Tottenham Hotspur FC 2013/14

[EJG1980]

I also think we might be saving our money to up the offer for James Maddison as Leicester want more than Spurs have put on the table so far.

I don't wanna jinx it, but there were a number of journalists on Twitter last night posting that we'd reached a verbal agreement with Leicester for a fee of £40 million for Maddison. Would be great value if we got him for that price.

Edit: ohh, just seen that it's now being reported this morning that he will actually be having a medical today, so that moved quickly. Would be very nice to get such an important signing wrapped up nice and early in the summer, a boost to our midfield creativity and goal threat is very much needed. Fingers crossed for no last minute hitches!

Edit 2: in more Spurs / Leicester dealings, a few reports coming out now that Harry Winks could be making the move in the other direction. £8 million fee + £4 million extra if Leicester get promoted.

[fallenangle]

I'm hoping that with Maddison arriving it will encourage HK to at least stay until the end of his contract. I still think we need someone else in the midfield to give the squad depth. Somebody with creative flair, goal scoring and, ideally, good general defensive capabilities too. But who, that's the question?

[EJG1980]

No mucking about, less than 24 hours from journalists reporting the fee had been verbally agreed to the player being officially announced. Nice work Spurs!

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[EJG1980]

I'm hoping that with Maddison arriving it will encourage HK to at least stay until the end of his contract. I still think we need someone else in the midfield to give the squad depth. Somebody with creative flair, goal scoring and, ideally, good general defensive capabilities too. But who, that's the question?

There's a young (19) midfielder at Bristol City called Alex Scott who we've been tentatively linked with, who could add a bit more creativity to our current crop of midfielders (not sure about the defensive side though). I'm only comparing them in terms of style, not how good they may end up being, but from the videos I've watched the way he plays reminds me a bit of Gazza; loves to go on a powerful run from the midfield and beat a couple of players with skill.

I do like it when we sign players from a division below the Premier League and they come good, one of my favourite types of signing when they work. We've had a decent number in recent years: Michael Dawson, Dele Alli, Kyle Walker, Tom Huddlestone, and Aaron Lennon, off the top of my head. Might be a couple of others too.

Having said all that, I'm hoping that our next signings will be a couple of defenders, as we leaked goals for fun last season and that needs fixing if we want to progress.

[EJG1980]

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Started as a fan in the stands at White Hart Lane, joined the club at five years old, went through every level of the youth team, to the first team, making over 200 appearances and starting in a Champions League final; that's a pretty damn good run for your boyhood club.

I do wonder what would have happened in his career if he hadn't badly injured his ankle at the end of 2017, as he never seemed quite the same once he returned from that injury. Hopefully playing week in week out at a lower level with Leicester will allow him to get his confidence back, and he can reignite his career.

I'll remember fondly those early years where he was an up and coming talent making a name for himself, and matches like the win against Real Madrid at Wembley where he didn't look out of place going up against players like Modric, Casemiro and Kroos. The very best of luck to you Harry.

[fallenangle]

Yes, a genuinely loyal Spurs player and, at his best, international class.

As you say a pity that the injury undoubtedly stymied his career but the move to Leicester and getting more regular games could see him back in Premiership before long. I just hope we don't regret selling him.

[EJG1980]

Yes, a genuinely loyal Spurs player and, at his best, international class.

As you say a pity that the injury undoubtedly stymied his career but the move to Leicester and getting more regular games could see him back in Premiership before long. I just hope we don't regret selling him.

I can definitely see him coming back up and establishing himself as a regular starter at a PL club, but I don't think it'll be a move we regret.

I think it's a move that gets filed under "best for all parties"; he needs a fresh start, we need to raise funds for new signings, and we need to trim the squad down a bit without European football this season. Makes sense to try and sell the players who have been out on loan first, as we've effectively been operating without them for a season or more already.

[EJG1980]

Nice little video of fan questions for Ange Postecoglou, posted by the club:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sq43LnUDH4E

[EJG1980]

Not the greatest of matches overall but I enjoyed seeing the England Under 21s win the European Championship this evening.

The end of the match was fantastic drama though. I was the momentary villain in our house as when injury time started I said "England haven't let in a goal the entire tournament, wouldn't it be typical if we let one in the last minute of the final match?" and then a couple of minutes later Spain were awarded their penalty

Luckily the keeper saved the penalty AND the shot from the rebound, before the second rebound was blazed over the bar by Spain. Almost certainly the best possible way to preserve, and cap off, your tournament long clean sheet and become the first ever team to achieve that feat.

Oliver Skipp will be buzzing when he returns to Spurs with his winners medal. Only made one start but appeared in every single match and always did well in his 15-20 minutes at the end of matches to help protect England's leads and get them over the line.

[fallenangle]

Yes, I watched the game as well and that last 15 minutes or less was excellent entertainment. A saved penalty and rebound save in the last minute of added time; you don't get much more exciting than that. The clean sheet statistic throughout the whole competition was the cherry on the cake.

The referee was a bit card happy though: four red cards to people off the pitch and two not even players. One of them, coach and well known, experienced ex-player, Ashley Cole, was clearly trying to help calm things down on the pitch.

Some of the eleven yellow cards were highly questionable too. The game was a bit heated at times but there were not bad enough challenges, deliberate or unintended to deserve that level of punishment.

[EJG1980]

Another signing done, Manor Solomon from Shakhtar Donetsk (though he was on loan at Fulham last season):

https://www.tottenhamhotspur.com/news/2023/july/solomon-signs-for-spurs/

Good signing, especially on a free transfer. He looked really good in that spell he had for Fulham where he scored in five games in a row, and he's got good experience from his time at Shakhtar Donetsk too, played against Real Madrid twice and scored in both matches. His style of running and the way he moves reminds me of Aaron Lennon.

Looks like he's the Lucas Moura replacement for the squad, so I expect he'll be getting most of his minutes as a sub, but he's got the potential to push for a first team spot. Definitely a good option to have on your bench at the very least.

[EJG1980]

Quite a tough listen but at least Dele Alli has been able to get some help and start getting his life back on track:



Nothing would please me more than for him to do brilliantly with Everton, get back in the England squad, and fully turn everything around. But more importantly than that I just hope he can have a happy life from this point onwards.

His comment at the beginning that he didn't want to be doing this interview so soon, but that various papers had found out he had been in rehab and were telling him they were going to reveal all about it.... makes my blood boil, the press in this country are, for the most part, such a blight on society. Although the public take some of the blame for lapping these sensationalist revelations up when they are printed.

[EJG1980]

Enjoyable and interesting friendly against West Ham earlier today, although of course it would have been nicer not to lose.

More important though was seeing the way that the team is going to try and play in the upcoming season, and that is looking promising on this showing. Especially as Ange hasn't had a huge amount of time to work with the team, so it's very much extremely early work in progress, but you can see that the shackles have come off when it comes to keeping the ball and going for it attacking wise.

72% possession (692 passes to 198) and 32 shots to 7. Rusty finishing let us down at the end but on another day with a bit more sharpness, we're going to score a lot of goals playing that way. We played some very nice, quick, front foot football.

On the players, I thought the pick of the first half bunch were Solomon and Bissouma (the latter of which I have an inkling will have a very good season) and in the second half I'd pick out Lo Celso, Udogie and Perisic as the most impressive.

Of course, our defence was poor last season, so it's unsurprising that we're still struggling with that. Hopefully even that will be a positive from this match though, as the higher ups can be under no illusions that our current defence is good enough. I think we need at least two centre backs, one to partner Romero and one back up pushing to get into the team. I really hope to see some progress on incoming defensive signings asap, as that's the main fly in the otherwise promising ointment.

Edit: ah ha, they heard me



Never heard of him, but apparently a very highly rated 18 year old. Considering he only has 14 professional appearances to his name looks like he'll be being signed as a prospect for the future (though interesting that he's expected to fly out to join up with the squad for the rest of our tour).

[fallenangle]

Worrying evidence (multiple sources) that HK is going to jump ship to Bayern Munich sooner rather than later.

https://www.express.co.uk/sport/football/1794079/Harry-Kane-Bayern-Munich-Tottenham-transfer-news

[EJG1980]

Yup. I think mostly so far it's just been the usual summer transfer noise, but it does seem to be getting a bit more concrete in recent days. Especially with the comments from Postecoglou the other day that, whatever the outcome of the Kane situation, it can't drag on and he wants it resolved one way or another asap.

I had been thinking that Bayern simply wouldn't bid enough to tempt us into selling this summer, if we thought that we had a chance of getting Kane to sign a new contract at some point. However, if Kane has told the club behind the scenes that he won't sign any new contract under any circumstances, it would be tough to turn a "reasonable" bid when you know the alternative is 99% likely to be £0.

I'm with Ange in that I just want it to be resolved asap, let's have some clarity so we know exactly what we're working with for the upcoming season.