Tottenham Hotspur 2013 / 14

I'd love to bring in the two Croatians. EXACTLY the signings we need to make and not the ones we made under Redknapp.

Corinthians big chief and Paulinho himself has held a press conferance in Brazil and confirmed that he is coming to glorious Tottenham Hotspur. €20m. !!!!!!!!!
Will be good to see it confirmed on official Spurs site, but there aren't much better sources than the player himself.

Paulinho - Sandro - Dembele
with Holtby and others challenging for a spot.

Paulinho wrote:“This is a very hard moment for me, I have had 3 great years at Corinthians, but now it’s time to go to  Tottenham.”

17Million for a 24yr old integral member of the Brazilian NT seems like a bit of a steal. I wonder if he's got a secret heart defect or something.

I'm still expecting this to collapse, for Madrid or someone to come in and blow our offer out of the water. That siad, it's no secret that AVB is close to members of the Brazilian NT from his time at Porto, and given his reputation there and being able to speak the language I've no doubt he smooth talked this one like a boss, in a way that not even Joe Kinnear could manage.

Meanwhile, that Halilovic Croation kid doesn't appear to have much in the way of a right foot, although his passing behind defences looks extremely exciting.

I'm interested to see that if we do sign Paulinho, the Croatian kids and Villa then which players we'll have to offload to balance the books. This shizzle don't come without a price, not where Daniel Levy is concerned...

Gotta be looking to off load either Huddlestone or Parker I would've thought..

Not sure i'd understand him getting rid of any of the strikers though, unless he's bringing another one in after Villa. Can't be going into another season with Defoe and black Crouch.

Villa to spurs seems a down deal just some haggling over price, he wants cl football and is still holding out for that, only the viola and maybe atletico may become rivals

Cautious about signing Villa. Obviously World Class in his prime, but at 31 off the back of such a long lay off with injury, he's not worth the 12 million Barca supposedly want for him with his 100k+ a week wages.

If we can sign him for 8-10million on a max 2 year contract, I'd say it's definitely worth a gamble, given the prestige and experience that a multiple Champion like him would bring.

If he still has it then I don't think it matters much if he cost £2m more or less.
I see £8.6m being mentioned, which I'd be happy with.
Think David Villa can be very important for us with his winning mentality and experience.
One way of looking at it for those questioning his age, is that he's only a year older than Defoe and a sale of JD will cover much of Villa's transfer and wages. An upgrade worth making.

I hope you don't sign Villa. Purely because I get annoyed everytime I spot a newspaper headline with Villa in it which turns out to be about David rather than Aston

Villa, Paulinho fecking christ EPL TV Money make it happen

bale is staying


you should have gone for gomez

will be an interesting fight for the CL places

Kroos wrote:Villa, Paulinho fecking christ EPL TV Money make it happen

bale is staying


you should have gone for gomez

will be an interesting fight for the CL places

The 3 Amigos and their influence across Europe are responsible for this (Baldini, AVB, Levy).

Also, don't forget - the players get to see Spurs' Training Ground, open last year and deemed to be one of, if not THE, best facility in Europe. Plus the upcoming new stadium. And London. And Gareth Bale.

The money helps, but if it were just money there are many other clubs better placed to lure Paulinho and Villa than we are

i am not saying that tottenham isn`t an attractive club, but even  german clubs who play in the cl  can only dream about such signings, only bayern and dortmund have the financial power to land players where the transfer fee is higher then 12 million euro

schalke (hunter) leverkusen (schürrle from mainz) both were around 12 million, and i think it was there only big transfer (in terms of money) in the last 5-6 years

Kroos wrote:i am not saying that tottenham isn`t an attractive club, but even  german clubs who play in the cl  can only dream about such signings, only bayern and dortmund have the financial power to land players where the transfer fee is higher then 12 million euro

schalke (hunter) leverkusen (schürrle from mainz) both were around 12 million, and i think it was there only big transfer (in terms of money) in the last 5-6 years

Of course, the EPL TV money is a HUGE help. Having Bale as a recognisable Global 'superstar' now is also a major boost as our merchandising revenues are expected to increase. Our board have been spending within their means at this point, club record buy is 16.5million GBP which is not much compared with the 'big' clubs. Whether that changes this summer, I don't know, but I expect we will also have to sell some players.

Disco Benny wrote:

Kroos wrote:i am not saying that tottenham isn`t an attractive club, but even  german clubs who play in the cl  can only dream about such signings, only bayern and dortmund have the financial power to land players where the transfer fee is higher then 12 million euro

schalke (hunter) leverkusen (schürrle from mainz) both were around 12 million, and i think it was there only big transfer (in terms of money) in the last 5-6 years

Of course, the EPL TV money is a HUGE help. Having Bale as a recognisable Global 'superstar' now is also a major boost as our merchandising revenues are expected to increase. Our board have been spending within their means at this point, club record buy is 16.5million GBP which is not much compared with the 'big' clubs. Whether that changes this summer, I don't know, but I expect we will also have to sell some players.

Is that DB7?  crazy he's now a free agent at age when he should be peaking.

Nah, it was Modric. DB7 was 15 million (+ performance addons, which of course weren't honoured).

15 million. Jesus Christ, what a waste that was.

Aaron Lennon cost 1million.

And spurs fans want to sell him. For shame. Still can't understand the apparent eagerness to sell Defoe either.

christmasborocooper wrote:And spurs fans want to sell him. For shame. Still can't understand the apparent eagerness to sell Defoe either.

They are English! No English fans want any English players!!!!

I don't know any Spurs fans who want us to sell Lennon.

Defoe- well, want him to stay too but he has always said he needs to be a first team regular. If he's happy to be back up then fine, otherwise we should let him go.

christmasborocooper wrote:And spurs fans want to sell him. For shame. Still can't understand the apparent eagerness to sell Defoe either.

Not particularly wanting to sell, but He'd be a worthy sacrifice for a more productive player from the wide position. Lennon doesn't score enough to be part of a front 3. besides, Bale looks to be moving across to the right side now.

As for worrying about nationality, Townsend is having a spot in the 1st team squad so that evens it out.

Regarding Defoe, he only able to play in the middle of the front three, and he lacks the physique and intelligence to do so for a team that's got our ambitions. Annoyingly, he has all the attributes to play on the left of the front 3 but he just is not intelligent enough to make it work.

Disco Benny wrote:Cautious about signing Villa. Obviously World Class in his prime, but at 31 off the back of such a long lay off with injury, he's not worth the 12 million Barca supposedly want for him with his 100k+ a week wages.

If we can sign him for 8-10million on a max 2 year contract, I'd say it's definitely worth a gamble, given the prestige and experience that a multiple Champion like him would bring.

Think Tottenham is being rather cheap on this one. 12M-15M would be quite fair imo but then again I wouldn't mind it if they haggle Barca down to 8M-10M. It would be a really good transfer and quite an upgrade on Defoe. Wondering if this will spur Arsenal on in the transfer market.

They will likely get another year with Bale and now with Paulinho and probably Villa they should make it to Cl places. Unless Arsenal bulk up considerably Tottenham should be favourites for the Cl places and I don't think they will be able to excuse another failed year.

Super Mourinho wrote:

Disco Benny wrote:Cautious about signing Villa. Obviously World Class in his prime, but at 31 off the back of such a long lay off with injury, he's not worth the 12 million Barca supposedly want for him with his 100k+ a week wages.

If we can sign him for 8-10million on a max 2 year contract, I'd say it's definitely worth a gamble, given the prestige and experience that a multiple Champion like him would bring.

Think Tottenham is being rather cheap on this one. 12M-15M would be quite fair imo but then again I wouldn't mind it if they haggle Barca down to 8M-10M. It would be a really good transfer and quite an upgrade on Defoe. Wondering if this will spur Arsenal on in the transfer market.

They will likely get another year with Bale and now with Paulinho and probably Villa they should make it to Cl places. Unless Arsenal bulk up considerably Tottenham should be favourites for the Cl places and I don't think they will be able to excuse another failed year.

It depends on who will be leaving also though. No point making grandiose claims like 'they won't be able to excuse another failed year' if we have to ship out lots of players from our squad. Ultimately, I think it was fair to say that last season our first XI was good enough to have secured 4th, but our squad wasn't once we lost a few key players to injury (notably Sandro) and were stretched with Europa League demands. Arsenal's squad was bigger and better in the end.

Deluded F*ck™ wrote:

christmasborocooper wrote:And spurs fans want to sell him. For shame. Still can't understand the apparent eagerness to sell Defoe either.

Not particularly wanting to sell, but He'd be a worthy sacrifice for a more productive player from the wide position. Lennon doesn't score enough to be part of a front 3. besides, Bale looks to be moving across to the right side now.

As for worrying about nationality, Townsend is having a spot in the 1st team squad so that evens it out.

Regarding Defoe, he only able to play in the middle of the front three, and he lacks the physique and intelligence to do so for a team that's got our ambitions. Annoyingly, he has all the attributes to play on the left of the front 3 but he just is not intelligent enough to make it work.

Just surprising after all that "it's not about end product" talk over the years.

As for defoe, he scores about 11-13 league goals/season, except for one season where he had 18. I know you're thinking he might have been injured but he started 27 games and played in 7 others last season. He finished in 17th position in the goal-scoring charts. Surely that has never been good enough for a team with ambitions for the CL.

Not many clubs gave several strikers who score loads of goals. Having one who scores some in amongst two or three others wouldn't exactly be a bad idea surely?

At the very best level, Defoe is an impact sub, in fact he's the record holder of most goals scored coming off the bench in the Premier League. Perhaps a testament to the strenght of squad Spurs has had in Defoe's time at the club. Where Darren Bent has had many 20 goals seasons, Defoe has held similiar goals per minutes played ratio but end up with less total goals due to either starting on the bench or having to come off to give game time to his challenger. He's not someone you build your play around, he can pop up with a fine goal out of nothing, but doesn't contribute much to the overall play.
I have no problem having him around as a squad player, in the starting eleven however he will not be too often. When you take his age, contract, inconsistent form into consideration ... First half of last season was Defoe's best ever, second half was his worst. It's easy to see why it would be wise to sell to finance other signings.

Assuming the plan is to buy more than just Villa... Unless you expect even more goals off Bale.

christmasborocooper wrote:Not many clubs gave several strikers who score loads of goals. Having one who scores some in amongst two or three others wouldn't exactly be a bad idea surely?

I said a club with CL ambitions, so not all clubs. The top clubs need either a first choice striker who is coring 20+ goals in the league (e.g van persie), with a few other contributors, or you need a mix of strikers who all score around 15 goals and get rotated (e.g. aguero, tevez, dzeko). Last season Defoe played as the first choice striker and contributed as if he was being rotated (unless you think bale was spurs main striker?). Not sure he has ever been good enough for a top club, and I personally think West Ham, Fulham etc is his level. If he was there and scored 11 goals then he had a reasonably good season.

I don't think either Chelsea or Arsenal had a collection of strikers scoring that many goals.. Both in the CL. Neither of them had a 20+ goal scorer.