One recurring issue with Spurs transfer rumours is the desperate desire to package players as fabulous, show-stopping and generally, box-office sensations have overtaken honest reporting. The business we are in is to generate as much traffic as possible, and to hell with the consequences. Look no further than poor Emerson Royal, who was billed as a Barcelona star. The poor guy barely played for them and is rapidly approaching a point where fans are booing him on sight.
Weston McKennie is one of several lukewarm names linked with a Spurs move, and yesterday we finally got a taste of the USA’s star man. According to the Italian outlet Calciomercato, Spurs are keen on signing Juventus midfielder. The Old Lady could look to sell the USA midfielder for a fee of around €25-30million in January. This would bring the Juve ace in line with what the Lilywhites paid for Royal.
Then there’s a question of where Conte might play this guy. Do we really need another holding midfielder? Using WhoScored‘s ready-reckoner, the answer appears to be a solid ‘no thank you’, with the American offering less than Bentancur. Tottenham, or rather Daniel Levy needs to stop taking punts and invest before Antonio Conte loses the will to continue.
This brings me to another pet hate. Please stop saying, if Conte wants him, that’s good enough for me and variations thereof. There’s only one man who makes the calls at THFC, and he is the one man you need to worry about.
McKennie isn’t good enough in any respect. Unless of course, one’s ambitions are for Conte to quit, Southgate to take over, and the misery to continue at the same shambolic pace. Stop looking at mid-priced mediocrity.
Don’t forget that Bentancur had similar, if not worse statistics before his move to spurs last year. Judging based on statistics is a mistake that most, it seems, haven’t learnt from. Not stats, and not highlights. If he was so bad, I don’t see why he would still be playing for a top team, say what you may, like Juventus.
So you don’t like stats or highlights. So what about market value?
Or do you only consult the goblin at the bottom of your garden?
McKennie is dross, with apologies to other dross.
Noooooo thank you. Like this over-rated non-entity, so many players are shanking the ball over the bar from zero distance. Why.? They can pass the ball to hit a pin head from 60m time after time, but cant hit the onion bag from 6. A wild swing of the leg gives the man in Row Z another ball for his collection. This is a coachable skill – so why does nobody coach it.
Couldn’t agree more. He looked extremely average against both England and Wales – certainly no better than the midfielders we’ve already got. The way forward is to buy BETTER than we’ve already got in that position, not just someone who maybe is ‘a deal’ at the price we can get him for. Show some ambition FFS.
Mr Matt, I’m just speaking my opinion. All of these figures can be considered, but the thing is that if Antonio Conte believes McKennie fits the system, Antonio is going to get him by all means possible.
Also, it’s not like I don’t like stats or highlights, but as every director only inserts content that they want a video to comprise of, highlight video/reel makers only select what they want to. There could be something that the player in question does extremely well that is not flashy, and there could be something a player does horribly that a creator would leave out. Highlights don’t tell the complete story.
Emerson Royal’s market value is €30m, while Doherty and Spence are on €12m and €13m respectively.
Emerson Royal, again, to many, is considered “dross”, but this didn’t kill the hype when people only saw his highlights. Only first hand experience brought us to the knowledge of his abilities (or lack of in some areas). Maybe you should’ve consulted the goblin at the bottom of your garden to tell you about him, not sure I have one at the bottom of mine. I’ll check and tell you what I find.