Any Levy/ENIC fans, fuck off.

I’ve talked about the full back situation a lot at Spurs. It’s not the only issue by any means but it’s pretty representative of the BS squad investment we’ve seen over the past 5 years especially (though ENICs tenure in general).

Let’s start with the teams RB situation:

Kyle Walker sold in July 2017 for £47m.
Serge Aurier bought in August 2017 for £22.5m.
Kieran Trippier sold in July 2019 for £19m.
KWP sold in July 2020 for £12m.
Serge Aurier likely to be sold this t.window for £18m.

Now just looking at this alone, you can see the problem? I get that the clubs finances are one big pot and are redistributed as seen fit, but this position has had a continuous divestment over the past few years.

Say we sell Aurier and buy a replacement (shouldnt have to sell to buy anyway), and we spend around £20m. That’s £58mil ‘redistributed’ from that position. If we actually don’t replace Aurier (literally fuck off), that’s around £96m taken out of that position and ‘redistributed’.

It’s a fucking joke, they knew we needed investment there for ages. This isn’t a new issue, this is one that started when we sold Walker and didn’t invest in a like for like replacement, when we sold trippier and didn’t replace him. It’s KWP not being developed properly.

This is JUST the RB situation.

Now let’s take a look at the LB situation. A little less glaringly obvious than the RB situation so bare with.

Prior to Rose/Davies, the LB situation was a bit of a mess and always chopping/changing. Naughton (RB) and Vertonghen (CB) covered the LB position a total of 31 and 26 times respectively from joining up until 14/15. Jan has gone on to cover this a few times in recent seasons too.

Since 2000, numerous players have been brought in to play in the position. Some didn’t work out, and others were left to age on the sideline.

Ben Thatcher - bought £6.7m (2000), out £0.45 (‘03).
Christian Ziege - bought £5.85 (‘01), free out (‘04).
Erik Edman - bought £1.8m (‘04), out £2.7m (‘05).
Timothee Atouba - bought £4m (‘04), out £2.25 (‘05).
Lee Young-Pyo - bought £1.8m (‘05), out £0.45m (‘08).

Benoit Assou-Ekotto - bought £4.5m (‘06), free out (‘15)
Zeki Fryers - in £3.15m (‘13), out £3.42m (‘14)
Gilberto - bought £2.5m (‘08), free out (‘09)

£21m loss on all the above players from the LB position. Terrible business and crap recruitment.

(I could have missed some btw so correct me on anyone or any of the figures)

Ben Davies arrived in July 2014 for a fee of £11m. For most of his Spurs career, he’s been in direct competition with Danny Rose. 14/15 and 15/16 saw Rose make more appearances, however Davies made more appearances than Rose in each of the last three full seasons.

Davies arrival led to a solid 1st and backup pairing, much like the other side of the pitch. After finally having established stability for the LB position, surely you’d want to keep it that way? With Rose’s decline, we have been left with essentially one LB.

Whatever your opinion of Rose, the facts are: he is now 30, he is consistently injured (384 days injury absence since 14/15), and his performances have noticeably dropped. Him and the club also do not appear to have a great relationship.

If Davies gets a significant injury, Spurs are going to struggle for options to cover. Do not tell me Ryan Sessegnon is a LB. He is not and placing him there is not great for his confidence clearly.

I also have reservations about Japhet’s ability to cover here too, he was better on the right side and is naturally best as a CB. We also have the option of Dennis Cirkin, but again I don’t know how well an 18 year old would cope.

The point is we shouldn’t have to find out, but with Mourinho dropping both Cirkin’s and Harvey White’s names into first team discussions, it seems that once again the LB will get overlooked. It’s been 6 years since Davies arrived, what’s another 6