Keep 'em or get rid of 'em?
Friday, January 8, 2010 at 11:06AM Hola. Easy reading and thinking to accompany your lunch break browsing. Blatantly stolen from a thread over at GG this. I like the simplicity, mainly because of the difference in opinions it ends up invoking. Us Spurs fans are fragmented when it comes to favouritism and view points over who is worthy of retaining a Lilywhite shirt.
So, the question of the day is - Keep 'em or get rid of 'em?
List the squad players. Then tag them. Like so. Add additional comments if you feel like it:
1. Gomes - Keep
2. Hutton - Get rid (Not sure why he was signed in the first place, but he's not quite fitted in since arriving from Scotland. Good on the offensive, not so good defending)
3. Bale - Keep (Much like Hutton better going forward than staying back, but he's 20 years old and this investment should be the one that goes some way in proving whether our coaches know how to develop a young player. We've made a mess of it thus far thanks to initially throwing him into the first team way too quickly)
5. Bentley - Get rid (It's just not working out and even if it was we'd have to sell Lennon to Chelsea before he gets a look in)
6. Hudd - Keep (He's 23 years old. Let's not give up on him just yet)
7. Lennon - Keep (VITAL)
8. Jenas - Get rid (Can we afford to keep him as a back up? Would he want to sit around on the bench? He rates himself, managers rate him, everyone apart from the vast majority of fans. Not sure keeping a 5 games per season footballer is worth the hassle of sitting around waiting for those rare performances to unfold in front of us)
9. Pav - Get rid (Infamy infamy they’ve all got it in for me)
10. Keane - Get rid (Hands up if you think Robbie has lost his mojo?)
12. Palacios - Keep (VITAL)
13. Walker (the old man goal keeper) - Get rid (replace with a young keeper, one that is of genuine promise as oppose to another Alnwick type of signing. The other Walker should remain out on loan)
14. Modric - Keep (VITAL)
15. Crouch - Keep
16. Naughton - Keep (send out on loan)
17. GDS - Get rid (sorry, but unless I'm underestimating the injury issues at hand, I don’t see the hype with this one)
18. Defoe - Keep
19. Bassong - Keep
20. Dawson - Keep
21. Kranjcar - Keep
22. Corluka - Keep
23. Cudicini - Keep (It's the right thing to do)
24. O'Hara - Get rid (not good enough, bless his heart and effort, but he is no different to Zokora in this way)
25. Rose - Keep
26. King - Keep (After his knee finally defeats him he should be offered a coaching role at the club)
27. Alnwick - Get rid (Doesn't appear to be any good)
29. Livermore - Keep
30. Dervitte - Get rid (Was he U-18's captain? Not sure if our scouting sucks or we simply are not the right club for certain types of yoof players. Mainly because we don’t appear to give them a chance to break into the first team. Either our priorities are with establish bought older players or these 'kids' are not half as good as we thought they'd be)
32. BAE - Keep
39. Woodgate - Keep
Actually, giving that list a second glance leaves me wondering if us (Spurs fans) are going to be fragmented at all with this. I think it's more than obvious who the deadwood is. Although one or two on the GG thread are making suggesting like 'Sell Crouch' and there is also a minority who still think players like Roman and David (Bentley) have a future in N17.
Obviously, getting rid of certain players is dependant on whether new ones come in as replacements/better revisions. For example, selling Jenas would mean we would need to make sure depth is kept in the central mid positions by plugging the gap with a brand new quality player. One with end product.
The young lads (Livermore, Rose and also Bostock who wasn't mentioned above) have to be developed with us much care as I hope Bale gets from the coaching staff. At some point, they either need to play a part in the first team or be sold on. The lack of promotions from the academy side means either the players stagnate or they're over-hyped (Johnnie Jackson anyone?). If they have the talent, use them. Otherwise, loan them to sides where we can truly tell how good they are in preparation for Prem football. I guess its an internal policy too. If we are always willing to splash out £15M on big name signings, then the yoof will not get a chance.
Keane. Controversial. Again, can't see us selling him unless we line someone up to replace him. And to be fair I don't think this is likely to happen this season. What we can't do is remove too many players and lose consistency re: squad selection. The summer is probably going to be more key to departures and arrivals than this window. Which Harry is suggesting will be a quiet one.
The truth will out.
So. Knock yourselves out. Discuss away.
Reader Comments (19)
where is Taarabt?
More importantly, will the game on sunday be called off as Sky Sports recons the scousers are trying to get it abandoned due to "unsafe conditions around Anfield rather than the pitch". Me thinks liverpool are worried and are trying to get the match rearranged for when they are in better form.
Adel does not want to return to Spurs. We are beneath him. He's the new Zidane. Real Madrid await.
Agreed - apart from GDS, OHara & Keane (wait until the summer to assess) Cudicini (get rid). Not mentioned Taarabt (I would keep) or Walker (same).
That's the other Kyle!
Levy - get rid!
what about me? keep please
Alan Sugars Beard - get rid
Another spurs fan who always thinks the grass is greener.
Added Corluka. He's a keep.
Agree with all but O'Hara. Only 23, and unlike most of the other players, would bleed for the lillywhite cause.
One thing that irks me is the added expectation of players who are youth internationals.
Lets look at the youth international set-up: it's usually ex-players cutting their teeth and getting some coaching experience. They aren't necessarily good managers or good judges of players. Yet if a player is for example a French U21 captain (Kaboul?), this validates their ability simply because a coach somewhere has a fancy for a lad (probably based on few games given the high turnover of youth coaches). Does this decision make the player ready to step up to the most challenging league in the world? Taking other peoples' word for it seemed seemed to be Spurs' primary scouting method under Comoli.
Dervite? He was u18 captain! It must be Spurs' youth development which is the problem! Never mind the fact that his captaincy was bestowed upon him by a manager with no experience and a total of 3 international caps (Philippe Bergeroo). U18 captain - the boy must be class!
Lucky Harry likes to watch and know players before buying them. Youth internationals? Pah!
http://img.thesun.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00427/66_wayne_280x390_427808a.jpg
I wish people would tire of the "O'Hara would die for Spurs" nonsense. He's not good enough, so the only choice he has is to run around the pitch and work hard.
If he loved Spurs so much he would come back from his loan spell; there's still snow that needs shoveling.
Must say, i disagree here chaps - why on earth we would turn our squad upside down in the next few weeks, it would be suicide and Arry knows that. I honestly think the most that will happen is Pav goes somewhere and we end up bringing in this Sandro fella, any more disruption than that and we will make trouble for ourselves. Potentially bentley might go also, but unlikely. Summer is when all this stuff will happen.
Lets hope this game goes ahead on Sunday, the bindippers are making excuses to get the game postponned - i think i saw them all pouring water out of the windows to freeze the pavments over! They know they will come unstuck at present against us (he says, he hopes, he prays!!)
COYS
Alright then, how about we keep O'hara for the fact that we need club trained players when registering for European competitions, or so Football Manager would have me believe. Still better than Jenas, mind.
CEJ, I don't think any of us would want these changes to happen in this window, maybe a few here and many more over the summer.
It's all right saying lets sell Jenas but no bugger wants him
I have to say that I agree with all of your observations. Either you're on to something or we're both totally deluded
Agree with most of your assessments and don't expect very much to happen before the summer. That said Pav and Bentley have to go now only because their respective values will not increase a bob with them glued to the bench. The choice is clear: play them or sell them on. Hutton I would also sell on now if we got experienced cover coming back (Micah Richards would be my choice). No changes are necessary to the starting XI (Gomes, Corluka, Dawson, Bassong, BAE, Palacios, Hudd, Kranjcar, Modric, Lennon and Defoe -4-5-1 - with King, Woodgate, Naughton, Bale,, Rose, Dos Santos, Keane, Crouch as cover) which also allows us to sell on JJ. Bring in Richards, Jones and Loach or Lewis as Gomes cover and we're good now and can then look to the summer to tweak as necessary for the future. That's when Keane, Taraabt, Cudicin and others will be moved on. I would see how O'Hara does on another loan spell before making any rash decisions. He has looked pretty good on a lousy Pompey squad and it'll be interesting to see if he can make a similar impression with a team like Fulham. If so he clearly is good enough for the Premiership and would fetch us a little more on a transfer if we don't see him fitting in at WHL. COYS - three points at Anfield and the future's bright - I got my shades.
Agree with the majority of it Spooky, but I would keep O'Hara. I believe his skills can be refined and he could develop into a much better player. Where he would fit in our squad? God knows. But we have used him as a catalyst before and found success to a certain degree.
COYS!