goodrobotusses

"Full story from David Ornstein." The story of poor James' life since he went to The Athletic. Honestly don't think that's the case. Maybe on occasion, but overall I think they're meant to rotate and replace one another on 60.

Yeah, that was particularly cringe-inducing. Some of the other people on there chat some absolute nonsense too. I remember one of the contributors chatting about how Spurs should try to sign Vinicius Jr last summer. Not a great look when your shtick is supposed to be "knowledgeable industry insiders". I wanna see his video where he says such and such a signing is the absolute worst signing the club could possibly have made.

Ted Knutson, the guy behind Statsbomb. It’s the thing he’s been doing since he sold up the company. The podcast veers from insightful to unbearable in the blink of an eye. The guy who hosts is very smug.

Apparently tomorrow’s The Transfer Flow (stat nerd podcast) newsletter is a report on Jacquet.

It's all well and good for Arne to say he wants us to play with intensity, or that he likes attacking football, and that he has modelled himself on Guardiola, but the eye test runs counter to all of these things he says. We do play attacking, intense football at times in games, yes, but a large percentage of our matches, last season included, involve a lot of passing along our defensive line and around the edges of the opposition's formation. When we step it up, we can be great to watch, but there is a lot of "rest defence" and passivity up to that point. Not saying these tactics are illegitimate or wrong – they were obviously very effective last season – and maybe we were a little spoiled by how things were a lot of the time under Klopp, but I honestly see more of Rafa in Slot's football than I do Klopp. And even Rafa would occasionally set us up to swamp teams from the first whistle. Under Slot, we usually wait until the second half before dialling things up.

Without knowing the exact details of what happened to his dad, it's very possible Konate has been having a hard time for a while, which would go a long way to explaining why he's been so bad for a lot of this season. Losing a peak-aged player for nothing, one of the best CBs in the world when on form IMO, would be s***e. Yeah, there was all the Madrid chat, and maybe PSG could yet come into the mix, but if we can sign him up, we absolutely should. Doubly so now he has supposedly started looking after himself better and appears finally to have shaken off all the niggly injury issues. If we don't agree an extension, and Konate goes, we're looking at going into 2026-27 with a 35-year-old VvD and two kids who've never played in the PL, one of whom is coming off a torn ACL (remember how iffy VvD's performances were in his first year back after the Pickford injury). Of course, if Konate goes, we should go back into the market for a more senior CB, but how much is that going to cost, and after getting nothing for Konate and already spending £60m on Jacquet? (Let's not pretend Gomez is still going to be here, or fully fit if he is.) Also worth noting: there was no real alterative to an out-of-form Konate this season. Next year, if he's still here, he'll know he'll be out of the team if he doesn't perform. I wouldn't expect another season so bad out of him again.

Plays in a two for the French youth teams though.

Something to consider when rumours pop up again about Madrid wanting rid of TAA. Bridges burned.

Think it's Edwards on the phone to journos, not Hughes.

Grade A nonsense from a hot take merchant:

Haha that's literally why they weren't allowed into the Europa League. They didn't reply to an email from UEFA.

Well, we’re gonna need them if we’re playing a back three under Xabi next season…

All good stuff but Laurens is such an annoying blowhard. Think if we’re going into next season with VvD, Konate, this new lad and a recovered Leoni, we should be okay. Would still like to see an all-purpose lad who can cover CB and FB at a pinch though, one better than Endo and less perma-crocked than Gomez. A Geertruida type, although doesn’t have to be Geertruida himself if we think we can find better.

If Guehi is on £300k a week as reported, that’s £78m over five years. Added to fee the overall price is similar but Jacquet is 5 years younger and you’d assume the club see him as potentially a better player. Guehi is a good player. Would have gladly had him, but I don’t see him as top level, more analogous to Chelsea signing Gary Cahill. I know little about Jacquet but I’m hoping at that price and age his ceiling is higher than Guehi’s. His head already is because, unlike Guehi, Jacquet’s not a shortarse.

Think this stuff goes on at most clubs, just we're not paying attention to other clubs. Think we as a fanbase could do ourselves a favour by not hanging on every quote and piece of news, but guess that's part and parcel of being very online.

Can't be arsed with Gordon now. Aside from his numbers being crap bar one season, his last two appearances against us show he's not right in the head. A fast weirdo.

My favourite rumour on the BBC gossip page this morning: Argentine centre-half Lautaro Rivero, of River Plate, is being monitored by Manchester City, Manchester United, Tottenham, Atletico Madrid, Juventus and Strasbourg. The 22-year-old reportedly has an £86m release clause. (El Crack Deportivo - in Spanish) Strasbourg. Yeah.

Do not see the upside to this if it happens. And if this is because Jones wants to go – a red, a scouser – it doesn't bode well for how things are behind the scenes. How will the squad respond to him (maybe) going? To Robbo (almost) going? Can't be good for morale. These are well-liked members of the squad, as far as I can tell.

That’s my reading too. Also, just read Klopp is gonna be assisting Kenny at the legends game at Anfield in March. Has the club thought that through, assuming the fans are likely to still be frustrated by how the season is going?

Because the standard in the PL is better than the CL, Madrid, Barca, Bayern and PSG aside. The PL is financially and in terms of physicality streets ahead of the rest of Europe. Spurs, who are s***e, rolled over Dortmund, for example. The best teams in Italy tend to be a mix of PL rejects and players who were scouted by never signed by PL clubs. Once a player gets a contract at a top PL club, he becomes unaffordable to most European clubs, hence Italian clubs always only offering loans. They can’t afford the wages plus a fee. If the better teams in European leagues played more like Brentford, we’d struggle more. But those teams are used to being much stronger than their domestic opponents, and so don’t concentrate on being hard to beat.

It’s like when they won’t announce via Twitter which players we’re signing in advance and how far along the negotiations are. The secretive, insensitive b*****ds.

It’ll look like an old video game, where he runs into the advertising hoardings and continues to run in place, confused by why he’s not moving forward.

Translation: Slot going in May and the only way the club will let him go sooner is if we start losing every week again.

If these links to Van de Ven are real, and I'm not convinced they are, I would be annoyed. I don't have any strong opinions on the player, other than I like his pace and don't like his injuries, but if we like him that much, why on earth didn't we sign him from Wolfsburg three years ago and save the whole business of potentially paying Spurs through the nose for him this summer?

ITDKs