Winter Tottenham Transfer Talk
Before we go into Winter Tottenham Transfer Talk let's once again tackle the problem of fatigue that few supporters on social media seem to understand.
Players are not robots, they can not play at 100% every 3 days, it is physically impossible.
It takes 48 hours for the body to physically recover from a Premier League game or a Champions League game.
Spurs can't let players rest for 48 hours, they have another game to prepare for, they get 4 hours rest.
Training increases recovery time so the players are not recovered from the previous game when playing the next one.
Thus fatigue levels just grow and during games energy, therefore, disappears faster.
If you expend energy early your body drains of energy faster, your muscles 'give up' quicker.
Think athletes, think horse racing, think any sport and the effort, the speed, comes at the end, not the beginning.
Those who go fast early, burn out and get overtaken by those with more energy left.
Our players are not playing under optimum fitness and energy levels.
They are playing suffering from fatigue, a build-up over the most congested fixture schedule in history.
Spurs have played 13 top-level games in 43 days, not games where a squad team can be played.
That makes it even more important to conserve energy early and finish strong.
It happens in every sport so why are pundits and supporters expecting Spurs to burn themselves out in the first half and stroll around late in the second half, as that is all they will be able to do.
In that scenario, Spurs would concede goal after goal late on and fans would complain that the players have no energy!
Spurs players are knackered, Conte even tells us that Kane is stopping during training to get some energy back, he and others are running on empty.
The players will get some rest now, rest for those who leave the FIFA World Cup tournament early and a bit of a rest after the World Cup, now that Spurs don't have a League Cup tie 3 days after the Final.
Performances will improve immediately after the World Cup and hopefully, Spurs can add some further quality in January from the rather limited pool of players who might be made available.
That looks to be the game plan for the season.
Pundits tell you Spurs have a quality squad, but no they don't, there are too many players not of Top 4 standard.
This first period of the season has been a success.
Tottenham sits 4th with only three fresher sides above them.
Spurs have fared better than Liverpool, better than Chelsea, but that's not good enough for some fans.
The Spurs objectives for this first part of the season have been achieved and the club is now in a position to push forward in the second part of the season.
The club is happy, Conte is happy, sensible fans are happy and quite frankly, that's all that matters.
Winter Tottenham Transfer Talk
News from Italy, where else, that Tottenham Hotspur Managing Director of Football and the man in charge of transfers these days, Fabio Paratici, is lining up a bid for Giorgio Scalvini.
Who is Giorgio Scalvini?
Scalvini is an Italian centre-back who has one full international cap against Germany in June of this year, although in that game he played as a defensive midfielder for 45 minutes.
He also sat on the bench for the Italians game against England.
Scalvini is an 18-year-old (19 in December) right-footed and plays in Serie A for Atalanta.
Last season he featured in 18 Serie A games and 10 so far this season after coming through the Atalanta youth system.
Games can be misleading so in terms of minutes he has played 1,360 (15.11 full 90 minutes) scoring two goals and picking up four yellow cards.
Transfermarkt says Scalvini's transfer value is £10m (€11.42m), the Italian media suggest £30.53m (€35m).
Pedro Porro
Pedro Porro is a 23-year-old (24 next September) Spanish international right-back or right winger for Primeira Liga club Sporting CP in Portugal.
In August 2019 Porro joined Manchester City from Girona in Italy and he was loaned out after a few days to Rayo Vallecano in Spain.
I know little about him but if City buy him then he has to be a decent player in the making.
Mohamed Simakan
Mohamed Simakan is a 22-year-old (23 next May) French U-20 right-footed centre-back, who plays in the German Bundesliga for RB Leipzig.
Leipzig is a club that buys and develops young talent to sell on and they are quite good at it.
Simakan has a bit of pace about him, something Conte needs in his back line to allow the defence to defend higher up the pitch.
His passing and dribbling are decent, he scores well defensively and physically, is a bit of a beast and is good in the air.
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FURTHER READING
Yet another revealing press conference from Cristian Stellini on Tottenham's style of play in this first part of the season.
News on transfer interest and the latest on Harry Winks
Our style of play was revealed by Cristian Stellini in his post-Marseille press conference as exclusively revealed by THBN previously.
A look at who have dropped points in the Premier League in the last 5 games and Tottenham Transfer Talk with players not reported elsewhere.
THBN asks questions about the laws of the game and asks if they should be changed?
A discussion on zones helps you to understand each player's role & Conte's system better.
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