Offer Made: Spurs have made an ‘official approach’ to sign Premier League attacker; clubs discussing loan-move

And if Chelsea continue to get beat against the likes of Southampton I will gladly dance a jig. They absolutely battered us and only got a draw, but we did allow them to play. Chelsea fans will be getting worried.

Could be. The 4231 has been the dominant formation for almost a decade now.

There are similarities, certainly with the lack of pressing and possession of the ball. However, Conte’s formation alters things though when we do get the ball and we are able to get more numbers going forward quickly on the counter. Under Jose it really was just about Kane and Son, with 9 sat in deep. Conte’s teams are easier on the eye as a result…

Great point.

Exactly right, this isn’t Levy backing Conte at all. Conte will be gone next season, his remit is getting us in the Champions League and it will be the same again this season. Conte is a great league manager but his European record isn’t great at all. To get the most out of Conte you back him to challenge for the league, that just hasn’t happened because our first 11 just hasn’t been improved enough to any tangible extent.

Players like Spence etc are for another manager to work with in a few seasons time.

How do you know Conte’s happy? All our managers say they’re happy, it’s in their contract to not go public with disgruntlement…

😂

Spence covers nothing (yet, if ever), he needs to earn his stripes and probably be loaned out. Royal is the same Royal, I don’t think we’ll ever see another. Doherty, half decent backup as a wingback. We could do with this Carrasco chap, because all of the aforementioned are sub-standard…

Chelsea do now and one or 2 others. LFC now play with wingbacks but only 2 CBs. Trent is not really a wingback anyway, he should be playing CAM. He was nowhere near the wing on most of Liverpool’s goals the other day.

I don’t think if Royal, Doherty or Spence were on the pitch at the same time it would give us cover at RWB

Depends how you want to manage the squad I guess – you wouldn’t want six forwards all on Kane’s salary

How about he is backed again in January with two signings of top players not wanting to move before a world cup?

Turns out Yannick Carrasco..is available for 25 mil..if paper talk is true..hmmm

Agreed, Billy. We have a WORLD CLASS winning manager and whilst he is being backed to some degree, most of it is not with players who are top calibre and can help us now. Seriously, how the hell can the Spammers get a player of Paqueta’s quality and we can’t? If Poch comes back we may as well turn the lights off and go home as that would be a massive step backwards.

ManU used to LFc do ..but they also had decent midfielders

Hence why I know he is off end of this season. No way he stays. Only way he stays is:

a) we win something
b) tells Levy to stay away from transfer dealings
c) gets convinced with mega $$$ to stay

Agree with all of this, but just because Conte, like Mourinho, is a winner doesn’t mean he’ll do it with us. Managers who win regularly tend to be backed to the hilt.

Conte is realising the same thing that Mourinho did. I for one hate the football we are playing under Conte but he is a winner and just like with Mourinho, has realised to win he just has to make us solid defensively and hit them up front with the trio we have. It will work most times but not all of the time.

Chelsea under Conte werent like this. This just shows how much we are lacking in quality

So true.

Agreed. It would be good if Chelsea fell off their perch. No more Roman is a big deal, but the money they are spending is obscene and they have spent it on good players. Tuchel knows what he is doing and they have far more quality than us, therefore as much as I want them to implode I cannot see it.

Utd is an odd one. Malacia is a red card waiting to happen, refs have let him get away with a lot. Casemiro is very good at the job he does, and it doesn’t matter if Utd overspend. Who knows what this Anthony is like, but Martinez looks decent so you have to trust the manager. They could close the gap quite easily with us. The game v Arsenal will be an interesting watch to see who is the strongest at the moment. Hopefully, they both lose!

I’ve come to accept that the 343 or 352 is Conte’s system and that’s how he sets up every big team he’s coached – Juve, Italy, Chelsea, Inter and now Spurs. He’s had success everywhere. Why change? Very few teams play with wingbacks, but more are starting and Conte may have been ahead of his time.

Antonio Mourinho….not sustainable..has Levybabe WinkyTubby left yet..

I agree with this .,cannot see what we have to lose ..except the midfield..

Levy is setting it up for Poch when Conte leaves. He will see out his contract ..the youngsters WBs the Argentinians ….Chubby Chops will keep the ground banged out for another2/3 years..
Gutted about Paqueta…no playmaker required.

Can play as right wing back .,surely with Royal Spence Doherty we have that covered ..more lwb I hope to cover Bambi Sessegnon….it won’t be Yannick more likely Dan Sid James ..you have to laugh.. Wah wah wah ..

I could understand if we played differently at home and away but we don’t. I cannot see how having only approximately 40% of the ball during so many games is going to to ultimately achieve success. We are so predictable in our set up that it makes life easy for the opposing manager to devise his own tactics against us. I can see very little difference between Conte’s and Mourinho’s tactics.

The only way we could get him I imagine without crossing the Udinese palms with more cash ..

How much have we spent then ? Spence 12 mil rising to 20 mil depending on appearances, limited your game time there fella…Richarlison 56 /60 mil Romero signed today…Peresic free Forster free Lenglet on loan Yves Bissouma ..around 25 mil..Destiny Udogie around 25 mil..see you next year…though all amounts are listed as undisclosed ..which is a bit murky ..but if include Romero ..undisclosed ..adds up to around ..undisclosed ..
I think we will suffer without a AM ..Conte does not ..I hope he is right ..

How many senior players have we sold…Jack Clarke ..Bergwijn Cameron Carter Vickers..

How many senior or professionals do we have out on loan..how many will come back..?..

Going to take years to undo the work of Lord Snooty and Pals on the transfer committee….give em a bonus..

COYS

Historically, the paucity of genuine intent in the transfer market has left our fan base conditioned such, that any signing or group of signings is heralded as a big deal. It isn’t, it’s what other clubs do all the time but apparently we do less because we are ‘well run’?

What football club that claims to be the 8th wealthiest in the world can win one minor trophy in 23 years and claim to be ‘well run’? It’s a con, it’s steaming pile of cr*p…

I think Conte needs to be more flexible with the system – perhaps play two up top and move someone in alongside the two DMs to shore things up. Someone like Maddison sitting just in front of Bentancur and Bissouma would be my preference depending on the opposition.

Too many times we are surviving on 35-45% possession. It’s unsustainable and we will loose games playing this way. Wolves and Forrest should have punished us, and Chelsea let us off the hook.

Not questioning Conte, as he is a top manager – but we need an extra body and some creativity in the middle alongside the ‘grunt’.

Maddison for £50M+ and someone like the recently linked Carruso (can play in multiple positions and is creative) would be my last-minute preferences.

Many fans have heralded this transfer window as somehow transformative and it is true that we managed to sign a couple of players earlier in the window but have we bought the players to allow us to challenge for top honours?

This year I feel Arse wont make the same mistake so we are hoping that this year it will be Chelsea who will choke and Man Utd dont improve to have any chance of top 4

Then it beggers belief why send back the Udinese boy then?

We buy ‘second tier’ junk mostly, which is why we only have one minor trophy in 23 years. That was 14 years ago as well, but we are the ‘8th richest club in the world’? 🤔

James has played wide right wide left and through the middle at Leeds …wether he gets any game time at Spurs would be an issue. There is little to discern how good he is in defence ..anyone who challenges Sess is good news wether it is Dan James is another question.
I assume we will be seeing Peresic for 1 and a quarter games over 3 games which I think means he misses one in 3 games ..which is a shame Charlie can do his work upfront ..not sure who can cover him at the back…

Yep, it’s been the same old in this window but those favourable towards Levy in the media have hyped it as something it isn’t.

Apart from Perisic, none of them have yet made it into our first 11. Bissouma might oust one of the midfield two eventually I guess.

A left wingback, a quality central defender and a midfield playmaker were the top of everyone’s list ahead of the ‘war-chest’ announcement. None of these areas have been addressed, Spence and the Udinese boy are just further examples of more ‘jam tomorrow, from Levy. So unless they get in some actual quality before the window closes it’s going to be a long hard season…

Conte stated he needed 2 more transfer windows (It is on BBC Sport website), which suggests he needs up to 6 more players, at least. If Conte can stay for 2 more seasons then this would be good for us, but he rarely stays anywhere for that long, even when he’s winning!

As H has mentioned many times before and a lot of us, is that you buy players to displace your current 1st team and drive them to regain that place. You dont replace a 6th choice player with a 6th choice player

According to a lot of outlets, Carracci will only be sold if we meet the release clause of £51 million which he isn’t worth.

You are forgetting that Levy wont change his stripes. He has shown his real colours once more. Conte will be off end of this season guaranteed with his CV unblemished as it will go down as another manager whose only stint without any trophy was Spurs. And then everyone will wonder why so.

Present day Leandro Damiao is a better signing than this. Perisic can play as a forward so in theory we have 6 to rotate. Even Sessegnon can play there. Is he any worse than James? Can’t be. I’d sell Gil to finance a CB or AM. As Paqueta is no longer an option I’d go all in for Milinkovic-Savic. He has 2 years left on his contract and they’d probably take a 70m offer. Gil to Valencia for 30m, PEH to wherever for 40m, and then we can worry about CB in January or next summer

its clear we won’t be spending any more..you cant include Romero as the bulk of the deposit was paid as part of his loan fee and most of Levy’s deals are spread over 4-5 years. In reality we have only used 65m of the War Chest…we desperately need another CB and next season we will need 2….it will be a loan for a loan which in itself means it will be ‘another” squad level player…

That being said, Conte needs 3-4 transfer windows to build his team under ENIC so if he stays you have to hope that now the squad is in better shape the next buys will be starting 11 level as fewer players will be required…..(fingers crossed the winks etc loans end up being buys or we will have the same issue next summer shifting them on)..

Gold hasn’t got a clue

I don’t think anyone of us thinks we can legitimately challenge for the title, but it is interesting what makes a Ch Lg quality player. Would we consider Sanchez, Emerson, Doherty, Reguilon, Sessegnon or Davies capable of Ch Lg football? Yet, they got us in the competition, thanks to a great coach and Arsenal who capitulated.

I think we can safely say our top 3 are more than capable, I can’t see Hojberg and Bentancur struggling or Richarlison for that matter. Perisic will be fine too.

What is clear, we are not in a position to win trophies, but we are in a better position than last season. The problem is the other clubs, whether they overspend or not, are strengthening with big money.

The Welsh Moura, please no do not do it, there just has to be better options surely

Oh and Traore would be a ‘proper signing’ and would expect to be our 4th of 5th choice attacking option / 1st or 2nd choice RWB depending how he’s utilised.

id much prefer that signing but as stated above it might be we only want a 6th choice backup.

Could be a bargain, could be bobbins but what’s certain is we’re replacing our 6th choice attacking option with a 6th place attacking option – this must be intentional so it is what it is.

Gil will be happier/develop better abroad was the call.

Read my post again when I commented about on how positive the start of the window was for us. It was a good start with good signings but has descended into exactly what we all feared would happen. Romero and Kulu are not a new signings and Romero is the only one we have now permanently bought out of the 2. Destiny Udogie may turn out to be a good signing but not this year as he’s gone back on loan to Udinese. Richarlison for £60m is crazy money but nowhere near as bad as Ndombele.

Since then we’ve been linked with all sorts of dross and no quality activity when it is evident we need another Centre Back and a creative attacking midfielder as an absolute minimum, exactly the position Paqueta plays. As to your nonsense about not going to bring the team what is needed, so Dan James is??? As to whether Paqueta wanted to come to us or not, absolutely ridiculous. We can offer champions league football, West Ham can’t. We can pay the salary as well so if he didn’t want to come here then it says even more about us as a proposition.

You then jumped into a segue about next few transfer windows when I was talking about THIS one. That is all that matters right now. Sounds like a jam tomorrow scenario which we’ve suffered for 23 years, but if your happy with that feel free to live with mediocrity when all our competitors are buying quality like it’s going out of fashion.

Conte is seemingly going to let every team have the ball so our tactics are always counter-attacking! If we can’t dominate possession against a Forest team that has signed 20 mid/lower Prem standard players then we don’t have or need a plan B that requires an attacking CM, just more options to rotate Plan A.

Levy will be wondering why he has to spend £60m on a CB when Conte has shored up the defence with the numpties we already have. That stat of over 500 mins without a goal when Sanchez has been on the pitch is extraordinary.

He is just not good enough for a side reputedly challenging for the title or in a worst case scenario, at least qualifying for a CL place. As VincentianMagic mentions below, he is in the same pod as Traore, we must try higher. If we were to buy anyone from Leeds, it should be Jack Harrison buy they won’t sell him unless we make an outrageous offer, which we won’t, rather like Gordon of Everton. Yet again I stress we should be looking to strengthen in the areas where we have clearly identifiable weaknesses. What I am not advocating is that that in order to compete, we should pay some of the highly inflated prices being quoted for some players.
What I find interesting is that those clubs who made early additions to their squads in the window, seem to have bought at more reasonable prices. For example, Sterling, Jesus, Bissouma and Haaland, (excluding his wages) were bought at prices which could not be described as bargains but when you compare them to some of the recent transfers by some PL clubs, they seem that way.
Man Utd are of course the biggest culprits. £70 million for Casemiro, circa £100 million for Anthony for example, but Chelsea, apart from buying Sterling, have paid £60 million for Cucurella when they already have Chilwell, and £70 million for Fofana looks very toppy.
To summarize, having a strong scouting and analytical team, run by an able head of recruitment is all important, and furthermore, identifying and buying your targets early is critical.
Those halcyon days of Levy’s brinkmanship of last minute transfer deals are a thing of the past, I suspect.

Mate you must be a joy at Christmas…. We have just spent 140 mil with Paying for Romero still have to stump up another 30 for our Swede and Conte is happy but your not.
we were linked with him and we didn’t get him because either he didn’t want to come or Conte and co ultimately are not of the opinion he is going to bring to the team what we need.
Conte has just gone on record to say it will take a couple of seasons and windows to build the team to Champion/ competitive trophy standards.
But you know better I’m sure
COYS

Firmly denied by various reporters including Gold.

Strategic move to bolster the home grown count, he will sit on the bench and be sent back to Leeds next season unless Conte thinks he has got something ? Can be turned into a wingback or such

Still no class central CB for the back 3, still no ideal RWB (defend + pace + end product), still no AM to give Conte more options when we need to break teams down rather than rely on the counter-attack.

I think we’ve done decent business and improved the squad considerably, but the deficiencies in the starting XI are as glaring as they were before the summer window opened.

Probably the home-grown and foreign player ratio’s are the politics behind a lot of transfers .
However I didn’t think that another winger / half back was of primary importance .
I think we are all waiting for one man to ignite us , obviously in the midfield area , but if he’s English I dont know who he is , if he’s Italian he’ll still be ‘a punt’ cos their stars aren’t moving , Germans offensively dont always produce [ Havertz , Werner , Schweinsteiger et al . But a Dutchman seems quickly at home here – do Ajax and PSV have any one that fancies the Prem ??? Could we unearth another Rafa VdV ??????? C O Y S !!!!!!

Yannick Carrasco incoming. Useful player can play as a right wing back and left wing.

So, West Ham get Paqueta and we’re trying to get this guy. Shows the level of ambition we have. A transfer window which started off so positively has now descended into the typical end of window, Levy orchestrated, farce.

I don’t know why we don’t persevere with Gil. We know he has the talent, he might adapt to English football in time. I’m not sure these alternatives are any better.

Nothing against James, but he’s not good enough for a team challenging for top four. Neither is Traore.

I read about our supposed ‘warchest’ and then note how much more even the likes of Forrest and WHU are spending. Is our squad that much better? Forster is a back-up, Spence wasn’t the Manager’s choice by all accounts, Lenglet is a loan because we couldn’t get our 1, 2 and 3 choices. Perisic was free and will rotate with Sessy.

Bassouma and Richy are good additions – particularly the former at the price we paid. But let’s not kid ourselves, we have a few additional options off the bench but the same first 11.

We still need the quality CB and AM outlined at the start of the window.

Truth is that other teams are bringing in fewer, more genuine quality players that make a difference. It feels that we have just made up squad numbers.

We have a chance of 4th place, but it could have been made a lot more attainable if we acted like a big club.

This shows the ridiculous situation we are in. We have a load of sub-standard players that need offloading, but because Conte wants a ‘player for a player’ we get linked with footballers who are still not good enough because we are loaning players out, not selling them. If we had the funds we wouldn’t be linked with James, or at least I hope we wouldn’t be. Hitchen has left hasn’t he?

As a loan he is useful enough, he is better than Gil but I thought he was doing well at Leeds. Why would Leeds want to get rid of him?