Summer transfer rumours, speculation and out-and-out b*ll*cks.

[eastie]

 
Tottenham Hotspur have made a breakthrough in their protracted pursuit of Real Madrid's Lassana Diarra and they are now confident of concluding what would be an eye-catching signing before the end of the month.

Harry Redknapp is a confirmed admirer of the France midfielder, having signed him from Arsenal for £5.5m in January 2008 when he was manager of Portsmouth and he attempted to take him to White Hart Lane from Madrid last summer.

It feels as if a transfer window cannot pass without Tottenham making an inquiry about Diarra only for them to encounter a familiar problem in the shape of his wage demands. The 26-year-old earns £120,000 a week at the Bernabéu.

Yet the Tottenham chairman, Daniel Levy, under pressure from Redknapp, has sought to put together the most attractive package possible for Diarra, featuring bonuses and a large signing-on fee, and hope has turned to conviction in recent days that a deal can be struck. Tottenham want the arrival of a player of Diarra's calibre .
Redknapp is also confident of signing the former Arsenal striker Emmanuel Adebayor on loan from Manchester City, while he is keen on the Bolton Wanderers central defender Gary Cahill.
 

[Concrete John]

There's too many players that have to move for us not to get someone. Parker, Barton, Hutton and Man City's left overs are all still available.

We'll get someone in the last week.

Plus, is Diarra still on a free or has anyone signed him yet?

about to join spurs on loan apparently.

How can you loan a free agent?

lassana diarra are you talking about?

Sorry, no - Mahamadou Diarra

[garyshawsknee]

Fcuking Spurs,he'd been the perfect signing last summer(and this summer),though his wages would be far too much for us,still can't see how Tottenham could afford them. They're in the same boat as us,trying to get rid of deadwood on too much money.

[eastie]

Fcuking Spurs,he'd been the perfect signing last summer(and this summer),though his wages would be far too much for us,still can't see how Tottenham could afford them. They're in the same boat as us,trying to get rid of deadwood on too much money.

they can afford it by selling modric.

[spangley1812]

 Aston Villa manager Alex McLeish has told BBC Five Live's Mike Sewell that he does not expect to be active in the transfer market this summer - unless players leave the club.

[eastie]

There's too many players that have to move for us not to get someone. Parker, Barton, Hutton and Man City's left overs are all still available.

We'll get someone in the last week.

Plus, is Diarra still on a free or has anyone signed him yet?

about to join spurs on loan apparently.

How can you loan a free agent?

lassana diarra are you talking about?

Sorry, no - Mahamadou Diarra

isnt he a busted flush nowadays and well past his best ? looked poor in a relegated monaco side last season and would probably want obscene wages too.

[garyshawsknee]

Fcuking Spurs,he'd been the perfect signing last summer(and this summer),though his wages would be far too much for us,still can't see how Tottenham could afford them. They're in the same boat as us,trying to get rid of deadwood on too much money.

they can afford it by selling modric.

I thought they had a tight wage structure though?

[Dante Lavelli]

Fcuking Spurs,he'd been the perfect signing last summer(and this summer),though his wages would be far too much for us,still can't see how Tottenham could afford them. They're in the same boat as us,trying to get rid of deadwood on too much money.

they can afford it by selling modric.

I thought they had a tight wage structure though?

They do.  I think their top earners are on 60k a week.  It just shows that you can still have a top team without paying stupid money.

[KRS]

Aston Villa manager Alex McLeish has told BBC Five Live's Mike Sewell that he does not expect to be active in the transfer market this summer - unless players leave the club.

I know its all about reducing the wage bill, but we've already got rid of a load of players including £35m for AY and SD...hearing this line repeated is very frustrating. How many more players need to leave the club???

[pedro25]

Does that include loans? I don't expect any more signings but was hoping for a loan.

[Shrek]

AM has said We will not sign anybody, perminant or on loan unless we sell someone.

[pedro25]

Is Cuellar to Rangers off or just gone quiet?

[TheSandman]

They don't want him due to his injury.

[Concrete John]

Aston Villa manager Alex McLeish has told BBC Five Live's Mike Sewell that he does not expect to be active in the transfer market this summer - unless players leave the club.

I know its all about reducing the wage bill, but we've already got rid of a load of players including £35m for AY and SD...hearing this line repeated is very frustrating. How many more players need to leave the club???

I've been thinking about this and how are wagebill should be broken down.  Basing it on a 25-man squad I think it's relaistic to have 16 semior pros, which is your first 11 plus an almost full bench.  If three of those are the 'superstars you need to compete, such as Bent, then they'd be on say £65k a week with the other 13 averaging £40k.  So a total of £715k a week.  The reamining 9 would be youth, so say £20k a week and a total of £180k and a grand total rounded up to £900k a week.  Over 52 weeks that's about £47m.

Is our turnover enough to sustain that and can we possibly hope to compete paying anything less?   

[FatSam]

HJK Helsinki beat Schalke 2-0. Both goals were scored by 21-year-old Teemu Pukki. He might be the answer to Team Finland's chronic lack of adequate quality forwards. Forssell has played even when crocked and non-scoring. Pukki is widely considered to be one of the most talented finns of his generation. Now he has fulfilled his promise. For 95 minutes at least.
 
So if this wasn't a one off accident, sign him up!

Another one to keep an eye on from HJK is 20-year-old midfielder Alexander Ring. He's Schweinsteiger of Helsinki. Ring spent his youth at Leverkusen so expect Schalke to sign him pretty soon. Finnish players are dirt cheap compared to the swedes, norwegians or danes.

I know nothing about this player, and his price has probably soared after last night, but as a strategy it would be good to see us sign promising young players from abroad to compliment our home grown players. He was obviously playing at higher level than Pukki, but seeing the value Porto have had from Falcao is quite sickening. We were very loosely linked with him at the time, and I think there was some kind of shared ownership issue that might have made it difficult for an English club to sign him, but there are others out there like him. To put it into context, six months before Porto signed Falcao for less than £5M, we paid £3.5M for Heskey.

It seems that MON's 'Buy British' strategy hit a brick wall, and now his successors have to deal with the consequences. We weren't able to attract the very best UK-based players due to the absence of CL football, and limiting ourselves to buying British, or from British clubs, meant we got the worst value. The occasions where it definitely did work are where we signed young English players. Most would agree that the successful transfer dealings associated with Downing, Young, Milner, and potentially Delph, have largely outweighed the less-successful ones of Davies, Cahill, and Reo-Coker. However, on the whole we have ended-up with a highly-paid squad with no re-sale value. Some of these players are contributing, some are not, and the rest have seen out their contracts or been sold cheaply.

Other clubs sign young players as part of a medium term strategy and send them straight out on loan to get some experience until they are ready for the first team. MON really only signed players to deal with an immediate problem that he faced. This meant that last year we ended-up preparing Walker ready to slip straight into the Tottenham first team this season.