Tottenham Hotspur have been silent in the transfer market so far; except for rumours linking players away from the club.
The mood now in the club is to step up the efforts to sign players. Polish media outlet Sport claims that Spurs are ready to make a lucrative offer for AS Monaco defender Kamil Glik in an attempt to bring him to the Premier League.
Glik is currently at the training camp in Vienna with Monaco. He had been a revelation last season helping his side become Ligue1 Champions and reach the semi-finals of Champions League.
Monaco’s success had a negative ripple effect this season as most of the players are being coveted by top European clubs – and Glik is no exception. The 29-year-old Poland international joined Monaco last summer and his current contract runs until 2020.
The French Champions view him as a vital first team player and are ready to offer fresh terms on the current contract. Spurs are eager to trump that and offer significantly more for the defender.
Mauricio Pochettino is a huge fan of Glik and has been chasing him since his playing days at Torino. The defender snubbed his interest and chose to join Monaco last year. Pochettino could once again be in for a disappointment as it is understood that Glik is not keen to a move to White Hart Lane. One of the reasons must be the depth at Tottenham in the central defence.
Jan Vertonghen and Toby Alderweireld have established themselves as the main central pairing for Tottenham. Though Glik will provide competition for places, he may not be the automatic first choice, like he is with Monaco.
His current club too would be reluctant to lose him. Monaco are already under pressure to keep many of their stars with the likes of Thomas Lemar, Tiemoue Bakayoko, Benjamin Mendy and Kylian Mbappe all being chased by big clubs.
Not all these players would move away from the Principality. With Glik not too keen on a move, Tottenham may find it difficult to sign their target.
https://youtu.be/BDat3iX506U
All the top players we chase end up being a lost cause, as soon as the price is mentioned that’s it Levy isn’t interested, every signing we make has to be a bargain. Sometimes to get the player you need you have to pay that little bit more, not only that but even teams like Everton and West Ham pay more to their top players in wages, making signing for them a better proposition than signing for us. We have the potential to have 85,000 to 90,000 gates this season so there is no reason why we can’t start pay more in wages.
Spurs are not chasing a lost cause as they are not chasing Glik anyway. It is just Polish media talk instigated by his agent to get a better deal from Monaco.
I would rather we pay £5 million for Dele than £95 million (or whatever the fahook it was) for Pogba.
It’s the same every year. I literally do not care how much or how little we spend on a player, or whether we spend nothing at all. What I care about is that the squad is improving.
I’d rather pay £5m than £90m, wouldn’t we all, and you’re also right it doesn’t matter how much you pay, it’s all about the quality, it’s just that quality sometimes costs money, you can’t find a Dele Alli every transfer window but you need to improve the team or fall behind. Not only that but now we have found our Dele Alli it won’t be long before he wants more money than what Levy will pay, that’s why we have to pay the going rate or lose our best players.
As you know, Tony, I’m a great advocate of the youth policy. Poch has said already that he will be looking giving game time to Onomah, Walker-Peters, Edwards and Carter-Vickers. These are some very highly rated talents. We won’t have to pay a penny for any of them in real terms. We paid a club record (allegedly) for Sissoko. I would prefer the club bring though from the youth and buy potentially world class than to buy the likes of Sissoko.
Regarding the wages. The problem isn’t THFC. We pay a proportion of revenues in wages. It is approximately that advocated by UEFA. The problem is the clubs who aren’t content with having higher revenues than us, that would mean paying the same percentage would give their players higher wage. Instead they pay massively disproportionate percentages of their revenues in wages. Liverpool, for instance. It’s irresponsible in the long run. The important thing to remember through all this is that there is no going rate, and if there is it isn’t irresponsible rates. That’s just, well, irresponsible. But our revenues are going up. They will jump up again once the stadium is finished. Our players wages are slowly going up and will go up a great deal then. we have them all on long term contracts – compare that with Arsenal, half of whose first team are entering the last year of their contracts, putting their club in a shaky position, to say the least.
As for Dele, he has said he is more than happy where he is, learning his trade. By the time he might be moving on from that attitude the stadium will be up and running and we will be able to pay him much higher wages.
And don’t forget, Pochettino actually prefers to work with younger players. They have higher energy levels, are more malleable and are less inclined to question methods that go against how they are used to doing things. I’m quite confident our squad will be stronger, in a number of ways and not just by signing new players, next season.
I hope you’re right about when the stadium is done we’ll pay higher wages but I don’t think we will. Joe Lewis is all about profit. As for Sissoko that was just another really bad buy by Levy, he’s made a few horror buys over the last few years. Whether the youth work out for us and I hope they do, only time will tell, I must admit I’m looking forward to seeing Edwards break into the team. I’ll get back to you at Xmas we’ll see whether we were right not to invest like the others, it’s going to make for an interesting season.
The club pays a set percentage of revenues generated by the club in wage. As the revenues go up, the percentage stays the same, which means the wages go up.
There is a lot of confusion about ENIC and taking money out of the club. They don’t. They bought the club cheap. Will use the revenues generated by the club to make the club better and then sell at a much higher price than they bought. That is where they will make their money from. They aren’t leaching money out of the club constantly. In truth, if they can take the club with the sixth highest revenues, have them finish sixth once, fifth three times, fourth twice, third once and second once, with an exciting young team that would be worth an absolute mint if they were all sold, the best youth set-up in the country, the best training centre and soon the second biggest and best stadium in the country, it’s minor miracle, really 🙂 Folk get so fixated on them being an investment company. If you bought an old, run down greasy spoon for 2 grand, used the money only that it made via its daily operations to improve it over time, turned it into a 3 star Michelin restaurant and then sold it for £2 million, would you think anyone would have a problem with it? Because that is effectively what they have done. Tony, my first year supporting Spurs was the last time we were relegated. I’ve seen some real highs and some great teams. But unless you were there and aware at the time, you won’t appreciate just how awful a state Mr Scholar left us in. We really nearly could have went under. We were deducted 10 points, hit with a massive fine (and not like the slap on the wrist City and Chelsea get these days) and threatened with automatic relegation. We are finishing thrid and second now, even with five clubs generating far more money than us, even with two clubs being handed filthy oil-monopoly money. Hell, we didn’t even used to finish that high when we were winning European trophies 🙂 If they are leaching money out of the club while improving it like that I might put them in charge of my personal finances 🙂
I know some folk just won’t believe this, but a very well respected ITK with an impeccable track record is adamant that Sissoko was very much a Pochettino buy, and someone he wanted before last summer, too :-O Don’t forget, Poch was ultra insistent that Southampton bought that Italian pirate fella, the one who attacked his own team-mates or summit. No-one is perfect, not even Poch.
Peace out COYS
Just to point out a couple of things, I remember Spurs getting relegated, I’ve been Supporting Spurs since the mid 60’s so I know all about the Scholar times, and you’re right I don’t believe Pochettino wanted Sissoko, I believe it was a desperation buy by Levy. I do know that Levy has turned the club around since those dark days and he deserves a lot of respect for what he’s done, but we can afford to pay for quality players and I think the Spurs fans deserve to see someone like a Hoddle or a Gascoigne, in my opinion that’s all we are short of, that one or two marquee signings to lift not only the fans but the young side Pochettino has created.
See this is the thing, Tony, I can say that I have heard it stated categorically by ITK’s, with impeccable track records, that Sissoko was very much a Poch target and from before the summer when he performed “almost like a real footballer”. The claims that he was a Levy desperation purchase don’t seem to have anything quite so substantial to my mind. Of course I could be wrong, and ultimately this is inner chamber stuff that neither of us will ever be truly privy to. So it is a bit of a fruitless argument. But what I do know, which I believe shows the thought processes involved, is that Sissoko is frequently lumped in with N’Koudou was being Levy bargain basement 27th choice buys. But, and this is a fact, N’Koudou was actually, and literally, recommended specifically to Poch by his mentor, Bielsa. Can you see my point?
I don’t know about what we deserve, but the two players you list, interestingly enough, came to us via a purchase when young (yeah, I know we paid a relative fortune for Gazza…but we did have the highest revenues in the league before Mr Scholar slipped up), and though the youth set-up, in Hoddle. The closest we have ATM is Dele and he only cost five mill, as the song says. We have the talent in the youth set-up – and for me, personally, what a joy it is to have a productive youth set-up again. And don’t forget unity, togetherness, team-work, that is what the new Spurs are all about, just as much as individual flair. It is the most enjoyable team we have had in decades and, frankly, I am just enjoying watching them play 🙂