The Daily ITK Discussion Thread - POST MORTEM - 1st February 2022

[King of the Lane]

The thing with saying we fell short and we need certain positions filled is it ignores the fact that you need clubs and players to willingly be sold and to come to us. We don’t operate in a vacuum.

I am sure the club would have signed a CB and striker if there was one available, but there wasn’t? So what can we do?

Newcastle for all their money signed Chris Wood. Arsenal need one more than us and signed nobody. United are down two with martial and greenwood and haven’t replaced.

I don’t think the need for a CB is as desperate as some make out. Davies has done well and we have Dier Romero coming back plus Sanchez as back up. Let’s wait to the summer when we may have a chance of signing a Kounde or a Torres rather than a second rate CB.

RWB is the obvious gap but there isn’t loads of them around and if for example Lamptey is a top target but not available until the summer, what can we do? I’d rather the club is deliberate and patient in signing targets so we don’t end up with a load of deadwood which got us into this mess in the first place.

Don’t get me wrong, everything is in the context that summer we go large. If we don’t I’ll be the first one to criticise the club, there can’t be any excuses if summer ends up being a shit show but based on January, I don’t think it is.

The club is clearly listening to Conte, and Paratici has signed players who clearly fit into Contes system. Like he did for Nuno too. I feel confident for the summer.

Sorry...who are you and what have you done with Aphex?

 

[sausage]

If we dont spend all that money weve saved (and spend it well) in the summer this window will have been one of the worst in history

"Mum, Dad - I passed all my A Level exams!"

"Hmm, but if you don't get a good degree out of this then we'll be retrospectively ashamed of your A Levels, and we'll disown you"

 

[IfiHadTheWings]

I'm neither over the moon or too down about the window, it was satisfactory, i am not sure how people are rating it 9/10 to be honest as with both Lo Celso & Tanguy we have just kicked the can down the road.

Bit of progress though and hopefully the new boys settle.

Either way COYS

 

[fredejohs]

I just worry that we didn't capitalize on our competitor's lack of signings in this window. One thing is that the January transfer window is difficult, but one could argue that they have similar summer plans as we do, and that might pump the price up on the players we are going for.

 

[absolute bobbins]

How much have we saved? £5M in salaries?

IF Dele and GLC on 100 each and TN on 200 we're saving around 10.5 million in basic, then tack on bonuses and NIC we're probably looking at something closer to 14. Not a lot in the grand scheme of things but it's certainly helpful

 

[aliyid]

Really 5/10?
What would you count as 10/10?
It's a genuine question as my 10/10 would be in the context of us having a fair few places to fill but it being January there aren't the players of the right quality to fill them.

I’d say a 10/10 would have been to fill our targeted positions with established and exciting players.

The main plus for this window has been moving on deadwood / bench fillers on high wages but we didn’t sign anybody in any of our target positions (RWB, CB, backup ST & backup GK).

We have signed a CDM to go alongside PEH, Skipp & Winks along with a young attacking mid to play alongside Moura & Bergwijn. So we’ve added depth where we already had it and not strengthened our weak priority areas.

Im hopeful that Kulu can add a new threat but his numbers at Juve & Parma don’t exactly fill me with too much expectation.

 

[BigVic]

I've seen a lot of folk doubting that Lyon will have the kind of money needed to take up the option on Ndombele at the suggested price come the end of the season.

OL have turned a healthy profit on transfer dealings in the last few seasons. In fact their net spend looks like this:

2021/22: £-59M
2020/21: £-15.6M
2019/20: £-29M
2018/19: £-39.3M
2017/18: £-51.3M
2016/17: £1.2M
2015/16: £12.9M

Obviously I don't know what their financial situation is in terms of debts etc, but in terms of raw net spend, they have a lot of money to spend. I don't know if we still owe them anything for Ndombele which could also be discounted from the fee, but given that they've already received £67M from selling players to Newcastle, Palace and Burnley this season, you've got to think that exercising their option on Ndombele won't be a problem for them.

He’d actually have to be worth the money, which I highly doubt.

 

[Freddie]

I've seen a lot of folk doubting that Lyon will have the kind of money needed to take up the option on Ndombele at the suggested price come the end of the season.

OL have turned a healthy profit on transfer dealings in the last few seasons. In fact their net spend looks like this:

2021/22: £-59M
2020/21: £-15.6M
2019/20: £-29M
2018/19: £-39.3M
2017/18: £-51.3M
2016/17: £1.2M
2015/16: £12.9M

Obviously I don't know what their financial situation is in terms of debts etc, but in terms of raw net spend, they have a lot of money to spend. I don't know if we still owe them anything for Ndombele which could also be discounted from the fee, but given that they've already received £67M from selling players to Newcastle, Palace and Burnley this season, you've got to think that exercising their option on Ndombele won't be a problem for them.

It's not about not having the money. They have these profit figures because they don't make purchases like this. Absolutely zero chance. Can still see them bidding a lower amount but they aren't a club that splurge in ways that are incongruous with their business model.

Plus everyone knows we're desperate to sell and there isn't a huge market for him. We might even take 20 million for him by the end of the summer window.

 

[Hoddle1982]

Was this a good window?
Going into this transfer window we have a real chance at qualifying for the Champions League and are still in the FA Cup.
We are clearly still missing quality in certain positions.
If we finish in the top four and the two new players hit the ground running then it’s been an absolute fantastic window.
If we miss out then we’ll look back and think it was another missed opportunity.
The proof will be where we are at the end of the season.

 

[homer hotspur]

Reasonably happy with the window, but that's assuming that we do good business in the summer. We needed to knock down the existing building before we can properly rebuild it. We've now done that part and put a couple of the pieces in place.

Ideally we'd have brought in one or two more now to accelerate the process and maybe push us into the top 4, but we still have a chance at that now and hopefully now have a tight knit squad all pushing in the same direction, without any dissenting voices.

Personally would also be quite happy if the smaller squad meant a few more opportunities for the likes of Harvey White to show if he can perform at this level.

don't hold your breath

 

[spids]

It's not about not having the money. They have these profit figures because they don't make purchases like this. Absolutely zero chance. Can still see them bidding a lower amount but they aren't a club that splurge in ways that are incongruous with their business model.

Agree - they generally buy low and sell high, and onto the next young talent.

 

[spurs mental]

6.5/10.

Would have liked one of a RWB or back up to Kane.

Clearing GLC, Ndombele and Dele out who have contributed next to nothing is great. Although it's with a heavy heart seeing Dele leave, the time was right.

The two signings, I've seen very little of, excite me. And thats down to the contribution from members on here who know their onion when it comes to Serie A players. If we can get them rolling with Conte for the remainder of the season I think we'll be in a good place.

Top 4 is definitely the aim, if we can get there and add what we need in summer, with the remainder of the season and a full pre season under Conte we'll be a force next season and should challenge the top 2.

 

[1882andallthat]

You can’t mark this window out of ten, it’s only the first window of a painful rebuild. When the next transfer window closes we will have a much better idea. I think is so important to get the housekeeping right and that’s exactly what has happened by clearing the decks of the three big names that wouldn’t be used for the rest of the season.

I disagree, you can mark most things out of 10 and it was a defined window so an assessment based on it is possible and reasonable for us to do. To do otherwise would be like saying you can't rate a performance in a game out of 10 and then go on to say you can only do so after 5 or 10 games or a season.

I do however agree with your main sentiment that the more important judgement will be the summer transfer window. That doesn't mean we can't award marks on what we've done so far in transfer business.

 

[WiganSpur]

I just worry that we didn't capitalize on our competitor's lack of signings in this window. One thing is that the January transfer window is difficult, but one could argue that they have similar summer plans as we do, and that might pump the price up on the players we are going for.

Not sure about the foreign clubs but City, Chelsea and Liverpool are absolutely stacked and United will need to sell to buy. Arsenal will be our main competition in England at least, so getting CL over them will be imperative.

 

[SandroClegane]

I'm neither over the moon or too down about the window, it was satisfactory, i am not sure how people are rating it 9/10 to be honest as with both Lo Celso & Tanguy we have just kicked the can down the road.

Bit of progress though and hopefully the new boys settle.

Either way COYS

How have we kicked the can down the road? They weren't going to play here, so this puts them in the shop window. Even if their options aren't picked up, if they play and play well it's way more beneficial for us than if they rot on the bench for Spurs

 

[jimmyh]

I think this window has been poor. I don't feel we have strengthened the positions that we needed to and the players we shifted out whilst they have not been performing I wouldn't exactly class them as deadwood they are still quality players.

It seems that FP signings have been more opportunistic than buying what we need which is a worry going forward because having read most of the comments it seems that everyone is more worried about saving wages and how much we pay for players rather than paying for the players that we need in the positions we need them in.

I keep seeing a lot of posters taking about the summer for signings but we will be owned by the same people in the summer and I can't see them spending the money and paying the wages that we will need for quality players. We will be competing not only against the normal big budget clubs but also Newcastle, Villa, Wet spam and Everton so if we can't secure champions league football do we really believe that Levy and Lewis are going to change their spots and pay the money and wages to get the players in early to allow our world class manager to work with them or will we wait right to the end of the window see what bargains come along.

While I rate the 2 players brought in and given time will be quality can't help but think it's another opportunity missed to improve the squad try and get champions league and be a bit ahead of some of the other competition come the summer.

To say the clubs around us haven't really strengthened either should not come into it because they all don't need to as much we do.

 

[fredejohs]

Not sure about the foreign clubs but City, Chelsea and Liverpool are absolutely stacked and United will need to sell to buy. Arsenal will be our main competition in England at least, so getting CL over them will be imperative.

Hmm, not so sure about that. Obviously Arsenal, United, Leicester, and West Ham are our closest competitors on the transfer market right now, we can't compete with the rest above, so for them not to invest in this transfer window worries me. Arsenal seemed to have the same idea of offloading deadweight as we did this window, so I guess we can definitely expect some competition from their side, not only for Douglas Luiz.

 

[spursfan77]

The worst part of the window has been the itk abuse on twatter, occasionally on here and on COYS that’s seen people really fear sharing what they know. When even somewhere as strict as COYS is having problems, it’s a real worry. Something has got to change, people have got to take it for what it is, but they don’t seem to understand. Unless something changes across the board we are going to lose everyone who is kind enough to share snippets they hear. I really don’t know what the answer is. It’s pretty frustrating.

Anyway, let’s hope we’ve made the right moves to help Conte get fourth (or higher). COYS

 

[DogsOfWar]

For me it's a 7/10.

I felt we needed an all round CM (I was originally hoping for Kessie) to allow us to rotate or play 3 in the middle but Bentancur fits that bill and will have a similar influence.
The only real weakness I see is the attacking RWB position that didn't get filled so that was a negative.
And the removal of players who weren't contributing was another big plus.

I think we can now field a relatively strong starting eleven (with the return of Son and Romero) and whilst we still lack a little depth we need to remember we've only got 19 league games left so not such a problem compared to a summer window.

 

[wreckemspurs]

I am pumped about this window. The Ins weren't loud and sexy, but they are experienced hard-working players with high floors with a very low risk of flopping like our past signings that were shifted.

Like the ITKs said, it's all about the summer. Let's get top 4 and get back up on that upward trajectory.