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THBN Transfer Talk - The reason Spurs haven't made a signing yet


The Reason Spurs Haven't Made A Signing Yet

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THBN Transfer Talk - The reason Spurs haven't made any signings yet

Transfer Talk

Signing Stanislav Lobotka, Morgan Sanson, Wilmar Barrios or any other non-homegrown player would replace one of the departing foreign players and leave Spurs still with the difficulty of retaining enough homegrown players.

We may have homegrown youth, but they do not get listed in your Premier League squad if they are Under-21 on January 1st of the year the season starts. Thus anyone who was 21 or under on 1 January 2018 is an Under-21 player for the Premier League.

Each team has to make a 25 man squad, of which only 17 can be non-homegrown players.
You can also only name 17 non-homegrown players in your UEFA Champions League squad, although they have different rules. Ben Davies, for instance, is homegrown for the Premier League, but non-homegrown for the Champions League.

The situation as at the start of the 2016/17 season with the addition of Lucas Moura in January 2018.

Premier League Homegrown


  1. Ben Davies - homegrown for the Premier League, not for the Champions League
  2. Harry Kane
  3. Danny Rose
  4. Kieran Trippier


Premier League Non-Homegrown


  1. Toby Alderweireld
  2. Serge Aurier
  3. Mousa Dembele
  4. Eric Dier
  5. Christian Eriksen
  6. Paulo Gazzanigo
  7. Son Heung-min
  8. Vincent Janssen
  9. Erik Lamela
  10. Fernando Llorente
  11. Hugo Lloris
  12. Georges-Kevin N'Koudou
  13. Lucas Moura
  14. Moussa Sissoko
  15. Jan Vertonghen
  16. Michel Vorm
  17. Victor Wanyama



Players Possibly Leaving

Toby Alderweireld, Mousa Dembele, Vincent Janssen, Fernando Llorente and Georges-Kevin N'Koudou. That' five non-homegrown players we can replace, but we have to be careful that we don't have too many and clubs can then hold us to ransom over players we want to sell.

As it is we can demand top dollar, if we bring in a non-homegrown player now we weaken our negotiating position. We are not that rich that money doesn't matter, it does and we usually get decent deals for our players.

Cutting our nose to spite our face by selling Alderweireld abroad, where we can only command £25m, nobody is going to pay anymore and indeed Barcelona only offered £25m last summer, will a reduced contract it would be less now. If we can get £55m plus add-ons then that helps fund the top level purchases some fans are demanding. Swings and roundabouts. If you don't want to sell Alderweireld for top money, then don't complain if you don't get the top level signings you want.

The non-homegrown issue makes bringing players in tricky, most fans simply can't, or don't want to, appreciate that.

Mauricio Pochettino didn't play Moura a great deal for two main reasons, he needed to get him Pochettino fit and he needed to learn our system, particularly defensively. You play more of the game off the ball then you do on it, thus your off-the-ball movement has to be right and your defensive work, learning when and how to press in our way was needed.

That is the same for any new arrival, but our pre-season training doesn't start until 2 July so we aren't losing anything by not having someone signed by now. Until we have unofficially sorted something behind the scenes for a departing player, we can't really sign anyone.

If you want to know why signing players early in the window is difficult, then don't take my word for it, read this piece from someone with an ear in the club who explains it very well, Trix from Spurs Community.
The Problem Making Early Signings

Read these articles on how a transfer works, there are plenty of others out there to read.
How A Transfer Works - Sky
How A Transfer Works - BBC

Then read this article:
The Revenue Increase Funding Kane's Wages

The real-world of transfers is a whole lot different than many fans and Twitter incumbents want to believe. Supporters who do understand it are called 'happy clappers' by fans who don't or who just ignore it

COYS


1 comment

  1. Actually it seems to me that 'locking down' our star players is probably, from a financial perspective, the sensible thing to do first, even before we start selling those players you have mentioned Clive.
    Once DL knows that player expenditure will increase by so much (assuming no movement of players initially) then he can move to the (his) second stage that is getting the maximum from player sales to offset that increase.
    Meanwhile, unbeknown to us plebs, a budget and targets have been discussed and agreed between Poch & DL for new arrivals...how that plays out is anybody's guess but it's reasonable to assume that the first priority will be to plug club any gaps left (in Poch's opinion) by outgoing players.
    Of course, for all we know, Poch may have decided to tweak the basic formation leaving us more in the dark as to who may arrive or even more surprised as to who actually arrives.
    Clive, I'm disappointed that you refer to 'Trix' from the Spurs Communi…