Great news if confirmed, making our moves in the Transfer window even more important. We need to back this commitment with two MAJOR signings.
Yes, yes, ****in yes to Bale ....no, no, ****in no to Ballache or whatever Capello's sidekick's name is, don't know that I like the sound of a Technical Director. ...I'm just glad 'crime' wasn't the missing word on the end of the article title.
Me neither but Spurcat said Levy's been spending less time in the UK over the past season so it might be good to get some more leadership in his absence. I'll wait until it's on the OS before I celebrate but it's looking good for us keeping him.
Good news about Bale if it's true and I'm happy with us bringing in a DoF/Technical Director or whatever if that's what Villas-Boas wants. Levy's basically been doing that job anyway and we haven't had anyone leading our scouting since the end of last season.
Its a good point about Levy not being about much, I hadn't accounted for that, I have an idea why Levy is away so much, but the subject isn't in the public domain from what I can see, and there's little he can do about it. So as much as I see the concept, giving such authority to someone with little English and who has previously only set foot in WHL a few times to watch Defoe, Lennon and co. is what I don't like the sound of. How is that Sicky Beerstain at Man City doing?
I could've won so much money this year on Bale. I said at the start of the season Bale will star for at least one more year and all my mates were having none of it. I bet the bookies had high odds for him staying too. He's a grounded guy, just had a kid, is young, loved by our crowd, has established himself as the best player in England (and one of the best in the world) and is on a hell of a lot money (and will be on even more when deal is announced). Granted we can't offer him £250k a week and pretty much guarantee trophies but there's still a lot of reasons for him to stay.
Breaking the wage structure for Bale is a no-brainer, he makes twice the contribution of most of our other players, so deserves to earn twice as much.
Totally agree. One of the dangers of breaking a wage structure is the resentment from other players around him, but I have no doubt that all the squad understand and appreciate just how special this lad is. Also, it is an incentive for them to be able to up their game to another level with us if they know that the rewards can be earned.
"We got ever so close, but they (Manchester United, City, Chelsea and Arsenal) will do their job in window, and we will do ours the Tottenham way: scouting properly and look for good grabs in summer window to make it a stronger squad." (AVB) Hm. I think what he meant to say was, "I'll give Mr Levy a list of all the players I want to bring in, which he will immediately file in the rubbish-bin, and do his usual trick of waiting until 31 August to sign another midfielder when what we really need is a top striker."
Excellent news IF true, but any potential buy out release clause does not seem very Levy like to me. Most of the noises that are coming out seem to be positive (apart from that plum Durham and the rest of Talk5hite), so fingers crossed.
This is getting like the Vertonghen thread last year. We should stop posting on it till it is actually announced, so I don't keep opening it expecting to see a link to the OS.
Because I've already started to go mad with speculation on other threads I'm going to try and ignore anything about Bale until it's on the BBC website or OS. Great news if true but I'm going to try to ignore anything like this because it's driving me to distraction!
Until this is officially announced, I will dismiss it as just paper talk, just as I would with any transfer rumours.
Don't have to break the wage structure, just offer ALL players £100k a week bonus if they win both player of the year awards in the same year. Then back date the offer. Simples.
Lots of talk about the cost to the club of putting Bale on this enormous salary for the next year at least. Anyone else think that a lot of this will be off-set by the commercial benefits of having a player of Bale's stature at the club, in particular the prospect of expanding our global fan base and increased TV exposure. It's gotta be commercially beneficial to have the POTY, YPOTY and FWAFOTY at our club, especially given he scores so many ridiculous goals - the media are all over him.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/fo...s-League-but-hints-he-will-stay-at-Spurs.html Gareth Bale disappointed at missing out on Champions League but hints he will stay at Spurs Gareth Bale has admitted that he found Tottenham's latest failure to qualify for the Champions League hard to stomach, but appears in no mood to quit White Hart Lane. Bale, who scored 31 goals for club and country this term, will discuss his future with Spurs over the next coming weeks. The club are understandably keen to hold on to their star man and manager Andre Villas-Boas recently called on the forward to end speculation about his future by signing a new deal at Tottenham. For now, the signs look promising for Spurs fans. From his comments in the immediate aftermath of the victory over Sunderland, he seemed in no mood to abandon ship and head to Real Madrid. "We fought hard this season, the team and the manager have been great," he said in an interview with Spurs TV Online. "We have got the record points for the club in the Premier League. That would normally be enough to qualify for the Champions League, but it's not meant to be again. "It's disappointing, but we will pick ourselves up again. We will just have to regroup this season and give it another go." Bale rounded off a remarkable year on Sunday by scoring his 26th goal of the season, but his wonder winner against Sunderland was not enough to earn the club Champions League qualification. The 23-year-old lit up the Champions League three seasons ago, starring in the club's run to the quarter-finals, which saw them beat both Milan sides before losing to Real Madrid. And having enjoyed such a successful season personally, the Welshman concedes that he was disappointed to miss out on another shot at the big time. "It was obviously great to sign off with a great goal in the last minute, but circumstances made it hard to celebrate," he said after picking up his latest accolade - the Tottenham Player-of-the-Year award. "To play the way we have also but to miss out on our objective (Champions League qualification) is very disappointing. "It was great to get the win but the clouds just came over and made it a little bit duller, but it's something we have to learn from, we are a young squad, and we will take it in to the future." Bale will play his last match of the season on Thursday when he and his Tottenham team-mates take on the Jamaica national team in a friendly in the Bahamas. Andre Villas-Boas is keen to build his team around Bale next season, and stressed that significant investment was required in order to bridge the small gap between themselves and Arsenal. Leandro Damiao, Christian Eriksen, Christian Benteke and Heung-Min Son have been mentioned as possible targets for the north London club.
