Chairman Peace rings Berahino on transfer deadline day: "Saido, we've accepted an offer for you. I know you want to progress your career. A talented lad like yourself should be looking at winning things, playing in the Champions League and getting into the England senior set-up. We've decided to accept a lower offer to resolve things for the club and you. I know we've had a few disagreements but I hope you go on to achieve great things at Newcastle...Saido?...Son, are you still there?...Saido?" Problem solved? Hmmm.
This all seems to be part of the insane notion floated by the Mail that Ashley is preparing a £100m war chest for Shteve to spend as he pleases this week. You'll see, they'll be linked with Neymar next. But in reality, the likeliest outcome is that they'll hire Dave, who until recently cleaned the toilets at SportsDirect of Tynemouth.
One thing I'm wondering: if we do move on Fazio and Vejlkovic this month, will we be bringing in another centre back, or is the plan to use Dier (or even CCV) to cover Alderweireld?
Can't see another one coming in unless it's 30+ year old who knows they'll only play a couple of times at best, a Ryan Nelsen type so to speak. Wimmer has proven enough to me that he's more than capable of playing a run of games when required and Dier can drop back if need b and then CCV for desperate times. Our CM options are pretty stacked and so while Dier has been immense at CM, we're still pretty strong if we played any of Alli (further back) or Mason, Nabs or Carroll alongside Mousa there while he drops back into defence if required.
From Sky Sports: Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino says he would be interested in bringing Gareth Bale back to White Hart Lane from Real Madrid. The Football Leaks website have published what they claim is a document that shows Tottenham have the first option to buy Bale back from Real if another Premier League club tries to sign him. That would mean that if another Premier League club puts in an offer for Bale before June 30, 2019, Spurs have 72 hours to match the offer - and if they do, Real have to sell him back to Spurs. "I think if we have the option to sign him - why not?" said Pochettino. "He's a great player and a player that can improve our squad." The document also claims Bale's 2013 move from Tottenham to Real was a world-record transfer, something consistently denied by the Spanish club. Real insist the deal for Bale was not as big as the one that took Cristiano Ronaldo to the Bernabeu from Manchester United in 2009. The 10-time European champions say the fee for Bale was £70.38m - more than £3m short of Ronaldo's transfer fee. However, the Football Leaks document shows that Real paid £77.45m, for Bale with the money paid in installments rather than in one 'up-front' payment. It is also claimed Real promised Bale would not make any negative comments about Spurs or club chairman Daniel Levy. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I never knew we had that option inserted into the deal (if indeed this "leak" is true). Would you take him back if it was all do-able? - For the record, I think there's more chance of us signing Messi than getting Bale back but just talking hypothetically here, if Bale wanted a return and we had the dough to make it happen, would you want him back? Great player, one of the best if not the best player I've seen play for the club live but I can't help but have a sour taste at how he dicked around in his attempts to get a move.
Bale's agent is incandescent with rage at the leaking of it, so you can bet it's accurate. Strangely, I can't bring myself to share his view. Imagine if you will that Chelscum United offer £100m for Bale on the eve of the transfer window. Real Madrid being the contract abiding club that they are, refer the deal to that nice Mr Levy. That's right...we end up milking both ends of the cow and ride off into the Champions League with a bag of cash for withdrawing from the proposed buy-back or we cause enough delay to have screwed Real out of a world record sale, Chelscum United out of the player they want and Bale is left washing Ronaldo's balls for 6 months. There's being ****ed and there's being Levy ****ed!
From what I've seen of the blah blah, if any PL club bids for Bale 72 hrs before the transfer window ends, they will have to do all the dealing in about 59 seconds flat to avoid being Levyed.
Dembele II latest: Fulham are willing to sell for £6m, but only if we loan him back for the remainder of the season. How Spursy is that? We sign an understudy for Kane, but can;t have him until the summer? However, if we are interested, it's wise to sign now and have him arrive for pre-season training, rather than dither and see him whisked away by somebody else. So now the January shopping list is going to read Dembele II + one of Sandro Ramirez or Ben Yedder (and probably not, as some papers claim, a £25m+ bid for Alvaro Morata)
Every youngster that we're being linked with in this window is having the loan back suggested for them by the media. It's probably true in this case and wouldn't be a bad idea, but it's come up because of how Alli was dealt with. Maddison at Coventry is the most obvious example.
For that money it's worth it. If we can pull that off and loan in a seasoned veteran up front until the end of the season I'd be more than happy whilst New Stadium would be about £20m better off.
10 days 12 hours 22 Mins left to go....Please God why can't we find a striker to help Harry and the Lads?
"For that money it's worth it. If we can pull that off and loan in a seasoned veteran up front until the end of the season" We have no idea if these kids can cut it at the business end of our season. So I would be very happy for the club to go into 'Dele Alli' mode with all these prospects, and secure them for the (near) future. It also enhances the relationship / good will with the selling clubs (possibility of them taking academy kids on loan etc) .
"10 days 12 hours 22 Mins left to go....Please God why can't we find a striker to help Harry and the Lads?" Don't think it will happen. And even if Kane got injured, IF Pochettino plays Chadli and Son in their CORRECT roles/positions, IMHO they and the MF will scoring enough goals to keep things ticking over.
It's worked against Leicester reserves (until Leicester got into their stride - when we brought Kane on) and the players Monaco have left after they sold all the good ones. We've still to play Citeh (A); Arsenal (H); United (A); West Ham (A); Stoke (A); Liverpool (A). I don't see those games being as easy without someone to hold the ball up and bring others into the game. I's not just goals that Kane brings, it's the hard yards, physical strength and working defenders. It's playing with your back to goal and being the focal point. We need him or someone else to do that job. Someone who knows what they're doing and if that costs then so be it.
".. It's not just goals that Kane brings, it's the hard yards, physical strength and working defenders. It's playing with your back to goal and being the focal point. We need him or someone else to do that job. Someone who knows what they're doing and if that cost then so be it. ..." That, or the difficulty of forthcoming opponents, is not in dispute. I merely believe that if Pochettino has any understanding of the squad concept, he must be able to play other formations that are set to the strengths of those players so the team keep winning. Ironically, perhaps Kane being out for a while would be the trigger to achieve that (and transcend the "one player" team etc mentality for good) .
""If?" Pochettino understands the concept of having a squad that is not homogeneous in strengths/weaknesses from head to tail ??
The "If" relates to why we've only tried it in cup games against weakened teams (and even then brought him on in one). We're gambling an awful lot of work on a system we've not properly tried given that Kane needs resting at some time. We could play another 30 games this season. Okay, one's against Colchester and another is Villa. That's 2 games where I could see us not picking Kane for the starting line up. Say, there's 5 more. That would have him playing more than 50 games this season. He's 22 years old, If we don't break him it'll be a miracle. Maybe you're right? That's a big, big maybe given what we could achieve by investing in a player we know full well that we need.
