James Harris returns to The Fighting Cock to talk about Lamela and his progress from running joke to game changer.
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"Lamela has shown what a bit of patience can achieve; it’s not only those that believed in him the whole time that can revel in satisfaction, but all Spurs fans"
Its actually quite a hell of a lot more than just a bit of patience though. In the same vein, should we have kept Soldado? How long do you give Townsend? Shouldnt we drop Chadli?
Lamela's price tag bought him time, and we indeed tried to offload him. He isnt done and dusted yet either in terms of top quality....still needs to iron out the suicide fouls around the box too.
But top marks for the fact he is making huge steps forward at last.
Its actually quite a hell of a lot more than just a bit of patience though. In the same vein, should we have kept Soldado? How long do you give Townsend? Shouldnt we drop Chadli?
Lamela's price tag bought him time, and we indeed tried to offload him. He isnt done and dusted yet either in terms of top quality....still needs to iron out the suicide fouls around the box too.
But top marks for the fact he is making huge steps forward at last.
Is it though?
For a guy
-who came when he was 21 years old
-from a different league to the prem
-played under a new system
-managers coming and going within his first year
-spoke not a word of english
Add to that the fact that his first season was a complete write off due to injuries. So basically last season was his first real season (where he still put up respectable numbers). And now we're seeing a player who has had time to settle in, get some coaching, learn the premier league etc it's not a coincidence he's doing well now.
Soldado is different because he was at his peak and showed very little promise in all the opportunities he was given. Lamela is still developing. It's also different to Townsend too because Lamela has at least shown his potential abroad and like I said the stats show he did better than many attacking MFs last season.
& don't forget that there have been some remarkable players who have needed time to settle in/adapt.
People flip out because they view others as being "melts" when something goes slightly wrong, yet when Erik Lamela has a few good games in a row and people go way overboard with heaping praises on him and saying that he's finally arrived its completely acceptable?
Let's talk about Erik at Christmas, shall we?
Let's talk about Erik at Christmas, shall we?
He has been impressive of the last few weeks. I've enjoyed watching him, his work rate is excellent. The boy doesn't hide, and he doesn't bottle tackles....
But......let's not carried away. he has nowhere near justified his signing yet. A couple of good performances and goals doesn't mean we can label him as a success. He has been up to a few weeks ago, beyond awfull.
Let's just hope we are still talking about his good performances at christmas, then we can start talking about him being worth signing. Still a long way to go, but he seems to be on the right road, let's hope he stays on it.
But......let's not carried away. he has nowhere near justified his signing yet. A couple of good performances and goals doesn't mean we can label him as a success. He has been up to a few weeks ago, beyond awfull.
Let's just hope we are still talking about his good performances at christmas, then we can start talking about him being worth signing. Still a long way to go, but he seems to be on the right road, let's hope he stays on it.
If all those are justifiable reasons then someone at the club needed firing for sanctioning a 30M transfer for such a massive gamble....(ooops, looks like Levy chose the DoF to fall on his sword... bye bye Baldini)
Im sure he was 30 mil because an English club was buying him, the price tag was irrelivant ?
Ive alwatys been a fan, seen the best in him. He needed regular games to allow him to , not grow but gain confidance. He has that 'South American street fighting' (sorry AW quote) attitude. Fans jumping on the wagon now should be ashamed as they may have been the same fans who moaned and booed and possibly contrbuted to his failure to shine. Hes a long was off being a fav but hes doing the right things, luckerly for us, at the right time.
Love him lots and hope he becomes our Messi.
Ive alwatys been a fan, seen the best in him. He needed regular games to allow him to , not grow but gain confidance. He has that 'South American street fighting' (sorry AW quote) attitude. Fans jumping on the wagon now should be ashamed as they may have been the same fans who moaned and booed and possibly contrbuted to his failure to shine. Hes a long was off being a fav but hes doing the right things, luckerly for us, at the right time.
Love him lots and hope he becomes our Messi.
So what you are basically saying is let's not enjoy what he's doing now but wait until he might be shit again...and if he is you can say I told you so...
Lamela had some decent moments in his first two seasons but never found the consistency. He still looks a bit raw to me, but his performances are starting to get promising. For me - as with Soldado - whether he left in the summer or stayed, either result would have been ok. I also think it's time to forget the price tag: if one's issue is with the £30m+ then perhaps one should take some satisfaction that the man responsible for those dealings has now left the club. With any player who is now with us for the season, he should be judged over that whole season. He was awful in earlier matches this year; great in the last ~3 games.
No what he's saying is 3 decent performances in two and a bit years is not enough to start acting like he's justified anything yet, or proven that he will continue to improve.
Everyone is pleased with him, and enjoying his progress, but time will tell.
There are people saying "I knew all along he would come good" etc, and what people are simply saying is that as of yet, he hasnt. However, he is showing signs that he can come good, where a lot of people had given up on him.
However, its been three games. He's been as bad as he's been good this very season, so articles about how him proving how all we needed to do was show a "little patience" into his 3rd season, are a little premature.
Agree with what you say, other than "justifying" his signing, by that I take it you mean £30m, if so, think you will be disappointed. IMO He is not a £30m player and I have seen nothing from him to suggest that he will be. It is not his fault how much we paid for him.
Take out of the price tag and we have a really hard working player, closing down oppo from first minute to the last and always looking to win the ball back, a player that never hides, always shows for the ball. A player that is at the heart of most of our chances created, be that creating space by drawing players towards him, to finding players in that space. He is possibly our best dead ball player, his corners are on the money (wish he took more free-kicks). We are a better team with him in it. I have always liked what he has brought to the team and actually see very little difference to his last few performances to those of last year. But he will not be the stardust player people are expecting. If people (no aimed at you mate, just in general) drop the stardust expectation then people can enjoy his performances for what they are, honest and hardworking.
Is that a problem to you?
I ran out of patience....his current form has given him a bit of a new slate as far as Im concerned.
Can either show more patience, or not. Thats your decision.
Hahaha....where were you when people wanted to give Stambouli and Capoue more time?
Where are you creaming one off over Townsend?
Jog on. The kid has been fucking shit, and now he's picking it up.
People are cautious whether he can keep it up and rightly so....however, even his biggest doubters have praised his improvement ad backed him for the first team on the back of it.
Play the good fan card all you want, but until you start "getting excited" for the entire squad, then it just looks like shallow bullshit. Everyone is happy about Lamela's form.
Sorry if you thought you owned the copywrite on getting behind him.
Just to clarify my piece - I mentioned on more than one occasion that this may be another false dawn, although obviously we all hope it isn't.
I'm not trying to say 'I told you so' - I have been one of biggest supporters in all of his time here but I wouldn't have been distraught if he left in the summer and I really was giving up hope. I don't think I'm being premature in praising Lamela for putting in a huge amount of effort every time he's on the pitch and never giving up on improving.
Again, his form might quickly take a dive once more, but people who were tearing pieces out of him for all of last season and verbally abusing him was pretty pathetic in my opinion.
No, I'll be happier than a pig in shit if the kid winds up being our player of the year! I'm just saying that there is a complete double standard when it comes to people melting over a couple of bad matches. Perfect example, Eriksen over the past two matches (before Swansea away) hadn't looked good and at points had looked absolutely atrocious. There were people calling for him to not get a start anymore. Which is crazy. There are also people that are saying that Lamela is the best player we have based off a select few matches. In my mind that's the same level of crazy.
BTW I'm not calling out this article, I just thought it was a good place to bring up this issue. Time & place and all of that jazz.