Spurs and West Ham head to head, really?

Spurs and West Ham head to head, really?

Spurs and West Ham head to head, really?

The Evening Standard report that Tottenham and West Ham are in a head to head for the services of Alexandre Lacazette, which as usual with the British press is a rather simplification of the situation.

There is a host of clubs around Europe interested in the 24-year-old (25 later this month) Frenchman, not least Barcelona, who have targetted both him and another Tottenham potential target Samuel Umtiti in recent weeks.

Playing the media is a game in football so we have the situation where a president will tell the media he hasn't had an approach, when what he actually means is he hasn't had an official approach. It happens at every club. You'll hear a club say they have received no offers, which only means nothing has been put in writing, not that they haven't had verbal offers.

A verbal offer is an informal negotiation, so not a serious negotiation allowing a club to deny to their fans that any negotiation has taken place. Nobody is actually lying, they are using the system to do one thing and say another.

The news from Spain is that Barcelona are seriously interested and the news from France is that Lacazette has turned down the approach. Lyon naturally want to keep their goalscorer, but I can't help feeling the figures being quoted are inflated and I return to Betafami Gomis who went to Swansea and struggled in front of goal.

For us to be seriously interested he has to be available at the right price, throwing money around in hope is not a good transfer strategy, as we have seen i the past.