After the frenzy of the weekend it was a quiet deadline day for Spurs but, as widely expected, Benoit Assou-Ekotto and Tom Carroll did leave the club on season long loans with both men heading to join former Spurs boss Harry Redknapp at QPR.
BAE hadn’t featured at all during pre-season so some form of move was a better option but Tom had been used and had impressed during last week’s 3-0 win over Dinamo Tbilisi at the Lane.
Prior to the Rangers move, there had been talk of the 21 year old linking up on a temporary basis with Frank de Boer at Ajax, as part of the Christian Eriksen deal but that failed to materialise. Would a stint at the Amsterdam Arena have been better for Tom’s development as a player?
Spurs could look to Andros Townsend’s improvement at Loftus Road last season and hope that Carroll progresses in a similar way but perhaps it was time for a spell in the Premiership with regular game time.
This move is a joke. Tom Carroll is the best creative passer at Spurs. Sending him to the championship is insulting to him as a player.
He would easily be one of the best players in the premiership this season.
AVB seems to not be interested in creativity and continues to pick central midfielders who play functional boring football.
Spurs fans are used to being entertained by flair players in central midfield like Hoddle, Hazard, Gascoigne, Ardiles. Tom Carroll is a much better player than any of the current Spurs central midfielders like Sigurdsson, Paulinho and Dembele who offer zero creativity.
Carroll “much better” than Paulinho? Goodness me… Paulinho – 18 caps for Brazil. Carroll? Hasn’t even started a top flight league match yet!
Ridiculous decision by AVB. Spurs cannot create goal scoring opportunities, so they loan out their best creative midfield player to the championship. Unbelievable and foolish.
Worst decision I have witnessed in a transfer window.
AVB’s style of football does not fit at Spurs. He would be better suited to managing Stoke.
Gooner?
I thought this season could have been Tom’s chance to really shine for us,very unhappy with this move.
v disappointed re: bae…..we are now left without a naturally defensive left back unless vertonghen plays there
a little disappointed re: tom…thought he would be used as back up if eriksen was injured or took time to adapt to the PL…i fear we have too many defensive m/fielders to supply lamela & soldado
funny how things look different after a few days…loads of people blogging / posting on fri / sat that we would challenge for the prem!…now after losing to arsenal (realising we have not scored apart from pens in our first 3 games) and not securing a left back or another striker, things look a little different!
COYS
I hear what you’re all saying, but the fact is, he wasn’t going to get game time for us.
Its all well and good saying he’s our most creative player (I don’t 100% agree with that btw), but against who have we actually seen him demonstrate this? 2 bit European teams and the odd cameo here and there against ‘lesser’ premier league teams.
I agree the move to QPR is a bit ridiculous, for me he should have gone to Ajax or another Premier league team, but the fact is, he needs game time to develop, and there is no way he’d get it with us.
The only reason he wouldn’t get game time is because AVB doesn’t pick him. AVB is not the right manager for Spurs.
You mean the same AVB that led us to our highest ever points tally in the Premier League – that AVB you mean?
Jog on pal, you clearly don’t have a clue, who do you want in charge? Harry ‘go have a run around’ Redknapp?
Tom is clearly not ready. He was never going to get the amount of games needed to develop so a loan was the correct move. At Ajax he would not have featured much either but I feel he would have benefited most by getting a premiere league loan.
Playing in the championship will not do what I felt a loan move at this point would do. He needed to prove he could consistently play week in week out against premiere league opposition.
I suspect some of the readers here overestimate his current level. He is no way near the level required for a team trying to get into the top 4. He will never get there sitting on the bench so he needs to play regularly in a team that can afford to allow him to make mistakes and learn from them.
Finally, someone speaking sense!
You obviously attend games, or pay attention when watching on the box!
Tom Carroll has been poorly advised. He may like Harry but that is not as important as playing in the premiership.
Worried more now about the lack of left side cover.
BAE surely had to stay and cover Rose, as Contreaou wasn’t coming in from RM. Chadli has undoubted skill further up, but looks a bit static ..in complete contrast to Bale’s pace there (plus the latter could also cover for left back). So centre backs, plus Naughton (who I guess can cover on both flanks but isn’t top drawer) may have to step in to an unnatural position in order to give Rose a rest. Let’s hope the latter doesn’t get injured often!
Harry will look after Tom Carroll, and the latter needs the speed of the Championship game to hone his instincts and increase his strength. He would have got limited playing time at Spurs this season and is still not mature enough to start pulling the strings regularly in our midfield. But again, if Eriksen gets injured, who can play as a much needed ‘playmaker’? Lamela? Holtby? Not Dembele (as much as I like his power and drive) or Sig (too lightweight).
Bale, plus sheer ‘will’, nearly got us to the promised land last season, when we often looked unbalanced; and if we’re going to have that unbalanced look again (as we had against Arsenal) then the undoubted power of our midfield (if not the flair or guile) will have to haul us through. But I fear for Soldado who looks as though he needs a top playmaker and strong wing play to get the chances in the box he craves. So much depends, however, on Paulinho, Dembele, Sandro and Capoue (whoever plays) bullying opponents and softening them up for Eriksen, or whoever else is being ‘creative’, and producing killer passes for our forward(s).
Not to imply that he is anywhere near equal to Bale, but they are completely different types of players.
Chadli is always looking to cut inside and take a shot — more of an inside forward than a winger. I think this could combine really well with Rose who is always looking to make overlapping runs.
Both are new to the time (starting, at least) and it will take some time for them to come to an understanding.
About LB cover, I thought Fryers looked good — especially considering his youth. Several CBs could cover if it really came to that as well.
We need 1 DM, 1 CM and 1 AM in each starting lineup. I’d say:
DM: Sandro > Capoue
CM: Paulinho > Dembele > Holtby
AM: Eriksen > Sig > Holtby
Haven’t seen much of Lamela but I’m excited about him in the team. Even if he doesn’t fully displace Lennon he’ll force him to step up his game.
Good decision, really not getting the negativity. Eriksen and Holtby will be fighting it out for the creative spot in the centre leaving just scraps for Carroll. Lamela can also play in the no.10 role. Anyone doubting Holtby’s ability to create should rewatch the 2nd leg against Tblisi. While Carroll made some excellent passes in that game it was Holtby who was able to actually make goals from his contribution. Everyone at the club rates Carroll very highly, loaning him out to QPR isn’t an insult to him, it’s about making sure he develops into the player everyone there thinks he will be.
Well said Flipper.
We also have Lewis Holtby, who is a bit ahead of Tom Carroll in my thinking. I think the move is good. TC will be with Krancjar and will learn stuff. He’s not the finished article as some on here are saying, but could have done a good job in the Europa League. We’ll learn more about him from his appearances at QPR. People who write all this criticism above are only writing out of their post Gooner defeat depression. The reality is that we performed poorly, but much better than we usually do at the Ems!! The new signings are excellent players and I would be surprised if it’s not another good season (ie top 5 and going far in cups). Hopefully we’ll win something, we are good enough, just need decent draws.
Holtby creatively threading through balls to our forwards…did you see any of the games he played in last season?
Last season Holtby was mostly on the wing, so not a valid comparison.
He wasn’t played in the number 10 role last year, not once. Bale made that his own.
If you re-read what Flipper actually said, he asked did you see the second leg against Tblisi? A game in which Holtby played the number 10 role.
Play players in their natural position, and they (generally) perform better – A classic example of this would be Dembele in recent weeks.
Good decision. Why do people feel that he would get game time at Ajax? If we want to loan him out to the premiership, then we should have STARTED him in the premiership a couple of times to prove that he can hack it. NO premiership manager is going to take that risk as their job is on the line. He won’t be starting at Spurs, or in the EPL, so the next best thing is QPR – with a manager that knows him.
Townsend never really played in the premier league when we loaned him out, so not sure I agree with that
A good decision on AVB’s part. If he stays at the club for the season he will only feature as a sub or in a few cup games. What he needs is playing time to gain experience and he wont get in the first team at Spurs when we have bought so many international quality central midfielders. he also needs another year to put on some muscle and get a bit stronger. The Championship more recently is lead by teams that play passing football and the quality of the top teams is higher than ever. Ajax would have been good for technical improvement, but the Championship is a league similar to the prem where you get very little time on the ball and a bette rarena for Tom to continue his improvement. We know that Harry will do whats best for the kid. He will be back next season stronger and more experienced.
Good Decision. It is football game time Tom Carroll needs now and with the experienced players like Erikson, Holtby and Sigurdsson etc in front of him QPR is a logical step. He has a slight build and another year playing football will toughen him up. In golf parlance he may have the ability to play off scratch but needs practice. Why some people use every event to criticise AVB is a mystery to me. Says more about them than AVB.
The Director of Football Franco Baldini and other coaching and management staff must also be involved in the development of a player and his future!.
I don’t see any problem with loaning Tom to QPR. I would like to see him play every week for a pushing promotion team instead of a fighting relegation team like Palace or Hull. Also by all means I believe in Harry’s ability to get the best out of him. As for BAE, I am a bit disappointed because I think he is in his last year of his contract, so that makes me think that selling him was the best option for the club.
Right decision, but would have preferred a premier league club. Yes – we all get excited about the new kid on the block, but he has Holtby and Eriksen ahead of him. He must go out, show what we can do – and then force himself into the first team.
Spot on Klinsmann – not ideal club but maybe getting someone to take him that late in the window was difficult (we only got Eriksen on Friday). The people saying he’s our most creative player have no clue of football – he spreads the ball around nicely but is yet to register a goal or assist… he recycles the ball well but has a lot to learn and a loan is the best way to learn it! Back to creativity – we now have Holtby, Chadli, Lamela, Eriksen, Lennon, Townsend…. then behind them Dembele and Paulinho who can chip in. People need to allow the new creativwe players we have bought a chance, Holtby just back from injury, Lennon injured, Chadli is new Townsend you and Lamela and eriksen have 30 mins between them! one minute we’re winning the league – then we lose a game, away from home against a team who beat us 5-2 last year and all of a sudden we have the wrong manager? I would suggest, you have the wrong club!
I think people associate Tom’s ‘creativity’ to his excellent passing. He is the best PASSER on the roster, and that is what we need more than another creative player. In the second leg against Dinamo Tbilisi, Tom made a lot of the FIRST passes on our chances (well the ones Townsend didn’t make on his own) to break open the play. At least that is they way I saw it.
That player we do need. Dembele supposedly does that well, though I feel we haven’t seen that from him. Paulinho supposedly does that as well, but he hasn’t been with Spurs long enough for a verdict.
I think the biggest flaw on Sunday, was replacing Townsend with Lamela. Chadli should have come off, with Andros switching over. I think we could have gotten a goal then. Also, how did Walker end up taking the most important shot of the whole match?
cristian cebballos joins fc arouca on loan https://twitter.com/C_Ceballos92