Talk Of The Spurs

Did you hear Lee Dixon talking about the Gooner match at the Nou Camp said "We’re not going to there to take photos. I’ve never played there before." Well, let me tell you, Lee Dixon, you haven’t played anywhere mate !!

The newspapers are again lining up forwards for Tottenham to sign and for David Pleat to tell the Media Monitor that we have not looked at/had a bid in for/discussed/shown interest this player at this time. David Johnson is probably the nearest GG would get to the finished article for 5 million pounds, but as we are not on Ipswich’s Christmas card list after removing Taricco, Charlie Woods and Houston from Portman Road by fair means or foul, they probably wouldn’t be too chuffed if we took their best striker too. For some time the trip that took Pleat and Woods to Argentina looked like bringing Martin (3 missed penalties) Palermo back with them, but while they were there Middlesbrough signed the young Argentine Marinelli - the next new Maradona. Where were the Spurs staff looking ??

Other players Spurs have been eyeing are the Icelandic central defender at Brentford, Hreidarsson, but look what they are asking for Herman - a monster fee !! Then there is Yksel Osmanovski - a 22 year old Swede playing for Bari, who cost £2 million last season and is now worth £5 million all of a sudden. While I do not doubt GG’s ability to find star quality unknowns, it might be nice if we did sign someone we have heard of before. James Beattie (Southampton) has also been linked along with George Ndah of Swindon. Is this the bottom of the barrel we are scraping ?? Scouts have also been casting their eyes down at Eidur Gudjohnsen, who’s Dad you might remember as the Anderlecht player who has his penalty saved by Tony Parks in the UEFA Cup final of 1984. The Bolton striker is also the only international to play in the same game as his father !! Marcus Stewart has also been watched along with his Huddersfield team-mate, defender Chris Lucketti. I should not have mentioned Jason Roberts of Bristol Rovers last time, as it is now rumoured that the Gooners are sniffing around him. Lastly, two young QPR players - Richard Langley and Leon Jeanne - have been catching GG’s eye. It’s unlikely that Gerry Francis would let them go though, unless he needs the money to team build.

The Carbone story dragged on into October, but the £1 million per season "netto", as Ruud Boy would say, counted Spurs out of the reckoning. Beni really has ruled himself out of contention in this country with those sort of wage demands, but Derby are said to be willing to give him a go or possibly a move back to Italy. Wonder if he would take Tramezzani with him as part of the deal ??

Most worrying of late are the Sol Campbell rumours. £21 million would be too much for any club to turn down, but where is his natural replacement? Chris Perry would be great alongside him, but who would fit in alongside Perry ? Ledley King is being groomed for that role, but is not getting onto the pitch and Alton Thelwell is also receiving lots of coverage. Our interest in Anthony Gardener of Port Vale shows that GG is continuing his obsessive centre-half collection, which started in his Arsenal days. I hope Sol will stay, but hard evidence has been presented to MEHSTG that he will be gone by the end of next summer and it will happen one day. The only solace is that we have coped without him, but can’t look serious contenders either.

European football has returned and with it the lack of the famous all-white European kit. Would the club reconsider what colours Tottenham play in on the Glory, Glory Nights, which we hope are many ? The lack of a capacity crowd, despite all the ticketing problems, for the Zimbru game, shows that a rethink over pricing may be necessary. This is especially true of later Cup rounds when season tickets will not be valid. Remember what happened at the FA Cup replay v Wimbledon at home ? Swathes of empty blue seats across the stadium. Surely not a good thing for the atmosphere, the team or the club ?

Lastly, but not leastly, I was disgusted to see that the long history of Arsenal players spitting at other people had not ceased. I would hope that if any Spurs player did that, then strong action would be taken against him.

I Ball