Tottenham Hotspur 08/09 season

[King Ledley]

Tottenham Being Reinvented Under Ramos


After two consecutive fifth place finishes in the Premier League, Tottenham Hotspur had hoped to become the first club in England to well and truly infiltrate the ‘big four’ of Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool and bitter rivals Arsenal. Instead the North London side faltered from the beginning of the last campaign, flirting with relegation in the early stages.


Martin Jol lost his job amidst rumours of a falling out with director of football Damien Comolli and a string of unsatisfactory results, and Sevilla manager Juande Ramos was introduced as his successor; the man to put Spurs back on track.

Things have perhaps not been corrected as quickly as the board might have liked however. Despite securing their first piece of silverware in nine years during 2008, winning the Carling Cup has acted as a smokescreen for an otherwise highly disappointing season at White Hart Lane.

Finishing in the bottom half of the table can only be considered a failure after the progress made in recent years, and many of the players introduced to the club have flopped.

On the pitch, Spurs looked disastrously out of sorts at times, void of a sense of shape and unable to defend set pieces. For many years Tottenham fans have took pride in the attractive attacking football played by their beloved, but have had little or nothing to show for it in return.

They are undoubtedly a joy to behold when everything falls into place, but they simply haven’t had enough quality for the “you-score-three-we’ll-score-four” mentality they would so dearly love to adopt, as high scoring draws against Chelsea and Aston Villa have proved.

New Additions

What Ramos must now do over the summer is attempt to strike a balance within the side. Two of the outfield signings made thus far are certain to add a creative spark to the midfield. In signing Luka Modric, Spurs now appear to have a technically gifted midfielder who can play on the left or straight through the middle and dictate attacks with his vision, understanding of the game and the accuracy of his passing.

However, whilst the Croatian playmaker shone at the European Championships in Austria and Switzerland, there are those who believe Modric, who cuts a slight figure and stands at only roughly five feet and eight inches tall, will suffer against the physicality of a Premier League midfield.

Include Mexican wonder kid Giovani Dos Santos into the equation, another addition who appears to be somewhat lightweight, and you’re faced with a need for holding midfielders to accommodate them. Spurs already have Tom Huddlestone, Didier Zokora and Teemu Tainio who are all capable of filling this role, but perhaps Ramos will opt to look outside of the existing squad if he wishes to fill these positions. David Albelda of Valencia for example looks set to be shown the door and characterises everything Spurs currently lack.

As the Tottenham squad is put through its paces at a summer training camp in Spain this week, head coach Ramos will be observing, mulling over which of his players will actually still be with the club when the new Premier League campaign starts.

The Spaniard would undoubtedly have hoped to have his final group together for the beginning of pre-season sessions, but with only three first team signings added so far and a huge list of possible outgoing transfers, this looks to be anything but the case.

In fact, Spurs are rumoured to be ready to offload a whole team of players during the transfer window. Goalkeeper Paul Robinson looks certain to leave White Hart Lane in the coming months as Heurelho Gomes, formerly of PSV Eindhoven, has travelled to Spain with his new club and only awaits a work permit to confirm the move.

In defence, Pascal Chimbonda, Young Pyo-Lee, Anthony Gardner and Younes Kaboul are all believed to have potential suitors while Ricardo Rocha has been deemed surplus to requirements and Michael Dawson may also be sold if an acceptable fee is offered.

This would leave only Jonathan Woodgate and Ledley King at the heart of the back four, and with serious question marks looming over King’s ability to last the duration due to a series of injuries the North Londoners look likely to strengthen in this area.

Forward Thinking

Unsurprisingly, Dimitar Berbatov has once again been constantly linked with a move to Manchester United. The Bulgarian forward as usual remains calm and collected on the matter, only ever breaking his silence to declare his distaste for the attention he receives from the newspapers. The silence speaks volumes; he will not be drawn into commenting on his future, but if he intended to stay it is unlikely he would keep it a secret.

Now United have reportedly tabled a £20 million bid to test the waters, and whilst it looks set to be rejected they are sure to come back with an improved offer which would surely prise the striker away from the Lane.

The biggest shock of the summer for Tottenham has to be Liverpool’s declaration of interest in Robbie Keane. The Ireland international could well be tempted by the prospect of Champions League football having been loyal to the club for a number of years, but Chairman Daniel Levy will be hoping a valuation of around £20 million will keep the Merseyside club from submitting a formal offer. Certainly, Spurs cannot afford to lose two of their most prized assets in quick succession.

Having won the Carling Cup, Spurs will enter the Uefa Cup, a tournament twice won by Ramos at Sevilla. He has undeniable pedigree in cup competitions and could guide his new club to another trophy, but the main challenge for the new season must be to turn Tottenham Hotspur back into a force to be reckoned with, consistently finishing in the top six.

[GioDosSantos]

Making waves

The lads made a splash in a pre-season training session with a difference in Spain on Saturday.

With the sweat barely dry from another gruelling early-morning running shift on the golf course, Juande Ramos and the coaching team led the squad to the nearby beach for a series of tough sprints in the sand followed by lighter, team-bonding games of beach football and relays into the sea!

The first of the relays was a straight sprint with players having to carry a ball but then the routines took a twist as first the teams organised into threes to chair-lift one of their team through the waves and then into one, big 'chariot', with several players locked together carrying one on top!

The lads clearly loved it and first team coach Marcos Alvarez explained: "The sprinting routines in the sand were all about power work but then it was about a more fun element. The players enjoyed it and it's been a good day so far."

Injury free from these exercises I hope

Just Imagine the headlines, Half the Spurs team injured on the beach in spain in pre-season training

[delfino_1936]

i think your sides biggest hope is winning the Uefa Cup. Only cause of ramos' record in it

[ramosrules]

There are some real quality sides in the Uefa this year.

[King Ledley]

Finishing school

Fitness and finishing were the key elements of Monday morning's session at our Spanish training camp.

Following a series of fitness drills, the lads set their sights on goal with a routine designed to work on crossing and finishing skills - not forgetting the goalkeepers!

As Head Coach Juande Ramos monitored the finishing, goalkeeper coach Hans Leitert kept a close eye on how Heurelho Gomes, Ben Alnwick and Oscar Jansson performed in keeping the ball out.

[King Ledley]

Losing start for Young Lions

Danny Rose and David Button both played 90 minutes as the England Under-19 side were defeated 2-0 by hosts Czech Republic in the opening game of their European Championship campaign.

Two second half goals in the space of three minutes from Tomas Necid proved to be the difference in Jablonec, despite the best efforts of our lads.

The Slavia Prague striker had earlier been denied by Button, who made a spectacular stop from his 28th minute header.

But a mix-up between our 19-year-old Reserve team goalkeeper and Birmingham City's Krystian Pearce in the 55th minute allowed Necid to break the deadlock, and he soon doubled his side's advantage.

Danny, David and co will now look to get back on track in Group B when they face Italy at the same venue on Thursday evening.

Watched this game last night

[ComeOnYouBlues]

another Tottenham goalie fucking up for his country

[King Ledley]

Spurs in Spain

The intensity of football training stepped up a gear at our training camp in Spain on Sunday.

The lads were first split into two groups for exercises designed to maintain possession - one group had four small goals placed around a small pitch and teams had to complete seven passes without the opposition touching the ball before they were allowed to try to score. If the opposing team touched the ball, possession changed hands.

It was then three groups forming circles with two players in the middle trying to get a touch on the ball.

As all this was going on, goalkeeping coach Hans Leitert put the keepers through their paces at the bottom end of the pitch.

The session was completed by a match played over three-quarters of the pitch.

Lunch followed and the final session of the day was in the gym.

[King Ledley]

Gr-eight for Gio

Giovani dos Santos marked his first appearance in a Spurs shirt with two goals as we beat local side Tavernes 8-0 in a training ground friendly in Spain on Monday night.

The forward looked lively as he bagged both his goals in the second half of our first friendly this pre-season.

Head Coach Juande Ramos opted to line-up with different XI's in each half and, as expected, the 'home' team provided a tough barrier in the first half.

Darren Bent hit the post and headed just wide, Benoit Assou-Ekotto fired just over and Jermaine Jenas saw a volley saved before the opener finally arrived in the 28th minute - via the head of Aaron Lennon, who powered home John Bostock's cross.

Despite peppering the goal for the rest of the half, it somehow stayed at 1-0 and it was left for the second half team to turn all that possession into goals.

Pekhart led the way with a cracker into the top corner with only a couple of minutes on the clock - his first for the senior team - and goals followed regularly from there.

Dos Santos got on the act quickly with a cheeky goal from a tight angle and both he, Pekhart and Jamie O'Hara ended with two goals each - the pick, the eighth and final goal as O'Hara curled home with some style from the edge of the area into the top corner. Steed Malbranque completed the scoring.

Here's how the goals went in...

27.16: Bostock pinpoint cross from the left powered home by the head of Lennon from 16 yards. 1-0.

47.18: Berbatov and O'Hara involved in the move that led to Pekhart rifling into the top corner from the edge of the box. 2-0.

53.24: Huddlestone picked out dos Santos on the left, he carried the ball into the box, the keeper anticipated the cross, dos Santos drilled home at his near post. 3-0.

63.25: Hutton broke down the right and cut the ball back for Berbatov, he controlled and crossed low for Pekhart to sweep home from 10 yards. 4-0.

68.20: Tavernes failed to clear their lines and dos Santos made no mistake from eight yards. 5-0.

76.20: Pekhart into the box, left side, squared for Malbranque who slotted home from 12 yards. 6-0.

84.50: Townsend found O'Hara who drove past a couple of defenders before finishing from a central position into the corner. 7-0.

85.51: Goal of the night - we kept possession for a spell before O'Hara curled into the top corner from 20 yards. 8-0.

First half: Alnwick, Gunter, Assou-Ekotto, Dawson, Chimbonda, Lennon, Jenas, Taarabt, Bostock, Keane, Bent.

Second half: Jansson, Hutton, Townsend, Tainio, Archibald-Henville, Malbranque, O'Hara, Huddlestone, dos Santos, Berbatov, Pekhart.

[King Ledley]

Business as usual for Clive and co

With the first team group being tested to the extremes out in Spain and the Academy group also on their Swiss training camp, business as usual continues at Spurs Lodge for Clive Allen and his development group.

They face St Albans City on Wednesday in the first Spurs XI game of pre-season and the squad are being put through their paces at home in preparation.

But Clive believes no amount of training can replicate the benefit he feels his players will get out of playing matches against some tough opposition over the next month.

Our Development Coach said: "The group know that they've got to work very hard. We're on a parallel training course, the same as the first team and Academy, so although we're all in different parts of the world, we're working along the same lines so fitness will be the same and players can go between groups and not miss anything in terms of conditioning for the start of the season.

"We start with the base fitness in the first week where the boys do their leg work, then they go onto the weights and work on their power and strength, and as they get that little bit fitter, we build in the speed and sharpness and the conditioning is increased going into the first games.

"Then we get into the games and they start to get the minutes on the pitch under their belt. It's all programmed and it's a progressive build up for the all the groups.

"But it doesn't matter how much training you do in pre-season, you can never recreate the match situation and match conditioning.

"So we've got the Spurs XI games and I'm always one for building them up in terms of level of opposition. I'd say we have stiffer opposition this year than ever before.

"We start with St Albans City on Wednesday but go on to face strong Conference sides like Crawley and Rushden, and then league opposition in Aldershot.

"The boys know it's not all about results in pre-season - it's about performances. Over the last few years we've had good pre-season build-ups and it bodes well for the start of the season."

[King Ledley]

Opportunity knocks

Two of our younger players are relishing the experience of training with the first team in Spain.

Andros Townsend and goalkeeper Oscar Jansson are with fellow youngsters Tomas Pekhart, Troy-Archibald Henville and John Bostock at the training camp.

Second Year Academy trainee Andros, who turns 17 this week, said: "This is a great opportunity at my age and I know I have to seize the chance to impress.

"I spoke to Jamie O'Hara the other day and he said 'you're only young, don't worry too much if something goes wrong' and he's right, I'm only 16 and not many players at my age are training with the first team at a club like Tottenham.

"Just being around senior professionals you pick up things and I'll use the experience to try to become a better player."

Oscar, 17, has impressed our new goalkeeping coach Hans Leitert. "It's a fantastic opportunity to learn from the likes of Hans, Gomes and Ben Alnwick," he said. "Gomes has been brilliant, a great personality and I've loved working with him and it's the same with Ben. It's a great team to work with.

"My goal when I came back this summer was to be with the Under-18s and hopefully the reserves so to come out to Spain has been superb. It's a real experience and I'm learning in every session."

[King Ledley]

Gus: Ideal start

Gus Poyet described our 8-0 win against Tavernes as 'the ideal start' to pre-season friendly action.

Tavernes - who play in the Divisiones Regional de Futbol in Spain - provided stubborn opposition initially and we only had Aaron Lennon's bullet header to show for our first half dominance.

That dominance turned into goals in the second period as Giovani dos Santos marked his first game in a Spurs shirt with two, Tomas Pekhart bagged his first and second senior goals for the club, Jamie O'Hara also weighed in with two and Steed Malbranque completed the scoring.

"The players had 45 minutes each, we've no injuries and it was a good win - that's good new for everyone," reflected First Team coach Gus.

"It's always tough to score the first goal in these games, the opposition is always very determined, but we showed good movement throughout and eventually it became easier.

"The attitude pleased me the most - the lads took it seriously and that's what we asked for.

"It was about playing football again and fitness and when you play local teams like this and start scoring goals you can relax but that wasn't the case. We drove on looking for more."

Meanwhile, Gus responded to speculation in Sunday's media linking him with an assistant's role at Manchester United. "It's nothing," he stated. "It was a surprise to read it.

"I want to stay at Spurs, I want to stay with this manager, this group of players and this club because I'm very happy.

"When you are in England and you are lucky enough to be with one of the big teams you are always going to get speculation. It happens, that's football - I've been around long enough to ignore it!"

[King Ledley]

Gio's delight

Giovani dos Santos was naturally delighted to get off the mark for the club in his first appearance in a Spurs shirt.

Our summer capture from Barcelona netted twice in Monday's 8-0 training ground friendly victory over local Spanish side Tavernes.

Gio, playing wide left, entered the action as part of the second half XI and didn't take long to open his account - just over eight minutes.

Sent away down his flank, he cut into the box, saw that the home keeper had inched off his line anticipating a cross and caught him out by drilling the ball home at the near post.

His second goal wasn't far away, a routine finish from close range as we went on to register a comfortable win. Tomas Pekhart, Jamie O'Hara (also two each), Aaron Lennon and Steed Malbranque joined him on the scoresheet.

"It's good for me, a great start," beamed Gio afterwards. "It's also good for the team and we're all happy with how it went.

"I'm very happy to be here in this team. I feel I've settled well. The football is enjoyable and the players have helped me a lot."

[ramosrules]

Source: Daily Mail

Tottenham are looking at replacing Manchester United-bound Dimitar Berbatov with Russia's Euro 2008 striker Roman Pavlyuchenko.

It has been reported in Russia that Spurs sporting director Damien Comolli watched Pavlyuchenko play in Spartak Moscow's 5-1 defeat by CSKA Moscow at the weekend.

Comolli is then believed to have talked to the 26-year-old's agent Oleg Artyomov after the game about a possible move to White Hart Lane.

Spurs are on the hunt for a new striker with Berbatov set to move to United in a £28million deal and Pavlyuchenko is one of the most highly-rated forwards in Europe.

The club won't let Berbatov go until they have a replacement and the 6ft 3in Pavlyuchenko fits the bill, although Spartak are determined to get at least £12m for him.

Berbatov played for 45 minutes in Tottenham's 8-0 win against Spanish side Tavernes last night in a pre-season friendly. But while the Bulgarian failed to score, £4.7m signing Giovani dos Santos marked his debut with two goals.

Got bags and bags of chances in Euro's, he missed a hell of a lot of em though

[delfino_1936]

has Gomes signed with you guys??

cause according to some sites you spuds have only signed GDS, Rostock and Modric (waiting on work permit) imagine if that falls through

[King Ledley]

has Gomes signed with you guys??

cause according to some sites you spuds have only signed GDS, Rostock and Modric (waiting on work permit) imagine if that falls through

Waiting on work permit, it will go through...he's already training

[delfino_1936]

has Gomes signed with you guys??

cause according to some sites you spuds have only signed GDS, Rostock and Modric (waiting on work permit) imagine if that falls through

Waiting on work permit, it will go through...he's already training

ah ok yep, cause football365 haven't confirmed it yet

[King Ledley]

they will

[SPURS18]

I think it has gone through cant see why it wouldnt

[Judge Judy]

there's a pick of Gomes up there

hooped socks are awful

[delfino_1936]

there's a pick of Gomes up there

hooped socks are awful

i know hence why i asked

and agree

[King Ledley]

Capel considering Sevilla exit as Spurs hover

Diego Capel admits he would consider leaving Sevilla to 'grow as a footballer' if Tottenham can agree a fee with the Spanish side.

Spurs were linked with a failed £12.5million bid for the 20-year-old winger last month, but the door appears to have been left open for another attempt.

Capel told Diario de Sevilla: 'For sure everybody wants to grow as a footballer, I'm at a great club, but you always have better objectives.'

When asked whether he knew of Spurs' interest, Capel said: 'I know there's something but the club [Sevilla] trust me and I owe them for this confidence.

'[Tottenham manager Juande Ramos] didn't speak to me, he did with my agent I presume, yes. My representatives deal with this.

'I think Sevilla's president has all the right in the world to do this [turn down an offer]. Right now I belong to Sevilla, I'm under contract here and that needs to be respected.

'For sure my intention is to keep developing at Sevilla. If they value my work I'll stay here or if they value me more elsewhere, you never know what can happen.'

Negotiations could be complicated by the fall-out from Ramos leaving Sevilla for White Hart Lane last season.

Ramos is preparing for his first full Barclays Premier League campaign but there is uncertainty whether either Dimitar Berbatov or Robbie Keane will be leading the attack together.

Berbatov has been tipped to leave for Manchester United, Keane is a target for Liverpool, while winger David Bentley is seen as a possible recruit.

Espanyol's Luis Garcia is a potential replacement for Keane if he leaves for Anfield.

The Spanish club's sporting director, Paco Herrera, admits Garcia's situation is one of the remaining problems to be solved for Espanyol.

He said: 'The only case left open now is Luis's one. There is a situation that has happened, but there has been no firm offer.'

Meanwhile, Hossam Ghaly is expected to leave Spurs this summer and could return to Egypt on loan with Al-Ahli.

[King Ledley]

Hercules friendly

Our first team will face Hercules CF of Alicante in a pre-season friendly on Thursday July 24.

The senior friendly of our Spanish training camp will kick-off at 9.30pm local time (8.30pm UK) at the club's Jose Rico Perez Stadium.

Hercules play in the Segunda Division of the Spanish League and finished sixth last season.

For Head Coach Juande Ramos, it will be a welcome return to an area of Spain he knows well - Alicante is one of his former clubs as a player.

"I'm not from Alicante, but I've always been familiar with the area and it's always nice to come back," Juande told a press conference to announce the friendly at the stadium on Wednesday.

"This is an important friendly for us. I'm happy to be here with Tottenham and looking forward to playing Hercules. I hope all the people enjoy it."

[King Ledley]

Ramos: We Will Not Be Signing Luis García


Juande Ramos has dismissed reports that Tottenham are preparing to make a bid for Espanyol's Luis García after the Spanish club's sporting director hinted a move was on the cards.

Premature reports earlier this month even suggested that the north London club had an offer accepted, but it now appears that there will be no approach at all.

Tottenham, who are currently on a pre-season training camp in Spain, were believed to want the former Mallorca forward and were prepared to pay around €12m for his signature, but Ramos has denied that.

"The business about Luis García has never been anything. It was something that someone put out there and others believed it, but there is nothing in it," he told Sport.

"We will not be signing him."

Espanyol's sporting director, Paco Herrera, hinted that there is a club interested in the player when he revealed that the only outstanding matter at the club was Luis Garcia.

"The only case left open now is Luis' one. There is a situation that has happened, but there has been no firm offer," said the chief.

"What happens there does not depend on us in any way."
Valencia could well be the club involved rather than Tottenham, with Los Ché having been long-time admirers of the Spain international.

The Mestalla-based club's new owner, Juan Villalonga, is keen to bolster his side's attacking options and has asked coach Unai Emery to identify the players he wants.

[ramosrules]

Source: Metro

Metro's chief sportswriter Danny Griffiths explains why Spurs are well-positioned to prosper once the transfer market goes into full swing.

Daniel Levy is continuing to emerge as one of the shrewdest chairmen in football as Tottenham pass through another transfer window of frenetic business.

Spurs have been linked with a whopping 55 players since the end of last season but nearly all the speculation has been off target with the Londoners acting swiftly and decisively to make their signings with the minimum of fuss.

That was certainly the case when Croatia's Luka Modric was signed for around £16m to strengthen the Tottenham midfield before proceeding to make an impact in Euro 2008.

The long running sagas surrounding Dimitar Berbatov and Robbie Keane have been leaked by agents or rival clubs while news of deals from White Hart Lane usually emerges well past the 11th hour.

But it is clear that Levy is a hard-nosed businessman when it comes to selling players and Sir Alex Ferguson's chances of buying Dimitar Berbatov for anything under £25million will not be as straight-forward as the Manchester United manager anticipates.

Barcelona have been linked in Spain with a move for the Bulgaria international after running out of patience with Arsenal hotshot Emmanuel Adebayor and his representatives.

They will pay up to £27m for Berbatov meaning United will have to push the boat out to get their man.

The other problem facing the Premier League and Champions League winners is that Spurs would much rather sell the jewel in their crown to foreign competition, so there is little doubt United will have to stump up more money than they intend to.

If the sale of Steed Malbranque, Younes Kaboul, Pascal Chimbonda and Teemu Tainio to Sunderland nets the alleged £23m on the table it may help keep Robbie Keane at the Lane.

The Republic of ireland international has a first-rate relationship with the board, however, and if he is determined to leave they will allow him to go to Liverpool - but only if the Merseysiders have cough up £20m, giving Spurs a £70m war chest in which to bring in top quality recruits.

So what is likely to happen next?

Blackburn have missed out on England goalkeeper Scott Carson as he is heading to West Brom and the informed speculation is that Rovers will now take Paul Robinson as a makeweight in a player-plus cash deal approaching £15m for David Bentley.

Ricardo Rocha, Lee and Young-Pyo Lee, Paul Stalteri and Hossam Ghaly are also on the way out of the Lane while it is not inconceivable that Darren Bent could be the fifth Spurs player to head north from N17 to the Stadium of Light.

Tottenham will use that cash to bring in replacements already earmarked by Juande Ramos and when they make their moves expect them to be swift, decisive - and unexpected.

Decent enough article, we always seem to be linked with every player going around yet we sign players out of the blue like Modric and Gomes that will vastly improve our team and that hasn't been rumoured for the past 2 weeks.

[ramosrules]

Top four is in our sight - Ramos
Tottenham boss Juande Ramos is still eyeing a place in the top four despite admitting the club's transfer policy could see his top stars leave.
Spurs have earned a reputation for investing in talent before increasing their value and although many have remained at White Hart Lane, Michael Carrick was a departure to Manchester United.

Dimitar Berbatov has been targeted by United this summer, while Liverpool's pursuit of strike partner Robbie Keane has provoked anger from Spurs.

Both would command fees that would mean a huge profit on original transfer fees, as would goalkeeper Paul Robinson.

"At Tottenham we have a clear philosophy and, for years, they have managed the transfer market in a certain manner," said Ramos, who arrived at Spurs last season from Sevilla.

"People have to understand that this is a club that is on the stock market, a company that has to give accounts at the end.

"The idea is to sign young players, with prospects and quality and, if there are good offers for others who are older, to study them to see what is the best for the club."

Spurs have already signed Luka Modric and Giovani dos Santos this summer and have invested heavily in recent seasons, although Berbatov and Keane would be deemed huge losses.

Ramos has been quoted in Spain distancing himself from a move for Espanyol's Luis Garcia - who would be a replacement for Keane - but Sevilla's winger Diego Capel has appeared interested in a move if a fee can be agreed.

At the moment, seeing which of his strikers will remain at the club could determine Ramos' next move.

He told Spanish newspaper AS: "We'll see how it will all end, but we are talking about two very important footballers. At the moment they're with us, but what will happen will happen.

"The idea is to keep hold of an important squad, which has a potential that lets us aim to better that of last season.

"We have to be realistic, to look at where we are starting from and who is going to compete with us. There are important clubs which have spent years spending a lot of money and who have a certain advantage, in fact they say that they want to sign some of our players.

"We realise that there is a 'top four' formed by Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal who are those that in the past few years take the Champions League places and it is very hard to break in there.

"Our ambition is to end up in this 'top four' of the Premier League and put ourselves in these places, but we know that is difficult and that there are other teams who are going to fight for the same."

Unless we get some real quality/world class replacements if Keane and Berba leave this article will be 'top 4 was in our sights

[ramosrules]

Source : Official Site

Summer signing Luka Modric has joined his new team-mates at our training camp in Spain.

Luka was granted a later summer break after his exploits for Croatia in the European Championships - the midfielder starred as his side reached the quarter-finals and he was still playing on June 20.

It was the same scenario for Gilberto and Didier Zokora and they have also now arrived in Spain after playing for Brazil and Ivory Coast respectively in World Cup 2010 qualifiers throughout June.

[ramosrules]

Source: Mail

Spurs' Kaboul wouldn't join Sunderland 'in an earthquake' says player's agent

Even Sunderland manager Roy Keane may have his work cut out trying to convince Tottenham's Younes Kaboul to move to Wearside, his agent has warned.

The French midfielder is one of four Spurs stars who has been given permission to speak to Keane after Juande Ramos accepted a £23 million package on Thursday night.

But Kaboul's agent Rudy Raba said: `Younes wouldn't join Sunderland even if there was an earthquake. We have more interesting options than Sunderland. Don't even think about it.'

Keane will still hope to speak to the 22-year-old defender, who started his career at Auxerre. The Sunderland boss is also lined up to speak to Pascal Chimbonda, Teemu Tainio and Steed Malbranque.

[ramosrules]

Spurs complain over pursuit of duo
Tottenham have lodged an official complaint to the Premier League over the transfer window conduct of Manchester United and Liverpool
Sir Alex Ferguson has confirmed United have made a bid for Dimitar Berbatov and eventually expects the deal to go through.

Spurs have also been angered by the comments of Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez, who went public last week by revealing Republic of Ireland captain Robbie Keane as a target.

Spurs chairman Daniel Levy has issued the following statement on his club's official website: "Today's public comments by Manchester United's manager, announcing that he has made an offer for Dimitar and is confident that the deal will go through with time working in their favour, is a blatant example of sheer arrogance and interference with one of our players.

"It is also probably one of the worst offences by any manager in the Premier League to date and is unbelievably hypocritical given his recent comments in respect of Cristiano Ronaldo and Real Madrid.

"This comes after a series of events, dating back to last summer, which have shown Manchester United to be in breach of Premier League rules.

"As a result, we have today made an official complaint to the Premier League about the conduct of Manchester United.

"Benitez made similar comments in respect of Robbie recently and we made an official complaint to the Premier League about the conduct of Liverpool earlier this week.

"The behaviour of both clubs has been disgraceful. We told both clubs very early on that we had no interest in selling Robbie or Dimitar, respectively, and that they should refrain from pursuing the player.

"Both clubs arrogantly chose to ignore this request and we now have evidence that both clubs have systematically been working to prise the players away from us, outside of Premier League rules of conduct.

"Our subsequent position has been severely compromised by both clubs making their intentions widely known and indeed making contact with the players and their agents, without the club's permission.

"I have absolutely no wish to sell either player and to date we have not accepted any offer for either.

"However, when a player's head is turned and their commitment is absent, particularly when they occupy key positions such as that of striker, they become a negative influence in a team dressing room in which they were once a positive addition and influence.

"This is the situation we now have on our hands, with both Dimitar and Robbie having made it clear that they wish to leave for Manchester Utd and Liverpool respectively.

"Irrespective of the outcome and futures of Robbie and Dimitar, we are continuing to seek to bring in quality, talented players for the future, who want to play in a Spurs shirt."

Benitez and Spurs have clashed before, in March 2006, when the Liverpool boss claimed Spurs were "desperate" to sell Jermain Defoe and take Djibril Cisse.

It led to Benitez's professionalism being questioned by Spurs officials, and the latest fall-out is unlikely to help the relationship between the clubs.

Aston Villa had already been upset this summer by Benitez's comments regarding Gareth Barry's potential move to Anfield.


Benitez is obviously taking attention away from himself, he is by far the worst manager in the top 4 has disappointed in the league every year he has been at Liverpool he is one of my picks to be sacked thisyear, if it hadn't been for the champions league he would have had a very short life on Mersyside.

[# 9]

i think tottenham will be a suprise package of 08/09 due to the young and exciting gareth bale, giovanni dos santos, kaboul and aaron lennon will liven things up and i think a uefa cup spot is cemented??

it wouldnt suprise me if spurs finished 5th, 6th or 7th.