Martin Lol

Spurs have never confirmed any interest in N'Zogbia, there was the one denial. I'm told that we never were interested in signing him but there may have been a rumour going about (looking at N'Zogbia as Gilberto looked like damaged goods in the medical) to encourage Hertha Berlin to drop their price for Gilberto. Gilberto was eventually signed for roughly half of the original asking price.

Delfouneso looks like a really serious prospect, I won't count Forrester cos you stole him from Watford! You're right about the success ratio, one Premier League quality player every other year would be a good return and that's what the Academies are hoping for. The running costs get covered by the sales of the players who aren't good enough for your team but are ok for a lesser PL or Championship team. There's a high percentage of clubs in the top 2 divisions who have players who have passed through the Arsenal Academy.

I think its more the fact that the people we were after were not available. If the ones Newcastle ideally wanted weren't available, I'm still surprised that there weren't any contingency names................. unless, of course, they weren't available either.

'Arry getting the job sorted!! :lol:

I think most people were, not just Newcastle fans. Although KK hasn't had a huge amount of time to evaluate the squad (and Dennis Wise even less), it's not as though Newcastle have a huge squad, I was expecting signings to supplement the players you've got now and the real changes being made in the summer. With no signings of any significance, I wonder just how freely Ashley will spend the money when targets are identified, I think most fans could have come up with a couple of realistic targets. Was it that KK couldn't produce a couple of targets or MA wouldn't spend the money without the second opinion of Dennis Wise?

I reckon SGE had second thoughts and deliberately missed the deadline! :lol: Never rated Benjani, think you've dodged the bullet there. Glad we've jogged on Defoe, too one dimensional for me, a poor man's Michael Owen, plus we were heading for problems with him refusing to sign a new contract. A good window for us bearing in mind it's the January one which is always a bit tougher.

Said to be £9m for JD (assuming JD agrees to move) and Gilberto, whose transfer collapsed earlier, should be announced soon. Sounds like Levy has screwed Hertha Berlin on the fee, don't accept and he goes on a Bosman in the summer........................

L'Equipe updating it saying Spurs are trying to do a deal with Muntari going to WHL. De delighted if it happens............. but it won't, 'Arry aint that stupid! The Muntari that's about 3000 miles away atm? Yes, that one! Faxing a urine sample as we speak tbh! :lol:

Spurs were planning to add Gilberto to the LM options, but now that has fallen flat, it would be ironical if we did now show some interest in Zoggy.

L'Equipe updating it saying Spurs are trying to do a deal with Muntari going to WHL. De delighted if it happens............. but it won't, 'Arry aint that stupid!

Leaving Benjani free to come to City. "Pompey boss Harry Redknapp has agreed the sale of his £6m-rated Zimbabwe striker providing he can sign a replacement and City were today petitioning the Home Office to secure a work permit for Caicedo so that they can complete a £5m deal." http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/sport/football/manchester_city/s/1034598_chase_on_for_benjani_and_caicedo ITK's saying they're looking to replace JD with either Diego Milito (mentioned before and highly unlikely) or Vagner Love (not mentioned before as slightly less unlikely). Also Gilberto not moving to Spurs, failed a 2nd medical apparently.

I've been told that it's nothing to do with Spurs and all to do with McKay. No guarantees how accurate that info is though.

L'Equipe is saying Defoe is on his way to Pompey.

Irrespective of what's been said publicly, it's believed that McKay is trying to engineer a swap between N'Zogbia and Chimbonda. Two lots of commission for one transfer. Don't think this rumour has any legs in it at all even though most people are agreed N'Zogbia would be preferred at WHL to Downing.

The one fella who called it stands by what he says, no one else is saying it will happen. Can't see it to be honest. If it was a possibility I wouldn't have expected to have seen him on the bench last night, let alone play for half an hour.

1-1 for me. Is Barton able to play/be on the bench for home games now?

There's something about him that Ramos obviously didn't like as when we signed KPB in the summer, we were competing with Sevilla (with Ramos still in charge). He was Germany's Young Player of the Year so he must have some ability but not enough apparently. Personally, I thought he had a lot of potential but far from the finished article. One ITK called his departure yesterday, but didn't say where, most people scoffed at the idea with the knowledge that Ramos had wanted him. Large helpings of humble pie all now being served!

Why would Villa want Routledge? Experienced no improvement at all in Spurs, and not exactly very young still. Does he play on the right? There's your answer. I doubt there is any truth in this. This window is a b******. Nobody wants to sell. What a let down. Exactly how good he is now I have no idea. When Arnesen, Santini, Jol etc first joined, he went over to Korea for the Peace Cup and was voted Player of the Tournament, Essien (who was still with Lyon) got the job of keeping him quiet in the final, couldn't and eventually got redcarded for persistent fouling. Santini really rated him, in the first match of the season Routledge broke his metatarsal, got replaced in the team by Lennon, Santini went, Jol didn't rate him and he kept going out on loan after that. So that's the story so far, it may be inspired by MON, it may not. Worth a gamble, won't be costing a lot. With regard to Chimbo, I hear that there may be some problems regarding his wage demands. No surprise there then! Exactly. If anything, he has been very unfortunate. How quickly people forget things in football. He is also only 22 I believe, so why Delima refers to him as being old is beyond me. Brummie please take Milner of us and we can get Wayne instead you know you want to! SSN: Routledge having medical with Aston Villa. Martin O'Neil is certainly no mug. He will get the best out of a promising young player who still has a lot of potential. Routledge fits into that Villa team perfectly. Young, Routledge and Agbonlahor will drive teams crazy. I feel this transfer is going to make a lot of other clubs feel really silly. It's only Routledge... Better than the likes of Milner, Ireland and Etherington though ... I just feel quite a few teams could have taken a chance on him but fluffed it. It will be a good move for him. I would say Milner is a better all round performer than WR, Milner just needs to be in the right team. He looked far better on loan at Villa than he does at SJP imho, maybe he needs a change of manager, maybe KK is the man for him, I don't know. I'd be surprised if WR was worse than Etherington (though he is a leftie), Ireland?? Dunno, depends on what WR is like now tbh. Better all round huh ... well what does that really mean? That he tracks back defensively? Well let him play right back then! Routledge is quicker, is a better dribbler, is a more effective crosser because he has more success getting to the byline, and also gets into better goal scoring positions overall. Milner might have a better shot from range but I do remember Routledge hitting a few nice ones too. Possibly, but if he did that consistently he would have been near the England squad. He did it consistently in a tourno in Korea, but since then, even on season long loans, he's never reproduced the Peace Cup form on a regular basis.

Being told that Ramos is serious about wanting Diego Milito in this window and moving Defoe out. Can't think that there's enough time to get one in and one out. We don't need 5 strikers, that's for sure. A defensive MF plus Gilberto signing would be nice though.

Why would Villa want Routledge? Experienced no improvement at all in Spurs, and not exactly very young still. Does he play on the right? There's your answer. I doubt there is any truth in this. This window is a b******. Nobody wants to sell. What a let down. Exactly how good he is now I have no idea. When Arnesen, Santini, Jol etc first joined, he went over to Korea for the Peace Cup and was voted Player of the Tournament, Essien (who was still with Lyon) got the job of keeping him quiet in the final, couldn't and eventually got redcarded for persistent fouling. Santini really rated him, in the first match of the season Routledge broke his metatarsal, got replaced in the team by Lennon, Santini went, Jol didn't rate him and he kept going out on loan after that. So that's the story so far, it may be inspired by MON, it may not. Worth a gamble, won't be costing a lot. With regard to Chimbo, I hear that there may be some problems regarding his wage demands. No surprise there then! Exactly. If anything, he has been very unfortunate. How quickly people forget things in football. He is also only 22 I believe, so why Delima refers to him as being old is beyond me. Brummie please take Milner of us and we can get Wayne instead you know you want to! SSN: Routledge having medical with Aston Villa. Martin O'Neil is certainly no mug. He will get the best out of a promising young player who still has a lot of potential. Routledge fits into that Villa team perfectly. Young, Routledge and Agbonlahor will drive teams crazy. I feel this transfer is going to make a lot of other clubs feel really silly. It's only Routledge... Better than the likes of Milner, Ireland and Etherington though ... I just feel quite a few teams could have taken a chance on him but fluffed it. It will be a good move for him. I would say Milner is a better all round performer than WR, Milner just needs to be in the right team. He looked far better on loan at Villa than he does at SJP imho, maybe he needs a change of manager, maybe KK is the man for him, I don't know. I'd be surprised if WR was worse than Etherington (though he is a leftie), Ireland?? Dunno, depends on what WR is like now tbh.

If there's a £30m offer on the table, it'll get rejected. If it was £35m it would get thought about, but Berbatov wouldn't agree to a move to Newcastle in any case. Man Utd, Real, Barcelona, Milan or Inter, that's about it. I wish I could disagree with you but I can't. Maybe if Berbs finally gets rejected by all the top teams next summer he'll start to lower his standards, but until then there's no way he'd come to this shambles. I've been told that Berbatov likes very much how Ramos shaping the team and is nowhere so strongly minded about going as he was earlier in the season. If Spurs can make Europe next season whether it be by league position, Carling Cup or Eufa Cup wins (all big asks I know), I would be pretty confident about him staying no matter who came in for him. He loves life in England and London in particular. My concern would be a big bid from Man Utd in the summer, especially if we haven't got European competition to offer.

Why would Villa want Routledge? Experienced no improvement at all in Spurs, and not exactly very young still. Does he play on the right? There's your answer. I doubt there is any truth in this. This window is a b******. Nobody wants to sell. What a let down. Exactly how good he is now I have no idea. When Arnesen, Santini, Jol etc first joined, he went over to Korea for the Peace Cup and was voted Player of the Tournament, Essien (who was still with Lyon) got the job of keeping him quiet in the final, couldn't and eventually got redcarded for persistent fouling. Santini really rated him, in the first match of the season Routledge broke his metatarsal, got replaced in the team by Lennon, Santini went, Jol didn't rate him and he kept going out on loan after that. So that's the story so far, it may be inspired by MON, it may not. Worth a gamble, won't be costing a lot. With regard to Chimbo, I hear that there may be some problems regarding his wage demands. No surprise there then!

If there's a £30m offer on the table, it'll get rejected. If it was £35m it would get thought about, but Berbatov wouldn't agree to a move to Newcastle in any case. Man Utd, Real, Barcelona, Milan or Inter, that's about it.

Villa have made a double bid for Chimbonda and Routledge. Could be some mileage in it, "small increase in the fee needed".

Sevilla are currently showing the most interest. Not sure how that move would fit in with Chimbo's hopes of tripling his money............