Bertrand Traoré

[Kiwivillan]

6 hours ago, Phil Silvers said:

People are pro Bertie and some not so much but the reality is that we need to be ruthless to get where we are going, he among a couple of others will have to be upgraded. Magical for squad depth though, he will make a great impact sub.

So in last few hours you saying we need to upgrade Traore and McGinn. I thought I was on Man City forum for a minute. Totally unrealistic

[fruitvilla]

6 hours ago, Phil Silvers said:

he among a couple of others will have to be upgraded

The question for me is how do we upgrade? Take Targett 2.0, should we have upgraded him last year? Will we have Traore 2.0 next season?
This line of questioning goes for many of our players. 

[Kiwivillan]

1 minute ago, fruitvilla said:

The question for me is how do we upgrade? Take Targett 2.0, should we have upgraded him last year? Will we have Traore 2.0 next season?
This line of questioning goes for many of our players. 

Traore will only get better. He's clearly happy here unlike his last club

[ciggiesnbeer]

Lots of premier clubs would love to have a player like Bertie. I am excited every time I see his name on the team sheet , love to watch him play.

[KentVillan]

3 minutes ago, fruitvilla said:

The question for me is how do we upgrade? Take Targett 2.0, should we have upgraded him last year? Will we have Traore 2.0 next season?
This line of questioning goes for many of our players. 

Agreed. Too many of our fans don't understand that the upgrade can be the player himself.

A lot of it stems from a misguided belief that Smith doesn't improve players, but he clearly does!

[Phil Silvers]

Of course Smith improves teams and players and it would be brilliant if they all did a Targett but expecting it and signing no one or just back up squad players is foolish imo. Do fans think we are not trying to catch the elite and just let them have it, nah, we're after them and I can see us breaking our transfer record again and again.

[KangarooVillan]

25 minutes ago, Phil Silvers said:

Of course Smith improves teams and players and it would be brilliant if they all did a Targett but expecting it and signing no one or just back up squad players is foolish imo. Do fans think we are not trying to catch the elite and just let them have it, nah, we're after them and I can see us breaking our transfer record again and again.

How much does that cost though? And does it take away from other targets?

Let’s say Traore improves slightly and scores 9 goals, has 9 assists and improves his defensive work in the Premier League. That’s a season I’d be happy with from an RW. 

And if you want to replace him - Diogo Jota had 7G and 1A in 2019/20 and 9G and 5A in 2018/19 and he cost 40 million.

Targett should also serve as a cautionary tale - imagine if we replaced him off the back of fan comments and never found out how good he was?

 

[Keyblade]

4 hours ago, ciggiesnbeer said:

Lots of premier clubs would love to have a player like Bertie. I am excited every time I see his name on the team sheet , love to watch him play.

Spurs have been crying out for a player like him for like 3 years now.

[peterw]

I like him. He annoys me but I like him. You know that a lot of the time what he does will not come off and it'll be rubbish, but those exciting moments where he looks dangerous are what fans love. I'd be more than happy to have him on the right next season as we look for a back-up and not necessarily a replacement. I'm guessing but haven't our two wingers scored something like 16 between them? That's pretty impressive.

[adam67]

Watching BT kind of reminds me of Watching Tony Daley back in his prime, obviously BT hasn't got that blistering pace TD had, but the uncertainty of what's going to happen when he has the ball at his feet gets you to sit/stand up and get excited to see what he,s going to do, beat three players score a worldie, fall over, 50 yard back pass after beating 3 men who knows! 

[Phil Silvers]

58 minutes ago, KangarooVillan said:

How much does that cost though? And does it take away from other targets?

Let’s say Traore improves slightly and scores 9 goals, has 9 assists and improves his defensive work in the Premier League. That’s a season I’d be happy with from an RW. 

And if you want to replace him - Diogo Jota had 7G and 1A in 2019/20 and 9G and 5A in 2018/19 and he cost 40 million.

Targett should also serve as a cautionary tale - imagine if we replaced him off the back of fan comments and never found out how good he was?

 

This has to be relevant to match results though as offensively he is not far off but if we keep getting smashed from down that side etc, .....  I'd love it if he fixed his inadequacies though, his flare is intoxicating. The overall team improvement could come from another piece of the jigsaw though, my first priority would be a midfield General that could hopefully knit everything together and lift the rest if them. 

I'm being devil's advocate and looking for how we crack the next level on our journey, one of my favourite players is SJM but over the season I can see where people can be frustrated with him, do we go with what we have and hope they improve (or just be more consistent) or do we spend what we obviously have and buy better? 

Such an Important summer again and such a fine balancing act as the team spirit is fantastic and we need to maintain that.

[M_Afro]

8 minutes ago, adam67 said:

Watching BT kind of reminds me of Watching Tony Daley back in his prime, obviously BT hasn't got that blistering pace TD had, but the uncertainty of what's going to happen when he has the ball at his feet gets you to sit/stand up and get excited to see what he,s going to do, beat three players score a worldie, fall over, 50 yard back pass after beating 3 men who knows! 

I think the same every time I watch Saint Maximin. Very Tony Daley like in my view.

[wilko154]

Superb yesterday, you never know exactly what he's going to do on the ball; and half of the time I don't even think he know's what he's going to do on the ball.

Traore is exactly the type of maverick we've been wanting over the last few years.

In terms of an upgrade, we should absolutely be looking at new wingers this window. However I'm pretty certain that Traore will be even better next season, and so it's a case of fighting to keep hold of his position in the starting 11. It's where we should now be aiming for as a football club.

[JAMAICAN-VILLAN]

16 hours ago, Phil Silvers said:

People are pro Bertie and some not so much but the reality is that we need to be ruthless to get where we are going, he among a couple of others will have to be upgraded. Magical for squad depth though, he will make a great impact sub.

I tend to agree with you at present.

However, i'm also willing to give him until next season.

Most players have improved here, so the thought of a stronger, fitter, more in sync and better drilled Bertie is kind of exciting.

We need another Winger/CAM either way though.

[Phil Silvers]

3 minutes ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

I tend to agree with you at present.

However, i'm also willing to give him until next season.

Most players have improved here, so the thought of a stronger, fitter, more in sync and better drilled Bertie is kind of exciting.

We need another Winger/CAM either way though.

I do agree and makes sense rather then re-invest straight away, but who knows what the remit is. 

[Rightdm00]

1 hour ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

I tend to agree with you at present.

However, i'm also willing to give him until next season.

Most players have improved here, so the thought of a stronger, fitter, more in sync and better drilled Bertie is kind of exciting.

We need another Winger/CAM either way though.

That is priority one. We have to replace Barkley. Our form never really fully recovered from his hamstring injury.

It looks like the answer will be Jack to the middle and purchase a LW but honestly I think we have targets at both the CAM and LW position and we are going to see which one we can more easily procure. 

[KangarooVillan]

6 hours ago, Phil Silvers said:

This has to be relevant to match results though as offensively he is not far off but if we keep getting smashed from down that side etc, .....  I'd love it if he fixed his inadequacies though, his flare is intoxicating. The overall team improvement could come from another piece of the jigsaw though, my first priority would be a midfield General that could hopefully knit everything together and lift the rest if them. 

I'm being devil's advocate and looking for how we crack the next level on our journey, one of my favourite players is SJM but over the season I can see where people can be frustrated with him, do we go with what we have and hope they improve (or just be more consistent) or do we spend what we obviously have and buy better? 

Such an Important summer again and such a fine balancing act as the team spirit is fantastic and we need to maintain that.

You raise a good point about another part of the jigsaw potentially assisting with the lack of defence from the wingers.

Agreed - definitely a balancing act.

I also reckon Smith will have Traore running defensive drills all summer - luckily the defensive stuff is easier to teach than some of the incomprehensible magic he does going forward.

[Phil Silvers]

8 minutes ago, KangarooVillan said:

You raise a good point about another part of the jigsaw potentially assisting with the lack of defence from the wingers.

Agreed - definitely a balancing act.

I also reckon Smith will have Traore running defensive drills all summer - luckily the defensive stuff is easier to teach than some of the incomprehensible magic he does going forward.

I've always said this, so true. It's like something they are born with, people used to say Paul McGrath wasn't the fastest but he didn't need to be, as he read the game so well that he was already there, born with it.

[ender4]

36 minutes ago, KangarooVillan said:

 

I also reckon Smith will have Traore running defensive drills all summer - luckily the defensive stuff is easier to teach than some of the incomprehensible magic he does going forward.

yes agree.  Can't teach the magic, but can easily teach the positioning, defending and tracking back.

[PaulC]

I was very sceptical about him but hes shown enough in recent games to convince me he has a big future here. Players like him make a difference in close games. Its what Chelsea missed yesterday. For all their dominance they cant hit a barn door. Proven by the fact they have scored less than a goal a game in the Premier League under Tuchel.