
Gary Jacob in today's Times online says Tottenham were definately panic buying yesterday.
A £10 million bid was placed for West Ham's Carlton Cole.
And an approach (with no proposed fee disclosed) was also made for Wigan's Emile Heskey. The Heskey move amounted to nothing as Wigan were reliant upon Boro parting with Mido to faciltate the move.
It has to be questioned as to why a multi million pound PLC would get themselves in such a mess where they were scratching around in the last hours of the last day of a three month long window for... well, scraps.
There is no getting away from the fact that we had made some sensational signings this season. The imagination displayed has been admirable. Bentley is an excellent player with the potential to be a great one. Dos Santos is what I'd call very Tottenham - he will wow us. Modric and Pavlyuchenko have proved themselves to be amongst the most exciting players around internationally.
There were undoubtedly some good intentions. But what happened next?
The deal with Berbatov was clearly mismanaged from the off. Were THFC in denial? Did it really take him formally 'not being in the right frame of mind' before the ramifications of his departure dawned on the board?
My point being that I bet you anything you want that Fraizer Campbell's name was never on any wish list of Wendy's. They may have had a small effigy of him surrounded by lit candles in bl**dy Hull, but he was merely just another trinklet thrown in with the beads and mirrors that PaleAleFace threw in with the Berbatov lolly.
The Keane fiasco was in fairness a shock to everyone. The little runt had disguised his ambition to bail on us by announcing his desire to end his career at The Lane only weeks before he scuttled off to be Mr SubbedAlot in Merseyside.
So what was the Club's strategy? For all the digs about dodgy Ruskies etc, Zenit St Petersburg made on thing abundantly clear which they stuck to and that was that they wanted paying. The fee was always going to be horrendous but never in excess of €25 million. Yes, the involvement of the agents was perhaps even more parasitic than usual.
But then so what. You bite your tongue and wash your hands afterwards.
The situation this morning would have been unrecognisably improved had we offloaded the Bulgarian rat to City. If if's and and's were pots and pans there'd be no need for tinkers, eh?
However you cannot TELL a player who he has to play for.
But where we notionally had control was in the sourcing of another striker. And in that we monumentally blew it. It doesn't undo the good of the great aquisitions, but it does terrify me that an elegant attack force of Keane and Berbatov could have been part replaced by a Cole, a third rate journeyman or Heskey, a wardrobe on wheels.
This fog of dispodency will lift because I'm still in love with the old girl, but the schlep to January will require a number of our lot to really deliver and by that I mean goals.
Bent must come good. Crazy Paving must be our Torres.
BIOYC
COLE?...ARE YOU SERIOUS?...MY GOD...WHAT THE HELL WERE WE THINKING?...THANK FUCK THAT DIDN'T HAPPEN!
HH give us a break so you gonna belive everthing a newspaper says, 10mil for cole are you stupid, if that did happen West Ham would of accepted bid straight away, you are being very negative today, give it a rest
If you look at the total in/outs for the transfer windows since Magic joined us, it has been pretty impressive. Admittedly we sold the Best Player In The Universe (registered trademark) yesterday and did not seem to bring in a direct replacement, but then we have improved every other aspect of the team.
If it turns out that we are to own Fraser as part of the deal (like the Defoe 'loan' to Pompy) for Nutkins, then I think we've done really rather well considering what 'ull wanted to pay for him.
Does anyone know the deal with FC?
COYS!
After that last little lot this morning Harry, is this your attempt to get another load of bollocks talked by getting back up to the top of newsnow again?
I agree with NovaYid - my son told me about the PavMan yonks ago on Football manager and that's never wrong...!
Reply to Dewolf1974:
HH give us a break so you gonna belive everthing a newspaper says, 10mil for cole are you stupid, if that did happen West Ham would of accepted bid straight away, you are being very negative today, give it a rest
I believe that Gary Jacob is a credible guy. And calling me stupid doesn't sit well when comes to the figure of ten mill is quoted. He went there for twelve. Perhaps you should 'give it a rest'?
RnB up front will be the new shearer and Ferdinand. *bites knuckle*
I'm getting sick to death with all this nonsense. Our squad is better than it was this time last year. Fact. We lost one striker more than we thought we were going to lose. Fact. We tried for the pint sized Russian and they played hard ball so suddenly we had a hole for a third choice striker. So, we told Utd to give us one at least till January were we might be able to resurect the Smoothbum deal. I wish people would stop with all this selling club crap.
gary jacob has to be a joker. please don't believe everythng you read HH.
there does appeaar to be a general air of dispondancy from the writers of these blogged. although the majority of respondants appear to be fairly satisfied with our lot.
the glass is more than half full.
COYS!
yeah enough of the negativity. good transfer window. you can always argue that a transfer window could have been better but overall it's been very good. sorry HH you've really been too depressing today. cheer up. as for gary jacobs, i suspect enquiries were made but there';s no way a formal offer of 10 mill would ever have been made.
Reply to Hoopspur:
After that last little lot this morning Harry, is this your attempt to get another load of bollocks talked by getting back up to the top of newsnow again?
I agree with NovaYid - my son told me about the PavMan yonks ago on Football manager and that's never wrong...!
This may come as a horrendous shock to you sweetheart, but this is a Spurs blog and tends by defination to produce a regular stream of ramblings on the subject of Tottenham.
Apologies if you were expecting the monotony to be shaken up by a piece on Advanced Wedding Cake Decoration or Fly Fishing In Suspenders.
Oh yeah. Naff off.
Carlton Cole has struggled find his feet at every club he has played for. That would be poor business on our behalf. If we got him for £3.5m many wouldn't be too perturbed. Heskey is the quintessential British target man. Big, good in the air and causes problems. The problem is he cannot stay healthy.
Reply to jimmy:
yeah enough of the negativity. good transfer window. you can always argue that a transfer window could have been better but overall it's been very good. sorry HH you've really been too depressing today. cheer up. as for gary jacobs, i suspect enquiries were made but there';s no way a formal offer of...
There's no way?
No way at all.
Couldn't possibly happen?
Probably didn't happen?
Unlikely to have happened?
You don't think it happened?
Reply to HarryHotspur:
Reply to Dewolf1974:HH give us a break so you gonna belive everthing a newspaper says, 10mil for cole are you stupid, if that did happen West Ham would of accepted bid straight away, you are being very negative today, give it a rest
I believe that Gary Jacob is a credible guy. And calling me stupid doesn't sit well when comes to the figure of ten mill is quoted. He went there for twelve. Perhaps you should 'give it a rest'?
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OK apolagies for calling you stupid, just frustration of yesterday and not signing another striker, but these people in the media are making up stories I mean 10mil for Cole come on let be serious why did West Ham not accept I think Gary Jacob is just trying to undermine Spurs and make us look stupid
Im glad we did not sign in desparation the players Hesky and Cole.
Campbell I think was approapriate given the circumstances surrounding Berbatov.
Berba and Keane did not want to stay everyone knows that...however it took Levy until midnight last night to get a fair price out of Manure. By which time Campbell was the only option (for the 3rd striker position required). Not ideal I know but better than playing a midfielder up front.
All in all Spurs are Net £7.5 million up (even before the normal £30 million spend. so I expect us to use the cash where appropriate in Jan (early hopefully).
As a season ticket holder though I am more and more concerned by these billionaires taking over and ultimately scuppering any chance Spurs have of competing (without similar investment).
Il have to think long and hard about forking out another £1800 (x2 tix) next season me thinks!
COYS
well the rats have gone but our beloved ship will never sink. the old girl's dignity may have been fiddled with by that red-nosed rapist but she's recovered from worse knocks and will do again. berbatov had magic in his feet and sh*t in his selfish sulking brain. as the song goes' it aint what you do, it's the way that you do it'.COYS
To be fair, this site HAS had a shocking lack of debate on Advanced Wedding Cake Decoration or Fly Fishing in Suspenders of late.
We did well in transfer market but still have plenty of dross left to sell - Rocha, Ghaly to name but 2. I just hope that he stops playing Zakora (tries hard but not good enough in any position).
I don't know how true the reports that Arshavin was at the lodge yesterday are, but could it be possible he has signed a pre-contract agreement, given that ZSP said he was not moving in this transfer window, sorry but this could just be me adding 2 & 2 together and coming up with £30.75m (without permission of course, its much more fun to lock someone in a closet so no-one else can talk to them so their is no choice but to get what you want)
er yes, I was a bit depressed this morning, but as the day has progressed I've had a growing feeling that its.... not.. too.. bad. Yes they've cocked up not getting a quality replacement for sulkyb*llocks but then I dont think that Arshavin was the one to do it anyway. New system methinks. New Spurs. Maybe one that doesn't concede on a regular basis? Proven DM is my current concern.
Ten things you didn't know about Berbatov
1. He's a cunt
2. He's a cunt
3. He's a cunt
4. He's a cunt
5. He's a cunt
6. He's a cunt
7. He's a cunt
8. He's a cunt
9. He's a cunt
10. He's a miserable cunt
Reply to KayBee:
To be fair, this site HAS had a shocking lack of debate on Advanced Wedding Cake Decoration or Fly Fishing in Suspenders of late.
I've got that one sorted.
Jane Asher is guesting next week.
What is Comolli there to do? All of us can indentify potential signings better than him. Can't see Ramos being happy with the lack of options up front.
Reply to Snap:
Ten things you didn't know about Berbatov
1. He's a cunt
2. He's a cunt
3. He's a cunt
4. He's a cunt
5. He's a cunt
6. He's a cunt
7. He's a cunt
8. He's a cunt
9. He's a cunt
10. He's a miserable cunt
May I offer you an asterisk, sir?
***********
***********
***********
***********
Take your pick, they're all lovely.
So what exactly went on? Are we really saying that our professional arm failed?
I want to be generous and positive, but I can't honestly believe that this is how Levy and Ramos envisioned our squad post-transfer window.
It's commendable to weigh up the pros and cons of market dealings, and to compare ourselves with clubs even less fortunate than ourselves. And it's fair to say that our failures may be due to circumstances far beyond our control. We don't buy and sell players in a vaccuum. It's a competitive, dog-eat-dog world out there. And it's victories on the pitch that will see us ascend the league, not victories for our morale.
Carlton Cole and Emile Heskey? After we'd supposedly had sufficient cloth to dress the shining forms of Arshavin, Veloso and Villa?
Oh, yes, if there isn't already one, there definitely ought to be a line of Police hazard-tape around Spurs Lodge, forbidding entry. No doubt an official spokesperson will be present, waving away prurient interest from bystanders; 'Move along now. Nothing to see.'
No Arshavin, no Veloso, no Villa. Most certainly there's nothing to see.
What does everyone else think about this summer eh? The wind, rain, lack of sun! terrible!
I am watching Berbatov and Dantchev's presconference in Bulgaria at the moment. Dantchev said we had talks with ManUSA for a week for Campbell and Ramos actually really like the lad.
I just hope we have first option to byu him in January if he comes good.
COYS
136 Comments
Quite. I'm not as effed off as alot of my fellow bloggy-yids but the Cole/ Heskey thing is a fly in my ointment none the less.
I think alot of people on here under-rate Pavly....Pavely...Roman mind...he's really good y'know.
How much truth is there to the Heskey and Cole rumours? I'd be pretty disgusted if we got either of them, for sure, but let's not get carried away: they were clearly going to be cheap make-weights to cover our failure to buy Arshavin, much like Frasier Campbell is.
In fact, if it wasn't for Zenit being such winkers about Arshavin, I'd think we've had one of our most successful transfer windows in a long time. Look on the bright side Harry, we got top dollar for two talented strikers who we HAD to let go, so in the circumstances I think we've come out on top.
Want-away Keane and Berbatov swapped for Bentley, Modric, Pavlyuchenko and Dos Santos. That's not bad is it?