More Tottenham Transfer Tittle Tattle



Well good morning on a happy Monday morning with the birds singing, bathing and feeding in the background.

A delicious Toad in the Hole with parsley in the batter last night, delicious, as will be the trifle for pudding tonight.

I'll grab my third cuppa of the morning, much on my toast as I complete the part-written Tottenham Tittle Tattle this morning.

Three points we needed, five goals and to be frank we didn't play that well.

Tanguy Ndombélé started and another 45 minutes will help his fitness, on the ball he was encouraging, excellent work in central midfield, slipping the ball to Kane for him yot assist Son just before half-time.

An important moment and he made that goal by rolling the foul on him and moving the baal wide to Kane.

I'm not sure the midfield knew what they were doing with him there though, too much make it up as we go along, which you don't do at the top level. 

Teams play to plans but the midfield haven't yet found the way to play with Ndombélé yet.

Lo Celso replaced him in the second half and we looked a little more secure but not greatly until our attackers, took the game away from Saints.

The Argentinian played a through ball just after half-time, Kane collected it, played in Son and we never looked back.

He played two more passes to Kane and Lamela for them to assist for goals so I'd like to see an individual video of his game because he had a significant impact that many will overlook.

At the moment he is our creative engine as the stats I showed you recently from last season testify.

Heung-min Son and Harry Kane have combined for more goals (24) than any other duo in Premier League games since the South Korean moved to Tottenham Hotspur in August 2015.

Isn't it amazing, press, twitter folk, pundits, presenters, none of them have spoken about mindset, now, because Mourinho started it, they are now all talking about it, raising questions.

If they knew what they were talking about they would have asked about it before wouldn't they.

Tottenham are said to be seriously interested in signing 28-year-old (29 next August) 6ft 6in Wolfsburg striker Wout Weghorst.

Voetbal Primeur suggest the giant Dutch international (4 caps) striker could be on his way to North London this week.

He scored 16 goals in the Bundesliga last season, 4th behind Robert Lewandowski, Timo Werner and Jadon Sancho.

He is of interest and it is known that he wants to play in the Premier League but who we will end up with is still unclear.

German newspaper Bild have linked us with an interest in 23-year-old (24 next June) Jean-Philippe Mateta of Mainz, who also have Robin Quaison whom we have been following closely.

Weghorst is valued around 30m (£27.49m - US$35.5m) and we are holding talks with Mainz today but Benfica striker Carlos Vinicius isof strong interest.

PSG have opened talks with Spurs over Dele Alli who hasn't been focussed enough on his football for the last 2 years.

That length of time demonstrates it is his mental attitude that is the problem, the desire just isn't there anymore for him and a change may be needed to kick start it.

That or Bale's arrival, the time until the window closes will be crucial on the training field now.

Spurs are unlikely to sell Dele unless he starts demanding a move but even then we would rather send him out on loan than sell him because when in form and the game starts recovering financially, he is worth a lot of money.

He isn't happy with the style of football being played, nor his role in it currently, but then that revolves around his attitude and the restrictive effort and performances a negative attitude allows.

I see some ITK folk are still talking about Skriniar as a possible signing but he has turned us down twice, stated he doesn't want to leave Inter and they have stated he isn't for sale.

Move on people.

Ruben Dias was someone considered too expensive by everyone and that is shown by the fact plenty of clubs are interested but none have come anywhere near to signing him.

Will his price come down n the final two weeks when plenty of business will be done around Europe?

At the start of the window €80m (£73.28m - US$94.66m) was being mentioned but we are looking to bring that price down to around the €35m (£32.06m - US$41.41m) or €40m (£36.64m - £47.33m) range.

Burnley centre-back James Tarkowski is on the radar, but they are talking £50 million (€54.5m - US$64.4m)as is 20-year-old (21 next March) Turkish centre-back Ozan Kabak who we made an enquiry about last week.

The Schalke man is being chased by Liverpool who have apparently been quoted €25m (£22.91m - US$29.58).

Kim Min-jae is still on the radar but reaching an agreement with Beijing Guoan is proving very difficult.

Personally, I'd sell Davinson Sanchez and Juan Foyth to bring Ruben Dias and Kim Min-jae in.

Lazio made a bid but he has turned them down and insisted once again that he wants to go to Tottenham to team up with countryman Son.

Further talks are going to take place and it is reported in South Korea that if Spurs match Lazio's bid they could finally have their man, Lazio bid €13m (£11.92m - US$15.38m) + add-ons.

The José and Lorge Mendes connection may see us sign both Benfica boys (striker Vinicius and centre-back Dias) with the Portuguese side knocked out of the Champions League and the money that goes with it.

They were banking on Champions League money and now have to adjust their wage bill and bring in some money, which means selling some players, hence our renewed interest.

Selling Dias and Vinicius would obviously help them and help us at both ends of the pitch.

If we can do that for less than €70m (£64.2m - US$82.82m) while the market is depressed then when it picks up so does their value, having proved themselves (one assumes) in the Premier League.

England international Jessie Lingard has fallen out of favour at Manchester United as he became far too interested in his Instagram profile and image than he did on concentrating on his football.

Another in the Dele mentality trap, has the trappings so doesn't have the drive to continue to develop his game, but he wants to play every week.

He was offered to Tottenham by his agent, he isn't someone we have inquired about so the stories are not accurate.

You can expect two, possibly three coming in still, but of course there need to be outgoings with all the usual suspects you know about, Ryan Sessegnon (loan), Jack Clarke (loan probably to Birmingham), Cameron Carter-Vickers (sale probably to Bournemouth), Paulo Gazzaniga, Juan Foyth, Danny Rose, Serge Aurier and Dele.

As you can see there are plenty of if's and but's, nothing is certain, the cogs of various wheels are falling into place and we are constantly reassessing the potential transfer jigsaw puzzle.

Two weeks to go and plenty still to happen at Tottenham to readjust our squad with the players starting the season poorly, despite a 2-5 win.

Finally let me finish once again on a winning mentality.

Sentiment plays no part, you demonstrate the right mentality (ie you buy into what Mourinho wants) or you go.

There is no messing about.

As Mourinho said himself, I questioned Tanguy's effort and motivation, in other words his attitude was wrong,nobody doubts his ability.

Nobody doubts Dele's ability, but he isn't motivated either and I have written about motivation, how and why it ties in with the prevention work a sports psychologist should be doing.

I'll leave it there as I'm off to bank my head on a brick wall.