I found this funny on F365

Pictures on Twitter posted by Holtby & Soldado of the team on their way to Finland have Sandro in, so maybe he was just poorly? Strange.

Shame Dier doesn't count as a home grown player despite being English because of his academy / development years in Portugal.

what do you guys think of last seasons signings? as a neutral i find myself in minority who think bale money was used very well and poor season was down to sacking avb unfairly

Paulinho £17,000,000 - i rate him,will do well this season
Nacer Chadli £7,000,000 - got into talented belgium squad, not a lost cause
Roberto Soldado £25,800,000 - one bad season, more than proven goal scorer,i have faith in him
Etienne Capoue £8,600,000 - about as highly rated midfield prospect in europeon football you could find,well worth shelling out on. one for the future.
Christian Eriksen £11,000,000 - touted as next berkamp and will be pivitol to team
Erik Lamela £25,800,000 - potentialy the best of the lot, capable of being player of season if finds form
Vlad Chiriches £8,500,000- didnt know mucha bout this guy actually but he seems to have won over fans

i think this season under pochettino the largely same squad will do very well.

Quite a few of the new players struggled to adjust to the Premiership but I wouldn't say that AVB staying or not would of made any difference to their performances.

Lamela we now know was carrying an injury from day one but Eriksen did show he has some class. Capoue was crap as a stand-in CB, showed some form at DM then for some reason wasn't used. Chiriches looked good initially then kept getting injured and struggled when he did play. Chadli was poor and only at the end of the season showed some signs that he was adapting. Paulinho helped with a few goals but again only showed top form in a couple of games. Soldado as everyone knows just couldn't score from open play. The way the team was set up and lack of space behind opposition defences just didn't provide the service he was use to in Spain. In the end even when Soldado did get chances his confidence wasn't there to take them.

All in all I would agree that most will improve in their second Premiership season and that Pochettino looks like the man who could get the best out of them. But it it will take this season to give a definitive answer on whether the £100m was well spent. Even so I still don't think we will be top 4 with the squads others have got.

Little nugget of news hidden away in an article on the BBC site about Southampton ..


http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/28593032

Good 'FAQ' about Dier as well ..


http://www.fourfourtwo.com/features/...boy-eric-dier?

As another neutral, I think there's plenty of talent there - but mostly in an attacking sense. The real issue (from what I've seen) is the lack of pace/mobility/defensive nous in central areas of midfield/defence when defending. Not helped by AVB's (and Tim's) preference for a high line but counter attacking teams will hurt Spurs if this issue isn't sorted.

Eriksen was a good 'un but lookd lightweight when things get a bit physical - but you should build around that. Soldado's an odd one - for me, he was making all the right runs initially but gave up too easily once the service was not forthcoming. An intelligent, rangy passer in central midfield and a pacy, strong centre half will see Spurs improve markedly, especially with a defensively astute manager at the helm - might be an issue in second halfs early on though as that pressing game is not for 90 minutes if you're not a robot!

News from those who know also seems confident that the Soton boys will be with us by the start of the season. A few loan outs are also being lined up, a new 1st team ready CB is also in the pipeline and at least one midfielder and one defender will be sold.

Could this be him ?


http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/footba...ntine-3950794?

I guess so.

Midfielder to be sold, concensus seems to think Sandro as Schneiderlin plays the same role and we know Napoli have an interest in him. Defender is most likely Naughton. Loans out, Carroll is going to Derby (again), Mason, Ceballos, Bentaleb, Holtby, Townsend are all possible candidates.

Reports from Spain saying that a fee has been agreed for Mateo Musacchio and now it is just a case of personal terms. I guess we will see next week.

Schneiderlin is set to have talks with Southampton over his future next week.

Carroll and Ceballos have not travelled to Helsinki but will feature in a Spurs XI to play Dagenham as part of Ugo Ehiogu's prep for the U21 Premiership League season. I expect both will be loaned out this season again (as already posted).

With Ceballos likely going out on loan and Falque now gone, both left footers, it looks like it'll come down to Chadli and Townsend competing for the left sided role again.

Chadli has shown flashes of what he can do and we all know about Townsend's penchant for a shot or two (or twelve (or seven hundred))

With Lennon on the right who's assist count last season was, let's say, in the "low single figures", you have to wonder if the strikers are going to struggle again or if Poch can work some magic on them and get them playing to their respective potentials ?

I think to get Soldado scoring again, we'll need players to lay on the chances for him as much as possible and while I think Lamela, and also Eriksen, can do that playing behind him, the wide men are going to need to chip in as well and I don't have a huge amount of confidence at the moment that they'll be able to do that to any great degree.

If we don't land the two So'ton guys then our starting line-up is going to look very familiar. My greatest fear is that we will fall back into the bad habits of last year despite Poch's efforts. I think we should have a new rule at least, never have more than one of the following - Lennon, Townsend, Rose on the pitch at any time!

I think we'll be ok as far as Rose goes as I suspect Davies will definitely be first choice in that position now.

Dier has apparently completed his move now which is good.

http://www.tottenhamhotspur.com/spur...rst-interview/

Have to keep up with the game via twitter as I'm not home but chuffed for Soldado getting one from open play at last

Just looked in, 4-1 second half, Lamela has not long scored. Looking comfortable but Celtic are poor. 70 mins and Sandro has just come on.

I said we had a reduced squad - no Lloris, Vorm, Vertonghen, Chadli or Walker

Lamela and Soldado on the scoresheet ?. Surely this is a sign

Is it a sign Celtic have put out a poor team or are holding back because of their CL predicament? Eriksen's just added a fifth. I think Spurs will be a lot better this season, though.

6-1 in the end, pleasing result but Celtic did flatter us. Holtby leading in the MotM vote!

Reading a lot of the post match interviews and comments, i think everyone acknowledges that Celtic basically sent out their developmental side because of the way their fixtures panned out - it might have even been MP who said that the match was arranged much earlier in the year before their Champions League fixtures were known.

But then it's another match for the players to learn and get used to Poch's way of doing things so from that perspective, it's a good thing.

Apparently the word is that Mateo Musacchio has been left out of the Villareal squad for their next match so you have to wonder if this means his move is getting closer ?

Starting to see more Southampton-esque movement and interchange of the front players. Be great if it all works out.

Yeah definitely. I think we'll still need a few tweaks across all positions, but I think the likes of Lamela, Soldado & Eriksen at least will certainly be more suited to that way of doing things.

I get the feeling that we'll be back to one of our deadline day special rollercoaster rides at the end of the month

I'm actually quite optimistic now that we will have our business done early for incoming transfers. Of course I may have to eat my words if the Schneiderlin situation doesn't get resolved next week.

Came across this blog on Planet Swans.

http://www.fansnetwork.co.uk/footbal...my-youngsters?

Seems like a really grounded lad.

More confirmation from Spain via goal.com.