Player Watch: Pierre-Emile Højbjerg

[wrd]

How has that been proven?

By the countless articles saying what a dent being out the champions league has been to our finances.

Edit: here you go: https://www.skysports.com/football/...ans-will-be-impacted-without-champions-league

Literally from the man himself.

 

[SecretLemonadeDrinker]

We have also proven this year we can't afford to be outside the Champions League spots, so whilst I agree we can't do what those clubs do we can however find some middle ground between last week of the window and blowing them out the water like out competitors do.

Undoubtedly, we need to act quicker.

But there is a cost to that. Namely that we have to be prepared to drop our interest in the manager’s top targets far earlier in the window than we have been wont to do. And that means that, on occasion, we might miss out on a wanted player that we would otherwise have signed had we decided to wait it out.

It would mean completing our transfer business sooner and having a more settled squad come season’s start. But it would also mean having to accept the occasional compromise. That’s the trade off. Until we’re Real Madrid, we can’t expect to get all the players that we want, when we want them.

 

[EZSpur]

What's the thoughts on a combo of Hojbjerg and Partey?

Oh man, would have Partey in a heartbeat!
Reminds me of Makelele.

 

[wrd]

Undoubtedly, we need to act quicker.

But there is a cost to that. Namely that we have to be prepared to drop our interest in the manager’s top targets far earlier in the window than we have been wont to do. And that means that, on occasion, we might miss out on a wanted player that we would otherwise have signed had we decided to wait it out.

It would mean completing our transfer business sooner and having a more settled squad come season’s start. But it would also mean having to accept the occasional compromise. That’s the trade off. Until we’re Real Madrid, we can’t expect to get all the players that we want, when we want them.

Yes I agree wholeheartedly it would mean compromise. This season however we're not asking for the moon and stars though are we. We're talking about a Southampton DM in the final 12 months of his contract and a RB from Norwich who were relegated. As I said there needs to be a balance and for me the balance lies in on naming which players are the priority who will be starters next season and then compromising on the rest/leaving those signings late to try and save.

 

[thecook]

Ball is firmly in our court on this one but please Levy don't turn this into a long game to get him for the cheapest possible price. Needs to be in for pre-season

 

[RichieS]

By the countless articles saying what a dent being out the champions league has been to our finances.

Edit: here you go: https://www.skysports.com/football/...ans-will-be-impacted-without-champions-league

Literally from the man himself.

Not quite "can't afford to be outside the Champions League" though, is it? That phrasing implies a much greater issue than the blindingly obvious "failing to finish in the Premier League's top 5 ... will see Spurs take a financial hit that will affect their recruitment budget".

No doubt we could sign Højbjerg right now if we just gave everyone involved in the deal exactly what they wanted (including undervaluing KWP for Southampton), but I'd rather we didn't.

 

[DiVaio]

By the countless articles saying what a dent being out the champions league has been to our finances.

Edit: here you go: https://www.skysports.com/football/...ans-will-be-impacted-without-champions-league

Literally from the man himself.

I mean as for every club in the world transfer plan will be impacted without Champions League with less money(as being in CL group stage makes more money than winning EL) and less attraction for players

 

[wrd]

Not quite "can't afford to be outside the Champions League" though, is it? That phrasing implies a much greater issue than the blindingly obvious "failing to finish in the Premier League's top 5 ... will see Spurs take a financial hit that will affect their recruitment budget".

No doubt we could sign Højbjerg right now if we just gave everyone involved in the deal exactly what they wanted (including undervaluing KWP for Southampton), but I'd rather we didn't.

Yeah maybe I worded it wrong, I was referring to the person I quoted saying we can't afford to pay early for players and I meant that missing out on champions league arguably caused by arriving too late in the market has a greater cost financially.

I meant it in terms of if we want to compete in the market with the big boys then we can't afford to miss out on that money

 

[wrd]

I mean as for every club in the world transfer plan will be impacted without Champions League with less money(as being in CL group stage makes more money than winning EL) and less attraction for players

I never said otherwise.

 

[yankspurs]

Not quite "can't afford to be outside the Champions League" though, is it? That phrasing implies a much greater issue than the blindingly obvious "failing to finish in the Premier League's top 5 ... will see Spurs take a financial hit that will affect their recruitment budget".

No doubt we could sign Højbjerg right now if we just gave everyone involved in the deal exactly what they wanted (including undervaluing KWP for Southampton), but I'd rather we didn't.

We’ll end up paying about £20m anyway. And Saints will probably have been more susceptible to it sooner if we bid that or closer to it first. But Levy has to low ball first which only serves to piss clubs off and make them shop around. Then eventually by the end of the window, the bidding wars drove us out of a very doable deal at the beginning or Levy finally forks up just enough to get them to budge before he haggles over financing until the last seconds.

 

[SpursAU]

Herc in the ITK thread just said that ‘two very obvious deals are close’ I would imagine PEH is one. Good to know we’re moving quickly

 

[spursfan77]

Partey is the one I really would love us to sign. He’s heavily linked with the scum and I’ll be distraught if he goes there as he would be a huge upgrade on their current crop of CMs.

Sadly I haven’t seen us linked at all and suspect he’ll be out of our price range unless we cash in on one of our high value assets (Tanguy / Dele)

We should sell Ndombele just to buy Partey. I've rated him for years and he really is a missing piece of the jigsaw.

 

[Danny1]

Herc in the ITK thread just said that ‘two very obvious deals are close’ I would imagine PEH is one. Good to know we’re moving quickly

Yeah I agree. Would be really good to get our work done early, get PEH in with our other targets and let them understand the way that Jose wants us to play.

 

[DiVaio]

I never said otherwise.

As you said it, you worded it wrong. We can afford not being in CL(with everything not as transfer plans). Chelsea and Arsenal are losing money every season without CL.

 

[BringBack_leGin]

By the countless articles saying what a dent being out the champions league has been to our finances.

Edit: here you go: https://www.skysports.com/football/...ans-will-be-impacted-without-champions-league

Literally from the man himself.

I mean, he literally says that not qualifying would have an impact all round, including transfer funds. He literally does not say we can’t afford to be out of the champions league. That’s the Risdale/ Bates/ Liverpool’s last owners business model.

 

[wrd]

As you said it, you worded it wrong. We can afford not being in CL(with everything not as transfer plans). Chelsea and Arsenal are losing money every season without CL.

I'll be honest I didnt expect peopleto take the wording so literal considering I bold the part of the quote where the original poster said we can't afford to sign players as quicky and easily as anybody else. Because if I was to take his point literally then I'd say we can afford to do that but I understood what he meant within the context of what he was saying when he said can't afford. But there we are.

 

[DiVaio]

We should sell Ndombele just to buy Partey. I've rated him for years and he really is a missing piece of the jigsaw.

And that would be massive mistake.

 

[BringBack_leGin]

I'll be honest I didnt expect peopleto take the wording so literal considering I bold the part of the quote where the original poster said we can't afford to sign players as quicky and easily as anybody else. Because if I was to take his point literally then I'd say we can afford to do that but I understood what he meant within the context of what he was saying when he said can't afford. But there we are.

You didn’t expect people to take the wording literally but you were happy to misuse the worse literally to make your point?

 

[RichieS]

Yeah maybe I worded it wrong, I was referring to the person I quoted saying we can't afford to pay early for players and I meant that missing out on champions league arguably caused by arriving too late in the market has a greater cost financially.

I meant it in terms of if we want to compete in the market with the big boys then we can't afford to miss out on that money

Ok, now I see what you're saying. Maybe it's negative, but I don't expect us to ever be able to compete with either Manchester club or Chelsea in the market, especially now FFP is dead. Liverpool are run similarly to us, so further growth in our commercial and matchday revenue might see us on a level playing field with them before long (at least while FSG are there), if we're not already. I'd say we've overtaken Arsenal now.

We seem to be in a strong position with PEH simply because no-one better than us wants him. And if a team better than us did want him, he'd go there regardless of whether we offered Southampton what they want. It's like Berbatov, Modrić and countless other deals Levy's done over the years. It's his MO. Maybe £5m saved on this deal can get us another Dele?

@yankspurs - how did that go with Ndombele and Lo Celso last summer?

 

[wrd]

You didn’t expect people to take the wording literally but you were happy to misuse the worse literally to make your point?

I didnt misuse the word in the way youre suggesting because I clearly meant it in the context of what I was saying and then found an article which had quotes from Levy.

I haven't been having a go at Levy. I meant it in the context of if we want to compete in the transfers with big teams then we can't afford to miss out on the champions league money not literally couldn't afford to sign players.