Tottenham Hotspur FC 2013/14

[TonyDA]

We desperately need a couple of reinforcements up front - beginning to sound like we'll get Berahino if we pay enough cash, but feel we need at least one other forward player. Would like to see us take a punt on Charlie Austin - reminds me a lot of Kane, in his hold up play, will score goals and won't cost too much, compared to current transfer fees.

[fallenangle]

WBA are holding out for at least ?20m for Berahino but I'm not sure that even if Spurs have the money he is worth that. I read somewhere WBA were interested in Fazio, so perhaps a cash + player deal might be on the cards.

Never liked Fazio - too slow and clumsy for the Premiership IMHO so if including him can sweeten the deal I'd say try it.

Still like the idea of Charlie Austin if he can be bought relatively cheaply. Far from ideal for all sorts of reasons but as a straight sub for Kane I think he would work and who knows, maybe playing alongside Kane they might make an effective strike partnership. Stranger things have happened.

[EJG1980]

Yeah, Fazio got all the way up to having his medical with WBA last week and then changed his mind at the last second. Tony Pulis confirmed he was there for a couple of days at their training ground. Fingers crossed it can be resurrected and used to help push the Berahino deal over the line*

The thing I like about Berahino is that he's fast (and we really lack pace, which N'Jie will also help with) can play as a centre forward and play wide. So he can give us a different kind of option up front and the option of pace from the wing too. Austin would basically be cover for Kane and that's it (or as a partner, like you suggest) so not as versatile. But he would be cheaper to compensate. Although I don't think he'd be too cheap, at least ?15 million I'd guess.

So many rumours and names for both ins and outs being bandied about. Gonna try and ignore all of them and not worry about any of it until I see official announcements from Spurs... I'm sure I'll do well sticking with that...

Oh yeah, and, Arsenal at White Hart Lane in the League Cup 3rd round! That should be fun / horrifying!

* Although there's now talk that Fazio is on the verge of joining Everton. Still, take the cash we get from Everton for him, use it to up our bid to Berahino, same result as a part exchange with WBA.

Didn't even last an hour with my ignoring the rumours plan

[EJG1980]

Europa League draw this afternoon. Potential for a real group of death for us, with those seedings! I don't mind tough teams, it'd be exciting, I just hope we manage to avoid any long haul trips. Would be great if we could get Celtic in our group.





So the Berahino situation looks... interesting! Bit of a cheek for the West Brom chairman to say that we've unsettled him though. Spurs have stayed 100% quiet and made zero public comments about Berahino, whereas WB have posted a statement about it on their web site each time we've bid! And yesterday's statement was out of nowhere, we haven't even made a third bid yet.

I obviously have no problem with WB not wanting to sell, but just reject our bids and say nothing in public. Don't make a massive song and dance about it on own your web site and then blame us for unsettling him.

The wording of their statements make me think that they'll sell, anyway. It was quite funny, "We have no intention of selling... however, if we did, Spurs would need to pay a bit more up front and have less add on clauses." Yeah, you have no intention of selling, but just for fun decide to spell out the terms of a hypothetical acceptable bid

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We've signed Heung-Min Son from Bayer Leverkusen. I love an out of nowhere signing! First mention in the press on Wednesday night, deal announced on Friday morning. Rudi Voller (Leverkusen director of football) said we've been talking for a few weeks so we've done well to keep it under wraps and out of the press.

With N'Jie and now Son we have added some serious pace to our attack, which was sorely needed (though I think N'Jie will probably mainly play cup games at first, very young and inexperienced).

I've heard Son's a very good player but haven't seen too much of him myself as I don't watch much German football. However, I was watching Lazio vs Leverkusen the other night and Owen Hargreaves said that Spurs fans should be very excited if the rumours about us signing him were true, as he's an excellent player, he really bigged him up. I am very excite

[fallenangle]

Never heard of him either so lets hope he's one of those previously unknown to most UK fans who turns out to be rather good. We're due some luck on in that respect after the less than stellar performances of some of our other foreign purchases over recent years.

Looks like WBA are holding out for a ?25m bid for Berahino. I'm not surprised that all other Premiership clubs appear to have lost interest in him at that sort of price. I suspect they and WBA themselves think Spurs are so desperate for another decent striker they will eventually stump up that amount even though he almost certainly isn't worth it.

[EJG1980]

I think West Brom have been so public because they're trying to drive up the price by getting a top four side interested, but it hasn't worked. Despite their protestations they've already signed two new strikers this summer, so I reckon they probably need to sell. My guess is we either forget it or get we him on deadline day for close to the price we want to pay.

Europa League draw:


Not too bad. Tough but exciting matches against Monaco and Anderlecht, with minimal travel. Could have been worse than Qarabag too, with Azerbaijan being next door to Turkey. There were a couple of teams that were further away than that.

[EJG1980]

A frustrating result again but the performance was good today, especially in the second half. There was a long period where we were completely dominating Everton but just couldn't quite find the goal. On a different day, with better finishing, we'd have won comfortably, but unfortunately today was a day where we let some good chances and situations go begging.

Still, I think today was the best we've played this season, so if we can keep on improving I'm sure the results will come. Especially when we add the pace of Son and N'Jie into the team, will give us a very different threat to the ones we have now. Hopefully a striker to take the load off of Kane too. He's not playing badly at all, just needs one to nestle in the back of the net and he'll be off on a scoring run.

Glad to see Danny Rose back in the side, thought he was yet again excellent today. Dier did a really good job in central midfield too, a real battling blood and thunder performance from him. Deli Alli again looked exciting when he came on, and although it was only for a few minutes it was great to see Pritchard back from injury and getting a chance with the first team.

Onwards and upwards! Let's hope the last three days of the transfer window are exciting and positive for us

[fallenangle]

Just about to watch the 'highlights' on MotD but from the earlier reports I heard it sounded like it was decent Spurs performance despite the lack of goals.

[nakamura]

Son is a quality player. Remarkable how none of you seem to have heard of him.

[EJG1980]

I didn't say I didn't know him, I said I hadn't seen him play very much due to not watching German football very often.

[fallenangle]

So to conclude the transfer window fiasco: about the only things that have happened after the earlier signings and clear outs is that Aaron Lennon is going to Everton on a three year deal, Adebayor is not going to West Ham so is still costing the club ?100,000 a week and WBA, apparently, rejected a deal worth ?25m from Spurs for Berahino.

Considering all the interest Spurs were said to have in various players during the transfer window its all come to nothing. A bit disappointing.

So we now have on rely on the two virtually unknown, in the UK, strikers signings to do the business.

[EJG1980]

It's a shame we couldn't get the Berahino deal done, but overall there's been far more good than bad in the window as a whole.

* Attempted to improve our poor defensive record by bringing in Wimmer, Alderweireld and Tripper; a young up and comer, someone to go straight into the first team, and someone to give Walker some much needed competition at right back.

* Added much needed pace to our attacking options with the signing of Son and N'Jie. All of our existing first choice attacking midfielders / wing forwards were skilful, but pretty slow and one paced.

* Did well shifting eight players the manager didn't want. We often have unwanted players hanging around for years (Bentley, Gomes, etc.) before we're able to get rid of them. Not surprised Adebayor was the only one we didn't manage to shift, it was always going to be a nightmare to get rid of him.

Certainly not the perfect transfer window, but we haven't lost any players that we wanted to keep, and we've signed a number of players in key positions, so we're definitely stronger than we were at the end of last season.

My main concern is we don't have an out and out central striker as back up to Kane. Having said that, Poch reportedly prefers a lean squad made up of versetile players who can cover multiple positions (N'Jie and Son both being wing forwards who are also comfortable playing centrally, for example) rather than having a big squad with too many players who can only play one specific position.

He also supposedly said that if he couldn't get his first choice transfers he'd rather stick with what we've got, rather than buying lesser players just to beef up the squad. I think we've been guilty in the past of buying for the sake of buying when we miss out on a main target and the player ends up barely playing, getting sold the next summer, and eating into the funds we have available for future first choice targets.

So I can see the logic behind buying nobody if we can't get our first choice for a certain position, but it's quite risky too.

So we now have on rely on the two virtually unknown, in the UK, strikers signings to do the business.

N'Jie yes, very raw and inexperienced, having to rely on him up front would be a gamble. But Son is hardly some unknown player we're taking a massive punt on; He's an established and highly regarded international, five years top flight experience in Germany at very good clubs, plenty of Champions League experience. He's no less experienced and ready to do the business than, say, Berbatov was, when we bought him.

And we've bought "well known" players with Premier League experience in the past who have failed to do the business. Every signing has the risk of flopping, no matter where they're from.

[fallenangle]

I have to take your word for that about Son because I'd never heard of him. Well regarded is no guarantee of performance either. I'd cite Lamela, Soldado and Paulinho as also being to highly regarded players before Spurs bought them and none of them proved worthy of their purchase price.

Lamela still might come good but I'm not sure he is even going to get the chance. Apparently Spurs were were trying to do a deal involving selling or loaning either him or Towsend to Southampton in exchange for defensive midfielder Wanyama.

I really hope Son and N'jie prove to be good value because if they fail I can't think where the goals are going to come from if Kane is injured or doesn't get out of his current dry patch. I'm certain the expectations and pressure on him knowing there are no equivalent striker alternatives available are partly to blame for that too. Without Berahino and unless Son and Nj'ie do click I can only see that pressure on Kane increasing with every game in which he doesn't get on the score sheet.

I'm painting a dark picture but unless we get some more wins and more goals under our belt soon we'll be struggling to get into the top six let alone mount a serious challenge for a top four place.

[EJG1980]

Oh I agree, being well regarded and having a great record can mean nothing. Whether totally inexperienced, a grizzled veteran, or anywhere in between, you can never guarantee that any player will be a success or not at a club.

Just making the point that, whether Son does well or badly, it won't be due to a lack of experience playing at the top level.

Anyway, he's just scored a hat-trick against the might of Laos, so he'll clearly bang them in in the Premier League Hopefully Harry can get a goal or two against San Marino to get him back on the goalscoring track too.

[fallenangle]

Ay to that.