What does our scouting team do?

[andyw362]

Harry says every player we approached is earning 130-140k a week.

Well we never have been able to compete with the big clubs on wages. We bough young players and worked on them.

Where is this teams Berbatov, Modric, Carrick, Hudd, Lennon, Dawson, BAE, Bale? Players we bought young and improved?

Forget Spain and Italy. We should be looking to Portugal, France, Germany and other smaller leagues for our players.

When was the last time we bought a top young player?

 

[brett.spurs]

Sandro?

But yeah I agree, under Harry we're only really going to be buying established Premier League players.

 

[fridgemagnet]

They were nicked by Liverpool weren't they?

 

[DEFchenkOE]

Apart from scouting and signing Sandro not sure what they're doing but we could do a lot worse than hiring Dinpomp and Thowig. These guys no about all sorts of players in different leagues.

I don't see why we don't take a gamble on a striker for say 5-10mil from a lesser known league. I really don't think that a top striker in one of the smaller leagues would score less than Crouch.

 

[hans]

Apart from scouting and signing Sandro not sure what they're doing but we could do a lot worse than hiring Dinpomp and Thowig. These guys no about all sorts of players in different leagues.

I don't see why we don't take a gamble on a striker for say 5-10mil from a lesser known league. I really don't think that a top striker in one of the smaller leagues would score less than Crouch.

Yep. Id never heard of hernandez before utd got him and hes doing great coming off the bench

 

[DJS]

SpursKing scouts the French and Belgium leagues for us and submits regular reports to Harry.

 

[StartingPrice]

It is an interesting question.

Despite our present disillusion with our strike force, I think it would be far more difficult than in the past to unearth a hidden gem who could come in and hit the ground running AND be more effective than our current crop.

I often think the same thing about our youngsters not getting a chance...but we have to remember that this team is on the verge of something, so I can kinda understand why 'Arry would be wary of jeopardizing things to take risks.

 

[NEVILLEB]

Redknapp

"Liverpool are not going to loan (Fernando) Torres to us are they, and Chelsea won't loan (Didier) Drogba."

This comment is so annoying

 

[cozzo]

I would love a director of football back like Comolli or Arnesen, we would have had players like Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain in the bag already!

 

[DEFchenkOE]

The thing is SP, the stats just don't lie and for half a season our 4 international strikers have a pathetic goal return in the league.

Crouch has his benefits and I respect that and we all know what JD is capable of but neither of them have been able to get it going this season for whatever reason. Keane and Pav seem to be out of favour. Where was Pav last game? I may have missed something but didn't here anything about an injury.

If we're going to continue with one up front then why not just keep 2 of Defoe/Crouch/Pav and sign an unproven player to warm the bench and get some game time here and there.

I think it's ridiculous to say that only Forlan/Benzema etc can improve on our strikeforce and I also don't believe that every striker wants 130k plus. As hans said what a signing Hernandez has been, also don't believe Suarez will be on 130k at Pool. Seems like we weren't too interested in him anyway.

Maybe we won't find someone to come in and hit the ground running but then again maybe we might, i'm just a bit frustrated that we've struggled to address a priority position for the last 2 windows now.

I know there is still time but we had all summer, all winter and we're only just now making £23m bids for Carroll. There's 2 days left of the window of course they're gonna turn that down.

We could still finish 4th but we'd need either Defoe or Crouch to start finding the net and chipping in a bit more and i'm not that confident it's going to happen.

 

[Dr Know]

Fcuk all!!!

 

[StartingPrice]

The thing is SP, the stats just don't lie and for half a season our 4 international strikers have a pathetic goal return in the league.

Crouch has his benefits and I respect that and we all know what JD is capable of but neither of them have been able to get it going this season for whatever reason. Keane and Pav seem to be out of favour. Where was Pav last game? I may have missed something but didn't here anything about an injury.

If we're going to continue with one up front then why not just keep 2 of Defoe/Crouch/Pav and sign an unproven player to warm the bench and get some game time here and there.

I think it's ridiculous to say that only Forlan/Benzema etc can improve on our strikeforce and I also don't believe that every striker wants 130k plus. As hans said what a signing Hernandez has been, also don't believe Suarez will be on 130k at Pool. Seems like we weren't too interested in him anyway.

Maybe we won't find someone to come in and hit the ground running but then again maybe we might, i'm just a bit frustrated that we've struggled to address a priority position for the last 2 windows now.

I know there is still time but we had all summer, all winter and we're only just now making £23m bids for Carroll. There's 2 days left of the window of course they're gonna turn that down.

We could still finish 4th but we'd need either Defoe or Crouch to start finding the net and chipping in a bit more and i'm not that confident it's going to happen.

I wasn't disagreeing. Just trying to figure out why we don't seem to be going for that unknown (potential) gem, or giving the likes of the Harri-Kane a chance.

Also, as someone suggested in another thread, you could calculate that our strikers must improve in the remained of the season (they must).

The main problem with Crouch, as I have been saying for years, now, is that his goal droughts seem to run into 15 - 20 games. JD, well he looked good at the start of the season (weren't we all afraid we would loose him:shrug. Get's injured, and now we don't know if he can spark up a relationship with VDV. And Pav...he's an enigma, wrapped in a riddle, inside a bottle of voddie.

Like I said, I wasn't disagreeing...unfashioable though it is, I think Carroll would fit into our team very well, and want to see things freshened up.

 

[DEFchenkOE]

Agree about Carroll too, he is expensive but if you want to buy English players that's what you have to pay.

Btw i've just seen that Valencia have signed one of the top scorers in the Brazilian league for €1.25m. He's 26 and has 40 goals in 69 games for Gremio. I've not seen him play and don't know too much about him but i'll be watching Valencia closely to see if they've picked up a bargain.

One other thing about Carroll is, why not take a gamble on him while he was in the championship? :shrug: If he is one of our target surely our scouts would have been watching him for a while. Why wait till now where his price would have picked. His physical qualities and finishing would have not been that different last season.

 

[alpha]

Harry says every player we approached is earning 130-140k a week.

Well we never have been able to compete with the big clubs on wages. We bough young players and worked on them.

Where is this teams Berbatov, Modric, Carrick, Hudd, Lennon, Dawson, BAE, Bale? Players we bought young and improved?

Forget Spain and Italy. We should be looking to Portugal, France, Germany and other smaller leagues for our players.

When was the last time we bought a top young player?

All of those players mentioned were acquired when we had a DoF!

 

[THOWIG]

I am beginning to wonder. To compete against the financial muscle of City and Chelsea we must improve our scouting in all departments.

 

[Monkey Bastard Hands]

JD, well he looked good at the start of the season (weren't we all afraid we would loose him:shrug. Get's injured, and now we don't know if he can spark up a relationship with VDV.

VDV said in an interview recently that he thinks Defoe is the best striker at the club and couldn't wait to play with him, so I hope that means that they've worked up a good relationship in training.

The thing with this striker thing is that Defoe hasn't been given the chance to get a run of games together (injuries, suspensions and 'arrys hardon for Crouch all contributing) and Keane doesn't even get a look in (despite being top scorer in pre-season). That's 50% of our strikeforce that hasn't been able to prove itself this season. Whilst VDV was brilliant when he first joined he's been less effective in recent games because he's been playing too deep in midfield, and with either Crouch or Pav up front it's just not going to work. I'm confident Defoe will do a job if he's given a chance, and if VDV plays just behind him instead of orchestrating things from midfield.

 

[StartingPrice]

I am beginning to wonder. To compete against the financial muscle of City and Chelsea we must improve our scouting in all departments.

Do we? I think we have some exceptional talent at the club already, and am more hopeful that some, at least, will emerge into the first team squad than I have been in ages. 'Arry is just playing it careful just now as this is a seminal year for us and any mistakes (like trying to break younglings in in vital league games) could be immensely costly.

Give it time, and remember, if we have some top young talent at the Lane (as I contend we do) it is because Dan Levy pinpointed just this as a key component of his strategic vision quite some time ago (and look at how many young players have come through in the present 1st team). We have a very young team (relatively) as it is, which will only get better, and I think it is the right thing to do by Aitch to get in some seasoned pros to lend experience.

 

[DEFchenkOE]

Well I hope that sooner rather than later the likes of Bostock, Mason, Kane, Townsend, Obika will start pushing for regular spots on the bench as if we struggle to attract top top targets our youth will become even more important.

 

[StartingPrice]

I agree...not sure about Obika,though, just don't think he'ss make the grade TBH (hope I'm proved wrong).

 

[Rackybear]

What do our scouts do?

Watch players such as Torres, Drogba, Eto, Messi, Iniesta .. drool..and think... if only we could afford their wages! By the looks of it..