Summer 2012 is going to be a massive year for Levy and Spurs, it's more than likely that 'Arry "Two Points From Eight Games" Redknapp will be England manager so Levy needs to act quick to get in a replacement.
Over the past few transfer windows although we've got in players like Parker and Friedel on the cheap we quite simply HAVENT SPENT ENOUGH MONEY to maintain being a Top 4 club.
When Harry came in he got the very best out of underachieving players. He got them believing they were good enough and we got Top 4. Now what we need is a tactical genius to take us to the next level. If Sir Alex had the squad we've got this season the league would be in the bag by now no doubt. We need two players that can play each position to allow for rotation and a manager clever enough to know how and when to rotate.
Obviously we're not playing Football Manager here but this is the sort of thing I'd love to see...
NEW SIGNINGS:
Hugo Lloris
Kasper Schmiechel
Roger Johnson
Yoann Cabaye
Junior Hoillett
Gylfi Siggurdson
Demba Ba
If we miss out on Champions League then we can't expect players like Hazard to want to join so the above players would all be pushing for 1st team places and improve our squad.
GK:
Lloris
Schmiechel
LB:
Assou-Ekotto
Rose
CB
Caulker
Dawson
CB
Kaboul
Johnson
RB
Walker
Corluka
RM
Lennon
Hoillett
DM
Parker
Sandro
CM
Modric/Cabaye
Huddlestone
LM
Bale
Pienaar
CAM
van der Vaart
Sigurdsson
CF
Ba
Adebayor
That would give us a 22 man squad, I would also keep King (moved into a player/coach role), Livermore and Cudicini (3rd choice).
The following players I believe should all be sold for whatever we can get for them:
Jermaine Jenas
Niko Kranjcar
Jermain Defoe
Louis Saha
Ryan Nelsen
William Gallas
Brad Friedel (Yes he's been good but at 40 we need to look towards the future)
Heurellho Gomes
We do need a massive clear out in the summer regardless of who the manager is and players like Defoe who are good players but just don't fit into our 4-5-1 system need to be moved on. You might be surprised that Corluka should stay but Walker is absolutely shattered and Charlie always did a good enough job for us.
As for the manager, we need a tactically astute man.
Brendan Rodgers
Jose Mourinho (Highly highly unlikely)
Any other suggestions?
And a final thing, maybe the next manager needs to sacrifice playing 'The Spurs way' yes Redknapp did it well and we all loved it when we were smashing teams 4/5 nil with our pacey wingers and counter attacking flair. But you can't do it for 38 games of a season, throw in another dozen cup games and we're playing over 50 games in the space of 9 months.
Over to you Mr Levy.......
This summer will be massive.
posted on 22/4/12
I think any of King, Gallas and Nelsen would be great coaches. They were great players. However, injuries have had taken their toll.
posted on 22/4/12
Bale me out,
United and the Milan clubs are after Kagawa, maybe even City too. He plays for Dortmund who are bundesliga champions and have a secure CL future next season. He won't leave them for Tottenham, in fact I doubt he'd even leave for Arsenal.
Vertonghen wants to move to arsenal. He's spoken about it and his best friend is vermaelan, who's in close contact with him about a move to arsenal.. I wouldn't be surprised if we get Vertonghen.
posted on 22/4/12
Why don't we get Heskey whilst we're at it
posted on 22/4/12
Some of the personnel aside* some very good points made I feel OP. This is the biggest summer EVER at Spurs in the PL era, possibly that I have ever known since supporting in the early 80s.
Redknapp in 'leaves club in absolute turmoil' shocker! Who'd have predicted that? (Apart from West Ham, Southampton and Portsmouth fans!!)
* Just three examples on the 'players' leaving front: I think Corluka's loan includes an option to sign if he did well, which he has (stand to be corrected there), I believe Pienaar signing for Everton if he settled back in (which he has) is a formality, and even if he wanted to stay AND we wanted him (which I hope we don't!!) we could never afford Ade.
posted on 22/4/12
"This is the biggest summer EVER at Spurs in the PL era,"
Just like the last one, then.
posted on 22/4/12
We certainly need to strengthen at Goal Keeper with 2 old timers on the books, Brad has been consistent and made few mistakes but how many worldy saves can you remember him making.
Left back is also a weak position, Rose and BAE are not quite good enough in my opinion.
And obviously cover for the wings, a new CB and 2 strikers.
The problem is shifting dead wood on fat salaries, hence why they are loaned. It will be an interesting summer, new manager .... player sales and arrivals etc.
posted on 22/4/12
"And a final thing, maybe the next manager needs to sacrifice playing 'The Spurs way' yes Redknapp did it well and we all loved it when we were smashing teams 4/5 nil with our pacey wingers and counter attacking flair. But you can't do it for 38 games of a season, throw in another dozen cup games and we're playing over 50 games in the space of 9 months."
1981-82
posted on 22/4/12
comfortablynumb (U5155)
"This is the biggest summer EVER at Spurs in the PL era,"
Just like the last one, then.
--------------------------
With hindsight you could say that last summer we thought it was, but it actually wasn't. We were fine until January, surpassing all expectations in fact, we then shipped out half a team on loan and got no-one in.
Some of the problems arose/were compounded last summer, but here is what we face this summer (as well as needing a new manager and coaching squad!!) that I posted elsewhere:
Players either definitely or probably wanting to leave: Modric, Niko, Gio, Defoe, Ade, (plus Charlie, Pienaar, Jenas, Bassong, Bentley of course). Bale, Kaboul, Sandro, even Parker (depending on new manager) - possibles.
Players probably not wanted for next season: King and/or Gallas, Saha, Nelsen, Khumalo.
However big we thought last summer was, this one coming is a problem many, many times greater.
posted on 22/4/12
sorry why the heck would cabaye join us when it looks like newcastle will be in the CL next season!
posted on 22/4/12
cabaye was saying this week that hazard should join arsenal.