We have signed Holtby

For a free signing this is an absolute steal

Having freund at spurs must help with getting the bright young Germany prospects

"I best go on the Arsenal board and confess my sins and say how average he is."

There is an "Eisfeld > Holtby" article that you may do penance on.

wtf is going on?

we're signing players and its not even the last day of the window

"Having freund at spurs must help with getting the bright young Germany prospects"

It must help if these kids were say to make their decisions on only seeing PL clubs in the CL etc.

RDBD

it's not optimism, it's realism. If the best players in europe become available, the best teams stump up the cash but when the best teams barely register an interest when there is no transfer fee or oversized wage to deal with, it's more than possible the kid might not be that good.

fridgeboy, you could say the same about Modric, Berbatov, Bale and any other potentially good young player Spurs have signed.

He might not be in the calibre of Gotze, Kroos, Ozil or Reus (not many are), but that doesn't mean he's not got talent.

I think it's a very good signing for Spurs.

Forgive me if I am wrong, but I believe that Arsenal evaluated the possibility of signing Holtby, Arsenal didn't actually make an approach for him, same goes for Verthongen. The number of Tottenham fans that I've witnessed jacking themselves off over 'beating' Arsenal to the signings of these two is staggering.

Just enjoy the signing.

"Schalke are my German team and I watch them at least once a week. Holtby is probably the 5th best player in Germany. "

What?! He isn't even one of the five best players at Schalke. Farfan, Draxler, Huntelaar, Papadoupulos, Fuchs, Höwedes are better players than him.
Holtby has only been good (but not great) for half a season and now his form has dropped again.

Kicker.de (http://www.kicker.de/news/fussball/bundesliga/topspieler/1-bundesliga/2012-13/topspieler-der-saison.html) - who give every player a mark after every Bundesliga game - have him at position 118 - far away from the top 5.
The marks at transfermarkt.de (http://www.transfermarkt.de/en/lewis-holtby/leistungsdaten/spieler_55508_2011.html) show how his performance has deteriorated after his bright start to the season.

Good signing.