Spurs 2011/12 Team Talk,Gossip & Rumours Thread

everdead.ie

Considering the new season isn't even two weeks away I figured I'd start up a new Thread clean break for the new Season.

Our main aim for the year has to be to progress and get a top 4 place this year but to do that I still think we need to get a striker in Llorente is one striker I'd love to get in.

Then we just have to move on about 4-5 players and hope Sandro and Hudd recover from there injuries.

Come on You Spurs!

everdead.ie

Harry saying in the gaurdian that its the wages we haven't been able to compete with but the transfer funds are there to be spent.

Sport
Football
Tottenham Hotspur

Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp dismayed by 'crazy' wages of players

• We cannot compete in an inflated market, Redknapp claims
• 'Transfer fees available but wage structure holding Spurs back'

Share
reddit this

James Callow
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 31 July 2011 23.00 BST
Article history

Harry Redknapp
Harry Redknapp at Saturday's pre-season friendly with Brighton & Hove Albion, which Spurs won 3-2. Photograph: Tom Dulat/Getty Images

Tottenham Hotspur are powerless to compete in a transfer market inflated by Manchester City and the other members of last season's top four, according to Harry Redknapp. The Spurs manager is eager to add to his squad and retain key players, notably Luka Modric, but he has been frustrated as other clubs invest heavily before Uefa's financial fair‑play rules come into force from 2014.

Spurs have signed one senior player this summer – the 40-year-old goalkeeper Brad Friedel on a free transfer – and while funds have been made available for transfer fees, the club's strict wage structure has held them back. Their £22m bid for the Valencia winger Juan Mata on Friday may only bear fruit if Spurs remain sole bidders. Redknapp joked: "We were interested in Sergio Agüero but he wanted £250,000 a week in wages. We were only £220,000 short."

Redknapp's concern is that after missing out on Champions League football this season, the club's situation will only worsen as they struggle to match Chelsea's and City's cash resources, or Arsenal's and Manchester United's ability to generate funds through vastly bigger stadiums.

"You're looking to be a top‑four team and it's difficult; we can't pay the wages that those clubs pay basically," the Spurs manager said. "The chairman [Daniel Levy] runs the club well, you get 36,000 people, you're not going to put the club in hot water.

"I think the wages have gone crazy. That is the problem. It's gone beyond all belief in the last little spell. We're well set up for financial fair play but it doesn't help when you look at what you're up against. It's like when you're a kid and they give you the most improved player of the year award – you're useless."

Warding off interest in the club's leading players has also proved to be a challenge. Interest in Gareth Bale has been tentative but is expected to increase over the next year, but Modric's future has been hotly debated over the close season.

A throat infection kept the Croatia playmaker out of Spurs' 3-2 friendly win over Brighton & Hove Albion on Saturday, although Redknapp is optimistic that Modric will remain a Spurs player beyond 1 September.

"Obviously Chelsea have made it plain they wanted Luka but we want to keep him, and I'm sure we will," he said.

"I think we will bring one or two more players in, too. The chairman's trying, desperately. So we might get a bit stronger. But you know [Sir Alex] Ferguson has come out and said that there are five teams in [the title race]. What's he including? He didn't mention Tottenham, and probably with what Liverpool have brought in that's the way it will be."

everdead.ie

Very quiet at the moment around Spurs> Palacios looks like he'll be going but some players we don't seem to be able to move them on at all.

everdead.ie

Bilboa have looked fantastic so far.

Big Pussy Bonpensiero

Hearing some whispers that Diarra may be on his way?? Should spell the end of Palocios' stay if true, hopefully a club will come in for him, Harry could throw in Jenas for free

redout

THFC wrote: »

Hearing some whispers that Diarra may be on his way?? Should spell the end of Palocios' stay if true, hopefully a club will come in for him, Harry could throw in Jenas for free

I read Spurs are a mile away from Madrid's valuation.

Something like €13/14m offered but €20m wanted.

Spurs could well snag a bargain - Madrid are desperate to offload players - even talk of Kaka to Milan for €11m after spending €68.5m on him just 2 seasons ago.

AstonMartin

Not much action in here.

ye are playing for 6th with villa and sunderland. Thats a fact.

any bookies offering that market... Spurs to finish 6th?

AstonMartin

redout wrote: »

I read Spurs are a mile away from Madrid's valuation.

Something like ?13/14m offered but ?20m wanted. Spurs could well snag a bargain - Madrid are desperate to offload players - even talk of Kaka to Milan for ?11m after spending ?68.5m on him just 2 seasons ago.

are you reading the daily mail?

T-b0n3

AstonMartin wrote: »

Not much action in here.

ye are playing for 6th with villa and sunderland. Thats a fact.

any bookies offering that market... Spurs to finish 6th?

Hmmm says who?? We're playing for fourth. We may or may not get anywhere near but that's certainly what we are aiming and playing for.

AstonMartin

Ah come on. 4th just is not going to happen. thats a coin toss between pool and arsenal both of which are better than spurs.

Paully D

Rumours in today's papers of Sunderland making a move for Kranjcar. I'd love to get him, he'd be a cracking signing for us, but I can't see him moving to the north-east. He wants to leave the country, doesn't he?

Paully D

AstonMartin wrote: »

Not much action in here.

ye are playing for 6th with villa and sunderland. Thats a fact.

any bookies offering that market... Spurs to finish 6th?

You're overestimating Sunderland. We'd be happy with another top 10 finish and that's our aim. There's no chance of us putting in a sustained challenge for 6th over the course of a season, we're just not ready for it.

Glico Man

Paully D wrote: »

Rumours in today's papers of Sunderland making a move for Kranjcar. I'd love to get him, he'd be a cracking signing for us, but I can't see him moving to the north-east. He wants to leave the country, doesn't he?

I've read quite a few reports of him wanting to go to Germany. Is still a very good player, wish Liverpool got him when he left Pompey

everdead.ie wrote: »

What Baffles me is why people think Modric can be replaced by a defensive midfielder?

Just to follow this up from the L'pool thread, the one thing about Lucas is that he was once playing much further up the pitch than what he plays at Liverpool. He used to be a far more creative player too, would describe him as a box-to-box player. Benitez turned him into the defensive machine that he is today. Granted it took him a few years to get there...

Not that I think he'll leave or that ye have a chance of signing him of course, or that there was any truth whatsoever in the rumour (piece of crap) I posted :pac:

DyldeBrill

Listen spurs can make a 4th finish!! We've proved that we can beat the big dogs last season..and in my honest opinion Liverpool aint one of the big dogs anymore!

The latest news is that Palacios and Crouch are set to leave to Stoke for 16m.....now if I was Levy or Harry I would take that straight away!!

The talks about Diarra are rubbish, although there has been speculation we have more than enough midfielders right now with huddlestone, sandro, modric pienaar and so on we don't need Diarra....its a striker that we need!

The latest rumour is that we are in talks with Hulk...but I honestly can't see that happening.Bryan Ruiz in my opinion would be a bargain at 13m and that would give us more money to spend on strengthening our team too.

I'd like to see a new RB and a new striker.We do have quality players.....so a top 4 finish in my opinion can be achieved!

G.K.

The injured Pienaar and injured Sandro? You happy with just Modric, Huddlestone, Livermore and Jenas for the time being at CM?

DyldeBrill

well i'd be happy with modric and huddlestone yes....kranjar too.

Why waste money on Diarra? We can survive with what we have at midfield its up front that we are struggling

G.K.

Kranjcar is a winger/AM - he's not a brilliant CM, just as VDV ain't, and Pienaar isn't either.

But to say Modric, Huddlestone, Jenas and Livermore is enough is very suprising.

DyldeBrill

I never added Jenas or Livermore into my comment although Livermore is improving he is no where near a starting place!

I don't think Kranjcar ias a suited CM but he can play there if needs be.A definate change in formation will be needed!

But tell me if Modric stays and when say sandro is fit what need do we have for diarra? My first choice midfield would be with Modric and Sandro as CM.We don't need to splash on Diarra if Modric is staying! We could go for a cheaper option maybe but Diarra doesn't suit!

Mr. Guappa

If we do sign Diarra or a CM and keep Modric then we are probably moving towards a 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1.

Diarra, Modric, Huddlestone, Sandro would be the main options for CM, with 3 of them playing in tougher games with Bale, Lennon, VDV fighting for two wing spots. VDV could play centrally ahead of a 2-man CM in more favourable fixtures. Diarra would just gives us more options in there.

I'd rather keep Crouch. He is happy to play a squad role and is effective when used correctly.

DyldeBrill

Mr. Guappa wrote: »

If we do sign Diarra or a CM and keep Modric then we are probably moving towards a 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1.

Diarra, Modric, Huddlestone, Sandro would be the main options for CM, with 3 of them playing in tougher games with Bale, Lennon, VDV fighting for two wing spots. VDV could play centrally ahead of a 2-man CM in more favourable fixtures. Diarra would just gives us more options in there.

I'd rather keep Crouch. He is happy to play a squad role and is effective when used correctly.

I'd love to see the back of crouch....we need a quality striker badly!! we have too many useless strikers as it is!

G.K.

Useless strikers get you 7 goals in the ECL in a season these days? I'd love a good one!

Glico Man

Mr. Guappa wrote: »

If we do sign Diarra or a CM and keep Modric then we are probably moving towards a 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1.

Diarra, Modric, Huddlestone, Sandro would be the main options for CM, with 3 of them playing in tougher games with Bale, Lennon, VDV fighting for two wing spots. VDV could play centrally ahead of a 2-man CM in more favourable fixtures. Diarra would just gives us more options in there.

I'd rather keep Crouch. He is happy to play a squad role and is effective when used correctly.

Is he though? He wasn't happy being on the bench at Liverpool and that was behind a world class striker in Torres. Rejected a new contract on the basis he wasn't happy simply playing a squad role. Can't imagine why he'd be happy on the bench behind a Defoe or Pav.

DyldeBrill

haha listen your not going to agree with anything I say, and I respect your opinion.

But if my memory serves me correct its not only the ECL thats important.......is it?........lets say we can do a lot better

Defoe on the other hands just needs more confidence because he does have the potential!And I quite like Pav too, but lets hope Keane will be gone asap!

DyldeBrill

can't believe the games got called off!

everdead.ie

Looking forward to next weekend when i can actually watch us play. Hopefully we can finally beat united away.

L'prof

everdead.ie wrote: »

Looking forward to next weekend when i can actually watch us play. Hopefully we can finally beat united away.

Hope ye do it lads. They always finish strongly, starting strongly too won't do at all!

Big Pussy Bonpensiero

Strong rumours we've wrapped up deals for Ade and Diarra. Gives is a midf of;

Sandro

---

Diarra
Lennon --- Modders/vdV --- Bale
Adebayor

Makes away games look much more comfortable.

Apparently we also have a special signing nearly wrapped up too, but no one knows who that is, could be one of the aforementioned players, or, hopefully some one like Llorente.

Also, I expect Modders to finally leave this week. He picked up an "injury" yesterday which kept him out of EL action. Prevents him being cup-tied undoubtedly. Rumours are we're getting Benayoun & Kalou :rolleyes:

L'prof

THFC wrote: »

Strong rumours we've wrapped up deals for Ade and Diarra. Gives is a midf of;

Sandro

---

Diarra
Lennon --- Modders/vdV --- Bale
Adebayor

Makes away games look much more comfortable.

Apparently we also have a special signing nearly wrapped up too, but no one knows who that is, could be one of the aforementioned players, or, hopefully some one like Llorente.

Also, I expect Modders to finally leave this week. He picked up an "injury" yesterday which kept him out of EL action. Prevents him being cup-tied undoubtedly. Rumours are we're getting Benayoun & Kalou :rolleyes:

Would only cost about £65m, ye'd have a fantastic squad after bringing all those in though!

Big Pussy Bonpensiero

L'prof wrote: »

Would only cost about £65m, ye'd have a fantastic squad after bringing all those in though!

Ade is a loan deal, Diarra is roughly £10 million and Benayoun & Kalou would be a swap for Modders. I presume we'd be getting £10-15 million on top of those. Llorente would cost ~£25 million but that's as yet unconfirmed. It's good to see we're actually spending money on quality players though, certainly a step up from a few years ago.

Big Pussy Bonpensiero

lol

Rumours circulating it's Kaka!! That's certainly one way to replace Modders! I wouldn't put any money on it to say the least!

Playboy

Modric aint going anywhere and Ade and Diarra are coming in along with one more. Will be close to 4th this season. better squad than Pool and Arsenal .. just got to hope Harry makes us a better team. Worried that Pool will become much more than a sum of their parts

flahavaj

Could be someone like Scott Parker, Harry has been interested several times in the past.

yabadabado

THFC wrote: »

Ade is a loan deal, Diarra is roughly £10 million and Benayoun & Kalou would be a swap for Modders. I presume we'd be getting £10-15 million on top of those. Llorente would cost ~£25 million but that's as yet unconfirmed. It's good to see we're actually spending money on quality players though, certainly a step up from a few years ago.

I doubt you would get him for 25m add on another 10m.he is a class act and would be an excellent signing .Would be telling Chelsea to keep benayoun and kalou,dont think would add much to the squad.

everdead.ie

Up against Stoke in the carling cup away at tye britania unfortunately tough game.

Playboy

Looks increasingly likely that Parker is coming our way. Not sure how I feel about that. He has knocked us back a couple of times before and he is getting on now. Still will improve us for a couple of seasons though. It also must mean that Diarra deal is dead in the water .. not sure we really needed him anyway as Parker has more to his all round game and Sandro will turn out to be a superior DM.

Hopfully we will add Parker / Diarra, Leandro Diamo, Cahill / Samba before the end of the window and manage to ship out Hutton, Bentley, Palacios, Crouch and one of Pav or Defoe.

We could also do with some decent competition for Lennon on the RW but that will have to wait I guess!

Hannibal

Spurs last 54 games under Redknapp compared to Ramos' 54 in charge:
Redknapp - P:54 W:22 D:17 L:15
Ramos - P:54 W:21 D:16 L:17

Says it all about why Redknapp plays the media game just to cover up the crack in his expensively assembled squad. A bad 6 games at the start of a season cost Ramos his job and Spurs have Wolves away and Liverpool at home next up

davycc

SSN reports we have signed parker:D

JP Liz V1

flahavaj wrote: »

Could be someone like Scott Parker, Harry has been interested several times in the past.

Yep he has signed

everdead.ie

After a tough start we have two good wins that have us up and running.

Benny is ill today but hopefully King can play and we can kick on with another win today Wigan despite that one 9-1 thrashing have been really difficult for us to breakdown and we didn't register a single goal against them last year and I was there when we lost 1-0 at home so hopefully a really good performance today and a convincing Victory.

everdead.ie

Defoe not in the squad today, Sandro and Rafa Starting though

---

Friedel;
Walker, Kaboul, King, Assou-Ekotto;
Modric, Parker, Sandro, Bale;
Van der Vaart, Adebayor.


Cudicini, Bassong, Corluka, Carroll, Giovani, Livermore, Townsend.

everdead.ie

Sandro has looked fantastic we have total control so far but we have taken our foot of the gas which is worrying.

BERBA

Get in there super win , bring on the goons next week.

L'prof

BERBA wrote: »

Get in there super win , bring on the goons next week.

We have the spuds next week? Not the bet time we could be meeting ye, especially at the lane. Should be plenty of goals though, lets hope Ade isn't among them!

BERBA

L'prof wrote: »

We have the spuds next week? Not the bet time we could be meeting ye, especially at the lane. Should be plenty of goals though, lets hope Ade isn't among them!

Super Sunday 4pm....should be a bag of goals in the game.

everdead.ie

I think it's been great to see for the first time since I have supported a club young players genuinely being given a chance Luongo, Kane, Carroll, Townsend, Rose all players apart from Rose have all come through the Academy and Caulker as well who has been the shining light although I'm worried that he seems to get injured a bit I know this time he knocked his knee against the post stopping a goal going in but he had his injury at the end of last season as well

Thinking about it the last players of note to actually have come through the academy and not just bought young were O'Hara, Ledly and Carr thats shocking for our academy

everdead.ie

Ve been really impressed by Kaboul in the last few games he has the odd blip but he is so strong and fast.

everdead.ie

Ancelotti has said he'd like to return to management with English football

Former Chelsea boss Carlo Ancelotti has revealed his desire to return to Premier League management after expressing his admiration for Sir Alex Ferguson.
The Italian was sacked by the Blues at the end of his second season last May despite claiming a domestic double in his first year at Stamford Bridge.
The 52-year-old says he is in no rush to get back into coaching and insists he would only consider coming back to England for a top club.
Speaking to La Repubblica, Ancelotti said: "For a coach, this is the ideal country. But I would only consider top clubs, including Tottenham and Liverpool.
"It's evident that (Arsenal manager Arsene) Wenger's bench is wobbling and that in several months' time, an English coach will be appointed to replace (England manager Fabio) Capello in the national team, which will free up a place in a club.
"I am in no hurry, I promise.
"The fact I'm not coaching does not cause me anguish. In fact, I am enjoying life."
Ancelotti also spoke of his "love" for Ferguson after praising the way the Manchester United manager brings through young players.
He added: "As time goes on, the more I fall in love with Ferguson.
"As a coach, he is unusual. It's not as if he guides the training sessions because he delegates a lot and has an excellent staff.
"But he understands football like few do.
"With him, all the players improve. He has no fear of introducing youngsters.
"United play a European style of football, a modern style.
"But above all, Ferguson is a great person and he is humble."

everdead.ie

Decided to do a rolling season
United 67 + 19 = 86
City 57 + 19 = 76
Chelsea 53 + 16 = 69
Spurs 54 + 12 = 66
Liverpool 52 + 13 = 65
Arsenal 57 + 7 = 64
Everton 51 + 7 = 58
Newcastle 39 + 15 = 54
Villa 38+ 11 = 49

Really packed but United well out in front.

everdead.ie

After a tough start we have a run of games now that we will hopefully claim most of the points from Newcastle and Chelsea aside alot of the teams have been very patchy so far this year.

Away Newcastle Utd

Away Blackburn

Home QPR

Away Fulham

Home Aston Villa

Away West Brom

Home Bolton

Away Stoke City

Home Sunderland

Home Chelsea

Away Norwich City

Away Swansea

We picked up 22 out of 36 points in the corresponding fixtureslast year with Norwich subbed for West Ham, Swansea for Blackpool and QPR for Birmingham.
If we picked up the same number of points we would be up three points on last season at January but I'd hope to pick up maybe 27-30 points which would be fantastic

everdead.ie

Just looking at the Harry's transfer dealings since he arrived and since he took over we have spent 15m net which is pretty amazing really, have to say we have done pretty well with a pretty small outlay into transfers. Our Wage bill has increased but even that was taken down this year by a lot over 200,000 a week plus the number of players loaned out as well means players brought in won't have much effect on that figure.

I wonder have we begun a more careful spending policy as we are trying to build and finance the new stadium. Certainly I'd imagine many would be surprised given Harry's love of signing players that we haven't spent more but Levy still seems to have a tight grip on our finances.

Not only that but this is the first time in a decade we have had a number of academy products starting to come through.

Caulker, Carroll, Kane, Townsend all look very decent and then the U-19 team is playing very well in the next gen series.

everdead.ie

Five points up on this time last season not too bad