The only place to be

Ignoring the England captain....this shows a tremendous amount of ignorance about our academy, and academies in general. The quality of player we are turning out now is virtually unrecognisable from the ones we were turning out ten years ago, as evidenced by our recent Youth Cup successes. Wrong on both accounts in my opinion. Nat has been remarkable in midfield for both Watford and England u21s and has all the skills needed to make it as a top class midfielder. I also like him as a CB and think he coud be exceptional there, but I think you'd be losing a lot of what he offers if he did. Ake has everything needed physically and technically to be a midfielder for this club, but simply needs to continue his growth as a professional footballer. He also needs support. Both of those players are excellent but I think you've missed a lot of the changes that have been made in terms of youth development over the last 18-24 months. We seem to have a more focused view of what to do with youngsters and Nat Chalobah's progress will hopefully become a blueprint for others to follow. To be honest the rancid bait you laid down earlier doesn't smell much fresher although I think it's gone from antagonistic to simply uninformed.

I know exactly how muscle can help key areas that are prone to injury, but I've also seen players who have overtrained and had too much muscle for their body to either cope with, or it simply limits their performance in other areas. Now whilst I applaud your sporting prowess, I think it's got the square root of fuck all to do with Ruben Loftus Cheek who is a fairly large man in person. Specifically pointing that out as an area that needs to be improved upon just struck me as odd. Not sure what your problem is with me that would require that little bit of name-calling, but I just disagree with what you said.

And Falcao has left a team who will be in next season's Champions League to sign for one that isn't.

That's some rancid bait you're fishing with there. Ake is a fantastic talent and at the moment his best asset is probably his versatility, but given time he could make a good run at a midfield spot in the future. He has all the skill and a fantastic reading of the game (as anyone who watched the Everton game will attest to) but he just needs to continue his growth.

Is he very injury prone? He's had a couple along the way but nothing serious and nothing that would make me think he needs to gain any more muscle. He just needs to keep doing what he's doing and I could see him being part of our League Cup squad and maybe even the Premier League squad towards the end of the season.

I can't see any reason for him to 'gain muscle'. He's actually nicely composed at a fairly young age, and probably strong enough to compete with other professionals. Can't see him going on loan next season either which is why it's good that he's got match time on this tour. I suspect he'll get more on the pre-season tour too.

No. We can't play this man in midfield because he's not been on loan to Watford or Swansea. Without that valuable experience, he simply can't be trusted.

If we're actually going after Coentrao then I think it's possible. I like the idea of Ryan more than the reality. He's young, English, local(ish) lad, he looks the part, he's got dreamy eyes .....but I'm still not convinced he's anything more than a back-up. I'm not saying we should sell him, but if Cole and Coentrao are the present and there's a chance that Coentrao and Shaw are the near-future and Shaw is the future then I'm not sure where Bertrand fits into this club. Maybe Jose sees something in him that elevates him to that next level (I think he's a perfectly competent 7/10 in most matches and that's more than good enough for 16 or 17 of the teams in this league) and he's given another year. But it comes back to the same thing - he's played 200 professional games, over 50 for us and a couple of times for England and I don't think I've ever seen 'it' ('it' being that little something special that sets the good apart from the exceptional).

He's a good player, but with Chalobah, Ake, Romeu, Ake and Rami one would have thought creativity in the pivot would've been the most important acquisition. McEachran is still a way off (if ever) and Oscar and De Bruyne have question marks in that position. Modric for me would be the player that makes us favourites for the title.

My Second XI The 'See Ya Later' XI

It was interesting watching the news conference with Perez the other day, because on the ticker there was a story about Anthony Grant being released by some League Two team (I think). This was a kid who Mourinho brought on at Old Trafford, so it gives you an idea of the types of 'eggs' he was being given at that time but also his willingness to use youngsters. In fact if you look at the appearance stats for Mourinho's seasons then there's a surprising number of youngsters who got shots, but I wouldn't say any of them were of the quality we have now and that's not surprising when you look at the investment in the academy that started about a year before Jose turned up. A decade is about how long you'd expect it to take before you saw consistent, high quality graduates.

Same here. The ideal player for our pivot alongside a Romeu or even a Chalobah. Links the defence to the attack, has phenomenal workrate and can also chip in with the odd goal. Plus he knows this league and is proven in it, and it would piss off Spurs fans even more. If we got him then I wouldn't mind bringing back Josh to play understudy to him, plus I think he could be a great influence on Oscar.

The pundits all seemed to favour Mata when it came to player and team of the year honours. Silva was nowhere near those honours this season.

I'm hoping it will be the start of something longer - maybe he can sign the new one at the site of our new stadium.

Amazing to think that we could have this guy, Chalobah, Ake and Romeu driving us on from midfield in a couple of years' time. The day we have these guys in the team and not some of the dead wood we've had there recently will be the day when you know this club is building something truly special.

Came in and did a decent job, so I'll wish him well in Napoli.

There's a 188 page thread on the Spurs forum about this guy. Yet another kick in the nuts for Spuds. Oh well. Personally I'm happy to see decent players fuck off to France. It's the closest approximation to 'if they won't play for us I don't want them playing for anyone'. Same goes for Falcao - I don't want us wasting money on him but I don't want him going to a rival, so he can fuck-off to some principality that effectively renders him anonymous for a year or two.

I'm not sure. We need a back-up left-back and we'll need a left-back going forwards if Ashley does decide to pack it in (his ankles aren't going to take much more according to some reports). I'm still not convinced about Bertrand (and this is a lad with around 200 first-team appearances at this point) and who knows what PVA is really like? Shaw is a great prospect but is he ready next season? Maybe. What we could possibly do is transition from a 33 year old left-back, to a 26 year old left-back and then to a 19-20 year old left-back in the space of 3-4 years without really skipping a beat. Yes that will cost us about £30 million but left-back is a real problem in our club at the moment (Wright and Nditi have very little chance of making it, whilst we have Azpi, Wallace, Kane and Aina on the right hand side) so it's going to cost money to address it. In terms of being a good fit for us, he's a solid defensive option although not up there with Ashley in my opinion but going forward I've always liked him. He works superbly with a left-winger who likes to cut in so that bodes well for Hazard and he'll provide width and energy down that flank. Plus he's another left-wing option. Generally I'm not in favour of signing players who are this age and this price, but when people were suggesting we go in for Baines at a similar price then this signing doesn't look too bad.

I think Paulo is nailed on for Gary Staker's job if he ever quits, although if we get a guy in who can speak Portuguese maybe not. But it's interesting to see who Jose hired at Chelsea, Inter and Real (Clarke, Baresi, Karanka) - defensive players who know the club and know the league. There's been suggestions that he might bring Karanka with him, but I'd like to see Steve Holland retained in a similar role.

Decently researched articles and the fact is that 'the board' were getting a ton of shit earlier in the season. For whatever reason, people thought that Emenalo's face just didn't fit at this club and there were people calling for a 'football man' to come in and take over (Hiddink was the popular choice for no reason other than he was Guus Hiddink - there were no reasons connected to his ability to do this particular job, a job that a lot of people don't seem to understand). Yet if you look at the areas that this bloke oversees then we're actually moving in the right direction. Before this bloke took over, we were spending £6 million and about £80k p/w in wages on Yossi Benayoun. That's a transfer that we actually made. Now we're a much more streamlined, focused operation focusing on acquiring players with tremendous potential but then actually placing them at clubs where they can properly develop that potential. This season we had more than 20 youngsters out on loan at various times and there's not many you could say were a waste of time. We've also become tougher in contract negotiations, seeking value at every turn be it the contracts offered to new players like Mata or the ones offered to established legends like Ashley Cole and Frank Lampard. Did we go overboard in trimming the fat this year? Possibly in regards players like Meireles, which resulted in a lack of squad depth but this was a period of transition that we'll be better for next season and we still managed to jump three places in the league. My view on him is the same as it was earlier in the season, that it's too early to judge him in this role. But things look to be moving in the right direction and a lot of the kneejerk vitriole that was aimed at him and Gourlay earlier in the season seems to have subsided as those fans are distracted by new, shinier things like the prospect of Jose returning. If we can combine the policy of looking to younger players with a proper league title challenge then this guy has a very promising future at the club.

Well signing him would be the end of Bertrand's career here, and he'd certainly be a good option against the weaker teams in the league which would give Ashley's ankles a rest. Shaw is probably the long-term option who we could possible get at the end of next season and he could then fight it out with Coentrao if Ashley does indeed retire. Still can't avoid calling this guy Portuguese Zhirkov though.

He's also playing in a position where we've got three up-and-comers in Romeu, Chalobah and Ake who all arguably have a better skill set for that position (RLC is further down the line too). If the money is on the table now, it has to be considered. People saying about his ability to break with the ball, and that's a nice ability to have but look at our first goal against Everton on Sunday. That started with someone playing in Rami's position picking the ball up in our own area. Now Rami might've been able to run it out of defence, but this player (Ake in this case) passed it out of defence, initiating a counter-attack that resulted in a goal. Rami's problem isn't that he doesn't have the basics, but that he's inconsistent. When he gets the ball in matches, sometimes you don't know if it's going to bobble off his shin or be a crisp, perfectly measured pass. It's a shame that his touch isn't as consistent as his commitment to the cause which is second to none.

Judging by the thread from the first game, this is a must-win that everything hinges on. I'm going for Chelsea to win 5-4. My prediction for the line-up is that we'll probably pick 11 players.