If recent news and rumours are to be believed, big spending, billionaires Manchester City have joined their bitter rivals Manchester United and their Premier league competitors Chelsea in pursuit of Tottenham’s Croatian star, Luka Modric.
Chairman Daniel Levy and Manager Harry Redknapp have made it quite clear to these clubs that neither Modric or PFA player of the year, Gareth Bale will be sold this summer. Welsh winger Bale has pledged his immediate future to the club, however, Modric has been reportedly quoted by the Daily Star saying, ‘I’m a Tottenham player and will be in London on July 7 to begin preparing for the season,’ he added, ‘But I want to say that transfers could occur later.’
This news will have surely unnerved a few in N17, although Levy has been a top negotiator with United especially in the past few seasons and if he were able to achieve an offer in the region of £40 million, would it be such a bad thing to see him go?
Understandably, the majority of Spurs fans are against the sale of yet another of their star players, especially as United have managed to lure both Carrick (£18 million) and Berbatov (£30.75 million) away from White Hart Lane in recent years. But were both those deals not great pieces of business by Spurs? Yes, they lost a ‘big’ player, but they also received ‘big’ money, money that financed the transfers of multiple players such as Palacios, Pavlyuchenko and even Modric himself.
What Spurs do have in their favour is that the ball lies firmly in their court, they only have to sell, if and when they want to. They can afford to hold out for a giant sum and if the aforementioned interested clubs really want Modric that badly, they will offer it. He only recently signed a 6 year contract and isn’t the type of guy to throw a tantrum and make a fuss to force through a deal. Therefore, Spurs seem to be in the ideal position, they can keep their star midfielder unless a ‘crazy’ money deal is offered, allowing Levy to re-invest across maybe 4 positions, no doubt strengthening the team as a whole.
Another large bonus for Spurs is that they are not exactly short of options in midfield. Although Redknapp himself has described Modric as ‘irreplaceable,’ it is important to remember that he was injured for fair length of time earlier in the season. In that time, his Croatian team-mate Niko Kranjcar was given a chance and scored brilliant winning goals in two games. They also have other international players such as Palacios, Sandro and Tom Huddelstone, all capable of playing in a top side and this is before any ‘replacements’ have been brought using the vast sums of money Modric’s sale would generate.
I know that to many fans, the sale of one the clubs best talents would be seen as a ‘backwards’ step but just look at Liverpool, they sold their ‘talismanic’ player in Torres and are undoubtedly now a stronger side after the additions of Suarez, Carroll and now Henderson.
For most fans it is a matter of pride, a matter of not letting their club be bullied into selling, resisting the advances of Europe’s giants but if the offer of ‘crazy’ money similar to the Torres transfer was put on the table, with Levy’s promise of signing a ’20 goal a season forward’ and more than adequate replacements or keeping hold of Modric, which would you really choose?
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How much of the money do us Spurs fans get? None. Choose both mate, keeping Luka and buying quality. Don’t be scared, we can do it all, we don’t have to go backwards first
Firstly you make some good points however I don’t think you understand the effect this player has on the team, whilst we have good backups we simply do not have another player that’s on Modric’s level in terms of consistency and being able to run a game. He’s our chief playmaker which means he’s the heartbeat of the team, everything goes through him, he sets the tempo, he makes other players play, he’s the key to winning a midfield battle against the best of teams.
Secondly I don’t think the ball is in our court at all, if a player wants to leave it’s in the club’s best interest to grant him his wish as you can’t keep an unhappy player who has no interest to play for the club any more. I personally think that he will stay for this season and if we don’t get back in the CL then he’ll be off which understandably he’s more than entitled to as he’s too good for tje Europa Cup and a player like him deserves to win trophies.
It’s all well and good if we can command a good fee for him but you still have to replace him, who do you go out and buy who can simply replace such a player? Well there’s two maybe three players like him who currently play for Barcelona, no chance of them moving, schweinsteiger could do a job but he’s not leaving Bayern and hmm that’s about it who I can think of (forgive my ignorance if there’s more) and note these two teams play in the Champions League and can offer far higher wages than we can.
We had a playmaker called Michael Carrick who we sold to Man Utd and it took 3 years to replace him (funnily enough with Modric) if the absence of a player like that can set us back 3 years then can you imagine how devastating it would be if he left?
What plays has Modric been involved in? Apart from making our attacks predictable, giving teams ample time to park the bus and wait for the inevitable cross. Modric passing backwards or to the wings constantly is not controlling a game. It simply makes us predictable and toothless.
Carrick could tackle, head, track, was stronger, faster and had a cool head. He could pass too. He was more complete. Modric leaves a void in the middle of the field, and don’t equate him covering every blade of grass as tracking. For a player in his position, his tackle/interception rate per game is shocking. All he does is run, he never gets stuck in.
You don’t have a clue do you.
What plays has Modric been involved in? Are you kidding me? Have you been watching us this season? If you don’t think he controls games then you’re definition of controlling games is terribly off the mark.
Modric’s defensive game has improved immensely, for a naturally attacking midfielder to play in such a role isn’t easy as he’s had to refine his game and he’s been superb.
Spurs’ player of the year – that tells you all you need to know.
Eden Hazard is the only viable replacement for Spurs if Modric is sold…
lol, good one
Mate, we need Hazard regardless of whether Modric leaves or not! He is good!
but we should not be bullied into selling any player, the likes of Man u and Chelski and even the goons are in need of a leason. No and mean No at all costs until we are ready to sell. Hands off and lets build around the likes of Mods and Bale. Also let Woody go and get a reliable defender or two.
before anyone says it yes i spelt lesson wrong in my last comment lol!!! but hey ho who gives a shit!!!!!
No-one is irreplaceable. But it is the principle, the big clubs need to be taught they can’t waltz in and take Spurs best players whenever they feel like it.
completely agree, spurs need to teach united that they arent just a daycare for young players until fergie comes to take them off our hands.
however, the guy made some good points in the article, lets be honest, as good as modders is, if a bid for 50 million came in, i know id accept. pretty well written piece to be fair.
I certainly don’t think it’s a question of pride. For me, Luka is alongside cesc as the best midfielder in the league, and he is the only player of his ilk we have in England. I don’t think you would see him struggle anywhere in the world.
He is fantastic. He has been a blessing to us and to the premier league. For that, we can’t lose him.
Fabregas has an interesting stat: For every 90 mins he has completed, he either scores or provides an assist.
Modric is Fabregas without the goals/assists
Modric is Iniesta without he generalship/winning mentality
Modric is Xavi without the assists/winning mentality
There is a massive gap in his game. He is the creative player HR built his team around. At the end of the day, our goal difference speaks volumes.
although, even if we do get 50m for him, who else can we buy with that that can make us stronger? a striker thats better than pav/defoe is gonna cost at least £15m.
so that leaves us with £35m to find a player that wants to join, and a club that wants to sell. bearing in mind they have to fit into our wages and be better than modders, not an easy task! only ones i can think of are sneijder although his wages are huge….. anyone else got some suggestions?
…………….’We had a playmaker called Michael Carrick who we sold to Man Utd and it took 3 years to replace him (funnily enough with Modric) if the absence of a player like that can set us back 3 years then can you imagine how devastating it would be if he left?’………..
Modric is vastly overrated. Over 2000 passes, and he can barley rub two assists/goals together.
He is typical Spurs, all flash and no substance. Keeps the team ticking? Not the strikers…not defense, he just does the easy passing side to side and to the wings where it is safe to pass. At least VDV will try and go direct. Modric is scared to give the ball away, not about losing. He hears the howls Palacios gets if he misplaces a pass, and he wants none of that. Tappy tappy nicey nicey is not going to win you the prem. The “Tottenham Way” has kept us out of title contention for 50 years.
How many goals and assists do Xavi do this year in an inferior league? about three more than Luka. Stats aren’t everything
Xavi was La Liga’s highest assisting player with 20 assists
To compare Xavi with modric is absurd
Modric can barley handle the pressure of playing away from home, let alone in the cauldrons Xavi plays in. The difference in mentality is polar opposites. Now people can’t use the Xavi excuses with Modric. When he came he was the new Cruijf, then he could not score for shit so refs to Xavi came up, what is he going to be next> Xavi is a general and he makes the players around him score for fun. We have to come up with new comparisons next season, Modric is going to be the new Schmeichel. His stats are more on par with a keeper, but we have to find world class players to bullshit ourselves to compare to.
What really tickled me is people mentioning Modric can replace Scholes. Scholes scored more goals in ONE SEASON with Man Utd, than Modric has scored for us, Croatia, and ALL OF HIS PREVIOUS TEAMS combined. His whole career goal tally, Scholes scored in one season.
Modirc is all flicks, close control in safe areas and passes backwards or to the wings (easy outs). It’s like a sugar substitute, looks sweet, but it lacks any actual satisfaction.
Gibbs your an idiot mate
Over-rated? Apparently Ferguson doesn’t think so, nor does the big spenders at Chelsea and Man City. Not to mention the Croatian national team manager. Not to mention me. Modric is a superb player.
Fergs is playing the game. He has not made a single bid.enquiry about Modric. He pretty much wants us to stay as is, playing pretty football and winning nothing. If he wants a player, he takes it.
you are so deluded its unreal. every comment you have made is completely pointless. Are you a spurs fan? because if you are, and you think modders is ruining our team, you have obviously been watching a different side all season. hes our best player. snm.
How am I deluded? Almost everything I am stating are facts. Like Modrics low goal/assist ratio. Like how his 2000+ passes come to nothing. Our goal ratio is poor. His tackles per game are low considering the miles he runs off the ball. Everything I claim is not an opinion. I’m not making up Kranj scoring and creating so much in his first season he made it into the opta team of the year. I am not making up that Modrics assists and indirect assists are pathetic. I am not making up THE COLD HARD FACT THAT WE SCORE MORE POINTS WHEN MODRIC DOES NOT PLAY. That is a fact, when Modric does not play, we get more prem points per game. FACT.
It is the people who ooh and ahh at his pretty play that are deluded into thinking that fancy style will win you anything at all. Same thing with Hudd. 3 screamers a year and a beautiful long pass every half is enough to keep the Tottenham Way brigade happy as Larry. Hudd is one of the WORST STRIKERS OF THE BALL we have ever had. But it is the wow factor when one actually goes in that sways people.
We need more athletes with winning mentalities on the team. Modric and Hudd are fluff. On a rainy night in some godawful northern dour city, they may not even turn up. We don’t want people who turn up JUST for glamour games.
Kris said it all.
gibbs or whatever, tippy tappy sounds like Barcelona, stop banging on about the past as well you fool Modric is the future
Modric made over 2000 passes last season. And our strikers were not given the balls they need. Tippy tappy safey safey. VDV is not afraid of LOSING THE BALL if he thinks he can get a player through. Modric does not have the balls to put a pass astray, so he goes the easy routes.
our strikers were given plenty of through balls. fact is, pav can only score wondergoals once every month and quite frankly, i have never seen crouch score a one on one or a half chance from outside the area. he cannot kick a football with any power whatsoever. the reason we dont score is because our strikers are useless, you cant blame the service, seeing as we have the best midfied in the prem.
Please show me the one on ones our strikers have had this season. You could count them on one hand probably.
Gibbs131 “modric is overrated” – ARE YOU MAD?!
Your not kieron Gibbs the arsenal lb by any chance are you?
I would go as far and say he is the most overrated player in Spurs history.
We have built a team around him, and what has he done? Choked in the final third time and time again.
The season we won CL footy, he broke his leg and missed a third of it. lol.
behave gibbs, luka may not have so many direct assists, but he played a key part in many a spurs goal. Dont judge him on these stats, they dont paint a true picture of his talents. I suggest you watch the guy, who fegie declared his player of the season, then if you’re opinion remains the same i would suggest it is your football knowledge that is vastly overrated…. by you
He hasn’t actually. Most of his build up end up going down the wings. How many crosses have we scored from this season? Not many. How many corners does his build up win? DOZENS AND DOZENS. And how many corners have to scored from? Hardly any. Our cross/corner to goal ratio is diabolical. Open play buildup takes so long, by the time the cross comes in, Crouch has 3 monsters marking him.
His style of play is cancer for our striker. He plays as if Pav, Crouch and Defoe have footballing brains. They don’t. Why do we have this fancy convoluted buildup, when Pav and co are running around scratching their heads? They need BASIC DIRECT BALLS TO FEET. Not 10 pass build up while the defense converges on them to crowd them out. Modric plays as if Berbs is up front. Cerebral build up.
Real generals know the soldiers in front of them. To provide the style of possession to them that suits their game.
And every game we see the same old thing: Defoe offside. Crouch crowded out. Pav plodding around with no purpose.
We see backwards/sideways passes, funneled to the wing, Bale or Lennon beating their man and in comes the cross to a heavily guarded area with players EXPECTING the cross.
P
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You don’t know what the hell Kranj or VDV is going to do. Shoot 30 yards out, dribble straight into the box or dink the ball over the top. THAT IS THE CHAOTIC BUILD UP WE NEED. Kranj looks ragged, he looks sloppy, and all of a sudden the goalkeeper is parrying the ball into the danger zone.
For us to get better, we need LESS possession. Because our brand lacks cutting edge.
The Tottenham way has kept us out of the title hunt for half a century.
ALL OF OUR GOALS COME FROM CROSSES! YOUR WATCHING A DIFFERENT BALL GAME MATE!
YEAH I AGREE, KRANJ IS GOOD, BUT NEARLY ALL OF OUR GOALS COME FROM:
MODRIC>THROUGH BALL TO BALE/LENNON>BEAT A PLAYER, CROSS/PASS>DEFOE/PAV TURN AND SHOOT OR CROUCH MAY HAVE A 0.1% CHANCE OF SCORING A HEADER.
Gareth Bale has one prem assist in 30 prem games.
Lennon has two prem assists in 34 prem games.
fergie even…. Doh
Another rubbish, muck stirring article. This story will continue as long as people who enjoy writing blogs or whatever run out of ideas (which patently they already have).
Tottenham is trying to become the so-called “big club” that appears to be the title awarded clubs owned by the richest foreign owners in the league. (I hope Citeh fans can shrug off the notion that their once proud club is now a plaything of an oil billionaire).
The idea that a club must let an “unhappy” player go is rubbish. Kudos to Wenger for hanging on to Fabregas – Spurs alreadty wilted under big money and (sob, sob) player unhappiness in the transfers of Carrick, Berbatov and Keane. Now Carrick is a part-time paker, kene is in limbo and Berbatov is on the bench. Once bitten, three times shy.
Hang in there Mr. Levy – let Luka’s agent learn a lesson that a contract is a contract .
sorry in what way was it ‘muck stirring’, all it does is ask what would be better in reality, modric or 50m? dunno how that is stirring…
If we get £50m for Modric is Daniel Levy going to ring me and offer me my share of the cash?
Is the money going to be split amongst Spurs supporters in the form of discounted season ticket and match ticket prices?
If course not.
What makes you think Levy would replace Modric? He still hadn’t adequately replaced Berbatov yet!!!
Spend money? We’ve had the lady two transfer windows yo bring in a striker, but between them Levy and Redknapp have fluffed their lines and failed to do so.
£50m for Modric? What about the extra £25m we’ve received from our participation in the Champions League? Whose pocketed that because it hasn’t been spent on players, has it!?!
We sell Modric and we concede our CL ambition for good. That’s fair enough, but I for one am not prepared to pay the second highest ticket prices in England to watch Manchester United’s feeder club.
Sort it out Levy!
We made a loss last season, despite record income.
And that did not take into account for our signings of VDV etc. that CL cash was already spent on signings. We should make a profit next season, a small amount, and a blip, but we need to sell to buy.
we got 40m from CL, we did NOT spend 40m in transfers last year!
we make money every year in the transfer window and our signings this year were vdv (8), gallas (0), pletikosa (0) pienaar (3)
8+3=11 and i think youll find 11 < 40, therefore we didnt spend all our CL money on transfers.
You forgot about Sandro 9 million. And the 7 million we lost. And the wages for all of these players.
you make some well reasoned arguments and I really liked your final comment re: ticket prices etc BUT you did fail to address the fact that we desperately need to find circa £500,000,000 in the very near future to fund the stadium that could potentially lead to us maintaining a realistic ongoing challenge for top honours. Without that stadium, we will NEVER be able to compete financially and ALL of our top players will eventually have more than one reason to move to pastures greener. We have to be realistic as fans. I agree that we must not sell Luka yet, but we can’t realistically expect to get the best out of him for another 5 years when he’ll of course be aware he could potentially triple his money elsewhere. I think such loyalty would be just as make-believe as it is to expect Levy to focus on short-termism and refuse a £50m offer for ANY player. I know it’s painful to see top quality players leave our club, but we can’t continually expect to compete at the top level with our current structure…. We need that stadium more than any of our players. Once it’s filled with close to 60,000 every week, we will be more justifed in our exectations imo. Until then, like it or not, we are little more than a stop-gap for the world’s very best. Would you stay put for a 3rd of the money your were being offered uo the road? I certainly wouldn’t and I’d resent being expected to.
I enjoyed the article and despite the initially irritating title, am forced to agree with most of it.
If we build a stadium, we will have to pay back a billion pounds in 25 years.
It is a massive gamble.
Anyone saying Luka Modric is overrated or incapable of passing forward really needs to watch Spurs play some time. The lad is, imo, the most influencial midfielder we’ve had since Ardilles. Gazza and Ginola in their days were pure class, but neither was able to dictate the tempo of a game or contribute as much to all round play as Modders does. Now, if this lad could shoot as well as either of them could, then we’d be able to compare him to the very best around. He’s still a good age and with his attitude, he’s only going to keep improving for thre next few years. I just hope/dream he might spend them with us at the Lane.
How is he influential, when we score less prem points when he plays?
Ginola and Gazza would win us games single handed. Modric LOSES GAMES for us. This season he has had over 54 shots at goal. Only 16 made it on target. Only 2 went in. He scored one pen.
You mention “if only he could score more”. I say to you, it is because he and Hudd wasted so many shots, that we lost 4th place.
Give Kranj those 54 shots and see how he would do. Oh hold on…He did have 54 shots, on his first season with us. 6 goals and 6 assists.
Spurs have never had a problem with possession, so I don’t know why people are doing cartwheels about Modrics passing, when it does not amount to shit after 90 mins.
*sigh* Why are people so obsessed with stats?
Whoever said Xavi had 20 assists this season needs to get their facts correct, 3 goals 7 assists. Barca scored 95 goals in La Liga. Now that doesn’t tell you half the story of his contribution this season as everyone knows that Xavi is the best midfield player in the world yet only directly contributing to 1/9th of Barca’s goals right……wrong! Wake the hell up people, stats aren’t everything!
Luka has the same type of role as Xavi, playing as a deep lying playmaker and dictating the tempo of the game so where yes he only scored 3 goals and got 2 assists this season in a team that lets face it wasn’t exactly firing this year, he did was much more involved than his stats suggested.
I suggest you watch him play and appreciate the game before bringing up stats.
Xavi had less assists than usual this season. He has had 20 league assists in a previous seasons. In all comps he had 35 assists that season. That is what people like you do. Last season, people brought up Iniesta to compare him to because he has relatively low stats. The massive, MASSIVE difference is that these players, even with relatively low stats, were part of a WHOLE team that was ticking. They WERE pulling strings, and their strikers and defense were being orchestrated to hurt teams.
People say Modric makes us tick, he does not. Does he make the strikers tick? Does he make the defense tick? Our International level strikers whos partnership with Pompey was vastly better without Modric, and that was with Harry and Kranj.
Modric made Defoe have a record goal drought. (HR said he built the team around Modric) Even the previous season Defoe had the record for most offsides. It takes 3 things when comes to offsides. The initial pass being the most important.
Modric is a chicken. Safe, sideways passing, never having the balls to go at teams and change things up. He is a gaping hole in the midfield when we are off the ball, running running and never making enough tackles/headers. He is just a pass monkey with no teeth. And Spurs fans are obsessed with possession.
You say I need to watch the game? IT IS OBVIOUS how classy Modric looks on the surface. It takes much more analyses to see the fact that for all his class and poise, it never amounts to anything because he is gutless/terrified in the final third.