With news of Roberto Soldado’s arrival and the continuing saga of Gareth Bale, it’s easy to overlook the fact that Tottenham have made their first major sale of the summer with Steven Caulker joining Premiership new boys Cardiff City for a deal in the region of £8m.
On Monday morning, stories began to emerge that Andre Villas-Boas was looking for defensive cover amidst injury concerns surrounding Jan Vertonghen and Younes Kaboul. Those reports went on to link various defenders with Spurs including Steaua Bucharest’s Vlad Chiriches with some suggestions that a deal had been agreed with the Romanian international.
Following on from that, the Caulker rumour emerged and turned into solid fact in less than 24 hours and while there were mixed feelings on the subject, our old friends at The Metro chose to highlight some of the more negative Tweets from the night.
‘Don’t understand Spurs selling Caulker at all’ and ‘are u winding me up Spurs!!’ were two of the comments highlighted while we didn’t get to hear from anyone backing this decision.
Yes it was a surprise and a shame that young English talent has gone from the club but we have to back AVB’s judgement. Also, we have to trust that someone is being brought in because the centre of defence is suddenly looking a little thin!
For me, wrong decision. Should have got more money for an 21 year old English Centre half too.
Caulker is never worth 8 million.
Brilliant business.
It’s nearer to £9m actually…
…and knowing Daniel Levy there’s probably a “first refusal” and/or “sell on” clauses in the transfer agreement, should Cardiff choose to sell him on in the future (eg. if they get relegated).
He’s good but not that good! We got a decent price for him. Without doubt he’ll get better and no doubt we all wish him well. Let’s hope he doesn’t score against us from a corner kick or something,
Dont think this was a smart move. Proven premier league defender. Too much uncertainty around kaboul, injury potential with Dawson, and Vertonghen having an ankle issue right now. I hope this move is because we have someone lined up but I think there will be more than one occasion where we wish he was still with us. COYS
woeful decision to sell him. will become a regular England international and was great cover for Younes etc. to then talk about going out to buy someone like chiriches in his place is ludicrous. Caulker we know can handle the premier league, cant say the same about chiriches
It seems as though the teams I support in professional sports tend to be good with the business side of things. I constantly find myself questioning them and then looking back and saying what a great decision that was! I have to learn to just back what the decision makers at Spurs/St. Louis/Green Bay do!
Hell yes! I’m in St. Louis. Go Birds! COYS!
I trust Levy and AVB. We will bring in a more dynamic ball moving back.
Someone who’s a young, physical, ball-playing CB? Where could we find one…
Stupid move. I would love to be found ignorant on this one, but I can’t imagine how this was a good move in any sense… unless the goal was to help Caulker get more first-team experience at the expense of the team.
Is Alderwiereld still available? He could be a good call.
We need a new CB now and quick.
Not sure it was a bad deal, guess Caulker feels he needs to be 1st choice and fair play to him.
We probably need the money to pay Bale his whatever £160k p/w
Bale is gone. If he stays we’d challenge for the premiership. Instead we’re gonna reshuffle the entire team and lose any continuity built up from last season. Three new managers in the top four, I really thought if we could just keep our boat steady and add a striker we’d be away. Why oh why does this happen when he’s got 3 years on his contract I’ll never know. It’s good money, so in AVB we trust. I think it’s a major blow myself.
As for Caulker… Decent bit of business I suppose. Good luck to him.
Toby Aldeweireld for me…
I Hope you’re right. From what I’ve seen, he looks class. I’ll probably get ripped to pieces for this, but Lescott?
Probably won’t cost too much, and I rate him
Lescott has been descent — but I’ve always seen him as a good defender first and a mediocre ball-player (which is what AVB’s system would require). I could be wrong, though.
And if we were going to steal anyone from MC I’d much rather have Richards — who I believe can play CB also (even if fullback is preferred).
ball watcher and gets caught out of position all the time 9 mill great price for an average player