VAR, Scouting, Transfer News, Euro 2028

Morning folks, a variety of news today.

Turkey have withdrawn from the bidding for the 2028 European Championships leaving only a joint bid between the UK and Ireland remaining.

Good news for the country so we should be looking to develop a team to have a real chance of winning the tournament on home soil.

The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium will be one of the stadiums used, great news for the club and it's exposure around the world.

VAR

Interesting VAR stats

Spurs 15 decisions for us and 19 against making Tottenham the only Big 6 club not to be favoured by VAR!

Arsenal have had 20 decisions go against them but still come out in the positive.

Chelsea 24 for and 18 against

Manchester City have had 16 VAR decisions go for them and only 14 against

Manchester United have had less decisions go against them than any of the big 6 with 11 (19 for).

Liverpool are the most favoured team when it comes to these decisions in the last 5 years, 25 decisions for them and only 13 against.

The VAR Table reads:

1. Liverpool +12
2. Manchester United + 8
3. Chelsea +2
4. Manchester City +2
5. Arsenal +1
6. Spurs -4

Scouting

Fabio Paratici is a consultant at Tottenham and it is he who has organised our scouting in Italy where we have a scout at virtually every game.

If a player is emerging Spurs know about them, not just with the present requirements for Ange Postecoglou and the skillset our Australian head coach requires, but in general.

Once again we were linked with 24-year-old (25 in December) Sassuolo left-winger Armand Laurienté.

To be fair though, we will be linked with lots of players playing in Serie A as you can imagine so how many of them and which ones of them are more serious as targets, as opposed to players we are following, is another matter.

It is not just Italy though, our scouting network has considerably improved under Paratici.

A club like Tottenham, that still doesn't have the financial muscle of a Manchester United or the guarantee of UEFA Champions League football, like Borussia Dortmund or Club Atlético de Madrid, S.A.D., known simply as Atleti or internationally as Atlético Madrid, must have an extensive scouting network to secure the next level of talent coming through.

Barcelona, for instance, scour the world for the next generation of super talents and try to sign them into their famous youth academy.

The Barça youth academy is known as La Masia, a sports school affiliated with FC Barcelona.

Now, I had this discussion with someone who was trying to tell me the Tottenham academy was solely there to provide players for Tottenham Hotspur, it isn't.

It is there to create professional footballers, wherever they ply their trade. Yes, we naturally try toi hang on to the cream of the crop, but the academy is run in a sustainable way, thus receive an income from any player it sells.

The Barça youth academy operates in the same way. Ii is aimed at children between 6 years old and 18, with the primary objective of improving their football formation at all levels.

Tottenham are scouting 22-year-old (23 next June) Feyenoord midfielder Quinten Timber, who is being watched by Liverpool, Manchester United, Manchester City, Arsenal, Atletico Madrid, Borussia Dortmund, Monaco, Napoli  and a host of other clubs.

“Certainly, I envisage a significant transfer in the future. But my journey starts with Feyenoord. This season, I aim to put forth exceptional performances. The future is unpredictable, but a significant move would indeed be an exciting prospect.”

The Eredivisie club, managed by Arne Slot, lost in the UEFA Champions League 3-2 on Wednesday to Atlético Madrid. 

The central midfielder is a Netherlands U-21 player, has 1 goal and 3 assists in 7 Dutch league games so far this season.

On the striker front, Jota remains a possibility. Will or are Spurs discussing getting him released from his Al Ittihad contract, where they have too many players registered so he isn't playing any football.

Diogo Jota was a Portuguese youth international at various levels, including under-19, under-21, and under-23. 

The ex-Benfica and Celtic man is known for his versatility as a forward and can play in various positions in the front three and wide midfield positions.

The 24-year-old (25 next March) would be available on a free contract, if he can secure his release, but of course, plenty of clubs are looking at him and the Saudi Arabia Pro League club are not keen to let him go,

Santiago Giménez is the latest flavour of the month after everyone went overboard on Gift Orban, whose numbers are not the same as last season in Belgium.

The 22-year-old (23 next April) who has Real Madrid ambitions, is being followed by Spurs, Atletico Madrid, Arsenal to name a few, unsurprisingly as he has 10 goals and 2 assists in 7 Eredivisie games this season.

He missed the defeat to Atleti.

Serhou Guirassy has scored 10 goals in 6 games, a record start to a Bundesliga season (goals per minutes played). Now he is not as young as the rest, he plays for Stuttgart and is 27 (28 in November).

The former French U-21, now Guinea international (8 caps, 2 goals) centre-forward has also had one assist and featured in 58& of his sides Berman League goals this season.

He is being linked with Spurs in the German press which may just be lazy reporting with Harry Kane going to Bayern Munich, however, he does have a 20 million EUR (£17.33m) release clause..

OK, let's wrap up there for today and look forward to the weekend, where we are down to a front three of Richarlison, Son and Kulusevski, who is being trained to also play on the right, thus being able to get to the byline and cut the ball back with his left foot.

COYS