More N'Koudou and Njie

TRANSFER TALK

Vincent Labrune is leaving as President of Marseille, but before he does he needs to complete a few more transfers so they have a team for next season that will keep them in Ligue 1.

He has been successful in the transfer market buying low, selling high, but wages went out of control and crippled the club, now it is a desperate fight each summer to sell players to balance the books and bring in capable cheap players. Challenging fir anything is a pipe dream and a wage cap was introduced 2 years ago to try and get the club on a sound footing. It hasn't worked and while some leave for big fees others leave for free, too many.

Clubs, knowing the financial plight of Marseille, look to plunder them each summer. Let them find a bargain and then snap them up before they rise too high in value. Tottenham have been keeping an eye on them consistently and are now said to be leading the battle to sign Georges-Kévin N'Koudou.

Pochettino is looking to beat Everton, Hamburg, Bournemouth and Sevilla to his signature. Our Argentinian manager phoned the French Under-21 international at the beginning of last week to convince him to come to Spurs. He contacts potential transfer targets personally to tell them of our interest, something he is not alone in.

Labrune wants to make ten times what he paid Nantes for N'Koudou a year ago £1-million (€1.2m -AUS$1.75m -  US$1.32m) at today's rates.

Tottenham are happy to offload Clinton Njie who hasn't impressed and has had injury problems. What Pochttino doesn't want is to have to keep waiting for a player to develop, we don't need to, there are plenty of players out there. We do not need players who might one day fulfil potential when there is another player who can show significant progress over a season. I certainly have the impression that Pochettino assess players and comes to a decision and that's it.

Benjamin Stambouli went after a season because he didn't adapt quickly enough, Federico Fazio we have been trying to sell since last summer, Andros Townsend didn't get much of a look-in. I did wonder whether Njie would leave rather than Chadli, the Belgian has the proven form in the Premier League that Njie doesn't and with Alex Pritchard, Josh Onomah coming through, and Marcus Edwards behind them, we can't have too many unproven wide players in the squad. The risk is too great.

It makes sense therefore to let Njie go and bring in another replacement who may take the opportunity he hasn't. We have been spoilt by the progress of Dele Alli, but that is the ideal we are seeking, stagnation for a year doesn't help us develop at all.

I harp back to a winning mentality, the hunger to improve your game every single day, every week so over a season you make a telling improvement and thus strengthen our squad. As a coach you have to sometimes be ruthless and let player go who have potential, but for one reason or another haven't progressed. We also have to keep in mind the non-home grown rule and how many we can have in a squad or who are developing to come into the squad in future seasons.

Marseille want to take Njie on loan with an option to buy him next summer which would help them financially and the two clubs have discussed such a move. We usually prefer a loan with a guaranteed purchase option otherwise we end up with an extra wide man in a years time. Marseille haven't met with Njie to discuss the deal as yet, although he will know that discussions are taking place and it is an option we are exploring.

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