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)
Bims - this opens up the need to hope and pray WH don't get relegated, (i) so they keep Keane and (ii) they get awarded the OS. Shit happens!
Newcastle just said that they would take 35m for Carroll.
Looks like they are playing one off against the other...if we are still in for him
Torres deffo off to Chelsea.
35 mill is crazy money for a potentially great player, i seem to remember plenty of players coming up from the championship and having a great 1st season in the prem, and then fading. Kevin Philips, Michael Ricketts, Marcus Stewart.
carroll is 15 mill no more surely.
Something about to happen at Newcastle.........
....prob Carroll to Pool as Torres seems to be off to Chelsea...
would love to have some spurs news.....
Liverpool really are going for it.
As we are desperate I would try for N'Zogbia from Wigan.
Great ball-control, pacey and can finish and would be cheaper than all the above options....but I guess it's too late now.
More likely Cole from the Spammers then we could play 2 giant forwards and they could compete as to who would score the least goals.
And somebody said they were depressed!
If pool get 50 for torres then they'll have 15 left after buying carroll for 35m ......he's on his way for talks...they'll buy Adam from Blackpool........ssn wetting themselves...Georgie has changed the hair since this morning.....
Aguero signs new contract......
Fuck me
Carroll's deal could be in excess of 40mil inc the addons
Come on levy spunk up 20 for forlan to show them cunts how it should be done
Suarez and Carroll dont have me shaking in me boots just yet
Latest Carroll bid
REJECTED
A Torres / Carroll / Suarez strikeforce would be pretty powerful................................................however, Torres is off, Carroll is injured and Suarez has never played here before (saying this to make myself feel happier)
Forlan for Spurs - Come of Levy!! Imagine him playing of VDV - OUCH.
If top 4 is not the be all end all, then what is?? VdV, Bale and Luka will be offski if we fail this year.
Seriously theres 6 hours to go
not a peep on ssn about anyone joining us
im ...oh hang on
apparently there is interest in Crouch from Newcastle or spurs are interested in carroll with crouch as a make weight
if that happened it leaves us with 3 strikers still
Dunno about you but i'd kinda like 4 in the squad.
Crouch leaving leaves us with JD and Pav.
So if Crouch goes, we have someone coming in.
But if Crouch goes, bang goes Harry's fav Plan B.
Good old harry
Said earlier he was going home after training...
now he's still at spurs lodge after just having tea with sky people..
...whats going on....
fuck it
i'm going dark for a few hours
Don't care what anyone says! We owe Liverpool big time! Fcuking hell that was to close for comfort
It's gone potty now. One player leaves for £50M and it has a pretty devastating knock on effect with what other clubs can demand.
Liverpool are going to really fancy themselves now.
We're going to be stuck with the 3 strikers that we have I'm afraid.
Harry evidently likes the new 4-5-1 formation, regardless of the fact that the players don't like it. That means we only need 3 to be available. The problem is that they're the wrong 3!
As for Liverpool's spending, well let's wait and see shall we. Newcastle have arguably played better in Carroll's absence recently. Suarez could end up being the next Kezma/Kuyt rather than the next Van Nistelrooy/Van Hooijdonk. Add in £14 million for Charlie Adam (who incidentally scored more Championship goals last year than Carroll) and it could all backfire on them.
'Liverpool are going to really fancy themselves now'
What - with a forward who drinks more than Ledley, that's how his fcuked up his thigh muscle ! They've paid 35mil for forward who fell off a bar stool whilst jagger bombing, and aint played since!!
Bring it on...
ON a brief aside from Silly Season chitchat, look who got his nose in the Stratford business with an Article in The Times. Good on you Michael, glad to see you got your name in the paper, you whiney, once great, has-been.
"The Eleventh Hour Is our Stock In Trade" - Saint Bill
COYS
We're not actually bidding for anyone. We're just letting the media think we are bidding to keep you lot quiet.
You forget we've still got Crouch and despite his height no other club has noticed him or put in a bid.
I can understand Defoe being under the radar but Crouchy?
RT @philmcnulty: I refuse to accept Spurs won't do something. Giuseppe Rossi on the go according to Spanish sources and DiegoForlan in the background. #fb
Rossi all that good?
Forlan at 31 is worth a punt i think, if only to reignite the dwindling fire of our season. CL next season is worth an awful lot to us.
Only another 4 hours and 20 minutes left of this transfer window bullshit. Hallelluajh.
Rossi....another midget.
Sturridge to Bolton. So Elmander maybe - contract runs out in the summer, so he would fit in with our current get them cheap buying policy.
hells bells. can we not have an away ki t of navy shirt/white shorts? Just reverse the first kit. I'm bloody sure that light blue thing is responsible for lackluster and disjointed performances.
We'll surely get a goalscorer wont we?
Elmander's off to Newcastle.....
Would happily take Rossi and Forlan, especially as there's rumour that Crouch is heading to the Toon for a tune of £12 million.
Bring back Eidur!
When asked this morning Harry said he would be leaving the training ground straight after training.
He's still there now.
Only explanation is he must be doing his tax return still, he's only got until 11.59pm tonight................
Is it just me or would anyone else be let down by seeing Rossi rock up at the lane? Forlan, meh.
Surely world class should be the target. Neither get me wet.
Harry's just contradicted himself.
Said that no-one else coming in, then says that we're still trying to get Phil Neville.
Gio could still be on his way out.....
FUCK ALL - WE'RE GONNA BUY FUCK ALL - WE'RE GONNA BUY FUCK ALL - WE'RE GONNA BUY FUCK ALL
I'm fcuking gob smacked!
most UNDERWHELMING transfer window EVER!!!. can you imagine the buzz at liverpool and chelsea ?
Let's move to Stratford so we can offer players 100k per week and sign 'em for £30M+.
Redknapp just gave the game away - big time.
They were in for Carroll as predicted - and were pacing up and down waiting for the phone to ring and 'BANG...their prized basket containing one egg....got flattened by a Scouser in a silly wig !
After all the names - why the fuck Carroll?>
Seems we cannot/ will not pay the wages the top players want.
Torres getting £175 grand a week at Chelsea and our top earner is on less than half of that.
Would rather Carroll goes to Liverpool than we pay 35 million for him.
I reckon Spooks is one the money! defo
what a joke, the strikers we have are not only mediocre when playing their best, they're all out of form at the moment. and no more players!!!
Well looks like no one is coming in so who does that leave our 4th place challenge.......gone! Defoe 0 league goals and beanpole 1 league goal not inspirational is it? Still can't believe we haven't got a striker in but all the same.....COYS
Just realised this is an action replay of last January's window, where the ITK'S said we were signing loads of World class players and we ended up signing none of them.
Despite that, we managd to finish fourth but City a lot stronger this season and Chelsea have strengthened also so 5-6 is probably about the best we will get this season.
ITK? I wouldn't trust them to tell me the colour of my hair if they were standing in front of me.
Somebody said the other day unless you are sitting in Levy's lap all day what can you know? Spot on.
Nobody who works at the club is going to be stupid enough to say or do anything to implicate them in leaking news. How many ITK's said anything about Rafa last transfer window?
ITK = KFA.
We cudda been contenders....
We could've gone up too the next level
Wow, just saw the Redknapp interview... you could seriously sense the vitriol towards Newcastle when he was talking about Carroll. We clearly made a number of attempts to bring Carroll in. I wonder why it didn't work? Carroll clearly wasn't too interested in coming here cos he only put a transfer request in when Liv showed interest.
The random scatter-gun technique to signing a striker in the last 24 hours has been embarrassing and to be quite frank, amateurish.
All is not lost, HR has confirmed we have one bid outstanding.......PHIL NEVILLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
How did it come to this ?
Chelsea spend 75 million on Torres and Luiz, Liverpool 58 million on Suarez and Carroll, we offer 2 million for 34 year old Phil Neville.
Hard to know whether to laugh or cry.
Make the most of this years CL trip.
We are looking good!!!
What I feared is coming home.
I'm afraid we are going to get what we deserved, 6th or 7th place, out of Europe, Bale and Modric sold and yes, our front line led by and I quote" i cant let Crouchy go"
And to top it all, why not humiliate ourselves totally by bidding all of £2 mill for a 34 year old whom i and the rest of the world hate!!!
We deserve it, there is not doubt about it and personally. tonight i give up!!!
Arsenal, Man U, Liverpool, Chelsea, Man City, they are the clubs, we are in the 2nd division, lets be honest.
As for the team selection on Sunday, its better I don't comment, i'm going to bed and I've had a hard day!!
I've had it with it all im afraid, sick of this, the stadium issue and everything about it all.
And for those who say we have come a long way, Oh ye, lets wait another 10 years to get where we want to be!!
Chelsea can write off their money, and Liverpool have spent the money Chelsea gave them. Only way we could spend that type of money is if we sell someone and then have it to spend.
Anybody really believe the crazy bids being reported this week? Forlan maybe, but the others over £30million - really?
We can't pay the wages of the guys from Spain, tax breaks over there are too good for footballers. Just paper talk and if there were any bids it was Levy trying to smoke out Newcastle to find out what they were looking for.
Then they got lucky because Chelsea have had to panic buy and this created a knock on effect.
We may have to fund a new stadium soon so money is tight at the Lane. And if we stay at the Lane get used to this scenario - Wenger has lived this way for the last few years, it's the price to pay for stadium expansion.
Plus financial fair play will be an issue soon as well. Bale and Modric and a few others out in the next transfer window for £100m then we can go shopping with £50m and have £50m for the stadium. Job done.
Still better off than we were 5, 10,15 years ago. And where do we want to be? Great question.
COYS
Chill out some of you lot.
Liverpool have still lost Torres who wasnt exactly playing great for Liverpool. Chelsea will need to change their formation with him coming in.
None of the other 3 changed anything.
We just need to play a proper 442 every now and then to get our strikers scording.
Also give Pav a run and leave Stevie P as sub to give him time to bed in,
We will finish 4th.
COYS
Great news. Neville is not coming.
Trying to put a positive spin on all this, at least we have not sold Bale, VDV, modric.
Based on first half of the season our forwards are not good enough and we will not score enough goals to make the CL PLACES.
"Let's move to Stratford so we can offer players 100k per week and sign 'em for £30M+".
Spooky, you may be sarcastic all you want, but to me this quote is plain fact statement.
IMO, top class players are overlooking us because of piss poor wages we’re offering for the likes. Ability to sustain high wages is in great part tied to revenue from the attendance. For that reason Diarra, Muntari and bunch of repeatedly mentioned targeted strikers (domestic and foreign) don’t even consider coming to Spurs. We could have easily match Man City's transfer monies for Dzeko, but not the wages, which are bread and butter for every player. All this bullshit of lining up “reasons” why great players prefer one team over another are smokescreen excuses for failing in the “show me the money” department. Hypocrisy? Of course. However, I don’t blame them cause I’d do the same, because MONEY TALKS AND BULLSHIT WALKS.
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