Bale, Modric, Gomes, Kaboul has since become a good player, same with Assou-Ekotto, Corluka has done well there, whilst I'm pretty sure Dawson was brought in under Comolli.

His worst signing was probably Bentley, but he'd be one of the players many would have deemed a 'no-brainer'.

Commolli would have everyone believe that he signed only those players that did well at Spurs. But Ramos and Jol bought the players who didn't do so well.

AFAIK Modric was signed by Ramos and Bale was signed by Jol. Commolli was atsked to sign unknown talents and the youth players (because Aranesen had left for Chelsea).

I am not sure of the timelines but Aranesen may have been at Spurs when they signed Bale. Sorry... I cannot be bothered Googling).

Commolli is an expert in self-publicity. I thought Robbie would have been a bit more balanced but it appears even he has been influenced by Commolli's PR.

I love how Robbie has credited Commolli with bringing in all of Spurs' best players. It just happened that Commolli was at the club at the time. The signings were made inspite of him being at White Hart Lane He was not in charge of transfers, he was simply a go-between. He didn't seek out these talents at all.

You do understand the basic conceptions of a DOF, right? Comolli brought in every player to Spurs at the time. He was sacked because his big money buys (Bentley, Modric, Kaboul (at the time)) were all under performing at the time, as well as the manager, who he also brought in.

Since then, most of those players have gone on to do well for Spurs. You won't see me defend the likes of Bentley, dos Santos and Gilberto, they were all poor signings, but he did sign some good players as well.

It isn't anything to do with Comolli's PR, either, the only thing of his I've read is the recent interview on the beeb where he's talking about Liverpool. I've read the thoughts of other people, like Tor-Kristian Karlsen and Raphael Honigstein, and they've all spoken well of him and the DOF approach.

Maybe it is you who is buying into the PR of the daily rags that write nonsensical drivel everyday.

You are clearly deluded. Please tell me, in detail, what Commolli’s role was in the transfer of Bale. Did he select the player? Was it he who decided to send out the scouts to watch him without being asked by the manager? Some DoFs are involved in actually choosing which players to scout, some simply negotiate contracts and players purchases. Some will actually scout themselves. You are naïve to think they all have the same role. The one duty they all appear to carry out is to act as a link between manager and board. Commolli simply negotiated the deals. It's like saying Garry signed Tevez. He didn't, it was Hughes.

Commolli was sacked because it became obvious that he was incompetent. He made a mess of the Ramos/Jol situation and the academy continued to be the worst of the of the PL clubs in London. Maybe you can explain why a Spurs director recently told a group of Spurs fans in Milan that Commolli is a “fraud”. I guess you know best though as you have based your information on a press release from lfc.tv.

Is my view reflected in what has been said in the media?

Sorry, fella. I like you and enjoy reading your posts, but you are well-off beam re Commolli.

My mate's a Spurs fan and I'm fairly sure Dawson preceded Commolli. He was a transfer window signing and Commolli arrived in the summer. As others have said too, there's much debate over who is responsible for which signings between him and Jol/Ramos. Football Focus did a piece with Jol at the weekend that mentioned how he was the one who found Bale (which was how I remembered it already), and Gomes was supposedly all Ramos (and very much laid at his door during Gomes' iffy early form). Think Modric was also mainly Ramos (the best thing he did for the club) and Corluka pretty much just followed his best mate as a result.

And Assou-Ekotto is crap. Just have a look at how many of Spurs' conceded goals involve him. He's the weakest link in their side, they need rid.

I know you like to fish, and sometimes you like to make ignorant claims in jest, but this is taking the biscuit.

For the final time, I haven't read anything but a single interview by Comolli, the recent interview was him basically explaining his role, if you can't comprehend that, why are you even debating with me? Let alone making such daft claims.

Comolli was/will be involved in negotiations for players, but he was also a sort of 'head scout' as well as the major decision maker with regards to transfers. If you want to know what role he played, then he was the one who done all of the convincing to convince Levy to spend X amount of millions on Modric, Bale and the like. Modric was courted by many clubs in Europe, especially England, but all felt he was 'too slight'. It was Comolli who took the risk to force Spurs to sign him. He was sacked because he'd identified players and convinced the club to sign them, but they didn't perform, same with the manager. He told the club to sack Jol, he told the club to bring in Ramos, Ramos was brought in with a DOF making decisions above him, and was eventually sacked along with Comolli because neither was performing.

I'm not saying he does what Cook does, but it was Brian Marwood (from all accounts I've read) that signed Adam Johnson.

Comolli's role is simple at our club, he will identify players that fit in with the 'young and massive potential' mold, he will convince the board to spend X amount of money on these players, whilst he will also discuss targets with (hopefully not for much longer) Hodgson, to get the final verdict on whether the player is appropriate/necessary.

I'm not trying to claim Comolli is this, that and the other, the media claims you make I know all about, they come from Arsenal fans who ridiculed Spurs for bringing him in because he apparently identified Clichy and co., when crediting anyone from Arsenal for finding players is probably pointless, as they have hundreds of scouts who all report to higher scouts, who all report to Rowley who reports to Wenger.

I've read enough about Comolli from other people, people whose views are worth reading, and I feel he's got enough about him to spend our money much more 'wisely' than our manager.

England - what a load of !!! Just give up with international football, fans dont care about it, manager isn't bothered, players certainly don't care about it!! Just give it up as a bad job!!!!

85,494 people just managed to get lost and find themselves in Wembley Stadium tonight?

Bet quite a few of them are thinking 'If only I [ihad[/i managed to get lost!'

Ben Foster. I've never, ever seen the guy play well. He is just useless. He cannot even kick the ball properly.

You've got to give Fabio some credit. After Mclaren the whole country was gutted and floored. Mr Capello has continured his work and has set us up nicely to take the future disappointments in our stride. Rather than getting worked up about England games I no longer give a toss. Cheers Fabio lad!

Ronaldo scored what would have been an absolutely superb goal for Portugal against Spain in the first half, but it got ruled out because Nani, miles offside, tried to nick it on the line, Portugal went 1 up not too long after anyway so it didn't matter too much, probably be on youtube before too long - well worth a look.

I've happily defended Capello in the last couple of years because a lot of the problems he has to overcome with our football pre-date him, but when we took a whole 29 seconds to hoof it forward to Carroll tonight my initial thought was that John Beck could probably initiate a similar gameplan for a lot less of a salary.

I gave up when the hoof count hit ten just before the half hour.

Maybe I aren't open minded enough about his appointment but when you think about it it's hardly a surprise that an Italian who has never worked in England and still struggles with the language after a couple of years in the job struggles to motivate the team. Either way my interest in the national team is at an all time low. Still surprised I watched the last half hour of that.

Also how does a man who has scored 3 goals in 3 seasons in the Premiership worthy of a call up to the national squad? Incredible call up IMO.

Is the Spain-Portugal match on TV?

If a player needs motivating to play for their country then it's a lost cause anyway, you can't lay that at the managers door IMO. The players just aren't that good, and I think some of them need to realise that themselves, as do a lot of the press and fans.


I'm watching it on paddypower - 2-0 Portugal now, they look a different team to the one that went out of the World Cup with a whimper.

Capello's problem is still an inability to find a good balance within the midfield. The more I watch us, the more I feel he's trying to replicate Italy of '06, particularly when he used to play Gerrard on the left. Problem is, we don't have a Pirlo, a Gattuso, a Totti, a Camoranesi or a Toni (although Carroll could probably do that role quite well now). We've seen Fabio try a fair few midfielders out, but not a single one of them have the ability that Pirlo has to pass and dictate, also, we don't have a single ball winner with the tenacity and consistency of Gattuso or de Rossi. We have Hargreaves who isn't fit, but one player out of thousands is quite embarrassing.

Maybe if we get Wilshere in and try and shape the midfield around him, things will look better, but the need for at least one quality defensive midfielder is a standard requirement of every semi-decent side, yet we persist with Gareth bloody Barry, quite possibly the slowest midfielder in Europe.

Absolutely. Just glad we'll have Hart for many years to come. Lets hope he doesnt become injury prone.

Plenty of poor performances last night but I am dumbfounded as to why Barry gets picked for England or City, he is slow and can't pass. Would rather see Parker, Wilshere, Huddlestone or Carrick play there.

Carrick?



Ingerlund - the laughing stock of World Football since 1992.

Why 1992?

Maybe he's getting at the fact that the Premier League started in 92, foreigners etc etc

England = joke.

It's a friendly FFS.

England tried out a few new players (Henderson, Gibbs, Carroll, Bothroyd) whether through injury to incumbents or a desire to experiment.

Hardly the end of the world, although what it does demonstrate is the lack of depth that Capello has to call on. Don't have any stats, but I'd surprised if the PL didn't have one of the lowest percentages of players qualified to represent its national side in European football.

I dunno, San Marino haven't exactly excelled much in that time either.

Wednesday 12pm

"Blood the youngsters. That's what friendlys are for."

Wednesday 10pm

"Clueless Fabio. You threw those kids to the lions."