Sabitzer and Nagelsmann

Right, you all like a bit of Tottenham Transfer Talk and many appreciate my common sense insights and occasional little snippets others aren't a party to.

People know people, people have friends so it stands to reason that people working at Spurs or players agents have friends.

Do these friends talk, yes.

Do friends respect the position of others and protect their confidentiality so they can keep receiving information, you bet they do.

And yet fans don't believe these friendships exist, they don't believe a supporter can actually be a friend of someone within the club.

Obviously it's jealousy, they don't like someone knowing more than they do.

Oh well.

Not all information is going to be 'first', some wasn't in the public domain, like Steven Bergwijn's car crash or the advance info on Soldado or even the actuals rather than the press rubbish on our summer transfer activity in 2019.

Some plans, like last summer will change, particularly if you can't shift players.

Then there is the forgotten matter of wages and balancing the wages budget with a player like Dany Rose on 65k a week and refusing to leave as nobody will offer him anywhere near that amount.

Fortunately his wages are freed up this summer.

In addition, there are Premier League limits on how much you can increase your wages budget by each season, you can't just go from a low budget to a high budget in one summer.

Transfer happenings can change in a day, within hours sometimes so a deal can come from nowhere, but the ground work will have been done and that is often a secretive area, well until we send a scout or start making enquiries.

Simply because we are looking at a player doesn't mean we are trying to sign him, we first have to run the rule over him and indeed he may even be someone we plan on keeping an eye on until we need a player in that position with his skillset.

One player that has been talked about plenty is RB Leipzig midfielder Marcel Sabitzer.

Our interest in genuine, but you don't need me to tell you that.

What you are reading in the press, which has come from German publication Bild, is accurate.

He is a target and we are trying hard to sign him.

The fee, well around £30.79m (€36m - US$42.22m - AUS$55.50m) although Leipzig want a ridiculous £42.65m (€50m - US$58.71m - AUS$77.10m) given he only has a year left on his contract.

Football.London suggesting nobody knows a rough fee yet as Leipzig haven't set a fee are ill informed I'm afraid, agents discuss figures and they know the broad figures each side values a player.

Spurs have discussed matters with his agent on more than one occasion and outline finances have been discussed.

Sabitzer is willing to join Spurs, but does have other offers of course.

Where we finish in the Premier League is a factor, ideally it is in the Champions League places but if not then a clear path needs to be drawn by Mourinho so Sabitzer can see where the club is going and where his career will go.

At this stage things look good.

A good finish to the season is important though.

On 3rd March he spoke with German publication Bild on his future.

"I have a contract until 2022, not just until the summer. It has become popular to ask players about their future as soon as they enter the final 18 months of their contract but that doesn’t mean everything has to be decided at that moment.
“Those in my inner circle know that I’m thinking but I’m not stressed about it. I feel good in Leipzig and at the club, plus we’re successful.
“We have a chance of winning titles here and there are people at the club who want to win something. That’s why I see Leipzig as one of the great clubs. But RB Leipzig doesn’t have to be the only great club in my life. I’m only 26.”

It was a few days ago that Bild then suggested he is not going to sign a contract extension and will look to leave, with his contract expiring in 2022.

RB Leipzig sporting director Markus Krösche is not surprised that European clubs are interested in signing the Bundesliga club’s captain.

"His development has been super. It’s clear that other clubs have noticed this."

The club opened contract extension talks with him in December and Krösche went on to say that;

"Both sides will deal with the issue more intensively in the spring.”

Marcel Sabitzer is a key man for Leipzig scoring 16 goals with a further 11 assists in 44 matches across all competitions last season.

The Austrian midfielder, now captain, is rated as one of Europe’s most creative midfielders, while his versatility enables him play in central midfield, in attacking midfield or on either wing.

He is normally deployed as the ‘deep-lying playmaker’ in central midfielder which suits Subitizer's extensive passing range, plus he has the vision to unlock even the strongest opposition defences.

Vision is something you have read me discuss before for central midfielders and suggested a training method, highlighting Harry Winks as a player who could develop with vision training.

Sabitzer operates alongside Konrad Laimer and together they form one of the strongest midfields in Europe.

Laimer plays the more defensive role that Pierre-Emile Kordt Højbjerg, to grace him with his full name, allowing Sabitzer to roam free from deep to create opportunities for their strike force.

On average, across the Bundesliga and Champions League last season, Sabitzer created on average 3.32 chances per 90.

Tanguy N'Dombele has 2.45 shot-creating actions per 90 minutes in all competitions this season.

His dynamism will give our midfield a new dimension.

Back to the players currently at the club, do not expect to see those complaining behind the scenes to figure, with only the Premier League to play for (and a Cup Final), we can play those who support Mourinho.

It is common sense to sound out a replacement should the need arise, for instance, if our form deteriorated again then pressure would mount on Mourinho in the boardroom.

To that end it is true that we have sounded out current RB Leipzig coach Julian Nagelsmann, and yes he would be interested in coming to Spurs this summer.

As I said in a previous post though, when you have tasked someone with transforming the playing side, which means transforming the mentality of both playing and non-playing staff, then you have to follow the plan through muddy tracks to get to the green grass.

If you give up then you are back to square one, starting again with a new manager with players that are probably not having the skill set that a new manager requires, thus it would take several seasons to get the squad he wanted, something Mourinho hasn't yet been given.

I think there are some in the board, despite their success in life, who don't appreciate that you can't win things with just any players. I think they are, surprisingly, pretty clueless when it comes to the player mentality required.

The club embarked on a journey to build the stadium, much needed to bring in the revenue to allow us to compete on a more even playing field with the bigger clubs.

We didn't waiver from that and it came into being, we stuck to the plan despite problems along the way.

Equally, we now need that same perseverance with the playing side.

We have a manager who knows what it takes so let him build.

COYS

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