Tough-luck Tottenham to miss out on Downing and Portsmouth trio?
Tottenham have made Stewart Downing arguably their biggest priority of the January transfer window, but it looks like they may be giving up the chase soon.
According to the Daily Express, Middlesbrough have rejected Spurs’ £9m offer for Downing, which is well short of a £15m price that has been quoted.
You can expect Tottenham to come in with another offer, whether it’s tomorrow, next week, or some other time in the future, but Gareth Southgate seems to be pretty intent on keeping Downing, even if that £15m price is met. And if that happens, that could force Spurs to potentially make a loan move for former Liverpool man Luis Garcia.
Spurs have also struck out thus far with West Ham’s Craig Bellamy, and it appears that Portsmouth’s Jermain Defoe could be out of their price range, with Pompey said to be asking for £20m, according to the Daily Mirror.
But Defoe is apparently not the only Pompey player Harry Redknapp could be in for, as The Guardian has reported that Portsmouth rejected a £30m offer from Tottenham for Defoe, Glen Johnson, and Peter Crouch. Two of those three look likely to leave in January, as Johnson is being linked with Liverpool, but it doesn’t seem plausible for Tony Adams would let both Crouch and Defoe go in January.
That’s a report that Redknapp has denied (Daily Mail), but his interest in Defoe has been openly confirmed.
However, as is the case with several of their targets and many currently in-demand names, some high fees are being commanded, whether or not they’re actually merited. And even though Tottenham have plenty of money to spend, they don’t seem intent on overpaying in order to bolster their squad.
But in the end, they may have to overpay if they want to make the necessary reinforcements, so that’s a stance that may change in the next month.
Topics: English Premier League, Football Transfers, Middlesbrough, Portsmouth, Tottenham



Football News 24/7
its either buy know or play championship next season harry come on you spurs
January 1st, 2009 @ 23:11i have today been reading that tonights tie against wigan is a last chance for the fringe players to save their places at the club. these include Hossam Ghaly, Kevin Prince Boateng, Adel Taarabt, and some more experienced players, such as Heurelho Gomes, and Didier Zokora, etc:. however i was shocked to hear that this may also be a last chance to shine for Gareth Bale and Giovani Dos Santos. i personally feel that these 2 players are great prospects for the future and we would be crazy to even consider selling them. in my opinion, Gareth Bale is much better, than bennoit assou-ekotto, and is also the best set piece specialist at the club too, as is a job which david bentley has subsequently failed to fufil. as well as left back, bale could potentially be played on left wing, which, due to his brilliant crossing ability would be much better than bentley, attempting to cross them in with his wrong foot because he is unable to take the place of aaron lennon on the right. another player who could fufil this role would be giovani dos santos, who, from his time at Barcelona, is clearly good enough to flourish, in that position. Dos santos has bearly been at the club a few months, and yet he is already beeing speculated as possibly leaving the club. i would love to see if the partnership of bale at left back, and dos santos on left wing, crossing over each other could be as successful as the corluka and lennon partnership has been. by doing this we would be able to avoid spending ludicrised sums of money, on players, such as stuart downing, who are clearly not up to the role and are only in the england team because there is no loop whole by which the FA can find a foreign player to fill the role. in some papers this morning, both players where being touted as make-ways in part of the deal for downing, and i cant for the life of me see how this is benificial to the club in any way. As a result, i feel that rather than Bale and Dos Santos being up for sale, it should be David bentley who is attempting to save his spurs career. Please correct me if i’m wrong but apart from that wonder strike against ar5ena1, has he done anything right at all? id say no!! Maybe a kid who plays for a small club in Colombia(Bucaramanga) called Sherman Cardenas, could come in and provide cover for lennon, as i feel this kid could also become a star of the future. bale and dos santos have only been at the club a short amount of time, playing less than 30 games between them, and yet they have already turned them selves into fans favorites.
in tonights match i would like to see hossam ghaly and Boateng, and see if they have any hope of being a succes, which i very much doubt, and even see if we could tempt real madrid or portsmouth in to a bid for zokora, as although his ability to run past players is undobted, he seems not to be able to pick a pass or score goals and has clearly not been the knew vieria or Keane, as was reported when he arrived. and so if we can get the £10m that has been reported, we should grasp it with both hands. that being a profit on the £8m we spent on him. but i also think that in recent weeks Gomes has been sensational, and this should be the end of speculation about his future. another player whos position should be under threat is jermain jenas, who appears to blow hot and cold almost every other match, he always seems to turn it on against ar5ena1, but that is only 2 games a year, yet there is still 36 more to play, and we should consider selling him too. i realise that he tries his hardest in every match that he plays, but it seems to me that he just isnt good enough to play consistantly well every match, and for that reason, we should consider giving Tom Huddlestone a more perminant place in the first team line up. the final point i wish to make is on one final player, Adel Taarabt. at the beggining of this season, ramos completly mistreated him, and as was seen towards the end of jol’s time, he has the potential to be a phenominal player, who could solve many of the problems that was currently have, including, taking th position of jenas who will hopefully be leaving soon.
In conclusion, i feel that, now is the time for the poor and hot/cold players, such as; ghaly, Boateng, zokora, and jenas should be sold, players such as; Bale, Dos santos, and taarabt, are still young and need time to develop.
January 2nd, 2009 @ 19:06good points made daniel im not a spurs fan but you know your stuff. Giovani and Bale are two of the brightest young talents in the league and it would be madness to sell either one brfore they can fulfil their potential. Glen Johnson would be a waste of money as spurs already have corluka and hutton. Downing is an interesting option but im not convinced that he can be world class in the way that giovani can be. Harry should put faith in Fraizer Campbell and not bother with Crouch as he is another target man like Pavlyuchenko and Bent. I think Defoe would be an excellent signing for the summer when campbell returns to united.
January 3rd, 2009 @ 23:52