TOTTENHAM ARE STILL A BIG CLUB!

sell Torres, replace with Forlan, Aguero, Suarez, whynot.

exactly, he is brilliant but if he's going to be injured all the time you can't rely. plus i think these messiah will he stay will he go oh god if he goes we're fucked things are just bad for a club in general. and good strikers aren't that hard to find...sure they won't be as good as him but if you spent that 70m on a new left back, a right winger, a centre back, a striker, you'd get a fairly good set of players imo.

i think these messiah will he stay will he go oh god if he goes we're fucked things are just bad for a club in general

Exactly. If this wasn't the Tottenham thread I would say that Liverpool were over-reliant on Torres but that's because the squad is very poorly-balanced and spending that £70m wisely should help correct that imbalance.

I love Torres but I'd take £70m for him too. You could basically cure the first XI for that - Bridge, a centre back, Santa Cruz, Zamora if Roy wasn't such a gent, and probably still money left over. Gerrard would've been more useful sold too.

I am quite concerned that Mascherano is supposedly to be allowed to go, though, just cos he's exactly the player I'd want to build a team around and he wouldn't fetch as much. But even that should allow them to buy Bradley or similar, and they could even get by with just Lucas to an extent.

Isn't Masch just ignoring Liverpool until they sell him?

I expect so. Don't know where he's supposed to be going, but I guess most sides could use a guy like him.

Masch was back in training today. Well, at the training ground. Probably hiding in the toilets refusing to come out until they've sold him.

i like masch but i'm not sure he's a 'build a team around him' player either- 25-30m would be a good amount.

torres- i honestly think 45m would be about his real value, but with the clubs that are chasing him and his political importance to liverpool, it could well go much higher than that. i'd trust hodgson (if he gets to make the call, indeed) to work out at what stage it becomes preferable to let him go.

what is nando's contract? if it 3 or more years then yeah, 45+, 2 or less years and take any offers imo.

I think it might be 4yrs - pretty sure he signed a 5yr deal when there was takeover-imminent chat, which is why he feels aggrieved now. Can't remember exactly when that was though.

lol this dude was on the flight from ny to london with the spurs team and had this to report: Charlie was quite funny actually, some flight attendant asked why he was in NYC he just replied ‘for the women’.

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash2/hs109.ash2/38772_424957037560_508902560_4669824_7768599_n.jpg

Tottenham Hotspur is interested in making a bid to takeover the Olympic Stadium in east London after the 2012 Games.

glory glory stratford hotspur

well they still don't have planning permission for naming rights.

Do you think this is a ruse to make Haringey council more amenable to granting permission for the Naming Rights Arena? (i.e. if you don't let us build it, we'll leave the borough - didn't Arsenal do something like this with Islington?)

yes, they've "threated to leave the borough" about a million times before. but i think the council are totally on board though - they're already helping to move local businesses off the site and relocate them - so it's probably more about getting them to put pressure on the police to sit down and iron out any problems with safety etc in time for the meeting in two months or something.

0925 BST: Ajax's £30m-rated striker Luis Suarez is one of three names on Tottenham's summer shopping list. Boss Harry Redknapp also want Micah Richards and Craig Bellamy before the start of the new season.
Full story: Goal.com

Suppose Bellamy needs to put in a season at Spurs at some point.

...before going on loan to Celtic with Robbie Keane.

Would like Bellamy tbh! Micah Richards has potential, if Arry can work is magic then he'd be good (for CB I assume).

Concerned at lack of LB talk.

I'd take Bellamy but I'm not sure he'd gel properly with any of our strikers, or get in our first team. If we're moving to 4-3-3 with Lennon further forward than maybe.

Would love Suarez but so not gonna happen.

Micah Richards could be good but I think another exciting young but error prone defender is not really what we need right now, especially after Woodgate's unfortunate death. Old experienced pro to partner Dawson please.

I'd like any left-back we sign to be of the reliable-but-unexciting school, don't see the point in signing a third adventurous attacking LB who can't really defend.

Bellamy usually described as a left winger these days, but yeah it would be on the understanding of replacement for Keane I'd have him.

Agree 100% on LB, I want a dour, experienced LB-by-trade, and not a frustrated 'footballer'.

I think we're not too badly off at CB if King can play once a week- huge IF obviously. Bassong, Dawson are prone to gaffes, but both much improved? Woodgate, King- yeah great nominal CB pairing but can't rely on them ever being available.

But buying in another first team player in that position leaves us with 5 'first team' CB's- At that stage Woodgate's gotta be let go and let someone in on a clearly understood 'first choice' basis- there's enough messing around with King's situation as is.

Yeah if you think about it our best period defensively was with Bassong and Dawson, they went four or five games without conceding IIRC. Maybe another centreback would be overegging the pudding.

just acknowledge that pair as the first choice centre halves, I think- give them that much in recognition of their work last season, not as punishment to woodgate and king or anything (I'd have let King go a year back, and I've been proven comprehensively RONG on that one)

Bellamy to Celtic rumours still not going away (didn't he say he wouldn't play in the Prem any more?), and I would take him over Keane as well (Bellamy's half-season up here was as good a half-season I've seen out of anyone, way above what Robbie Keane's done this year), but I think my expectations are being somewhat mucked about with, since we're actually signing dudes from Scunthorpe* and Sunderland.

* supposedly really good though

signing up prospects from lower league would seem like a good way for Celtic to go, too- is it somethign they've been doing much of ailsa? (i've fallen off the SPL wagon in a big way this past two years tbh)

If by lower league you mean "Hibs", then yes :-)

Difficult to put a pattern on it over the last couple of years, tbh with Strachan aware he was leaving and not spending any money accordingly (Willo Flood doesn't count), then Tony Mowbray flinging money and loan deals around indiscriminately like a drowning man scrabbling for lifelines. Couple of of "prospects" came from Ireland - Paddy McCourt and Niall McGinn - both bought for next to nothing, McCourt is genius but unfit, McGinn's useful but probably not quite good enough yet. We've got a training ground full of worldwide-sourced prospects, of those, I certainly think Thomas Rogne looks the real deal (if someone can sellotape his hamstrings back together), jury's still out on Morten Rasmussen.

Only English "lower league" player I can think of off the top of my head just now that we've bought recently was Marc Antoine Fortune (jury out for so long they might as well stop deliberating), who could never really be described as a bargain or a prospect.

(am quite happy to take this over the SPL thread to stop the Liverpool Tottingham chat getting taken over)

With Ledley and Hooper I get the feeling the strategy is to buy guys who look like they have the potential to catch the eyes of an English Premier League team and are young enough they'll have a good resale value if they put in a good season or two (Ledley was reportedly subject to a failed £8m bid last year). Same probably goes for Juarez.

McCourt is genius but unfit

I've yet to see the evidence of this lack of fitness - he's looked the best player in the country to me and never seems to be struggling (though only playing once a month gives you plenty of time to get your breath back).

The fact they only let him out for 20 minutes a month suggests unfitness to me.

Also Paddy looks like old school tanner-ba' players are meant to look and should therefore always play.
http://i35.tinypic.com/303cw0o.jpg

suggests unfitness to me

and if he's been training with Celtic for two year why the fuck isn't he fit? You maybe accept a guy coming from the Irish league might not have the same fitness levels when he arrives but they've had a fuckload of time since then to train him.

(sorry Spurs, you are still big, carry on)

Same probably goes for Juarez

Neil Lennon quoted as saying almost exactly that (that he has potential resale value). After years and years of running players into the ground rather than capitalise and replace, I think someone's finally sussed out how everyone else with any sense does it.

xposts, aye, that an' all. 20 Paddy minutes are generally more productive than a whole month of MAF.

other xpost, no idea why he's so allegedly unfit. Same as I have no idea why Celtic can't keep anyone's hamstrings intact for five minutes.

http://i35.tinypic.com/303cw0o.jpg
looks mentally unfit to me

rename thread to CELTIC ARE STILL A BIG CLUB

Course we are, huge stadium, regularly competing with Europe's elite in pre-season friendlies.

I'm not old enough to remember when tottenham were a big club

shouldn't celtics strategy just be to sit back and laff at rangers going bust?

is, afaik

shouldn't celtics strategy just be to sit back and laff at rangers going bust?

Yeah we've been doing that for two years and they seem to be doing all the laffing :(

You maybe accept a guy coming from the Irish league might not have the same fitness levels when he arrives

I don't! If they irish league guys don't have stamina and workrate then they don't have anything tbh.

Paddy mcCourt has been a prospect for a long, long time. 'mentally unfit' is probably very close to teh truth of the matter here.

Agree 100% on LB, I want a dour, experienced LB-by-trade, and not a frustrated 'footballer'.

does this include wayne bridge?

nah he's actually attack minded, just shit.

At the same time if you have a player like Vedran Corluka (solid, hardly ever fucks up, no pace whatsover) on either side that limits your attacking options somewhat.

The idea of playing Bale week in week out and making sure his defensive awareness improves seems like the way forward, if he can be developed to Ashley Cole level (and I absolutely believe he can) then that's enough. Maybe a dour experienced leftback as backup but how many of those are there in this day and age? I can't think of many particularly good LBs in the Premiership.

lbs >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> rbs

Corluka is a very good footballer, just not pacy. He is, imo, about the best partner for Lennon that we could wish for in terms of his movement and passing.

I don't think Bale will ever match Cole defensively, but IMO he's already better going forward. I don't think he'll ever be a good LB defensively, really. Heart's not in it, the poor tot.

It's easy to forget that Ashley Cole was seen as a bit of a defensive liability during his first through years at Arsenal. I'd give the boy Bale a bit more time meself.

hey i'm not advocating dropping him or anything

Maybe a dour experienced leftback as backup but how many of those are there in this day and age? I can't think of many particularly good LBs in the Premiership.

― Matt DC, Tuesday, July 27, 2010 9:50 AM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

This is my point. BAE is near the top, surely?

BAE improved a lot this year, but I mean every game he'll Phil Babb.