16 Jan 2019 21:51:53
Just over on the Spurs page and I read a great point from Ed001 about the man in poll position to be our next manager.

Poch has a big say on the incomings at Spurs.

Maybe not comparing oranges with oranges as we are talking about two different clubs, but it's an underwhelming read at best.

Lucas Moura
Serge Aurier
Fernando Llorente
Juan Foyth
Davinson Sánchez
Moussa Sissoko
Georges-Kevin N'Koudou
Pau López
Vincent Janssen
Victor Wanyama
Heung-min Son
Clinton N'Jie
Toby Alderweireld
Kevin Wimmer
Kieran Trippier
Dele Alli
Benjamin Stambouli
Federico Fazio
DeAndre Yedlin
Eric Dier
Ben Davies
Michel Vorm

Only really Son, Alderweireld, Alli and (possibly) Trippier who stand out. No others would/ should get near our first XI.

1.) 16 Jan 2019
16 Jan 2019 22:32:36
Maybe bargain buys with his budget, easy say what has he bought but maybe he had to make best of the funds he had.

2.) 16 Jan 2019
16 Jan 2019 22:34:56
Jury is out on his signings. Will be interesting to see how they do without Son and Kane.

3.) 17 Jan 2019
17 Jan 2019 03:41:07
Lucas Moura (hardly flop)
Fernando Llorente (great backup)
Davinson Sánchez (good future)
Moussa Sissoko (under rated)
Victor Wanyama (v good signing)
Heung-min Son (incredible)
Toby Alderweireld (top signing)
Kieran Trippier (good KW replace. )
Dele Alli (incredible)
Eric Dier (good signing)
Ben Davies (good signing)
Michel Vorm (good backup)

Given financial priorites of Tottenham, the club (not just Potch) are doing a pretty good job I'd say.

Do people forget Fergy's record with signings?! Arsen's?

4.) 17 Jan 2019
17 Jan 2019 04:09:25
80-90% of the list seems to be good signings. Especially some of the players are very good backup options.
Alderweirald is arguably the best centre back in the League.
Son, Ali, Sanchez have huge potential.
Trippier and Dier are first choice for England National team.
Moreover, they were purchased at a relatively low price.

5.) 17 Jan 2019
17 Jan 2019 08:39:05
Trip dier aldewireld son alli davis could all get in our team and sissoko sanchez moura and wanayama would all enhance our squad imo wazza.
Would you take sissoko sanchez moura and wanayama ahead of jones fellaini periera and mata? I would in a heartbeat.

Id take trip davis aldewireld son and alli ahead of shaw smalling young martial and sanchez also.
But i suppose its all about opinions.
I reckon we could all put a list together of twice that size costing twice as much of fergies failed signings.

{Ed001's Note - I think none of you got the point I made about the signings. It wasn't how they compare to United players or whether a donkey like Wanyama or a clueless positional 'defender' like Sanchez could get in the United team. That was not relevant. The point was that none of the recent signings did anything to improve the team, each of them is worse than players they replace.

Is the headless chicken that is Davison Sanchez even fit to lace the boots of Alderweireld or Vertonghen? Nowhere near, nor is Foyth.

Wanyama was brought in to replace Dembele! He is a quarter of the player Dembele is on one leg.

Aurier and Trippier have replaced Walker. Walker is not the best defensively but he is still a better player than those 2 put together.

Then there is the entirely average Davies, who is so nondescript at every part of the game who has replaced Rose. I am not a fan of Rose but he is a much better player than Davies.

Sissoko can barely pass it 5 yards without giving it away. Moura is a head down run into blind alleys kind of player who gets a goal once in a while so MOTD fans think he must be good.

There is also a worrying trend with Poch signings, along with them being progressively worse than the players they replace, they are almost all brawn over technique. Aurier, Sanchez, Wanyama, Sissoko, Moura were all bought because of their physicality. None suit the way Spurs play nor did any of them have the technical qualities required to fit in, but they were bought anyway.

Forget Fergie's failed signings, it is irrelevant and I have no idea why anyone is even going there, except they will use any means to defend the new chosen one Poch. It seems he can do no wrong despite failing to win a thing in his entire career, even when every other team stepped aside and said 'after you' to his Spurs team. Even then they just found a way to throw it away and are doing exactly the same this season.}

6.) 17 Jan 2019
17 Jan 2019 09:07:24
Fantastic insight Ed001,
Does Poch have any budget restriction to sign top class players, considering their ongoing Stadium plans?

{Ed001's Note - every manager has restrictions, even Pep. So yes, he does. Are they more stringent than most? They were, but Levy has loosened the purse strings in terms of wages in recent years, and that was the main issue.

They do have a limit on the amount they can spend (as do all clubs) but Poch has always set limits on the amount of players he wants to bring in, so that he can keep the squad togetherness intact. So the limits on that should just enable the club to target more specifically the players they require and Poch wants.

That did go wrong last summer, but that was the first time and as much about Levy not being impressed with the same things I am pointing out and seeing the targets being more of the same, so refusing to overspend (as he sees it) on bringing in players that are not improving the team.

There is a smaller budget than Man Utd, but you could say that about any team other than Man City, Real Madrid and PSG. Though Barcelona have spent ridiculous amounts in recent years, they have gone ridiculously over budget and have put themselves in serious danger for the next few years if they don't sort it out. If any bank would call in their debt, they would be in a very danger of collapsing altogether.

There is money available to Spurs, if they wish to call upon it, though it is reduced by the stadium delays, they still could spend if Levy sanctioned it. Levy is not holding it back for profit reasons, he is simply unwilling to spend on what is deemed the wrong players. All is not entirely well there, which is why I would be very surprised if Poch is not pushing his own name forward for the United job.}

7.) 17 Jan 2019
17 Jan 2019 09:16:22
I’m totally with Ed01 on this 100% and it’s something I’ve been saying to my Spurs fans mates for ages and they slam me for it. However Poch still has his team higher than ours right now so can’t really give him too much hassle.

As for our next manager, I’m not convinved he is the right man, but then again I have no alternatives to offer right now.

8.) 17 Jan 2019
17 Jan 2019 10:09:57
There is no perfect candidate, no matter how hard we may push a certain person forward.

No one person ticks all the boxes, not even Sir Alex was perfect.

What we are looking for in reality is the best fit for the club. Someone who ticks most of the boxes, but they will have areas of weakness, areas that will at times let the club down in someway.

Pochettino on paper looks like the best candidate, he plays good football, he develops young players, he seems to get the club. However, he also hasn't won anything as a manager, he also seems to push forward physical players over technical ones in term of transfers.

That being said, I think it's very hard to judge a manager on the signings they make at different clubs. We don't know how much input they had I'm transfers (although obviously they do tend to have a fair say) . Also the situations at different clubs make it almost impossible to make accurate direct comparisons. Are the club's of equal financial power? Are they located in the same area? Do they have a similar historical prestige? Are they as likely to win titles and cups?

All these things effect whether a player might want to move to a club, how high their wages demands might be and how high their clubs transfer fee demands might be. That in turn has a direct effect on whether that club can realistically sign that player.

We saw that early in on after City were taken over, having unlimited funds didn't mean at that time they could sign any player. Only when the club proved it could consistently challenge for the top honours did players of the highest calibre feel safe in moving to the club.

I think that highlights that it's hard to make a direct comparison.

That said Pochettino has seemed to lean towards certain player traits over others. However, so does every manager. They need certain traits to play the style they want. Pochettino wants his teams to press high and quickly, therefore it makes little sense to sign slower less physical but more technical players as they wouldn't be able to carry out the press as he would want. Mata for example isn't as useful to Pochettino as Sissoko is even though Mata is ten times the player.

What I would say though, is potentially one of the things holding Spurs back is having that intelligent player who can control a game, slow it down when they need to hold on to a one goal lead, or has the ability to open up a stubborn clever defence when you need to get that winning goal. A player like Carrick in his prime would take Spurs to the next level. Yet they don't seem to be interested in that sort of player.

9.) 17 Jan 2019
17 Jan 2019 10:39:19
Another interesting question is whether the players from top bracket prefer to move to Spurs.
For example, would Di Maria and Sanchez have considered joining Spurs when they were at Real and Barcelona?

10.) 17 Jan 2019
17 Jan 2019 11:26:56
Poch has had a thin shoe string budget! There is 22 players in that list and he has made playing time for most, with 6/7 players in the first team and 3 or 4 can do a job when used as a sub.

That's not a bad return? Poch could quite easily sell on players or release without taking too much of a hit.

We have bought app 11 players or more since SAF left. ( Counting of top of the head ) and some would not get into pochs first team or make his bench.

Then we have difficulties clearing our wage bill. Take WR for example as we had to pay a % to Everton to cover his wages!

And other players won't leave because other Managers know they ain't worth 150 - 250k per week. The noisy neighbours battled for Alexis yet did not push after he verbally agreed to move to them, I still think AS is suited better to poor playing style but they cannot afford his 500k weekly without tipping the FFP scales over.

The worst part of all this is knowing Chris Smalling got another contract and is happy to warm the bench. I was sure he was off to wolves when #002 said their was interest.

11.) 17 Jan 2019
17 Jan 2019 11:27:42
Ken, would I take Sissoko, Sanchez, Moura and Wanayama. the answer is no. The United players you compare them against are not good enough for a team competing for the title either, nor are the Spurs alternatives that you mention.

DodgyBanter, Sissoko is one of the most overrated players in the league, bu the simple fact he picks up a salary for playing football. He's awful.

My intention wasn't to turn this into a Spurs v United debate. More to highlight what is a good point; most of Poch's signings have been poor imo, with only 3, 4 at a push, who are good enough to compete for the Premier League title.

Spurs are above United, but they aren't competing for the league. Come the end of the season they will be 12+ points adrift of the eventual winners like they have been every season bar one, when they choked.

That's in a large part due to poor signings and a failure to replace departing players with equal or better players. Poch has still spent close to £300m, and that's with a world class striker coming through the ranks. This is Poch's team now, I think it's right to be concerned about his recruitment.

12.) 17 Jan 2019
17 Jan 2019 12:46:00
Thanks Ed1. Another reason why I'm not keen on Poch.

{Ed001's Note - welcome mate.}

13.) 17 Jan 2019
17 Jan 2019 21:11:27
I think Ed is spot on regarding spurs’ signings. Whether that’s down to spurs’ ‘budget’ I’m not sure. I do think he would prefer a higher calibre of player. I however look at where Poch excels. That’s in his man management and development of players. Imo he has developed many of his players. Kane is arguably the best striker in the world and has scored 20+ goals in 5 consecutive seasons I believe. Alli is one of the best attacking midfielders in the league and Eriksen is one of the most creative. No wonder real and Barcelona are after him. Son has been unplayable at times this year and he’s stepped up a level with far greater consistency. Poch deserves credit for this. I do believe he is the best man for the job. He has weaknesses but so does everyone else. However, if he doesn’t get the job then ole should for me. But that should be contingent on keeping Phelan around because he is the key here for me. Great debate guys some really interesting and varying view points.