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Spurs Summer Transfer Window Day 63

Spurs Summer Transfer Window Day 63


The seagulls wake me at 5am regularly now, one is outside my window every morning squawking away, as they did this morning and so that is how the Spurs Summer Transfer Window Day 63 began.

A quick note before I dive into Spurs Chat this morning, the 'w' and 'q' and '2' seem to be rather intermittent on my keypad at the moment, so if there are a few I haven't picked up...tough. LOL

Another day, another chat and what has the wonderful mind of THBN come up with today to entertain you and get you thinking, make you alive?

Well, we are in the EPL summer transfer window until the end of the month so let's discuss something transfer related.

Tottenham have a history of signing promising young players who do not achieve the initial expectations.

  • Jack Clarke - £8.5m July 2019
  • Bryan Gil - £22.5m July 2021
  • Joe Rodon - £10.89m Oct 2020
  • Juan Foyth - £8.0m Aug 2017
  • Georges-Kevin Nkoudou - £11.0m Aug 2016
  • Clinton N'Jie - £8.3m Aug 2015
  • Deandre Yedlin - £2.34m Aug 2014
  • Zeki Fryers - £3.15m July 2013
  • Grant Hall - unknown fee Aug 2012

Some do work, Dele Alli £5m Feb 2015, for a while anyway.

Jack Clarke was sold to Sunderland this summer, I believe for £2.5m, still only 21 with time to develop at another club.

Bryan Gil doesn't have the physicality required for the Premier League in my view and the club want to loan him out, if nobody buys at our set price.

Joe Rodon has not been seen as good enough by 4 different managers at Tottenham, which should tell you something. He has been loaned to Rennes with an option to buy for €20m (£16.9m) a £6.01m profit.

Juan Foyth was loaned to and then sold to Villarreal for £13.5m in July 2021, a £4.5m profit.

Georges-Kevin Nkoudou was loaned out twice and then sold to Besiktas for £4.05m in August 2019.

Clinton N'Jie was sold to Marseilles for £6.3m on July 1st 2017 after spending a season on loan there.

Deandre Yedlin was sold for £5.31m in August 2016 to Newcastle United so made £2.97m profit.

Zeki Fryers now plays for Macclesfield after his transfer from non-league Welling United. Spurs sold him to Crystal Palace in September 2014 for £3.42m so made a small profit (£0.27m).

Grant Hall was bought and sold for an unknown fee in 2015 to QPR and is now playing for Rotherham in the Championship.

There is nothing wrong with taking a punt on a young player each window in the hope that you unearth another Gareth Bale, but could we be doing better and having a better success rate?

One size doesn't fit all and the very nature of the business, buying young to develop is inherent with risks, but you have to look at all aspects of the operation and ask why so many fail.

Mentality
Motivation
Coaching
Opportunity
Scouting & recruitment
Poor use of the loan system (particularly abroad)

What are the reasons?

What needs improving?

Ho can we do things better?

How can we have more success?

For me I come back to the be-all-and-end-all of a footballer, his mentality.

Yes our recruitment could be better, we could certainly assess players better and take their mentality more into account, as we are now doing under Conte, which has just highlighted that we weren't doing this before or doing it very badly.

However, I will say in defence that it is very difficult when dealing with young players in the cocoon of football who are still immature.

Teenagers think they know everything, you have to get to my age before you do!

Imagine the difficulty of telling your teenage son that he needs to go for mentality training with a psychologist.

The list above though are first team players.

Previously though we haven't had a first team psychologist, inexplicably. As you all know, well regular readers anyway, I feel this is an area in it's infancy in football and one that as a business we should be using.

Look at that list above, £74.68m + Grant Hall spent.

Shouldn't we be striving to maximise our return, both through sales and performance on the pitch for Spurs?

Then, why aren't we?

Our return, assuming Rennes buy Rodon next summer is £51.98m + Grant Hall so e have made a £22.7m loss.

I'm convinced that had we been giving them mentality training that their games would have improved more, that they would have produced better performances and sold for more money.

That is after all what every club tries to do.

It seems to me that if a player isn't a first choice that we have just left it to them to process that mentally and stay motivated to the highest level without giving them the help and training to do so.

Take Dele Alli, a talent, but one with no mentality training and social media image (his ego) took over from the football motivation. 

His game suffered and he has never recovered, what is it, for 4 seasons now?

A psychologist would have matched the two. 

A psychologist would have shown Dele that continued improvement on the football field would have given him the social media ego boost that he was craving.

You may not know this, but Facebook was built on feeding that ego boost by incorporating likes and notifications.

That was revealed by a former senior executive who no feels that it is wrong to do so.

Dele fell into that trap.

Troy Parrot lost it for a bit, but mentally he is back on track and building his stalled career again.

These youngsters have grown up with social media, that ego need is there in them being nurtured by social media.

They need help but they don't know they need help and if you don't know you need help, then you don't seek help.

Then it is pot luck whether they come through it or not.

Should we be leaving £74.68m to chance, to luck?

Our success with fringe youngsters will be a factor to watch over the coming years to see if Spurs have improved this untapped area of coaching or not.

Nicolò Zaniolo

The Daily Express report that we have offered to take Nicolò Zaniolo on loan and then an obligation to buy for £33.83m (€40m) if Spurs qualify for the UEFA Champions League and the Italian starts, not plays, 50% of games.

It is pretty obvious that they want him sold and want an obligation to buy with no clauses. They have rejected both those clauses.

Spurs obviously want to cover themselves with him just returning from injury and we want clauses that will ensure he is over his injuries and they don't reoccur, hence the 50% clause suggestion.

The signs are positive but there is further talking required to find a deal they are happy with and that we feel gives us some protection.

He did play plenty of football on his return last season.

From what I understand, Roma want €50m (loan and transfer fee) and we are seeking a deal close to that, with safeguards.

Roma are asking for a €10m loan fee and Spurs do not wish to pay that much.

As you can see, there is still some juggling to do with the negotiations.

Davinson Sánchez

AC Milan have asked about Davinson Sánchez, but as we already know, they can't afford players so although there are few details available, it will be a loan with option to buy deal they would be asking about.

The suggestion from the Italian end is that Sánchez doesn't like Antonio Conte.

Could this be why Tottenham were linked with Wolfsburg centre-back Maxence Lacroix two days ago.

He was among the centre-backs I wrote an article about where I listed 10 or more central defenders we were interested in.

Sánchez was on the Rossoneri radar a couple of seasons back ad ith our insistence that any Tanganga loan must be an obligation to buy they are looking at alternatives.

Th Italian report suggest Sánchez now wants a move away from Tottenham having seen in the first game of the season that he isn't going to be a first choice.

Clément Lenglet as also brought on in front of him and is likely to be the man to replace Davies once he settles but also provides cover for Eric Dier.

The report from Italy suggests Conte has asked Fabio Paratici to find the Colombian defender another club so is being touted around, meaning we are looking at replacements.

Whether this strengthens the position of Tanganga at Tottenham this season or whether we would still want him to leave is unclear at present. 

Fenerbahçe have also made an enquiry for Sánchez and will be talking to his representatives this week.

It is World Cup year and players involved want to play each week

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