Premier League 23/24 Squad

[Neiln]

While listing out players for every position suddenly makes things very clear, it's also worth acknowledging most of the outfield players can do a good job in 2 or 3 spots. Pool the fullbacks together, acknowledge Davies can play centre back, dier DM (possibly a lot better than CB), CM1 and 2 can be seen as a single group for this purpose, a winger can work either wing and son and richy as CF or wing. A list like that along side yours should help really focus attention on our weaknesses. CB and attacking mid in my view. But.... its the January window next so what you want and what you can get have minimal correlation. January is do nothing, get lucky and strengthen but not a weak area, or act out of desperation to fill a temporary hole. I doubt we will act of desperation unless utterly desperate, so as much as I pray for a 3rd quality CB to rotate and another madders, I doubt we will do very much inwards. Yes we will have injuries and tiredness impact our performance as the season progresses, but I doubt that is fixable in January.

Best I hope for is a surprise paratichi special like kulu and bentancur. A player or 2 of their quality would be a great asset in whatever position.

 

[Pathfinder]

View: https://x.com/windycoys/status/1719620445203210626?s=46&t=DK3x3JffKkqwqcsQdIeO_A

Personally over the moon with Royal as the 2nd RB. You never get the perfect player for your system but you can have good people in every position of your squad.

I think we have a logjam problem in the forward spots if we aren’t careful. Solomon is ok for the 3rd choice on either wing but if we don’t know what’s happening with Richy, we can’t work out where we need a starting 11 quality player.

I do think we can get close enough to this squad to challenge for the prem after January this season if Mr Levy has the conviction.

I am ok with having:
- Lloris and Forster as backups goalies (yes, I know, Lloris is on the way out but for now he's still a Spurs player).
- Emerson is a understudy RB.
- Johnson, Solmon, Richarlison as LWF.
- Bissouma, Højbjerg, Skipp as DM.
If I'd like better back-ups? Yes, naturally, but I am also realistic.

 

[Spursidol]

Looking at the current squad over the next 2 transfer windows (January and summer), IMO we might see a maximum of 5 or 6 'quality' first teamers come in - as we have enough players no point in bringing in 'squad level' players.

The contracts of Lloris, Forster, Dier and Perisic end in June 2024 (in Red) - all of these will leave although we may or may not decide to extend Forster's for another year. That's 4 players.

GK -Vicario/Forster/Austin/Lloris/Whiteman
RB - Porro/Royal
CB - Romero/VDV/Phillips/Dier
LB - Udogie/Davies/Sessegnon
CM1 - Bissouma/Skipp/Hojbjerg
CM2 - Bentancur/Sarr
CM3 - Maddison/Lo Celso
RW - Kulusevski/Johnson
LW - Perisic/Solomon/Gil
CF – Son/Richarlison/Veliz

Summary - 17 overseas trained, 3 Club trained, 4 'Other HG', 4 u21's ) - 28 players

Those in blue I would consider offers for (7 players) so with 4 out of contract players that means 11 players possibly leaving.

With Udogie and Sarr ceasing to be u21's next season and becoming Overseas trained (for UEFA purposes, Sarr HG for PL) that means 9 players coming in to replace the 11 potential leavers : but if only 6 can be purchased, 3 of these players may well stay.

If both Forster and Sessegnon leave, it would be necessary for 2 HG players to be brought in.

Its possible we might get one player from Spurs youth into the squad (eg Devine) but that's a decision for next summer, once we see them develop over the rest of the season.

If we can accomplish that before next season, we would go into next season a lot stronger than currently with decent strength in depth, especially if some of those coming in can cover more than one position (eg Johnson seems to be able to cover RW, LW and CF).

 

[Richard Arlison]

I am ok with having:
- Lloris and Forster as backups goalies (yes, I know, Lloris is on the way out but for now he's still a Spurs player).
- Emerson is a understudy RB.
- Johnson, Solmon, Richarlison as LWF.
- Bissouma, Højbjerg, Skipp as DM.
If I'd like better back-ups? Yes, naturally, but I am also realistic.

Ok with and good enough to win titles and trophies are different things

 

[spursmalc]

Looking at the current squad over the next 2 transfer windows (January and summer), IMO we might see a maximum of 5 or 6 'quality' first teamers come in - as we have enough players no point in bringing in 'squad level' players.

The contracts of Lloris, Forster, Dier and Perisic end in June 2024 (in Red) - all of these will leave although we may or may not decide to extend Forster's for another year. That's 4 players.

GK -Vicario/Forster/Austin/Lloris/Whiteman
RB - Porro/Royal
CB - Romero/VDV/Phillips/Dier
LB - Udogie/Davies/Sessegnon
CM1 - Bissouma/Skipp/Hojbjerg
CM2 - Bentancur/Sarr
CM3 - Maddison/Lo Celso
RW - Kulusevski/Johnson
LW - Perisic/Solomon/Gil
CF – Son/Richarlison/Veliz

Summary - 17 overseas trained, 3 Club trained, 4 'Other HG', 4 u21's ) - 28 players

Those in blue I would consider offers for (7 players) so with 4 out of contract players that means 11 players possibly leaving.

With Udogie and Sarr ceasing to be u21's next season and becoming Overseas trained (for UEFA purposes, Sarr HG for PL) that means 9 players coming in to replace the 11 potential leavers : but if only 6 can be purchased, 3 of these players may well stay.

If both Forster and Sessegnon leave, it would be necessary for 2 HG players to be brought in.

Its possible we might get one player from Spurs youth into the squad (eg Devine) but that's a decision for next summer, once we see them develop over the rest of the season.

If we can accomplish that before next season, we would go into next season a lot stronger than currently with decent strength in depth, especially if some of those coming in can cover more than one position (eg Johnson seems to be able to cover RW, LW and CF).

Hojbjerg wants to go as he believes he should be a starter. We struggled to get a deputy for Kane as no one was interested in being a bench warmer. That is the problem. Getting players that are better than what we have when they will be unlikely to get a starting place. Will we get a CB good enough to oust the present 2 or a better LB than Udogie. Same with back up GK. whilst Woolwich have got 2 top GKeepers I expect 1 to leave in the summer. There are a couple of places where we could improve on the starter such as wide attackers.
Now clearly other top teams have stronger squads and the lack of quality back ups is a weakness, it will not be easy and not all down to availability of funds. If we get 2 quality players in January then I think we will have done well.

 

[Spursidol]

Hojbjerg wants to go as he believes he should be a starter. We struggled to get a deputy for Kane as no one was interested in being a bench warmer. That is the problem. Getting players that are better than what we have when they will be unlikely to get a starting place. Will we get a CB good enough to oust the present 2 or a better LB than Udogie. Same with back up GK. whilst Woolwich have got 2 top GKeepers I expect 1 to leave in the summer. There are a couple of places where we could improve on the starter such as wide attackers.
Now clearly other top teams have stronger squads and the lack of quality back ups is a weakness, it will not be easy and not all down to availability of funds. If we get 2 quality players in January then I think we will have done well.

The objective of the January and summer transfer windows is to improve the squad, particularly our depth. Other than City I'm struggling to think of any team who have 2 players in each position who are top class.

So I am sanguine and realistic that we will bring in more good players who are a step up on that which we have as depth, and may grow into being top class players, but we are not likely to buy too many who are already top class, although one or two might be possible, especially if they can cover more than one position.

No chance of getting a CB better than the current two who are verging on 'top class' - getting one who is PL proven as 3rd CB is probably as good as is practicable. I'd guess Ange will give Phillips a few outings in the 2nd half of the season and next pre-season to check if he's a viable back up CB next season.

Equally getting an LB as good as Udogie is very unlikely - Udogie could now be considered one of best in PL. But the objective will be to get an improvement on Reguilon, now considered good enough to be ManU'd no 1 LB or Davies.

Looking at CM, we still need to check if Bentancur can play at a very high level before Christmas and if he can then, ignoring Lo Celso and Hojbjerg who both might be allowed to leave, we have :

Bissouma/Skipp
Bentancur/Sarr
Maddison.

So we may decide we just need another creative player - the dream might be Eze who can play both the creative role and LW (where we are also weak in quality). It just depends on who we can get in as to who we let leave.

But agreed, a couple of decent quality players arriving in January would be another step up for the squad. In the summer if we have CL with the additional european games next season (and additional revenue streams) we could be even more attractive to players joining us.

 

[Pathfinder]

Ok with and good enough to win titles and trophies are different things

I'm also ok with winning the EPL title
Anyway, I also mentioned being "realistic".
So to go from being seen as a mid-table team this season to build a EPL title contending team in 1 1/2 half transfer window (bless Paratici) shouldn't be realistic - yet it may be...
But my point was that the squad is not in such a bad shape as some may think.
Not many teams have a better 2nd choices than Lloris, Emerson, Højbjerg, Bentancur, Richarlison/Johnson...
And there's a risk (that one need to take, of course) to bring in new players (particularly mid season) who not only have to adjust to a new system and new team-mates but they also have to gel with the players. And we can expect establish start to wanna join Spurs to sit in the bench.
Even Angelos admitted that Spurs are weak at CB cover, but I doubt Spurs will get an established quality CB who'll wait patiently for Romero or van de Ven to get injured (they are the best CB pair in the EPL so far), or a LB who'll spend his whole career as Udogie's understudy.
Right now Spurs don't have a CAM understudy for Maddison. But he's been of the best players in the EPL this season...so not many quality players would like to be his understudy right now.
Son may be 31 but he's still one of the best CF in Europe and may have 1-2 seasons more left in him at the top. So should Spurs go out to splash £80-100m+ ona new CF or put trust in developing the likes of Alejo Véliz, Parrott, Donley, Scarlett into their starting CF...

 

[Richard Arlison]

I'm also ok with winning the EPL title
Anyway, I also mentioned being "realistic".
So to go from being seen as a mid-table team this season to build a EPL title contending team in 1 1/2 half transfer window (bless Paratici) shouldn't be realistic - yet it may be...
But my point was that the squad is not in such a bad shape as some may think.
Not many teams have a better 2nd choices than Lloris, Emerson, Højbjerg, Bentancur, Richarlison/Johnson...
And there's a risk (that one need to take, of course) to bring in new players (particularly mid season) who not only have to adjust to a new system and new team-mates but they also have to gel with the players. And we can expect establish start to wanna join Spurs to sit in the bench.
Even Angelos admitted that Spurs are weak at CB cover, but I doubt Spurs will get an established quality CB who'll wait patiently for Romero or van de Ven to get injured (they are the best CB pair in the EPL so far), or a LB who'll spend his whole career as Udogie's understudy.
Right now Spurs don't have a CAM understudy for Maddison. But he's been of the best players in the EPL this season...so not many quality players would like to be his understudy right now.
Son may be 31 but he's still one of the best CF in Europe and may have 1-2 seasons more left in him at the top. So should Spurs go out to splash £80-100m+ ona new CF or put trust in developing the likes of Alejo Véliz, Parrott, Donley, Scarlett into their starting CF...

10 games is a repeatable number imo.

If we recruit in January as well as we did in the summer, I agree with Pep, this squad has a realistic chance to compete for a title.

 

[pleb]

Looking at the current squad over the next 2 transfer windows (January and summer), IMO we might see a maximum of 5 or 6 'quality' first teamers come in - as we have enough players no point in bringing in 'squad level' players.

The contracts of Lloris, Forster, Dier and Perisic end in June 2024 (in Red) - all of these will leave although we may or may not decide to extend Forster's for another year. That's 4 players.

GK -Vicario/Forster/Austin/Lloris/Whiteman
RB - Porro/Royal
CB - Romero/VDV/Phillips/Dier
LB - Udogie/Davies/Sessegnon
CM1 - Bissouma/Skipp/Hojbjerg
CM2 - Bentancur/Sarr
CM3 - Maddison/Lo Celso
RW - Kulusevski/Johnson
LW - Perisic/Solomon/Gil
CF – Son/Richarlison/Veliz

Summary - 17 overseas trained, 3 Club trained, 4 'Other HG', 4 u21's ) - 28 players

Those in blue I would consider offers for (7 players) so with 4 out of contract players that means 11 players possibly leaving.

With Udogie and Sarr ceasing to be u21's next season and becoming Overseas trained (for UEFA purposes, Sarr HG for PL) that means 9 players coming in to replace the 11 potential leavers : but if only 6 can be purchased, 3 of these players may well stay.

If both Forster and Sessegnon leave, it would be necessary for 2 HG players to be brought in.

Its possible we might get one player from Spurs youth into the squad (eg Devine) but that's a decision for next summer, once we see them develop over the rest of the season.

If we can accomplish that before next season, we would go into next season a lot stronger than currently with decent strength in depth, especially if some of those coming in can cover more than one position (eg Johnson seems to be able to cover RW, LW and CF).

Davies is highly thought of it appears!

 

[Spursidol]

Davies is highly thought of it appears!

I think the fair way to describe it is that there's still a fair few poorer performers in the squad , plus those whose contracts expire in June. Davies has been a fairly solid performer for years at Spurs but certainly doesn't fit Ange criteria for an attacking LB.

We are unlikely to replace all the players we want in January and next summer - if Davies stayed another year (contract expires in June 2025) and he left on a free but we upgraded in maybe 6 other positions it wouldn't be the worst outcome at all, even though in the ideal world we'd upgrade maybe 9 positions including Davies over next 2 windows.

 

[Spursidol]

Both Yves Bissouma and Papa Matar Sarr nominated for CAF 'Player of the Year'

Maybe our first ever nominees ?


View: https://x.com/CAF_Online/status/1719663069394010546?s=20

 

[Football Chap]

Both Yves Bissouma and Papa Matar Sarr nominated for CAF 'Player of the Year'

Maybe our first ever nominees ?


View: https://x.com/CAF_Online/status/1719663069394010546?s=20

Imagine Adebayor was probably on the list when he was with us

 

[sudoku]

Here is a list of HG players in the squad:

1	FORSTER
2	AUSTIN
3	WHITEMAN
4	DAVIES
5	SESSEGNON
6	MADDISON
7	SKIPP
8	JOHNSON
	ON LOAN
9	RODON
10	SPENCE
11	TANGANGA

In the January window my guess is we remove one HG GK from the squad.
Rodon and Spence very likely to continue their loans.
Possibly Tanganga returns. Would Ange use him?

 

[sudoku]

1	VICARIO
2	LLORIS
3	van de VEN
4	ROMERO
5	DIER
6	ROYAL
7	PORRO
8	PERISIC
9	HOJBJERG
10	BISSOUMA
11	LO CELSO
12	BENTANCUR
13	SOLOMON
14	KULUSEVSKI
15	GIL
16	RICHARLISON
17	SON
	ON LOAN
18	REGUILLON
19	NDOMBELE

Lloris and Perisic should be removed from the squad.
Likely return of our 2 loanees.
Will Ange want either of them?
Hojbjerg, Gil, GLC and Dier all potentially could exit.
Richarlison to Saudi?

 

[SpursAllTheWay]

1	VICARIO
2	LLORIS
3	van de VEN
4	ROMERO
5	DIER
6	ROYAL
7	PORRO
8	PERISIC
9	HOJBJERG
10	BISSOUMA
11	LO CELSO
12	BENTANCUR
13	SOLOMON
14	KULUSEVSKI
15	GIL
16	RICHARLISON
17	SON
	ON LOAN
18	REGUILLON
19	NDOMBELE

Lloris and Perisic should be removed from the squad.
Likely return of our 2 loanees.
Will Ange want either of them?
Hojbjerg, Gil, GLC and Dier all potentially could exit.
Richarlison to Saudi?

Never understood the Richarlison to Saudi rumours. If he does leave, I think it's unlikely that it will be to Saudi.

 

[Spursidol]

Here is a list of HG players in the squad:

1	FORSTER
2	AUSTIN
3	WHITEMAN
4	DAVIES
5	SESSEGNON
6	MADDISON
7	SKIPP
8	JOHNSON
	ON LOAN
9	RODON
10	SPENCE
11	TANGANGA

In the January window my guess is we remove one HG GK from the squad.
Rodon and Spence very likely to continue their loans.
Possibly Tanganga returns. Would Ange use him?

Possibly send Sessegnon out on a loan to get playing time (overseas or a lower league) IF he's fit.

Likely to send Whiteman out on loan again to get more GK experience (Total of 34 professional games, all in in Sweden under his belt) , leaving Austin as 3rd GK. Or vice versa

 

[Spursidol]

1	VICARIO
2	LLORIS
3	van de VEN
4	ROMERO
5	DIER
6	ROYAL
7	PORRO
8	PERISIC
9	HOJBJERG
10	BISSOUMA
11	LO CELSO
12	BENTANCUR
13	SOLOMON
14	KULUSEVSKI
15	GIL
16	RICHARLISON
17	SON
	ON LOAN
18	REGUILLON
19	NDOMBELE

Lloris and Perisic should be removed from the squad.
Likely return of our 2 loanees.
Will Ange want either of them?
Hojbjerg, Gil, GLC and Dier all potentially could exit.
Richarlison to Saudi?

Lloris and Perisic is probably about diplomacy - but cannot see either playing for spurs again.
Hojbjerg, Gil, GLC, Dier is all about - cost to bring in an upgrade versus transfer fee received. Could do with a couple of loanees moving on for decent fees to put into transfer pot.

We really need an extra forward/goalscorer in as don't think Gil or Solomon will get many - leaving Son, Richarlison and Johnson so we need an extra one in , and that means Richarlison stays unless its a mega £100m (ish) bid so we buy 2 !

 

[Spaniel]

Lloris and Perisic is probably about diplomacy - but cannot see either playing for spurs again.
Hojbjerg, Gil, GLC, Dier is all about - cost to bring in an upgrade versus transfer fee received. Could do with a couple of loanees moving on for decent fees to put into transfer pot.

We really need an extra forward/goalscorer in as don't think Gil or Solomon will get many - leaving Son, Richarlison and Johnson so we need an extra one in , and that means Richarlison stays unless its a mega £100m (ish) bid so we buy 2 !

Don't have faith in Johnson or Richarlison yet. If both of them come good, fine but if either of them doesn't come up to scratch, we need a real striker.

 

[Spursidol]

Still think Ange could do worse, maybe v Burnley in FA Cup, to give youngsters a start or more likely time off bench as without Son (at Asian Games) we are one goalsoring forward short so playing time for Jamie Donley, Yago de Santiago and/or Jude Soonsup-Bell makes good sense.

 

[Spursidol]

Don't have faith in Johnson or Richarlison yet. If both of them come good, fine but if either of them doesn't come up to scratch, we need a real striker.

We need an extra goal scoring forward in January as we are short of potential goalscorers (unless we use youth) - and we hope both Richarlison and Johnson come good.