Tottenham Transfer Talk
Hello folks.
We have had a few chats over footballing issues, off the field, mentality etc interspersed with some transfer news, players statistics and a few frogs.
Incidentally I saw a young butterfly in the garden yesterday, a tiny thing it was, all white. The two adults were flying around too but a tiny butterfly is not a common sight.
It was landing on the flowers around the pond i was refilling with water, evaporates greatly in this weather.
There are plenty of transfer stories in the press which makes it look lie there is a lot of activity surrounding Spurs so a chat about it seems in order.
A spot of background for new readers.
Back at the beginning of June I posted some lists with basic information of players we were considering for various positions.
I then produced posts explaining our transfer strategy and how buying players during a transfer window works.
It is extremely complex and I'll try and sum it up briefly for those of you who didn't read it (for some absurd reason).
You should be reading everything! LOL
Create a list of the players you want for each position.
Check with agents to find our rough transfer fee, wages etc (financials).
Inform agents under what circumstances you would sign their client (might be 3rd choice or when we have sold etc).
Players have their own criteria (Champions League club, money, Europa League club, other club).
Once everything has fallen into place a transfer can take place but many times everything will not match and a transfer will not then be possible.
Quite frankly that doesn't do the complexity justice but suffice to say it isn't just a case of throwing money at a problem.
Tottenham need homegrown players,not just for the Premier League but to name non-association trained players in the Europa League squad.
Shirt sales do not pay for anything.
Nike pay us to manufacture shirts.
The money for shirt sales goes to Nike, not Spurs.
We get between 7-12% from total shirt sales, unless it is through club outlets.
Owners can not give money to clubs for players and wages, they have to gives loans for infrastructure so any fan complaining ENIC are not investing in players doesn't know what they are talking about.
UEFA tweaked Financial Fair Play (FFP) to STOP Sugar Daddy owners and to force clubs to operate as going concerns, to be self supporting and fund themselves through the income the business generates.
This is how Tottenham are set up.
Our income is 61% of Barcelona's, similar for Real Madrid, Man Utd.
We, therefore, can't pay what they pay for players or pay their wages.
Barcelona have 9 players on over 230k per week, 4 on over 165k per week, we have 2 on 200k.
Spurs have built a shiny new stadium that has to be paid for,other clubs haven't.
COVID-19 has hit world football and income is drastically down, there also might be a second lockdown this winter.
Spurs have to be mindful of that and keep the wages bill in check as a result of reduced income and uncertainty.
I produced further posts explaining our transfer policy being dictated not by a transfer kitty but by wages.
We need to keep the wage bill similar to what it is now or reduce it.
Therefore we have to calculate the wages saved by players leaving and spend that on new players.
That is one of the circumstances I spoke about earlier.
If you sell a player not earning much then you can only bring in a player not earning much.
Sell Serge Aurier (who incidentally asked to leave, the same as Kieran Trippier did last summer) who is on £70k and we have £70k wages to spend on others.
Matt Doherty was on around £50,000 (€57,000) at Wolves so is likely to be on £60,000 with us, leaving £10,000 to go towards wages for someone else.
Players abroad earn less than players in England, it isn't all about money for them.
Levy and Mourinho have agreed a list of obtainable players within our financial constraints and we already have 3 new players through the door.
We are addressing the areas that need addressing which regardless of what the 90 minutes chequebook supporter thinks, is the chairman backing a manager.
Backing a manager is buying the players both parties agree to buy, which will not always be the first choice.
You may need to spend more in one position than you planned thus have to spend less in another position,obviously.
Nobody is buying apart from Chelsea who sold their best player and have raised over £200m in player sales with more to come.
We have plenty of positions to upgrade and we will upgrade them.
The window isn't shut so there simply isn't anything to complain about.
Those complaining now, you know have a failure mentality or are living in fantasy football land so you can simply ignore them.
Latest Transfer News
Sergio Reguilón
One player on our list (reported early June) is Real Madrid left-back Sergio Reguilón wo if memory serves would be around £17.94m (€20m). Marca are reporting this, so what are the chances of it happening?
In my view very slim for one reason, Real Madrid have buy-back clauses in any player they sell and we will not entertain buying a player we do not have control over.
Unless that clause were dropped no sale to us will happen and it is highly unlikely that Real Madrid will drop that clause.
Barcelona generally do the same thing but if they are having a firesale they won't be wanting those players back so may not have it inserted in contracts this summer.
This buy-back situation is a big issue when trying to buy from these clubs, a big issue.
Nicolo Zaniolo
Reports that Tottenham have offered £50m for Zaniolo are way off the mark, we haven't.
What has happened is that an intermediary had a meeting with former Roma goalkeeper and now manager Morgan De Sanctis.
Roma have not qualified for the Champions League, thus we felt we might be able to land a bargain with the financial difficulty Italian clubs are in.
However, it was indicated that we would have to make bids in the region of €50m-60m and we are not interested in entertaining that price.
These stories are often put about at contract renewal time and Roma have been negotiating with his agent Claudio Vigorelli.
Diego Costa
Next up we are being linked with former Chelsea striker Diego Costa, the Brazilian who decided he was Spanish because the Brazilians weren't going to pick him for the World Cup.
Sorry but just because you live in Spain for 5 years, for your job, it doesn't make you Spanish, it makes you a Brazilian living in Spain.
Right this story can be answered with a look at his wage packet.
He has one year left at Atlético Madrid and earns €300,000-a-week which we wouldn't entertain.
I'll say it again as some still don't understand it seems, if you bring in a guy on high wages, higher than we are paying Harry Kane, then every players agent will be ringing Daniel Levy for a pay rise for their client and our wage bill would significantly increase at a time when our income has significantly reduced.
We simply can't entertain high wage players and the fact that nobody wants Philippe Coutinho demonstrates that few clubs can entertain high wage players at the moment.
Juventus has just terminated the contract of two just to get them off the books, although they will have to pay severance payments.
We have not made enquiries for him, his agent has simply offered him around clubs in England, Spain, France and Italy.
Sevilla have signed Croatian international midfielder Ivan Rakitić to return back to the club.
The 32-year-old (33 next March) is leaving Barcelona after six seasons and had formerly played for Rojiblancos from January 2011 to June 2014.
Rakitić has accepted less than half the €7.8 million annual salary he's earning at Barcelona.
Spurs were never in the market for him, just made an enquiry.
Darwin Núñez
Duncan Castles of the Times, who isn't a reliable source by the way, claims Tottenham have been offered the chance to sign Almeria striker Darwin Núñez.You, like me, have never heard of him and 'being offered' means an agent knows we want a striker and has called Daniel Levy to offer his clients services.
This happens all the time.
If you have a client, you contact potential suitors to try and stimulate interest so the question is, were we interested and does he fit the profile of player José Mourinho is looking for.
The highest bid for him is currently from Benfica with the Edinson Cavani talks going nowhere at the moment.
On 27 July 2020, José Gomes took over for fellow Portuguese Mário Silva at the helm of Spanish Segunda División side UD Almeria and Núñez is surplus to requirements.
Almeria are believed to have placed a €30 million price tag on him and Benfica made an informal offer last week, which was rejected.
Don't want a lot do they!
No way we will be conducting business on those terms so I think we can forget this one.
Incidentally, Benfica's next choice of striker is Real Madrid's Mariano Diaz, whom I feel we should be looking at.
Donny van de Beek
Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf have reported that Manchester United and Tottenham have made enquiries about Ajax midfielder Donny van de Beek.It is suggested he is waiting for Barcelona or Real Madrid, with whom he has an agreement to join them, but Zinedine Zidane is thought not to be keen.
The Dutch also suggest he knows he is a priority for Ronald Koeman but that may be because they are both Dutch, just as Mourinho gets linked with every Portuguese player and Pochettino was linked with every Argentinian player.
The asking price is €55 million but Barcelona have no money to buy him at the moment.
Are Ajax in financial difficulty as a result of Covid-19?
I don't know the answer to that one, but if they are then that could see him being sold relatively cheaply.
We are trying to do swap deals, who could we swap?
Can't see players wanting to go to the Dutch league, it isn't a top league, it's second tier.
Ryan Sessegnon is one name suggested and we are thus linked with their 28-year-old left-back Nicolás Tagliafico.
Some Spurs followers have forgotten the club have no money, we have to shift players and nobody has money to buy.
It is all a cat and mouse game during this transfer window and like the AC Milan CEO said, everybody will do most of their business late.
It is a testament to Daniel Levy that we have two deals done quickly and added Joe Hart, who was clearly marked as our No2 by playing against Birmingham and being given more minutes than Paulo Gazzaniga in pre-season.
Fulham are said to be interested in him so let's keep fingers crossed that he moves on and frees up a non-homegrown squad place.
Kim Min-jae
Kim Min-jae has not been forgotten about.
As I wrote a while ago the Chinese do not want to let him go but he wants to join us and the other point is that the CHinese Transfer Window is not currently open.
They had a transfer window from July 2 until July 29 and they are now having a third transfer window in September.
The window will be at least 3 weeks but I think it is going to last for the whole month.
The European window goes on until 5 October.
Kim Min-jae, as I have explained, will need adjustment and development time and thus is not an immediate first-team starter.
Therefore, there is no rush to sign him and while the Chinese still try to prevent it, a deal, if one gets done, will now be late September I would have thought.
Tanguy Ndombélé
Tanguy Ndombélé is a problem at the moment, we want him out, he wants out but we don't want to lose money.
The last meeting with Inter didn't go well, both sides have dug their heels in at the moment.
We value Ndombélé above Škriniar, Inter want a straight swap, not that Skriniar has even agreed to join us yet.
Conte is having a clearout at Inter and has 8 players up for sale.
- Ivan Perišić is 31 and has been on loan at Bayern Munich but they don't want to pay more than €10 million for him.
- Marcelo Brozović is 28 in November and Inter want €30 million for him. They will offer him to Chelsea for N'Golo Kanté for Chelsea value at €50 million.
- Dalbert is a 27 in September left-back on loan at Fiorentina.
- Radja Nainggolan is a 32-year-old midfielder on loan at Cagliari.
- Matías Vecino is a 29-year-old midfielder.
- João Mário is a 27-year-old central midfielder.
- Diego Godin is a 34-year-old centre-back and not on cheap wages.
- Milan Škriniar is a 25-year-old centre-back
There is only one of them who is at a stage where they can be developed and their value increased while being a decent player, the one player we are particularly interested in, Milan Škriniar.
My view, Ndombélé wants a side like Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Juventus, Man City or Real Madrid.
With all due respect to Inter they are not in that bracket and I think he wants to wait for one of those and is trying to force our hand into letting him go cheap.
There is plenty going on, we have plenty of irons in the fire so there will be more people incoming but you do have to have people going out as well, you can't pay or play everyone.
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