Triffic Spurs Round-up

Good weekend? Just a week away now, and it all kicks off again. Another season of Tottenham. How many times will Harry say 'Triffic'? Will we tally up more than two points from the opening eight games? With all the hype on Man City and with people expecting Villa and Everton to continue their good form from last season, can we quietly sustain a challenge for a top 6 place without the usual over-hyped nonsense that drowns us by Christmas? Exciting times.

Before we look forward, here's a round-up of the latest bits and pieces:


Gareth Bale

So basically, AC Milan are interested in signing our jinxed left-back. His agent appears to be the only one doing the talking because I've seen nothing to suggest the player wants a move and I've yet to see a single quote from anyone involved with the Milan giants concerning a bid for our monkey-faced star. Just his agent, spouting out contradictory rubbish. On the one hand he states that no transfer has been talked about and then goes on to say that the figures circulating are correct. Right, so basically, nobody is or has discussed a transfer which means the figures being referred to are either the ones in his head or the ones that tabloids have estimated when covering this complete non-event of a story. Isn't Bale currently recovering from an op? Next.

Ashley Young

We are no longer interested in signing Young, so says Harry, who has given up because Villa simply won't sell and he'll cost a fair amount of wedge. Two good reasons I guess. Still, I can never quite trust our gaffer because it always seems like he's playing mind games, and not the subtle type either. The very fact he said what he said might be his way of deflecting attention back onto a possible transfer by suggesting it won't happen when his intentions is to try and force it back out into the open. Especially if you are inclined to believe Young wants to return to London.

Do we need a left-winger? I reckon it would be nice to have one and be able to mix it up a little with Modric pairing up with Palacios in the middle. Give us options and allows us to be a little less predictable depending on the opposition and how we plan to line-up offensively. £21M is apparently the price fee. Inexplicably, Real Madrid would part with Wesley Sneijder for a measly £16M.

Something…wrong…can't…work…it…out.

I guess if the £21M is a genuine estimation Villa have tagged Young with, its only because they think (hope) City would pay it. Sneijder has been linked with Villa, which has me scratching my head that if all of this was true, shouldn't we be the ones linked with the Dutch star? And how the English winger can be valued higher than the brilliant Wesley, leaves me dizzy with confusion. Back to reality, I doubt he'd ever consider a non-Champions League club. Such is modern day football.

Moussa Sissoko

Believe the hype or not to believe the hype? This kid is meant to be pretty bloody good. A player in the mould of Desailly, according to some. Strong, decent tackle (ooh) and has the type of drive and determination that would suit us perfectly - because we need players who lead by example. His passing isn't quite there yet, but he's young and he'll improve. Now, I've not seen that much of him and like most fans, when it comes to being linked with a player outside the Prem or in a league that you don't follow on a regular occurrence, you have to rely on others to give you the low-down. We tend to fall in love with some players when having little knowledge about them and then start to believe we need them more than the air we breathe and then feel completely empty if they don't sign (anyone remember the dramatics of the Diego transfer saga and the ITK's obsession with Dirk Kuyt?).

I'd like us to sign Sissoko because if Palacios is out injured or suspended, we can do with a player of almost equal standing (sorry Jamie). An understudy who can also give us extra steel in midfield. The main gripe, if you want to have a gripe, is that the above description of Sissoko is not too dis-similar to one you would use to describe General Wilson. So is he really the type of player we need as an answer to the 'we need one more CM to complete our squad depth' conundrum? Or should we be looking at his more Carrickesque team-mate Etienne Capoure? Looking at our current set of players, I'd say Sissoko is the better option, simply because he is similar to Palacios. Harry fancies Tommy Huddlestone and our quarterback looks like he will be getting a chance to prove his worth to the side - as an offensive CM. Along with the returning Kevin Prince Boateng who has a second chance to impress. And although I tend to believe that all the Patrick Vieira stories spouted by our manager are nothing more than distractions and disinformation, I do believe Harry wants to bring in a CM. Just as much as a LW. But from the looks of it, we'll only be getting one or the other.

Although considering Bentley and his latest tunnel sulk, there might be time to go back and test Martin O'Neill with a cheeky swap deal.

Olympiakos Friendly

No reason to read too much into this, much like any other pre-season friendly, other than to probably say our players look fit and sharp (and hopefully in mind as well as body) and the Greeks looked rather poor. All eyes on Bassong, who did well and will no doubt grow in stature when partnered alongside King of Woodgate. Heavy touch on occasion and a moment or two of stalling on the ball that could well be costly, but reading too much into his performance would be a knee-jerk too far. Bentley disappearing down the tunnel the other talking point. More on that in a moment.

No Woody, Daws, Bale or Jenas available for the game on Sunday. All out injured. Palacios and Hutton were both away on international duty. Hopefully Luka going off (with a foot knock) was more precautionary than anything.

Defoe looks to be up for it and impressively, so does Pav who displayed some neat touches and finished with confidence for his goal. All smiles on the Russians face, let's hope he takes the swagger into the season proper and proves the doubters wrong. Moddle and Lennon are obviously key to our attack, providing the type of swashbuckling that we love to see dazzle in Lilywhite.

Huddlestone was a little on the quiet side and Crouch was at the end of far too much of the route one. When Harry said he gives us another options, I hope this isn't the only other option. KPB looks to be back in with first team contention. Or maybe it was option rather than options, which might prove to be an issue months from now (fingers crossed it isn't). Keane, the kid Danny Rose and O'Hara were all OK, nothing special.

King was the King in his 45 mins cameo appearance and should be fit for 90 minutes against Liverpool, but a no-show in the following game against Hull in mid-week.

The one blip was David Bentley who looks to now be the quintessential outcast. The jigsaw piece that doesn't quite fit, presumably because it belongs to another set. It's a shame that most think he's over-rated and is a victim of his own ego, thanks to all the 'Next Beckham' hype that followed him from Blackburn to Spurs. The main problem (much like the Darren Bent) is - where does he actually fit into the Spurs team? Not the right-wing, because that belongs to Lennon. So can he play in CM? Doubtful as I don't think he has the combative skills to survive there and as he constantly attempts to do too much, he'll probably be steamrolled by any half-decent opposition. Behind the front two? Possibly, but it's not his natural position is it?

I don't mind Bentley and regardless of whatever personal issues he had last season, the fact is he has to start showing some grit and determination when selected for Spurs. One thing lacking is confidence. Still lacking. Which is frustrating for the player (hence the substitution and moody response to it) and frustrating for the fans. Because of expectations, it's easy to be fickle. But let's try not to be. It's unlikely he'll be sold on (unless something last minute involving Young occurs) so Bentley needs to dig deep and sort out his crossing and set-pieces and show some of the Becks spirit of never say die, rather than apologetically go out on whimper. I want him to succeed and I want him to do so at Spurs. But it's a paradox, because his best chance of doing so would be with him patrolling the right-wing. Lickle Aaron probably won't let him come anywhere near it.

Loans

Livermore has gone to Derby (which was expected after he posted about it on his Facebook). Talking of which, the club have apparently asked all the player to disclose all the online social networks they frequent and that a representative at Spurs has access to all accounts to make sure that nothing embarrassing (club related) is shared in the public domain. Bit of ITK I got over the weekend, but not sure how true this is and the fact that Woody's Twitter account disappeared soon after the Bent farce I get the impression Spurs have actually gone for a more zero tolerant attitude.

Newcastle are meant to be in discussions with us over a couple of loan deals for 'our kids'. dos Santos? Dervitte? Rose? Obika? Naughton? Hopefully it's not the latter because he looks good enough to mix it up in the top-flight. The rest can do with a loan spell and dos Santos (with his apparent disciplinary issue) can do with proving everyone wrong and save himself from a permanent transfer or sealing one. With Livermore gone, I'm hoping Bostock isn't a player we are looking at loaning out. Kid's got talent and he should be slowly introduced to first team action, in the Prem. With Adel already out at QPR, we need to have a least one 'kid with talent' eyeing the first eleven.

Another mid-table finish, so says Piers

The latest from the Daily Fail. Piers Morgan has made some predictions about the Prem season ahead. Here's the one he's made about us:

11 Spurs will get off to a flying start and I’ll start getting the usual crowing cockerel texts and emails from my chortling White Hart Lane pals. Then they’ll hit a blip, Harry Redknapp will announce his pet dog could score easier than Defoe and Crouch, Robbie ‘kiss the badges’ Keane will leave for another ‘dream’ club and they’ll end up mid-table, like they always do.

Get the usual crowing cockerel text messages? Yes, very good Piers. Thing is, your Tottenham mates will be there to answer the phone and stand up and listen to your abuse, as opposed to disappearing off the face of the earth, which is what you insufferable melters do when things turn to shit.

Still, at least he admits that Arsenal do not have a squad with the physical or mental strength to seriously challenge for trophies. Depressing, is barely the word for it, he says.

Welcome back to the real world. Don't go getting knocked out of the Champions League now.

Daniel Jarque

Daniel Jarque, 26 years of age, recently appointed captain of Espanyol collapsed after training and died. You'll recognise the name if you follow La Liga and you might also know we were linked with him when Ramos was our manager. Showed no signs of having any issues with his health, so to say this is shocking news - especially for the Espanyol fans - is an understatement. Decent player, a product of their youth team. Very sad. And something that seems to be happening with a regular occurance in modern day football.

Happy with Bassong?

He's big, he's French, he's sitting on the bench, Seb Bassong, Seb Bassong...

Might have paid Newcastle a little too much for the lad, but it's a good solid signing, one that's a requirement to our steady progression. We signed Wilson Palacios last season (substance over style) and we've done the same in acquiring the signature of the French defender (or should that be Cameroonian?) to give us some much needed bite at the back. I've heard one or two Spurs fans bemoan the signing, suggesting Distin or Dunne as better alternatives - both of which are not exactly players with their careers in front of them. Bassong will no doubt grow in stature, thankfully (hopefully) for having better quality players around him rather than the utter dross he had to carry on his shoulder at St James Park and although he's cover for the moment, for the £8M we've spent, he has to be nurtured into a long term solution.

Ok, so we might lose him to the African Nations Cup early next year (Fulham, Birmingham and Villa are the games he might potentially miss) but Woodgate and Dawson should be there to aid King at the back. Corluka (not always convincing at CB) and possibly even Huddlestone (gulp, bit slow innit) can cover if we are really really (REALLY) desperate, but I don’t think it will come to that.

No doubting the masterplan is to have Woodgate and King as our first choice pairing and Dawson and Bassong to cover when we rest one or both of them. Daws (bless him) was possibly one of our most consistent performers last at the back, always doing his utmost to impress when called upon. Only concern is that he's yet to stand up alone in the big, bad scary world of the Prem, as he's confidence and belief is reliant on just how good the person standing next to him is. Which is why Dawson paired up with King tends to be so bloody good.

So, with all players fit, we have a strong and resilient selection of defenders to pick from. Considering this is Tottenham, it's nice to see as have such a strong spine to the side. Not quite perfect yet, but it's getting there.

Forgetting the over-priced transfer fee which is now a given with most Prem signings, this is a good move from Redknapp and Levy. Now all we need is a CM and we're fixed up for the season.

Transfer shenanigans

Sabastien Bassong to Spurs. Medical passed. Only a matter of time. £8M for a relegated defender. Look away now if stats scare you. Newcastle were better off without him in the side as they lost more and conceded more when he played. Add to it his record at Metz before signing for the Toon (22 games, Metz lost 14, drew 7and won 1 – two of those draws were achieve whilst Bassong went off injured due to injury). But we all know stats are misleading. Look at Darren Bent, great scoring ratio, but you won’t find a player more maligned. Bassong stood out in a very poor team, that mostly failed to match his determination. But at the same time, an inanimate carbon rod would have looked good playing for Newcastle last season.

We need a centre-back desperately. Woody is going to be out for a fair bit of time and Daws won’t be available for several weeks. However Bassong will miss the opening game of the season due to a red card offence from last term, so let’s pray King is fit for the big kick-off. Not sure where he fits in once everyone is fit and able to play. He must have been given some assurances over selection, so will be interesting to see what we do with Dawson once he’s available. May well be the case that Woody is out long term and with King’s troubles, there will be plenty of games available for the three of them to get along just fine.

Still, £8M? Wondering how good a prospect Beevers is at Sheffield Wednesday – who wouldn’t cost too much in comparison. Bassong may well prove to be a great signing for us. The stats I quoted above (and the ones SSN are displaying every half and hour) can be ignored. We all know that if you are a decent player surrounded by utter shit, you’re bound to suffer a little, mainly because your team-mates are not on the same level and can't offer support, so you end up having to do more than you should be doing.

£15M Rod bid rejected

We’ve had some defenders here at Spurs go through the same type of thing. King survived it. Gardner didn’t. Still, as discussed several times on this blog and currently cited in one or two message board threads – why does our scouting system not pick up players that would cost a fraction of the £8M? There must be plenty of undiscovered talents out there. We seem to do well picking up academy players and youth players – but when we want to fill a gap in the first team squad, we always go for the obvious.

Still, welcome to the Lane Sabastien. Good luck lad.

-

Darren’s a Sunderland player now and he looks rather happy, and as expect he fired a very subtle dig at Spurs (I’ve seen his interview and he isn’t resentful in an obvious way and good luck to him). His dig concerned what goes on behind closed doors:

'There is a lot of politics at Tottenham, but that's Tottenham as a club’

Basically, Bent never believed he would start the next game even if he scored in the previous one. My guess? Probably has to do with Robbie ‘undroppable’ Keane. Rumours of the Irish windmill having a little clause in his contract. I'm sure this myth will be dis-spelled cometh the new season. Unless that's the reason Robbie isn't too happy at the moment. I'll stop now before I drown myself in ITK whispers.

-

Talkng of which, a lovely piece of ITK information for you, this concerning Pascal Chimbonda (from rocknroll11 over at GG.co.uk):

Just wanted to put to bed all the random theories that are going round as to why we resigned Chimbo and what a pointless signing it is...

Sunderland never ever paid a penny for Chimbo, they were scheduled to pay after the first season. 6 months in he's obviously unhappy, missing the team bus, pissing off Keane etc... and 6 months in Harry's here thinking we lack a bit of steel and have a very small squad. Levy suggested we could get back Chimbo for nothing... so we went to Sunderland and said if you give him back we'll cancel the outstanding payment you own...

and that's what happened.

Lack of a bit of steel? Really? Still, it’s almost believable, although if true – I’m not sure anyone would have made any money out of the ‘transfer’ back to Spurs which is hard to believe considering the people involved.

-

And finally, the dream is over. Klass-Jan Huntelaar is off to AC Milan. Negredo is being linked with a move to Roma. Then again, so is Pav. And it’s all gone quiet on Sissoko. Perhaps having aided Madrid in creating interest for Huntelaar, they’re let us talk to a couple of their players.

Madhamadou Diarra anyone? Gosh, I’m dreaming again.

For the record, he’s not on Madrid’s transfer list. Neither is Gago (who some of you don't rate) but he's a far more likely target if we do plan to look that way.

We could still do with a midfielder. Don't think we're quite finished yet.

Levy holds out for the pot at the end of the rainbow

From the Tottenham website:

LATEST NEWS

Bent transfer - Stock Exchange Announcement

The following statement has been released to the Stock Exchange:

5 August 2009
Tottenham Hotspur plc

Player Transfer

Tottenham Hotspur plc announces that agreement has been reached for the transfer of the player registration of Darren Bent to Sunderland AFC for a total consideration of up to £16.5 million.

Daniel Levy, this time there will be no melted bagels thrown at your car windows. Neither will there be effigies burning outside on your front lawn at 3am in the morning with your guard dog peacefully asleep by my feet with a tranquiliser dart in its arse. No sir. For this one-off occasion, I am placing aside all the politics we disagree on and would simply like to say...well done for holding out and getting what you wanted rather than giving them something they want for far less. I guess Sunderland’s demands for £20M for Kenwyne Jones has come back to playfully slap them in the face. Not a penny less is quite obviously a winning strategy.

They got their man. We get our money back. Well sort of. Close enough anyway. Have to laugh how Sky Sports News are reporting it as £10M (is this what Sunderland are telling the world?) Since when do those extra clauses (consisting of further payments based on performance and appearances) get left out of the transfer fee when made public? If Bent manages to trigger those clauses, it's more money our way.

I didn’t expect us to get £10M+ to be perfectly honest. He's not worth that much.

And here’s the magic.

We don’t tend to ever look this deep into a transfer; we simply take what a player is sold or bought for. Thanks to Intrepid over at GG for the explanation, something unlikely to be discussed or understood out in the stands:

The Charlton deal was a total of £16.5 million with £1 million as add-ons. The profit of £5.5 million will be shown in the audited accounts if we receive the full consideration of £16.5 million from Sunderland as Bent’s value to the club’s accounts was £11 million when we sold him - £16.5 million divided by 6 (length of contract) multiplied by years he spent with us (2) - that figure taken from original total fee of £16.5 million.

This deal highlights again how football player trading is a complete nonsense – we have paid Charlton £16.5 million and if Sunderland pay us £16.5 million then in monetary terms (actual money in the bank)we have broken even but in accounting terms we have made a “profit” of £5.5 million. That “profit” attracts taxation so we get taxed on money we have not really received.

In accounting terms every asset has to have a value to be accounted for – player’s values are accounted for by amortising their costs to the club (transfer fees and/or signing on fees) over the length of their original contract.

e.g. Bent signed a 6 year contract for a total consideration of £16.5 million (£15.5 million plus £1 million add-ons) – the way the accounts work is that when hejoined he was worth £16.5 million and for each year he is with us his value drops by £2.75 million p.a. - £16.5 million divided by 6 (the number of years of his contract). He has been with us for 2 years so his “value” to the accounts is £16.5 million minus £5.5 million (2 years @ £2.75 million) therefore as of today his “value” to the club was £11 million and anything we get from a transfer fee over and above £11 million is accounted for as a profit.

However, the above numbers may need a little adjusting because according to Charlton’s AGM, due to their financial struggles, an agreement was made for the money to be paid up earlier and Spurs got a discount (so to speak) for agreeing to do so. Meaning the final fee that was paid to them was in the region of £12.5M.

Daniel, my knickers are in the post.

XxX

P.S. Daniel, if Bent scores 25 goals and they pip us to Europe by a point and we lose out on millions as a consequence then you will be held unequivocally accountable.

Gago and Negredo will do

I see Robben is once more rejecting us publicly to make everyone aware he’d be interested to leave Madrid for another Champions League club. But nobody cares about this regurgitated non-starter. The (hopefully) next piece of action to storm out of the WHL HQ will not concern our never-ending should we or shouldn’t we sign a left-winger conundrum. Harry wants a CM. And Harry might just get one, although I hope that Levy has already done the work in preparation ‘just in case’ the target(s) in question become available. And they’ve probably just have. And Levy has allegedly spent some time chatting with Madrid this summer, so we can only hope.

The big news that might have a desired effect is that Alonso is signing for Real Madrid. No player swaps. Which means that Liverpool (if you go with the whispers from La Liga and one or two other sources) rejected the chance of signing Argentine midfielder Gago and forward Negredo, who was heavily linked a while back with us (the rumour being that Spurs had in principle agreed a deal). The Anfield club preferring straight-up cash could be a blessing.

And with Toulouse pricing out Sissoko (they want a ridiculous amount for him having apparently rejected a £10M bid)  the player has come and said he’s content with life in France. Could be loyalty from the Sissoko to help get the best deal for his club possible or might be a the normal brick-wall.

Whether either of the two Diarra’s are available or not, Gago is obviousl surplus to requirements with Alonso signing, having been initally offered. And Negredo, possibly stalled with a move to Spurs a month or so ago, because Madrid held back to wait and see what Liverpool wanted for their midfield maestro. Which is understandable as the Spanish giant’s priority was completing their Galactico puzzle with the final piece. And now it's done, both Negredo and Gago are up for grabs. Hopefully.

In the meantime, we are continued to be linked with Klass Jan-Huntelaar. Speculation continues that the problem isn’t the price but the wage packet the player wishes to command. Negredo is my preferred choice. He offers something different to KJH who is arguably a more silky Dutch version of young Defoe. Negredo would, I guess, be a substantial upgrade on Robbie Keane.

I guess I’m adding up on my transfer calculator, 2+2, and getting 5. But reading between the lines is all we have to go on.

But I do think, as far as the long running Madrid targets are concerned, Alonso signing today may just prove to be the catalyst.

Hopefully, benefiting us.

We hate Arsenal

Was in the pub Saturday evening. Sat next to a table that had four blokes who had obviously been in there all day, all drunk and cursing and laughing. They clocked me and Mrs Spooky and two of them started to discuss how long we would survive sitting next to them. I laughed, and they got chatting with us (if you can call it that). Plenty of boisterous bollocks spewing from their mouths. One of them bet one of his mates we wouldn't last 15 minutes. They were insufferably loud and every other word out of their mouths was 'c*nt'.

Game on.

We didn't move regardless. And about 15 minutes later they once more shared a joke about us being the first people to 'survive' their onslaught. They tragically bestowed us some demented form of recognition and they moved onto the next bet, as they spoke amongst themselves. I was eavesdropping a little because I heard them discuss who we probably supported football wise so I pre-warned Mrs Spooky to expect more 'banter' from them shortly.

I already knew two of them were West Ham fans (the two loudest ones). The other two were Spurs. Early in the evening the West Ham fan wanted to bet one of the Spurs fans they would do the double over us and win 4-0 home and away. So I knew that the fun and games were about to begin when he found out who my team was. Eventually, they turned round to face us again and asked the question:

Who do you support?

I didn't answer, and asked them to guess.

One of the West Ham fans pointed at me and said:

"I reckon you're a fucking gooner?"

I didn't say anything, and he then accused me of being a Chelsea fan. Shudder. I replied:

"If it’s one thing I'm not, it's a fucking gooner"

"So you must be a fucking yid then"

I nodded. However, no point in clarifying semantics concerning my family bloodline and origins.

They asked where I thought Spurs would finish, and it was obvious they expected me to say 'Top 4' because that's the fallacy they like to perpetuate about us. I said, tongue-in-cheek, hopefully we'll do well but no doubt we'll finish mid-table. That actually shocked them. Everyone's a stereotype in football, because that's what we have to go on because generalisations make it easy for all. So as I cracked a few self-deprecating jokes about Tottenham being a mid-table side, I could tell I had them a little on the ropes. Almost like I was pinching their best gags.

More over the top tongue-in-cheek banter followed, and the other West Ham fan asked me why I supported Spurs. I told him, it's in the blood going back to the 1930 - 40's. They started talking amongst themselves, and from what I could gather from their drunken slurs they made the strange assumption that my family was from Israel or war torn Europe and had fled from the Nazis and emigrated from to London. You know, cause all Spurs fans are practising Jews, innit? One of them brilliantly explained to his mate that ‘Who else were they meant to support?'. 

I decided not to sidetrack the discussion and confuse them with an explanation of my Orthodox upbringing and the fact that my family were based in the UK.

"Why would anyone want to support Spurs?" one of them asked.

"Why would anyone want to support West Ham?" I replied.

This led onto one of the Hammers saying that when we play them it's our most important game of the season. He was deadly serious about it. It was a statement of fact as far as he was concerned. And hearing it from a West Ham fan (isn't it usually the other way round?) suddenly had me pushed up against the ropes.

The bell sounds and it's Round 2.

"It's your Cup final, not ours". I said, because I knew that would be the exact thing to rile the both of them. Which it did. Which is funny because a moment earlier they had said the same thing to me.

The other Hammer questioned this, and asked me to explain. He wasn't happy.

"Nothing to explain. We just aren’t as bothered with you as you are with us. Sure, it's a London derby and it matters but it's not as important as Arsenal for obvious reasons and Chelsea because they're such insufferable c*nts"

My response incited them further. One of them becoming a little more venomous with his bite.

"You're not a real Spurs fan then are you, if you think that. A real Spurs fan would never say that. What have Chelsea and Arsenal got to do with Spurs? We are your biggest rivals and your most important game of the season is us. It's the one you look forward to the most. You're talking bollocks. Arsenal and Chelsea don't care about you lot, so why should you care about them?"

Jesus wept. I only wanted a quiet drink with Mrs Spooky.

I didn't bother pointing out that if he applied his logic about one team (Spurs) not caring about the other (West Ham) he'd have his answer. But I guess saying that would see me suggesting we are 'bigger' than them, and it's a tiresome statement we get accused of making quite often. Especially as I wanted to get in another round of drinks for myself and Mrs Spooky. That and the fact we are bigger than them. Right?

I tried to explain that it's not relevant that Arsenal and Chelsea (who ironically also hate us more than we hate them – I guess Chelsea and WH both share the need to have another club in the same league admit they see them as their undeniable undisputed rival) have bigger fish to fry and that regardless of current predicaments in stature, the hatred shared between us and those two dwarfed what we share with West Ham. I wasn't trying to wind up or patronise. I stated fact.

"Go to a Spurs v Arsenal game and then come back to me and tell me that us playing you lot is a bigger game"

But they just laughed that off. Proper Calvin Klein stuff. Their measurement of rivalry seemed muddled and fragmented.

Arguably, you could say Spurs v Arsenal is our ONLY true rivalry. But I won't argue against the fact that London derby games do hold obvious importance. Bragging rights, because no doubt you know West Ham fans. But no Spurs fan would swap a win over Arsenal for one over lickle United.

He continued his rant and started talking about how years back he was in the Northumberland Arms and blah blah blah…

“It’s not the 1980’s anymore mate”, I pointed out. He ignored me and continued ranting about old ICF war stories and 'doing Spurs over'. The Spurs fans (one was in his 30's the other in his 50's) were laughing at their West Ham counterparts and asking them to calm down. Although to be fair, neither were really saying too much, probably because they hear it all the time from their two passionate friends. The older Spurs fan did start telling a story about how he once had a drink with Greavise. It was all beginning to get messy with various anecdotes which were meant to prove that I had no perspective on the argument at hand.

I sighed again. Mrs Spooky (who doesn't really like football) was getting involved regardless (bless her) and digging at one of the West Ham fans who was trying to wind her up. Sub-plot here was that I told them early that her family had Claret and Blue ties, which incited them to ask why she was going out with me. I conjectured that it was because of my winning personality and dashing looks.

The other Hammer started talking about how they smashed up our pubs.

“Yes, at 6am in the morning mate. Good one”

One of the Spurs fans started to dig at the two West Ham fans, telling them to drink up, and I did my best to smile and try to talk home fittings with the bird.

You won't be surprised that the 'ammers mentioned 1966 (you know that year, when Alf Ramsey - ex-Spurs - won the World Cup for England captained by that bloke who twice tried to sign for us in '66 and '70 but the West Ham board blocked the move) and also ranted about how we thought we were the bollocks because we beat their kids in Asia and won the trophy. All the usual insecurities rearing their ugly heads where they tell us how arrogant we are when nothing of the sort has been gloated about. So what, we beat them in a friendly. We also lost 2-0 to South China. Both games, equal in their status as non-events.

It ended all a-ok though. One of them shaking my hand and saying 'Always a pleasure yid' whilst I gave him a wink and informed him 'Same time next week?' which had us both laughing out loud. The other Hammer didn't say goodbye as he was still aggravated by my casual dismissiveness for his club.

So my quest to find a West Ham fan that doesn’t spend his time trying to justify a rivalry continues. I honestly, hand on heart, only ever seem to meet and speak to stereotype Hammers who never seem to talk about WH, just Spurs. And they always force the issue too. It's always with a touch of a 'You Spurs fans think you're better than us' type of inferiority complex before we even open our mouths. We don't. Well, I don't.

Do you know what my earliest football memory is? Let me tell you. It's me watching the 1980 FA Cup final between Arsenal and West Ham and running out into the back garden to replicate Brookings goal, diving around on the lawn. You, you chaps in the Claret and Blue gave me a joyful moment that I lapped up as a wee kid, because even at such a young and innocent age I disliked the red and white of them lot from South London and enoyed their defeat.

I get the irony (iron-y) by the way, banging on about this. But it's just a factual account of what happened at the pub.

Usually when this is discussed on-line West Ham fans counter-argument is that we are the ones who perpetuate the fact that they are obsessed by us and that we are the ones with the delusions and that by accusing them we aid to falsely substantiate the fact we are the bigger club. It's a brilliant defence that, don't you think? And I'm sure if WH fans read this they're say, 'Oh look, another Spurs article about how they don't care, yet he cares enough to blog about it'.

Ah, you got me there. I don't really believe in the generalisation of supporters, as we at Spurs have plenty of absolute melters who knee-jerk and fret. We have idiot fans and we have wind-up merchants. But we have far more realists and people with their feet firmly on the ground. Same thing can be applied for West Ham and every other club out there. Apart from Geordies. All nutters IMO.

So I guess, this account of what happened at the pub, is aimed at the people who perpetuate the stereotype. Just so happens I meet two of them on Saturday and it was not a refreshing encounter.

I'm not going to deny I hate losing to West Ham (I also utterly detest losing to Everton and especially Newcastle) but other games have far more of an edge and atmosphere than playing the Green Street lot. Back in the 70's and 80's it was probably a lot different, but then football was a completely different animal back then. It was more raw. On and off the pitch.

Us and Arsenal, no matter the decade, the hatred remains strong. I guess if you grow up supporting Spurs in a West Ham dominated part of the world, your hatred might be strong for them. But never stronger than the love we share for the scum.

Oh look, I'm trying to justify there’s no true rivalry with the Irons. Let me swallow my pride. I guess if that's what they want to hear then sure, it's a rivalry. There I said it. Geographically, you can’t argue against it. We are geographical rivals.

It's just that you're 3rd in our list.

Possibly 4th, because I fucking hate Manchester United. Leeds too for that pissing over the stands incident. Let's call it 5th in-line and be done with it.

Spurs transfer news 'updates'

So basically Leeds United have accepted a bid from Aston Villa for the highly-rated Fabian Delph and have placed on record (via their website) their appreciation for the honourable manner in which the Midlands club have conducted themselves in courting both club and player. Pesky Leeds have resisted approaches from 'other' clubs (the other being us and City no doubt). Would love to know what Ken Bates quantifies as 'honourable' so next time we go in for a Leeds youngster we don't get rejected. We've put quite a bit of wedge their way in recent years. Maybe we've taken things for granted this time and go burnt for it. Probably offered them a cheeky fish tank for the player. But don't fret lads. Bostock is better than Delph.

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Patrick Vieira has been dropped from France squad. The message from coach Raymond Domenech is simply: Sort out your future. Please do Patrick and head straight for the swamp. Still praying he signs for them lot so I can laugh my arse off. Bad news is that Moussa Sissoko has been drafted in as his replacement. No doubt his value will have risen off the back of this and possibly altered one or two other clubs to take a look at the talented youngster. Can we outsource the negotiations and get Comolli on the case? I still reckon Harry and Wenger are playing mind-games (or maybe one of them is) and are trying to out-fox each other into forcing the other one to sign Old Man Pat. Harry forcing Wenger to protect Vieira's scum legacy, Wenger trying to increase the players profile by suggesting he can still do a job in the Prem and make us believe he's worthy of a punt. It's the most stupid transfer 'saga' of the summer.

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Chelsea have come out and publicly stated they are not selling Joe Cole to anyone. More or less confirms genuine interest from us if they're rejecting any potential advancements on the player by stating on their website it's a no-go. Can put this one to bed I reckon. Doubt they would undermine Ancelotti if he's saying the player is staying (which I think he's said in interviews). So for now, Modric remains on the left. Gio by the way (who some of you would like to see given another chance) probably won't get one because (allegedly) the lad has a time-keeping issue and hardly ever turns up for training when he's meant to. ITK that.

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The Darren Bent to Sunderland transfer is now close to completion. It's been close for the past 15 hours or so. Thought I'd let you know because there's not a lot of coverage at the moment on this story about just how close he is to signing. Longest medical ever. It's being prolonged longer than a tantric night in with Sting.

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Klaas Jan-Huntelaar is apparently available on the cheap. £11M-£12M the price being touted. Bad news is AC Milan are apparently back in for him. It was a while back that Levy was apparently talking to Madrid and it seems like a lifetime ago when we were linked to RVN and others, but in that time you'd think there was some form of communication relating to the proflic Dutch star. We must have been interested in one of their players at the very least (I don't quite buy Harry's persistent 'if he's available we're interested comments' relating to Klaas as it's quite obvious the kid is available and has been all summer long). So you'd think we've inquired about the player or possibly even spoken to his representatives, and maybe failed to agree a monthly wage. Unless this is another epically long negotiation where Levy is biding his time. Let's hope there's a moneyshot at the end of it rather than limp embarrassment.

Bent (finally) to Sunderland

Via Newcastle airport. So say the Sunderland fans in this here message board.

Done and dusted then? I hope he has a permission slip from Daniel. The ticket is apparently off Twitter (those pesky micro-bloggers).

Thanks to Sunderland Spur for the pics. I hope he doesn't mind me sharing them, as I'm sure in the next 30 minutes every blog and site will be displaying the above treats.

There's a third picture of him looking rather happy, clicky here.

Wembley to Shanghai to Hong Kong

5^th game in 10 days, this pre-season lark leaves me miffed. Money-spinning aside, hopefully its served its purpose with improving the fitness levels of the players and building team morale, not so much with results but just having all the lads together. Tactics and training field is where it matters at this stage in preparation for when it all kicks off at home to Liverpool. Playing make-shift teams will never give us an indication of much. I’m actually pleased. More than pleased. Two defeats = no over the top over-hyping from fans and no indulgent self-confidence based on thumping wins over sides who are behind us in pre-season fitness (yes, I'm talking about that game against Roma). It’s all been very low key IMO, with the draw against the Barca kids, the Celtic defeat and now this. Absolutely perfect for us.

I didn’t see the game against South China, and from the sounds of it, didn’t miss too much. Little summary of the 90 minutes from Glory Glory’s ‘Enter the Pitbull’. Hope you don’t mind the copy and paste job, guv:

I was there.

No excuses, Hong Kong football is about League Two standard at best so we should have caned them. Lest we forget, last time we played a HK league side it ended up 7-2. As I said, do not confuse Hong Kong football with the China League, which is of a higher standard.

Main problem was twitchy started with a very underpowered side. He obviously thought the youths were technically good enough to perform but South China had a lot of big expat players from South America, meaning they were outmuscled often.

Of the youths, Obika was poor, Rose was not as impressive as his reputation suggested he would be. Bostock was full of tricks but seemed a bit tentative in terms of progressing the play.

The senior players looked disinterested when they came on but I suppose some of them never even expected to feature at all.

With a 30k crowd this was a good chance to build some goodwill but Tottenham didn't play well, hot conditions or not. Poor decision for their second goal but they were already leading at that point and we only have ourselves to blame for not really giving two shits.

Additional:

Rose appeared on the wing for a period in the second half and I was astonished by his relative lack of pace (having been hyped as a pacy type). This was certainly even more apparent when Lennon came onto the pitch. I'm sure regular watchers of the reserves will tell me if this is the exception rather than the norm. Maybe he just wilted in the heat.

We were very poor. JJ was awful and O'Hara had an off day. Livermore at centre-back is not really something I'd like to see again, he looked pretty clumsy. They played just the one up top and even that seemed to bamboozle us.

Naughton was anonymous, Hutton was one of the few who looked like he fancied it, getting stuck into some challenges. Pav had a few long shots which went on target but just stood around mainly. Keane came on and pointed and shouted a lot.

Click here for the hightlights.

UPDATE: Also, according to people out there that followed Spurs, Harry allegedly mentioned that dos Santos has no future at Spurs. ITK from the horses mouth via a Tottenham rep.

The lad always seems to show up late for training and has quite the attitude problem. We'll see how this one pans out, but doesn't look promising.

£10M Bassong bid rejected

So basically, Newcastle have rejected a £10M Spurs bid for the lynchpin of their relegated defence. I don't know what's funnier. Them possibly wanting more or us placing such a high estimation on the player. Newcastle aren't even paying the bloke that much in the way of wages (edit: which is probably why they are in no hurry to get rid).

£6M tops. Even that's being generous.

EDIT: Bit of an update. 'arry has denied we've made a bid. Ooh, we all feel stupid now, don't we? Or is this another transfer dance of confusion? Probably means we're about to offer £15M.