freddybouma123 Posted October 21, 2012 Share Posted October 21, 2012 (edited) Do we still rate our former Keeper? Article on why Spurs' GK issue may have cost them in the transfer window. Worth a read. Football Philosophy After a frantic end to the summer transfer window, which saw Clint Dempsey move in a last minute deal and the hopes of signing Joao Moutinho disappear, Tottenham Hotspur find themselves with four senior goal keepers. Perhaps it was the concerns over having enough options upfront, the right balance in midfield or even the prospect of selling the much respected Michael Dawson which proved to be a distraction, but Spurs wrapped up the signing of Hugo Lloris without selling or loaning out Carlo Cudicini or Heurelho Gomes. Much of the attention has been over whether the experienced American Brad Friedel will retain his place or lose it with the arrival of French international Hugo Lloris. It is clear that there is a difficult decision to be made for Villas-Boas. Friedel is one of the most consistent goalkeepers there has ever been in the premier league. Taking into account Reina’s poor form for Liverpool in the past few months, Brad Friedel performances over the last 4-5 seasons is probably only bested by Joe Hart. And of course his record of consecutive premier league games, now over 300, must have some bearing on the manager’s thinking. While the 41 year old is in occupation and so far this season looks worthy of his place, Lloris will have little patience. Bought for over £12 million, he will undoubtely have believed he was signed to play not simply cover. It would be interesting to know how much Lloris had heard of Friedel and how aware he was of the Ohioan’s reputation in english football. Brad Friedel is regarded as one of the most dedicated professionals around However, while all the talk of late has been over who will be first choice or the prospect of rotation, little has been made of Spurs’ decision to keep Gomes and Cudicini. It is rare for a team to possess three experieced goalkeepers who have all played as ‘number ones’ at the highest level. But it is rarer still for a club to have four. What is strange is Tottenham’s claim to be a side trying to compete with the best but on a strict financial budget and maintiaining a wage structure to be envied by their rivals. Fans must be questioning whether the £12 million spent on Lloris will see meaningful returns. Will Lloris put in perfromances that Friedel can’t? More importantly what contribution to the club are Cudicini and Gomes making? The combined wages of the four goal keepers is huge. Friedel is thought to be earning £40,000 per week, and it must be assumed that Gomes will be on at least as much. While Cudicini’s wages may be a little lower, it would be reasonable to think Tottenham are paying around £200,000 per week for their quartet of keepers. These two should probably take up some new hobbies for a few months The opportunity cost of Daniel Levy becoming some kind of goal keeping collector is obviously the most frustrating for spurs’ fans. If they had chosen not to sign Lloris for £12 million and managed to sell Gomes (although admittedly a difficlut task) for any money to reduce the wages, Tottenham would have easily been able to invest in another high quality outfield player and pay them around £100-120,000 a week. The concern is that at the moment, spurs may be a little light upfront or in the full-back position. It is not ridiculous to think Adebayor and Defoe may both be unavailable at some point this season which would force AVB to play Dempsey as a lone striker – a role he rarely played at Fulham. Furthermore, if the talented Kyle Walker misses out through injury, the manager is likely to be forced to play the much less experienced Kyle Naughton at right back or potentially move William Gallas. Before the January transfer window and the return of the injured Younes Kaboul, Tottenham fans will likely see a fair amount of re-shuffling in the back line when even a minimal number of injuries hit. Jan Vertonghen may well find himself at left-back or failing that, the likes of Assou-Ekotto may go long periods without competition. Dempsey may well have to play as a lone striker at times this season if Defoe and Adebayor are unavailable Tottenham have tremendous quality in their starting eleven and possess a real depth in their options at central midfield. However, a lack of several experenced full backs or strikers to cover for injuries and suspensions will be tested. The goalkeeper issue at Spurs may cost them more than the transfer payment and wages of Hugo Lloris. Edited October 21, 2012 by bickster Added Tag, Poll and Original Article Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bickster Posted October 21, 2012 Moderator Share Posted October 21, 2012 Friedel for me, just because I really liked him at Villa and I haven't seen enough of LLoris. On the small matter of them needing full backs, they are quite welcome to have Alan Hut..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coda Posted October 21, 2012 Share Posted October 21, 2012 Gomes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villarule123 Posted October 21, 2012 VT Supporter Share Posted October 21, 2012 Friedel.. Why the **** did they sign a new GK this summer when Friedel is still at the club, utter lunacy and I bet AVB didn't have much of a say in it. He would have still been available next summer too I bet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villa4europe Posted October 21, 2012 Share Posted October 21, 2012 to be fair for the money they have paid they have got a great keeper in lloris who was almost certainly going somewhere this summer and its surprising Brad has kept it going this long, so i can see why they did it agree with the bit about it being interesting to know how much lloris knew of big brad before he went there and how much he respects him, i think it was a bit of a shitter that he did it vs us but AVB was right to put the run to an end, come christmas i think the roles will have been reversed the media are amking a fuss about it and the spuds fans are lapping it up because its fashionable to dislike AVB next season when courtois returns to chelsea will be more interesting than this Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimzk5 Posted October 21, 2012 Share Posted October 21, 2012 Hockered argument Friedel is 41, really doesn't have much left in the tank Cudicini is 39 and hasn't played in 6 years and got injured bad in the bike crash Gomes is shit. Spurs needed a keeper and sensible long term planning they buy the France no.1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rhyscartwright_avfc Posted October 21, 2012 Share Posted October 21, 2012 Lloris all day long. Should be their keeper for the next 10 or so years now. Friedel, despite still being Prem class, has lost some of his ability. Mentioned in a previous thread how he cost Spurs' game vs WBA earlier this season due to being shit at commanding his box. And with regard to the article, no way on hell are Spurs spending 200k a week on their goalies. And they would never spend 100k-120k on one player, as suggested if they didn't buy Lloris and sold Gomes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Czechlad Posted October 22, 2012 Share Posted October 22, 2012 Found this signing quite weird. Freidel is signed on for this season and it's not like he has been bad at all for them. Freidel is AVB's #1 and I don't see that pleasing Lloris. Maybe Freidel might be sold in January to the MLS for some fee. That might have been Tottenham's mentality when buying Lloris. Maybe it was their plan to sell Freidel to get some money. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AVFCforever1991 Posted October 22, 2012 Share Posted October 22, 2012 Lloris, he is probably the 5th best GK in the world IMO. Friedal cant play forever. He can be spurs Keeper for the next 10 years, it was a great buy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted October 22, 2012 VT Supporter Share Posted October 22, 2012 Lloris is a very VERY good goalkeeper. If this short term issue is what it cost for them to get their hands on him before anyone else did then it's a small price to pay. Friedel was in good form, but he hasn't got long left. Lloris is one of the best keepers in the world. They were absolutely right to sign him. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GarethRDR Posted October 22, 2012 Share Posted October 22, 2012 Lloris is a very VERY good goalkeeper. If this short term issue is what it cost for them to get their hands on him before anyone else did then it's a small price to pay. Friedel was in good form, but he hasn't got long left. Lloris is one of the best keepers in the world. They were absolutely right to sign him. Safe Hands Stevo knows whereof he speaketh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Qwpzxjor1 Posted October 22, 2012 Share Posted October 22, 2012 Lloris is no doubt the long term replacement, I don't think anyone is questioning that. How happy is Lloris going to be playing second fiddle after signing for 12m+ though? I guess Spurs are keeping an eye on the situation and reassuring him he'll be first choice soon enough - but it's a bit weird to make such a big signing and not even give him a look in. If you're waiting for Friedel to make a mistake to justify changing keeper then you could be waiting a while. Friedel may not be the most agile any more and there may well be goals conceeded that you can think 'Lloris would probably have stopped that..' but in terms of mistakes there's no finer keeper in the league, he simply won't make any. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted October 22, 2012 VT Supporter Share Posted October 22, 2012 But that's the point I was making. I would guess that this will be Friedel's last season as number 1, if he even makes it that long with the shirt. If that upsets Lloris for a season, then so be it. I'm sure he's been told that regardless of what happens now, he's the future. Having Lloris (or Friedel for that matter if Lloris gets the nod) is a small price to pay for having him at the club. If they hadn't have signed him, someone else probably would have, and then he's gone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Qwpzxjor1 Posted October 22, 2012 Share Posted October 22, 2012 Unless Lloris gets sick and hands in a transfer request... As I said, I'm sure Spurs are well on top of it, but if Lloris ends up losing his international place, etc.. then he's not going to be too keen to stay there much longer. He's also still relatively young, he will lose his sharpness playing reserve football. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Rev Posted October 22, 2012 Share Posted October 22, 2012 Friedel.. Why the **** did they sign a new GK this summer when Friedel is still at the club, utter lunacy and I bet AVB didn't have much of a say in it. He would have still been available next summer too I bet. What? Brad Friedel is 41 years old. He will be 42 before the season is out, and he is in the final year of his contract with Tottenham Hotspur. If a keeper of the quality of Hugo Lloris becomes available, you sign him rather than waiting a year and finding that there are no keepers of that class on the market next summer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Troglodyte Posted October 22, 2012 VT Supporter Share Posted October 22, 2012 Was going to say the same as Stevo really. I've said on here before that I think Lloris is a world class goalkeeper. He'll be the first choice goalkeeper at Spurs by the start of next season, and will be for many years after that, and all of this will be forgotten. It was worth paying to get him now, rather than risk losing him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Qwpzxjor1 Posted October 22, 2012 Share Posted October 22, 2012 It was worth paying to get him now, rather than risk losing him. Is it not worth playing him now then? What message does it send? Basically says to me that they already see their new keeper as inferior to their current one. The only thing I can think is that they want Lloris to have more time in training or even have a pre-season campaign to learn to organise the defence and get to know his team mates.. if so then that was always going to be Spurs' plan from the start, and I wonder if that was made clear to him when he signed for the club. I don't think Lloris seems to sort to agree a deal where he would knowlingly have to spend a year as backup because he hasn't had the pre-season behind him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Troglodyte Posted October 22, 2012 VT Supporter Share Posted October 22, 2012 I can see the argument for playing him now. However, Brad Friedel is an excellent and consistent goalkeeper, and AVB clearly respects that and doesn't want to simply freeze him out. Maybe Lloris wasn't aware that he wouldn't be installed straight away as first choice, but even if he's upset, I can't see him asking to leave before the end of the season, and by that time he'll be Spurs' undisputed number one. So, Spurs may have been dishonest (at worst) with Lloris, but in the long run it'll be forgotten and they have one of the world's best keepers between the sticks. And for now, like you say, he has time to adjust to his new club (whether he's happy not playing, or otherwise). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted October 22, 2012 VT Supporter Share Posted October 22, 2012 Unless Lloris gets sick and hands in a transfer request... Then you reject it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted October 22, 2012 Share Posted October 22, 2012 I think a loan for Lloris for a few months could be benificial in long term as he will get games and also gain experience of toughness of English league. Spurs then have Cudicini or Gomes as back up so in no-lose situation Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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