Short or long term plan?

[SpursSince1980]

More important to think long-term I believe. This season is turning into a bit of write-off. Change in managers. Crushed by dead wood in the squad. Complete loss of form in some of our better players. And yes... injuries galore.

Better to start thinking about how the squad is rebuilt over the next four transfer windows. And that will require investment from the board. May even require them to boost the overall net-spend, with an eye on recouping costs in the near future via CL qualification.

The sad truth, is that we probably need between 7 to 8 new players in the squad. Likewise, we need to jettison about 9 or 10 players. That will take time and patience.

What I'd like to see, is the hiring of a super-strong Director of Football-type, like the guy at Lille. Give them the permission and backing to be the architect of this rebuild.

I really don't see much point in throwing money at the problems in January, with the hope of qualifying for CL. It's a huge gamble. And the truth is, it takes time to integrate new players... especially those who are new to the PL. They need a full pre-season to get settled.

Which is why I'd really like to see us finalizing deals this month for players to join in the summer.

There is no short-term fix. So, I for one, have reset my expectations for this season. Simply put... don't get relegated.

 

[gaffer]

The OP is a really pertinent question and has become more immediate due to the injuries of kane and Sissoko.

There is no way that Levy will write off the season....he will believe this squad should be good enough to get top 4 and get to the latter stages of the CL; in my opinion that is completely delusional. However, in my mind this is starting to feel like the AVB/Sherwood season so I just cant wait for it to end.

With a few short-term fixes we could possibly turn things around; if we were able to bring in some Harry Redknapp like signings - Emre Can (on-loan), a right-back and a PL striker (lets say Ashley Barnes just as a for instance) we could become functional for the rest of the season and with a bit of luck just squeak top 4 if Chelsea and Man U drop enough points. However, that is completely moving away from the model that has set us up so well since 2014.

I've got a really bad feeling that Jose was sold a dud when he took the job. This is such a long way from the elite squad just needing a few tweaks to get it over the line.

 

[WiganSpur]

So with the news about Kane, it makes the next 3 weeks or so even more important, to us fans at least. But what will the board think?

On the one hand, we could say that this season has been a nightmare, it's been full of bad luck and injuries, write it off and although we won't get the champions league, the market is better in the summer.

Or, go all out now in the hope we manage to somehow scrape into the top 4 still and get that sweet, sweet CL money?

Trying to look at it rationally, it might make business sense to wait to buy for a better price in the summer, without the inevitable mid season premium. Although that would likely mean another 4 months of shit performances and results unfortunately.

It would take significant investment to get us challenging for the top 4 this season, so it wouldn't surprise me if Levy sticks and doesn't provide the investment that would be seen as a gamble.

Kane is going to return in April so spending a chunk on a striker makes no sense. Ideally we want somebody in on loan there and in other positions we need to think long term.

It shouldn't be beyond our capability to spend £80-90m on a couple of solid additions along with a striker in on loan but I suspect it will be.

 

[midoshairband]

The best short and long term plan would be to get another player like Son, to replace Lucas, who can play wide forward and centrally when Kane is not playing. Players like Zaha or Werner. But that’d be too smart by half for us.

and too much like parting with money.

 

[midoshairband]

More important to think long-term I believe. This season is turning into a bit of write-off. Change in managers. Crushed by dead wood in the squad. Complete loss of form in some of our better players. And yes... injuries galore.

Better to start thinking about how the squad is rebuilt over the next four transfer windows. And that will require investment from the board. May even require them to boost the overall net-spend, with an eye on recouping costs in the near future via CL qualification.

The sad truth, is that we probably need between 7 to 8 new players in the squad. Likewise, we need to jettison about 9 or 10 players. That will take time and patience.

What I'd like to see, is the hiring of a super-strong Director of Football-type, like the guy at Lille. Give them the permission and backing to be the architect of this rebuild.

I really don't see much point in throwing money at the problems in January, with the hope of qualifying for CL. It's a huge gamble. And the truth is, it takes time to integrate new players... especially those who are new to the PL. They need a full pre-season to get settled.

Which is why I'd really like to see us finalizing deals this month for players to join in the summer.

There is no short-term fix. So, I for one, have reset my expectations for this season. Simply put... don't get relegated.

i think this season is a write off.

i also think that there is no way on earth the 7-8 new players we need will (a) be got in the summer, or (b) be of the quality needed to get us back into the top 4.

the danger in missing out of CL for one season alone is apparent, and it’s bloody hard to get back. especially now City and Liverpool automatically take 2 of the spaces for the foreseeable.

 

[wrd]

Well in an ideal scenario you bite the bullet and pay extra for a long term solution to come in January instead of the summer. In my opinion that can end up more cost effective as you dont end up spending money on a short term fix which you might not be able to shift which takes money away from your long term target and also the benefit of getting the 2nd half of the season to get used to surroundings ready for pre-season.

I dont see that happening though.

 

[gaffer]

Kane is going to return in April so spending a chunk on a striker makes no sense. Ideally we want somebody in on loan there and in other positions we need to think long term.

It shouldn't be beyond our capability to spend £80-90m on a couple of solid additions along with a striker in on loan but I suspect it will be.

There may be a case for bringing forward spending ringfenced for the next couple of windows to try and fix the immediate problems; IF (and I'm not suggesting there is or isn't) there was a plan to bring in a second centre forward to complement or act purely as back up to Kane then perhaps Levy needs to bite the bullet and pay an extra £15m to get the deal done now....if that's the difference between CL qualification then it would be a false economy not to.

We must also act for more pro-actively more often with buying young players as we did with Dele Alli in 2015. If its the case that we didnt get Maddison or Maguire because we werent convinced when they were at Norwich and Hull respectively but thought we'd get them further down the line then we'll fall short. If they believe Max Aarons will be the next brilliant right back we have to get him now to beat others.

 

[rossdapep]

Kane is going to return in April so spending a chunk on a striker makes no sense. Ideally we want somebody in on loan there and in other positions we need to think long term.

It shouldn't be beyond our capability to spend £80-90m on a couple of solid additions along with a striker in on loan but I suspect it will be.

What about the next time he gets injured though? Or when we need to give him a breather but can't afford to?

Even Leicester have Ihenancho as back up.

United had Cole, Solskjaer, Sheringham and Yorke back in the day.

 

[danielneeds]

In the end the pool of players available in Jan is tiny compared to the summer. Either those who can’t get in their side and are looking for football or maybe ones whose contract is running down.

Buying players for a short-term fix isn’t gonna help. We need to buy the right players even if we have to wait for the summer.

 

[NEVILLEB]

This season is a write off.

Unless Mourinho is heavily backed by Levy over the next 2 years then expect him and our best players to be gone.

 

[NEVILLEB]

View attachment 61013
6 seasons and an average spend of less than £8m per season should tell you everything you need to know about ENIC’s intentions

Out of the top 10 most expensive players we've bought only 2 became consistent first team regulars.

 

[CantSmileWithoutYou]

Short term or long term plan?

This thread should be called Any plan or No plan.

Feeling is, it's the latter.

 

[HodisGawd]

There's no guarantee Kane will be back in April. Lucas, in my opinion, can't play up top on his own. Son was anonymous against a Championship side. People here seem to rate Parrott, but Jose clearly doesn't.

What on earth are we going to do? One more injury or suspension and we're done.

We went into transfer window thinking we need a right back, or a defensive midfielder, or a left back, or a centre back because Jan looks like he's about to keel over and die. But any cash earmarked for them now needs to go on a striker.

The rest of this season is going to seem very, very long.

This Liverpool match... we could get truly thumped. And I reckon it's the first game for about 5 years I've gone into thinking we have absolutely no hope of winning, or even getting a draw. Jose is going to try and park the bus and we just don't have the players to do that.

This is bad. Please someone, tell me it isn't...

 

[pablo73]

Any sort of plan would be an improvement

 

[SugarRay]

Our problem is, we don’t have a short term plan or a long term plan. It’s called winging it.

We used to have clear long term plan but that’s a few years ago now. I’d like to see us return to it, but at a higher level, but we aren’t set up for it now. Will be interesting to see our approach over the next couple of windows ( be amazed if we do anything significant this window...loans etc would be embarassing imo )

 

[danielneeds]

Our problem is, we don’t have a short term plan or a long term plan. It’s called winging it.

We used to have clear long term plan but that’s a few years ago now. I’d like to see us return to it, but at a higher level, but we aren’t set up for it now. Will be interesting to see our approach over the next couple of windows ( be amazed if we do anything significant this window...loans etc would be embarassing imo )

We had a plan - which was signing hungry young players from home and abroad. That was what Poch’s team was built on. And then we just stopped, thinking the squad was hard to improve, instead of buying young players to replace certain ones that we could sell or weren’t good enough.

Dortmund are constantly stockpiling young players for the future and then have someone ready to come in when they have to sell a star or replace someone not performing, while we just let the weeds get tall.

 

[baldinyid]

In my eyes Zaha is a short/long term acquisition. Not saying he is an out and out striker as that's not the case. What he does offer is more options and cover for son and moura, enabling fluid movement across the front three.

The upside to that purchase is he wouldnt need much settling on and off the pitch, plus, even when Kane returns he still starts (in my opinion)

 

[midoshairband]

how many transfer windows have come where we’re at a crossroads? how many have we chosen the right path?

don’t expect anything to change.

 

[stormfly]

We need to go all out and sign at least 4 players in Jan. Then we need to finish top 4 and win the CL otherwise the Amazon series is going to be rubbish.

 

[Kilkenny Cat]

Do we have either..?!