Player Watch Player Watch: Son Heung-min

[Shadydan]

Kane has 3 years left this summer, so no pressure to sell. Son if he hasn’t signed by the close of the summer transfer window will be in Eriksen territory of value deteriorating in the final two years of his deal, while also getting closer to 30 (turns 29 this summer). Not saying I either expect or want him sold, just asking how people would feel about the use of funds IF we have no other option, as should he not renew this summer that is the position we’ll be in.

That post wasn't directed at you by the way - if we sell then it is what it is, not much we can do about it, yes we would have to use the funds to strengthen the team if he doesn't renew.

 

[-Afri-Coy-]

I will get negs for this. We have or are getting peak Son. He will be 29 in the Summer. Silly offer, in my view take it.

I think we should take this view to any of our players who are worth massive money. That painful rebuild isn't going to pay for itself and Son deserves to win trophies in his peak years and we can't begrudge him for trying to increase his chances of that by signing for say Juventus or PSG for example. We will also have chances but not as many or as likely as these two and the other big clubs.

 

[Deleted member 27995]

Ah, both our top players with varying levels of media insinuation attached for fans and readers/listeners alike to surmise on their futures on the back of poor performances/manager struggling and on the cusp of a European game followed by the match against a heated rival.

Yes, this is the Tottenham I am used to.

 

[longtimespur]

I think it’ll be more about what his dad wants.

 

[Wig]

I will get negs for this. We have or are getting peak Son. He will be 29 in the Summer. Silly offer, in my view take it.

As unpopular as this may be, this tactic of selling players at their peaks and constant rebuilding was a major factor in Sir Alex Ferguson's success. Any time players became too big for their boots they were sold off to make space for the next hungry generation

 

[thebenjamin]

I will get negs for this. We have or are getting peak Son. He will be 29 in the Summer. Silly offer, in my view take it.

I think if we were in a position of strength, this wouldn't be such a crazy idea. Given we are in a position of huge weakness, it would be absolutely insane to sell him.

 

[sausage]

I think we should take this view to any of our players who are worth massive money. That painful rebuild isn't going to pay for itself and Son deserves to win trophies in his peak years and we can't begrudge him for trying to increase his chances of that by signing for say Juventus or PSG for example. We will also have chances but not as many or as likely as these two and the other big clubs.

We have to get better at selling high and buying the right, next-gen, young players cheap. It's what all the superstar factories do.

 

[Cel]

I think if we were in a position of strength, this wouldn't be such a crazy idea. Given we are in a position of huge weakness, it would be absolutely insane to sell him.

I'd be gutted if he left, but guess it depends if he's going to sign a new deal or not.

If yes, then great, but if no, and his head is somewhere else, we've seen with Eriksen how even the slightest drop off in focus in elite sport can make a big difference to performance. We also risk doing what the gooners have been doing, and holding on to players for too long and losing them for free.

There's a scenario there where we may be better off cashing in at peak value, rather than getting 15m with 6 months left, or nothing, after a drop off in production.

 

[GutBucket]

We are still in buyer's market, terrible time to sell best players but his contract expires in 2023. Maybe we extend contract with some sort of verbal promise from Levy (Modric fell for it, maybe it works again) that he will sell him in summer 2022 if things don't work out. Or we massively overpay him.

 

[Aphex]

There is definite logic in thinking of selling Son this summer to fund a rebuild, if he doesn't sign a new contract it would force our hand. That said, we absolutely should keep because 1. without Son we don't look very strong in attack at all and 2. anyone trust our recruitment to get replacements spot on?

 

[GutBucket]

There is definite logic in thinking of selling Son this summer to fund a rebuild, if he doesn't sign a new contract it would force our hand. That said, we absolutely should keep because 1. without Son we don't look very strong in attack at all and 2. anyone trust our recruitment to get replacements spot on?

No, but that's the problem with or without Son. If our recruitment isn't good enough we won't win anything with Kane and Son anyway when we still need to sort out almost entire defense, get a better right forward, perhaps another creative midfielder, maybe a GK if Lloris leaves... I don't think our recruitment is bad, just not top tier.

 

[Cel]

We are still in buyer's market, terrible time to sell best players but his contract expires in 2023. Maybe we extend contract with some sort of verbal promise from Levy (Modric fell for it, maybe it works again) that he will sell him in summer 2022 if things don't work out. Or we massively overpay him.

I agree with the buyers market. My concern is with a year left, and at 30, he will see that year out for 1 bumper last contract.

 

[dagraham]

As unpopular as this may be, this tactic of selling players at their peaks and constant rebuilding was a major factor in Sir Alex Ferguson's success. Any time players became too big for their boots they were sold off to make space for the next hungry generation

Far easier to do that though when you are loaded, one of the biggest clubs in the world, winning title after title and world class players are tripping over each other to sign for your club.

 

[-Afri-Coy-]

We have to get better at selling high and buying the right, next-gen, young players cheap. It's what all the superstar factories do.

Dortmund, RB Leipzig and Leicester for a good example.

 

[Cel]

No, but that's the problem with or without Son. If our recruitment isn't good enough we won't win anything with Kane and Son anyway when we still need to sort out almost entire defense, get a better right forward, perhaps another creative midfielder, maybe a GK if Lloris leaves... I don't think our recruitment is bad, just not top tier.

Yup. Hard one to get over, as we are on the fringes of top tier as a club, at best, not in it. The players we are looking at as 'top tier' seem to hold out to see if the guaranteed success of a City, Madrid, Bayern is on the cards first (as you'd expect, who wouldn't?).

We need to get better at scouting younger talent, but it's harder to break through here than say at Lille where you would get game time to develop into a top tier player as the squad is bloated with senior professionals already.

If you had a magic wand, you'd want to replace minutes we are giving to 'OK' back up players players, like Winks, Doherty, maybe Sanchez or Davies (we'd all have a different opinion on who should be on that list) and those squad minutes minutes go to that younger talent to ensure growth. Easier said than done though in a pandemic, having to sell those players, and getting past WP rules for young, up and coming players.

 

[Chirpystheman]

Selling Son shouldn't be completely off the table. But totally comes down to what sort of money you can get for him but more importantly who we can attract to replace him. For instance if you get 100m for him you could go out and try to sign dybala and
Dembele for instance. Both will will 1 year left and considering the financial state of European football can probably both be obtained for around that figure. Dybala for instance will be alot cheaper than 18 months ago when we came close to signing him. That would improve us massively. Or knowing levy he will try and sign memphis depay and florian Thauvin on frees this summer.

Also we need to look at the ramifications him leaving would have on the Asian Market. We have 10m fans in Korea and I highly doubt spurs would have gone to the trouble of setting up a Korean twitter if he was leaving 6 months later

My opinion for what its worth is. Its all been agreed but due to the bad publicity with got as a club at the start of this pandemic we don't want to be seen giving massive pay rises when our fans are struggling etc.

 

[jurgen]

Dortmund, RB Leipzig and Leicester for a good example.

They have the scouting infrastructure in place to replace players properly. We emphatically do not. No reason we can't build it though, we know the fellow to do it.

 

[We'llWinThePrem]

I think it’s fairly obvious the contract is done it’s just that Son feels it isn’t appropriate to announce during a time like this and would be better for his image to announce when hopefully things have calmed down in the summer.

 

[BringBack_leGin]

There is absolutely 0 evidence that Son is/wants to leave. Stop making shit up because you want to find MORE shit to feel mad/bad about.

Who’s making what up?

I will get negs for this. We have or are getting peak Son. He will be 29 in the Summer. Silly offer, in my view take it.

This is why I’d asked the question. I don’t think it’s as cut and dry as ‘he’s our second best player, do not sell’. My main reluctance would be that justify suggest will reinvest badly, but it could also be our Coutinho bounty potentially.

That post wasn't directed at you by the way - if we sell then it is what it is, not much we can do about it, yes we would have to use the funds to strengthen the team if he doesn't renew.

Fair enough, wasn’t sure if it was, I think I just have a bit of expectation on here these days that someone somewhere will take something from one of my posts that I didn’t actually intend ?.

 

[dontcallme]

I will get negs for this. We have or are getting peak Son. He will be 29 in the Summer. Silly offer, in my view take it.

I made a post in the summer that said "I wonder if we will need to consider selling Son at some point before his values falls." Got loads of neg reps.

I am glad we haven't sold him. In a perfect world we'll find buyers for the players we don't want. But given salaries many of them are on this could be difficult.

I wonder how much Son being an Asian superstar financially benefits our club.