Source: Sky Sports
Uncertainty over Roque Santa Cruz's future is proof the transfer window system needs to be reformed, according to the Sunday Telegraph's Patrick Barclay.
Manchester City and Tottenham are reported to be locked in a £20m battle for the Blackburn striker ahead of Monday's (1700 GMT) deadline.
City had a second bid for the Paraguayan international turned down this week and Barclay believes the public nature of the bidding process is having a destabilising effect on the clubs involved.
"City's tactics are to wait until the last minute, which is what they did for Robinho, thinking everyone else is stupid and will imagine they are not that desperate," Barclay told The Supplement.
"Of course, they are. I would say that Blackburn will wait until the last minute and then the deal will go through for £20m. It's easy to understand why he is in such demand.
Pretence
"The whole administration of football needs to be looked at. The first thing that should be done is drop the tapping law. Why not say who you want?
"If you want to keep it quiet, keep it quiet. It's completely unenforceable. Agents don't want to use journalists anymore to get their message out as they can charge people to do it.
"I think it would be much better to drop the pretence and get on with it. Arsene Wenger, as ever, came out with the right idea when he seemed to say that 'if you are going to be cup-tied, why can't you be league-tied?'
"I think that if you brought in a prohibition for playing for two clubs in the same competition in the same season and included the Premier League in that you would get away from this awful business where Spurs who want to be where Wigan are try to achieve that by using their financial muscle to take a player away, such as Wilson Palacios.
"We must always remember that is at the expense of Wigan season ticket-holders who have paid in the reasonable expectation of seeing a player for the whole season.
"You can make provisions for this - it's done in major tournaments, where you have to announce your 23 players and you cannot change, unless force majeure takes over and then you are allowed to.
"Equally you could have your free-for-all all the year round which would be better than the current transfer window which is just a complete pain."
Consistent
As for Cruz's immediate future, Paul Hetherington of the Daily Star, said: "I'm not totally convinced he will go but I think there will be further attempts to get him out of Blackburn.
"Both John Williams, the Blackburn chairman, and Sam Allardyce have been adamant and consistent since the transfer window opened that it would be madness to sell him because it could be the difference between them staying up and going down.
"If he does go, it doesn't leave Blackburn a lot of time to find a replacement but I'm sure big money will be on the table tomorrow (Monday).
"Spurs are still hanging in there - Harry Redknapp's desperate to sign a top striker - he'd love him and I know there has been a feeling at clubs like Spurs of 'why haven't City just gone and done this deal? Why haven't they blown us all out of the water?'
"I think there is a pragmatic side to Mark Hughes and he probably has an idea of the valuation of the player, particularly having worked with him, and perhaps thought he could get him for £18m which he hasn't been able to do so it is going to have to go to at least £20m."
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