The next 'nearly signing'

Never seen him play, but must be good cause he's got tattoos

Martin Jol is ready to add to his summer spending after bidding around £5million for controversial Hertha Berlin midfielder Kevin-Prince Boateng.

The 20-year-old's attacking qualities have made him one of the Bundesliga's most talked about newcomers and he has attracted an offer from Sevilla as well as Tottenham.

But the Germany Under 21 star is renowned just as much for his outspoken approach off the pitch after calling himself the Ghetto Kid, in a reference to his upbringing in a poverty-stricken district of Berlin, and covering his arms in tattoos.

Hertha boss Dieter Hoeness responded to Sevilla's £2m offer for Boateng by revealing the club had received a £5m bid from another club, believed to be Spurs.

Boateng, who has a Ghanaian father and German mother, has enjoyed a rapid rise to prominence during a run of 43 Bundesliga appearances and is rated one of the German league's most creative talents.

This would be a quinessential Levy signing. Young, athletic and with a potentially decent re-sale value. By all accounts Boateng is a fiery lad with a massive ego (think Gahly with actual ability....though that's still not saying much).

A quick search of transfer rumour sites will list various links to the player dating back to the 9th May. So, someone is obviously dithering. I'd rather he signed for Sevilla (who have had a £2M bid rejected because we have apparently offered £5M) than have to put up with another Diego Ribas da Cunha'esque transfer rollercoaster.

Much needed metal for central midfield position. Though not quite the leader/defensive midfielder we need.

I'll consider this signing a sexy risk. The sexisk Boateng could bring to us that Gascoigne element that we have lacked for so long.

However, Sevilla (and Champions League Football) would suggest that Levy may fail on this particular transfer. But then, its also dependent on whether the La Liga side wish to up their bid by a further £3M or so.

Still no sign of a left-winger. Unless you believe the Petrov stories doing the rounds. Which I dont.

Levy gets Bent

Announced to the stock exchange. We have spunked £16.5M on Darren Bent. I'm sure that Spurs will now look to sell both Mido and Defoe, and claim some of it back (from Defoe's transfer, not Mido's who we need to pay for someone to take him off us).

Is Darren Bent worth 16 million quid? Of course not. Much like Torres isn't worth £20M. Or Carrick £18M. But that's football. Overspending and overrating. Charlton have come out of this smiling. I'm still trying to tell myself that this is in no way a step towards Spurs protecting themselves over the possibility that Berbatov will leave the club next summer.

However, I will go away and think about this one. It's been suggested that I am being negative with this transfer due to my hatred of Daniel Levy.

So. I will come back to this with a clear mind and decide whether I approve.

It's happened again

According to various sources, West Ham have fought off a last ditch attempt by Spurs to sign Scott Parker. Like fuck they did. Parker turned us down twice before (first joining Chelsea, and then going to Newcastle). I find it highly dubious that we would go in for him a 3rd time, considering the players we have already. Though it would be unsurprising, as it follows a trend Levy is guilty of.

Signing a player who huffs and puffs but still fails to dominate the midfield would only drag us down rather than up. NRC is a far more effective player. Parker is, in a word, overrated. Add injury prone and inconsistent to that list, that somehow manages to amount to 40/50k in wages.

So, regardless of the facts concerning if we did make a last ditch attempt or not, I'm quite happy for this one dimensional Charlton reject to continue looking away from White Hart Lane.

Smokescreen my arse

Man Utd sign Portugeuse Spurs left-wing target Nani, and also bag Brazilian Anderson. Nani will replace Giggs in the long run and Anderson will slot into midfield, probably as a long-term replacement for Scholes. As for us? We are left with a key to a room in Fawlty Towers contemplating another near miss in the transfer market while trying to explain to the Spanish porter that we were never interested in signing Nani in the first place or had the foresight to consider Anderson.

Qué?

Yeah, well Qué indeed.

I don't believe our failure to sign Nani to finally resolve the left-sided midfield problem is in fact a smokescreen. That's just an excuse for our failings. We went in for him. We failed to sign him. Manchester United got stronger.

Or did it really happen like that? Wool over eyes? Levy maybe able to over spend on young British youth but when it comes to continential quality we have fallen short. But the ironic thing is, we never stood a chance of signing him anway. Levy was piggy-backing on the hype so that we would be seen to be actively searching for top class players.

Not going for anyone and not signing anyone is obviously not as 'positive' as going for players, but still failing. And, as we know, if there's one team that excels at nearly signing someone, its us.

Giles Barnes is a gooner

If you ever happen to hear someone singing in the shower, don't jump to any conclusions about the lyrics being sang just because you can make out the tune. 'Do Do Do Nigel Mediocre' can quite easily sound like 'Nigel Reo-Coker' from the bottom of the stairs. And anyone choosing to Sky+ Derby v WBA game is only doing it, so they have something to fall asleep to if when they suffer from a bout of insomnia.

I may have got my wires crossed (see previous blogs). Though, I think I prefer to believe that in both instances, I was purposely mis-directed. Seems the player got played. Anyway...

It would appear that Barnes is actually an Arsenal fan, who still had intentions to sign for us back in January, but because he mis-kicked a ball into the path of Pearson on Sunday at Wembley, Derby's MVP fancies himself more so than ever before. Bigger fish to fry and all that jazz. And the lad wasn't even 100% fit. What a legend.

Git

Apparently, he wants to stay at Derby and has been quoted today, bragging about his support of the pikeys and the fact he has a 3 year contract at Derby. Yeah, like he's gonna be with them for the next 3 years. Sol Campbell school of PR.

But then again, do we care? Do we need Barnes? Did we simply want him because we were linked to him? Where would he fit in anyway? Whats the point in having Barnes and Huddlestone and Taarabt? And there's still Jenas. And Ghaly. And one or two others loitering about. I know Levy likes to collect midfielders like I collect upskirt pictures, but there's so much 'young talent' you can get your hands on. I'm talking about purchasing footballers here and not girls in short skirts. Can never get enough of girls in short skirts.

Huddlestone and Lennon will be gutted to hear Giles state his intentions of loyalty. Barnes would have made a perfect additon to the Bling Squad. Apparently Gacoignesque on the pitch (though more than likely in the same way Huddlestone is allegedly Hoddlesque) and thus will avoid Spurs at all costs and aim for Manchester United or his boyhood club the Woolwich Arsenal, where I'm sure he will win the FIFA Player of the Year award repeatedly for years to come. Joining Spurs is surely a side-step move for this prestigious prodigy. So congrats to him for figuring it out early.

So, all the ITK's claiming this one was done and dusted months back, seems you also got pwnd by nothing more than misguided whorage.

As for NRC - another player that wants to maneuver himself a move to Arsenal and avoid Spurs. I'm going to sit back at this point and see what our beloved chairman and Martin Jol (our big teddy bear of a Dutch manager) aim for now that a left back has been purchased and we have 3 or so positions to fill.

There's one or two players on their way out......but will Spurs 'sell out' to bring in players that are not necessarily needed?

After two knock-backs (and let's face it, avoiding paying over the odds for young British talent when theres far better players on the continent isn't something to be red-faced about.....oops, Bale) I'm hoping that Levy doesn't go full circle and actually go back in for these two. They are not needed. So let's see where they end up.