Luka Modric - 'I love Spurs' and the wasted £116m
Luka Modric left Spurs in 2012 for the Spanish giants Real Madrid in a £30 million deal. In 2013 Gareth Bale joined him in an £86 million deal, an income of £116 million.
Modric leaving upset some Spurs fans of course but we didn't achieve Champions League so had little chance of keeping hold of him. To retain players of his caliber we simply have to get Champions League football, we don't and they will always go.
That's tough for some fans to take but that is the reality of football, if we can't provide it, they'll go somewhere where it can be provided.
Like Rafael Van Der Vaart recently he has also come out and said how much he enjoyed playing at Spurs.
"In one moment you feel you need to take a step forward, to go to a higher level."
"I think it was the right time for me to go, but I will always be thankful to Tottenham for everything they did for me. I became a better player there and they pushed me to this level where I am at the moment. I will always be a fan, I follow them a lot when I can," Modric said.
"I have great memories of Tottenham. I spent four great years there with a lot of emotions, with a lot of love from the club and the fans. I enjoyed every moment with Tottenham."
It is safe to assume that had we qualified these guys may well have stayed longer, however Van Der Vaart left, it was later revealed, in an attempt to save his marriage, an attempt that failed.
The big question from all this that that has to be asked though is what have Spurs done with £116 million, why haven't we got any better? We have spent money but quite frankly we have bought a whole bunch of players we hope will improve. Unfortunately the only players who are improving or look like improving at the moment are those who were already at the club, namely Nabil Bentaleb and a resurgant Emmanuel Adebayor.
Hugo Lloris seems to have a mistake in him every game and I know some Spurs fans enthuse about him but quite frankly he is nowhere near irreplaceable, there are plenty of keepers of his sort of standard.
Jan Vertonghen has been an outstanding buy, Paulinho misses too many chances he should be scoring, Capoue is simply pissed off he's not an automatic choice and currently doesn't even look like the pplayer we bought, Soldado is having an utter nightmare of a season, Chadli gives 5 minutes of talent a game and nothing for the rest of the time, Chiriches is too short to be a top level centre-back and can't even read a game, Eriksen flatters to deceive too often, good but not great, Holtby was the same plenty of promise but little end product, Lamela is permanently injured and already wants to go back to Italy.
The transfer committee have a lot to answer for. I have no problem with the policy of buy young and improve them if we buy the right players, however we have bought young and not one of them looks like improving. The signs are we have blown £116 million.
If you are going to buy a player you have to consider the mental side of the game and the players character something we don't seem to do. We are in need of a manager, sorry Head Coach, who knows what he is doing and brings some sanity to the club. Modric had the character to go with the ability to control a game and he is now doing that at Real Madrid, considered by many experts to be their player of the season.
Tim Sherwood is doing an admiral job in the circumstances working with what he has but you have to despair when he starts putting Townsend on the right as well. The guy has scored 1 goal from a million shots, how many shots does it take before these highly paid professional staff will cotton on he's a left winger, especially on a relatively small pitch like ours.
I applaud Tim for the work he is doing but we desperately need an experienced leader at the helm, a Louis Van Gaal or Cesare Prandelli during the summer, perhaps then we will start to get a return on our massive investment.
Modric leaving upset some Spurs fans of course but we didn't achieve Champions League so had little chance of keeping hold of him. To retain players of his caliber we simply have to get Champions League football, we don't and they will always go.
That's tough for some fans to take but that is the reality of football, if we can't provide it, they'll go somewhere where it can be provided.
Like Rafael Van Der Vaart recently he has also come out and said how much he enjoyed playing at Spurs.
"In one moment you feel you need to take a step forward, to go to a higher level."
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| Luka Modric enjoyed happy times at Spurs |
"I think it was the right time for me to go, but I will always be thankful to Tottenham for everything they did for me. I became a better player there and they pushed me to this level where I am at the moment. I will always be a fan, I follow them a lot when I can," Modric said.
"I have great memories of Tottenham. I spent four great years there with a lot of emotions, with a lot of love from the club and the fans. I enjoyed every moment with Tottenham."
It is safe to assume that had we qualified these guys may well have stayed longer, however Van Der Vaart left, it was later revealed, in an attempt to save his marriage, an attempt that failed.
The big question from all this that that has to be asked though is what have Spurs done with £116 million, why haven't we got any better? We have spent money but quite frankly we have bought a whole bunch of players we hope will improve. Unfortunately the only players who are improving or look like improving at the moment are those who were already at the club, namely Nabil Bentaleb and a resurgant Emmanuel Adebayor.
Hugo Lloris seems to have a mistake in him every game and I know some Spurs fans enthuse about him but quite frankly he is nowhere near irreplaceable, there are plenty of keepers of his sort of standard.
Jan Vertonghen has been an outstanding buy, Paulinho misses too many chances he should be scoring, Capoue is simply pissed off he's not an automatic choice and currently doesn't even look like the pplayer we bought, Soldado is having an utter nightmare of a season, Chadli gives 5 minutes of talent a game and nothing for the rest of the time, Chiriches is too short to be a top level centre-back and can't even read a game, Eriksen flatters to deceive too often, good but not great, Holtby was the same plenty of promise but little end product, Lamela is permanently injured and already wants to go back to Italy.
The transfer committee have a lot to answer for. I have no problem with the policy of buy young and improve them if we buy the right players, however we have bought young and not one of them looks like improving. The signs are we have blown £116 million.
If you are going to buy a player you have to consider the mental side of the game and the players character something we don't seem to do. We are in need of a manager, sorry Head Coach, who knows what he is doing and brings some sanity to the club. Modric had the character to go with the ability to control a game and he is now doing that at Real Madrid, considered by many experts to be their player of the season.
Tim Sherwood is doing an admiral job in the circumstances working with what he has but you have to despair when he starts putting Townsend on the right as well. The guy has scored 1 goal from a million shots, how many shots does it take before these highly paid professional staff will cotton on he's a left winger, especially on a relatively small pitch like ours.
I applaud Tim for the work he is doing but we desperately need an experienced leader at the helm, a Louis Van Gaal or Cesare Prandelli during the summer, perhaps then we will start to get a return on our massive investment.
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