TOTTENHAM ARE STILL A BIG CLUB!

even Mourinho said so

Three cron og's was a bit obv

Modric back plus 20m is the lol madrid offer according to whispers, idk what to say about that rly.

they love rose up there no joke, poty if it wasnt for mignolet. we'd probably have him too once we finally lose our rag with traore

reckon andros will get a look in eventually what with poss recruitments for champs league? needs a bit of polish (another season long loan with us should do nicely) but i can already think of a couple games where he'd have been a better option than siggy or dempsey

xp can't imagine modders ever putting in a shift if that happens, not even in this new happy clappy era

Rose can't be worse than naughton at lb, and townsend would be #2 on rw by default, imma say bring em home

modric put in manys the shift last year despite summer disappointment in 2011 tbfttl

Modders would not strengthen this team as much as losing Bale would weaken it. Can't see it happening.

            Striker
B           A           L           E
Holtby or whoever zzzzz   Dembele              Lennon
            Sandro
Ekotto                        Walker
    Vertonghen   Dawson/Caulker
            Lloris

guts of it are there. not sure that the bale synergy or whatever isnt costing us in other ways, but obv the payoff is huge the past few months. please can we have a striker sir.

Can have benteke off us for 20 mil if you like

...........

im considering it

We'll swap ya for 12 mil and j.d. actually, now I think on

fuckin a i'll take that as of 6pm today

All good clean fun when we're speaking hypothetically, but it makes me miserable to think that it's the sorta thing that is 100% likely to happen. I just fucking know we're gonna get bent over in the transfer market for the guy. Tbf I'm hoping and praying that Mancini follows through on his desire to bring in a new striker and goes after him. If James Milner was worth £28 mil of Bobby M's pocket change then Benteke's gotta be hitting the 30s for him.

if

well yeah just banking on citeh not learning their lessons tbh. experience would suggest that this isn't an especially long shot.

These are the moments when i wish that Lerner was a bit less affable-American-who-gets-the-culture and a bit more Daniel "FACK OFF you're only offering how much?" Levy.

D.L. would be drawing in 30 mil-plus for this guy easy peasy, we'll probably let him go for £13 plus a decent squaddie, as per earlier post

We never sold anyone for 30m after one decent season, behave

sorry, drinking.

And defoe is a first xi and england international

Ah dont get me wrong, I'm a big fan of Jermain Defoe. Was hugely enjoyable seeing him taking the Oscar for best supporting actor at Spurs this season prior to his injury. But Benteke is very much up on the pedestal right now. I mean where the fuck will we be without him, even if we do stay up? I want £25 mil and not a penny less, but I suspect we'll settle for not much more than half that in the event

i knocked 5m off you in two posts, levy gon eat u rite up imo

Ohhhhh and there was me thinking that my sales pitch had got you interested in a £15 million RRP striker at £25 million. Any mug could take a starring role in our shower of shite, yknow. I look forward to seeing the boy at the Lane winning every header and putting 95% of them wide next season.

Deciding he doesnt wanna sell, pooh-poohs the goods. Kids knows he's in deep imo.

Just fancied a go at being disingenuous to try and fit in round here and see whether it stuck tbh, For reals, from my perspective right now the guy looks like a goalscoring demi-god who'll win every header, is good with both feet and has surprising tekkers for a big lad. Having said that, wouldn't be especially surprised if he moved to a big club and spent a year or two being caught offside, scoring 15 in all comps and giving away free-kicks on most of the high balls. Still misses enough clear-cut chances for there to be a lingering element of doubt over whether he might let the side down when he's up against the wall in a big game.

But if he does move onwards and upwards I hope it's to Spurs. If he moves abroad I'm no longer interested, City and Chelsea would be tawdry and dull. If he goes to Arsenal or the Pool I might just end it all alone in my room on a winter's night. Have gone from hating Spurs as a side I saw as direct competitors about 5 years ago to living vicariously through them. Spurs breaking the glass ceiling with Bale still in the squad and Benteke firing on all cylinders would be a joy to see.

I am on record as having felt that way about berbatov and the villa of young and laursen iirc

we're all exceedingly genuous btw

stfabl has promise

Gotta be honest (I do my best, spent a good week puzzling out twp on my arrival), but I don't have a clue what that acronym is.

Bentekkers

Davies im callin u out on that offer

ffs, these scripts just write themselves eh? a lot's changed between now and March tbf, more money please. and defoe

I got the fear

Bale to refuse to play and things to fall apart
Injury to soldado leaves us as we were
Any loss of form or fitness at cb leaves us fucked
No rb cover or competition
lb dubious and not convinced by depth
overstocked at cm
still a bit short on wings

I got the fear tbh

Bale to refuse to play and things to fall apart

sorted that one out very nicely thank u

Injury to soldado leaves us as we were

valid fear

Any loss of form or fitness at cb leaves us fucked

valid fear

No rb cover or competition

naughton is much better there, so ok then

lb dubious and not convinced by depth

tbrr vertonghen is now striking me as a better lb given his attacking instincts and the concentration levels he shows when left marking a lone threat, so ok with rose i guess

overstocked at cm

playing three, this is ok, given the amount of possession and legwork they're doing no harm to have two options for each position there

still a bit short on wings

still true for left, tho whether we'll be playing with a left winger as such seems to be in some doubt.

seven clean sheets from eight games is confusing.

Got a feeling that puny midfield / no Benteke means we're gonna take a pasting tomorrow night. Even a Spurs second team is an intimidating prospect atm.

What's happening with Lamela? Is this a case of giving him time to bed in or is AVB pursuing the admirable policy of keeping faith with an already-established player in good form (Gylfi)?

Certainly not the latter, as he seems to favour lamela on the right

Tho it might be exactly what he's doing, just with townsend.

But it's mainly the former i think

The Lamela thing is basically what happened with Lloris all over again. He'll be a regular starter one he's had the chance to bed in. Reckon AVB had an eye to starting him on the left against Cardiff but dropping Gylfi after scoring two goals would have sent out all the wrong signals. And it's in the wider interests to keep Townsend in the team for the time being.

Squad balance is excellent at the moment - two players for each position means AVB should be able to rotate within the same system pretty easily. I expect everyone to get plenty of game time, except maybe Adebayor. And making him train with the reserves following his brother's death is probably a mistake, we might still need him.

seven clean sheets from eight games is confusing.

Not really, it's the solidity of the midfield that's doing it. Any two from Paulinho, Sandro, Dembele and Capoue is going to be very difficult for anyone to get through, like a less thuggish version of De Jong/Van Bommel from the Holland 2010 squad. Against Cardiff we were winning possession so far up the pitch, before they got anywhere near Vertonghen and Dawson, it's how we were able to pin them back again and again. Reckon the centre back situation will be okay what with Kaboul and Chvrches anyway.

still true for left, tho whether we'll be playing with a left winger as such seems to be in some doubt.

Chadli, Lamela and Sigurdsson can all play there, and we're not going to be playing high balls from the touchline in any case.

What I've said about solidity overlooks the fact that we've only had to play one team with any real wide threat yet, and that was the Arsenal defeat. I've been impressed with Rose but Naughton just isn't good enough and got caught out several times against Cardiff, and Walker always has a fuck-up in him.

Obviously Eriksen is amazing and Holtby looks more than capable in that role as well. Is this our best start to a Premiership season yet?

We haven't had to play any real long-ball merchants yet either, that's potentially a problem.

Obviously Capoue-Paulinho-Dembele didn't work against Arsenal and is probably unnecessary against most teams. The right balance for a midfield three in the long term is one of Capoue/Sandro, one of Paulinho/Dembele and either Eriksen or Holtby, with Sigurdsson there in an emergency.

None of that is too objectionable

Ah we had 12pts from 15 in 2009 as well.

not sure i can recall spurs having a proper squad before. still hopeful that things might speed up once everyone gets comfortable.

Yeah I mean, second place at this stage of the season with an entirely new front line and most of a new midfield is pretty impressive work.

is it worrying or encouraging that spurs have the most shots on target in the league (34) given the low number of actual goals (5)?

Worrying. Everything is worrying.

dunno if i'm into soldado tbh

As post-arsenal games indicate, Dembele is apparently totally lost when asked to play as one of two advanced CMs ahead of a Capoue/Sandro. Since that game he's played I believe exclusively as one of two CM's behind Eriksen/Holtby and his form has been excellent.

soldado should be more useful if&when spurs start moving the ball quicker

he's had/made chances, just been putting them too close to the keeper. had at least two of those against Cardiff

Soldado's looked better since we've started playing with a #10, his interplay with Eriksen is already excellent.

Ugh that ball from Holtby was sickening

I've just switched on, what did Vertonghen do? The commentators seem outraged in an entirely unconvincing way.

Pulled down big Nick Helenius's shorts in the area. Not a pen, bullshit