Tottenham Hotspur Blog News - (THBN)

Quick Transfer Talk Roundup

Celtic have joined Norwich and Tottenham in the race to sign West Brom youngster Rekeem Harper. The 19-year-old (20 next March). A report suggests he will be going to Celtic for £235,000 compensation. He'll have to learn to do more work without the ball, he is another player who seems to think the game only exists when the ball is at his feet.

Borussia Dortmund are confident of fending off Premier League interest from Tottenham and Liverpool for Bayer Leverkusen star Julien Brandt say Bild and the following day a deal is announced. Shows up our media promoting deals for Premier League clubs to be what they are, totally untrustworthy.

Lyon Don't Want To Sell Ndombele To Spurs

Lyon President Jean-Michel Aulas wants a bidding war for his prize midfielder Tangay Ndombele but hopes that he stays in France and signs for PSG.

Spurs Chase Cristiano Ronaldo's Mascot

He stood out at the Under-19 European Championships, which Portugal won for the 4th time beating Italy in the final 4-3 in 2018 in Finland. João Filipe was the joint top scorer with teammate Francisco Trincão at the tournament with 5 goals. They had progressed from winning the Under-17 European Championships 2 years earlier.

He could well go straight into the first team squad at Spurs because he is a player beyond his years. If I said he was tenacious, determined, skillful, quick, technically-gifted and with an eye for goal, it sounds as if i'm talking about Erik Lamela, who was expected to go on and achieve far greater than he has. I don't know but I would hope he has a better mentality than Lamela and determines to have more of an end product in the senior game.

Why Tottenham Have A Healthy transfer Budget This Summer

Below is an excellent explainer video from Tifo Football that discusses the Tottenham finances for 2017/18 and what it means for the club.

It explains how the stadium is accounted to be paid for, £25m-a-year for 50 years and that the club is in a far healthier position than when other clubs built their stadium.

Daniel Levy has masterminded the rise of Tottenham from a broken mid-table club to one now in the UEFA Champions League Final with one of the best stadiums in the world, that earns huge amounts from matchdays hospitality, catering and merchandising and a world-class training facility.

These are exciting times for Spurs supporters.

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Aurier and Sissoko Happy At Spurs

Tottenham Hotspur right-back Serge Aurier and midfielder Moussa Sissoko have been talking to Canal Football Club and Aurier has suggested he wants to stay at Spurs.

Tottenham Interested In Striker Kruse To Replace Llorente

Sky Germany reports that Tottenham are intersted in German international (2 goals in 14 appearances) striker Max Kruse to replace Fernando Llorente.

The 31-year-old (32 next March) is leaving Werder Bremen as a free agent when his contract expires on 30 June. The Bundesliga team captain has announced on social media that he will not be signing a contract extension.

He scored 12 goals and had 14 assists in 36 games last season. The left-footed striker can also play as a second striker or an attacking midfielder giving him the versatility to suit our changeable styles..


Kruse didn't say anything about his future but he is a player we have looked at and sounded out as have Inter Milan.

the striker is leaving because the club would not meet his £3.5 million-a-year (€4m) wage demands. That equates to £67,308-a-week (€76,923).

Real Madrid and Eriksen plus Golovin on the radar

OK, I have been in contact with my contact in Spain, the same one who kept me a step ahead of the press over Roberto Soldado a few years back.

He tells me that Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is NOT wanted by Real Madrid and that nobody really knows what will happen at Real Madrid yet.

Zinidine Zidane must have been made promises to return to Real Madrid and that would have been promises over his position and the players that are brought in. Zidane wants Paul Pogba but he commands a high wage and a ludicrously high fee


President Florentino Pérez has other ideas and he has Eriksen high on his list. There are top players around but Eriksen only has a year left on his contract and he will wait all summer long to see if Real Madrid are going to buy him, unless they buy and he is told he isn't wanted yet.

That doesn't mean he won't be told that he will be snapped up when he is a free agent. Even if he doesn't move this summer, there is no guarantee he will sign a new contract and if he doesn't then we can't really afford to let him run down his contract as we'd have to replace him in a year.

Tottenham have to make plans for when Eriksen does leave and one player on the radar is Russian attacking midfielder Aleksandr Golovin.

His agent, Sandor Varga, is aware of our interests and says we may return to firm up interest in his client this summer. The 22-year-old (23 in 10 days time) is wanted by Hoffenheim and is being tracked by Inter Milan and Arsenal.

He currently plays for AS Monaco in Ligue 1, the next most physical league of the big five after the Premier League. His contract there runs out in 2023.

Hayden - Genuine Interest or Agent Talk?

The Chronicle, which is the local newspaper in Newcastle and the South Shields area, read it myself when I stayed in North Shields, suggest Tottenham are interested in 24-year-old (25 next March) Issac Hayden.

The Chelmsford born lad is a defensive midfielder and had 3 caps at England Under-21 level. He would help our homegrown quota, something we must watch, especially if we sell Trippier to Napoli. He can also play as a centre-back or a right-back. He is right-footed and under contract until 2021.


He stands 1.87m which in proper money is 6ft 1 inches tall and represented England at Under-16, Under-17, Under-18, Under-19, and Under-20 levels before gaining his Under-21 caps.

He would not be an upgrade on what we have but Pochettino would be looking to improve his game and it is a question of how much improvement do we think we can get out of him as well as the homegrown factor.

He wants to move back to London for personal reasons and is rumoured, therefore, to be available for £20 million. Whether this is paper talk and his agent trying to find him a club or genuine interest from us is unclear, it could be either quite frankly.

Gareth Bales wages take him out of Spurs price range

The story from the Sun over Gareth Bale is an interesting one.

There is news in Spain that there has been a complete breakdown between Gareth Bale and Zinidine Zidane, they didn't see eye to eye before so the return of the Frenchman wasn't likely to help the former Spurs man's position.

Bale wants to stay and end his carer at Real Madrid, as we know it's his dream club.

The Sun reports that Tottenham have been offered Gareth Bale on loan for £9.98m (€11.5m) and that his salary is £607,578-a-week (€700,000), with bonuses around £690,000 (€790,000). That we would look to be subsidized by Real Madrid if such a deal were to take place.

This is what is generally reported, although what I have heard is that Real Madrid wants a club to cover his entire wages, including bonuses which is a substantial package way beyond our means.


Real Madrid have told Bale to find another club. Zidame wants Arsenal forward Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to replace him. The fee for that deal would be in the region of £73.80 million (€85m) and the suggestion is that Spurs would pay £260,391-a-week (€300,000).

Jonathan Barnett, his agent, was interviewed by Sky and he told them that Zidane does not think Gareth Bale is one of the top 3 or 4 players in the world, which Barnett does. The Welshman is under contract until 2022 and Barnett confirmed he is quite happy to stay.


That means Bale can turn down moves and Real Madrid may have to be helpful to buying clubs to sell him. Remember Spurs have a first option on him and any deal Real Madrid agree with any club, the same deal has to be offered to Tottenham who would have first choice whether to sign him on those terms.

Obviously, wages with individual teams is an entirely different matter.

The 29-year-old (30 in July) is under contract until 2022 and a season-long loan spell would reduce his fee with a year off that contract.

Le Parisien report that PSG Sporting Director Antero Henrique has is watching the situation of Gareth Bale, Isco and Toni Kroos and that he would like to bring all three to the French champions.

Fekir unlikely to sign for Spurs

Le Parisien are reporting that Tottenham are interested in Nabil Fekir again, as are Liverpool.

Both Premier League clubs are watching ho Lyon get on in Lique 1. Currently, Lyon sit in 3rd place, a UEFA Champions League qualifying round position, just the top two in France go directly into the Champions League.

With two games to go Lyon are 6 points behind Lille with PSG already crowned champions again. St Etienne and 4th, but they are 4 points behind Lyon so they look like finishing 3rd.

Why wait? Because it might force Lyon to sell to balance the books if they are not guaranteed UEFA Champions League income. If I remember rightly, French clubs are not allowed by their federation to make a financial loss and under Financial Fair Play clubs have to break even over a 3-year period.


Football London want to tell us a Tottenham move is a shock, it isn't to anyone knows we have been following him for more than two years and if they are any good at their job they ought to know. That's the trouble with journalists though, but let's not get sidetracked by dubious journalism.

Mauricio Pochettino likes versatile players, especially in attack so he can cover for injuries and have options. Fekir is an attacking midfielder who can also play as a second striker playing off the main striker or as a central midfielder, so the link between defensive midfield and attack.

He has scored 12 goals and had 9 assists in 39 games this season comprising 2,815 minutes.

The 25-year-old (26 in July) French World Cup winner played three games in the Champions League as a second striker, two as an attacking midfielder and one as a central midfielder demonstrating that versatility. He scored 2 goals as a striker with 2 assists and scored 1 goal as an attacking midfielder.

In Ligue 1, he started 24 games. Of those, 18 were as an attacking midfielder, one was as a right winger or right-sided inverted winger (he is left-footed) and 5 as an attacker at the start of the season. Two goals and 1 assist came as a second striker, 7 goals and 3 assists came as an attacking midfielder while 1 goal and 1 assist came as a substitute.

Seemingly though, his first choice is to sign for Liverpool in a £140,000-a-week deal for £53 million so I'm not expecting a Spurs signing, but this is football and you never know.

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