.

A very hard position to find the right player in though.

I think many have been overly harsh on the Dier-Wanyama axis, it's so easy to bash 2 DMs. For me it's hard to fully criticise them when Eriksen, Kane and Alli have been well off-form and Janssen adapting. Dembele is fantastic but for me his passing range is the same level if not more basic than theirs (dribbling unreal though) and we were pretty creative last year for the most part.

Xabi Alonsos don't grow on trees unfortunately, so I agree with your last comment, as we can't really accommodate classic DLPs without defensive qualities due to how our FBs bomb on.

A David Silva type is certainly our best way forward, which again I agree sucks about Coric/Isco, and I'm sure we'll keep looking.

At least now we've added some different options with the ability to put two up and also some pacey dribblers to mix things up.

 

[Singaspur]

My guess/hope/prayer is that over the next few transfer windows before we move into the new stadium, Poch/Levy's no. 1 priority will be to bring in a 'special' creative attacking player - a Silva/de Bruyne/Sanchez/Hazard quality player - so that there's a real buzz about the club first season in the new stadium. But they aint easy to find or bring in to a club like ours that doesn't pay megabucks wages. I think we did pretty well this window despite not getting such a player this time around.

 

[longtimespur]

My guess/hope/prayer is that over the next few transfer windows before we move into the new stadium, Poch/Levy's no. 1 priority will be to bring in a 'special' creative attacking player - a Silva/de Bruyne/Sanchez/Hazard quality player - so that there's a real buzz about the club first season in the new stadium. But they aint easy to find or bring in to a club like ours that doesn't pay megabucks wages. I think we did pretty well this window despite not getting such a player this time around.

Wont argue with any of that but I'm hoping Lamela will be used more centrally and could be that player, even Edwards to get enough game time to make an impression and maybe become a lock picker as well.

 

[Singaspur]

Wont argue with any of that but I'm hoping Lamela will be used more centrally and could be that player, even Edwards to get enough game time to make an impression and maybe become a lock picker as well.

That would be fantastic. But while Lamela (finally!) seems to be getting to grips with the English game and has upped his end product a helluva lot, I am not convinced he quite has that magic in him. Hope to be proved wrong of course. Edwards is still an unknown quantity to me but again I would be delighted if he turned out to be that 'special' player.

 

[Mullers]

Why would our side in the league cup be disjointed? And who is expecting Winks to perform miracles?

I understand your frustration but this is all speculation right now and we havent really purchased anyone who is that similar to Winks anyway.

Considering we were trying to move on Carroll and we did move on Mason and Bentaleb I think Poch has made it clear where Winks is in that pecking order.

Because Poch doesn't care about this competition and neither do a lot of fans.

Did you see how Onomah got chopped down from promising , exciting player to a player not good enough for the prem, in just one sub appearance by a lot of the fans? Same thing will happen to winks.

 

[Mullers]

Well according to this

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/football...ttenham-the-anatomy-of-transfer-deadline-day/

Prior to the Euros Ashley priced the player at 22 mill .

I read that last night eventually he chopped it from 35 million to 30 million.

 

[Mullers]

Jeez leave the finances down to people who know what they're doing - I'm sure all your concerns were covered before Levy decided to write the damn cheque...it's not as if you don't know how Levy operates he's proven more than enough times that he's covered his and the club's arse when it comes to money.

All your examples are spawned on hypothetical negativity, so yeah bad things can happen to football clubs sometimes, it's just utterly pointless speculating about it and getting worked up over it.

It's spawned from being realistic, I of course trust Levy with finances but that doesn't mean I shouldn't voice my concern that we paid so much for this player. I also said that we shouldn't pay Adebayor 100,000 a week.

It's unhealthy to take the attitude that people's actions shouldn't be questioned just because they are more qualified than us.

 

[glospur]

I think many have been overly harsh on the Dier-Wanyama axis, it's so easy to bash 2 DMs. For me it's hard to fully criticise them when Eriksen, Kane and Alli have been well off-form and Janssen adapting. Dembele is fantastic but for me his passing range is the same level if not more basic than theirs (dribbling unreal though) and we were pretty creative last year for the most part.

Xabi Alonsos don't grow on trees unfortunately, so I agree with your last comment, as we can't really accommodate classic DLPs without defensive qualities due to how our FBs bomb on.

A David Silva type is certainly our best way forward, which again I agree sucks about Coric/Isco, and I'm sure we'll keep looking.

At least now we've added some different options with the ability to put two up and also some pacey dribblers to mix things up.

Excellent post. I agree with every single word.

Our lack of coherent, flowing football and lack of clear chances are much more the fault of our rusty front 4 (with the exception of Lamela) as it is the Dier-Wanyama partnership.

So many people want Winks or a player that is more 'metronomic' to partner Dier or Wanyama but they're too myopically focused on what that player will offer going forward without considering the effect it will have on our defensive game.

I don't buy it either that it's definitely needed against so called 'weaker' sides. If anything, we need more defensive solidity in the middle of the park against those sides because we will dominate possession while our full backs are effectively asked to play as wingers which leaves us wide open on the counter attack when we lose possession. If we didn't have CM's capable of doing the dirty work and stopping any counter attacks then the full backs wouldn't be able to play with such freedom. If there was a player who could do both - and i think Dier will end up close to that mark - then he would probably be our most valuable player but, like you say, those type of players don't exactly grow on trees. I mean we could play the likes of Winks in there but then his partner would have to do the job of either 2 or 3 men to cover both full backs and his inexperienced CM partner.

I also think this is the exact reason why Onomah gets played in the AM3; in those positions his completely understandable errors won't be as costly or leave us as exposed.

 

[THFCSPURS19]

30m euros. Sissoko is 30m pounds

It was €30m, with €5m in bonuses, meaning it could reach about £30m. I suspect given the number of games Erik has played, as well as the fact we have qualified for the CL, means that some of those bonuses have already been activated.

 

[Wheeler Dealer]

Because Poch doesn't care about this competition and neither do a lot of fans.

Did you see how Onomah got chopped down from promising , exciting player to a player not good enough for the prem, in just one sub appearance by a lot of the fans? Same thing will happen to winks.

All Winks has to do is to stay on his feet and he'll be an improvement on Onomah

 

[CowInAComa]

Pretty sure we didn't lose any games with our first choice 11 last year (maybe Leicester at home in the last minute? Unlucky at Man utd?). We were found out though when our squad was tested. When people say we haven't improved the XI I think they may be missing the point a bit.

Well put.

Like we can just easily improve the best performing first 11 we had had in decades by clicking our fingers.. We tried for an Isco which arguable would fall into that catergory but it didnt happen for no fault of ours. But failing that, who could we buy to guarantee to improve our current first 11.

 

[Sid Tottenham]

Here a clip of what we just spent £30m on

https://mobile.twitter.com/smiley_nufc/status/771062586745978880/video/1

Great teckers lovely cushioned side foot pass
Danny Rose woulda got that no problem

 

[Rodrigonodefendi]

We were really good last season. In recent past that would mean we would have had to replace an integral part of what made us good ( carick, berbatov, modric, bale take your pick)... Now we have them all still here. What we have added is cover/competition and the possibility to modify our approach in games.

A few years back when we got to squeaky bum time ( you know trying to hold on to a 1-goal lead) I always feared a soft foul from our fullbacks. Those inswinging freekicks felt like a 50-50 chance of us conceding... Dawson couldn´t be everywhere and King was often sidelined with injury... The feeling I have now is we have a squad far more capable of defending setpieces and commanding the space around them. If we should somehow get the bonus of scoring more from our own setpieces well that's even better. If needed we could field a team of tanks apart from our fullbacks.

 

[double0]

Well according to this

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/football...ttenham-the-anatomy-of-transfer-deadline-day/

Prior to the Euros Ashley priced the player at 22 mill .

Sissoko hasn't done anything wrong imo...it's business. He is 27 French international and wants to play at the highest level, Tottenham can provide that and Newcastle are rewarded handsomely.

Next.

 

[SpartanSpur]

Just had a hunt around for a similar feature to Merson's transfer grades last year on sky's website as I thought it'd make interesting reading, but it looks like it's been deleted like a Lyall Thomas tweet.

Found some from other sources though:-

http://www.eurosport.co.uk/football...in-the-transfer-market_sto4890509/story.shtml

This one scores us a D - with City A+, Liverpool B-, Utd C+

All seem pretty solid agreeable assumptions but also proved that deemed transfer success does not always relate. Also seems to show how it all gets skewed by the opening games.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2015/sep/01/premier-league-transfer-window-review

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/fo...ague-clubs-activity-ranked.html?frame=3424900

This one is quite fun: Spurs 16th, Leicester 15th, Chelsea 13th, Utd 12th, Arsenal 11th, Liverpool 4th, City 1st

 

[double0]

It's spawned from being realistic, I of course trust Levy with finances but that doesn't mean I shouldn't voice my concern that we paid so much for this player. I also said that we shouldn't pay Adebayor 100,000 a week.

It's unhealthy to take the attitude that people's actions shouldn't be questioned just because they are more qualified than us.

I hear you @Mullers but at some points we're going to have to pay the going rate. This window was exceptional, it being the first from the television deal, many clubs were breaking their own transfer records even C.Palace paid over 30M for a striker a record transfer fee greater than ours and they paid a chunk up front.

We are in the CL that will generate greater revenue for the club. We were right to back Pochettinho otherwise where would that have left us going forward.

 

[THFCSPURS19]

Just had a hunt around for a similar feature to Merson's transfer grades last year on sky's website as I thought it'd make interesting reading, but it looks like it's been deleted like a Lyall Thomas tweet.

Found some from other sources though:-

http://www.eurosport.co.uk/football...in-the-transfer-market_sto4890509/story.shtml

This one scores us a D - with City A+, Liverpool B-, Utd C+

All seem pretty solid agreeable assumptions but also proved that deemed transfer success does not always relate. Also seems to show how it all gets skewed by the opening games.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2015/sep/01/premier-league-transfer-window-review

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/fo...ague-clubs-activity-ranked.html?frame=3424900

This one is quite fun: Spurs 16th, Leicester 15th, Chelsea 13th, Utd 12th, Arsenal 11th, Liverpool 4th, City 1st

They are all from last season.