The NDP is not viable but we can afford to splash out £40M on a player?
Sunday, January 30, 2011 at 11:40PM Ooooookay then.
Plenty of chin scratching this late evening.
Guillem Balague, think of him as the La Liga King of the ITK's has tweeted that...well, you know by now because you'll have read it and seen it on SSN and all the newsfeeds etc. We've bid for Sergio Aguero - £38.5M supposedly, and seen it rejected by Atletico Madrid. This following the early rumour(s) that we also bid (rejected) for Negredo, Llorente and Rossi.
Busy day of faxing for Mr Chairman. Not quite cool, calm and collected. Somewhere, there's a scouting system waiting to be rediscovered and effectively used to target player outside of window and then bid for said player 20+ days before actual transfer deadline day.
Crazy talk.
Ballague "Spurs are running around Spain with a large bag of cash" - lol
On so many levels this is completely loopy. A day to go - what type of negotiation are you going to get out of the Spanish clubs at this late late stage? Considering there's complexities relating to tax (read this for a better understanding) and the fact that this particular player was wanted by Real Madrid earlier in the week (although all that says is that his club don't want to sell him to their 'rivals'). But they've already knocked back Chelsea.
I know leaving it to the last minute is sometimes done on purpose and I spoke about the dynamics of the wheeling and dealing the other day, but this all seems like much ado about nothing in terms of viable targets.
One thing that isn't relevant is the get out clause, as stated by Sid Lowe who firmly believes there is no chance of Aguero signing for us because; 'Legally speaking, Aguero's buy-out clause is irrelevant when it comes to a bid from Spurs' - basically what he's saying is, the get out clause is only for Spanish clubs but what Sid probably meant is the player will have no interest in the move.
Also does nobody want to cite City and the fact they pay some of their players twice the cost of their wages to cover the 50% tax the poor little sods have to fork out for plying their trade in England? Would love to know what type of package we would offer him.
"Here ya go Kun, 70k per week and free membership to Faces"
A suggestion perhaps that these more flamboyant 'look at us, look at us' bids will lead to possible second tier signings (in terms of cost) like Fabiano or Forlan (who are hardly second tier players). It's all a bit OTT. In fact, telling everyone you've got almost £40M to spend is hardly going to help if we have to revisit the proposed 'old men' of Fab and Diego. I know the story with both is that it's a no-go, but we all know it's never a no-go in football when a club says 'we ain't selling'.
Also, very few words on the fact that Aguero plays off Forlan and we already have a player to play off a forward (vdV) - we just don't have a forward of deep quality to match the intelligence and movement and guile of the Dutchman.
Something is not right with any of it. Mostly the way Sky Sports are all over this, in what has been a less than frantic/exciting window. Keane to West Ham is not going to be responsible for Jim White's head exploding. One day before the deadline and we're bidding for the best forwards in La Liga offering ridiculous money when there is about a 2% chance of having any of the bids accepted.
I smell a Levyism. Good on him if he's completley serious about it all. Rock'n'roll. But this will probably die quicker than fat Elvis on the toilet.
As for the title of this thread...yeah yeah, speculate to accumulate, said that plenty of times. I'm only trying to point out the absurdity of it all. If we signed a player of world class quality for a staggering amount of money and we finished top4/3 - it's money we'll make back and the gamble will pay off. On the other hand...I don't know, we sell Bale in the summer to compensate.
j/k
And anyways, the crux here is the timing and the almost demented manner of bidding for anyone who can kick a football.
If...if...any of this is true of course. You know, because Harry said we're not signing anyone.
Cough.
In addition, in case you're wondering, here's my three-word Fulham match report: What a clusterf***.
It's been a poor week, what with Huddlestone breaking down and having his return delayed, Kaboul requiring an op (out for up to 6 weeks) and the Keystone Cops turning out in Lilywhite (edit: I meant that poxy cursed light blue). Only bright spot was the support at Craven Cottage.
Onwards, as ever.
Just another day before we can all just go back to the football and concentrate on the players we have. And if we're left with Defoe, Pav and Crouch - so be it. Can't do much else but support them.
COYS.
Reader Comments (155)
Mental, can't get my head rind any of it.
Oops round.
FERNANDO TORRES! LEVY JUST DO IT! PLEASE!!!!! YOU HAVE 38.5M FOR AGUERO SO YOU ADD 10M AND WE COULD GET FERNANDO AND LIVERPOOL ARE MORE LIKELY TO AGREE A DEAL WITH US THAN THE CHAVS! IF YOU ARE IN SPAIN- DIARRIA PLEASE ON LOAN! COYS
Spooky your right, the support at the cottage deserved credit and long may the away support get a mention here. It's easy to boo, but it doesn't help and I'm sure the players appreciate it when they are up against it. This £38.5m bid. Might as well go for Torres and be finished with it. This man Levy baffles me.
Agueros knees are trembly.
As for why we’re throwing a bag of money around Spain or Newcastle or wherever right now, my thought is this window is the last chance to spend without consequence. The UEFA money rules start for the 2011-2012 season, meaning clubs can’t spend more than what is earned over a three year period.
So we can basically take a loss now, but in the summer, losses count toward the three year total.
Yeah, don't spend money on the team, spend it all on a new stadium in N17 instead.... You berk! Maybe you should put your money on the table and see how far that gets us....
in total agreement all the way, great article, . . if Arry would only just slip back to his old ways of staying shtum before a deal is done rather talking to every reporter and his dog about what we are up to then he might concentrate on the pitchside of things and debaclse like today wouldnt happen. Midfield general is just as much a necessity as a stiker, today proved that . . .again !!! its ok having exciting attacking midfielders but someones got to link up with defence so they dont end up (to quote the blogger) keystoning all over the pitch. 23 hours to sort it Mr Levy, on ya marks, get set . . .
Can't see us signing anyone, Torres won't come too us due to his "big club" mentality and who else is there available?? But top 4 with what we've got is doubtful this year can't see a superstar signing in the next 24hrs. Note on today: shambles - enough said. Not signing a top class striker is a big opportunity missed and why are we letting keane go out on loan to west ham with the shite therve been giving us it they want to try and save there little club from the drop they should cough up the cash!
I don't believe the bulk of these stories, and on that basis, when you then get someone posting that all we need to do is add another £10 mill, and we can buy Torres, I begin to wonder if the whole world has gone mad.
Regarding the Keane transfer, I saw a news item earlier in the week that the porn barons bwere going to "Move heaven and earth to bring Keane to West Ham". I don't know about heaven and earth but we only wanted £6 mill for a player, that "was not going to go out on loan", but is then loaned out.
So here we have it. The porn barons have bought a club that is owing £100 mill, and are being offered a £40 mill loan to take over the OS. As I understand it, the loan is being made to the club and not to the porn barons. So if the club goes into administration, they can walk away from all the debt including Newham's largesse. Sullivan and Gold are amongst the richest men in Britain. Anyone else noticed how little risk they actually seem to be taking about anything.
Ever since August, they have done nothing but badmouth us, and we are loaning them players. Anyone want to bet that when they are relegated in May, a certain Robbie Keane will have his snout back in our trough.,
a couple of years ago,it was suggested that we had a mole at the club,who would leak transfer info out & we would end up looking daft.i think levy sorted that out by sacking hìm! since then we have been impressive with acquisitions...
ctd..sell ons etc. We don't screw up on the wedge ever.that is down to Levy's rottweiler negotiation skills. Its more subtefuge.we will just announce a top signing or the window will shut. But we won't panic buy.
Good shout Spook.
I find it extraordinary that we would be punting that sort of dosh, this sounds very dubious.
As for the fools at Fulham, Dawson and Hutton have both made too many big mistakes of late and Bassong looked like a Championship player who's been mistaken for someone in the top flight.
The Jock is great going forward but a liability at the back, I say bring back Charlie .
A very interesting article, I read your articles a lot.. The problem is, we are going through a bad-patch at the moment and I have no doubt in my mind that Tottenham WILL turn this around, a lot of the season is still yet to be played and we have certain ties which could decide our outcome.. as for the transfer window.. I think that Levy has something up his sleeve, we have seen Redknapp saying that Levy wants to spend, also that the money in which we have for the stadium, does not come into count with money for transfers.. I am behind Levy absolutely and I know hell surprise once again, are we forgetting.. VDV for 8 million, Kranjar for 2? Pieenar for 3-4? TRUST ME, Levy knows our strikers are useless.. and wants a top four finish as the endorsement is brilliant.. IN LEVY I DO TRUST!
Defoe, when the poaching, selfish tw*t ain't scoring, is useless. At least Pav and Ouchie create opportunities for the real goalscorers (e.g. midfield). He should only be brought as an impact player when he can come on and get in offside positions.
wasnt so long ago we was scoring goals for fun, I think we have a deeper problem, personally I think pavlachinky is pants and should be fkt off
Break bank for young home grown Andy Carroll
I just cant see this being true, spurs just never go near that sort of money. They must know the tax Issues in buying from Spain. We're not going to have the wages for these sort of players, love it to happen, but not there yet. although if we did have this sort of money, i'd rather it went on the team than go to pay Interest on an extra 200 mil loan just to stay where we are. I don't want to sit and wait for our best players to keep passing through. I hate all this talk about knowing where we are in the food chain. I know we're not the biggest club in the world, but what is wrong with wanting to be. isn't that how the big clubs got there?
Agree with Dublin on keane thevspammers arevonly paying 6m IF they stay up what Stevens chances, why are we even dealing with them after they statedthey wouldn't sell us a pornmag let alone a player!
Title of the article is compatible with thinking of a 10 year old retard.
Not scoring goals from the strikers is becoming farcical. 10 goals from strikers in the last 32 league games. Pav has 5. Crouch 4. Defoe 1 (a penalty against Chelsea last year). Only 6 in the last 23? That's just not good enough.
I've no problem playing VdV in the hole but we need to accept that it requires a target man and that means Crouch (even with all his faults). Or if you want to move to a 4-4-2, fine, but VdV, Modric, Palacios play across the middle and Lennon switching flanks... allowing for Pav/Defoe up front.
It's obvious all this transfer noise is to placate the fans so when the striker doesn't arrive, they can throw their hands up and say we tried... to be fair they did.. but if they tried this hard in the summer, we'd be in much better shape.
also, do you notice how teams don't allow us to roll the ball out to Assou Ekketo anymore and force it to Hutton. Hutton (and Corluka for that matter) isn't good enough on the ball. Opposing teams squeeze the field forcing up the right, forcing us into turnovers (like yesterday). Wouldnt be as bad if we a 'hump it up' valve but with Defoe only... its not going to work.
maybe the reason we can bid so big for a player is... because the people up top know we are soon to land an olymic stadium scot free?
< And if we're left with Defoe, Pav and Crouch - so be it. Can't do much else but support them.>
Is there any need to include Pav in that list Spooky? Mr. Redknapp is determined to justify his choice for favourite players. I think he is afraid that if Pav comes in and scores, fans might physically evict his Crouch-ie from the pitch next times he appears. He will never allow him time to settle in.
I'm sorry to say this but, the only thing that can save our season is a long term injury to f*cking Crouch. For the entire season...plus the next one. Notice how we have forgotten how to attack without the long-ball-and knock-down bullsh*t? we used to be able to get Lennon to the byline by playing the ball on the ground. Nowadays, it seems that whether the tall misfit is playing or not, we can't get the ball from our half unless we 'pump' it long to the strikers.
Unfortunately, Van der Vaart's game doesn't suit us. Its so sad but lets accept the facts. If VDV cannot play with Pav (who may not be very good but is the best of our sorry pathetic bunch of 'strikers') then its time he sits on the bench. Harsh? Its all about the team.
As for us winning the CL. Pleease! Think about it realistically. Donkey Jenas, Shoot-&-never pass Defoe, Calamity Bassong, Gallas, Comedy Hutton, f*cking Crouch-ie...against Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Cassano, Robinho, Pato, Pirlo, Gattuso, Van Bommel, Seedorf, Inzaghi etc etc?
They have Zlatan, we have Crouch. Why us?
Top 4? Well, maybe if we sign the player Redknapp identifies as the 'missing link'....Mr. Phillip Neville!!
Its all downhill from here onwards. Redknapp and his jokers (Les Ferdinand! My goodness, what were we thinking!) have reached their limit. Its funny how most Spurs fans are not even disturbed with the thrashing we got yesterday. We sort of expected it I guess. Fancy any of the other - more realistic - contenders for top 4 accepting such a display with such ease?
Beetleblues. I see you're back to give us the benefit of your vast wisdom.
Let's have a bit of perspective on yesterday. 2 penalties unorganised defence thereafter 45mins 4nil.down. I think it proved Harry right in making Bassong 6th choice central defender.
Defoe can't hold up the ball. Pav struggles to hold up the ball. Leaves Crouch.
VDV is a class act but has looked best with Crouch. Harry needs to play 442 sometimes to mix it up.
As for transfer rumour bollocks. We often get linked with these big name signings. Usually just before we pay half as much for someone else.
I don't expect any surprises today. Offering big money for players who will not want to join seems to be a good way to keep journalists employed.
Top 4 is not the be all for Spurs right now. We the fans have survived for a long time without it. Mentally we are not a top4 club which is why we can accept our days like this with ease. Not sure what the players excuse is though.
Stoney,
I hope we are not in a disagreement, are we?
I would stick to talking about football if I were you because you clearly know nothing about finance in business and haven't thought how the new 2013 rules will affect us. Pathetic headline.
Several players yesterday looked as if they didn't care whether we were in the FA Cup or not, BAE amoung them just wandering about at the start of the game.
It's going back to the dark, scatter gun days of targeting anyone and everyone.
So much for Spurs running a tight scouting ship, and picking off high quality, individual targets. Levy buying out of Spanish football's equivalent to the Argos catalogue once more.
Really can't grasp what Pav has done to be offered everywhere - and allowed to source his own move. Does Levy think we're stuck with Crouch but we might get coin for the Russian?
Refuse to believe Levy is anywhere near being serious with these bids. Hardly reserved is it, bidding for five players and bidding a Kings ransom.
massive smokescreens. The club knows their's unrest in the support over the stadium / performances / signings etc. Make a few massive bids, knowing full well they won't be accepted or we won't agree personal terms and it makes us look like we're trying our best.
It's all bullshit. When will people realise HR's type of player is Scott Parker or Craig Bellamy and not the type of player to take us to the next level.
if this is a smokescreen then the people that run our club are truly a bunch of vindictive, manipulistic, contriving bunch of tossers, what other clubs do this to their fans?
HR is somewhat detached from the situation and is told to keep saying were in for no one, Levy offered him VDV and he said lavvley, so perhaps a similar thing will happen.
I find it fascinating how we all have different takes on our strikers and how it really comes down to one of them being worse than the others. I think we're splitting hairs to some extent. The truth is they're all poor and any infusion of new blood/change would be good. I do happen to agree with those who argue that Crouch is probably the least horrible of the bunch because at least he creates opportunities for VdV and does occasionally provide something useful in terms of defense by pressing defenders up the field or getting back for set piece play in our box etc. Yes, I know Pav has scored goals and I do like the guy, but do you really think we'd have a run of goals if we put him in the next few games? Maybe a few. He plays in spurts and did a great job for us last year but then winds up back to his default setting of lazy, slow, pace-killing dithering with the ball. Defoe was brilliant early last year and when he's on can be a threat but, as I mentioned before he offers nothing when he's not putting the ball in the net.
0957: Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp on BBC Radio 5 live: "I'd like to see us try and do something if we can, but it's not going to be easy. Good players want big wages and it's difficult to compete all the time - they're asking mega money, some of them, and it's crazy - you can't pay it."
does anyone think Redknapp is like that bloke in the pub in the Fast Show who just agrees with the last statement to please his mates! Either that or he has a split personality or alzheimers.
I wish he would just shut up.
Redknapp needs to be banned from talking to the press on transfers.
Yesterday was a huge, much needed, wake up call.
Also I dont believe that anyone, except maybe Pienaar and vdV, actually gave a shit. That includes 'Arry.
Its been coming for a while. Best to get it out of the way now.
I think its all a smokescreen. Forlan or Carroll are my thoughts on who signs today.
Harry and his soundbites , sighs , as if the trashing we got from Fulham wasnt hard enough to take
Dembele (alongside Kompany my favorite Belgian players) had a good game though , but prob more to do with us failing then with him being top class
check that
Carroll is off to pool apparently....25mil
Forlan it is then ... whoo hoo.....
hmmmmm
I think Harry, Joe Jordan and Clive Allen need to take a LONG HARD LOOK at their coaching and revving up players, sharpening their concentration prior to big games. They are getting paid to prepare this team to be concentrated and 'up for it' in all games. After all they don't say to us before a game, keep your £100.00 in your pocket todaty and stay at home and we end up going to a game that we throw away in the first quarter of an hour. I'm fucking angry at the three of them for that. You wouldnt see any other top 4 team getting their arses kicked at Fulham and only because they couldnt be bothered taking it seriously. Bastards.
Taraabt in United talks
Apparently his performance against Coventry (not bad actually) sealed it.
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Also
triffictottenham is a bit low budget
only 12 hours to go.......
Interesting comment on Spurs-Web.com
"Michael Dawson was sent off in the first half after some awful defensive decisions and will now serve a three-match ban."
Like the ref said ... "here Daws..look you've been shit so far so I'm sending you off!
Deadline day................
Just wondering
What if we bid 40mil for eto'o?
If we're to believe what we're being told (and I'm not sure I do) then we can't afford the wages of the players we want to get. That brings our striker chase to a skidding halt surely. The only feasible target then is someone like Carroll, for whom Newcastle have just rejected a £30m bid. I really don't think Carroll is a £30m player, so surely that one is dead too.
The only target we would therefore be likely to get is by making a silly money bid to an underperforming side who are not big enough to pay 100K a week. Someone like Suarez would have fit that mould, but he's gone. Which leaves someone like Hulk or some other small time player with a big future.
I hope I'm wrong but I can't see any new goalscorer holding up the shirt outside the training ground anytime soon. Which is a bitch as our season needs a huge kick up the arse right now. All our momentum seems to have gone unless it's all eyes on AC.
Harry is right though
He will be surprised if we sign someone
Then he cant be accused of lying
please can I sleep till 11pm
this is what I don't get. After the Fulham game, Harry said: "We've had a tough, tough season and we could do with freshening up one or two but we haven't got the people to do it."
he's just sent out Keane, Ohara, Bentley on loan, plus the 2 x Kyles (walker doing very well) not to mention all the younger players (rose, caulker, townsend etc) and Dos Santos, Sandro, Kranjcar, Corluka and Pav can't buy a game.
so what does he mean we haven't got the people???
last season different players came in at different times and it made our season, Bale, Bentley and Pav all did great when called upon, and Guddy and then Rose was brought in for one game and made history..
why can't it happen again ? what has changed.
2 quick points:
a) Andy Carroll is not worth £30m.
b) I can't believe those Geordie fuckwits have rejected it... WTF???
Seems a bit silly to knock THFC business plan on the basis of an ITK - Guillem Balague a Skysports employee, Skysports news dealine day? Looks like a ploy to get extra interest to me.
Don't believe the lies. Levy will have had a targets at the start of the month, and if they don't come off so be it, I'm sure it wasn't through the lack of trying.
Clearly, the lads, our Michael in particular, are unsettled by the prospect of becoming pikeys...God knows it's got my stomach in a knot.
Stratford aside, has anyone else been experiencing a disturbing sense of deja vu? You remember, media insisting we can't keep our best player, absolute disarray in the transfer window, Robbie Keane leaving, Dawson getting a straight red--Ramos era, right before the wheels came completely off. I'm not predicting, just saying I've got an unpleasant shiver down my spine.
Sad to say, doesn't look like I'll have to make good on my pledge to Belgian Spur to publicly reverse my view of Redknapp. Was optomistically hoping Redknapp would manage to match last year's performance before buggering off to the England job. Or jail. Whichever. But he really doesn't seem to be on top of the situation at all, see examples cited by earlier posters.
I am just appalled that we're doing the whole let strikers (transfer/loans) without replacement in hand thing again and more so that we're back to the "not addressing the glaring weakness that everyone and his dog can see."
'Course the Fulham result could also be straight Karma: Announce to the world that we're abandoning 120+ years of tradition and history, so forget about the winning a cup when the year ends in 1 tradition as well.
God, I'm depressed.
Re: Kun
It's almost like Levy was just doing it on purpose, for Madrid's benefit or some other long winded conspiracy. In other words for our benefit:
'Let me show them we mean business, but it's Forlan we'll be serious about'.
It's like a 31 day poker game isn't it.
First choice Carroll not going to happen with Liverpool testing the market at £30mil. We won't pay that much. As before I don't understand Newcastle not taking that.
So second choice Forlan becomes first choice and we make a larger offer than before. Makes sense to me.
Or Plan C we buy no-one and wait for the summer plus by then we'll know if we have the potential of CL football next year and where we will be playing.
Should have a transfer window of a week really to save all this messing about.
Glad I missed that one, doesn't sound good from your match report. Couldn't have been bothered to check for the highlights or any other match reports, sod it.
Interested to see if we manage any secret deals, happy to see Keane is gone once again hopefully never to return in a Lilywhites jersey...
Forlan would be a good signing but he'll be cup tied for the CL won't he? At a reported £17m, granted he's proven quality but that's very expensive for a 31 year old that we can't use in the CL... I suppose I shouldn't complain, if we do sign him he's head and shoulders above any of our other strikers.
Still feel that Carroll is the man we should be after, i know he's not worth £30m+ but i think we've gotta go all out to get him, he'll certainly look a £30m+ player in our side... Torres isn't worth £48m, Bent isn't worth £24m and Forlan isn't worth £17m... the world's gone mad but if we don't cough up we'll be left behind!