Kyle Walker

[Ric]

It's not difficult to replicate the position we held with Alves for discussion purposes, leak a few names to the press in that position and if it comes up in negotiation just say we are close on another target. It's a hard one for him to test. Meanwhile we should actually be working on another target anyway, just in case.

Personally I think it'll convince Walker even more because now he knows he's not got Alves to compete with. I'm just not sure he's got the backbone to make his stance clear. The real winner here is to pick up Walker, and sign Fabinho as DM plus RB cover. (:

Yeah, Fabinho would be ideal now that Alves won't be taking up a foreign slot in the squad. Don't think it will happen though.

 

[eversince 76]

I keep reading that the Alves setback today plays greatly into Levy's hands, but I'm not that convinced that it does. It might have if Spurs didn't want to sell, but it seems pretty clear that they do want to do a deal. They won't make the price prohibitive because otherwise they risk missing out on what is an already sizeable transfer fee, and having an unhappy (and seemingly unwanted, by Pochettino at least) player on their hands.

If you want to sell but you don't need to sell, it puts you in a much better position than if you need to buy. And our need that was already apparent with Zabaleta and Sagan leaving, certainly hasn't degraded after Alves snubbed us. So I would say it certainly plays in to Levy's hand. Whatever the player wants is not of his concern. The player himself will try and persuade the needing party (us) to try and make the transfer happen up until the moment we walk away or transfer deadline is there. And I would expect Walker or any professional football player to get his grips. I'm sure Walker wants to be part of the England team at the WC for starters, so he gains nothing by playing an unhappy member of the squad.

 

[yeah whatever !!]

If you want to sell but you don't need to sell, it puts you in a much better position than if you need to buy. And our need that was already apparent with Zabaleta and Sagan leaving, certainly hasn't degraded after Alves snubbed us. So I would say it certainly plays in to Levy's hand. Whatever the player wants is not of his concern. The player himself will try and persuade the needing party (us) to try and make the transfer happen up until the moment we walk away or transfer deadline is there. And I would expect Walker or any professional football player to get his grips. I'm sure Walker wants to be part of the England team at the WC for starters, so he gains nothing by playing an unhappy member of the squad.

Especially as we are told him and Poch dont see eye to eye.

 

[Rolee]

If you want to sell but you don't need to sell, it puts you in a much better position than if you need to buy. And our need that was already apparent with Zabaleta and Sagan leaving, certainly hasn't degraded after Alves snubbed us. So I would say it certainly plays in to Levy's hand. Whatever the player wants is not of his concern. The player himself will try and persuade the needing party (us) to try and make the transfer happen up until the moment we walk away or transfer deadline is there. And I would expect Walker or any professional football player to get his grips. I'm sure Walker wants to be part of the England team at the WC for starters, so he gains nothing by playing an unhappy member of the squad.

Would we need another right back if we'd signed Alves?

 

[Cotton Weave Blue]

Would we need another right back if we'd signed Alves?

Yes. He played 33 times for Juventus last year.

 

[richards30]

can we not go for fabinho now then? or does he not want to play RB?

 

[YaYa's Left Peg]

Losing Alves is a blow, nothing more. Sure he would have brought great experience, and knowledge of Pep's system, and no doubt that might have been a great help to some of our other players, especially when the going gets tough. But, it could just have easily turned sour, perhaps with him and his wife not settling in Manchester, or him being separated from his wife for long periods given that she works in Paris. Also, if I recall, was there not a fallout between Pep and Alves at Barca, when Alves was critical of the manager over some of his methods and tactics? And off course, we all remember his thoughts on City when asked about us a while back, although some of this might have been down to interpretation.

I think losing Alves has certainly made the juggling of the transfer budget a little bit trickier now. We thought we had a freebie, a great one at that, but now we're going to have to either spend upwards of £20M+ on getting another target or hope that Maffeo proves an able deputy. Hey shit happens. In any case, it's likely that we would have had to enter the market again next season anyway for a RB, given the way Alves treated Juventus, I have a feeling that he would have done the same to us - after all, the guy is care free and has nothing to prove.

What we need is a young, hungry full back who actually wants to play for us and achieve great things with us. If it means we don't invest in another midfielder, or even in Sanchez, or even a central defender, then so be it (although I have a feeling our pot is a lot larger than some think, given that we didn't get to spend the money last year targeted for Mbappe). I'm not even bothered if we don't get Walker, if we end up with someone like Kimmich or Fabinho (target Bertrand at LB and keep Delph to make up our four association trained).

Like I say Alves is a blow, but the possibilities still open to us are potentially mouth watering.

 

[ShaunyB]

Getting snubbed by Alves was a blow but we need to move on and sign somebody who actually wants to play for us. Walker is a great player but i am not convinced we should be paying £50million+ for him. The Alves news played straight into Tottenham's hands in terms of being able to demand more. If Tottenham are going to quote stupid numbers i would turn elsewhere surely there are other world class options available to us at clubs who aren't going to take the piss too much? Anyway i am sure Pep knows what he's doing. We will have at least 2 world class full backs before the start of the season.

 

[not my fault!]

Getting snubbed by Alves was a blow but we need to move on and sign somebody who actually wants to play for us. Walker is a great player but i am not convinced we should be paying £50million+ for him. The Alves news played straight into Tottenham's hands in terms of being able to demand more. If Tottenham are going to quote stupid numbers i would turn elsewhere surely there are other world class options available to us at clubs who aren't going to take the piss too much? Anyway i am sure Pep knows what he's doing. We will have at least 2 world class full backs before the start of the season.

They don't need to be world class... Walker isn't! He's good but he's not world class.

 

[uwe rosler 28]

£150m for Cedric, walker,Bertrand,Mendy would be a good summer for me and yes we can please them all like we did with Micah,zabba,Clichy,kolarov