Spurs Banter Archive May 22 2014

22 May 2014 20:24:48
Heres the big one Spurs new manager, been kept hush hush out of respect for Bill Kenright and kept silent even more secrative than the d day landings, Lennon's off to Everton Martinez on his way to Tottenham you heard it hear first . Mr levy may have pulled out a rabbit .

I so hope you are right, I am hoping that the delay in an appointment is due to Levy pulling a master stroke but the longer it goes on the more nervous I get
Very worried about Moyes or Cappello
Are you in the know or is it a fantasy that you are sharing with us?

NORFOLK
i think you will get somebody in for the summer then replace them for the 1st game
Levy likes to have a few managers on the pay roll

22 May 2014 13:48:15
Eds, are we showing any interest in Bony? Great replacement for the ageing Adebayor and absolute class. Loved watching him this season and scored over 20 in his first season with the Swans. Surely a no brainer.

{Ed002's Note - Not that I am aware.}

22 May 2014 16:44:23
Things are a bit quiet at the moment, so it's an opportunity to consider the elephant in the room.

What should we do about Soldado?

Do we write off last season as an aberration and hope he comes good next year, or should we cut our losses now? This decision won't wait. He will be 29 next week and this is probably the last opportunity to get back a substantial slice of our investment in him.

If he could score for us like he did for Valencia, he would be a major asset, but will he ever do that here? There have been several examples of top class strikers who suddenly lost form when they changed clubs and never got it back again: including Torres. In his 102 Premiership games for Liverpool his strike rate was as good as Suarez, but in 110 games for Chelsea it has been worse than Peter Crouch.

I also worry about Soldado's versatility. He doesn't seem able to lead the line or play as a lone striker. He looks like a Defoe rather than an Adebayor. That could be a problem. If our new manager favours the lone striker, Soldado could end up being a very expensive (and very frustrated) bench warmer.

However, my biggest concern is his actual quality. When I look at Torres, I can't see why he has failed at Chelsea. When I look at Soldado, I can't see why he succeeded at Valencia. People keep saying he is pure class, but so far I have only seen someone of very modest ability. How did he get all those goals?

If somebody comes in with a bid of anything over £15m for him I think I would accept it.

He played a lot as a lone striker for Valencia and was very very good.

He didn't get much service and it was his first season plus his wife had a miscarriage so I reckon another season would be ideal but if we get a bid of 20m he could go.

Imo we are a couple ofplayers short of having a very good team/squad.

Spurski

I take your point about the service he received. Last year I came across a statistic (I can’t remember when) that showed he hadn’t yet received a single pass from either Sigurdsson or Townsend.

However, there are some worrying stats as well. He averaged just 2 shots per game last season and only 33% were actually on target. That means that roughly every third game he didn’t trouble the keeper at all. He only made one key pass per game and less than one dribble every two games.

His best stat is his five assists, but even that could be a double edged sword. Was that good vision and selflessness, or was it passing the buck?

My problem is that I never saw much of him in Spain, so I don’t know how he plays when he is at his best. In Spain it is common to play lone strikers so Soldado must have found a way to be effective in that role, but he hasn’t yet worked out how to do it for us. When Adebayor came back it was immediately obvious what we had been missing.

There won’t be too many opportunities to sign a striker with Soldado’s track record, so I am cautious about just dumping him, but we cannot afford him to have another season like last year.

I am glad I won’t have to make the decision on him.

In his last season with Valencia all but one of his goals were in the 18 yard box. He is normally very clinical but hasn't been soo far. He showed what he can do with that finish against Villa and a few others.

I hope he stays and we play to his strengths.