we're going to start negotations for Zaha today,according to the Sunday fail yesterday,10 million and he can stay at Palace till the end of the season
I stumbled across this piece of "ITK" on Harry Hotspur's blog via Newsnow, now although it was just the other day where I criticised the guy who gave that Holtby story as being a fake as his info was too detailed (which seems genuine now seeing as Holtby has indeed agreed to join), reading this it's really got my attention. Admittedly I'm not up to scratch with the financial side of things but I understood enough to have an idea of what he's going on about and if this guy is bullshitting, he's incredibly good at it, have a read and see what you think, it involves possible info on Moutinho, Damiao AND Sneijder: "Hi Chaps, said i met up with my old crew last night. A few snippets and discussion points came out of it which are worth a quick share and debate IMO. As most will remember I used to work in the Currency (FX) side of the bank, with some footie clubs as clients. Obviously we only get involved with the financey side of things – hence summers massive “letters of credit” discussion as payment gurentees. Sadly i don’t have LOC access anymore cannot see that. But what we can do now is make some educated guesses from what the club is exploring through the currencies/sizes and locations. 1) A few days ago i mentioned that spurs were looking at EUR finance options with the corresponding bank in Portugal (its the same as the UK bank hence the knowledge). We looked at this deal in the summer and looking at the amounts i think its gotta be mouts. The same amount being discussed again. Remember from the finance side this is just spurs asking for quotes and ideas, kinda like if you were going to get a quote for a new conservatory – but that conservatory is Mouts shaped. They were looking to use a structure to lock in the GBP advantage over EUR. We were looking at this before Jan, and refreshing again. So while i can’t say “we got this” or anything like that, it seems the club are 100% looking and considering. You don’t bother sorting out the FX angle if you aren’t somewhat serious. without getting too complex, big companies/football clubs always have ingoing and outgoing USD EUR GBP SGD etc due to various sponsorship. Sometimes you hold a surplus of one if you can transfer it back into another. So we are always peeing around with FX. This becomes apparent on point 3) 2) USD, Spurs are watching LHS CABLE (GBPUSD). This via guesswork would be to a south American club as this is what they quote in. As USD is favourable to convert back from their native currency. It also hides their true value and you can wind up a few extra costs via quoting in your non base (native) ccy. From what i can see we’re looking at a largish upfront with using FX to an advantge for longer payments (thing X upfront, Y over Z years). Why this tickled my pickle is that spurs are clever/educated in FX options. These options have something called “time value”. Simply the further away you can book something the better price (not 100% correct, but a point in this argument). We are looking to utalise Time Value to better the market for USD’s. Thus a summer deal would be a “guess” for whatever these dollars are for. But the upfrontpayment was a spot deal (aka now). 1+1=5 would lead me to think we could secure now and pay later. When we get the player no idea. But as i said at the top, i can only tell you my inturpretations from what i know from the FX movements. NOthing more. So all of this is me deducing – but again i would think there are legs/questions/working to our potential striker 3) Finally, its not just football clubs i used to be involved with, its the associated organisations. This point is more a pub discussion but i think its worth a note. The biggest bit of biz we used to do is converting the EUR TV money into GBP for the FA/prem league. A word from my old contact to the guy who talks to the banks (being vague i know on purpose). it was suggested that Weslar Snidar likes AVB. His best years, his best work was working for Jose. Thus these guys believe Jose recommended working under his old protege and this is a factor as to why we are ahead in the bookies race. Also it was noted that Levy has been sniffing and selling him the dream as per Lloris etc. A chance to be a hero on your own terms. Anyway i thought the Jose/AVB link was interesting and a relatively unconsidered angle. 3b) The club has been looking at tactical ways of using FX strutures to create a EUR advantage, kinda to “beat the market” buy which it means you are recieving/locking in rates that are above the market. We have a EUR surplus for whatever reason (tv money? dunno really) which means if we can lock in a low/favourable EUR/GBP rate we are effectively getting a net gain when converting. of course nothing is free, i’m just trying to get across the notion of creating an advantage by utalising FX to pay fees. It was noted that this could be a factor in paying WS or his wages. This again is more clever guys speculating. After all of that i feel like those guys who say, “it may or may not”. But from my angle i guess we are like those guys who say xzy is looking for a house. They might be but doesn’t mean its going to happen. I hope that i’ve spread some light on somethings. As always happy to take some questions."
very interesting, and to be honest, you've gotta be pretty sad as well as intelligent to make something like that up. For me, it just adds further weight to the twitter comments we've been cautious over. The twitter source I have been referring to, called the holtby signing 2 days before it was announced, and the Holtby/Huntelaar "shuttle bus" story has gone from being suspected bullshit to having some truth. - if not being 100% truthful. The same source I have been watching, is only speaking of JM, LD and the possibility of WS. Every other rumour that people ask him about, he says he knows noting of. - This completely coinsides with the blog you've just posted above SOS. All this talk of Zaha he says he knows nothing about, as well as others. If these reports are bullshit, then these people extremely convincing. For me, it's gone that 1 step too far now, with enough people backing them and the information tying together nicely, for it all to be false. I'm always extremely sceptical, but i'm starting to put my trust in some of these people now. it just doesn't seem like your usual "ITK" bollocks.
Yeah you're in the same boat as me mate, usually I take these ITK's info with a bit of salt bar the one who knows my mate and gave me the snippets of AVB, Bale's contract and Ade. If these guys are bullshitting though then they're extremely sad, I don't understand what "buzz" they'd get from it but then there are some stupid twats in the world we live in. IF these rumours are indeed truthful, then the club are really looking at taking us to the next level, with Holtby done and potential arrivals of Damiao, Moutinho and Sniejder (though I just can't see the latter tbh) it's a pretty exciting time for us, just hope we can pull it all off.
it's a bit like the "innocent until proven guilty" saying. For me, an ITK is a bullshitter until they call something and it happens. and It already has! For us Joe average fans, we'll never have a 100% reliable source, unless we know someone ourselves. so there comes a point where u have to start putting your trust in someone. The papers talk utter ****, and it's really noticeable in this window since i have followed this "tweeter". they are days behind with their stories! at the moment, it's so far so good and everything from all angles is tying together, especially when it comes to LD and JM. if it's lies, they are just too good and too consistent. no one is that good. The evidence points in the opposite direction, IMO, especially with a small track record now.
Who is the ITK you follow mate? I don't follow any of them but the ones that seem to be getting all the hype at the moment are Neil Eatson (who was Akqayid), Adam Suter, JJetset - though he blocked me and Gards (Gards is the only one I really take notice of, I know/ have an idea who his source is so I'd believe him above all). Personally, I think a lot of ITK's sources are indeed Journo's, most of the guys who share info are usually a day ahead (sometimes two) of what the papers say, so I just think they have links to a Journo, who tells them what's being inputted into the paper and therefore they then speak of it to make it sound legit and convincing for when the paper releases the story the next day. Though like I said, Gards is the only who's source I know (or think I know) so what he says I'd believe above all other ITK's out there.
Those youve stated mate. Didnt want to mention names on here, but those are proving to be very good. Adam Suter has already called about 5 transfers over the last couple of windows. he's gained about 1250 followers in the last few days. madness! but all those names above seem to be pretty spot on to me. They don't say too much, they don't exaggerate and they certainly seem the most credible. They also don't hide behind "ITK" profiles. they just pass on what they are told. If you're saying Gards is reliable, the others can be put into that category IMO too. they just seem legit.
I noticed Adam's got a bit of a rep now. Still debating as to whether they've been accumalative guesses or not though. Yeah as I said Gards is the only one where I know he has a valid source (a player), the others I have no idea who they may know. Most of 'em have been spot on, though Neil (or Akqayid as he was at the time) was adamant in the Summer that Mouts would be done and is now adamant it'll be done this window so it does put a question mark over his info for me, I can't remember the reason why jetset blocked me but I called him out/ criticised him on something and then bang. Ryan Tegan is a good shout too, doesn't get as much info as the others (which leads to believe he tells the truth, as too much info from some just seems bullshit at times) and he's a decent bloke, spoken to him a couple of times.
When did this happen? because Huntelaar apparently has signed a new extension with Schalke to stay, why didn't he say that on the plane? http://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/news/newsid=1909222.html
It was about Holtby joining, Huntelaar was with Holtby at the time and told the guy who posted the "shuttle bus" story that everything with Lewis and Spurs was agreed.
you say that, but he was right in the summer and others give him the credibility and kudos for that. I genuinely think he's got a good contact somewhere in the club. - he's not hiding behind any ITK banner either and he therefore faces the wrath of abuse which makes me wonder why anyone would want to do that to themselves? But maybe it was close in the summer and Neil was sure it'd happen, but it fell down through no fault of his own, obviously. There were lots of people who were convinced it'd be done, so he can't be blamed for that IMO.
Can't say I knew of him in the Summer mate. Yeah but the way Neil/ Akqa was going on, I wouldn't be surprised if people went out and bought a shirt with Moutinho on the back. He was adamant, nearly all of his tweets were about the impending transfer and I appreciate he probably does have a good contact but when you bang on so much about it and pretty much guarantee it, when it didn't happen, he got slated and actually left Twitter for a bit and I don't think he can have many complaints about the stick either. Fair enough share the info and I do appreciate what these guys tell us but don't guarantee it when deep down you know it's not done. Say "it's extremely close" and you'll be "gobsmacked if it doesn't happen" but to say it's a done deal just puts him in the firing line.
Sorry but you guys are getting a bit carried away. I saw the Harry Hotspur stuff too and thought it was interesting, however it's perfectly plausible for him to know and understand this kind of financing and then put the story together. Yeah you might have to be a bit sad to do it but using a line of knowledge you have to make your ITK more believable isn't difficult to do and since there are plenty of sad acts out there getting things wrong... As for the airport Holtby story, none of it is necessarily true. He wasn't saying that Holtby was a done deal, he was saying that Huntelaar told him it was a done deal which we'll probably never know 100% eitherway. I could tell you how my sister's ex lives out in Portugal and is a family friend of the Moutinho's and said he asked Joao's uncle about moving to Spurs and he said it's something JM was considering. I'm just repeating what's already been reported and coating it in a layer of BS. I could even go further and say that he wants to sign and is finalising the details with Spurs but if he signs I still don't have a sister and don't know if JM even has an uncle so nothing I said was true. Those that said it was done and were all agreeing with eachother because that's what ITKs do. Out of those that were calling Holtby's deal early, were any actually even talking about him before the story from the Bild? Remember that Liverpool fan who had journos and the whole of the club thinking he was getting fed information by a source in the club purely by guessing on transfer rumours and getting lucky. There was someone else who pretended to be an agent too and told everyone that he was making it up, right? Maybe there are a couple of genuine ITKs out there but I wouldn't get too caught up in believing some just because what the say is plausible.
I'm not going to claim that it was true, but the story was that Holtby was there, the Spurs fan asked him whether he was joining, the player went a bit quiet and Huntelaar jumped in and spilled the beans. The deal had already been concluded, but it was yet to be announced, so it's possible that it happened. The only reason that I give it any real credit is that the bloke's not claiming to be an ITK. He had a similar story years ago when one of his relatives bumped into Zokora or something, but I don't think that he makes any claims regularly.
All fair assessments YV but I think it has to come to a point of when do/ should we actually believe them? The story itself is claiming that the club is looking at financial avenues of exchange rates and getting the best for the £ etc but he's not actually saying it's a done deal or anything for any of the players. To me it just seems viable, if he was saying he's seen statements of the transactions and what not then I'd call bullshit but surely he's put too much info and time into writing it for it to be lies? Holtby story, I was like you I just felt he put too much detail for it to be truthful but then Holtby signed not long after... So it's hard to say whether it was a lucky guess from a fake story or he did indeed meet the guy. Yeah there was a guy that pretended to be an agent, I think most with a decent head on their shoulders knew he was bullshitting but he managed to get something like 20,000+ followers. When he posted that blog saying how he was full of **** and enjoyed showing just how gullible people are, I thought it was hilarious. That's why the only person who I truly believe on Twitter in regards to ITK is Gards as like I've already mentioned, I have a good idea as to who is "source" is.
This is where I'm at too. we've all seen the bullshitters and got caught up in it all only to be let down, but this seems different. you could well be right, and we could just be seeing a brand new species of twitter liars, out to fool us once again. but there comes a point where I consider everything (as well as what I've learnt from twitter etc in the past) and I think this could be genuine. I really hope so. otherwise we've been bloody conned again
The other take is intead of 'when' or 'should'...why bother at all, wait for an official statement, instead of some cock's imagination he was in the room with the negotiations! Those that are in a room will be confidential while negotiations continue surely. Subject to or having a medical is about the only thing that makes me sit up, or outright player/manager statements.
