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If it’s pronounced Chelso (Italian style) I’m out. Too much like the racist west London lot.
If it’s Selso I can live with that
If it’s Kelso - that’s a town in the Scottish Borders that many a famous rugby player has played for (John Jeffrey = legend).
It’s as simple as that.
If it’s Selso I can live with that
If it’s Kelso - that’s a town in the Scottish Borders that many a famous rugby player has played for (John Jeffrey = legend).
It’s as simple as that.
Lo Celso is more or less off the board from an odds perspective so he's almost certainly coming to Spurs. Giovani Lo Celso Club After Summer Transfer Window Betting Odds | Football
I've never seen him play so I have no opinion on his ability. But as of now, Eriksen is odds on to stay at Spurs. Christian Eriksen Club After Summer Transfer Window Betting Odds | Football
I'm having trouble putting those 2 facts together as it makes little sense to me. If Lo Celso is not Eriksen's immediate replacement, then either:
1) We do not think Eriksen will sign a new contract with us and will run down his contract, and Lo Celso is being brought in now to integrate into the team and replace Eriksen in a year. In which case, I have to say it is absolute madness not to sell Eriksen. If we have a replacement for him, losing him on a free in a year rather than for 40, 50, or 60 million pounds now is insanity.
2) We do think Eriksen will sign a new contract with us, and we plan on having Lo Celso and Eriksen playing the same position, fighting for game time, and providing options in case of injury. While in theory this sounds reasonable and we do not have anybody who can really replicate what Eriksen does for us, the reality is that if Eriksen stays and signs a new contract, AM is a position of strength for us even without Lo Celso. Eriksen is a workhorse who plays a ton of minutes and rarely gets injured since he doesn't tackle. With the signing of Ndombele, it's going to be far less likely that Eriksen will be asked to drop back deeper in midfield. Dele fits nicely in the AM role as well, and Lamela can also slot in there. So I have to wonder how much value Lo Celso is going to add. In the meantime, we have a dumpster fire situation at RB where we don't have a single trustworthy player.
The Ndombele transfer made sense. CM was a position of real weakness for us. But our other position of weakness, RB, has only gotten weaker since we sold the best of a bad lot. And there doesn't seem to be any indication that we are planning on bringing somebody else in. Meanwhile we are spending big money in an area of strength.
This doesn't add up to me unless we sell Eriksen. In which case it makes perfect sense, though I would be sad to see Eriksen go.
I've never seen him play so I have no opinion on his ability. But as of now, Eriksen is odds on to stay at Spurs. Christian Eriksen Club After Summer Transfer Window Betting Odds | Football
I'm having trouble putting those 2 facts together as it makes little sense to me. If Lo Celso is not Eriksen's immediate replacement, then either:
1) We do not think Eriksen will sign a new contract with us and will run down his contract, and Lo Celso is being brought in now to integrate into the team and replace Eriksen in a year. In which case, I have to say it is absolute madness not to sell Eriksen. If we have a replacement for him, losing him on a free in a year rather than for 40, 50, or 60 million pounds now is insanity.
2) We do think Eriksen will sign a new contract with us, and we plan on having Lo Celso and Eriksen playing the same position, fighting for game time, and providing options in case of injury. While in theory this sounds reasonable and we do not have anybody who can really replicate what Eriksen does for us, the reality is that if Eriksen stays and signs a new contract, AM is a position of strength for us even without Lo Celso. Eriksen is a workhorse who plays a ton of minutes and rarely gets injured since he doesn't tackle. With the signing of Ndombele, it's going to be far less likely that Eriksen will be asked to drop back deeper in midfield. Dele fits nicely in the AM role as well, and Lamela can also slot in there. So I have to wonder how much value Lo Celso is going to add. In the meantime, we have a dumpster fire situation at RB where we don't have a single trustworthy player.
The Ndombele transfer made sense. CM was a position of real weakness for us. But our other position of weakness, RB, has only gotten weaker since we sold the best of a bad lot. And there doesn't seem to be any indication that we are planning on bringing somebody else in. Meanwhile we are spending big money in an area of strength.
This doesn't add up to me unless we sell Eriksen. In which case it makes perfect sense, though I would be sad to see Eriksen go.
Fortnight, or just the week?Apparently he's on holiday fishing at the moment...while we all sit here with 'baited' breath
We're going to play a shitload of games, so we need rotation options. Who did we have in the past to come in for Eriksen? No one. Enter Lo Celso. And is he going to purely be an Eriksen backup? Of course not, since he can play in a deeper role and also back up Ndombele. And wouldn't it be nice to have a quality backup for a change, rather than run our starters into the ground (because as much of a workhorse as Eriksen might be you don't want him playing a ton of minutes ad infinitum).
So even if backing up Ndombele and Eriksen is the only thing Lo Celso does, he's still going to get 40 odd games at a minimum and allow us to field a high quality team regardless of the opponent.
As far as the RB situation is concerned, I'm not concerned. Aurier might not be world class, but he is still a good FB, and Foyth is going to be a star. Will they have the odd brainfart? Of course they will. But overall I do believe they will be solid, as they probably won't be asked to be as adventurous, but play more conservatively.
So overall I think this will end up being a stellar window. Come next season we will likely need to address the CB situation and potentially find an Alli replacement (I have a hunch he will be the next to go). But for now, we're golden.
Ok. I'll give you that one - very good.Few dace (
He has an italian pasport so it must be italain
The thing is that we can only sell Eriksen if someone makes an offer. At the moment it seems all the clubs who would be interested would rather get him for nothing in a year than spend £60m on him now. If he were seen as a must-have player by Madrid they would already have signed him.
Well it would seem that if we sign Eriksen to a contract extension, then Levy and Poch believe some version of what you're saying. And even if we don't sign Eriksen to a contract extension, if we don't add a RB they at least think we're OK at that position.
My take on the RB position is completely at odds with yours and theirs. I think Aurier is a barely adequate backup, and I doubt Foyth will be a star. I do think that CB is not Foyth's natural position so would be happy to see him tried elsewhere, though I suspect DM is a better fit for him than RB. Nor do I have any confidence in KWP's defending ability.
I hope I'm wrong!
Sure, but a player of Eriksen's quality is going to attract interest from multiple clubs. If he's worth 60 million pounds (which I'd say he's worth at a bare minimum), then game theory would suggest that some club would at least come in and buy him up for 45 million pounds because they don't think they'll win the Eriksen sweepstakes when he goes on a free. Of course Eriksen has to agree to go, but we absolutely 100% have to avoid letting him just run his contract down. It's (at least) twice as bad as the Toby situation because he's worth (at least) twice as much.
But if he won't sign a renewed contract with us because he's got his mind set on Real/Barca/Juve, then why would he sign with some other club that would be willing to take a punt because those 3 aren't interested? Who that we would willingly sell him to outside of those 3 represent an upgrade from his perspective?
Takes 3 to tango in a transfer...us wanting to get some return on him isn't enough on its own.
You're absolutely right and that's the part that scares the bejeezus out of me. That he might somehow fall into this group where the teams he wants to go to want him, but they're not willing to pay for him. But they'll take him on a free. This would spell disaster. We've got to convince him that running down his contract is a bad idea and that Spurs is the place for him.
There are worse alternatives than Eriksen playing for us this season. Assume £45M is what we can get with a year left on his deal. Can we replace him for that? The players we'd want is a short list, and it's not like we'd have the money to certainly get one. What if we can't, or do and the signing flops like so many have?
Are we a CL club with Eriksen? Most likely, yes. Are we with no replacement or a flipped replacement? Could be a stretch - we could easily slip. 5th would see us lose more than £45M in revenue...meaning we lost money, net, selling Eriksen than keeping him.
Not saying letting players run down contracts is a good strategy...but selling them just to get something rather than "nothing" isn't always a good idea either. A bird in the hand being better than 2 in the bush.
I think the appropriate thought experiment is would we pay 45 million pounds to get Eriksen on a 1 season loan at affordable wages (which he is on). IMO the answer to that is emphatically no. Especially with Lo Celso coming on board. That's not a knock on Eriksen. That's just recognition that 45 million pounds is a tremendous sum of money to pay to rent a player for a year (and then pay their wages on top of that).
Agreed with a lot in here.
- RB is an important position, and quality over there is questionable. Would be happy if we'd sign a good RB
- Eriksen is reliable player and if he stays he plays a lot of minutes
But at the same time if we want to make a step forward, we need to create situation where we have more than 1 reasonable options for positions. With Eriksen I argue that right now we did not have it. I hope if we sign Lo Celso, then we'll have. I believe they can play together with Lo Celso being pushed back as we lacked the decisiveness in moving ball forward last year. In 4-3-3 I believe that Ndombele-Lo Celso -Sissoko midfield would be awesome for example.
I think in that way he will add a lot of value (on contrary to your 2nd point).
If you want you can take a look of Keita purchase by Liverpool - he was paid over 60 mil for. Yet he only played only ~1800 minutes. But he was one part of the equasion that was the Liverpool season (where they won CL and had massively strong season in EPL).
If you want to step forward, you need to make such investments. I don't see the alternative - your option (let Eriksen play all the time, he is fit and lad) is not moving forward.
If we sign him next week after he is back from his break, I think Poch has more say in transfers then he lets on.
If we sign him the week after on or around deadline day, Levy is more or less in full control.
If we don't sign him at all....
Based on when Ndombele went through, my guess is late next week he's holding a shirt. If we are €25m apart right now, I could see Spurs coming up a bit to get it done sooner rather than later - say €55m +€5m in add-ons.
If we sign him the week after on or around deadline day, Levy is more or less in full control.
If we don't sign him at all....
Based on when Ndombele went through, my guess is late next week he's holding a shirt. If we are €25m apart right now, I could see Spurs coming up a bit to get it done sooner rather than later - say €55m +€5m in add-ons.