time for a reality check at spurs.
modric was a one off, always going to go.
VDV legend, adored the bloke but he hasn't gone cheap, couldn't play a full 90, couldn't track back and wanted to be closer to his wife.
sig, vert, dembele, lloris, dempsey. plus extensions for defoe and lennon is very productive work. ok, would've been nicer if we'd cut the bill more but we still have depth and lots of goals in us from other sources than manu and defoe.
moutinho was a little bit of a case of delusions of grandeur. i had hoped we'd get him and we were very close. we can move on with this team now and still have money to spend should we need to in january.
So basically we got worse than last season but it is not as bad as it could be? That makes me upset
Given that we were found wanting last season and have already dropped points this season, it look like top 4 is beyond our reach already unless AVB can make up the difference in quality i.e. worse squad but much better manager.
Much as I hope AVB is a super genius, I would have preferred our chances of CL not to rest on his ability to make things better and instead have strengthened the squad which we quite obviously have not.
Dembele is not as good as Modric
Dempsey and Siggy are not as good as VdV
Lloris is roughly equivalent to Brad but younger.
We have more options but of less quality, which is EXACTLY what we were cursed with in the early 2000s. Jol started building with real quality and we have steadily marched on from there.
This is a huge step backwards unless AVB is a genius.
edit- it is not like we didnt see this coming either. Modric was screaming to get out, VdV was loyal but made a murmur about really wanting to be with his wife. We had the whole summer to plan for this and massively dropped the ball. I have been screaming "in Levy we trust" but on this occasion I predict ultimate failure. I would obviously love to be proven wrong though.
edit 2- the other thing that needs to be considered is that we have effectively ripped out the midfield creativity of the team entirely. The changes have been done at the last minute with important games already upon us. We have essentially a whole new centre midfield setup. The manager has had no time to gel them or get them playing and there are no "old" players left to brief the new players or help them integrate. Unfortunately for AVB he is staking his managerial career on a team of players who do not know how to play with each other.