Stocking up (at supermarket of the year) for the flight to Madrid from Cardiff, after they visit relatives in Wales.
The bald guy is Alan Dixon, Levy's brother-in-law and our player liaison officer. That's him with Capoue at WHL today, apparently. The Modric picture was the only one that I could remember him being in, bar this rather unflattering image: please log in to view this image
As that previous photo could've been taken somewhere other than at WHL: please log in to view this image
Makes Clarke Carlisle look even more ridiculous with his line of "Spurs are hoping to be able to pull off a deal for Capoue". If you'd done your research you would know he's at the bloody stadium with you
And again: please log in to view this image Just don't ask what the ****'s going on with his trousers. Top journalism by ITV. Really good work.
I have got to hand it to Levy he really has backed AVB this summer. I just hope the fans and him give AVB time now - the team won't gel straight away with some big changes (especially if Bale goes). If AVB gets 5th this season he should still stay as manager next season, as when the team gels it is going to be phenomenal. If we get Capoue and Coentrao and clear some of the dead wood, I would say Levy, AVB and Baldini have done an excellent job.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/real-madrid-stars-cant-wait-2150851 Real stopping talking about Bale lasted a long time, didn't it?
I think you can only judge if AVB has been backed by Levy when the transfer window shuts, If Bale is sold (highly likely as Levy can never keep any top players ) , and we have some net spend , then yes. If not then typical half hearted considering the new tv deal, and Bales wind full . Time will tell. The team is crying out for quality creative players as our power play will only get us so far. ( Carroll is not good enough yet and may never be, Thudd must go, Dembele has so far not done a lot for a 15m player) The money should be used for the next Hazard, Oscar etc.
It could be, but that would mean not spending the huge amount of extra TV money, which would be a disappointment. September 3rd or whenever it is that the window finally shuts and all the last minute deals are known, will tell us whether ENIC have actually spent any of their 'own money'. My assumption is the extra TV money is/will be worth £35/40m to us. May be wrong of course. IF we were to sell Bale tomorrow for £85m, we'd actually be 'minus' on our spend at that point. It's simply too early to know whether the window's been a good one or not. Capoue incidentally hasn't been 'done' yet. I know not why, but we can't claim him as a signing till he actually signs. If it was just a medical (results) awaiting, the OS would say (have said) 'signed subject to medical'. They haven't, something else is holding up the deal. This usually means money, be it player wages, another club bidding, whatever.
Surely ( and I say that out of hope) we can't have another window of negative net spend while every other team (except arsenal) are spending their windfalls. Surely! Pleeeease. If our transfer spending breaks £80m net then I think bale is going, but until then I will assume/hope we are spending tv money and the pennies we've been saving for 3 years. I don't think we're done yet, which is great and simultaneously worrying
Strange quote from our enigmatic left-back's Twitter feed: Benoit Assou-EkottoVerified account ‏@AssouEkotto Good luck to spurs all the best and many goal for them �� LOL #coys Gone?
Don't forget that you need to minus £15m for the sales of Demps and caulker from the £50m So it's £35m + £8m(?!) for capoue. Not quite 50 yet... Which might mean there's another player! Benny must be off judging by that, and the other tweet a couple of days ago. I have no idea what to say on the Bale scenario now, but it's exhausting me. It's August 11th. Someone ****ing say something.
Not fit to play for us, but ok to play for Wales, but again, not fit for us to play against palace? He's off. http://www1.skysports.com/football/...-any-more-about-gareth-bales-tottenham-future Tottenham manager Andre Villas-Boas refused to be drawn any further on the future of Real Madrid target Gareth Bale - but stressed the midfielder would link up with Wales next week. Bale was a notable absentee as Tottenham rounded off their pre-season campaign with a 1-1 draw against Espanyol at White Hart Lane on Saturday afternoon, when summer signing Roberto Soldado marked his home debut with a goal from the penalty spot in the first half. It was a sound performance from Spurs, who look well-equipped to challenge for the top four of the Barclays Premier League once again. But the debate surrounding whether or not talismanic winger Bale will remain past the September 2 transfer deadline will continue to make the headlines as the Spanish giants are said to be ready to spend the best part of £100million to land him. Villas-Boas said: "The only thing I can say about the stories is I am not going to comment because everybody has speculated a lot. There are some different stories, some which are not true, with people inventing without knowledge of what is going on. "The only thing I can tell you is the player is under the treatment of the medical department for this pain in the foot which is disturbing him. "He has been called up for his national team [for a friendly match against the Republic of Ireland], our medical department is going to be in contact with the Wales medical department to make sure they have everything available in terms of giving information on how the player has been doing in these last weeks. "Regarding the speculation, I don't want to extend myself further than I have told you." Bale, who was not at White Hart Lane on Saturday afternoon, is set to report for international duty with Wales on Sunday ahead of Wednesday's friendly against Ireland. Villas-Boas said: "The only thing we can do is make information available to the Welsh FA. If he gets to a fixture available to play it is because he hasn't felt pain. He is training on his own so there is a possibility he makes a recovery." The Spurs manager, though, accepted it was unlikely Bale would be in contention to face Crystal Palace in their Premier League opener next weekend. He added: "If we manage to recover the player, but obviously he is far, far off fitness regarding what the others have done. It is three weeks since he played for Tottenham so I wouldn't expect him to play for us." Villas-Boas insisted the frenzied speculation surrounding Bale's future had not been allowed to impact the squad's pre-season build-up. "It has not affected us in any shape or form. We have continued our preparation," said Villas-Boas, who expects to complete the signing of Toulouse midfielder Etienne Capoue in an £8m deal early next week. "What we have to recognise is five weeks gone by since (we started) buying and selling, but we haven't been able to train with all the team together because Paulinho and Soldado only arrived last week. Tottenham manager Andre Villas-Boas refused to comment on speculation regarding the future of Gareth Bale. "There will be more players to arrive and more players to leave. At the moment we are a team in prospect. Villas-Boas added: "We still have lots of things to do. The last week in the transfer window can be surprising. "I can't tell you we have stopped in the transfer market because we haven't, this means players coming in and players going out. "We will continue to re-strengthen ourselves, but what we have at the moment is a very strong squad either way, one that puts us in a good position to get the three points at Palace."
Wales need a half-fir Gareth Bale more desperately than we do. I trust AVB and his staff to know not to risk a player for short-term gain and then lose him through a long-term injury. Also, I'm sure that AVB knows that the team he is putting together is not a one-man team. The players we have available are good enough to beat Palace without Bale. Get him fit first, then unleash him into the fast paced fury of the Premiership.
So why is he joining up with Wales? If he's not 100% surely that's a risk? Those comments don't sound good. He's also spoke of more spending. We're going to spend a fortune, and then sell him once we're done. I can see it.
Clearly he is leaving. If he was actually injured then he wouldnt link up with Wales. It's only a friendly after all and there is no way he would be risked. He's going everyone lets accept it and move on. Anyway I'm still excited about the season even without bale we have an excellent squad. If we can sign Coentrao, get this Capoue deal done (although I'm not so worried about this now Sandro and Kaboul are back) and an attacking midfielder then we are looking very strong. The Suarez link is b*llocks he isnt going to come to us.
