Restructuring the squad - Ranocchia

The summer saw a restructuring of the playing staff at Tottenham which is far from complete. There are still players not performing and players the club would be happy to let leave within the squad.

One such player is Federico Fazio who has not been a roaring success, he has had his moments, had his spells of form yet too often there have been mistakes. The season started early in August because of the European Championships next summer. We are in mid-October and he has played one League Cup tie, that tells you all you need to know.

Pochettino is renown for having a circle of players he trusts. If you are within that circle you play, if you are not you don't and can feel isolated. Fazio does not look as though he is within that circle, we tried to sell him to WBA in the summer as part of a deal to get Berahino. We offered him to them cheaply and when they wouldn't accept our payment structure for the striker we pulled the plug on a cheap Fazio deal.

With Eric Dier moving into midfield we are in need of another centre-back, especially if we are to let Fazio go as well, as seems likely. He has sat on the bench for both UEFA Europa League ties and only made the bench for one of the eight Premier League games played so far. 

We have been monitoring the situation of former Inter Milan captain Andrea Ranocchia. The 27-year-old (28 next January) has fallen out of favour with Roberto Mancini after being captain last season. He has a contract until 2019 and Inter do not want to sell to bitter rivals AC Milan who are keen to do business. 

Ranocchia has 20 Italian caps and although his statistics say he has played 5 Serie A games this season he has only actually played for 73 minutes. He hasn't started a game and has made substitute appearances for 1 minute, 5 minutes, 1 minute, 21 minutes and 45 minutes.

Inter bought him in January 2011 from fellow Italian side Genoa and want to sell him rather than loan him. Tottenham are not the only club interested, Newcastle United, Everton and Roma are also reported to have asked for information on the defenders availability. It is rare for an Italian defender to move to the Premier League so I'd be listing Roma as favourites to sign him myself.


Further Tottenham Reading
Posturing and the fake Simon fee
Dembele available for £10m
Levy is doing it right, cautious growth
Spurs stadium-led regeneration
Spurs should be measured against Spurs, not others
Money mercenaries to a side that plays for the shirt

---