Wijnaldum reopens a debate

TRANSFER TALK


I see people discussing the merits of Spurs buying cheaper players and the suggestion that it is a gamble, which is not something I entirely agree with.

The trouble with a lot of players is that thye are simply overpriced, especially if they are home-grown. The Premier League bought foreign players because they were cheaper, sides like Bolton Wanderers under Sam Allardyce played a complete team of foreign players and he has just been interviewed for the England job!

Chelsea under Jose Mourinho played a complete team of foreign players under Jose Mourinho and if memory serves so did Arsenal under Arsene Wenger. We all these players any riskier, in many cases because they were cheaper? Wenger bought Frenchmen we had never heard of, but he did well with them.

Jans often simply decide a player can't be any good because they have never heard of them, you see their comments all the time in forums, but these people don't watch foreign football, they don't watch games from Brazil or Argentina so why would they have heard of players?

Players like Saido Berahino last summer and Georginio Wijnaldum this summers are overpriced. Does there fee make them less of a risk? Surely the object of scouting is to find the right player for the system, the right player who is going to fit into the squad harmoniously, the right player who is going to work at improving his game and thus improve the squad.

Mousa Dembele remember didn't improve his game when he arrived from Fulham, he just produced what he had always done and resisted all attempts to improve. It was only until Pochettino got into his head and resolved his motivation issues that we started to get a player we now rave over. The point is not all players work everyday to improve, some stagnate. What we don't need is a costly player stagnating as that throws our transfer bedget out and our wages budget, it has an effect on what we can purchase in the future.

A players fee is irrelevant really, what he can do and bring is all that matters. How much were Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez?

Like all clubs a transfer committee, which includes Pochettino takes advice and sets valuations on players we are interested in. If a club suggest a much higher price we try to negotiate it down or more on to someone else, revisiting and trying again in slightly different circumstances if need be.

I happy to keep unearthing players who don't cost a fortune or who are not the household name that some can't see beyond. I'd like to find the next household name before he is a household name, hopefully we have one or two coming through the ranks as well.