Why Spurs Won't Panic Buy

Why Spurs Won't Panic Buy

Fans and Pochettino differ, fans and the club differ, fans and I differ.

I look at what the club project is, understand how that progresses and support the club thus tailor my thoughts on what is happened towards that project and how events fit into it. I then thus look at the solutions and can anticipate what the club will do.

Understanding that is key to supporting a club because that is the reality, anything else is fantasy support.

I can understand why fans don't agree with Pochettino and the clubs approach but we are not in the business of panic buying simply to aim for a trophy that particular season.

Any buy MUST fit in with the long term objective of building the squad, thus it means adding some quality at this stage or homegrown with potential.

If the club panic buy, what happens next season when there are a spate of injuries? Do you panic buy again?

You end up with a player you don't actually want who you then have to dispose of in the summer, if you can get him to lave and if someone wants to buy him.

The result is you end up with a very unbalanced squad with players that you don't really want and who don't fit the long term objective, which is to be winning trophies every season.

You'd be lurching this way and that each season if you operated like that, it would catch up with you are you'd go backward.

Tell me, who is going to leave in the summer? We all know Real Madrid want an overhaul, we all know regardless of money or anything else, if Real Madrid comes calling for Eriksen that he wants to join them and there is nothing we can do or offer that would persuade him to stay, not even winning a trophy.


Unless the right player is available, there is no point buying a replacement now, that will have to wait for the summer. Now if he is taken out of the team, who do we buy?

Do we buy a direct replacement or do we change our style slightly and rely on a slightly different approach?

Pochettino has told you in a press conference that that is how a coach looks at problems and potential problems, whereas fans simply look to replace like with like.

My previous article clearly explains the problem we have with having too many non-homegrown players on the books as we couldn't offload any last summer. Now we have a knock-on effect which we won't be able to resolve until this summer.

It has to be borne in mind that we already have summer targets in mind, such as Matthijs de Ligt and have to be mindful of the financial implications of that. We won't damage our summer plans to improve the squad simply to chase a trophy this season.

I know you won't agree with that but that's the situation like it or not. You may not accept it and moan, I understand the reasons why and therefore don't, which puts me at odds with he common supporter.

The long term goal of winning trophies season after season is paramount. Building towards that is paramount. Chasing a trophy through transfers each season disrupts the long term goal, arguably destroys it.

You can only buy who is available. Pochettino decides which players he wants and only those. We no longer just buy to bring someone in, we are past that, we buy to improve.

As a hypothetical example, we would now look to buy Adrien Rabiot instead of Georges-Kevin N'Koudou as Rabiot is already at a higher level and has room for further improvement, thus an increase in value.

Like it or not, an increase in value is what all clubs are looking for, increasingly clubs now want to buy and develop youth with wages and transfer fees being so high now. Financial Fair Play dictates that a club must run on the money it generates, being propped up by an owner is no longer allowed.

Indeed Manchester City are still under investigation by UEFA for illegally funding the club through a bogus sponsorship deal where the owner actually put money into the club, not the sponsor. City refuses to cooperate and want the proof passed as inadmissible. They are not now denying it took place.

The injury to Dele Alli certainly makes life difficult. We don't know the extent of the injury and that will take a few days, meanwhile, others get the opportunity to step up to the plate, as Georges-Kevin N'Koudou and Harry Winks did yesterday.

I maintained this with Janssen and I'll do the same with Llorente, he needs some regular game time and I think Pochettino misses a trick by not bringing him on when he can.

Janssen lost confidence, apparently didn't do enough in training but when he scored a goal, he really needed to get some more game time straight away, However, he wasn't given cameo roles and wasn't seen again for weeks by which time it was too late.

Players have to make an impact when they come on, like N'Koudou yesterday. Llorente has been lately and after Tranmere, it is an ideal time for him to be playing. He looks at odds with the rest of the team, his passes were behind runners, it was as if he wasn't up to speed with the rest of the team, quite apart from missing easy headers.

It didn't help that Lamela didn't play the simple ball well enough to give him a tap-in, then we might have seen a better performance from him.

I am expecting a better performance in the next game, if there is not any improvement then that would be a worrying sign. He has to start putting away these easy chances. His header straight at the keeper would have been a goal either side and that is where he should have been heading the ball, he should know where the goalkeeper is, but then we do tend to shoot at the middle of the goal a lot. It's why we didn't score against Manchester United, we made it very easy for de Gea.

What strikers, who would be happy to play second fiddle to Kane and Son would come to Tottenham now? Who is available, nobody scoring goals obviously. They would only play a few games before they sat on the bench, that's why I would be happy with Batshuayi coming in.

Boost his confidence and we would have a goalscorer on our hands. Danny Ings, Daniel Sturridge is probably the type of player we'd have to buy, neither are available, but I'm talking summer when we look for a Llorente replacement.

Either of those three could and would be able to play a regular part and yes I'm well aware of the injury issues, I'm using them as examples. We are not going to be able to get someone like Icardi or Dybala, neither would play second fiddle for us. Be nice to have Dybala of course.

In this call for players who would you buy now who is available. Clubs don't like selling players now, they are allowed to refuse our advances, some fans seem to forget that, just as a player gets a choice, something else they appear to forget.

They also forget that buying someone doesn't mean they will be a success at the club or that they will adapt to our system and pressing game straight away. Soldado was a proven goalscorer and most people were absolutely delighted we got him, but he couldn't score a goal. We tried potential with Janssen and he couldn't either.

Buying doesn't guarantee that we have a greater chance of winning a trophy this season, it could damage the squad if their personality isn't right and they are disruptive, quite apart from failing t produce the goods on the pitch.

I get what you want, but I get what the club want so I just don't see a panic buy unless it is a British player, making them available for the Champions League.

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