Toby signs for Spurs - official.

Even better, Liverpool were involved in that too. Was Liverpool > Spurs > Chelsea.

 

We don't. However, people were arguing for that route, and it was never in our interests to try to hold Atletico to the 6.8m, because it was never in their interests to cave.

 

The Guardian apparently are saying Reed is in Madrid sorting out the compo. Why would we go all the way to Madrid to discuss that? Seriously this transfer is ****ed. I hope we never deal with AM again.

 

Could the e20m bid be bollocks? I know what you mean, this is so ****ing tedious. I find myself logging in constantly, I don't necessarily care at this stage what happens because I've given up all hope two or three times now but I'm gripped by the saga. Drained.

 

So if true, no Toby, but perhaps a couple million in extra money. Yes, Atletico behaved badly here. But we also appear to have greatly overestimated our leverage, and it cost us.

 

This is the Guardian article.

http://www.theguardian.com/football...-atletico-madrid-southampton?CMP=share_btn_tw

 

Read the article.

Part of it.

Alderweireld is grateful to Southampton, where he thrived after a difficult season at Atlético, but he considers Tottenham to be the surer bet for regular European football. He would also be able to fly home more easily from London – there are direct flights to Deurne, the small airport that serves his hometown of Antwerp.

So nope not Saints fault according to this.

 

This saga really has been an utter mess.

 

Can't, I'm at work and the Guardian site doesn't load.

 

Just posted a part from it.

 

I bet it will be another twist tomorrow.

 

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

 

So all the "he'd be happy to sign here" stuff the club was putting out was untrue?

 

He could have been happy to sign for us but more happy to sign for Spurs. But as said this transfer is a mess.

 

If so, we really ought to have gotten this business done early, even if it cost a little more. Everything points toward us getting too cute by half, and we've lost arguably our best player from a year ago.

Players of his calibre that want to be here are pretty rare; we should have been willing to put up the money early enough that Spurs never even got a sniff.

 

There's going to be an announcement by the treasury that income is down in certain parts of Hampshire due to lack of work activity ... or something like that.

 

I don't see how you can keep on blaming Saints. This whole thing is a mess, it will probably be something different tomorrow.

 

Because we had a very rare situation: a top-quality player who openly stated that they wanted to be here, and who was available at a very reasonable price. When they sign elsewhere it's impossible to look at such a situation and not come away with the impression that we could have and should have done more.

 

Why are people assuming Les Reed is out there sorting out compensation, he may be trying to broker a deal acceptable to both Clubs?
Vivid imagination or mischief making from many, only the truth will out in the end.

 

Ha. Southampton still have the status of plucky little team having its day in the sun. Nobody believes in us. Certainly not top internationals like Toby Alderweireld - even after a season here. They all piss off. Honestly, if we can't draw players away from that North London dump then all our aspirations are for nothing.

I'm not critical of the club. It's the system. There is so much money around that whenever a big name club, even one as crap as Tottenham, can throw money at it. Do you really think Toby was going to come here? I bet he told the club to negotiate with AM and he'd sort things out when he came back from Honeymoon. However, he had made his desire to go to Tottenham clear through all the leaked stuff about his buddies. Bah. Crock of ****.