Hard to believe the first fixture of pre-season is a little over a fortnight away ..

Wales online reporting Swansea won't budge on the £25m they want for Bony; also saying that Davies will be £10m.

I think we know by now that Levy's preference is for structured deals eg no more than 50% upfront and the rest tied into clauses and bonuses. Our problem is that not many other teams, so far, are wanting these deals, preferring straight cash.

Soton want bids of more than £20m for Lovren, much as the player seems to prefer to come to us I now can't see Levy sanctioning it. Our only hope is if the player starts agitating much like Bale did this time last year ie claiming injury and missing training and the Soton Chairman decides he wants rid of him.

Personally, I think we should be looking at other options rather than be held to ransom. I'm sure when Baldini and Pochettino met recently, alternatives would have been discussed as a contingency plan.

I now have a sneaking feeling that we won't do much business until the end of the window, more so because Pochettino has stated that he wants to assess what we have during pre-season. I expect him to use the US tour games to try various combinations of players to judge who will be best suited to the tactics he has in mind for us.

The senior players report back tomorrow, wonder if Adebayor will turn up as doesn't he usually miss flights and arrive later?

ade does indeed have previous in that area

i'm fully expecting MP to want to look at as much of the squad as possible on tour before any moves are made as well. he's probably done a lot of homework on the players as it is, but seeing them up close and playing will certainly give him a better idea of who can do what.

if davies is being quoted at £10m then we should really be snapping their hands off for that either way though. the talk about cambiasso still doesn't appear to have gone away as well.

So latest from those who know confirms what we already know, we are looking at LB, CB, AML and CF but dependent on who leaves and who is available with us preferring premiership experience. As I said earlier we have a list of agreed targets and Baldini also wants to bring in some younger HG players, hence our interest in Lascelles from Forest.

There is also a suggestion that it may take more than one window to acquire our desired targets and ship out those deemed surplus to requirements. Also, Pochettino is keen to give younger players an opportunity to establish themselves. So patience is being called for.

It was interesting to see who we kept / released from the Development squad. I must assume Ponchettino didn't play a great part in the decisions as some of the youngsters where already being offered around to 'smaller' clubs, before he took up his position.

All but three of the second year Academy have been offered professional contracts, which shows we are focusing more on quality than quantity when offering Academy places. As previous alluded to, there are some exciting prospects amongst the youngsters.

Maybe we'll see a combination of new signings and academy players coming through to re-shape the first team ?

I was looking at these videos of Falque earlier on of him out on loan to Rayo Vallecano last season. If he can do this for us, i'd have him in the first team in a heartbeat.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJr6F7KES7A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enLeamOuE6k

Either way it's all very encouraging as long as Levy is kept on a short leash. If MP is, for all intents and purposes, a Joe Lewis-approved appointment, then maybe, hopefully, if Levy's trigger finger starts getting itchy the season after next then Lewis will set him straight.

Picture from training with MP in the middle ..

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BryVoxICQAEkjKz.jpg:large

Look who it is on the far right standing behind Ade

Good training video on the Spurs website. All the first team appear present except those (7) who were / are involved in the World Cup. Also Ryan Fredericks and Cristian Ceballos from the development squad are included. MP seems to have built a great rapport already with the players and it is good to see a manager who can still kick a ball around.

...And our Assistant Head Coach is named Jesus!

Surely that's a positive sign!

i'm awaiting the range of unofficial merch then with "What would Jesus do?" on the front

I don't know, that one didn't end well. Or did it?

Lloris appears to confirm he's staying ..


http://www.london24.com/sport/footba...tion_1_3671991

Excellent news if it does turn out to be true.

I think with Lloris, we would only agree to let him go if we received a very large offer.

Almost certainly because I suppose Levy certainly wouldn't baulk at a significant profit for any player. I just hope we can hang on to him for a while though - I did read a rumour somewhere that suggested we might give him a new contract and make him team captain as well to try and keep him around.

Just been reading that we're not apparently interested in Cambiasso either, but then I couldn't really understand the logic, apart from the experience factor, behind such an approach anyway.

I would love to be a fly on the wall as MP makes a detailed assessment of the squad with his coaching staff over the coming weeks.

I'm looking forward to the season. It'll be very interesting to see what the new man can do with this squad - could be anything but I'm unnecesarily optimistic!

You and me both ...

Although I'm more annoyingly optimistic .. heh

I'm realistic enough to know that anything we achieve next season, with regards to progress in the cups or league placings, will be a bonus but I think if MP can replicate what he's done with Southampton with a better squad of players we might potentially get off to a flyer.

I'd even take a few lucky draws in the league cup as well to get us to the final ..

I can't wait for the season to get started to see what MP can do with the squad. Would be nice to see a youth player or two do well enough through pre-season to get some competitive games too. New manager can sometimes unearth a diamond amongst what's already there.

You know, I'm cynical enough to believe Levy thinks the best thing about MP is that he increases the market value of his players .... I guess that's okay, it means they're playing well.

If MP can increase the market value of Lennon & Rose then Levy will be eating out of his hand!

I'm really liking the pics of Soldado, Lamela, and Sandro hanging out recently

Me too, I want all three to stay. All three weren't able to hit their full potential last season for one reason or another. I'd love it if they managed it this one.

Good point but also, tbf, they both only cost about £1 mill in the first place....

Latest rumour is we have cooled our interest in Davies and Lovren and are now focussing on other more viable targets. I'm reading that as neither Swansea or Soton will accept Levy's terms and so we're are moving on. Also, another team have bid 2m more for Davies than we have so Swansea obviously want that trumped. They retain an interest in Sigurddsson but no suggestion so far it's enough to sway the deal our way.