Weekly THFC Football Operation Meeting Minutes
Date: Friday, 30th July 2021 10am
Attendees:
Daniel Levy, Fabio Patricio, Nuno Espirito-Santo, Ryan Mason, Ledley King
Minutes of the meeting:
Daniel asked if everyone could just give him one more minute. He was just in the process of completing a complex pivot table in MS-Excel. Fortunately, Ryan stepped in and spotted that Daniel was summing the players ages and not their transfer values. That explained why the total looked overstated.
Meeting formally commenced 10:05am
First Team Matches
Everyone congratulated Nuno on another win in the pre-season game against MK-Dons. Nuno said that he was happy to have 10 first teamers available but will need more if we are to get anything out of our London rivals in the forthcoming Mind Series. Nuno also mentioned that he offered Hugo a chance to play the second half, but the Spurs captain refused, stating that he was waiting for an important text from a Mr Kovac in Monaco. Daniel asked what’s it all about? Fabio said that we need to take more than we give, rather than just be kind, and Alfie had a blinder anyway. He was Nuno’s MoM.
Apparently, there had been some confusion why Troy Parrott didn’t get on the team bus on the way home. He was last seen after the match having a pint of Guinness with Irishman Warren O’Hora and a couple of other Dons players. They were singing Snoop Dogg songs at Charlie Brown. Fabio said that as soon as he realised, he got on his mobile and sorted it with the MK Dons chairman. Troy won’t be returning for a while.
Nuno said that the biggest test of his new squad would be on Weds at Stamford Bridge. He said his tactic was to let Mason Mount run around a lot and not bother marking him. The entire squad is hoping that Rudiger plays.
Transfer Activity
Fabio mentioned that last week had been very successful for the club. Not only had we sold old boys Toby and Coco, but we’d signed our new messiah, Bryan Gil. Additionally, goalkeeper Gollini also coming in on loan.
Daniel mentioned that homegrown Bryan is going to be an absolute star and he’s already in talks with Amazon to make a film about his life at Spurs. Ryan had to once again explain the English FA rules to everyone who had naturally assumed that having a name like Bryan qualified him as homegrown.
Daniel also mentioned that as Coco had left, he might be able to move 20% of the medical budget back over to the transfer and player’s salaries budget in the future. Just need to see first whether Gio and Sess can show some resilience.
Finally, Daniel mentioned that goalkeeper Orlando Bloom would be back from Austin this coming week. He had personally poached him from Fulham in 2015. Daniel advised Nuno and Fabio to have a good look at him as he is better than Alfie. Ryan mentioned that it was actually Brandon Austin who had been playing in Orlando that was coming back. He had previously been at Chelsea as a youngster.
Nuno expressed concerns that we needed to bring in a couple of defenders if we are to avoid relegation. Fabio mentioned that Ledley would be running a specific training session at the fans open day on Saturday. Apparently, there were some centre halves bringing their boots from some great Sunday pub sides including Dirty Dicks and Ye Olde Fighting Cock. Ledley would put them through their paces and advise whether he thinks they are better than what we currently have in the squad. Both Ledley and Fabio are confident.
Fabio also mentioned that he has now all but signed Tomiyasu and is trying to get him to leave early as he's suspended and they'll lose to Spain anyway. Daniel interjected and confirmed that their number 1 priority is Romero and he promises to have it completed by 10pm, 31st August. Fabio challenged Daniel to a fiver bet that it would be done within the next 10 days before the league opener.
With regards to the outgoing players, Fabio said that all of the players without a future at the club have been informed. The one exception is Sissoko, where Fabio is waiting for the right moment to tell the very emotional big guy that he needs to go. They did deactivate the access card for his old room at The Lodge but apparently Jose had given him one of the master keys for all rooms. It was part of a previous security arrangement where Mousa used to protect Jose from guys like Dele who was going to beat the shit out of him in the middle of the night.
Nuno asked Fabio whether Harry Kane would be with the rest of the lads in training next week. Fabio mentioned that Harry had told him he was flying into Manchester Airport from the Bahamas as it was cheaper. He also mentioned that due to COVID protocols Harry would be quarantining in the penthouse suite of the Hyatt Regency in Manchester for a couple of weeks. Harry did mention that him and his brother were available for Zoom calls though.
Summarising, Fabio assured the team that all transfer activity is completely under control. He asked for patience but emphasised that the club are going to have a transformational August. He expects 1, maybe 2 deals to close this coming week. Ryan and Ledley said they do not recommend to Fabio buying 7 new players. From experience, they recommend buying either 6 or 8, but not 7.
Any Other Business
Access to the Lodge
Daniel mentioned that he still couldn’t get into The Lodge. His old pin code doesn’t work and he has repeatedly asked for a new one. Additionally, the security guard at the front gates keeps telling him that everyone has to have a printout of a valid PCR test to come into The Lodge with no exceptions. Awkward silence in the room before Fabio mentioned that this was a Football Operations meeting and that he should probably bring it up in his other management meetings at Lilywhite House.
Meeting concluded 11am