Tabloid rumour of the day

Juventus have added Tottenham midfielder Luka Modric to their January hitlist, according to reports in Italy.

Claudio Ranieri's side are ready to make a move for the Croatian playmaker, who has failed to impress since his £16.6m move from Dinamo Zagreb, when the transfer window reopens.

Spurs manager Juande Ramos has struggled to accomodate Modric in his line-up and Juventus are ready to test his resolve with a £30m bid.

Corriere dello Sport says Juve chiefs are desperate to find a playmaker after pulling out of a deal to sign Liverpool's Xabi Alonso in the summer.

More mad-up mayhem from the press. Although Levy might get a little turned on with the amount of profit he could make if he agreed to this. If, of course, it formed some part of reality. Which it doesn't.

Does it?

Waiting for that day

5 days left. I’m going to try and round things up with little humour and satire (saving it all for the clusterfuck of a letter I’ll be writing post-Chelsea defeat/transfer window closure).

Berbatov, an outcast if you believe what you hear, is still struggling to engineer his move to Utd via his good hearted agent. Levy can either hold out for £30M (or whatever his estimation is) or find himself with egg on face by selling him to Utd for whatever Utd offer. Dimitar, unfortunately, is no Gareth Barry. Levy is no Cool Hand Luke. After all that’s been said, if he gives in to Fergie and sells him even for a million less that his ‘value’ then what exactly was the point? Can we handle the publicity of retaining Berbatov? In principle don’t see why not if we don’t get an acceptable bid. We got one for Keane, which is why he was sold. That and 6 years loyalty. But keeping the Bulgarian will be more trouble than its worth based on his sulking and hissy fits. Which means ‘egg on face’ is the most likely of outcomes, which is why Fergie is so smug. Levy has been played.

Monaco this Friday is where, you would hope, Spurs/Utd/Zenit finally conclude their bit of business. The Arshavin deal is apparently back on again (was it ever off?) which would help ease matters substantially if he joins round about the same time that Pavlyuchenko receives his visa. No official word from Spurs, but Pav has told everyone he’s Spurs bound. Not a bad player, taking into account his record from the past few seasons – but not as accomplished as Berbatov was prior to his move to us from Germany. Huntelaar has been linked, though his agent has denied the tabloid stories. Not fussed with this, as recent Dutch signings to the Prem (Kezman, Kuyt) haven’t exactly been rock’n’rolla. Same applies with the Radamel Falcao link (Colombian who plays for River Plate).

Veloso (DM) and Corluka (CB, RB) have also been linked again this week. Whether stories are being rehashed due to desperation or their clubs are now itching to let them go with the deadline looming is anyone guess. City are being linked with Zabaleta, whose agent has said that the player won’t be competing with Corluka for the RB position. Whether that means they are both set to play in different positions for City or that Corluka will be sold is a ITK’s wet dream.

Pavlyuchenko.
Arshavin.
Veloso.
Corluka.

If those four were signed, then the ‘SPURS FOR 4TH SPOT’ delusion will back on course. Regardless of the 3 played, 3 defeats, 0 points standing order cometh the 1st September.

Lee YP has departed. Couple of other reserve players (including Pekhart) have gone out on loan. Several others, I’m sure will be picked up (loan or otherwise) before next Monday.

Going back to Berbatov again, story of the week has focused on him now being an outcast at the Lodge. Whether Woody did have a word with Berbatov or not is debatable. The Bulgarians strops and sulks are petulant but to call him disruptive is quite ironic considering he was our best player when he came on as a sub against Boro. Ramos and Woodgate have publicly disagreed with each other over the disruptiveness (Ramos saying it’s affected the dressing room, Woodgate saying we can’t use that to blame for our results). So to then read that allegedly Woody had a go at him in the ‘dressing room’ and since then the player has been isolated seems a tad hypocritical. Funny old game.

It’s not good regardless, and the fact both are talking about him rather than ‘Spurs’ is pretty much evidence of how Berbatov is not a good person to have anywhere near the club at the moment. Shame he can’t be a professional about it and play his heart out while both Spurs and Utd attempt to come to some sort of agreement. I refer you back to the Barry reference.

And it's goodbye from me

Next couple of weeks will be interesting to say the least. Not sure when the Prem are set to comment on the Spurs dossier about Utd's shenanigans, but should be fun seeing them dismiss Levy's evidence as heresay. Barcelona are sniffing around Berbatov if you believe the rumours. I'd be happy to take a £5M hit by selling him to the Catalans rather than Utd. No news on Keane. He's still out in Spain with the first team squad. Although a wonderful quote from a fan out there in the sun, who asked Robbie if he was going anywhere, to which our Orish magican replied 'the changing room'. Berbatov is also still out in Spain looking his usual moody self. I'm waiting for him to light a cigar mid-training and blow smoke in Ramos face.

TT has joined Sunderland. Sad to see him go although not overly disappointed. Good squad player but injured far too easily and not good enough to command a first team place. Chimbonda is hopefully next to go (if he hasn't already). No news on Steed or Kaboul at the time of writing.

We could still do with another defender and DM but all the fans and media are concerned about is the possible replacements for the departing Keane and Berbatov.

Arshavin is the one being touted. I still think he won't come to us, if only because he has aspirations to play for a club (other than his current one) which is in the Champs League and a little bit more famous. He obviously fancies himself a bit more due to recent performances so Barca would be a bigger fish than the lickle Spurs trout.

As for the rest of the targets, take your pick from any number of Spanish based players. And Bentley still isn't a done deal (we apparently offered £9M for him - which is probably a decent valuation). Rover's want double that.

I'm off now for 2 weeks, sunning it up abroad. So no internet access for me. I'll have to rely on the red top tabloids each morning to keep me apprised of what's going on. Oh the joy of being free of the shackles of message boards.

See you all on the other side.

~S

So what's the evidence?

According to someone on Spurs Community (this, compared to the usual ITK info is a lot more plausible):

Allegedly.

1. KEANE - The official complain to PL was made late on Tuesday. The basis of this is NOT Rafa's comments, which merely act as public proof. It is alleged that, on an afternoon away from the training camp in Spain, Robbie Keane was approached by Liverpool FC parties, who enquired as to his interest in joining LFC prior to their making an official bid. The penny dropped when a pre-agreement was proposed. Robbie Keane then contacted his agent, before calling Spurs chairman Daniel Levy and informing him of what occurred and letting him know that he was not party to this meeting and it was unexpected. Meanwhile, he has also made it clear that he would be interested in a move to LFC, but if it fails to materialise, would happily stay at Spurs.

2. Berbatov: This one is messy. Spurs' dossier dates back to a week or so after Berbatov signed for Spurs, when it was made clear to him that if he succeeded at WHL a bid would come in for him from Old Trafford. After the first season, the players agent was contacted without the clubs knowledge which triggered an angry response from Spurs and Berbatov being in severe trouble. Martin Jol tried to intervene, this caused a feeling of resentment between board and manager after Jol told them 'it would be best to sell Berba'. Spurs' complaint also included Man Utd players' statements 'encouraging' Berbatov to join - this was attributed to Carrick to Sky Sports.

I can believe in this. Not sure how strong the 'Utd players statements' is with regards to the overall complaint. Didn't Gerrard do something similar with Barry?

Looks like I was near the mark with Berbatov and the Utd link, and if there's factual evidence then that apology is about to be birthed.

~S

ITK's

Reading through GG.net, I found one comment about someone who no longer posts there due to possibly being fed up with people having a dig at him regarding the information he use to pass on. In this case, this bloke was spot on with it (he use to tell everyone the team news before official word had been published, including player positions tactically).

Someone who gets all upset over people slating him because he claims to be ITK has more to do with ego than anything else. Why come onto a message board and drop cryptic crap in the first place if it isn't some kind of deluded respect you're after? And why do people have to know team news, an hour or a day before hand?

Again, knowing something before the majority - before its official - won't change the fact that it will become official.

People (these alleged club insiders and ITK's) need to get themselves a sense of humour and rather than act all deep throat about it, just pass on their info (if that’s what they want to do) with a smile and people who read it should stop craving it like crack whores licking white dust off a shit covered floor.

To claim these people are doing us a favour is bullshit. If someone out there is genuine and actually has ties with the club, then shame on them for passing the info on. Anything else is just subjective hearsay/rumours and should be posted without the 'please kneel before Zod' mentality these utter idiots from COY's seem to be in possession of.

It's all good fun, I know. And I enjoy it as much as the next fan - but certain people take it all far too seriously.

A hellmouth of 'ITK' exclusives

How queer. I mention something about 'In the Know' information and someone provides us all with a summary of the past couple of months. You'll like this. Possibly one or two snippets of info that have been missed, but generally what you are about to read are all the supposed 'connected' people who have inside knowledge to share. This was posted on the Spurs Community forum by Stoof (good man) and covers ITK since the month of April. The info has been gathered from various forums, including GG.net, FTL and the SC.

APRIL

We start on 8th April - which makes is some sort of pre-window record I believe, with noodles saying we want Carrick with some money and are willing to part with the "crown jewels".

dragon1 then piped up a week later saying that Berbs wanted out "100%" - not giving us any choice but to ask for £40 million.

Contact made with Capel according to MadridSpur on 16th April. The plot thickens.

S.LondonSpurs on FTL says Berbatov is 80% a Spurs player next year, midfield to be built around him and Keano too. Apparent problem with Jol?

willdayid on this very site has a friend whose cousin is John Bostock the Crystal Palace wunderkidd. On his way to t'Lane. That takes us to 17th April and some Dan Ashcroft (of SC) news: a promising Leeds youngster, an attacking midfielder been watched numerous times by DC.

A trek over to Spurs Odyssey on April 20th saw Marcspurs with a link to Paul Kemsley running his mouth about, of all people, the buck-toothed one, A.K.A. Ronaldinho. Wants to come to the Premiership, and to London.

noodles still convinced on the 22nd April that Berba is off to either Barcelona or Real Madrid and then BEN thinks that Santa isn't just for Christmas, and Santa Cruz could be Berbatov's successor.

Luka Modric signs and then dragon1 says this shows our ambition to the sulky one. We've hit 26th April now.

Archibald from Spurs Odyssey then pipes up, saying that Modric is one of a big four for us. Capel and Diaz/Jarque are goers together with one of Kameni, Samahanovic (?) and Amelia.

Some more Odysseying from o.kristensen: Comolli was in Norway (Drammen to be exact) regarding a player called Per Ciljan Skjelbred. Yeah. Dam right. Hard-working CM, but then again you all knew that. Rabbi Crackers - Berbatov going 100%. Only overseas bids considered.

Eto'o and his agent at the Lane - that's Lane where we play, not Lodge where we sign - Paul said the first bit on 28th April - he's a Spurs Odysseyite. yiddobrett from this site said Keane could leave because of a lot of substituting - he doesn't believe it though. And quite frankly nor do I!

nicdic, Rumour Ranger extraordinaire, then got some News Of The World information that Berbatov has not gone yet, good chance that he could stay; that Eto'o is definitely a possibility and that Villa is definitely leaving ol' Valencia. Galahad, a distant Goat relative , said that there's a strong push for Clemente ... some cryptics that gave guesses of Fabiano and David Villa.

Still in April and MadridSpur says that we've made contact with Villa, some Eto'o interest and Ronaldinho's off to Italy. Scout says "berbs gone" and we're very close to a massive massive signing ... this was in April.

Somebody on COYS was talking about Levy being busy and French people and players with "oo" in their name. I'm thinking Samassi Abou. Leics_Spur on FTL thinks Spurs could be making a run on McGeady - they were the noises coming out of Parkhead on 29th April.

MadridSpur said Joaquin was "being hawked around" ... we've been offered his services. Villa: "discussions are advanced". To round off April TraderSpur on COYS was told by the same agent who gave him Kameni information in January that the deal has been done for 6.8 million yoyos.

MAY

donw001 on SC thinks that unless Ledley grows new legs, he's done. Smiling and nodding about Berbatov going ... and also about Barcelona and Eto'o.

It's obvious that Kaboul is going, at least it was to Archibald on 2nd day of May, Pompey have offered us a cut-price £5m but he wants to re-aller a la France. Taarabt transfer request, Disco Stu likes Transfer Music. Bordeux after NoPass after this revelation.

noodles said on the same day that we're working hard on swapping Berbatov for Eto'ooooo. Archibald on 5th May said we're off to Portugal for a DM and Manchester United are interested in this unnamed player too.

We're well after Cuellar and Capel. Innit, said Mr BEN on the 6th of this month. More FTL antics, this time from Alex who said that we're after the Nigerian forward: Ike Uche from Getafe.

arnie123 said that Berbatov has been sold to AC Milan and Disconosebleed from SC said that Huddlestone is available for transfer, as well as birthdays, weddings and bamitzvahs. Offered to a Prem club - this was from 7th May.

Johnnydx85 said, one day later, that Berbatov is 100% off, Comolli will be sacked soon as Mr Levy doesn't like him and whilst not liking him, he's in Portugal buying a midfielder. Johnny assumed it was Veloso and told us to enjoy the rest of our days. Nice.

JurgenTheGerman gave us an even more entertaining twist to the Berbatov saga in that Shaun Wright-Phillips and Nicolas 'The Sulk' Anelka could be involved in a deal.

GGSpur on COYS said that Comolli had been to South America four times in the last few weeks, so he's got some serious air miles going on. Dan Ashcroft gave us an essay of ITK, Berbatov being biddily accepted. They are coming from Milan, Fiorentina and Athletico. None over £20m. Fiorentina included Frey. Berbatov is not unhappy to stay, it's the pressure from his nation to follow in other's footsteps. Kameni is not on our shortlist, and we've never wanted Diarra. Jarque wants to move to us. Veloso meeting on the cards and some sort of provisional agreement on the cards, perhaps heads of terms supposes Stoof. Disco Taarabt has not requested a move. Names scouting/scouted: Howson, Obertan, Fornaroli, Hugh, Pugh, Barney, McGrew, Cuthbert, Dibble. No Grub. Exits for Lee, Chimbonda, Stalteri ( ) Gardner and Rocha in the biggest exodus of defenders ever. All incomings will be big money signings. Yay.

Archibald on this very day said that we're after Joe Hart by offering Robbo and some cash. Kameni and Handonyourcockvic (Handacovic - seems he can't make up his mind on the spelling ) are on the radar as are Amelia and Stekelenberg. JurgenTheGerman also persisted with SWP and Anelka story.

Now go take a cold shower you dirty dirty whore.

Still waiting...

Right. I’m back. So all three of you who read this forum can now sit back and enjoy the ramblings of an inane frustrated fan who has yet again sold out by parting with nearly £700 for yet another year of heart-attacks, positioned just behind the goal in the South Lower.

Where do I begin?

Latest whorage taking places has all manners of different streams of in the know info all suggesting that Bentley (wants to move down south) and Diarra (this story just won't go away) are both Spurs bound. If this happens, along with Modric and possibly another defender – I can comfortably bet £10 on Spurs finishing 5th again.

The real test begins now for Ramos. Last year, after the Milk Cup final win, everyone switched off. The league was nothing more than a circus. Spurs still have tumours that need removing. But with the right players (and thus right mentality) we won’t be guilty of embarrassing collapses that usually begin in the midfield.

Lennon might be off. No major stories concerning the other dead men walking (Chimbonda, Robinson etc). But it’s early days yet. Apart from midfield and defender(s), we can do with another forward or two.

Bent might be off (if we can mug someone the same way Charlton mugged us off) and Berbatov could well decide to join the first Champs League team who make a bid for him. The 1% chance of him staying based on the type of players we sign is nothing more than a dream. If he stayed it would be because and only because we would finish 4th – and that won’t happen. Not unless one of the current Big Four hiccup badly.

Season Ticket prices, 2009 (allegedly)

East Lower Block 26 now £865 from £799 + 8.26%

West Upper Now £1150 from £1050 + 9.52%

South Lower Block 32 Now £635 was £579 + 9.67%

South Upper Block 40 Now £750 was 679 + 10.46%

Freeze on season tickets? Like fuck. Expect to pay about £675 if you stand in Block 34 next to me. Prices appeared on the online booking site earlier today even though they are not meant to be announced for a while yet.

Worth it?

Nothing breathtaking to report here, but thought I'd share. My brother-in-law is a cab driver, and like all cab drivers, tends to pick up a host of famous people in central London. He picked up Steve Gibson (Boro chairman) last week and got chatting to him about football (obviously). Like I said, nothing new here, but Gibson was very open about his hatred for Liverpool saying he would never do business with them. Hates Rick Parry. Explained how they saved Ziege from hell in Milan (after threats over the own goal in the Milan derby) and how Liverpool went on to tap the player up.

"Whatever I'm telling you isn't anything the papers / people don't know already", he said.

Gibson asked the cabbie what he thought of Woodgate and then said, "You wont think he's great a year from now" and rolled out the olde classic about Woody missing a training session because he had a hair appointment and another story about Woody again missing training because of an in-growing toe nail (when in fact all the player had done was cut his nails too deep and caused an irritation).

"He's only interested in the money"

Cabbie then asked him about Mido, to which he said over Christmas the player was injured and managed to put on a stone and a half in a few days Laughing , "He only has to look at food to put weight on"

Was apparently very friendly.....or bitter, depending on how you look at it.

Are they 'aving a larf?

Earlier this evening we had the yellow ticker telling us that the Tiago deal is off. Then the ticker disappeared, and we were told its back on and should be completed this weekend. But nothing compares to the latest 'Sky Sports Understands'.

Yes. Read it for yourself:

Sky Sports News understands that Tottenham want to sign Barcelona defender Carlos Puyol.

Juande Ramos is thought to be keen to strengthen his defence as he continues to reshape his White Hart Lane squad.

It is claimed that Tottenham representatives are in Spain to discuss a move with the Barcelona captain.

Ramos has also been linked with an approach for Middlesbrough defender Jonathan Woodgate as he attempts to find an experienced centre-back to bring to North London.

Puyol has made 58 appearances for Spain and played in the 2002 and 2006 World Cup finals.

Yes. The Barcelona captain who has been at the club since the age of twelve. Plays Champions League football and is on about £100,000 a month. Someone appears to be sharing their crack pipe in the SSN HQ. Although modern day journalism 'breaking news stories' are dependent on what they can copy and paste from a football message board, this one just about takes the biscuit. Yes, it appeared on the yellow ticker and the auto-cue dolly bird and man-robot informed us of another exclusive. And yes, its now disappeared. Along with the little creditability this 'news' channel appears to have left.

Nothing reported in Sport, Depotivo Mundo or Catalan TV. For the record, the player isn't even in Barcelona as they are away to Bilbao this weekend. And if Spurs wont pay Fred the money he wants then....well, you work it out.

Only other explanation? Smokescreen. Or Levy is attempting to flush out the rats.

Riiiiiiight

The rumour is simply this. By Friday, Spurs will sign two 'world class' players (scoff) which will cause a stir as wonderful as the one caused when Ossie and Ricky signed, or Klinsmann.

The two players have not been mentioned in the press. The 'ITK' providing the info apparently was the same one who told everyone that Bent was signing, including the date and price long before it was announced (at the time everyone was saying he would go to West Ham).

So, get ready to embrace the disappointment when nothing happens.

ITK latest

The Spurs ITK’s have been busy over the weekend.

Jarque

Will our centre-back issues be resolved? Apparently he is in London to speak to Spurs. The forums say ‘deal to be done today’.

Downing

Various ‘covering our backs’ statements from the people who claim to have inside info. Some are suggesting Spurs won’t pay the release fee in Downings contract and that personal terms are not complete. Others are saying the opposite. It’s done and dusted. Sky Sports News claim to have broken the story last night. In other words they read it online.

Diarra

‘Up in the air’. Wenger wont let him go.

So in other words, more carefully scripted rumours that don’t tell us anything because in reality there is nothing to know.