Mark Albrighton

That’s fine @Genie, I get what you’re saying. I appreciate your point is more the sheer size of the squad overhaul, not any individual signing in particular. But as others have intimidated, you must have an idea which players we should have kept and which signings we maybe didn’t need to make.

Yeah it’s two separate things. I can be uncertain as to whether all these signings will work out. But I can also be certain (or as near as can be) that signing them gives us more of a chance than if we had stuck with a handful or more of the players we let go.

Probably been referenced before, but..... A twitter account with the sole function of having pictures of weddings with Steve Bruce in them. Over 30,000 ****ing followers

I don’t think there’s anyone (or many) that don’t understand the possibility of all the players not clicking, not being as good as hoped...etc. I just think that the squad was in desperate need of revamping. I don’t think we’ve made a single signing that hasn’t been justified/deemed necessary. And those players last season, as much as I like them (if I see Alan, Albert, Glenn, Tommy, Mile etc in a pub, I’ll overlook the fact they could probably buy that pub for me and I’ll offer to buy them a pint), I think people could see that they were enough to get us over the line but they’re not up to moving us onto the next level. I don’t know how good many of these new players will prove to be, but I have more confidence that a higher proportion will be good enough. A higher proportion compared to the players we said goodbye to.

@Genie From the players we’ve brought in, along with those that have been let go and obviously those that have been retained...what does your ideal match day squad for Spurs look like? I appreciate you’ve seen more of, say, Jedinak than Marvelous so it’s not necessarily easy to say, but in your opinion, what should that line up and bench look like on the opening day?

As someone who doesn’t know either of these latest players and wants to have a general sense of how good they are - If option A was us buying either Belotti OR Berardi and option B was us buying Maupay AND Benrahma, what would people prefer?

The goal against Wolves gets all the attention but I like the one against Reading. About 5:50 minutes in -

It’s hard not to feel positive about all the transfer business we’ve conducted so far, we’ve done more than I thought we would and quicker. However, I’m going to try and remain restrained from getting too carried away. It feels like we’re in uncharted territory with a number of these signings and the unknown can be as daunting as it can be exciting. I feel quietly confident that we’re in a good position to give the majority of teams a game. If half of the signings play to the strengths we collectively think they can we should be in for a comfortably safe season.

Reminds me of finding out that Carlos Valderrama has a brother with the slightly less exciting first name of Alan.

I think Steer being a solid sub keeper has been a much more likely outcome than Kalinic being our first choice keeper for a while now. I think there are similar question marks over Kalinic as first choice as there are on Steer. Steer will probably be “happier” than Kalinic being on the bench so I expect the latter to be either sold or loaned out. Then we have Nyland as the break glass in case of emergency option. I think Steer will appreciate the opportunity to learn off an experienced premier league keeper and still has a few years to develop.

For those who haven’t seen the crossword-

Marvelous to be unveiled wearing a white lab coat to the tune of “Doctor, Doctor give me the news, I’ve got bad case of claret & blues”.

More of a general totalling up. Now Heaton is confirmed and assuming Marvelous will be completed for £11m, by my count that would take us to about £128m on 12 players. Or if you feel that El Ghazi, Hause and Mings shouldn’t count as “new” players, it would be about £100m and 9 players. If the talk of bringing in a striker for a club record fee is to be believed then that puts us maybe reaching the £160m mark. Or if Maupay is the one, then that would put us more or less bang on the £150m figure that was being suggested earlier.

I don’t remember my dreams very often. But when I have a sense of déjà vu, it’s normally feels dream like so I wonder whether I’ve dreamt a similar moment rather than actually witnessed it in real life. A quick search suggests this feeling is called déjà rêvé (already dreamed).

An additional tweet from Dan Bardell on this striker link - And this from someone else who apparently shares the same sources as Dan -

I’d like to think if it was me, I’d try reach a fair settlement with the club. Take 50% to leave early or something akin to that. But of course we don’t know his financial position, the extra couple of years worth of wages could be the difference in preventing a David James style bankruptcy situation for all we know.

The clear choice for his song is adapting Andreas Johnson’s 1999 top five hit “Glorious”. Something along the lines of- ‘Cos Smiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiith’s..... Bringing him in, Checking him out, Making us Marvelous The verses can be sorted out later.

This inadvertently reminded me of the old castlemaine advert -

I’ve previously flitted between the positives of Heaton, Butland and Etheridge so I clearly don’t have the strongest opinion on who would be the best option. But I’m pretty happy with this. We don’t need him to be playing for us into his late 30’s, another 2 or 3 years is sufficient - it worked rather well with the older Brad Friedel. He brings substantial experience that it could be argued the side is lacking. It weakens a potential relegation rival (signing Butland and Etheridge wouldn’t do that). And it also means the bonus of there being a few extra quid leftover to bring in further reinforcements.

Been a while since I watched it, although it’s the sort of film that stays with you for ages afterwards. A few months back I think there was the discussion in here on distressing/upsetting film scenes. Your post has reminded me that the is up there in the conversation for me.

Fair. It’s how I would place them too. I guessed you’d put Hogan ahead of Taylor (by the tiniest of margins) as I’ve felt that occasionally your criticisms of Hogan have had a slight hint of sympathy towards him compared to Taylor. Perhaps I’ve misread the tone of some of the posts. I’ve been more accepting of Thor’s time here as there’s always the possibility he took longer to settle in this country-no suggestion that was the case, but it’s possible; we clearly didn’t know what position he was most capable in for months; he was a comparatively cheap transfer punt.

Idle musings in lieu of any transfer updates...out of curiosity, who do you rate/prefer more - Thor, Taylor or Hogan? Which name appearing on the team sheet is the least objectionable to you? I suspect you’ll say Thor, then maybe Hogan then Taylor, but just wanted you to confirm my guess.

Cow dung. No contest.

I don’t know if ever get to play at Villa Park, maybe the occasional match, I don’t know. From what I understand they play their home matches at the Trevor Brown Memorial Ground, home of Boldmere St Michaels.

If you’re both on WhatsApp (and he was using his mobile), maybe his profile picture will jog your memory?