leffe186

That's all true, but he's 21. Plenty of time. I do think that AVB doesn't fancy him, and that's why he's moving on. Well, that and the large wodge of cash Cardiff will give us. We're going to be extremely thin at CB unless that Romanian kid comes in.

...says Talksport. Didn't he also tell Levy a while back that he wanted to leave? I'm guessing Levy and AVB touch base occasionally. Honestly, we don't have a bloody clue what's going on, and some outlets are making stuff up while others are quoting them. There really doesn't seem to be much point trying to follow a narrative. Particularly when you consider the sources. It wouldn't surprise me if he left, and it wouldn't surprise me if he stayed. More surprised about Caulker leaving, but that suggests that AVB's opinion is carrying a lot of weight in our transfer dealings. Do you think there is any element of Spurs wanting to sell? Bale, or Caulker? My guesses are: We obviously want to keep Bale, because he's ace. Marca got itchy feet over Neymar etc and made up some stuff. Bale's agent is interested in money. Real are completely unscrupulous. Bale would have been happy to stay, all things being equal, but his agent and RM have been putting pressure on him to move (CL football, lots of money, Spanish football - which Bale has professed admiration for, nice weather - he holidays in Marbella). The sports media is what it is. It wouldn't surprise me if assurances had been made to AVB and prospective purchases that Bale would be staying. We get a lot of media exposure worldwide through Bale, which means his leaving is difficult to quantify in cash terms. Levy therefore would find it hard to agree a sale, however much they offer. I also feel that Real don't actually have that much cash available for a purchase, so they're (a) trying to find ways round this (makeweights etc) (b) reinforcing the line that Levy is asking for silly money, so if they back out it is not embarrassing. On top of which, I remain to be convinced that they've actually made any offers at all. I don't think we want to sell. I don't think Real are actually offering the silly amounts being banded about. I do think they're systematically unsettling Bale. God knows what will happen next.

...says Talksport. Didn't he also tell Levy a while back that he wanted to leave? I'm guessing Levy and AVB touch base occasionally. Honestly, we don't have a bloody clue what's going on, and some outlets are making stuff up while others are quoting them. There really doesn't seem to be much point trying to follow a narrative. Particularly when you consider the sources. It wouldn't surprise me if he left, and it wouldn't surprise me if he stayed. More surprised about Caulker leaving, but that suggests that AVB's opinion is carrying a lot of weight in our transfer dealings.

I nearly posted something along the lines of that last one. I haven't made my mind up yet on whether I just want the "big" clubs to just fuck off into a European Super League, so I don't have to worry about this shit any more. Wenger is a cunt, but brilliant. Also an unpopular Spurs football opinion - Sol Campbell was in the right all along.

Any manager with that amount of money spent on his team cannot claim to have received a raw deal.

Think we've been through this already. Apparently there has been no bid at all, it's all bullshit and machinations.

You're kidding, right? In which world does 1 beat 2? Or do you have a deep-seated insecurity about tall women?

knowing Levy that's believable I would actually take that. Any reason why we shouldn't add LaSexta and Marca into "Braindead Twitter Lies...and Marca/LaSexta"?

It started as Parky vs Roy Hodgson, in a manner of speaking, and then just became Liverpool because of general tidiness and the amusement value. Actually it started with Benny the Benitez. Oh, that's right! So much water under the bridge over the tunnel.

I'm guessing that a few of you older guys were gutted when Gazza left.

Shocking is exactly the word - this news is like a punch to the guts... Unfortunate choice of phrase. What a shock, poor guy and his family.

It started as Parky vs Roy Hodgson, in a manner of speaking, and then just became Liverpool because of general tidiness and the amusement value.

I think you're overcomplicating things. He just wants CL and more money. He really doesn't seem to be fussed about the other stuff.

Bit harder to do this if he's only got one ball.

Hoddle going to Monaco was probably the biggest wrench - I was 14/15, and he'd been my hero for my entire Spurs life up to that point. I'm pretty confident I never cried though. The only time I remember crying tears about Spurs (and not tears of joy ) was when Ardiles hit the bar from point blank in the last few minutes of the UEFA Cup Final. I mean, I was 10. Graham Roberts made it all better a few seconds later.

I disagree. I'd give my left nut for CL qualification, but I just disagree with celebrating it harder than the team that actually won the title. I'm not sure those two sentiments are compatible. Honestly, they can celebrate it all they want. I guarantee you that I have a deeper hatred of Arsenal than you, but I'm not going to hold that against them.

Well we all do that to some extent . We have to, it's part of our job.

The point was that GC "lost almost all respect for their team for the way they celebrated getting the 4th spot after beating you lot a couple of months ago. Some of those dressing room photos were absolutely pathetic." And while I understand the underlying sentiment about cups vs CL qualification, that just sounds like sour grapes.

Yep. That's how these things generally pan out. Marca make something up, then the whole thing cascades.

Latest rumor is that Bale's head has been turned, but Real are offering nowhere near the money that's been mentioned, because they just don't have it.

fair point really yeah, but everything hinges on bale's state of mind...if his heads not right it'd be counter-productive, and if he's definitely going to leave next summer is it worth it? Well that's the crux, isn't it? He's not shown any real signs of his head not being right - all we have as evidence is, well, paper talk. He generally seems to be well-grounded. As for whether it's worth it, well that's exactly what I'm saying. I want to keep him and have a go for CL and trophies this year. If we don't get that, then we sell him - and even if it's "only" for 40M, we can buy a player or two. If we do get that, then of course it's worth it.

It sort of is, but then, we did progress. We also brought in Adebayor (as well as bringing back Crouch, Defoe and Keane, but there you go). I do agree with you, though, it's incredibly frustrating.

Yeah, like I say, I totally get the other side of the argument. This is a really tough question. Really, what are the odds of getting four more Modrics? We bought Berbatov, but we also bought Pav. We bought Modric and Sandro, but we also bought Bent and Bentley. The thing is, I don't even assume that we'll get another 60M bid, although as I said, if he has another season like this one and we get into the CL, I don't think that's too far-fetched. I just want us to have a crack at the CL this season (and every single trophy, naturally), and I think we've got a better chance of doing that with Bale right now, as opposed to with two or three other players bought with that money this late in pre-season. I agree with what you're saying about Real, but if they don't get Bale, then who are they going to offset Neymar with? The only other candidate I can see this off-season is Suarez, although I stand to be corrected. Then, as I say, if Bale has another great season, then either (a) we sell him to whoever for shit-loads or (b) we keep him. Bale might be shit this year, although I doubt it. I think there's much more to come from him if surrounded with better players. He might well get injured this year, but like you say, that's not necessarily a reason to offload someone. Fundamentally, if we get Soldado then we shouldn't be relying on Bale so much. Dembele/Sandro/Paulinho behind Chadli/Soldado/Bale sounds fucking ace to me - and you've still probably got Lennon, Townsend and possibly people like Ade/Defoe/Dempsey/Sigurdsson/Holtby on the bench. If AVB can't make a decent team out of that lot, he wants shooting.

I wish I knew. Part of it will be that there aren't too many strikers around who are definitely better than Ade or Defoe, and those will almost certainly want CL football and/or just shit-loads of cash. Michu was a fantastic bargain, and Benteke looks like being the same, but both were a bit of a punt. We've not been totally shit at it - Berbatov was a cracking bit of work. We've just got caught up in a couple of irritating situations; Leandro Damiao being the prime example. Then you look at the money spunked on Bent and Pav. We recouped most of it, but they were still, essentially, failures. Bottom line, we're at an awkward point. We're not in the CL, but we're playing at a level that is there or thereabouts (4th the year before last, 72 points last year). Aubameyang is a decent example - available for a reasonable fee, but only really interested in CL. There's an argument that Levy's apparently hardline negotiations can cause problems, but as you say, that doesn't seem to be an issue in other positions.

Well if we really are getting Soldado, then that's Soldado, Paulinho and Chadli. That's significant enough for me. The problem is, of course, which 4 x 20M players are we talking about? Who would come that is better than what we have? And how much is that in wages? Villa wanted 25M for Benteke, and he was happy to hang around for a bit longer - I suspect - to make sure he got a move to a bigger, more reliably CL club than us. We've been building teams for the next 5+ years for a while. Now I suspect we've actually got a team to move up to "the next level". Why not try to do that this season? It's looking increasingly like Real will be unable to stump up these ludicrous sums in cash, and will instead try makeweights like Coentrao to pad deals. I can't see them being too happy, and I can't see us being all that interested.