SIGNINGS - but it's not even deadline day!

So, at long last it appears as though decent football men are being cajoled into scribbling on THFC headed paperwork. About time too! I remember back in those heady days of late May/early June when the forums were ablaze with disgruntled Spurs fans bemoaning the lack of transfer activity - oh how I laughed! The only surprise for me is that we are a good week ahead of Levy's usual transfer dealing schedule.

Adebayor will be a welcome addition, particularly if it sees Crouchie shipped out. Ade is a decent player - mostly. Let's face it, he's no world beater; this isn't our "Aguero moment", but he is definitely better than Crouch, and for me that is good enough. It would be nice to sign another striker, but I don't see this happening, and even if it did I doubt there'd be much "wow" factor. Anyway, with just Adebayor, Defoe and Pav there might be a chance for someone like Harry Kane to sneak a few minutes here and there, and to be honest I'd rather see that than watch us throw silly money at someone average like Rodellaga.

Diarra's medical is allegedly in progress, and he's another one who we should be welcoming with open arms. He's a top player with plenty of experience at the highest level and will undoubtedly be better than Wilson, who one assumes is packing his bags and crying somewhere near Chigwell right now (It's ok Sarge, I went to Uni in Stoke, it's not as bad as it first looks).

In terms of improving the team you can't complain here can you? I mean these are 2 good players who made 22 and 39 appearances respectively for Real Madrid last season - yes that Real Madrid! I think once you become comfortable with the fact that the elite players - the best of the best, the £30m and over brigade - are out of our grasp (and will continue to be so until we either win the league or get bought by some questionable billionaire), then you have to look at the Adebayors and the Diarras of this world as probably as good as we can realistically expect to get. After all, it's better than Conor Wickham and Joey Barton, isn't it?

Today's other talk is of Joe Cole. Now I've just been reading loads of posts of the "no, no, no" persuasion, but I beg to differ. Liverpool have recently done a stock take which revealed 132 midfielders lurking in various corners of their training ground, and so may well look to do some business at around the £3m mark (yes, I just made that up) and if the player himself has any professional pride then he'd be crazy to expect another mega payday. He's made his money, if he wants to come and be involved he'd have to take what we offered: £50k a week (BOOM! There's another guess!).

Personally I think he has something to prove and I think Old Man Redknapp is the man to motivate him. I could see him standing in for VDV and/or dare I say Modric too. Left, right, centre, in the hole - Joe Cole on form would provide us good creative options from the bench in any of these positions. I think if the price is right this would be a very good move. He's only 29 for God's sake! Time will tell, but some deals just "make sense" for everyone involved - and this is one of them.

So, at the risk of jumping the gun, I say welcome to the new boys, fond farewells to the old and well done Daniel Levy. Now what you going to do for the next 7 days? Cahill or Samba?

Spurs: The New Barcelona!

I guess the best way to think of last night's game would be to treat it like an additional pre-season friendly. That certainly seems to be the way Hearts approached it! Spurs in the first half were, quite simply magnificent. Harry said in his post match chat that he thought it was possibly the best he had ever seen from his team, and for periods it was hard to disagree with that.

The passing, the moving, one touch, push and run, cutting edge in the final third, clinical finishing, tight passing, great possession - just glorious, the exact opposite of everything I ever moan about when we are shit. It was - and this is no understatement - just like watching Barcelona!

However, just to put the brakes on my enthusiasm for a moment - it must be pointed out that when the opposition stand around watching you in some kind of awe induced trance that it's very easy to look good. I have no idea what their game plan was, but if it involved sitting back and giving Tottenham plenty of time and space on the ball then they executed it to perfection. It won't be this easy on Monday, that is for sure - with the possible exception of an equally dodgy keeper :-)

In fact, it wasn't that easy in the second half. Hearts must have had the proverbial rocket up the arse, because they came out with a bit more fight about them. Spurs looked a bit shell shocked for 15 minutes, but then clicked up a gear, remembered how to play against a physical team and promptly banged in 2 more.

New boys Walker and Livamore - superb. Walker in particular is surely winning the race to be first choice right back. In fact it's hard to say anyone had a stinker - even Defoe looked sharp, he could still do with passing more often, but it's not in his nature I suppose.

All in all, you have to say it was the perfect preparation for Monday. A "competitive" game in which they were allowed to show off their tippy-tap for a while before easing in to a few hard challenges, then robbing 5 good goals before heading home for a nice cup of tea and a job well done.

Nice.

SPURS: IT'S EARLY DOORS

I know it's preseason and the players aren't a) fit and b) bothered about winning - but early indications from the 180 minutes of football I've sat through recently are that Spurs are set to carry on from where they left off. Periods of attractive interplay and hardon enducing runs by Gareth Bale are swiftly followed by extended spells of me shouting abuse at my TV.

Observations currently include:

• Players with the ball continue to look up and not see anyone in a white shirt within 30 feet of them with alarming frequency. When we are playing well we get this right.
  
• We look decidedly average without Bale, Modric and VDV - *gasps*!
• Kyle Walker must surely be our first choice right back by Christmas, probably sooner
• Brad Friedel can only have been signed for his coaching skills
  
• VDV can indeed take a free kick that doesn't hit the wall

Quite a few players are getting a run out, which is good for taking a look at the squad as a whole. Let's face it, we don't have the pulling power of Real Madrid, nor the money of Man City, so for me Bentley, Kranners and even Jenas still make decent enough squad players. Rose looks a capable understudy at left-back and Lennon is his usual overrated self. But you can't deny that it's our strikers that continue to worry - everybody except the opposition goalkeeper that is.

Now I used to despise Adebayor, but I'll tell you what, if we get the chance to ship Crouch out and him in I'd be biting someones arm off for it. Defoe, for all his busy breaks down the channels, still seems incapable of getting on to the end of one of those glorious low Bale crosses and Pav... Oh dear God he is so frustrating! Four out of every five shots are miles off target, he lacks pace, he lacks the vision to put other people in and he loses possession - a LOT. I want to believe in him so much it hurts, but the truth is, no matter how hard you try, you just can't polish a turd.

That said I expect us to keep the Russian, and as outlined in this post his ratio is ok (if you class 1 in 3 as ok) - even if acheiving it is going to drive me round the bend, but if he still constitutes the best of a bad bunch by the end of next month then hopes may start fading a little.

One thing that is worth talking about though is old Bobby Keane. I have to say it, I think the man looks sharp. Not stick-it-in-the-onion-bag sharp, but his build-up play in and around the box is looking good. He's keeping possession when under pressure and looks the most inventive of all but VDV. Unlike the other 3 plonkers, he actually looks dangerous (well, sort of).

Is there a way back for the Irishman? You know what, don't rule it out. Keane and Adebayor up front could well be a very good partnership for occasions when we revert to 4-4-2. If he can get back to his best and produce one more season I'd be delighted. We have plenty of European games for him to prove himself in.

There's me already talking like we've signed "Big Ade" though, and we're clearly a long long way from that. I can't see us doing much at all in terms of bringing people in. Average players are going for silly money, we can't offer CL footy and too many rich clubs are scrambling for too few top quality strikers. Anyway, if you assume that Harry will be off to the vacant England job next summer, maybe Levy is right to hold back this year so he can offer our new man a massive "war chest".

Remember, these are (mostly) the players who got us into the Champions League, and these are the players who would have done it last year too if it wasn't for throwing away silly points against poxy teams. I think I'm prepared to downgrade my transfer hopes, I just don't feel like this is a good window for us to do business.

If we can swap the Beanpole for Adebayor I'll be happy. Well, happier than if I'm forced to watch Pav blast them into row Z for 9 months at any rate.

STRIKING STATS: Current vs Targets

In all this clamour for a new striker, has anyone stopped to actually think about this, or have the "18 goals between them" statement clouded our rational thinking? Here I aim to explore the stats and draw some conclusions. If that sort of thing doesn't float your boat then look away now...

So let's just talk about the league as it's less complicated, and arguably more important. I've just taken a look at Crouch, Pav and Defoe's stats for 2011 vs 2010 season ends and what it shows is that Defoe's goals were the most sorely missed:

Player	goals/apps 2010	goals/apps 2011
JD	18/34	4/22
Beanpole	8/38	4/29
Pav	5/16	10/29

So, bearing in mind that Defoe was injured for a good chunk of the season, and then struggled with form, and that I think a fair few of these appearances would have been from the bench, can we forgive him? All 3 have had to adapt to a new system with the introduction of Rafa, but Crouchie's 4 in 29 is not far short of laughable! Pav seems fairly consistent at 1 in 3 - do we underrate him?

In contrast do we overrate Defoe? The problem with JD is that if you look at his earlier Spurs career as well you see he's only ever gotten himself into double figures in the league 3 times (04-05 with 13 and 10 in 06-07). Even if you factor in some squad rotation, you have to say that's poor.

What's worse is that Beanpole has only ever managed it twice - once for Liverpool and once for Portsmouth. 1 in 6 last year has actually shocked me a bit. I guess he had a fair few assists, but for me he has to be the first name out of the door. That is simply not good enough. Not to mention the negative affect his inclusion often has on our play (No Daws, please do NOT lump it up to Crouch!).

I don't think it's unreasonable to expect all your forwards to hit double figures. Just for completeness, Rafa managed 13 in 28 in his debut season. Robbie Keane managed double figures every year since 2003, right up until his "dream move" to Liverpool and Berba managed it both years he was with us.

So here's the number of league goals a few of our targets have managed over the last few years (goals/apps, again - league only):

Player	2011	2010	2009	2008
Gyan*	10/31	n/a	n/a	n/a
Rossi	18/36	10/34	12/30	11/27
Adebayor	6/22	14/26	10/27	24/36
Vucinic	10/28	14/33	11/27	9/33
Llorente	18/38	14/37	14/34	11/35
Falcao	16/22	25/28	13/32	11/27

* Wikipedia doesn't know more than this

I guess I'd better ramble towards a conclusion here...

I think what I'm saying is that double figures has to be the minimum requirement. Crouch and Defoe have proved time and time again that they are just not up to the task. Defoe had a great season 2009/2010 and we all hoped he'd push on from there. He didn't. Crouch has failed miserably to hit this target throughout his career. These 2 BOTH have to go.

As much as I'd like Falcao and Rossi, it's pie in the sky. So if you look at Gyan and Adebayor as the most plausible like-for-like replacements from the above list of candidates, then you have to say maybe they wouldn't be so bad - something I never thought I'd say about Ade in particular (I am a self confessed fan of Gyan though) - with the added bonus that I think both seem capable of mastering the one-up-front role that we are almost certain to persevere with.

I'm all for loyalty, and it pains me to advocate the ditching of loyal, if not overly accomplished servants, but, as Mr Levy will hopefully prove, football management has to be about keeping your best and ditching the rest. So with time running out and nobody "realistic" coming through on the ITK grapevine, it's time to start thinking about settling. With every passing day we get more and more likely to end up sticking with what we have.

If that ends up meaning Adebayor and Gyan you might be underwhelmed. I hope I've proved that if nothing else, they'd be an improvement on what we have right now.

LEVY vs MODRIC: A MEXICAN STAND OFF

Oh dear Luka, what have you done!

We fans have short fuses and long memories, and these most recent set of degrading kiss and tells for me represent the point of no return - the "Berbatov moment" if you will. Luka has been given the benefit of the doubt by his loyal admirers: "agent manipulation", "bad advisers", "head turned", "he's confused" are all phrases trotted out from the usual outlets recently. But it's time to wake up and smell the coffee. The boy means business and obviously thinks he can win.

If you ask me we need to treat Modric like a child having a tantrum in the supermarket - ignore him. Make him realise that no matter how he behaves he's still coming home with us, and that if he's a good boy, shuts his mouth and apologises, he might get a lolly in the car on the way home.

He's already lost the respect of the fans, how much longer before we're actively resenting him? Do you see an apology on the horizon come September the 1st? Do you see the Chairman backing down? Each outcome looks as unlikely as the other, so you have to wonder where this is going. What is the end game?

Someone has to blink, and if Daniel Levy has the stomach for a fight this time round then it's going to have to be Modric. I just don't think he's realised that yet. Any more outbursts and even a grovelling apology isn't going to wash, this dumbass is backing himself into a corner that he's going to find it increasingly difficult to escape from. At what point does he break and think to himself "I've really fucked this up"?

If the league kicked off this weekend would he play - could he play? There'd be booing - surely there'd be booing. How can there be any way back into our affections for him? Perhaps he and his "advisers" need to actually consider the very real possibility that he genuinely isn't going anywhere - and think about the consequences of that. Luka may be playing the textbook trouble making card, but even he can't be that stupid that he'd risk making his Spurs career irretreivable.

I wouldn't threaten him with a year on the bench, I'd threaten him with 5 years on the bench. See how many players want to risk missing the best years of their career because they think their contract isn't worth the paper it's printed on - then see how many other employees slag us off to get their own move in the future. In reality though it won't come to that, the boy loves to play too much. He'd get 10 games in and crumble. This isn't Winston Bogarde we're talking about here.

Anyway Luka, you want to move on to an established CL team, that's understandable, you want £120k a week, also understandable - but why didn't you think of that a year ago? Too late to go crying to the press about it now. You've made your bed, now frigging well lie in it. We HAVE to prove we won't be pushed about otherwise Bale will be at it next year, as will every other world class player we ever stumble upon.

If I was the Chairman (and maybe I would be if I'd won the EuroMillions the other night :-) ) I'd be down the the lodge today for another meeting. The result would be a "what part of not for sale do you not understand" lecture followed by a fine of 2 week's wages. Then, when the penny eventually drops, I'd craft a carefully worded apologetic statement from the player and publish it on the club website. Of course, we'll still know it's bollocks, but the pretence of reconcilliation will at least mean he could play again.

If Daniel Levy genuinely isn't backing down, this has to be the ONLY way it can end with a modicum of pride intact on all sides. Modric must be made to realise that he's damaging himself - not irreparably yet, but it's getting damn close.

Quality Control at the Daily Mail

Is there any?

Not content with stirring up the hornet's nest over Modric - and other outrageous stories too numerous to mention - their latest garbage suggests that Villarreal are going to buy Sandro for £12m.

Now, as a NewsNow addict I'm more than prepared to accept that certain ropey sites (sportsvibe, transfertavern footylatest, Bleacher etc) like to make stuff up and publish it under the pretense of news. I don't mind that so much, not at all; it helps pass the day. However, I really do think that a national newspaper - irrespective of your opinions regarding their politics - have a duty to be considerably more responsible. Any follower of football with functioning eyes and even the slightest understanding of economics must be able to see what a joke this is.

So, for the benefit of the bravely anonymous "Sportsmail Writer" let me point out a few fatal flaws in your hypothesis:

1. He's only been a Spurs player for a year
2. He has been arguably one of the finds of the season
3. He is still young and obviously has great promise
4. We paid £8m, so considering the above points your £12m valuation is laughable
5. Read these quotes - does this sound like player looking to leave?

I could go on, but you get the gist. I'm sure the 1,056 pedants amongst you ;-) will point out that the offending article merely suggests that the Spaniards are "opening tentative talks" with his agent - but are they? Are they really? Where is the reference to some kind of evidence? Blow me, could we not even be arsed to make up a quote this time?

I can almost guarantee that this story doesn't make it into the paper itself, so why is it acceptable to put it on the website? This, as you may have noticed, really grinds my gears.

Just another reason to impose a Fergie-esque ban on any communication with them if you ask me.

Cahill: A Great Bit Of Business?

Now that bruising hoofmeister silky ball player Gary Cahill has a couple of Eng-er-land caps to his name, those elements of the media we adore so much (namely those who can't bear to see a player at a club "beneath" him) have come to the logical conclusion that he'll be moving on.

However, unlike other notable transfer sagas of late, this time the player seems to have had a giant "For Sale" sign stapled to his imposing forehead, by none other than his own manager. Owen Coyle is said to be resigned to losing the player and, as a smart man, would undoubtedly prefer a player plus cash deal rather than 20 million big ones stowed safely in the box marked "Petty Cash" (at least according to people in the press/on the internet that make this stuff up that is anyway).

So, what with Spurs currently having more defenders that a 1980's video game arcade, what kind of deal would we propose (because it's easy, all this making-up-transfers business). I guess it's obvious though - Bassong and/or Hutton (unless they want Bongani Khumalo who, at 24, is plying his trade at Preston North End these days - make of that what you will). Anyway, one has to assume they'd be looking for proven Premiership quality experienced Premiership players so we'll stick with these 2. Bassong, Hutton and £6m seems like a reasonable deal to me.

I have to say that I think this would be a cracking bit of business. Gallas only has another year of expecting to be first choice, King could collapse in a heap at any given moment and although I do like Kaboul, I think he's probably a better right back and/or squad player. Dawson and Cahill at the heart of the defence for the next 5 years - yes bloody please. You never know, we might actually score more goals from corners too.

Defensive duties split between:

RB: Corluka, Walker, Kaboul
CB: King, Dawson, Gallas, Cahill, Kaboul
LB: Benny, erm... Bale? Rose?

Oh, maybe we need a 'proper' LB too?

Modric: Are We REALLY Taking a Stand?

This time last week I was 100% certain that, should a shady looking character with an eastern European accent turn up on Daniel Levy's doorstep with a suitcase full of £50 notes, to the tune of £40m or so, that dear old Luka would be on his way. But you know what, cynical as I am prone to be on such matters, I now think we might actually be making a stand this time!

Now, I know from reading the internet, that many people have a dislike of Harry's flirtations with journalistic types. Not me though, I've always thought he handles them quite well. I'd rather have him answering questions than not, even if sometimes the answers aren't what we want to hear. However, you've got to give it to him, he's played an absolute blinder with this Modric business.

Levy seems to be sticking to his "not-for-any-money" statements, but I think it's natural, given recent history, to be a little distrustful of these. However, if Harry keeps sticking the knife in at every opportunity by reminding the world of what the chairman has promised him, then Levy is going to find it extremely difficult to accept even an enormous offer - it would make him look a right pillock.

I think it would take Modders to kick up a Berbatov-esque stink, hand in a transfer request and for that £40m+ offer to be sitting on the fax machine for there to be a chance of this happening - otherwise how the hell is the chairman going to justify it? Call me naieve, but it's a set of circumstances I'm finding more and more unlikely with every passing day. Yes he's made some ill advised comments recently, but I don't hold that against him. I want to believe he was lead astray by agents, that maybe the interviewer was asking leading questions, that perhaps they were taken out of context. Maybe they weren't, but hopefully he'll have yet another change of tune when he realises he has to stay. If and when that day comes he'll need to say something to pacify the brokenhearted, even if those words are hollow and meaningless.

Come September the 1st, what I would love - even more than a sparkly new £30m striker, would be for Luka Modric to still be a Spurs player. Not because I think we'd be lost without him (I actually think Bale would be a bigger loss) but because it would prove to me, and the rest of the world, that we are not a selling club, that the chairman cares more about the quality of the team than the quality of his bank balance, that he IS a man of his word, that a contract is a contract and should the big guns come sniffing round our next big superstar 12 months from now, that there's a new track record of us NOT selling, no matter how much pressure we get put under.

Now that would be sweet.

Modric: We've been here before

Call me cynical, but this business with Mr. Modric has a very familar feeling about it. It’s almost identical to the early stages of the Berbatov saga, and before him the Carrick saga.

I don’t quite know why the press are so obsessed with cultivating a climate where they believe the only the top 4 deserve to employ best players in the league, but for 4-6 weeks now they have been craftily regurgitating snippets and mis-quotes from all involved in this particular ball-ache.

One might almost be led to believe that they are in the employ of said clubs – but surely not; that would be unethical, and ‘proper’ journo’s would do that would they?!? My worry is that when a story like this refuses to go away, there HAS to be a hidden agenda somewhere.

Whatever the case, these weeks of careful sniping and gossipmongering have finally resulted in Chelsea’s laughable bid – but the main point we should be considering here is not the figure, but the fact that the bid is the next phase of what any reasonable person can see as a not-so-subtle campaign that is only a heartbeat away from illegal “tapping up”. Yes, there may have bneen no sneaky contact and underhand promises made between Luka and his suitors, but you can’t look at all this and not consider that the outcome could well be the same.

In the coming weeks we will no doubt see that figure creep up towards, and maybe beyond the £35m mark. £35m + Drogba, tempted? What about £50m? Realists will tell you everyone has their price, and they’d be true. Imaginne for one second that they come in with £60m. Do you see Levy turning that down? I certainly don’t.

Devil’s advocate here asks you this: Would you swap Luka – who, whilst being a great player, is conspicuosly absent from any European or World Player of the Year lists at the moment – for 3 players of £20m+ calibre? After all, VDV can play that central role, then we could also go back to 4-4-2. If it happened like that it might actually make us stronger next year!

Anyway, let’s be honest with ourselves; as much as we love our super Spurs, until such point as we can convince the rest of the world that we are regular top 4 material, we’re going to have to go through this rigmarole every year. Today Modric, tomorrow Bale.

To answer my own question, Luka has to stay. I know those at the club don’t like to dcomment on specualtion, but they must see this is different. I want to see a statement on the site by the end of the week where Levy says he’s not for sale – even at £100m.

Levy needs to take a stand – not because Luka Modric is irreplacable, because to be brutal; he isn’t, but just to show us, the players and the rest of the world, that we will NOT be bullied into selling our best.

That’s worth more than 60 million pieces of silver.