Oh no! Harry is speaking! Catastrophe the sky is falling! If you don't want to hear him then don't listen. Again (and again) I fail to see the big deal here. Yet again and again (er... and again) it's dredged up as about the worst thing that can happen and as important as stuff that goes on on the field. There are many people who don't care and in fact find him quite entertaining. Just because a load of people on here find it annoying does not therefore make it so, it's an opinion, like mine.
Yes, there's a big mention of that one in the Times today - also linking us and the Gooners to Zaha. Don't know much about Holtby and Zaha, although an exciting prospect, is hardly proven. Would prefer we stuck out for Moutinho and Leandro.....
The Holtby story all comes from one article in the Bild(German paper) claiming we're favourites to sign him. They also suggested that he's basically just chasing money and wants as close to €5mill a year(around £80k per week, I think) as possible. Could be his agent trying to stir things up, could be anything really but from the highlights of the Bundesliga he seems to be having a very good season. I'd like to see him at Spurs, although probably not at the wages he wants.
Adam Smith scored the winner for Millwall today. Seems to be progressing nicely. It'll be interesting to see if he does get a loan move to another Premier League side and whether we sort Millwall out with another loanee or not.
AVB was talking about that possibility the otherday, wasn't he? Again very appreciative of the help Millwall have give him so I wouldn't be surprised if another player or two is loaned out to them to avoid any bad feeling if we bring him back to send him elsewhere.
We recalled Luongo a few weeks ago so he could be loaned there, Bostock's loan with Swindon finishes in January, and they might take Mason back.
Good news if substantiated although AVB's comments are hardly definitive. Leandro is a quality young striker who coming straight from Brazil might take time to settle in the PL - so may not be the answer to our striker need for this season. And we really need someone to hit the ground running.....and scoring.
I think its pretty much a non-story. It reads as if AVB was asked about the two players so he gave his views. Nothing in there makes me think a deal is anywhere near being done, or even being discussed.
Looks like Gomes is on his way back to Brazil. Lots of silly side rumours attached to that, but I won't give them an airing.
With us playing 1 up top (until recently) but even then Ade is generally asked to play the link, It would hard to convince any incoming striker they will get much chance to play, so I'm happy with Ade & Defoe if we can bring in a CAM, someone like Eriksen of Ajax as he looks to be talented and could be worth a shout, as if it goes wrong then he can still be sold to a foreign club in the future. We desperately need to fill that link between midfield and attack.
Surely if all of us can spot that we need that playmaker type, levy and AVB must be addressing it too? It's beyond obvious. If we don't solve the problem this month, we could face the déjà vu of no CL football again. We need that player NOW in order to push on, not in 30 days time. Or not at all!!
Yup you can see a Joe Cole and Lampard scenario shaping up there if he magically keeps them up. Not sure Lamps has the stomach for a relegation fight at this stage of his career though. To be honest, this sounds really weird, but I think relegation will be the best thing for QPR. If they stay up they will give Arry money and they could end up in a Portsmouth scenario in a few years time. Don't get me wrong, I am not having a go at Arry and his transfer record, I will let others do that, but the reason he worked at Spurs was because Levy kept control of transfers and didnt let the manager chase whomever he wanted.
I'm back bitches! Hope you all had a good Christmas! And a Happy New Year to you all You always know silly season has commenced, the ITK's are out in force! SCITK has had about 15 entries over the past week - Amazing how they only pop up from obscurity right around the window(s). Anyway, also noticed the media have been having their say (surprise, surprise), Holtby's been on the BBC Gossip Column and a few links on Newsnow. Know nothing about the lad, so if anyone does, is he worth taking a punt on? Doesn't come across the loyal type from what I've read, at 22, he's rejected a £50k a week offer from Schalke who are a bloody good team to play for at his age and the contract offer of £50k for someone who I've not really heard of seems a great offer for him. That said, if he's good enough to improve the first team then I'll take him all day long - providing we're not offering silly wages. Eriksen is still my preferred target, I just feel he's so suited to our style. Moutinho would obviously be welcomed, as would Sneijder etc. Hopefully Levy can pull off a coup with a striker too? Llorente only has half a season left on his deal though interest in him will be massive. Damiao is always mentioned but I don't see the major hype in the guy, admittedly I've not seen him play much but his stats according to Wiki aren't majorly impressive for someone who Internacional seem to want mega bucks for. Lets all just enjoy the next few weeks and be ready to bite our nails on the 31st!
morning SOS! HNY to you too! yeah, a bit of gossip flying about, but nothing with any weight behind it. I noticed AVB's mentioned how he (and the club) have an admiration for Leandro and Willian (which everyone knows anyway) and now we're being linked with moves for them again. - both out of the question IMO. Saw a tweet yesterday saying that Gomes is going to Brazil to speak to Internacional, as we're offering him + money for Leandro. I know I'm a nightmare at this time of the year, but even this is beyond me. I honestly have no idea what business we'll do. AVB is keeping his cards held very close to his chest. He says he doesn't think there will be signings which i know could be a bit of a smokescreen, but i just don't know who we'll get. I just can't see us spending 20-25mill on Leandro and/or Willian and/or Moutinho. All I can see is some dead wood moving out.
I agree about AVB playing his cards close to his chest. It takes the excitement out of it for fans, but I feel it is a better way to deal with transfers. I hated the lets talk about every player and say we are interested in the way previous regimes did. The one (and only) thing that Pleat used to do that I loved was provide a definitive club statement on the speculation. It wasn't widely known, even the media stayed away, but it used to help dismiss stories of the "Rivaldo to sign for Spurs" ilk
Morning mate. I think Willian more than Damiao is nigh on impossible now. Willian's performances in the Champions League will not only have boosted his already high valuation but I'm pretty sure some "big guns" will now circle. As I've said with Damiao, I don't know enough about him to say if I think he's worth the money Inter want, his wiki stats are good but not £20m+ good in my opinion. Gomes to Inter seems viable, he needs out of Spurs and I think a move back home to Brazil will suit him, whether that's a sweetener for Damiao or not who knows. Agree that AVB keeps his cards close to his chest though I reckon it's fair to say that if he had the choice of signing Moutinho and only Moutinho, he'd take it. The pair love each other and I think Andre would be happy if he knew that the whole transfer budget would be needed on the guy (which it probably will be). The need for a striker isn't as great as one for a creative CAM in my opinion and although my preferred choice is Eriksen, I'd rather AVB get the man he truly wants as we can then see how he wants to set up etc.
Yeah it does, but like you say, that's a good thing. AVB's comments have made me think that he may well be telling porkies, but at the same time they've done enough to not get my hopes up. what's amazing me is how quiet it all is at the moment. The willian/Damiao story has come from AVB simply saying how he admires them, but that's now turned into reports of us going in for them again. - sounds to me like the press don't know what to write about, so they are making a story out of anything they can. This could be due to the fact that AVB is better at keeping quiet, or perhaps we're just genuinely not going after anyone? I really don't know what to think any more. I also think Porto will want more for Moutinho this time round due to his CL performances, the loss of Hulk and..well.. the fact it's January. for those reasons, I don't see us paying up. All 3 players are too expensive for us IMO, but the catch 22 is that they are of the talent we need to make a real difference. I'm expecting our usual "stick" mentality in this window, where we'll hope for the best with what we've already got. (which hasn't worked in the past, depsite the need to strenghten) If this is the case, and AVB can go the season qualifying for the CL, after losing 2 of our best players, not getting any of his own replacements, dealing with the ****ers in the press... that'll be some achievement.
