Spurs Summer Transfer Window Day 22
Welcome once again regular readers (sensible people) to the Tottenham Hotspur Blog News (THBN) world and the Spurs Summer Transfer Window Day 23.
What shall we start you off with today in the Spurs Chat section, well I saw a post of Twitter and for me it was a misconception.
For me the gap between ourselves and Everton has been there for a good few years now.
While Spurs have been challenging for the Top 4 for years, Everton have made the UEFA Europa League only 3 times.
Tottenham have had 7 UEFA Champions League and 7 UEFA Europa League campaigns plus the UEFA Conference League season where the intransigence of the Premier League caused us to be thrown out of the competition.
That is a significant difference, although Everton did make the play-off 3rd Round of the UEFA Champions League once.
Since 2010 Everton have qualified for Europe on 3 occasions, Tottenham have qualified every season, next season making it 12.
It was only a couple of years back I had an Everton fan trying to tell me they a bigger club than Spurs, dream on, the reality is way different, but perhaps they are starting to see it now.
That is a reminder of the work Daniel Levy has done in building this club up while other clubs have stagnated or gone backwards.
Spurs are now in a brilliant position to go forward, other have got to start the journey, which isn't as easy as rich guy comes in and then loans a club money every year.
There are still rules about how much you can spend in relation to past expenditure and how much wages you can pay in relation to your previous wage bills.
Newcastle United can't just go out and buy whoever they want, not that a lot of players want to go there until they get European football, if they get it.
Aston Villa supposedly had money, Everton have had £500m spent, how has that helped them, look where they are now, a relegation candidate, something I certainly never expected to see and, quite frankly, don't want to see.
That aforementioned intransigence of the Premier League in refusing to move the Leicester City game so we could finish our Europa League Group Stage matches demonstrates the Premier League believe they are above European football and do not therefore need to help European clubs.
Other countries do of course, Germany for instance always help European teams by moving fixtures.
The Leicester City was eventually moved when Leicester requested it but it was too late for us and we were thrown out of a competition we should have won.
There is always a club vs country debate, but there should be a Premier League vs European football debate too.
There certainly should be in the boardrooms and at the highest level Premier League meetings of the chairmen.
Tottenham Transfer Talk
Lenglet Done Deal
Let's move on with some Tottenham Transfer Talk and remind everyone that Clément Lenglet was a very highly rated defender before he joined Barcelona.
He has had a couple of seasons where he isn't the regular but there is no reason that in a new environment, with a winning mentality, he can not recapture his form and solve the left centre-back position, as opposed to being the stop gap everyone seems to be labelling him.
Lenglet has played 42 UEFA Champions League games for Barcelona.
Fabio Paratici and Italian reporter for Sky Gianluca Di Marzio are best friends and I keep telling you guys to listen to Di Marzio and not Fabrizio Romano about Spurs dealings.
Well, Di Marzio was reporting yesterday that Clément Lenglet to Tottenham Hotspur was a done deal folks. Cue the rest catching up.
One piece of play you'll see plenty of next season is Lenglet pinging a long crossfield ball with his left peg to Kulusevski or whoever is playing wide right.
His long passing is Alderweireldesque and having his national team captain at the club, Hugo Lloris, will help him settle quickly at Spurs.
Personally, I think Spurs fans will see his quality straight away as they did with Bentancur and Kulusevski, even if it did take some anti-Levy fans a few games to come on board over Kulusevski.
You are not a bad player if Barcelona buy you, Lenglet is better than some fans are given credit for, he has played 158 games for Barcelona, which you don't do if you can't play.
Yes he has a weakness, which I wrote an article about, wide left exposed in a one-on-one situation, but I'm sure Conte will be working on that.
Apart from that there isn't much in his game to worry about.
When playing regularly he was picked in every French squad, it is only when he became a squad player at Barcelona that that changed so Lenglet needs to be playing week in week out to recapture a World Cup spot.
A €5m (£4.31m - US$5.23m - AUS$7.6m) loan fee will remove his salary from Barca, something holding them back from registering players.
Barcelona had wanted a sale and then had wanted a mandatory purchase option, while Lenglet has had other offers to consider, like Roma, but after speaking with Antonio Conte about how he sees his future at Tottenham next season, he said yes to the move.
The Barça Sports Directorate has had to give in to our position to get his salary off their books. Spurs only wanted to pay part of his salary so a compromise had to be found and that appears to be dropping the purchase part of the deal.
The Frenchman is due to report for pre-season training on Monday so the Spaniards want a deal totally concluded before then.
They bought him from Sevilla in 2018 after paying his buyout clause of €35.9m (£30.80m - US$37.36m - AUS$54.18m) and placed a €300m (£257.19m - US$312.22m - AUS$452.74m) buyout clause on him.
Lenglet is suited to playing in a back three and I think he'll settle straight away back in a role he knows, rather than the back four system that Barcelona are playing.
I predict he is going to surprise a lot of people and that he'll make the French World Cup squad.
A back three requires ball-playing centre-backs in preference to defender centre-backs, if you understand what I mean by that.
Davies, I would suggest, is a defensive centre-back, whereas Lenglet, being a ball-playing centre-back has the ability to start attacks with long range passing.
You'll note Eric Dier has long range passing ability, as does Cristian Romero, much less so Davinson Sánchez.
Richarlison
Forgotten in the Richarlison discussions with Joe Rodon, Steven Bergwijn, Harry Winks and Lucas Moura all being mentioned at some stage or another has been Dele Alli.
Everton got a player who had lost his mental drive and only seemed to find it when he performed in the last game of the season or was it the last game and a half.
I have no idea if the suggestion that Spurs are prepared to forgo the add-ons that would be due to us for his sale to push through the Richarlison deal are true or not.
Next season will be the last throw of the dice for Dele, whether he resurrects his career or whether he becomes an ex-elite player that relegation candidates will take a chance on.
I spoke about deals being agreed just payment structures to agree a couple of days ago and I see Fabrizio Romano now repeating that yesterday. Keep reading Fabrizio.
Reportedly it is a £50m deal with £10m of add-ons so another one through the door before the pre-season tour to South Korea.
Gleison Bremer
We have been negotiating with Torino and their chairman Urbana Cairo with whom we have reached agreement on a deal, which is more than is being offered by any Italian club.
Antonio Conte has been speaking with Bremer, trying to convince him to come to North London, as he wants to stay in Italy and join Inter.
Inter can't agree a deal with Cairo, they are offering players at clubs, we have been offered several players by them and they are still suggesting Bastoni, but then they change their mind when push comes to shove.
Inter promise you something and then take it away, which is frustrating the clubs they deal with, including us.
Bremer has clearly been holding on to see if Inter can come up with something, but thus far they have been unable to conclude deals that will help them make the €50m-60m across the window that they need to pay outstanding debts to investors.
Torino are taking our offer to interested parties, both Milan clubs to encourage them to increase their offers.
Paratici is also trying to convince Bremer his future should be in London so this one is not for want of trying.
Fingers crossed Bremer chooses Spurs.
COYS
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