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If we develope first team players on a regular basis, the recruitment is not as essential. Im aware they are different departments, but the quality of our academy, and our philosophy compensates, ten fold for the few bad signings we have made. The club is a whole....its not Youth vs Scouts.
And our recruits have been good anyhow
Nobody knew for certain that Dele would make the step up to PL standard. Or that it would happen so swiftly. If people had known this, we would have faced stiff competition for his signature.
I'd never heard of Dier or Wimmer and I don't mind confessing that.
There is no way of knowing for certain that a player will be good in England. For example, Soldado. He ticked all the boxes to be a success here & was already very experienced. The rest is history.
The fact is, there is a huge slice of luck when a scouted player just hits the ground running.
Scouting for the academy is all important because that is the "factory" where our stars can be shaped. We seem to have the right formula there. Even players that don't make it are being sold for very respectable sums of money.
As for GKN, I think he will make it over here. I've seen enough in his brief appearances to know that he has a style that will terrorise PL defences. He is clearly being introduced slowly & whilst the first XI is doing so well, his opportunities will be limited.
It seems to me that the press are trying to make another story out of nothing. If it's not "player X is being pursued by Barca/Real/*insert club here*" then its "the manager is off in the summer".
Now, it's "Spurs' scouting system is on its arse".
What next? The canteen staff object to the new menu-Spurs in crisis.
I think we just have to accept that Spurs are big news. And with that, comes a lot of speculative & negative horseshit.
Regardless, criticism of one doesn't amount to criticism of the other.
The suns out but its freezing.
I like this game
There is more to player recruitment than just unearthing world beaters from the Belgian third tier.
Toby, Alli and Wanayama may have been more "obvious" signings, (although there was a recent Rob McKenzie interview saying that the Toby signing was interesting because he didnt have the most obvious statistical profile) but there wasn't a hell of lot of competition for them, and they still chose to sign for us for relatively minimal transfer fees, despite us not paying the highest wages or being able to guarantee trophies or regular CL?
IMO supporters and the media play a large part in influencing the behaviour a clubs transfer policy. In this age of exposure overload, where every person at a non league game has their camera phone out, it becomes increasingly difficult to find players that aren't already on someone's radar. On top of that, the odds of finding a complete unknown quantity that integrates themselves immediately (sometimes at a young age in a new country and without their families) into the first team is very, very slim.
Surely if you want to see an improvement in our ability to find "quality out of the blue". Then you need to have more patience when the players do sign and be more accepting of the fact that it may lead to more failures. Can't have it both ways.
Finally, seeing players come through the youth team doesn't mean they haven't been "scouted" just that they were scouted for the club at an early age. Surely the sign of a good scouting network is seeing potential in a player before they are any where near a professional contract.
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We've been losing scouts so you're hired. You start Monday.
Now don't fuck it all up.
...yeah, just wait 'till 11pm onwards on the 31st jan... this place will be heaving!!
Thanks for saying exactly what I wanted to say, but in a way I was struggling to articulate properly.
The final paragraph, in particular, is extremely important. Finding young lads at grass roots level, bringing them in, & developing them as possible future stars is absolutely key. Scouting the Belgian third tier is basically a mopping up exercise for those gems we may have missed earlier/later developers.
No I wasnt saying that, I was saying that there its unfair to criticise the clubs recruitments as being poor, because
A) They are not
B) Our academy means our scouting is not as big a part as it has been in the past
We've had a lot of successful players in our squad who joined this way (Rose and Walker, notably). It's probably the cheapest way, since the prices aren't insane, but the other clubs are doing this too, and bidding wars are happening. City have made offers for both Onomah and Edwards in the past this way.
Summer transfers-
Wanyama= good player & at a bargain price. Some much needed muscle in the middle. Very likeable too.
George= shown promising glimpses but I don't think poch rates him or those sort of players. I can't see him getting enough playing time just like njie.
Janssen= average & disappointing in terms of goals. I feel like poch is losing any faith he had left in him.
& unless kane gets injured then he won't play much. Personally I think he could be a good player in the right team & league.
Sissoko= initially disappointing but seems to be improving & becoming more & more important to the team. A case of wait & see.....
Pros- we have improved our squad & gained another reliable starter. & some of those other signings may yet improve.
Cons- only 1 has forced their way in to the starting 11. I think poch would have wanted more than that for the 60-70m spent.
So overall, not a particularly great or awful last window. About par.
Wanyama= good player & at a bargain price. Some much needed muscle in the middle. Very likeable too.
George= shown promising glimpses but I don't think poch rates him or those sort of players. I can't see him getting enough playing time just like njie.
Janssen= average & disappointing in terms of goals. I feel like poch is losing any faith he had left in him.
& unless kane gets injured then he won't play much. Personally I think he could be a good player in the right team & league.
Sissoko= initially disappointing but seems to be improving & becoming more & more important to the team. A case of wait & see.....
Pros- we have improved our squad & gained another reliable starter. & some of those other signings may yet improve.
Cons- only 1 has forced their way in to the starting 11. I think poch would have wanted more than that for the 60-70m spent.
So overall, not a particularly great or awful last window. About par.
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It is interesting to see that of the 4 Summer signings, only Wanyama has made a real impact...
TBH, I think GKN was always gonna be brought in to improve the overall squad, and not necessarily a 1st team player.
Likewise Janssen, whose main remit must've been; "Take the burden off Kane, and fill in when he's injured!" ...but he hasn't really been able to do that, and as such, we've probably tweaked the system away from 2 up front (as I believe we were playing earlier in the season with them both) to one main Striker, and one just off (Dele/Son)
Sissoko is probably the biggest early-season disappointment, but it's early days, he's clea;y got something about him, and has definitely shown shoots of recovery...
Any January signings are either gonna have to hit the ground running (tough ask) or be patient and gradually be eased into the team (as is Poch's preference I think!)
TBH, I think GKN was always gonna be brought in to improve the overall squad, and not necessarily a 1st team player.
Likewise Janssen, whose main remit must've been; "Take the burden off Kane, and fill in when he's injured!" ...but he hasn't really been able to do that, and as such, we've probably tweaked the system away from 2 up front (as I believe we were playing earlier in the season with them both) to one main Striker, and one just off (Dele/Son)
Sissoko is probably the biggest early-season disappointment, but it's early days, he's clea;y got something about him, and has definitely shown shoots of recovery...
Any January signings are either gonna have to hit the ground running (tough ask) or be patient and gradually be eased into the team (as is Poch's preference I think!)
We are third in the table midway through the season: Too early yet to judge, bonus if the others strike improved form!
Even then we thought he wouldn't get as much game time due to Dier playing in midfield.