Maybe I’m missing something, but €60 million for Richarlison seems a might dear for someone who only might grow into that figure or just as likely be another in the long line of Levy failures.
Meanwhile, I wonder what Inter would have made of a €60 million pound offer, day 1 of the transfer season for Bastoni or for that matter Skriniar? Straight forward offer, no strings, nor add-ons: I reckon they might have bitten our hands off… If not them, then Pau Torres – if not him, Bremer. I simply cannot believe that one of them would not have been available if we’d really backed the manager.
Instead, we will sign a few players, admittedly not rubbish, but not the strategic point men that would have given us a boost in our first team quality rather than more strength in depth. Of course, we need that with a full campaign plus a world cup next year, but we also need to have at least 2x AAA grade players signed to strengthen the front line.
I guess it could still happen – we have a few centre-backs that don’t get a game very often, if at all. Assuming Conte wants a starting 3, plus a backup 3, plus a couple of floaters we’d have room by offloading one or two, and Rodon, Japhet, and Davinson could all be upgraded. Lenglet could be one, but I feel he’s not a AAA-rated player – maybe an A or AA at best – after all he’s being let go, and once again this is the crux…..
We are shopping for Rolex’s but offering the price of a Timex – then haggling about that. There are 4 ‘Rolex’ defenders noted above (para 2) – if we really wanted one of those, we’d go get one.
I mean, if we were really focused €60 million quid and four choices at the start of the window, some at clubs desperate for money…. I can’t see why we won’t spend on proven players, even paying over the odds to get what we want/need, but will pay the same (the asking price btw) for Richarlison; also from a club desperate for money?!
Now Paratici may be playing the field with diversions and tactics to get some of these players, but it seems that so far the length of our arms and the depth of our pockets are not in synch. Other player movements change the dynamics against us as well as for us – this is another window where Lukaku and Skriniar could change the playing field.
I had hoped with Conte driving from behind we’d be able to be focused: identify a couple of prioritised targets and go all out to get them. Pay what’s needed to get the job done and settle the key positions whilst then going shopping for bargains and opportunities.
As I say, this might all be in hand, and we could all be guilty of letting our deeply ingrained preconceptions of Levy Time cloud our view, especially in the guano storm of fake news and wild speculation. But I fear that once again we’ll spaff our war chest up against the wall.
When Conte says publicly that Richarlison was his choice, I will believe him.
Until then, I’ll keep binning stupid comments as and when I see fit 👍
The more worrying thing is none of the deadwood has left the building yet. It’s a sign of just how bad they are that not even the promoted clubs are interested.
If we are dropping 50-60m on Richarlison, it is because Conte wants Richarlison – we know AC will simply not play a lad he does not like, regardless of their price tag, so it would be silly for Paratici and Levy to sanction it otherwise.
Some people will never be happy I guess. Back the coach, pay the market rate, yet still a way found to whinge about it.
Disregarding some rather fatuous comments, some pretty good points made and I’m happy to stand corrected on those.
I maintain my belief tho’, that the signing of a top level, left sided central defender should be/have been, the main target to shore up a defence that has been imbalanced since Vertongan left. There are a number out there, some playing for clubs who need money. I feel that a Liverpool or Citeh would have gone in and said, “what will it take?” and then met that benchmark.
Of course I cannot attest to diligence or ambition of the efforts made, but then no-one else can either – certainly not to 100%!
I may be proved wrong on Richarlison and by the way, I hope I am; but there are as many good points made in his favour as there are negatives. My question is that at 60 Mill, is his potential to bloom (because as is he has not set the world on fire), a greater risk than paying say 10+Mill over the odds for a Bastoni or Skriniar?
In my view they are low risk and so its not.
The fact that players may “prefer” a club or location, may change rapidly if a cash-strapped club is wiling to accept a bid and is prepared to sell them – we have players that we would accept a bid for and then would look to assure them that a move “would be making a good decision for their careers”.
I don’t disagree that we have bolstered the squad and maybe its just my own disappointment, but I hoped that we would make a signature signing in central defence. We still may: with a few sales there could well be enough for another signature signing, but I feel it more likely we will get a journeymen or two and a young punt (Spence?).
However and this is for the blog-bitchers, when the squad is decided and teams are picked, they wear our shirt and our badge: they are our players in our team and that’s the team who we support.
No other club wanted to touch him except us. They had done their homework on his attitude.
I remember watching Pombo playing vs pool. He used every dirty trick imaginable. I remember saying to myself I’m glad he’s not on our side. Maybe AC is trying to change the mentality amongst our Boy Scouts. Remember when Doherty was assaulted vs villa. Time to take the gloves off coys!
What an amazing window thus far we can relax when the boys are in Korea.
My only slight concern is fitting them all in (which 2 are starters from Bent/Hoj/Skipp/Bissouma) & which 1 is the starter out of Rich and Kulu).
A problem for the manager but a good problem.
I’ve told you a million times “don’t exaggerate”
I along with many (most) Spurs fans had never heard of him.
Every fan in the the top 4 teams in England ,Spain,Italy . He was highly rated.
Good response ,100% agree
Also I think this cash injection may have been more about getting rid of the need to ‘sell before you buy’ rather than necessarily we’re going to have a net spend over £100 million. It could be under £50 million net spend, so the money was more about making the deals happen quickly.
Our need for a backup striker option was more pressing than for a defender maybe. Also there’s few options out there it seems, just watch Chelsea now they’ve missed out on Jesus, Richarlison and probably Barca bound Raphinha. They may take Sterling but then…he could stay at City another year. I’d say they’ll be interesting to watch now in terms of the deals they go for.
Also, I believe we DID go all out for Bastoni as near enough first move of the window and the player wouldn’t shift even with Inter eager to shift him to raise funds. Martinez also seems happy where he is for now.
A lot of the time it feels like there’s loads of players about to move and…you realise they just got a better deal using the transfer links as leverage. Sometimes it’s a badly kept secret who they really want to move to and a club know that bidding would be wasting their time.
I hope we sign Bremer but maybe the ‘men in the know’ have info we don’t have – and know he’s already made his choice over his future.
I think also that Conte’s criticisms about our transfer practices were well on the ball, and it wasn’t surprising that Steve Hitchen resigned. When we signed Ndombele, like a lot of other Spurs fans, I thought we’d got someone who could become the power we needed in midfield to rival any team in the division. Given how he turned out, it is clear that little or no homework had been done on him. His immense talent, like Dele Alli’s, is not the issue. If we take Richarlison, I can’t believe that, given Conte’s words, any major issues or concerns regarding Richalison haven’t been taken on board and considered. Like his sparky clashes with Romero when they were playing for their respective countries just must have been seen as a potential positive on the part of both players for us to harness in our dressing room and on the pitch. Conte’s cluey. It may have been just paper talk but I read a week or two ago, that a top talent in the Premier League who was probably available if the right offers or approaches had been made, was not acted upon because of potential concerns about negative dressing room influence. It’s so telling that when we off-loaded Dele Alli to Everton, it wasn’t a loan deal, and we received no fee. That speaks volumes.
I don’t disagree about this acquisition in terms of concerns, but I do think two things should be bourne in mind. Firstly, the buying of Bentancur and Kulusevski has proved good, and, Secondly, Conte’s words about our not having done enough homework in our transfer programme. I saw that as a direct criticism of Steve Hitchen, and his resignation confirmed it.
The blog wasn’t cynical when we signed Ndombele and Aurier.
Some people think we can do better than Richie, I’m not so sure.
If you are looking for a forward who can legitimately play anywhere across the front three, has a lot of years left in them, has a number of seasons played already in the premier league, who works very hard for the team, has their own dynamic which is different to what we already have and comes in accepting of the fact that he is one of four playing for three spots then I am stumped who we could have got instead,
Of course we could have looked outside England and be bringing in someone that we likely know little about but would be happy as we would just assume they would be great because well, we have heard they scored a few goals somewhere and costs £60m so they must be huh?
This place has for a long time been for a certain kind of fan.
When you are turning your nose up at extra strength and depth coming in before July as if there is no possibility that they could be at least good enough or even brilliant for us then it reeks of being spoiled and entitled.
I mean it’s the same place that thinks we should sell Lucas Moura because he isn’t VdV or Waddle or whatever. We have no other player who can carry the ball forward from deep as he does and who does chip in with goals and being happy to work off the bench, but nah just sell him!
HH and the gang here always will provide strong opinions that are not consistently proven correct, but it is what it is and will get clicks.
There are players that gets him excited like Ndombele and Aurier and when THEY flop there’s no “I was wrong” and because he wasn’t up for Moura from the start he just wants him gone now to feel like he was right from the start.
What, even those who’d dun a bit a reedin and knew he came wiv attitude baggage? Bit like the boy Serge, and the boy Deli; known issues from way back.
You’ve not been following football for very long have you Mr Falcon.
I’m still waiting for him to translate the epistle I sent his filly; get in line.
He doesn’t have to be an upgrade. Who is going to be an upgrade on Kane and Son, the most prolific duo in EPL history? He might not even be an upgrade on Kulu, but he can play all three front positions, ensuring that our star front men don’t get overplayed. The boy has just turned 25, is an established Brazilian international with a better strike rate than Jesus and has genuine EPL pedigree as the star player on a couple of bad teams. Tell us who is available for less, who is a better player and can fulfil the same function?
Agree on Kane we were lucky and i hope we are lucky again but we wont be lucky with all 3 up top all season.
Richy will be getting played plenty its a long hard slog and now we can wow rotate.
Spot on sir.
We paid 60M to get a player with proven prem experience in before pre season – and the claim is we overpaid.
You then go on to say why didn’t we offer over the odds early in the window for a player (Bastoni) with no proven prem experience.
This article is a joke.
Utter tosh. How many full games have you seen Richarlison play to give an opinion. I don’t see clubs scrambling for Bergwijn’s signature either.
Bergwijn can’t cover Kane through the middle. Richarlison can, as well as offering options in the wide forward positions. It’s that simple.
I was thinking the same thing
It’s only dear if he doesn’t work out though.
If he comes in and pushes us forward and helps win points/trophies then it’s money well spent.
I would say whilst not the most exciting football it hasn’t been dull all that often, and when it was it was due to the opposition parking the bus.
Richarlison is no better than Bergwijn. This deal is a waste of money. He isn’t an upgrade on anything we got. He certainly doesn’t get ahead of Kulu in the starting line up.
I feel like this is a pitty deal as a way of an apology for dumping Dele on them. Bit like when Everton payed £50m for him when they got Silva as manager after Watford sacked him, when they unsettled him.
Well said. I feel we are still a bit short in some areas but it’s not usually fixed in one tx window anyway.
7 class signings?? Bissouma perisic and richarlison are very good signings, the other 2 are meh.
50 million up front with 10 million add ons… It’s slightly dear considering his market value is 43 million.. Other clubs like Chelsea and Arsenal were also looking at him. This would have buffed his price up maybe if other clubs were offering the same.
Spot on, we should have bought pope he could have seriously pushed lloris who is seriously flawed
And there’s still 60 odd days to go before the window shuts..
Plus one.. It’s been a good window so far.. We are clearly strengthening.
I have to say I think this is rather wide of the mark Finn my son! I am 100% sure we were willing to spend €60 million on Bastoni, but a combination of the Inter ultras threatening to riot and the boy, an Inter fan, not wanting to leave, scuppered the deal.
Skriniar, we should have nailed 2 years ago when Mourinho wanted him, but now he is rising 28 and does not seem to be on our current wish list and certainly not at the reported €65 million that Inter want.
Torres appears to be one of our back up choices, but I suspect there are some reservations about his physicality in adapting to the Premier League. We certainly have the money and the rapport with Villareal to have got it done if we wanted to.
Bremer is the boy I would like us to sign, but it’s possible he doesn’t want to leave Italy and wants to go to Inter. Again it’s not a question of money, the boy isn’t that expensive compared to some of the other targets, so it must be a question of if Conte really wants him.
It seems apparent that Paratici and Conte are very focused on getting the targets that they have identified. Obviously not all are available, for various reasons, or there is stiff competition, but even so we are making real headway, so I am not sure what there is to be critical about?
Perisic was the 2nd highest rated player in Serie A last season and we got him on a free transfer, Bissouma was Brighton’s best player and by common consensus purchased way way under value, even a Gooner nob, like Merson, rates him the EPL’s best buy of the Summer.
Richarlison may be a tad overpriced at 50 million, but is a proven commodity, an established Brazilian international and the best player on a bad team. Like the unheralded Jota for Liverpool, I think the boy may turn out to be very shrewd acquisition in a position of need.
I mean I have been as critical of Levy as anyone and the hapless nonentity that was Steve Hitchin, but surely the change in operating basis cannot have escaped you? Itemised as follows …
Proper co-ordination on clearly defined targets, between DOF and manager; prompt action in acquiring those targets, early in the transfer window; Levy, for once, really backing the manager; with the likely result of 6 players added, before the start of training camp. The most, by far, of any EPL club and the most money spent. What more do you want???
Not sure about that. Fernandes was Poch’ top pick and had a bigger profile than Ndombele at the time
You may change that view in the near future.
Spurs are the bookmakers third favourites for the title ahead of Chelsea. Was that conceivable in October?
Conte has something. I agree regarding the style of play at times last season but if Spurs start winning games, in a convincing manner, at the start of next season, anything is possible.
The atmosphere at the NLD was incredible. If that is reproduced regularly for the ‘big’ home games next season then the balloon could finally go up.
Funnily enough the one player I worry about most is Lloris.
Spurs need a better keeper.
Sad to complain about Richarlison price. We are told that we tried hard for top targets and they didn’t want to come. So we have settled for backup targets who will allow Conte to reach his second objective of getting his squad sorted before pre-season starts.
Why you think serious money was not offered for Bastoni or others I don’t know. I think it was but they ( the players ) were not interested. So whats the problem.
We got to within 3 points of Chelsea and 3rd place with the guys we still have. Even with some of them leaving we will be stronger than we started. Doesn’t guarantee anything but hopefully we will compete. Some we overpay for, some (Bissouma) we underpay for and some we have for free.
I think that apart from Son, Romero, Perisic, Kane and Lloris the rest of the players in the squad are just decent and no more than that.
The football that they play doesn’t inspire or entertain me like the team under Redknapp who was a far more positive and risk taking manager.
I get that Conte is a far more successful manager than Redknapp in terms of trophies just like Mourinho, Simeone and Benitez, but I will never admire the careful kind of football that their teams are set up to play.
I miss the creativity of some of the great Spurs players of the past.
Conte does not appear to be interested in players from the academy, so that is another downside for me.
Literally every fan wanted NDombele.
Can’t believe that in a window where we have signed 4 players and 2 more imminent, there is still complaining. We would historically have left the Richarlison deal to the end of window to get the price down, not got him and then ended up with Vinicius or allotments. At least we have gone ahead and recruited early. Levy still being blamed as always when Paratici now in charge of recruitment. Top level centre backs are at a premium and too many teams needing one so would assume that is why the delay in bringing one or two in.
But Levy should’ve clobbered Bastoni over the head and kidnapped him to the UK, OBVIOUSLY. FFS Levy. Weird to flag Richarlison as a potential “Levy failure” as if Conte hasn’t specifically asked for the signing. “Hi Antonio, I’m just going to spend 50 mill on a player you haven’t mentioned, you’re cool right?”
At least he’s not another Ndombele. Bremer is a must
There is a certain false sense of security from last season where Kane, although rubbish and disinterested at the start, did not get injured. We cannot make that assumption this year. I think we paid overs for Richarlison but it might work out if Kane gets injured this season.
Bastoni does not want to leave Inter ,Skriniar is going to PSG.for around £75 million (Pounds again) ,Bremer wants to stay in Italy.it looks like we signing the Barca guy on loan because our targets are not available.Richarlison cost us £50 mill but I bet my life on it that a portion will be offset by winks deal to Everton
There was a time we had a bench of quality. Now we’re back to that point. Competing for all four honours we need that feeling that ‘the team’ can win, not just the first choice 11. I’m hopeful.