Wednesday Hoddle of Coffee: Tottenham Hotspur News and Links, August 24, 2016

So yesterday was something of Tottenham Hotspur News Dump Day:

• Hull are looking to sign Ryan Mason.
• DeAndre Yedlin is set to join Newcastle.
• Nabil Bentaleb could be joining Schalke on loan.

Oh, and Spurs are now being linked with their second Leverkusen attacker in two years—Hakan Çalhanoglu:

I expect we’ll see more days like this one over the next week as the transfer window draws to a close. Ryan Mason, Nacer Chadli, Tom Carroll, Nabil Bentaleb, and DeAndre Yedlin all could leave the club. Georges-Kevin N’Koudou is still (still!) hopefully going to join before the window shuts.

Beyond that, I’m not sure we need any more new additions. If we already have our normal attacking three plus Heung-Min Son, Josh Onomah, N’Koudou and even Harry Kane available as options for the attacking band, I’m not sure I see the need to add another attacker.

Of course, if a player like Çalhanoglu falls into your lap, you don’t turn him away. If that were to happen, I think we loan Harry Winks, move Josh Onomah back into midfield, and slot Çalhanoglu into the attacking band rotation. That gives Winks a year of regular PT and the chance to prove himself, allows Onomah to slot into a number eight role (which seems more natural for him anyway) and makes room for a young, elite attacking talent who has already played in high-pressing systems in the past.

That said, if we go into the season with this group of players for a match-day squad, I think we should be pleased:

• Hugo Lloris, Michel Vorm
• Kyle Walker, Kieran Trippier, Toby Alderweireld, Cameron Carter-Vickers, Jan Vertonghen, Kevin Wimmer, Danny Rose, Ben Davies
• Eric Dier, Victor Wanyama, Mousa Dembele, Harry Winks
• Dele Alli, Christian Eriksen, Erik Lamela, Heung-Min Son, Josh Onomah, Georges-Kevin N’Koudou
• Harry Kane, Vincent Janssen

That would have us two deep in every position plus with a number of versatile players who work well in Pochettino’s more positionally fluid system. So every first team player has at least one backup plus players like Jan Vertonghen, Eric Dier, Mousa Dembele, Dele Alli, Erik Lamela, Josh Onomah, and Harry Kane can all play different roles as well. It’s great depth to have as we face a full league campaign plus the Champions League.

On to the links:

Wow:

Roma is out of the Champions League after falling to Porto yesterday. They... probably deserve it:

Conor Dowley thinks Gareth Bale is emerging as a leader at Real Madrid. (Bale has also reportedly extended his deal at Madrid to keep him at the Bernabeu until 2021.)