The NDP is not viable but we can afford to splash out £40M on a player?
Sunday, January 30, 2011 at 11:40PM Ooooookay then.
Plenty of chin scratching this late evening.
Guillem Balague, think of him as the La Liga King of the ITK's has tweeted that...well, you know by now because you'll have read it and seen it on SSN and all the newsfeeds etc. We've bid for Sergio Aguero - £38.5M supposedly, and seen it rejected by Atletico Madrid. This following the early rumour(s) that we also bid (rejected) for Negredo, Llorente and Rossi.
Busy day of faxing for Mr Chairman. Not quite cool, calm and collected. Somewhere, there's a scouting system waiting to be rediscovered and effectively used to target player outside of window and then bid for said player 20+ days before actual transfer deadline day.
Crazy talk.
Ballague "Spurs are running around Spain with a large bag of cash" - lol
On so many levels this is completely loopy. A day to go - what type of negotiation are you going to get out of the Spanish clubs at this late late stage? Considering there's complexities relating to tax (read this for a better understanding) and the fact that this particular player was wanted by Real Madrid earlier in the week (although all that says is that his club don't want to sell him to their 'rivals'). But they've already knocked back Chelsea.
I know leaving it to the last minute is sometimes done on purpose and I spoke about the dynamics of the wheeling and dealing the other day, but this all seems like much ado about nothing in terms of viable targets.
One thing that isn't relevant is the get out clause, as stated by Sid Lowe who firmly believes there is no chance of Aguero signing for us because; 'Legally speaking, Aguero's buy-out clause is irrelevant when it comes to a bid from Spurs' - basically what he's saying is, the get out clause is only for Spanish clubs but what Sid probably meant is the player will have no interest in the move.
Also does nobody want to cite City and the fact they pay some of their players twice the cost of their wages to cover the 50% tax the poor little sods have to fork out for plying their trade in England? Would love to know what type of package we would offer him.
"Here ya go Kun, 70k per week and free membership to Faces"
A suggestion perhaps that these more flamboyant 'look at us, look at us' bids will lead to possible second tier signings (in terms of cost) like Fabiano or Forlan (who are hardly second tier players). It's all a bit OTT. In fact, telling everyone you've got almost £40M to spend is hardly going to help if we have to revisit the proposed 'old men' of Fab and Diego. I know the story with both is that it's a no-go, but we all know it's never a no-go in football when a club says 'we ain't selling'.
Also, very few words on the fact that Aguero plays off Forlan and we already have a player to play off a forward (vdV) - we just don't have a forward of deep quality to match the intelligence and movement and guile of the Dutchman.
Something is not right with any of it. Mostly the way Sky Sports are all over this, in what has been a less than frantic/exciting window. Keane to West Ham is not going to be responsible for Jim White's head exploding. One day before the deadline and we're bidding for the best forwards in La Liga offering ridiculous money when there is about a 2% chance of having any of the bids accepted.
I smell a Levyism. Good on him if he's completley serious about it all. Rock'n'roll. But this will probably die quicker than fat Elvis on the toilet.
As for the title of this thread...yeah yeah, speculate to accumulate, said that plenty of times. I'm only trying to point out the absurdity of it all. If we signed a player of world class quality for a staggering amount of money and we finished top4/3 - it's money we'll make back and the gamble will pay off. On the other hand...I don't know, we sell Bale in the summer to compensate.
j/k
And anyways, the crux here is the timing and the almost demented manner of bidding for anyone who can kick a football.
If...if...any of this is true of course. You know, because Harry said we're not signing anyone.
Cough.
In addition, in case you're wondering, here's my three-word Fulham match report: What a clusterf***.
It's been a poor week, what with Huddlestone breaking down and having his return delayed, Kaboul requiring an op (out for up to 6 weeks) and the Keystone Cops turning out in Lilywhite (edit: I meant that poxy cursed light blue). Only bright spot was the support at Craven Cottage.
Onwards, as ever.
Just another day before we can all just go back to the football and concentrate on the players we have. And if we're left with Defoe, Pav and Crouch - so be it. Can't do much else but support them.
COYS.
Reader Comments (155)
6th is the best we can hope for.
Someone said that we didnt bid 38/39 for Aguero....we did...the reason we did is because when "spend within your means" comes into effect on June 1st we will never be able to do so again.....our means wont allow it...why...because a 36k stadium is not going to support it.....hence Levy would be 100% right to come out and say we couldnt compete with our "rivals" due to wages.
Thats why the window went crazy the "spend within your means" threat jacked up the prices...If we had offered 25mil for Carroll on Jan 1st before any interest was expressed in Torres then we would have got him and most comments on here would be saying we'd push for the title.
Very fine line.....why oh why identify targets and go back for them on deadline day...jesus christ......
For the record...Charlie Adam (at an agreed 7mil i might add - NOT 11m) would have been a great signing...its clear JJ aint an answer to any question and with Thud suffering a setback that means we probably wont see him i a spurs shirt for 7 weeks (extra 5 weeks added to his projected return date of the CL ties) Adam would have been a great addition to the midfield alongside Luka....its clear now we have to forget about the DM side of things because we need as many midfielders on the pitch that can score goals..because christ knows that if we start with Crouch then its game over for this season....
And neville, regardless of his age, would be a massive improvement on Hutton at RB...obiously Charlie aint in Harry's plans....or if he is I think we'll see him at CB ahead of Bassong....
Please Harry start with Pav & Defoe...bench vdV and go straight 4-4-2 for blackburn or keep vdV and go 3 at the back 3-5-2
Glad Krankie is still with us...
Here's what I'd do at Blackburn...........why not go for it
-------------------------------Gomes----------------------------------
--------------Bassong ------ Woody ----- Khumalo----------------
-------Hutt/Pien------------Palacios -------------BAE/Krankie-----
-------------------vdV-----------------------Luka --------------------
-----------------------Defoe ----------------Pav ---------------------
Lightning won't strike twice, City will take our place in the top 4 this season. We haven't been playing consistently well enough to deserve top 4.
For the first part of the season we were performing well but lacking a cutting edge, recently we haven't even been creating that much - would a striker have been enough? We won't know but we had to at least do something.
It's ironic that the player who Levy bought to appease the fans' unrest at not landing a top class striker in the summer has scuppered Redknapp's favoured 4-4-2 style of play. Redknapp's trying to squeeze in too much attacking midfield talent at either the detriment of a striker or a defensive midfielder. I believe Redknapp still has no idea what his best side is.
The old arm around the shoulder school of management is finally wearing a bit thin and hearing him phone up TalkSport last night, joking about his and Levy's failure to push the club on, made me feel ill. I'd like Redknapp and Levy & Co to quietly disappear at the end of this season and people with ambition, rather than just talk, to take over.
Charlie Adam and Phill Neville? WTF?
Last seasons results mean nothing.
Look at our recent performances, our poor away efforts and the fact our competitors have strengthened whilst we have at best stood still.
Not negative, just honest.
STLSpurs.....I don't have any explanation for it
It's interesting to see some of the figures quoted here, One that I picked up on was the £40 mill extra we would earn from the CL.
The key word is "extra". Do the maths on it, and if it was all paid as wages, to a 25 man squad, it is roughly an extra £30k per week. That would still mean that our highest paid players would be getting a little over £100k per week.
Alternately, we could plunge it on one player at £30 mill, and then we could easily afford to pay that one player £150k per week, but what would be the reaction of these who might be only earning £30k per week.
The reality is that we are competing from such a relatively small stadium, that it is a minor miracle that we are in the CL, and that in order to be able to compete, it needs both a larger ground, and regular CL entry.
I have just looked at the stats on wikipedia, and we have the 12th largest club ground in England, and last season, there were two championship clubs and a even a first division side that had bigger grounds than ours. The Sky 4, have an average capacity of 57k. The NDP or OS would bring us up to that average. You have to go all the way back to 1995 when Blackburn Rovers were in the CL, courtesy of a bought championship from Jack Walker to find a team who had a smaller ground than ours in Europes top flight. Every other English club that appeared in the CL, have had larger grounds than ours.
Putting it into perspective, our 4th place and two fifth places in recent years is nothing short of a miracle, and thats before we have to compete with the Chelsea and Citeh chequebooks where financial prudence has gone out the window.
I am disappointed we didn't do a marquee signing, but on the other hand, I also agree with those who think the bindippers did us a big favour buying Carrol. But I am also happy that we are not going to do a Leeds and destroy the club financially by living beyond our means.