Early Deal for Holtby?

Have to agree with this article ox. Sell Livermore to QPR for 3 mil and get Holyby in early!

Thinking down the line here, how many home growns are we going to have in a year or 2, selling Hudd, Livermore, Dawson, Parker and Defoe are towards the back end of there careers. It'l leave Lennon, Naughton and Walker maybe Kaboul? who are considered home grown. I havent had time to check but wouldnt be running a little low?

Carroll, Livermore, Dawson, Caulker, Walker, Noughton, Lennon, Bale, Townsend would all be home grown and then what ever youth players get promoted!

Slurms- Yeah after I pressed submit i realized i missed some key players. Doh!

errr doh dum do de dumbbbb, is it february yet? do we have a game this weekend? how many tea bags in a box of 80 tetley tea bags?

Yet again - Huddlestone is not a "defensive option", he can't tackle. The fact AVB was happy to sell Hudd but would only let Livermore go on loan tells you all you need to know. It would only make sense bringing in Holtby early if he could hit the ground running. There is a danger that by the time he adapts to the premier league the season is over. Having said that some cover for Dembele would be good.

Jod that danger still exists when he joins in the summer even with a full pre-season he will need time to adjust to the pace of the prem!

Get him over here now. No pre-season can compare to 'real' games. The best pre-season he could have is 4 months competitive top-flight PL football with us. He'll help us this season and be even better for the experience next season.

No leave him where he is and allow him to develop more, unless we gonna bring him in 2 play now.

As for Snjeider great player but onlya few clibs in the world can afford his salary, we aint one of them, case closed.

I don't. Find it odd that is. We're in a position to make a a stance this season, but while our foes add to their assault on where we stand, our administrators sit back with their hands behind their backs, welcoming the inevitable fall that will come with thiet ineptitude. I seem to remember feeling this way last January

both Parker and Livermore struggle to pass the ball forward...what happens when we need to chase a game or don't need a destroyer? Carroll's not ready yet as witnessed by his disappearnce in the 2nd half of his last game, Dembele will also need a rest....are we looking to the mobility of Thud or Holtby to add some spark?

And to all of you that thing Defoe can handle the premier league on his own? I went and saw The Hobbit the other day. And he didn't score one goal with his head. Or am I getting my games confused? Does defoe ever meet a cross? Or did I miss that match?

*prancer* - dammit

So alot more midfield goals or more bench time for Ade Coopsie?

Was reading through the Spurs website media watch and saw a headline for an article that went something like this: "Would Levy pay for a player we have already signed for free" when you phrase the question this way you would have to think NO is the only answer!

Klinsman agree ref ScnjEGO, no thank you. x very good player, now wear wooden shoes.

Perth I bow to your wordsmith prowess, But I lament our lack of transfer shrewdness! At times it seems Levy would cut off his nose to spite his face. Our lack of transfers could cost us forth place. I wish he'd give the dice a throw and sign us Forking Leandro!

Perth. I still do not understand what people are on about. Since end of last season, I think only Chelsea have spent more than us on players. Come january and we have bolstered our club by signing Holtby and Fryers. That is 8 players signed, plus Caulker and Naugton coming back from loans. The only glaring omission is a striker option. We are fourth whilst not even hitting top gear yet. What more do people want?

coopsieyid... Hello mate! What position did Holtby play when playing for U-21's so well? No.10 role or another?

Perth, relax and and just wait until january the 48th, plenty of time left to save the cost of a postage stamp while we ***** 6 or more points down the drainski.

Tophobunty, I thought the window closed on Feb 30th?

lol hudder u need to chill man, my point is we should only bring him here now if we gonna play him, Sandro being out means in the middle of the park will be Parker/Dembele , out wide Bale and Lennon, so it's Dempsey/Siggi and Holtby by my reckoning battling for 1 place. So why remove him where he's playing week in week out if we only gonna put him on the bench, that why the hell I suggested he stay and develop, as to me he is not a priorty atm.

A couple of things. Holtby is in shape and has been playing lots of games this year. I believe the reluctance to bring him in early was twofold (money is not the issue): Schalke did not have a replacement in the squad (now they do) and Spurs did not want to bring in a player, who needs to be playing, to sit (Sandro is now down). He is also most effective with a striker who knows how to play football and who is going to work off of him. Does anyone see the problem yet? You can whip in as many crosses as you want, pull as many strings as you want, be as clever with set pieces and corners, but if there's no one there to hammer it home......Holtby was the plan for next year once the next wave of purges went through. We are now down a man and need quality. Livermore needs a loan. Sounds like he was great a couple of weeks ago in the development side (controlled the midfield and hardly put a foot wrong), but he is not yet up to the speed of the PL. He needs to be playing. I would submit it should not be in our lineup atm. Hudd may not be able to be sold/loaned out at this moment, although I would really like to see him sold for the sake of his career. I believe he and Rose (if BAE will extend) need to be sold. There is just too much of a glut. Townsend needs to be playing. If not with us, then with someone else. Pritchard will be the same next year. Smith too. Luongo does not seem to be too far removed either. Obika either needs to get a shot or he needs to be sold. By his results this season, you have to say he merits a shot somewhere.

There are lots of decisions to be made and there is a whole host of opinions as to what's correct or in Spurs best interests. The one thing that has been evident since Berbatov left is that we need a dominant, proper, up top striker who can play football and who knows where the back of the net is. What is the delay on Negredo? They are flogging him. Just get it done. As I understand it, Arsenal are the other team in the mix. Signing him means they do not get stronger. Signing Willian over Chelsea means they don't get stronger. At the very least make Arsenal or Chelsea have to up the odds so much that it hurts them to do it. Come on AVB and Levy. Get it done. My wish list, Negredo, Son, Willian, Sissokho and get Holtby in. Wipe hands. Target 2nd. COYS

Chapter 7 stated that there would be 80 bags unless it was the bonus box in which case the answer is 100. Oh, and we need a striker. COYS

My opinion is get him in now, not because of what happened to the BEAST (who is my player of the season so far) but because hanging around Schalke is going to do him no good when everyone knows he is off in the summer. I have not seen him play and have no clue how he will adapt but, going on what i have read he has a bright future. Get him in for the reported 1.5m and show him the respect he deserves as a new player.

Funny thing about Livermore. Last season, Spurs had a training clinic here in Oz, my boy was on it, and the coaches were espousing his virtues and how he'd come through the Spurs academy. We'd just lost or drawn a match we should have won (whatever, the dropped points meant we missed CL this season at the end of the day), but lost or drawn (?) due to a defensive mistake from Livermore,. I said unto coaches, I noticed you mentioned Livermore, I Phucking hope you're not responsible for coaching him how to defend, at which point they looked pretty sheepish

And they were coaching my boy? It makes one wonder.

I don't think there's a chance of Holtby getting here early, ever known DL to spend £2m now on what he can get for £0m in six months, no me neither....

Also think Jake is not good enough and Hudd and Carrol are better cover. I don't think Jake will ever cut it at Spurs but as the last article said he could prove us wrong. Only chance of that happening though is if he gets game time, and I think he should be loaded out to QPR now. No risk there, if we needed him we're better off just changing the system/personnel i.e. put Verts in DMF, because Jake's not good enough right now.

Massive game for Scotty this Sunday. A full flowing Man Utd is exactly what Parker needs to get back into the swing of it, shame Sandro isn't there but I have faith in our Subbuteo midfield general.

sadly Peter from your list of 4 only Townsend is good enough, they other 3 we might as well sell now. Livermore aint good enough and never will be unless we are shooting for mid bottom half or championship. Agree ref the second part wish list.

probably a draw Shedboy, personally I would have none of the 4.

shedboy - i was thinking that during the QPR match. Even Gio would have created more. The real pitty is we are phucking stuck with the pair of them now!

No follow the Levy Trend; ''Better to pi$$ around the pot, than in it, why make a big splash'' He should already be here, show some commitment Levy, tight arse.

hudds/tops- I couldn't decide either but the former had more creativity... Tornado- you only want Willian...that's modest....I suspect that may happen but I would also like a striker...

Tornado, if we are to be a top team, we can't have starters who are uni-dimensional. Defoe is an impact sub. Nothing more. Put Son in his place and you have a scary, fast top three with Bale, Son and Lennon with Willian able to cover off any of the three. The reason I like Son so much is that he is so technically sound in every area of the game. It would allow us to get Bale off of the dead balls and in to attacking the deliveries. His flick ons are very good. We miss far too many chances from our dead balls. I also believe as Son and Willian, with their dribbling ability, will cause defences issues. This normally results in penalties. Bale needs to start fighting through tackles or he will never get a enalty call. lennon needs to go at guys more. His foot speed and dribbling should really be getting us more free kicks. None of this should take away from the need of a top striker. Sign Negredo. If we can get Leandro in the summer, super. If not, it's not a "need" anyway. COYS

Funny how we all see things differently. I'd take Dempsey and Sigurdsson any day. Pienaar runs around a whole bunch but he'll never score at the rate of Dempsey and his style of play is less likely to have him playing day in and day out in three years where I suspect Dempsey could play for another 5. I really liked Niko and believe Harry blew it with him. That said, Gylfi's delivery on dead balls is equally good, he has a better engine and I think he'll develop in to a very useful player. I believe Gylfi behind Dempsey would be a far better pairing than anyone with Defoe. COYS

lol Peter I think we have always seen things different from Defoe to Obika.

Peter I have to admit I don't know anything about this Son so i'd have to take your word for it. I do agree on defoe tho - we need to get a top quality striker who gives us what Surez gives liverpool and what RVP gives united for example. We need a Berbatov!! I admit Defoe isnt this. But I don't think there is this type of striker available in this window.

Ossie, I accpt that. I must admit that when I am in agreement with some of my fellow posters, I do a doube take, just to make certain I am not needing my medication upped. I jest, of course. COYS

SLURMS & PERTH - Hi fellas, sorry it's taken until now to get back to you, had to do the school run etc.. Anyway, Slurms - I'd obviously hate to see Ade on the bench ;)..

PERTH - Long time indeed bruv, hope you're keeping well :)

'School-run' was called cross-country in my day mate.

PETERBALLB whatever you said, whatever I read. Concur wholeheartedly, despite the thoughts of dread.

COOPS. Happy new year bruv. I can't believe some of the grim tidings I read. As I said above, It's been many moons since I've posted, but not since I've read. But still I see only words of wisdom from brothers from XMAS past. You, Big C, And Peterballb. All, if not with the accuracy of Peter are worthy of repartee. Shiver me timbers bruv. Aint it just the sanme as the last window?

Perth, are you trying to bromance with some of the regulars?

Crissy. Hello bruv. Nope. I am my own man. Just from experience, the aforementioned brothers happen to be knowledgeable in their chosen topic, which happens to be Tottenham Hotspur. A lot of people purport to be Spurs, but only a few I deem to be worthy of consideration. Post something worthy brother and I might consider worthy of response. COYS

OOPS I FORGOT, HERES SOME WORDS FOR SLURMS. SORRY POETIC BROTHER LIKE ME LOVES SPURS. MATE I FORGOT TO SAY HERES ONE FOR THE ROAD LOVE YOUR WORDS, LOVE YOUR RHYMES, SEE YOU TOMORROW

Crissy - Still being at school is the only way I can relate to many a member on here ;)

AHHHH BLAHHH THE PHUCKING LAST PART GOT MANGLED IN CYBERSPACE. SORT OF LIKE OUR PHUCKING NORMAL TRANSFER WINDOW

HEY COOPS, DO YOU LOOK GOOD UN A SKIRT? I AIN'T A PRETTY CHICK

Hahahahaha too late bruv. She wins

Perk up chaps. A quick scour of my usual sources has revealed that we are seemingly SERIOUS about enquiring about a STRIKER. Happy now?

It's Kenwyne Jones!!

Talk suggests that forking out 4 or 5 million on a back-up who knows the PL & will settle instantly = better business than forking out upwards of £15mil on Damiao or Negredo, who may not settle at all.

Mock all you want but I can see the sense IF this talk turns out to be true. He's one of those players that has all the attributes to be a fantastic striker, but something seems to have got in the way. Maybe AVB sees something in him? I see how much AVB has improved the games of Bale, Lennon, Naughton, Defoe & Sandro. This gives me hope that he could have such an affect on someone like Jones.

Kenwyne Jones? Ouch. Mitroglou - 3M Euros, Guidetti - 7M, Castaignos - 5M. There are better choices out there. Son is 20, will cost about 8M and would offer huge potential marketing revenues. Ideal Levy deal, no? COYS

It is surely a no brainer for the sake of £1.8M, get the bloke in for 2 reasons. 1) We need all hands to the pump and maximum selection options open, to try to secure 3rd or 4th place. 2) While we have him on just a pre-contract, perhaps somebody else could high jack the deal, pay a few quid in compo, and "Bob's your uncle" we've lost him.

Peter - I've just come across this post &instantly thought "this is right up Peter's street"... Get your reading glasses on young man :)

http://www.whoscored.com/Players/12726/

whoscored rates him at 6.88, which is not terrible. He wins 6.1 aerial battles per game, which is frankly amazing.

If we compare that to some other strikers who we either own or have been linked with:

Player Apps Goals Assists SpG P% AW MoM Avr
Kenwyne Jones 8(6) 3 2 1.7 52 6.1 3 6.88
Adam Szalai 16(1) 9 2 1.9 65.6% 2.5 2 7.06
Emanuel Adebayor 12(5) 3 0 2.2 81.7% 1.7 0 6.66
Jermaine Defoe 26(2) 14 2 3.4 85.4% 0.2 4 7.04
Fernando Llorente 3(15) 2 3 2.7 74.4% 1.3 1 6.68
Leandro Damiao 19 7 n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a
Heung Min-Son 15(2) 6 0 1.5 76.5% 1.7 0 6.91
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang 20(1) 8 4 3.3 71.9% 0.6 1 6.98
Loic Remy 7(12) 3 1 2 80.7% 1.1 1 6.41
Facundo Ferreyra 13(2) 13 n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a
Alvaro Negredo 17(1) 10 0 3.6 63.8% 2.9 1 6.96
Mirko Vucinic 15(7) 5 4 3 72.4% 0.6 1 7.13
Christian Benteke 23(2) 9 4 3.3 65.6% 8(!) 4 7.2
Roberto Soldado 23(1) 16 3 2.5 72.2% 0.8 3 7.16
Franco Di Santo 17(4) 4 1 2 70.9% 1 1 6.63

Apps: appearances
SpG: Shots per game
P%: Passing success percentage
AW - Aerial Duels won
MoM: Man of the Match
Avr: Whoscored rating


We see that actually because he wins so much in the air, Jones is rated fairly alright compared to the competition. Note how rubbish Remy and Di Santo are, and how little Llorente has done this year. If I was to pick two 'moneyball' players to sign on that list, I'd definitely be going for Szalai and Negredo, which makes sense as those are the less sexy names that keep coming back. Benteke was definitely a missed opportunity, look how good he is in the air!

On a side note, Jan Vertonghen is the left back in the 'dream team' with a rating of 7.5 and Gareth Bale is 19th in the world overall so far this year with 7.71, Dembele is 68th with 7.4. Lewis Holtby is the 159th best player (pretty good) with a rating of 7.24, with 3 goals and 8 assists and a passing completion of 80.9%.



Other strikers that rate better than the above include: Kiesling at Leverkusen (17apps, 12 goals, 2 assist, 5.6AW, 7.97 rating)is second only to Ibrahimovic (17apps, 18goals, 4 assists, 1.9AW, 8 rating) in the striker ranks.

Cavani (17apps, 16 goals, 1 assist, 0.8AW, 7.87 rating) is amazing, but not actually very good in the air.

Erik Lamela (14 apps, 10 goals, 1 assist, 7.77 rating) and Totti (18apps, 6 goals, 6 assists, 7.74 rating) are doing awesomely for Roma.

Jovetic (15apps, 8 goals, 3 assists, 4.5spg, 7.68) is probably out of our league.

Mandzucik (14(1) apps, 9 goals, 7.43 rating) and Berbatov (17(1) apps, 7 goals, 3 assists, 7.35) might have been missed opportunities last summer.

It's quite hard to get a good rating as a striker - Szalai at 306th is only about the tenth pure FW in the list (defoe is right next to him at 308).

Manucho (11(2) apps, 6 goals, 3 assists, 7.7AW, 7.28) is actually pretty damn good (and amazing in the air).

Iago Aspas at Celta Vigo (19apps, 8 goals. 3 assists, 7.31) might be worth keeping an eye on.....

Good stats and whilst I (and am sure all other fellow spurs) would prefer a world class striker, feel that at the worst we should bring in a low price goalscorer such as jones, odemwingie, long etc. All three preferable to ade if their attitude to succeed is right and all better than last few windows - Saha, Campbell etc. for me, I wouldn't mind seeing a cheeky bid for luka ku.

Windlespur, how much do you have to give Schneijder to get him to his 160knet/week. It's got to be close to 300k/week. That's just stupid money. He's geting close to that right now, which is the issue (along with unpaid fees etc). With those wages we could pay all of Negredo, Son, Holtby and Sissokho. What you are proposing is that plus 6M. For how long of a contract? That would be highly irresponsible and without a proper striker, it would be, IMO, a waste. Like Schneijder is going to make Defoe in to a footballer. COYS

In preference to stats, I prefer Bill Nicolson's method. Go to the relevant games, stand (in those days) with the home supporters and listen to their views on players. If you did that you would, say at WBA, choose Long in preference to Lakuku or Odemwingi. Otherwise you get people on here saying (like Frank) that we missed out on Chamakh

Windle - Hi mate. As you're probably aware, I've been saying we should go for Shane Long since he said he wanted to leave Reading for PL football. Such an underrated player. Works immensely hard for the TEAM, has superb 'hold up' ability, has an excellent cross when forced out wide, strong, brave & actually a pretty good finisher too. I'd personally rather have him than Ade!!

Coopsie, what you have proved with your figures is that there are strikers out there (307 of them rated better than Defoe), that can be had for reasonable fees, unfortunately none would be free, or none of their clubs would pay us to "take them off their hands", which is what is probably putting Ebenezer Levy off. Those of us craving a striker, are well aware we can't afford £25-30M players, but we could source, and sign, a better striker than what we have (there are 307 to choose from), for a reasonable fee.

Sell Hudd get LH in asap.