Lamela had a fantastic MOTM performance in Europe and was dropped the next game. How do you explain that?
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The standard of the opposition explains that.

At one time I think I am right in saying Darren Bent was our record signing (if not it he was pretty near a record signing) and we had people on here YET AGAIN screaming about how he should be "given a chance"

Well he got a chance and was crap.

Exactly the same happened with Bentley and he was crap as well.

Lamela may well be a bad buy and the powers that be may have realised this. I have no idea I dont watch him in training. TWO managers not one failed to pick him even tho he is a record signing, do you honestly think this is coincidence?

As for what everybody says I cant see how that matters. Everybody I know thinks I would be a good pilot but I have yet to find anybody who will give me a quick go in their plane.

Like it or not you get picked by your performances in training and quite rightfully so and every footballer in the world knows this.

How many times have you heard a player say, I will just have to get my head down, work hard in training and hope I get back into the team?

Thats what Lamela has to do and apparently at the moment he is not doing that.

That does not mean he is not a very good footballer (altho I have yet to see that he is for us) there might be a 100 other reasons ie: homesick, language barrier etc.

As for Townsend who I saw mentioned earlier, IMO he is a one trick pony who plays for himself not the team and I think he is extremely overated. But I also think he has as much right to automatic selection as Lamela, which of course is no right whatsoever

Don

As for Suarez, nobody that I know on here disputed his ability we all questioned his attitude and we were right as he has spent as much time banned for pool as he has influencing things on the pitch

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I'm really struggling to understand how any fan would be happy to see their club to spend 30M on a player and not give him a real go
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This is a good point though.

If you had bought a £80k Ferrari, and didnt like it on the first couple of goes (maybe because you werent used to it etc), you wouldnt stop trying it out so that you can appreciate the beast underneath that everyone has been talking about.

Could easily move that analogy on to Lamela, even though it differs.

Bales,

A couple of days ago you absolute denied that anyone was even suggesting players should be played because of transfer value pecking order, yet now you are not only agreeing that IS what is being said, but you are also agreeing to the principle of it….

What about Bentley, how come we preferred £1m Lennon to £16.5m Bentley, and how come we didn’t see the same support from you towards Bentley whilst he was still under contract – because of his transfer value?

I’m also baffled as to why Soldado was/is selected over Defoe, although Defoe did get the nod under Sherwood but has been injured since the West Ham QF I believe. On that note, is it fair to say that £5m Ade would be preferred to £12m Defoe?

If our team was selected on transfer value then Rose and Townsend would never ever start, and Lennon would only start over a player who came through the ranks – this doesn’t happen.

I admit that the transfer value usually indicates what players are better, hence they would normally be first choice, but this is never, and has never, formed the basis of who SHOULD play. And back to the topic, there is no way Lamela should play over any other player on the basis of how much money changed hands between Spurs and Roma. That deal is done, and Lamela is just a member of the squad. He doesn’t have a golden peg in the changing room and he sits on a bench – not a throne.

I’m only concerned with how players perform on the pitch, not what the why’s and therefores are of how their transfer value was calculated. My sentiment is with the club and team performances – not individual player’s transfer values.

I don’t care how much Lennon cost – he should start when fit. I don’t care how much Ade cost, he is our best striker and should be first choice when fit etc. And I certainly don’t care how much Lamela cost – he is not deserving of a starting place – nor a run of games (performances related) – simply because of his transfer fee.

I hope he improves and does justify his value – but that is of no interest to me.

Chicken.. first off I wasn't aware anyone had said that at that point, secondly I said it wasn't that simple.. as I have maintained it's not the actual amount that's relevant, but why we spent it - ie I don't believe we'd pay so much for a player that might be good.. he's been capped for his country because he is good, and from all accounts of people that saw him at Roma, a special talent.

Bentley had plenty of chances and failed to deliver, you're twisting the debate to team selection when we're talking about how we can - or not in your case - integrate players in the team and get the best from them.

You say you're only interested in what goes on on the pitch.. so unless you've seen them play well for us they shouldn't start.. and we all know that's a ridiculous idea - every player has to start somewhere.

I suspect Sherwood's comments got to you.. we're keeping him and he's going to play.

I also intimated that if he doesn't play for whatever reason then Levy must be culpable. You can take to your high horse about transfer fees all you like, but the reality is we need the new stadium to compete in the top 4 regularly.

"don't care about the stadium"? You'll care when the Spammers move in to the OS and overtake us while Levy chucks tens of millions at players that never play and sacks a manager every other season.

In short, I'm backing Baldini and Levy to not be complete idiots, and if it goes wrong well then they are.

One last point on fees I neglected to mention.. they're relevant not to talent necessarily but reflect the demand for said player. That's why we got so much for Bale, and had to pay over the odds for Lamela to beat off the competition.

If a 30m transfer fee is irrelevant to you you must assume that we simply bid for players by plucking numbers out of thin air, or for headlines.. like it or not, whilst we're a self sustaining club such large amounts are relevant to the short and long term success of our club.

In this analogy have you every flown a plane before or any kind of flying contraption
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Look I have flown a kite ffs whats the big difference

BTW do you know anybody with a plane that might let me have a go in it

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Bale's,

You're massively contradicting yourself here mate. One minute you're claiming Lamela should play because of his value, yet you change your opinion when I use the Bentley example. Your next point is that Lamela has capped his country, well again so did Bentley.

Also I think you're confusing me for someone who wants him out of our club - that is not what I'm saying. I'm simply saying that he should not be further up the pecking order because of his value - which is a theory I would apply to every single player who is selected.

Apart from the boys that come through the ranks Lennon is our cheapest buy yet from your principles he should never play infront of any player who cost more, and it's an opinion I can never ever agree with.

Grandspur, you said that it was a huge risk when I mentioned Lamela playing just behind the striker. Well looks like Sherwood thinks it could be his best position and will start playing him there

Chicken

I'm not contradicting myself, you're just not reading my posts properly, not for the first time either.

Bales, now Defoe has gone mate I want Sherwood to stick by his word and play Lamela up top behind either Soldado or Ade. Could potentially be another positive bale like decision.

With the international argument though. Bentley was capped at a point when McLaren was giving pretty much anyone a cap, in a position which noone has 'made their own' since Beckhams absence, during the peak years of Bentleys career.

Whereas Lamela gets regular starts at a young age in arguably the greatest international attacking force atm.

Just throwing that out there

Sounds good to me Don

Grandspur, you said that it was a huge risk when I mentioned Lamela playing just behind the striker. Well looks like Sherwood thinks it could be his best position and will start playing him there
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Going by our first half performance yesterday I would not be surprised if Sherwood gave you a game behind the strikers Don.

Maybe Lamela has started reacting better in training because that is what I have said all along that he is obviously not being selected because he was not doing enough to impress in training and two managers have made the same decisions.

I have never said he was a bad player all I have said is you have to work hard in training to get selected.

Edin

Bale's

I'm not contradicting myself, you're just not reading my posts properly, not for the first time either.

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What have i mis-read?

My take on it is this:

You first denied that anyone was claiming the transfer fee should determine the pecking order, although you later (after Ginger said that it should) agreed with him that it should.

As a flip side to your argument I used David Bentley, where he cost more than Lennon and most of our entire squad up until a short while ago – yet I didn’t see the same support from you, Ginger or anyone else that he should be selected because of any transfer fee pecking order – in fact he has become a bit of a joke figure, even amongst our own fans (not that I’m claiming Lamela is a joke by the way).

Then, to further support your opinion you used the fact Lamela has international caps AS WELL as a larger transfer fee, which should also place him the highest in the pecking order – yet David Bentley also has international caps (probably more than Lamela) yet again the consistency of your opinion doesn’t support this.

If you simply believe Lamela should play, that is totally fine as we all have our preferred selections, but claiming the transfer fee is proof that he should play is something that I would object to – the same as I would object to a any player playing simply because of money that has been transferred from one club to another.

As I have said/agreed already, players who cost the most usually get picked in the first XI but this is only because they are generally the better players within the squad, and prove as such – but this is more of general outcome than a rule that is followed by clubs. I’m actually glad we have a manager (and I suppose AVB did this too) who picks his teams on who he thinks is the right XI to beat the opposition and for the tactics they want – and not on transfer value alone. I didn’t agree with much that AVB did but the one thing him and Sherwood seem to have in common is that they don’t rate Lamela good enough AT THIS PRESENT TIME.

As a side point, now that Defoe is fit, I hope he replaces £26m Soldado, but I admit that is a different debate altogether.

THIS PRESENT TIME will never change unless we risk him though, he has to start successive games to get himself match fit apart from anything.

We know what Lennon can do, and aside from the odd, freak goal his main asset is his defensive workrate.. Lamela is already good but has the potential to be much better.

If you don't want him to start games now, then when?

Bale's

If you don't want him to start games now, then when?

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I want him to start games the same as any other player, and that is when he proves himself, proves he's good enough, and is picked on merit.

You might say "How can he do this if he isnt playing?" But it is the same for all the players, when you do get your chance, whether it be in the EL or the last 20 minutes of a game - you have to take it.

And he hasn't done this, bar one good game in the EL. Holtby came on against Fulham and potentially changed the game - and scored a winner. I'm not saying that Lamela has to score a winning goal to get a start but its this sort of thing that will put himself back in contention and back in the manager's thoughts.

He's young and i hope he will come good, but he should not be an automatic starter from the performances we have seen so far, and this being whether he cost £1m, £10m or £30m.

Eriksen is a prime example. He has been given a chance and he is taking it. His first XI place is now his to lose in my book.

Lamela was 19 when he first represented Argentina & has 6 caps at the age of 21. He has scored 1 goal in 17 appearances (mostly as substitute) for Spurs. Only 9 of these were in the PL

Bentley got his first of 7 caps at the age of 23 & has never played in a competitive tournament for England. He has scored 3 goals in 42 appearances in a Spurs shirt.

Just a brief comparison, however I do agree with Chicken on one point here, you play in the team based on performances and certainly in the PL, Erik has struggled. I will qualify that however by suggesting that he is someone bought for his potential rather than his immediate impact to the club.

He does have tremendous talent & remember GB took a couple of years before we started to see why we bought him!

Greaves

My comment wasn’t a direct comparison – far from it - it was more to prove that by simply having a higher transfer fee shouldn’t entitle anyone to a starting place or a run in the team.

I just gave an example of a player who had a higher transfer fee, yet didn’t get the same support as Lamela is on this basis.

And as I have already covered, if people believe he deserves to be selected because of ability – then that is a totally different debate altogether. I was just objecting to pecking order based on the amount a player cost, hence I used Bentley as an example.

Chicken.....
Based on that premise, I am in full agreement with you!