again.
Another transfer window gone by and another Spurs master class in how not to do it the right way, as they stay stuck in Levy Limbo, it’s Catch 1882.
What is Levy Limbo and Catch 1882?
Well, Levy won’t commit to spending on players while the coach, Conte, won’t commit his future to the club and Conte won’t commit his future to the club while Levy won’t back him by spending on transfers.
And round and round we go.
Levy got away with it last season, with Conte getting into the Champions League places, he got away with it at the beginning of this season as Spurs ground out those late wins, after not playing that well. But the wheels have fallen off of late.
And the same old faces are doing the same old things.
This window Spurs needed a minimum of five players, possibly six. While they needed to offload some of those same old faces.
What were the minimum five? Well, they needed two centrebacks, a left fullback, a right fullback, and a creative midfielder. The sixth, would be Hugo’s replacement in goal.
What did they get? One right fullback and a left winger. That covers one area that was desperately in need. One area and no matter how good Pedro Porro is at rightback/wingback I don’t know if he’s gonna cover for the deficiencies elsewhere.
You see all the excuses, it’s not easy, there aren’t the players. Well, others seem to find ’em. Spurs have the stadium, the fans, a so called world class manager, are in the Champions League and have a hope of getting back in next season with the right players. And Levy told us the money from everything else will be filtered back into the team, so there’s money.
So why does nothing happen?
I mean look at others. Liverpool wanted Gakpo so went out and got him before the transfer window opened. Spurs wanted Porro from the very off and yet it took almost until the last minute of the last the last day of the window to get him, on loan. Man U lost Eriksen to injury, went straight out and got a new player. Chelsea, five places and 7 points behind Spurs in the league, with a manager who is also under pressure, wanted players and they went out and spent £289m, £107m of it on one player. And that goes with the £270m last summer. Yeah, remember when everyone cheered when the Russian left because they wouldn’t be splashing the cash any more?
And now you look at some of the players Spurs should have gone for, well, they’re being linked with other teams come the summer, when Spurs will be outbid by the likes of Man City, Munich, Madrid, Barca, Chelsea, PSG, Liverpool, Man U, Newcastle etc etc.
Imagine adding to those two loans with spending about a combined £120m on Gvardiol and Skriniar – the latter available on a free this summer. Another £50 to £60m on Maddison, who will be wanted by many this summer, City especially. Three position they desperately need to fill, with quality players, just imagine. But that’s all we can do, because no. They faff about and leave it until the last minute, forgetting that other teams need to time to get replacements, so don’t want to be leaving it until the last second.
But Spurs forget a lot of things. Like how many they have out on loan and how many they are allowed. The farcical situation of wanting to offload Doherty to Atletico Madrid on loan but they couldn’t because they’d already filled up their quota, so they had to terminate Doherty’s contact – by mutual consent – and he’s allowed to jet off for nowt, probably to get the type of career boost that Trippier got when making the same move. When I saw #shambles trending on Twitter, I just knew what was being posted about.
And there’s the other thing, getting rid of the deadwood. With Porro’s arrival that meant they now had four rightbacks. Of course they kept the one, Emerson Royal, they should have offloaded, while dispensing with Doherty and sending Spence out on loan.
But there’s so much deadwood still at the club. If Poch actually does comeback to the club there’ll plenty of familiar faces to greet him. Sanchez, Davies, Royal, Sessegnon, Moura – some say Dier but were they saying that when they were clamouring for his England recall earlier in the season? – all still there. Not budged an inch.
I mean reading about the surprise move of Cancelo away from City, it’s stated that Guardiola “would like to replace 4/5 of the key 15/16 he uses regularly”…
… would try to talk him out of his attitude with no success
A lot of what Pep mentioned about the side in recent press conferences (lack of hunger, etc) was referred to some players, including him
Every season Pep would like to replace 4/5 of the key 15/16 he uses regularly…
— Guillem Balague (@GuillemBalague) January 31, 2023
While Spurs just keep hold. Or send out on loan, as Gil makes his way back to the club Spurs signed him for £20m plus Lamela.
So Levy didn’t back Conte and Conte well… I’d be surprised if he’d want to go through another transfer window with this club…