Ladies and Gentleman, buckle your safety belts: it’s Levy Time

Article by Michael Frankal

Join the NEW e-Spurs Forum

We are now entering Levy Time, with 3 days left of this winter’s transfer window, but what can we expect in the coming days?

Well, we’ve seen little movement so far but, typically, plenty of rumours. In fact, the most notable activity has been Kyle Naughton’s departure to Swansea, for what’s been reported as £5M. Kyle never seemed like he was going to be a regular starter throughout his time at Spurs and his departure came as no real surprise. Hopefully he will get some decent game time at Swansea, I’m sure he’ll be wished well. Holtby went out with a whimper too. He was popular with the fans but not so the three managers he worked under, a real shame it didn’t work for him as it all looked very promising.

I can understand why Poch hasn’t gone crazy in this window. We’ve probably got too many players that are always going to be on the fringes. This window should (and still could) be the time to slim down the squad (and payroll) to free up space (and money) for a more considered summer window. In terms of acquisitions, I can’t really see Pochettino enjoying Levy time, which in past years has sort of resembled a footballing supermarket sweep, hosted by Jim White rather. But you never know, as Levy undoubtedly likes a bargain and we could be stronger in some areas.

TO GO

Many, myself included, expected Adebayor to be off but, when you factor in his massive wages, questionable attitude and lack of impressive performances, it’s hardly surprising he’s still on our payroll. We’ll see what happens but at £100k a week, it’s costly to keep him hanging around. Aaron Lennon has almost vanished from existence and, in what should be his prime years, could still join a decent side and establish himself as a regular starter but it’s all quiet on that front, with some reporting that he is unwilling to move. Tom Carroll is still down in Swansea on loan, could that become permanent? It seems he would have to displace a number of established players before nailing a regular first XII spot at Spurs. Paulinho, who was meant to be our Frank Lampard, can’t be happy with bit parts in cup games. Chiriches may be better suited to the Italian game and those rumours won’t go away.

Sales that definitely won’t happen in the next few days: Lloris to Arsenal or Harry Kane to Real Madrid (The Metro must be having a laugh when publishing these ‘stories’).

TO COME IN

We are always linked with a number of players and this window is no different: Rabiot from PSG on loan (why?!); Delph (why not?!); Danny Ings (Burnley will seriously not want to let him go in their situation, will they?!); Jay Rodriguez (hasn’t kicked a competitive ball since when? May?); Bojan (because unless we have 10 that can play the number 10 the press won’t be happy?); Damiao (just kidding, I think).

Defensively, we can hold on until the Summer. Verts and Fazio are building a good partnership. Eric Dier could become an excellent long term centre back for us. Then we’ve got Kaboul and Chiriches as additional cover. Full backs are fine for now and I’m looking forward to Yedlin getting up to speed with the English game.

We’re largely OK in the middle and surely this is where we’ll trim. Although a left-winger may help. I like Chadli but he’s not really an out-and-out winger, he is, though, becoming an important player for us. Lamela is working hard and I’m confident he’ll win a few games for us between now and May. Townsend is our no.1 penalty taker now and seems to be showing general signs of refinement. Eriksen is world class when he wants to be. Nabil and Mason was really starting to work before AFCON and they look like they could be our centre pairing for years. Stambouli lacks pace but is a real grafter. Dembele is a conundrum and probably deserves his own article one day. And Capoue is a useful player to have but isn’t the Sandro replacement we were hoping for.

We need another goal scorer, desperately. When 2 of your 3 strikers are ineffective and you’re trying to secure a top four Premier League slot, win the League Cup and the Europa League (with its zillion games) you will come unstuck. And we have too often (our poor goal difference could come back and bite us at the end of the season and we are dropping points (and almost out of 2 cups) by not killing games off). Simply put: we are not scoring enough goals. However, I think there’s more chance of Soldado banging in 20 goals before the end of the season than us buying another expensive striker in the next few days, though. Louis Saha anyone?

Michael Frankal

@dynamikey666

© e-Spurs 2014 All rights reserved no part of this document or this website may be reproduced without consent of e-Spurs
Share on Google Plus
    Blogger Comment
    Facebook Comment

5 comments:

  1. Anonymous11:41 am

    Very nice article. Would love for you to expand on this to include thoughts of the risk/reward of making big signings in Jan. Everyone seems to say you shouldn't sell good players as it will hurt your season (Danny Ings for example), but never seem to think the opposite could be true. Sure there is some bedding in time, but if losing a good player could cost you 9 points, surely buying a good one could gain you 4 or 5? And given how tight the race for 4th has been the past 5 years that's a big difference.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous12:53 pm

    Yes but Levy's so called "bargains" rarely turn out to be so do they? Rather providing the deadwood for the next transfer window clear out. One can only wish that one day Levy, like a chimpanzee, will learn from his mistakes.
    As regards Poch "going crazy" or otherwise in this window, well he doesn't have any say in the matter IMO because Levy still unfortunately controls transfers, otherwise surely we'd have signed some class players instead of Levy rotating bargains; in one door and straight out the next. When will the man learn than QUALITY is preferable to quantity. Once a cheapskate market trader always one I guess.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Dean in Brum1:05 pm

    Soldado probably won't even score more than 2 league goals, let alone 20 before the end of this season...

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous3:41 pm

    Arsenal are shit. Not clean or spurs related but interesting.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous12:00 pm

    Agree with most of the article Levy must buy early in the summer window rather than trying to grab a late bargain (as he normally does.)some weeks into the season so we can start the season with the new signings settled in, and Pochettino should have all the say in who comes and goes.!!!

    ReplyDelete

Please keep all comments:

1-Clean (non-offensive)
2-Spurs related
3-Interesting