Spurs Summer Transfer Window Day 62
It's Spurs Summer Transfer Window Day 62 today, Wednesday, although the first 1,000 words were written on Monday.
Monday morning, I open up Twitter after seeing Spurs win on Saturday to sit top of the Premier League and the first thing I see is joyous Spurs fans praising the team right.
Err no.
The first tweet I see is someone saying they are not seeing enough love for Emerson after 2 assists, but fans mocking him for his overhead kick attempt.
Watching the highlights of the game I see than Emerson Royal stole the ball off a Saints player to start the attack for the third goal passing it to Kane, from whom he got it back and carried it forward, passed to Hojbjerg.
He kept running when Kane passed to Son and got the ball back, took a touch before squaring in across the six-yard box where the Saints player knocked it into his own net.
Then he assisted for the fourth, but nope, that isn't good enough for some.
It is much like even now, when fans can see how ENIC and Daniel Levy have built the club from near bankruptcy and understand now what they have been doing to achieve that, that now they can see with hindsight that building the infrastructure of the club was the most important thing for our future, they cling to an old agenda.
No we get the complaint they are not investing enough!
These people couldn't run a paper round let alone a football club.
Let go, live life without the handbrake on (who remembers that post from years back! It's amazing the recall given the thousands of posts I have written).
Back to Twitter.
Next I saw someone asking if anyone really thinks we stand a chance against Chelsea next week.
Then a reply that says no
What a greeting, these are our supposed supporters, who don't seem to actually support, why do they even bother to pretend they support the club when they don't even seem to know w hat the word means?
Why are these people on social media trying to drag everybody down to their miserable level?
Why can't they allow people to be happy?
Why can't they enjoy life?
Why can't they have a positive outlook?
Why do they ant to create a negative vibe around the club?
Some of our fans so need educating.
The 2022/23 season is underway and 17 goals were scored from the six opening day games played in the Premier League on Saturday, with five of those coming at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium where the mighty Spurs ran out 4-1 winners marching all over the Saints.
Tony Cascarino, the man famously sold for 11 tracksuits (Crockenhill to Gillingham) talked about the game on talkSPORT ith Natalie Sawyer.
"I feared for Southampton going to the new Tottenham Stadium."Fitness is a big thing that in sport and that's an obvious thing to say, but when there are super levels of fitness it's completely different and Spurs pre-season, my thoughts yesterday and watching the goals and this morning we ran the goals didn't we, we watched them again, I'm watching four or five bodies in the 18-yard box by Spurs every time they got forward, whether it was Emerson Royal, whether it's Kulusevski, just loads loads more."They are a super fit team now and that's what Conte brings apart from all his ability to tactically get teams quite close to spot on."He's got a team that's super fit with loads of goals in it, no Son, no Kane which is the obvious one."
Natalie Sawyer: "They didn't get on the score sheet which is slightly ominous for everybody else because you know once they get going, I mean, they'll be scoring for fun you imagine, because that's what they were doing pretty much last season."
Tony Cascarino: "Well, you made six signings in the summer, big ones and none of them were in the team."OK, with Richarrlison suspended because he got suspension in the end of last season, but it's quite funny when you go like well there's my statement right, this is my team today, these are the guys who have come in and watch us go."And you know I think that Spurs have made the best signing as a manager for a long time because his demands are the highest level but with that physically his teams will absolutely run you ragged and that is a new proposition."Yes teams at Spurs have had fit sides before but this is to another level I thought. Yesterday, [Saturday] look it's only one game gone, but it shows what Conte is about and what his team will be like this year."
Antonio Conte
"I think we started the game very well because we were leading the game with possession to try to score but then Southampton scored and we considered a goal that we could avoid, I think and we have to improve on this aspect but at the same time his situation approve us, the reaction the reaction."
Tony Cascarino: "Yeah well, if you take the manager apart slightly as a player and you know there'd be a lot of listeners who didn't see Antonio Conte play, he was in incredible sides especially at Juve and he had people like [Zinidine] Zidane in his team, he had Baggio, Roberto Baggio, very talented footballers."He was the worker, he was the guy that mixed it with everybody, he fought like hell to be in that team and he has always had that conviction about himself and his teams where whatever they do, they're never going to give it easy to you."That's his demands, first and foremost because even the best players he's ever played with, he will even say to you they work their socks off."Technically they were brilliant, but they still work their socks off and that's him, his whole team, the reflection of him, his his team, that they will battle you in every position and give you nothing."
Tottenham Transfer Talk
I looked at our transfers after seeing a graphic showing Spurs as the Premier League leading goalscorers in 2022.
These were the transfer lists I looked at. What do you see?
Like looking at a painting or a picture or even the clouds in the sky, we all see different things.
Art is about freeing the mind to not see what is there but what you imagine is there, what you can see a hint of and mentally embellish with the creative part of your brain.
I looked at the Ins list and I saw a future, I saw a club cherry picking the best players from smaller clubs in the Premier League because that is where Tottenham Hotspur are financially at now.
Daniel Levy and ENIC have transformed the club from a near bankrupt outfit, to one that can now financially compete with the big boys.
You could argue that that has come at the cost of trophies, but then you could argue that being able to financially compete is so important in todays game that it is worth all the hurt.
Life is full of cycles.
Spurs have been at the top of the game, winning the impossible double in 1961/62 that freed the minds of others to be able to achieve it, became the first British club to win a major European trophy, paving the way for everyone else.
The Glory Years with cups and entertaining football, then the other side of the coin.
Relegation, near bankruptcy, struggling to pay players wages and unable to bring in high quality players.
Daniel Levy and ENIC have turned that around to another exciting upward cycle that everyone should be enjoying.
Live for today and tomorrow, not yesterday and the past.
Each summer now, we can survey the other clubs, we can talk to players agents we are interested in and let them know we are watching developments.
Players with contracts running down will jump at the chance of a move to Spurs, an up and coming player will be eyeing the big clubs, of which we are one now and want to play for them.
It gives us pull, it enables us to buy Premier League proven players, it puts us on a different plain to all but our fellow elite clubs.
I see future opportunity.
And no I don't see that as spending £60m on James Maddison, ho doesn't fit our system.
Spurs are the highest goalscorers in 2022, ahead of Manchester City by 1 and Liverpool by 5, ahead of Chelsea by 17, yet apparently we lack creativity!
How many packed defences has Maddison actually unlocked?
Eriksen couldn't unlock them.
As I keep saying, you go round or over them, not through them.
Where did our goals against Southampton come from, out wide, where do so many of Manchester City's goals come from, out wide.
Who were the two Premier League Golden Boot winners, wide players.
Kaisen Approach
The little things matter, every tiny improvement improves the whole.
Attention to detail so it is great that experienced new Croatian signing Ivan Perišić, will be having weekly one-to-one sessions with Ryan Sessegnon, who has already said he has learnt a lot from him.
That tells you there was a lot missing from his game.
Experienced players helping youngsters is not new, they are generally there to help the group, but to be assigned the task of creating our next left wing-back is.
The biggest thing Sessegnon will learn is how to think.
By that I mean reading the game and anticipating the game, knowing where he has to be on the pitch and see an opportunity before a defender sees a danger.
That gives you the extra half a yard and as we saw, that was vital for his goal when minutes before he hadn't read the game quick enough and wasn't in the right position to take advantage of the opportunity created on the other side of the field.
If Kulusevski cuts in on his left foot, Sessegnon has to be on the ned of the cross, he has to be expecting it, he has to have seen the play and anticipated, not reacted.
That's the big change we are going to see in him this season and it will transform him, this will be his breakthrough year.
Bryan Gil
Tottenham are looking to sell Bryan Gil, hence the delay in him departing the club as others, like Valencia, all want a loan deal.
We wait, as we do with other players, to see if a buyer will emerge before agreeing to any loan deal.
Valencia will be holding further discussions this week as will Real Sociedad, who have also asked us about Gil.
Giovanno Lo Celso
Villarreal want to tie up a deal for talented Argentinian Giovanni Lo Celso ho helped them reach the semi-finals of the UEFA Champions League last season.
Spurs want to sell him, not loan him, Spurs want an obligation to buy, not an option to buy and former Arsenal manager Unai Emery wants him before Fiorentina strongly enter the fray offering to buy him.
Villarreal, therefore, are proposing a loan deal, with an option to buy, that becomes an obligation to buy if certain conditions are met.
What those conditions are I don't know, but Spurs will want them to be, almost guaranteed, achievable.
Considering e are not asking the earth for him and have set a sensible price, something should be able to be worked out.
P.S. For our Scottish friend, it is statistically proven than after 10 games you are in the table roughly where you are going to finish and has been generally accepted in football for donkeys years.
Natalie Sawyer on talkSPORT mentioned it again after the first round of games. It just shows that experience teaches you plenty that the younger people just do not know.
2,004 words
COYS
FURTHER READING
Spurs Summer Transfer Window Day 61 - 1,448 words
Spurs vs Southampton - The Story - 3,231 words
Spurs Summer Transfer Window Day 59 - 2,432 words
Spurs Summer Transfer Window Day 58 - 1,742 words
Spurs Summer Transfer Window Day 57 - 2,485 words
4 comments
I see a number of players on the IN whom I already know to be of the right calibre to make a difference at Spurs. Others there who look like good potential for the future. I can easily trust and have confidence in those decisions as already we have seen a difference in the players coming in under Paratici & Conté and we also know they (P&C) understand the critical importance of players' mentalities.
In the OUT list I see a number of names I'm not very aware of. I would expect these products of our academy to be earning the club much more than was invested into bringing them up to that level. Not high enough for playing purposes here but still part of the overall process. Other names going out on loan - some to get invaluable first-team experience they're unlikely to get enough of here - and others with a view to unloading. Others are going because they haven't quite managed to cut it here.
All of it's important. Ever…
When players attract "haters", like remora they can be hard to dislodge, even when said player has improved. Emerson was instrumental in the win against Saints and if not for the excellent Kulusevski, I would have had him as MotM, or at least the non-existent award for Most Improved Player.
I don't see myself as a hater in any sense of the word, but I was certainly disappointed with Emerson's output. Quite against Clive's advice to allow (sometimes) up to two seasons before a player's true potential shines through. I agree though, that after Kulu - who had a fantastic game - both WBs surprised with how good they were - and effective too - not just looking good.
I can't wait to see more frankly. Spoilt for choice now. Every manager's dream/nightmare :-D
COYS!!