Firstly, apologies to anyone this may offend. I tend not to conform to that mindset of "if Brendan wants him then I hope he gets him for whatever price". That unfortunately is not me. I have seen enough in football to understand that even the best of managers can get things terribly wrong. What I want to discuss is our current transfer signings and targets. If there is any truth to these rumoured targets, then it looks like we've got a bucket load to spend.
Last summer, Tottenham offloaded Gareth Bale for £85m or thereabouts. Everyone assumed thereafter that Tottenham would be able to strengthen other areas of the team, thus improve overall. The summer signings they made appeared pretty decent to me at the time:
Chadli (£7m), Chirchires (£8m), Capoue (£9m), Eriksen (£12m), Paulinho (17m), Soldado (£26m), Lamela (£26m). That is approximately £105m. To me, that looks like a decent bunch of players signed up. So where did it all go wrong for Spurs? And if the reports are anything to go by, then why are we not in danger of repeating their mistake by signing a load of first team players? The pattern is there - sell one of the best players in the world for an astronomical fee, and then spend those funds on a number of different players.
Assuming our key targets are signed: Lallana (£23m), Can (£10m), Lambert (£5m), Markovic (£20m), Lovren (£20m), Origi (£10m), LB (£15-20m). That is nearly £105-110m spent there. I don't mean to put a downer on anything. For all we know, these players could prove to be excellent signings. I truly hope they are, but the pressure on Brendan to succeed (given he does spend in excess of £100m) will be incredible.
Logged