Appiah

Latest news from the club (via an email response from Donna Cullen, director of communications - thanks to a curious question posed by a resident GG.co.uk forum user):

Hi Phil and Happy New Year - Stephen is with us until tomorrow, has done full training with the lads and Harry will use all the available sessions including tomorrow's to make up his mind. If he likes what he sees we should then still need to assess via medical and longer term fitness etc - can understand the excitement tho given his past form - a case of wait and see I'm afraid - stay in touch, all the best Donna

And from the oracle of football:

Looks like we have ourselves a DM.

Arshavin to the Arse

No surprise here then. Wenger's required 'spark' will cost them £20M or so, but like most transfers of this ilk, clubs never pay the full whack upfront. £14M, the rest in clauses dependent on performances and silverware. Deal has yet to be concluded, but more than likely to be done and dusted within 10 days. At least this means we won't be witnessing any more embarrassing whoring of the player.

But for £5M more we could have had him rather than JD, considering we lack a forward player of his ability. But then again, we could have had him in the summer had we meet Zenit's valuation then. No problem do we have spunking £15M or so on Bent and the same more or less on Bentley, but a genuine world-class player for a few extra shillings? No sir. Not us.

Don't fret though. He's over-rated innit. Will probably flop. A Woolwich Rebrov (Reyes) if I've ever seen one.

Sigh.

UPDATE:

From Gutter Boy (GG.co.uk) who claims to be ITK about this one:

It'll take 20m Euros (c.£18.5m) all up front immediately (no installments) to match what we've agreed with Zenit. Our agreement has to be matched or exceeded by 16 January, otherwise it automatically kicks in (hence Lachter's desperation to whore him out at the moment). If someone matches it it'll be up to the player to decide. We can of course enter into a bidding war as Zenit will sell to the highest bidders irrespective of Arshavin's wishes.

I guess that explains SSN stating that all will be done within 10 days (which will be the 16th Jan). Hand's up if you think Arsenal will win this much like they did with Petit? When we win, we get Zokora. When they win, they get the likes of Bergkamp and we end up with the Armstrong's of this world. No Comolli, yet somehow nothing looks like changing.

I'm also uncertain on the ITK info being, well you know, true. And if it's not then Arsenal are in for the player all on their own, and the only loser will be Zenit, who probably won't get anywhere near the amount offered to them in the summer by us.

Transfer Latest

Ghana international Stephen Appiah is apparently set to sign for us.

28 years old.
Defensive midfielder.

Can he tackle? Yes.
Can he dribble? Yes.
Can he pass the ball forwards? Yes.
Can he shoot? Yes.
Will he cost us £8M in transfer fees? No.

The lad is out of contract (although there's a legal ding-dong going on with his former club Fenerbache) but this won't apparently stop him from training with us, with a view to moving to the Lane till the end of the season. What we might save in transfer fees may well be spent on his wages (I'm going to laugh if the rumours of him wanting 70k per week are true. Then cry).

Obviously, the main problem with this happening is that Appiah is a bit of an injury prone players. We love a bit of that at Spurs. Hence the initial 'until the end of season' contract. Does beg the question: Are there no other potential targets who wont cost a bomb in wages and are not prone to dodgy knees?

Elsewhere, Chimbonda has been linked with a 'shock return' to Tottenham. I guess he's bottled out of walking all the way to Lyon and plans to jump on a Virgin train back to the capital.

Like fuck. Do one Pascal.

The Downing Saga is back. And the third instalment will round off the trilogy splendidly. It's always a good laugh to read between the lines when it comes to chairman and managers making 'over my dead body' statements about players. Spurs are not quite doing a 'Man Utd' by unsettling players. Sure, Harry did talk about Defoe and Downing publicly. So maybe that was a little naughty, but Spurs have almost immediately put their money where their mouth is and make a couple of bids. Both rejected. Although according to news sources, the difference between Spurs and Pompey's estimation for the players is £1.5M. With Downing, he's gone the whole hog and handed in a transfer request.

Gibson's war cry about 'knuckling down and focusing on the job' is pretty much the Alamo for him and Southgate. It's not like he's going to come out and say 'Yes, we are willing to sell the player. We want XXX amount for him'. He'll attempt to drag this out till the final day of the transfer if need be to avoid it from happening, and if it does happen it will be because he's managed to bleed us dry in the process. And why not? He's looking after his club.

I'm more curious about the forthcoming 'undisclosed fee' for Defoe to help Levy avoid embarrassment.

With Downing, the transfer request will no doubt once more influence fan opinion and as noted, Gibson will do his utmost to make the whole process fairly tricky for us. One thing to note here, is that all the talk is coming out of Boro at the minute. They were the ones who told the media that no players are for sale. And they revealed the bid from us was 'derisory', and reiterated again there will be no sale. Go back a few weeks and Southgate was almost inviting bids. All part of the flirting game clubs play.

So. Potentially we might get ourselves a left-winger, a striker and a DM.

Shocking stuff.

The nightmare after Christmas

Latest ITK info:

My friend knows someone within the West Ham medical team and has been told he is signing for us for approx £8m.

I think its a pretty credible source but what often happens is that the deal is 100% lined up agreed and then either club pulls the plug (the selling club because they receive a better offer or the buying club because they have a better deal in place elsewhere) hence why some ITK turns out not to be true.

Not sure if this is as well as or instead of Defoe.

RIP Tottenham Hotspur.

Who's it gonna be?

Thanks to Wriggly over at Glory Glory.co.uk. I've pinched this rather convenient list from one of the threads over there. A round-up of current transfer targets.

Arshavin - According to a few sources and the fact that Lachter has already met up with Harry in London, this deal is far from being dead.

Upson - Interest is there

Downing - If rumours are to be believed, we have met Boro's £15m valuation

Defoe - We wont be buying, and Harry has said Portsmouth have received a huge bid for him already which is more than what we can afford.

Bellamy - One bid rejected, were going back for another go.

Capel - His name has been thrown in if we cant get Downing

Pedersen - Same as Capel

Bullard - £4m is the price going around, Harry has said we wont be buying, but I'm not so sure.

Hunt - Boy is this a weird one, according to Setanta were interested.

Foster - Setanta and other sources say were in for him and one wacky rumour is that we have already offered him £20k a week

Cavenaghi - Just speculation and rumours at the moment

Can you spot the defensive midfielder? Can you?

Might want to add Bobby Zamora to that list too, if Harrys post-match comments are an indication of his transfer targets.

Loan moan

Fergie is apparently discussing the option of bringing back Campbell from his loan spell at Spurs, once the transfer window re-opens, thanks to a clause in his contract that means he can be recalled in January. That's right. No only did we sell them Berbatov at the last minute, they gave us a player on loan and we agreed to include the option for them to take him back. Genius.

Unless this is a Utd ploy to force Spurs into bidding for Frazier, which is also unhanded genius as they would want around £7M for him meaning that Fergie and co get back the money that Levy drained out of Utd by prolonging the Dimi transfer saga.

Looks like either way, Spurs will be spending a little money on a forward soon.

Pain in the Arse

So, Zenit have apparently spent 30 million euros on 'Danni' - a replacement for Arshavin who they finally admit will (should) be leaving them for a new club. To coincide with this, the trustworthy press (who only 2 days ago let us know that Spurs are no longer interested and that Zenit would not drop their estimation for the player) have dropped their estimation for the player and will now accept a bid lower than £20M.

Cue, 'he might still go to Spurs' stories cropping up all over the place. Not that I don't rate him, but where would he fit in? Could he play the role Berbatov does? Is he a replacement for Keane? It's difficult to assess because he is a different type of player to the both of them, and to be fair we haven't had a Berba type of player for an absolute age so expecting a direct replacement would be bordering on the ridiculous. Doubt we could manage to get that luck so soon.

Bent. Arshavin. So that's a direct forward, a traditional sort of 'number 10' attacking mid forward......which means we need one more of the explosive type. Until then, expect us to pull out of the race for his signature and then re-enter it about half a dozen times.

Anytime soon

"I'm now in Tottenham but no-one can disagree with me wanting to follow my dream"

~ Dimitar Berbatov

Yes, that's right. His dream. The very same one he rejected 2 years ago to join Spurs instead. The git.

Spurs have apparently not given a final 'fuck off' to Zenit yet regarding the Arshavin deal. The Russians wanting £19.5M for the transfer to go ahead. His agent said its been four days since Spurs spoke to Zenit. The Sky Sports News grapevine tells us Arshavin isn't our main target. We must be back in for Raziak then. Sweet.

I wish this would end, but with news that the transfer window has now been extended till midnight, September 1st, the footballing Gods have a perverse way of prolonging the agony.

Can't we just get a second hand one?

Blackburn apparently rate Bentley at £18M.

£12M is a far better estimation based on his recent form and the current transfer market. We'd probably offer that up front with an additional £4M based on achievements. The usual appearances, goals and where Spurs finish in the Prem. So £16M in total but won't matter too much because if we qualified for the Champs League, we would be rolling in it more so than usual.

Imagine the merchandise we would churn out? Christ, I can taste puke in my mouth.

No Bentley bid

According to Ince, only Villa have made an offer for the winger. Which basically means (if true of course - Ince might be fibbing) that all the press rumours and message board updates from ITK's amount to a bucket of bullshit.

I miss the days pre-Internet where the first you heard of a new signing was when the club announced it. But the obsession of being the person who tells you something before its made public, simply for the accolade of 'I told you so' has turned pre-season into a joke.

The red tops run wild naked through the streets printing anything they wish, along with what the football agents want printed. Some of them also help out their 'mates' who manage at club level. Its all very much part and parcel of tapping up players and heightening awareness of who ought to be moving where.

If Bentley is going to sign for us, then he will and knowing about it before the fact wont change the conclusion.

John Bostock

Allegedly.

SSN continues to mug its self off

SSN are now reporting there has been no Arsenal bid and that Keith Lamb has said only 2 clubs have made an offer for the player. Sky now looking to 'sweep this under the carpet' faster than they can say 'egg on face'.

They first take a slice of news from their 'rival' station (Setanta News) that Arsenal have bid for Woodgate. Yellow ticker follows and then we are treated to the usual trash they churn out when they claim to have an exclusive.

All based on unconfirmed reports, we get to listen to emails sent in by fans and bookie odds (making Arsenal the odds on favs to sign the player). Then the yellow ticker disappears and not too soon after we are told there has been no 3rd club and that Boro have confirmed this and that now, Woodgate is odds on to sign for Spurs.

All damning evidence of the previous exclusive gone and not to be mentioned again.

It's cheap tv at its very best. Like an interactive copy of The Sun.