Transfer Rumours transfer thread fact and fiction

So it appears that Steve Hitchen has joined as our new head of scouting

 

Well here's a couple of interesting things from the BBC Gossip page...

Tottenham could offer Anthony Martial, 21, an exit from Manchester United this summer, with the France forward not a regular starter under boss Jose Mourinho. (Mirror)

There could be a striker exodus at Old Trafford, with 19-year-old England international Marcus Rashford, frustrated with a lack of playing time, stalling on signing a new contract. (The Times)

There's also this...

 

Wouldn't mind Martial or Rashford. Would mind the extortionate fees/wages and the media circus that would no doubt follow them.

Great news about Harry

 

According to Sky Sources:

"Schalke are close to agreeing a permanent deal for Tottenham midfielder Nabil Bentaleb,

The 21-year-old is currently on a season-long loan at the Bundesliga club.

We understand the Algeria international’s 20th appearance for the club, due to be against Cologne on Sunday, would trigger a clause in the deal to make the move permanent.

Our colleagues at Sky in Germany understand the deal is worth around £16m.

Bentaleb has scored four and provided a four assists for Schalke this season, who lie 11th in the Bundes."

 

Great news about Winksy! Though I've said that about three times in the past 12 months .

In other news, here's a crap story of the day:

All the best to Nathan, very talented lad but seems his attitude wasn't a right fit for Poch. I wonder if he'll be another Taarabt, a "what could have been" type player.

 

I doubt it, for the simple reason Milan Mandaric is Olimpija Ljubljana's club president, so no club would want to go within ten miles of signing any of their players for fear of a corruption sting

 

Do academy players normally get the full Pochettino treatment?

 

For doing what?

 

Yes, but no suit.

 

I seem to recall Edwards did

 

More good news! Keeps that future looking nicely for us.

 

My Rashford to Spurs blurb building nicely.
Looks like I also have a "buy" Rashford, get Martial free too.

 

Will start throwing that rumour around on the PL board

 

The latest randos we're linked with...
Hoffenheim's 20-year old Germany U21 attacking midfielder Nadiem Amiri (2 goals and 4 assists this season, out of contract in 2018)
Monaco's 18-year old France U19 striker Kylian Mbappe (11 goals and 8 assists this season, out of contract in 2019)

Of the two, Amiri looks interesting, as not only is he the Eriksen understudy the squad needs but his game is also similar to Dembele's...so naturally the hacks will say he's the Alli replacement. As for Mbappe, given our recent record with Ligue 1 clubs has involved Monaco stringing along out £19m offer long enough to sign him to a new contract so they could flog him to Man Utd for double that, Marseilles stringing us along for Batshuayi as they hoped someone would pay the full fee up front to dig them out of their FFP hole for the season, and OM again stringing us along with GKN, suffice to say I have no interest in seeing the club enter negotiations with another French club unless PSG are offering at least £25m for Sissoko.

 

Milan are once again looking at Sissoko.

Best hope their Chinese takeover gets completed soon, eh?

 

Sissoko will be gone in the summer, I'm pretty positive of that, whether that be Milan, China or elsewhere. He's shown he's just not good enough on a consistent basis, he hasn't proven a single fan wrong since his signing and I think deep down he knows he's never going to fully establish himself here.

Wouldn't surprise me if Janssen goes too, I get the whole "he's young, first time in Prem" stuff but he can't even make a match day squad in Europa, he's already lost his back up striker role to Son and I don't think Poch would want to risk not bringing in another striker in the summer to give Kane some adequate competition. I know I personally wouldn't be overly confident heading into another season with Janssen as Kane's main competition.

It's tough for new players coming in, I fully get that and I fully sympathise with it too but sometimes you just need to be ruthless, sentiments can't always rule your judgement and unfortunately due to the fact we have such a settled side, when given a chance a player has to take it, just like Wanyama did. Sissoko, Janssen and to an extent, GKN, just haven't done so, the latter may be afforded more time as his pace can become an asset if used wisely but the other two just don't seem good enough for Spurs, it's harsh but it's true.

 

The question that keeps popping into my mind is 'If we had £30 million to buy Sissoko why didn't we spend the money on Mane or M Dembele (or both and not bother with Janssen)? For the combined £48 million we spent we would have had plenty of change left over

 

I remember Poch himself scouting Janssen, in the Holland game at Wembley, so this signing must have been with Poch`s recommendation.

 

There's a simple answer to why we didn't sign Mane, and his agent's been telling everyone why for the past week: he's a mercenary. He was on £45k per week at Southampton last season, and it can be assumed that if he signed for us he'd probably be on around £60k per week - but at Liverpool he's on £125k per week.

Bullshit the money wasn't a motivator...