Tottenham Transfer Talk Wednesday Morning

Tottenham are in a race to sign Paulo Dybala late in the window

Things are happening, as you would expect at the end of the window.

You all know the situation if you have read yesterdays Tottenham Transfer Talk Tuesday Update post and the Tottenham Transfer Talk: The Christian Eriksen Story.

Plenty of rumours and plenty of Spurs not grasping the financial side so assuming it is all impossible. On transfer fees, it isn't, as one of them is expenditure for next year, not this and we generally structure payments over 4 years.

I remind you all once again of what Pochettino told Tanguy Ndombélé that he is building a team to win the Premier League.

You can only negotiate for these people at the end of a window because we still don't have the financial firepower of the other top four clubs plus Manchester United.

The transfer fees earlier in a window are too expensive. Only now, the time running out are clubs forced to drop their demands and players agents are more amenable to lower wages, as they have to get a deal sorted for their client to play football too.

If, as many of our fans would, we shoot our bolt earlier in the window, then we no longer have the financial resources to have a chance to get any of these players. How some of you would run a club actually weakens us as a team, to what we could be.

The window is a balancing act and we certainly wouldn't be in the Champions League if some of you guys were at the helm.

My argument to you is, obviously, Daniel Levy has the best interests of Tottenham at heart, it is rather infantile to think otherwise quite frankly. rather than whinge like a child, take time to try and understand why something happens rather than how it fits into your anti-Levy agenda.

This is where the arguments of the toxic minority fall down because none of it is reasoned, it is shoehorned into out of date beliefs with a lack of understanding of the overall picture or how to conduct a negotiation or how the football business world operates.

Utopia doesn't exist. an ideology is theory not practice in the real world. To have an informed opinion and thus one that is far more likely to be right, is to be informed and up to date rather than operate with a closed mind and a pretense the club hasn't developed from a bankrupt mid-table team to one now challenging for trophies every season.

To throw that out of the window because your arguments are stuck in the past isn't an intelligent approach and that means the opinions these people come to are more than likely wrong.

I have been asked if the transfer rumours are true and yes they are. What is the latest? 

Tottenham have been negotiating with Barcelona for a loan move for 27-year-old (28 next June) Philippe Coutinho with an option to buy for €80m (£73.65m - $89.59m). That is the figure put in the media as one Barcelona would accept, I believe we are negotiating for a lower figure, given his age.

This came about because Barcelona wants to sell and have offered him to us, Arsenal and Manchester United. He wants Champions League football so has turned down Arsenal and clearly the same would happen to United, but it is with us he is trying to reach a deal.

Mauricio Pochettino is reported to have spoken with Coutinho over the phone. he is currently in Miami, which by coincidence is where Daniel Levy is, much to the chagrin of a section of our fans.

A loan deal would mean the cost of this deal would go into the following year's accounts, not against this summers spending thus leaving funds free for other purchases this summer.

Juventus want to sell 25-year-old (26 in November) Paulo Dybala who has turned down Manchester United. Reports suggest Spurs have made a €70m (£64.44m - $78.39m) that has been accepted and now it is a question of agreeing on personal terms with the Argentinian.

There is a medical booked for Thursday, but whether that is for Coutinho, Dybala or Giovani Lo Celso I don't know. I think it has just been booked for any one of them.

Mauricio Pochettino has also spoken with Dybala over the phone.

Obviously, the issue here is the overall financial package. He would be on a par with Harry Kane wage wise, our top wage, with bonuses and image rights which makes it a rather complex negotiation.

Sporting midfielder Bruno Fernandes has a medical booked for later today and again Mauricio Pochettino had a chat with him over the phone too.

An unnamed French club has put in a €15m (£13.81m - $16.80m) bid for 26-year-old (27 in December). It is a bit of a surprise that it appears to be PSG, who sold him to us after he fell out with the manager.

The Ivory Coast international is under contract until 2022 so the offer sounds about half what it should be. We bought him for €24.43m (£22.50m - $27.36m) on 31 August 2017.

We have made inquiries for right-backs and the names are in the public domain so no surprises in that department but with other deals having greater priority this one has always been a deadline day deal if at all, so we know where we are financially and have the capability to try and negotiate for the level of player we are.