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We also look at key positions that need upgrading and we look at what players might feel those positions and how likely they are that they'll come to Tottenham. We also discuss whether or not Ange Postakoglu's position as Tottenham manager will influence what needs to be done in this transfer window. If you happen to be listening to this on the Fighting Cox feed, then consider going to the lab, finding it on Spotify or wherever you get your podcast app and subscribe there. That'd be fantastic and give it five stars if you think it's worth it. OK, enjoy the show and have the spurs. Hello, welcome back to another episode of the lab. I'm joined today by Kish of Lily White Lab. How you doing, boy? Yeah, I'm good. How are you, bro? I'm really good. Well, I'm all right, I'm fine when it doesn't come to Tottenham, but it's been a tough month for all of us, I guess. And I think what better way to get away from it than talk about what might come in the future. So I thought what we do today is talk about what we need in January, perhaps with the context of the injuries, but maybe that isn't relevant. I'm interested to hear what you think about that. I think the best place to start because I think we talked about a year ago when we were looking at players like Baraval and Archie Gray, amongst others. And we looked at that window as quite adventurous, the fact that we were kind of pipping other clubs to the signings of players like, you know, Draggison came before, but, you know, we Draggison signed instead of joining Bayern Munich and Baraval signed for Spurs over Barcelona, and we looked at that as a very positive thing. And I guess it was, but this injury crisis that's hit us mid-season has exposed the, you know, the inexperience in the squad. Because I don't want to say inequality because they're such young players, Archie Gray and Baraval is not on them to step up and replace the players that have been missing. But how do you look back at that January window, sorry, the August window last year? So I think there was no bad signings in the summer. I think actually all those signings were more positive signings. And I think we've even seen glimpses of that this season. The issue for me is there wasn't enough signings. So it wasn't that there was bad, that those deals were bad. I think every top club or any club aspiring to be a top club should be making those signings that kind of prove you for the future. You should always be building your kind of younger core of the squad that can kind of grow into the top players. But you should also be signing players who guarantee we'll improve the starting 11. And we did that with one player in hindsight, which is Salenki. And apart from that, I would say we didn't really improve anywhere in the squad. And that's kind of the difference between the likes of us and the man cities, the Chelsea's, the Arsenal's even, that those clubs are still signing those young players, but they're not stopping there. They're also worrying about the current season as well as the kind of future seasons. And that's where I think our club has got a bit confused that we want to obviously build around a young core, but there's also the season ahead that needs to be kind of addressed as well. And we're not quite getting the blend right at the moment, I think. Yeah, as you look at the total amount spent, it was 65 million for Salenki. There was 25 million spent on Oda Barrow, who we'll come on to. There was about 12 million on Barrow Val and then 40 million on Archie Gray. But that wasn't our total outlay. It was much, much smaller than that in terms of a lot of the prices attached to these players, depending on the appearances and honours that are achieved going forward and international caps and all these things that are priced into the total cost of a player. My assumption is there would have been Wiggle Room to bring in players that could have helped us. To be fair, Wilson Oda Barrow was one of those, wasn't he? He was brought to start for Tottenham and there was a lot of commotion at the time around the fact that we should have been buying Neto from Wolves, as opposed to bringing in Oda Barrow. But at a conversation, who was it with? Someone who really loved Oda Barrow. Harry Wilkes. Yeah, we did it on this podcast, Harry Brook. And he talks, he wacks lyrical about the player. And again, a lot of our problems this year have been down to the amount of injuries that we've sustained. How significant was that injury as severe as it has been in your opinion? Because I noticed you tweeted the other day that he's been a big loss. Yeah, I think the issue is that sometimes, due to the issues with Daniel Levy, there's a lot of the fan base feel that he's kind of going for the cheap option in quotation marks. And they're not able to kind of separate their biases around that to just looking at player for what he is. I think a little bit, of course, he was at Burnley for a season where he did perform very well. But before that, he was kind of a prospect of PSG. He's played at France youth level. Like he's not a kind of guy who's come out of nowhere. He's been rated throughout his whole kind of youth career. If you saw the kind of quotes that company came out with when he was at Burnley, he said, kind of the things I want to say about him, I don't feel comfortable doing because of kind of putting pressure on him. But we'll see him five years exactly where he is, like basically saying that his potential is kind of massive. And the issue we've had in our kind of wide positions is that lack of ball retention. The constant turnovers, the lack of kind of imagination and creativity against settled blocks. And these are all things that Odabear kind of shines in. He'll take the ball under pressure and kind of retain it and allow us to sustain attacks. He can beat his fallback. He can kind of cut in, but also go down the line. He's not going to at least at the moment, rack up mountains of kind of goals or maybe even assists. I mean, I think he really chipped in, definitely. But he's not that kind of winger that kind of bases whole game around that. And I think we've got those profiles already in terms of Sun, Brenna Johnson, who are kind of more final action players, kind of you want them on the end of things rather than starting things. And I think Odabear is the opposite of that. He loves to have the ball at his feet. He loves combining with others. And I think one of our main issues, and we talk about kind of defensive transitions and our kind of weakness in dealing with those. And I think part of that is the amount of transitions we cause for ourselves by giving the ball away in kind of areas where we shouldn't. And that's kind of due to partly those wingers not having that ball retention that we need. Yeah, I mean, looking at him as you were talking there, he offers the kind of things that you mentioned, the other players perhaps can't. And that is being comfortable playing against that low block. And like you said, it reminds me a little bit about of a doggy, like having him and the doggy on that left hand side. I don't know if he'll play on the right. He can play on both sides. But that would be something to behold, having them to run in with the ball, playing off each other. It'd be very difficult for the players of the opponents to get the ball off them. And it would pull them out of shape. And that's our biggest issue is that we were unable at times to pull other teams out of shape. And it's something that has dogged us since Postakkogaloo's taken over, isn't it? And perhaps he might have been a part of the solution to that. And how many games did we get out of him, not many? Yeah, I think we got maybe three. And then he came back for that one Europa game. And he again looked very good when he came on. I think he struggled in his second two games. He played on the right more. I don't think he's as comfortable on the right. I think he can definitely he's got the skill set to develop there for sure. He's obviously played more on the left being a right footer who wants to cut in. But he's that kind of player who can dribble off both feet, can receive in any kind of position on the pitch and be comfortable there. So I don't have any kind of issues with him playing on the right. I think it will take time for him there. But he's also played centrally in his career. So he's just one of those natural footballs you can put anywhere in the final third and he'll be comfortable. And I think in kind of the opposite of that son and Johnson, they have clear qualities. I think playing them together, they're too similar. Not in terms of their kind of capabilities, but you want them both on the end of things. They're the kind of players that make those decisive final actions, whether that's like just one touch and fire across the box or whether it's kind of touch and shoot. They're not the players you want to kind of be key in the approach play because they're just too basic. Johnson especially is very basic, lacks kind of any imagination, any kind of flair against a settled block. Son has lost that kind of separation he was able to create for himself and kind of needs runners around him to get that space for himself. So I think yeah, I think more than anything, of course, Audubey is a great player. I think more than anything, we're just missing that profile. And I think Mikey Moore would have even helped there. I don't think he's ready yet, like fully ready, but even just to have that kind of different profile there, which is which he is, would have helped massively. Yeah, and just also being able to take son out of the side and be comfortable because the moment that we've got no choice but to place on and he's just, you know, the time of recording against Forrest, he just, he looked tired, like he's running through mud. And he's 32 and he played, you know, game after game after game and I do feel sorry for him a little bit. He's coming into a lot of criticism and I appreciate the criticism because he's based on his performance, but he's been asked to play a lot of football, both internationally and and as that Tottenham and naturally you're going to see it, you're going to see a percentage degrade in these performances. So it's a bit of a shame. You don't want to see him go out like that. You want to see him kind of managed to properly and get the best out of him because he's still a player in home in Son. We've seen it this year. It's just, you can't play every minute. It's just the right age and the intensity of a positive system. Yeah, for me as well, like when we have seen Son at his best this season, it's been after arrest. Yeah. And when he's been able to be taken out the side and he just looks at that bit sharper. Like there was time, I think when he came back from that injury and we saw him kind of his manage, his minutes managed, there was just that extra sharpness there. And I think that's so key for the way he plays. Like he needs to be, he needs to be sharp. He needs to be able to get the ball out his feet and take those shots. And the moment that slows down, he's just much easier to defend against. And yeah, he looks leggy, but obviously the kind of backups aren't there right now. Yeah, indeed. So thinking about this, this January, you've got, well, you're going to go for a number of positions and potential players that would be able to get in. Are these players that you would like in an ideal world or are these players realistically accessible, do you think? So I think some of them, I think there's a, there's a few, a fair few positions that needs to be strengthened. And I've kind of looked it over a two window period. So obviously, we all know January is a very kind of more opportunistic window. It's hard to go out and like target specific players that are especially performing in their current team because often they want to see their season out or their, their kind of price style or move. So I think I would probably tend to look towards the more kind of backup-ish players in the January window. And then when there's like a long-term kind of position, we really need to upgrade quality. And I think you're looking at the summer more likely because you want to be sure on those. So yeah, there's kind of different situations for each position basically. Okay. So let's go ahead with the, should we go over the players that you think might come in this January and then what we should be looking to go in board? Yeah. So I think, I think this January, first of all, I'd be, I'd be targeting a left-back. I think, as we've seen since Spencer's come in, we can see what real energy being kind of introduced into the side can do in those full-back positions. And Spencer's been very good. I don't think he's done anything dramatically amazing. I think what, what we've been most impressed by is just that kind of carrying ability, that sharpness that, that we've been missing in both full-back positions. I think Poro and Adogi have been running to the ground. I think they play the most intense position in the system in terms of they need to run into kind of number 10 positions to receive it. Sometimes then go around and overlap their winger. And then if we lose it, they need to sprint back to recover back into their position. I think it's like, it's an incredibly demanding role. And to be able to rotate them just means they'll be sharper. And I think we've seen the effects of them being overplayed. I think both of them have been pretty poor this season. And we know they're not poor players because we've seen, we've seen how good they both can be. So I think left-back is a priority for me personally. Okay. Who have you potentially identified? So I think when there's two ways of going down, trying to find a backup option in terms of any position. I think either you look for someone who can do the exact same as the current first teamer. You look for someone with a similar profile. And maybe just to a lesser extent. But basically when you take them out, you don't kind of lose anything from their game. Or you look for something that's alternative, that offers something that the current, in this case, a doggy, doesn't. And then you play them in kind of respect to the opposition. So okay. My kind of suggestion would be eight Nori from Wolves. And I think he's... I'd love him. Yeah. He's someone who's not the best defender. But in terms of his kind of variety in the final third, his creativity in both his dribbling, his passing, is something completely different to a doggy. And then you keep your doggy for games where you're really worried about that right-winger. And eight Nori comes in for games where you're more comfortable kind of sacrificing that channel. But you know that eight Nori's going to create something for you, especially against low blocks and stuff like that. And I don't think eight Nori is a terrible defender. I think people over kind of play that. But it's just that different profile, which I think would be so key for us to also take kind of minutes off do doggy's legs. I mean, that would be a solution for... That would solve the left-back solution with both having them at the club. You could do whatever you want with your left-backs if you had both of those fit. You could play the most highest intensity football and the highest demanding of your left-back if you had both of those at the squad. I didn't think it'd be a case of... It would be tactic specific, obviously. And you'd look at the specific profiles of the players, but having either of those as an option on the bench or on starting would be incredible. But you're looking at... You've got to be looking at 50-60 million for him. I think I've had 40 million be quoted. I'm not 100% sure on that. If they go down or if they stay up, they need to sell. They've got PSR issues as well. All right, let's just for fun, put a 40 million pound. We wouldn't just be as interested. I would imagine. Yeah. I think just a quick caveat as well on this. We also know that a lot of people have been calling for left-back slash left-centerback hybrid player, one that can play both. I think that a lot of people confusing that what we ask from our left-backs compared to what, say, Arsenal do with their kind of full-backs where those full-backs may kind of come narrower, but they're often as third-centerbacks. They're not asked to do what our full-backs do, which is kind of receive back to goal, high up the pitch, often kind of contributing in the final third. So there's such a rare profile for a player to be able to play our centerback role and our full-back role. It's pretty unrealistic to find how we could do that. I think there's only one kind of potential player who could do that who's a young guy called Jarell Harto, Iax, but he's being kind of quovered by Real Madrid and Liverpool. So I feel like that's an unrealistic kind of target there. Okay. I love that. I don't know that left-back. I guess we'll be looking at a number six. Are we looking at the centerback? Yeah. So for me, this is where it gets a bit difficult. So the number six market, I'd say, is pretty poor right now. And that's kind of why I'm starting to think we should leave that one till summer. I think we've kind of switched between Bismur and Bentoncore. I think neither of them have been great there. I think they both are good players, but I don't think they're suited to the role. I think Bentoncore is too aggressive. He leaves gaps. He presses very well in terms of if he's playing a higher up position, but in that number six role, we need someone with a bit better temperament kind of controlling the spaces. High IQ kind of knows when to step up, knows when to drop off. And for me, Bentoncore, that's not his strong point. Bismur has had some very good games, some very poor games. I think the consistency there is lacking. And again, that kind of tactical mental IQ, I think is not there with him. I think the issue is the demands for that number six in our system specifically are so high. There's so many kind of things that need to be ticked. It's very difficult to find the perfect player for that. But there's definitely upgrades to be had. But for me, I'd kind of leave that one to a summer where we can kind of look at the situation in a lot more depth. Maybe have to pay kind of over the odds for summer. The last thing you want to hear when you need your auto insurance most is a robot with countless irrelevant menu options, which is why with USA Auto Insurance you'll get great service that is easy and reliable all at the touch of a button. Get a quote today. Restrictions apply. If you're just for the sake of conversation now, if you had to pick one that you would pin your hopes on us signing in in the summer, who would that be? And why isn't it, Carlos Belabor? Because every time I've seen this kid, he's been sensational. That's the name I was going to reach for, to be fair. I think he's perfect as a long-term kind of 10 years. Obviously a player rarely stays at a club for 10 years, but you'd be set for that. He's only going to get better. He's a great passer, a great carrier, he's super strong, wins a lot of jewels, seems very calm as well, which I think is so key for those positions. I think the amount of pressure that we put on our number six in terms of playing out, they need to have that calm head in their shoulders. And yeah, I think he's only going to get better. I think to be honest, out of these kind of bright and talents that have come through last few years, I think he's right out there with being the best. So yeah, I think he'll have a lot of sewers, and I think the money will be huge, but he would be incredible. It's insane how they managed to find these players. I think he played like 21 games. I can't remember the French club, he might be Lil or Ren. It was no, yeah. He paid 21 games in the good. And they looked at him and said, no, he's Prem Ready. I don't know how long they spent developing him, but he's ready. And it's that number six position that is so difficult for people to find the player that make it work, which is the issue we're having at the moment, for them to find a young Bissou, Mara Cosado, and the belabor in the space of like six or seven years is crazy. Like he's going to go on. If it isn't spurs, it'll be another top, top club. Yet the quick mention for Angelo Stiller. Yeah, I think Angelo Stiller is like, he's my type of footballer, my type of number six. I think there would be probably some physicality worries there. So I think he's small, is he? He's quite little. How would you describe him? What kind of player does he kind of remind you of? For me, the way he kind of passes the ball and the technique on him is quite similar to Tiago of Liverpool. And obviously by Munich and Barcelona, I think he's like incredibly technically his passing ranges is so good. His kind of footwork and tight areas is so good. I think just like Tiago, probably his main issues would be his physicality. But if you kind of surround him with runners, he's that good that you kind of, you allow those deficiencies and you kind of just trust him in terms of imposition. I can imagine Sa and him being a kind of great pair in terms of they both cover each other's deficiencies very well. Yeah, he's like a kind of maybe an optimistic, not optimistic, but like someone I would love to see it spurs. But I can see the concerns why they might not target him, especially us being in the Premier League, which is obviously unforgiving in terms of the intensity. But I've seen kind of big, big clubs being linked with him. So we'll see how that one plays out. Is it Stuttgart? Yeah. Yeah. You'd imagine would be easier to do shopping with rather than Bryson, but I guess Brian are primed to sell really. That's the way they build their model. Sure. Interesting. Where else are you thinking? So we can go left wing, even the fact that Mikey Moore is there. I'd probably be targeting a right winger because in terms of Kirisevsky's development, I think right now he needs to be playing wide minutes just because we're so short there. But I think long term he should be kind of built around in the central areas, in which case. So I put out a tweet a while ago about kind of the wide profiles, and we spoke quite earlier, but you kind of want one of each on each side. So you want one of those kind of final action, gold scoring type wingers, the likes of Sun, Brendan Johnson. And then on both sides, you also want one who's more comfortable in the ball, more of a 1v1 threat, like Odabay or Mikey Moore on the left, and then potentially a new signing on the right. And then you pair them up opposites so that you have both profiles on the pitch at the same time. Obviously, injuries can kind of disrupt that, but that's the ideal you want kind of one of each on each side. So I think, yeah, a similar kind of profile to Odabay, but I'd probably want to sign someone more first team ready. Especially if we know Sun is first choice on the left, we probably want our other first choice being on the right to be that more comfortable technically player. So is it about balancing having one option, one of both on either side? Is that yeah, I think, I think and even even at Celtic had kind of one of each, a more goal scoring, I know that more like 1v1 type player was Jota. I can't remember who the other side was, but I know that's been kind of an ideal trend for a lot of managers where basically it's just different ways of hurting teams. You want teams to not be able to kind of predict you. If they leave space in behind for the likes of Sun and Brendan Johnson, then they're going to be running off. If they drop off, then you have players who can kind of hurt them with more space and more time to kind of pick a pass or dribble around. So you just want different ways of hurting the back line. Do you think, sorry, did you bring up or come up with a player for the right wing? Yeah, so I think there's a few and the winger market right now is actually I think pretty good. So there's a few names that I probably need to watch more of, but I like them. So I think player we've been linked to before, which is the Japanese winger Kubo, who Alan just worked within Yokohama, I believe. He's a real source to that. There's also another player we've been linked with, which is Johan Bakayoko from PSV. And then the last one I think I would say is Idon Zagova, I think it is. He plays for Lil, I'm pretty sure. And they're all quite, they're all quite different in terms of where they shine, but they're all very technical players. And that kind of profile we're looking for, obviously, Zagova is more dribble-heavy. I think Kubo's dribble-heavy as well, but also great creative passer. Bakayoko kind of a combination of the two. So I think they're all different, but they all would be very happy kind of trying to break down low blocks. That's sort of where they would shine, I'd say. Can I throw a side ball at you, side wind up? Is there any world where we get Leroy Saane on loan? I think Saane fits that profile definitely. He's very technical. I think in the past, I mean, he'd be like the kind of man-set-y version of Saane, it would be the dream, Anduin. I think he could do both. He could run into open spaces, but he's also very comfortable receiving in kind of tighter areas. I think Saane now has been more of that kind of creative presence. I think he's less so a 1v1 specialist, just since he lost that yard of pace with the injury. But I think he's still very creative, still obviously got all his technique. I think in terms of a stock gap, I think it'd be a great option. And he suits that right hand side perfectly. Because he could potentially happen. You might think about him, he's still a name. He's been a few years since he's been at his best. But starting in 33% of the games, he's played 41% of the minutes this season available to him. This isn't a player he's going to want to just sit on the bench. Would he be convinced about alone? I think he'd be a fantastic option. And then you kind of just address it once the loan's over. I think that definitely can't see it. Just because he's not playing for Biden also doesn't mean much because I think Elise has kind of been incredible there. So it's not like he's not fancy that I guess they've just got so much quality that he probably needs. But he's going to be going, let me move. I've got to go and play for Pastor Cogaly. Who wants doesn't want to go and play in that system? For any forward, it's a dream. And it's just a defenders, it's a fucking living nightmare for. Anyway, okay, so that's we got the left back, the sixth for the future, right wing. But for Charleston coming back from injury is in full training now apparently, but it's still a couple of weeks off. It's not that we buy it back up forward. We've got length here, you've got Son pretending he can't play there, but he does occasionally. And with Charleston coming back, I can't imagine they're going to look at a forward in this window. I think long term, that should be the kind of goal, but I don't think that's a thing to do in January. Should we ignore in Cinebax? No, I think Cinebax was my other. These aren't really an order. I think that's prem should be priority. So I think Cinebax, yeah, so as I said, a lot of people want that kind of higher and left back left center back. I don't think that's possible. So I think we probably need a left center back as well. But I think I wouldn't get one unless we move Jagger Cine on. I think I've got a lot of concerns over Jagger Cine. I have since I first saw him in terms of I think he's a good defender. I think he'll have a great career, but I don't think he's anywhere near suited to what we ask more Cinebax, which is a lot. There's a lot of attributes we need them to tick. I think his on the ball deficiencies will just continue to kind of harm us. And I just think it was a bad fit, a kind of panic signing, which at the time, I think we did need to kind of panic. We didn't have any Cinebax. But yeah, I don't see him being part of the long term project personally, but I wouldn't be looking to sign one unless we can offload him. So that's where kind of we see whether that's a January or a summer thing, because obviously we've also got Viscavitch coming back in summer. Who I... Insane. Yeah, I'll step into the first in squad straightaway, to be honest. And that's the thing is it's like, what do you do? This is ninja crisis, don't get me wrong, but you can't buy your way out of losing four Cinebax. It's just... It's even luck or mismanagement in training, whatever it is, you can't keep buying in Cinebax because of a for a temporary problem. You either fix the issues that are causing the muscle injuries or... But you don't necessarily just buy in Cinebax, just because they keep happening. No club has six first team Cinebax, and that's what we need, currently. So something needs to be sorted out there, but you've got Viscavitch coming in. Anyone who's been tracking his performances in Belgium for a kid of his young age, they're just waxing lyrical about him and that over a kick. I know that's not his game, although goal scoring seems to be part of his game, was if something like... Pellet would have been proud of. Mateus Kuno's reputationally just broke out this year, and he's been underrated for a while, but his performances for Wolves in the struggling Wolves team, even when Gary O'Neill was there, were just outlandish, really. He was just so far and above everything else that was going around him. His quality was kind of made the chaos around him redundant. He's so good. There'd be so many clubs that were interested in him. That would be a dream, right? If you'd made one mark, he's signing this summer, it's got to be Kuno for sure. Yeah, it would be. I think that's kind of one of those kind of cheat code signings in terms of we've got a few issues in terms of both wings, also kind of overplaying Solanki, and he's someone that can literally fill in anywhere across the front line. He's just a pure footballer who doesn't need kind of set parameters or conditions for him to perform. He'll just play anywhere and I think perform. I think he's got the 1v1 ability. He's got kind of the back-to-goal ability if you want to play him as a 9. I think he's pretty well-rounded. It's the fact that we probably want to keep our squad smaller if we can with transfers in respects to the kind of squad registration issues we've had. Obviously, we had to leave Spence out the Europa League squad. So, again, if we're struggling to offload players or whether he's a kind of cheat code signing where he can fill multiple roles. Yeah, so I think again, he'd be a great player to target. We just want to make sure we're not signing players that kind of fit multiple roles and aren't actually specialists. I think Kuno is one who could probably nail down a starting spot somewhere in that front line. But there's certain positions such as the number 6 where I don't want to find another player who's like a square peg round hole. I think we do need some specialists in the squad, basically. Got a question here from Shane Beese. Does the fact that it seems Andrew's hanging on for his job mean that we aren't going to be going to see decent investment in this January? No, I don't think so. I think either they're backing him or they're not like, I think a club of our side should always have kind of a process in mind. I don't think anything should be dependent on kind of such a maybe a run of two games. I think either you back him or you don't. And I think the club seem like they are going to stick with him, in which case, they need to plan as if he's going to be here for the next five years. It's not like you can sort of plan these things month by month. It's another window, another opportunity to kind of get the squad that he's working towards. So if you're going to keep him, you have to back him. And I think the club will. I think, I mean, if the club don't make signings in January, I think they'll be big, big kind of outcry within the fact that it's probably. We, I interviewed Daniel Patrick about two months ago, he got an exclusive access to Langer. And one of the things to come out of that interview for the, for the standard was that they have a club wide approach to what Spurs are and how we should operate and what we're trying to achieve. Now, I know some people listening to go, and what we're trying to achieve, we're never going to win anything. I get that. And you know, in this current guys, I don't think we are either. But the point is, is that to answer this question, the weather and comes in or not, they're bringing in a particular style of player that we'll be able to play attacking fluent football, rather than ones that are specific to Angposical glue system. Whether that's going to be successful or not, I don't know. But Angposical glue isn't seen as nor is any manager seen as the final peg or the final sort of piece of the puzzle. They are part of a much more holistic operating machine comparable to what you see in many other top clubs clubs at the moment. Yeah, that's the way I think any top club should operate. I don't think the manager should be, to be able to handle. I think there's certain circumstances where you need to sign someone the manager wants, but more often than not, a signing should be a long-term vision and kind of someone who can work across managers. I think you see it at Brighton, they know that both their players and managers will be picked off and they don't, their transfer policy doesn't change. It's the same policy. I think with a slightly higher budget now, so they're kind of even talking more established players. But yeah, the transfer policy should never be kind of dictated by the manager. I think that's outdated to kind of talk to them. Yeah, I agree. Ryan Treves, as we see, the most any club can do in January is two or three signings and won't be able to get big teams, star players, so realistic. What two players do we have to prioritize? Well, we kind of talked about that already. But there are ways of being shrewd in the January transfer market as we've seen at Spurs. I know Benton Core perhaps isn't the right player for the right job right now, but to get Benton Core on Coliseum City and the way that we did in Conte's first season, that simply changed our season. And it's about utilizing contacts and langer and bringing in parartichae again to find out what he knows, what players can we get in on loan that might solve some of these problems this season in order for the best kind of finish, because it's not necessarily, you know, we're not without, we're at six points behind fifth, which will probably be good enough for the Champions League this year, but it's about changing the mood and perception of the club and bringing in loan signs that fix problems right now. I think it's crucial because at the moment, it stinks and you know, players are going to look at and go, "Why do I want to join that football club?" So, changing perception and the direction that we're going in by winning football matches in the short term. I know it sounds so obvious, but it's really important at this stage, I think. Yeah, I think the January window often as well, you want to target often players who, you know, have higher capabilities than they're showing. And like Colossevsky and Benton Core, we obviously saw that as a kind of opportunity to sign players that weren't fancy that they're club, but you know that you can get much better levels out of them. And that's often the way that January works, as players that really want out desperately to try and get first in football. And that doesn't mean they're bad players, because they're not playing first in football. Obviously, every player's situation is different. So, yeah. Bala suggested a number of players that we can't go through there now, but Johnny Cardoso, with Betisse, who we have a bizarre agreement with, where he is essentially, what was he again, how does he break it down? He's our player, if we want him next summer. Yeah, it's something that's like, if we don't want him, then we get a percentage of the sell-on fee to whatever club he goes to. I think that's it. Is he good enough to be exposed? What I've seen of him in the clips, he looks comfortable in the ball, he knows the right position to be in and recycling a lot, isn't that the quickest? It looks a bit sluggish. I don't know. These are broad strokes. What is he like? I think you've roughly got it there. I think he's very smart. His position is good. He takes a lot of boxes for me. I think where I would see him possibly struggle is, obviously, covering those large spaces that we do leave. I think, Bentico and Bessuma, for all their faults, do have pretty good engines and they're both pretty quick to cover those spaces. So, I think that's a concern. I think the other concern with him is his dribbling ability to get out of pressure. Like we've said, we put our number six under a lot of pressure. We vacate the midfield. Often, the fullbacks are much higher up. There's not always the easiest options there and I think he could at times be caught on the ball. But one thing I do like about him is, like I said, his positioning. I think he's very calm. He doesn't dive in. He knows the positions to take up off the ball. I think on the ball, he's got a really nice passing range. So, when he's facing play, I think he can be very effective in breaking lines of his passing or switching play. I think where the concerns come is when he's receiving with his back to go, or not facing the play. And he has to turn out of the pressure. To be honest, there are some similarities to Hoibia that I think could for straight fans. But I thought he's young as well. And I think there's room to go out. He wouldn't be my number one choice, but I think he would be an upgrade on what we currently have. Okay, good. A couple of weeks says, if you could look into potential new owners, that would be great. They appear to be anything that's almost back. It's a bit tricky. Yeah, I have an idea. I don't want any kind of illegal business owners or whatever. I'm like, obviously, I'm not happy with Daniel Levy, but I don't want just anyone to buy us because they've got money. I want it to be the most ethical possible kind of owner. Nothing to do with a transfer market. It, Fred, says, is this window where we see the club really background just discussed. Okay, I think Chris knows a bit of this. Can we sign anyone paid over 200 credit grand a week? All right. So, any player over 200k would do it for Chris per week. And Spaggy Boy says, what's the point? Well, only sign shitty learners, free transfers or children. Good. All right. And thank you so much for your time. I've just noticed that you've gone past 10,000 followers on Twitter, which is a good thing. Well done, mate. It's well deserved. Thank you very much. I hope to be many more to come. Yeah, go follow them. There's loads of interesting stuff over there. Really sort of insightful. Interesting ways of looking at the players and profiles and tactics and players' performances are going much better than what you get on here. So thank you very much, Kish, and there we'll speak to him. Last one. Legend, mate. Thank you. All good. Bye. [MUSIC]
In this episode of The Lab we sit down with @LilywhiteLab to discuss how we use the January transfer window to fix immediate problems, and identify the players that could provide solutions in the short and mid term. We also ask the question: will our transfer targets change depending on whether Ange Postecoglou remains in the job?
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