Club statement about transfers

[jimmyriggle]

Daniel & Mauricio provide us with a... - Tottenham Hotspur | Facebook

“At the end of last season Mauricio was clear what we needed to do and what we certainly shouldn’t do”, said Daniel. “He wanted to streamline the squad, strengthen it and retain the ability to develop the talent we already had. Importantly, we also needed to keep our key players.

“That meant reducing the squad number, improving the team defensively and adding exciting attacking forwards. It also meant that if we couldn’t secure the few key targets we wanted, we wouldn’t just add others. And we needed to keep the space for our current players to flourish.”

This summer we moved early to secure our targets and were able to conclude the acquisitions of Dele Alli from Milton Keynes (to join us this July), Toby Alderweireld from Atletico Madrid (on loan last season at Southampton), Kieran Trippier from Burnley and Kevin Wimmer from Cologne.

We went on to add Clinton Njie from Olympique Lyonnais and Heung-Min Son from Bayer Leverkusen.

Aaron Lennon, Roberto Soldado, Paulinho, Etienne Capoue, Lewis Holtby, Benjamin Stambouli, Vlad Chiriches and Younes Kaboul departed the Club over the summer months and we wish them well for the future.

Mauricio said, “I look at our squad and I know we have worked well to shape it. Strengthening our defence was a priority given the number of goals we conceded last season. Toby, Kevin and Kieran add depth and quality.

“In Dele, Sonny and Clinton we have three young, fast and exciting players who can play in several different attacking positions, giving us good options.

“All of them had impressive seasons in their respective leagues last season and we are excited about their potential alongside that of our current players.

“I have been very clear that we would only add players that we felt would improve us and if any one player was not possible then I prefer we do not add for the sake of it. Much has been said about us only having one recognised striker in Harry - I don’t accept this at all - the positional play of today’s forwards means it’s too simplistic to look for goals from any one position - playing a fluid style means players switch. Also we secured Sonny and Clinton in the knowledge that we may not be adding any other forward.”

Daniel added, “We have never, as a Club, spoken about another team’s players and I am not about to do so now. However, I do want to make a few general points regarding transfers.

“Firstly, there is hardly a transfer concluded across Europe which doesn’t include staged payments. This is particularly so when significant amounts such as £20m-£30m are involved - players don’t come cheaply these days.

“Secondly, we do not make anything personal. None of the proposals, discussions or negotiations we undertake involve any personal elements or ego - everything we do is in the interest of what is best for our Club.

“Thirdly, we never make anything public, particularly in the best interests of the players involved. Making aspects such as transfer requests public is wholly disrespectful to a player.

“Our pragmatic player trading has been important in the way we have run the business of the Club and in getting us to the position where we have now been able to start work on a new stadium - the one thing that has the ability to take this Club to the next level of competitiveness. I make no apologies for being ambitious for our Club and looking to deliver future success for our fans.

“This season," underlined Mauricio, “we start with a combination of our own players who have come through the ranks and players that bring skills and experience from other leagues. Most importantly, it’s a squad of players with heart - it’s a squad I’m proud to field.”

 

[Macch]

Poch and Levy definitely put themselves on the line with only 1 recognized striker. It could be disastrous but at least Poch is getting "his" players in. Our biggest gripe is speed an player who are willing to make runs and we certainly addressed that.

I actually like our transfer window so while many will scream bullshit, I find it hard to really argue with what Poch and Levy said in the article.

Don't think we realize how important it is that we streamlined the squad. Harry Kane came out of nowhere last season. Now we'll be able to give the likes of Winks, Onamah, Pritchard etc all a chance to make an impact in cup and Europa matches.

 

[ArtyB]

He has a point though, we all know that Pochettino is a very fussy manager as far as players are concerned, if he doesn't think you'll fit in you're basically dead to him, irregardless of reputation or wage. If Levy couldn't get him the players he wanted, what was the point of buying a lower quality replacement if Pochettino isn't going to pick him, look at Stambouli last season.

Still no excuse not to have an extra striker in case of injury, but if they think it's OK well I hope it works out, but you just know there will a few people shitting themselves every time Harry hits the deck.

 

[sammyspurs]

Any other clubs released a novel to justify their window?

 

[kushty]

What's done is done. Either you're happy with our dealings in the transfer market or you're not. Time to get behind them and do our bit as "supporters" and follow them every step of the way.

We should probably concentrate a bit more on getting behind the team now rather than bitching at one and other!

 

[Deadwood'sPostMatch]

Daniel Levy’s transfer war and Peace has put Tottenham under pressure | David Hytner

Daniel Levy’s transfer war and Peace has put Tottenham under pressure

David Hytner
The chaotic and unedifying chase of Saido Berahino has left Mauricio Pochettino with limited options as the dark clouds gather over White Hart Lane

Mauricio Pochettino is not the type of manager who tends to rock the boat with his public statements. The Argentinian is extremely pragmatic and he has long been happy to leave things like transfers and other bits of club business to the higher-ups. It is one of the reasons why Daniel Levy, the Tottenham Hotspur chairman, likes him and has turned to him to lead the club in the countdown to the new stadium move.

Pochettino, though, is obviously no shrinking violet and it is not difficult to imagine his true feelings as he exits the summer transfer window with only one recognised striker in his first-team squad. He had made it plain that he needed an alternative to Harry Kane and, last Thursday, he applied a little gentle pressure on Levy when he likened the pursuit of a striker to the quest for true love.

“It’s like when you are in love with a lady – there are a lot of women around the world but you want only one,” Pochettino said.

Pochettino wanted only one striker and it was Saido Berahino of West Bromwich Albion, a young and pacey player, blessed with penalty box ruthlessness, who he felt would fit perfectly into his philosophy. We now know how badly that move broke down.

The previous Thursday, Pochettino had said that “if you have only one target and you fail, you are dead” but it was a comment he made towards the end of last season, on 23 April, that has come to resonate most strongly.

“We need to try and build a strong team for next season to fight for the top four,” Pochettino said. “We need to be clever and to move quick to build the team. If we achieve Europa League or not, we need to move quick.”

Pochettino did not want to see Levy waiting until the last moment to get the striker which was so sorely needed or, indeed, the defensive midfielder to give the team increased bite and balance. But that was exactly what he got and, not for the first time, Levy faces uncomfortable questions over his approach to the market.

It is all very well having the consent of the player but that of the selling club can be an entirely different matter and Levy ran into a brick wall as the clock ticked towards 6pm on Tuesday. Axel Witsel, the Zenit St Petersburg midfielder, said that he wanted to move to Tottenham but his club had said no. “They can’t find a player to replace me,” Witsel said. “They told me I couldn’t leave. Even for €70m.”

Victor Wanyama, the Southampton midfielder, had told his manager, Ronald Koeman, last week that he wanted to join Tottenham and he was left out of the squad for Sunday’s home win over Norwich City. But it made no difference.Southampton were never going to sell one of their key players so late in the window. When Tottenham offered a package worth £20m, including either Andros Townsend or Erik Lamela on loan, it was dismissed in a heart-beat.

The situation with Berahino was not dissimilar. Tottenham had made their opening offer on 18 August but they did not put forward anything close to being acceptable until deadline day and, by then, the position of Jeremy Peace, the West Brom chairman, had become entrenched.

Berahino went further than Wanyama by submitting a written transfer request on Monday of last week but it made no difference, even though Tony Pulis, the West Brom head coach, did not want to keep an unhappy player. There was a time when the formal transfer request was the nuclear option and, once the button had been pressed, the deal would always go through. Clubs would feel that they simply had to take the money. No longer.

The riches that the current TV deal has bestowed upon the Premier League’s clubs– and the assurance of 60% more from the next cycle, which runs between 2016-19 – have empowered the medium-sized and smaller ones to resist the big offers for their stars. Everton, for example, stood firm when Chelsea offered massive money for John Stones – another player who had put in an official transfer request.

Levy stands accused of misjudging the market while his tried and trusted brinkmanship came to look outdated. Was there ever going to be a financial plus from taking in-coming business down to the wire? West Brom might have sold Berahino for £25m but never for less and it is fair to say that Tottenham were made fully aware of that. Their chances of signing Berahino would have been far greater had they offered £25m a few weeks ago.

There is also the issue of Levy’s previous coming back to haunt him. Put simply, you can only put noses out of joint so many times. Southampton felt sore last summer when Levy took Pochettino from them, and followed that up by making unacceptable moves for Morgan Schneiderlin and Jay Rodriguez. They were never going to let Wanyama go this summer and they were absolutely never going to sell him to Tottenham.

There are numerous stories within the game of Levy making offers that serve only to infuriate – most recently, one of his bids for Berahino featured payments of £3.5m each year for five years. It might have added up to an OK bid but it did not create the right climate for further negotiations. At West Brom, they joked that Tottenham would still be paying their proposed add-ons when Berahino was drawing his pension. Levy is a famously hard negotiator but he can and does make things more difficult for himself.

Pochettino has been left to count the cost and it has been easy to make the connection between the team’s disappointing start to the season and the unbalanced nature of the squad, even if the manager himself refuses to do so. Tottenham have three points and three goals from their opening four matches.

The Argentinian is playing the 21-year-old centre-half, Eric Dier, in defensive midfield while the burden on Kane seemed to get to him when he missed a one-on-one with the Everton goalkeeper, Tim Howard, on Saturday.

There has been an attempt to paint Son Heung-min, who joined from Bayer Leverkusen for £22m last Friday, as a possible solution up front but he is more renowned for playing off the flank, as is the other attacking new boy, Clinton Njie– who joined from Lyon for £10m two-and-a-half weeks ago. N’Jie has yet to feature as he is short of fitness, after an injury in pre-season.

Levy has succeeded in shipping out most of the deadwood in the squad, not to mention retaining Kane and the goalkeeper, Hugo Lloris – both of whom were on Manchester United’s list of targets.

In broader terms, Levy has presided over consistently-decent league finishes while balancing the books and playing out of a stadium that generates revenue from only 36,000 seats. In the past six seasons, starting with the most recent, Tottenham have finished fifth, sixth, fifth, fourth, fifth and fourth, which represents their most sustained level of achievement since the glory, glory days of the 1960s.

Then, there is the new stadium which, when the club finally get there, in 2018-19, stands to lift them in so many ways. In the meantime, though, Levy must continue to run a tight ship and it has been difficult not to link his low net spend on transfer fees in recent windows (it was £5.7m in this past one) with the imperative to bankroll the project, which will cost between £400m-£450m.

Stadium naming rights will not cover it and the TV money that the club receives will play a big part. Consequently, Levy wants to preserve as much of it as possible, rather than going on a transfer market blow-out and, besides, a lack of debt will help to secure better deals from the banks. The financial upside of the new stadium would be seriously negated if Tottenham had to pay themselves out of the red for years and years.

There is something of a post-window daze at Tottenham and a section of the fan-base has rebelled against Levy over the gaps in the playing staff.

Nobody came out of the Berahino affair well, least of all Tottenham, and Pochettino must now rouse his young squad – half of whom are aged 23 or under. The pressure on Son and Njie will be substantial and one final thing is clear: the team desperately need a win at Sunderland on Sunday week.

 

[Éperons]

Levy chooses not to back the manager.

Then, in a twist, Pochettino also chooses not to back the manager.

Intrigue!

 

[sammyspurs]

They were asked by the Trust and they replied...the Woolwich trust did the same, it'll be interesting to see their reply.

Im not interested in what the Scum did, Im still waiting for Levy to explain why he bid for Berahino 3 times between Sunday and Monday, but not one single time between July 1st and August 18.

For example

 

[Furball man]

........playing a fluid style

Look forward to that

 

[DeeGee]

"I have been very clear that we would only add players that we felt would improve us and if any one player was not possible then I prefer we do not add for the sake of it. Much has been said about us only having one recognised striker in Harry - I don’t accept this at all - the positional play of today’s forwards means it’s too simplistic to look for goals from any one position - playing a fluid style means players switch. Also we secured Sonny and Clinton in the knowledge that we may not be adding any other forward."

So why did we put in 3 bids for Berahino yesterday?

Because he was one of the key targets we wanted but couldn't get?

 

[The Dane]

... so do we hate WBA now?

No, WBA has no fault in this

 

[The Dane]

By the way, I think it's ridiculous how some people are calling Poch a puppet. Poch doesn't take shit from Levy. Levy gave him two second rate players, he sent him a message by not playing them(whether it was right or wrong) and they were gone next summer.

 

[clevelandspur]

Sorry but that is total bullshit. Poch said numerous times they needed to add another striker AFTER we bought Son and N'Jie. So we didn't get Berahino who was clearly the main target and overpriced, however you are telling me there was not one (1) other striker, forward whatever that Poch liked in the entire fucking world? All of our black box and scouting team apparently couldn't uncover more than 1 striking option that would suit us and Poch? Sorry this is apologetic bullshit of the highest order that I am not eating up.

 

[Mr S Pippo]

The following is fair comment. "Much has been said about us only having one recognised striker in Harry - I don’t accept this at all - the positional play of today’s forwards means it’s too simplistic to look for goals from any one position - playing a fluid style means players switch"

I totally agree with this.

I wish people would stop this number 9 nonsense.
Modern football has eroded the number 9 position. Players up front are required to have pace, mobility and skill, to understand the game plan, be interactive not just a focal point up front. Need to be able to play wide as well as inside. forward and deep. (play in triangles) The restriction labeled on Kane 'playing number 9' could be his and the clubs undoing, it creates predicability and an unnecessary pressure for him to achieve in this restricting role. He needs to be in the pool of players that are forwards, forwards that are adaptable to each game as necessary and it will allow him to develop his game without restrictions. You can never have too many forwards and we missed out on a good one in Berahino. If a players wants to leave, you do the right thing and allow this to happen. WBA are out of order here to block it, not THFC. No player is bigger than the club so we will march on regardless.

 

[John Thomas]

I appreciate that alot of people don't want an arabian sugar daddy.

You know, this one really gets me. People say they don`t want a arab or a russian billionaire like those at City and Chelsea who are happy to pump their own coin into the club in the pursuit of success and trophies on the pitch. Oh no no no ! we`re to classy for that shit......... But are quite happy to have an English billionaire tax exile who`s only interested in keeping his coin in his own pocket waiting for big pay off when the apples are ripe enough. Weird

 

[existenzrippchen]

"I have been very clear that we would only add players that we felt would improve us and if any one player was not possible then I prefer we do not add for the sake of it. Much has been said about us only having one recognised striker in Harry - I don’t accept this at all - the positional play of today’s forwards means it’s too simplistic to look for goals from any one position - playing a fluid style means players switch. Also we secured Sonny and Clinton in the knowledge that we may not be adding any other forward."

So why did we put in 3 bids for Berahino yesterday?

 

[BAE32]

Honestly does anyone genuinely believe that Son, NJie and Chadli are legit backup options to Kane in a lone striker system? I really can't see it myself. Maybe if we switched to two up top when Harry is missing it could potentially work but even then I'm really not looking forward to seeing Harry out of the starting 11...

Worried to say the least.

 

[Blanchflower]

Would be great to have a summer transfer window that didn't need explanation for once.

 

[Simmo]

Last year Poch used all the squad and his core of preferred players were burnt out between Feb and May - he was still forced to use one or two of the 'deadwood' to get us through. So, with such a high intensity (fluid apparently haha) style, steam-lining he squad was a priority? Ok, that's sounds daft for first of all.

Don't accept we only have one striker or need more?! Are you kidding me? Why chase Beharino then on deadline day? Particularly if you're not going to buy for the sake of it? Total contradiction. I agree you need goals from everywhere; Harry got 20+ in the league, Eriksen and Chadli got double figures overall too. We needed more and Son and N'Jie are supposed to provide them, lose Harry and they'll just be replacing his goals at best, status-quo.

So anyway, Poch and Levy have basically stated they're in alignment and it's all fine. Failure on the pitch now or an injury to Harry before his fatigue sets in and we'll see if they've got it right or not.

If they haven't I await the next statement about Poch's sacking or, how it was 'impossible to foresee Harry's unfortunate injury which was terrible luck and has caused us to have to use make-shift strikers'.....hang on, didn't you guys say in your September statement that.......oh nevermind.

 

[KeaneBean]

For those questioning why we chased Berahino on deadline day there's several possible and pragmatic explanations. For example, our transfer team could have decided that Albion's tactics were likely because they wanted us to drum up interest for CL teams to swoop in take him. This would of looked good for their academy too having an academy player on the biggest stage.

Another possibility is they determined Peace wanted to drive up the price and again hope other clubs come in for him, we might of even thought other clubs were in for him. So we decided early bids would of been rejected with only a silly bid having any chance before the windows end.

The fact is there are many reasons for delaying a deal until deadline day, believe it or not it's not because our Chairman wants to annoy us fans and leave the team weaker for the first few games. It's also not usually over a tiny amount of money despite what people have fabricated over the course of years. Sometimes there can be little choice.

It was a calculated risk and it failed, which is unfortunate because it seems Pochettino only wanted him. However we can't get upset over not getting to support a player who is not part of our team and instead direct that support to our current team.

Also please bear in mind we have signed two forwards this window, whether or not they've got a lot of game time as wide forwards.