Modric gone

From the official Spurs website:

CLUB ANNOUNCES PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENT WITH REAL MADRID AND TRANSFER OF LUKA MODRIC

The Club can announce that it has signed a partnership agreement with Real Madrid FC and reached agreement for the transfer of Luka Modric, subject to medical, to the Spanish club.

The partnership agreement will see the two Clubs working together in respect of players, coaching, best practices and commercial relationships.

Real Madrid FC President, Florentino Perez Rodriguez, said, "The strong relationship and affinity between our two clubs has resulted in the cementing of a longer-term partnership and the successful transfer of Luka Modric. We are delighted to welcome Luka and look forward to working closely with Tottenham in the coming years."

Daniel Levy, Chairman, Tottenham Hotspur, commented, "Luka has been a terrific player for us and, whilst we preferred not to part with him, we are pleased that it is to Real Madrid, a club with which we now look forward to sharing a long and productive partnership."

Luka made 160 appearances for the Club, scoring 17 goals after joining from Dinamo Zagreb in the summer of 2008.

We wish him well for the future.

I do love how the partnership gets top billing ahead of the fact we've finally sold Luka Modric. Will be interesting to see exactly what this entails even though they cite players/coaching/commercial as the basis of the partnership. Working closely with Tottenham in the coming years sounds like we're going to go through further protracted long running transfer sagas. Barca will be gutted, looks like Bale has a moved pencilled in to Madrid next summer. Sorry United, but your days of signing are best players are over. Feeder club? Loan deals? Or another relationship similar to the rather confusing one we have Internacional? Hopefully they (Madrid) will be supportive in terms of aiding us when purchasing South American players (what with the complexities of visa approvals). Otherwise, you'd think this was clearly a one-sided relationship. Madrid will always seek to sign our best players, we'll always end up with their young players/loan deals/unwanted ones. We'll see.

Does beg the question that this 'saga' hasn't been half as dramatic behind closed doors compared to the manner it's been covered in the media. Deal probably agreed a while back, hence the lack of crying from Luka/agent. With money in the bank, I assume it means the replacement is done and dusted. So imminent arrivals to the Lane, I expect.

Onwards. Good bye and good luck Luka. You were a wonderful player, a truly gifted one. Hope you don't warm the bench in Madrid but set the pitch on fire.

Not literally of course, that would be hazardous. And a red card offence.

THFC probability-o-meter

Current order of probability for this week (1 being most probable, 10 least likely):

1 - Andre Villas-Boas announced

2 - Jan Vertonghen signs

3 - Gylfi Sigurðsson signs

4 - Ledley King announcement (re: retirement, future at Spurs)

5 - Investment / Naming Rights finanical injection

6 - Oscar dos Santos Emboaba Júnior signs

7 - Chirpy sex and drugs scandal

8 - Director of Football return

9 - dos Santos to be sold

10 - Harry Redknapp to not have an opinion on any of the above

Yes I know, it's not technically an o-meter, it's just a bog standard list. Deal with it.

Loyalty points 'controversy'

Loyalty points system. As we know already the new system will award supporters who have been attending games home and away in very recent seasons (only the last four seasons will count for loyalty points starting from the 2012/13 campaign) and will roll on with each passing season so that it's always rewarding fans who are going to games here and now. In other words fans who currently have disposable income to afford to go to games. The issue is that the fans who have been going for say 10, 15, 20 years but recently due to work or family have not been so active will lose the privilege of 'cherry picking' matches to attend. The argument is, consistent loyalty over a decade should continue to be awarded rather than only appeasing the ones with the cash right this second. Although to counter that argument the club would say that it's only fair that if you're loyal and attending games in recent seasons then you should have the same right to get tickets to big games because how could you possibly compete against someone with 1000 points?

In a discussion on Twitter someone cited 'cartel' in reference to supporters that have accumulated a hefty amount of points meaning they will never fail to get a ticket for say Arsenal, Chelsea away or for a game like Stevenage in the Cup. Although some fans might not attend frequently and cherry pick games  many that have built up a substantial amount of points over 10 years + still go to games consistently. But then how could the club possibly appease them also? They can't. This system is geared towards the present rather than the past. They will lose a big percentage of their points and find themselves competing with fans who haven't been attending as long as they have.

There's no right or wrong way to support Tottenham in terms of attending games. Some of us can, some of us can't. People who have only recently started to attend home and away games are no lesser supporters than the ones that have been going for ten years. Everyone has to start somewhere. Still, the same should apply for the ones that have spent a life time attending but not very recently who will lose the ability to be awarded because they can't find their way to games as often as they've love to. Equally so the ones that have been attending for an age and continue to do so who will be on a level pegging come 2013 with only the recently active ones. Some of our fans consistently attended matches up and down the country when we were utterly woeful (the 1990s anyone?) so should loyalty still be awarded rather than it being reset? Have they not earned the right to be prioritised?

What are your thoughts on all this? Fair? Not fair? Is the club looking after its legacy supporters or just the ones who have cash in their wallets?