BoringOldFan
It's better to burn out than to fade away...
- Sep 20, 2005
- 9,955
- 2,498
Welcome to the Spurs Community Transfer Rumours Forum. This is the place to come for all the latest gossip from the media, the web and other message boards to read which players we are buying, selling or loaning to Portsmouth.
Please remember:
1. All SC rules apply, especially those about swearing and member abuse. Go and take a look at them if you are not familiar with what is and is not acceptable here.
2. One thread per player and vice versa. Check the sticky to see if there is a link to the player you want to discuss. If you can't see one, go ahead and start one. If anything does get duplicated, the mods will clear it up.
And for those of you new to this, here's a guide to...
The Transfer Window And How To Survive It
The transfer window opens at the end of the season (the close season) and it runs through until August 31, the day the Spurs traditionally do 90% of their transfer business.
For those of you new to the madness, here is a guide on how to get through it with your sanity intact. Hibernate for the next three months. Alternatively, take a look at the guide, and remember to have a large tumbler of salt near you at all times.
1. THE GOLDEN RULE
The golden rule is: never believe anything until you read it on the official Tottenham Hotspur web site. If you are of a frail constitution or nervous disposition, this is by far your best means of getting through to September.
However, do not expect to read denials of rumours on Spurs' site. The club has a policy of not commenting on speculation.
For those of you who think they can handle anything but the truth, read on.
2. THE PRESS
The printed media and their associated web sites are a good source of rumours. The main stories that they carry are summarised every day on the BBC Gossip page. It's a good short cut to trawling through endless printed or web pages.
Always look for the source quote of a story. If it is attributed to an 'insider' or 'source close to the club/player', be wary. Some journos have good contacts with particular clubs, whereas others just pick up and recycle stories that they have heard or found on the web.
Remember: repetition does not create truth.
3. WEB SITES
There's a huge amount of fun to be had from reading stories found on the web. A good first port of call is NewsNow, which has links to other sites carrying stories about all clubs, including Spurs.
Some sites have not had the best reputation for getting it right. Clubcall and FansFC to name but two. Sportnetwork runs a number of sites, and distributes the same story to them all. So once again, reading the same thing in different places does not make it any more likely to be true.
Here is a link to Sky Sports Transfer News page.
A good place to go for information on players is footballdatabase.com. Here you can get stats on most players in Europe, so a good starting place to evaluate whether the latest tip to join us is worth buying.
Easily the best place for implausible rumours is football-rumours.com. They even call their pages 'dodgy rumours'! Anyone can submit stories anonymously, so you can imagine what mayhem that leads to.
The Curious Case of Peter Rampetamper.
Earlier in the year, a story emerged on the web that Spurs were about to sign a Dutch player from Sparta Rotterdam, Peter Rampetamper. Several sites carried the story.
The only trouble was, it wasn't true. Worse than that, there was no such player. Rampetamper in Dutch is slang for 'party animal'. When the relevant site was informed of this, the journo who was hooked into the story was thoroughly embarrassed.
4. AGENTS
Is there any breed of person more loveable in football than the player's agent?
In this new money-mad age of football, the agents wield considerable power and do not hesitate to use it to their advantage. One of the most common ways they do this is by linking their player to another club in order to get them a better deal where they are, or up the price for the club that really wants to buy them.
Avid Spurs watchers will be familiar with this tactic, as Mido's agent put out stories that Spurs were falling behind in the race to sign him, other clubs were interested and he might go elsewhere. This would not have gone down well at Spurs Lodge, and we will see if the tactic has backfired.
Amazingly, the same agent also represents Martin Jol!
The Curious Case of Marek Mintal
In the January Transfer Window, Spurs were linked to Marek Mintal. Who? Well may you ask, and also how? Good though his stats show him to be, why had Spurs been linked to Mintal?
Stella Group represents Ledley King, Lee Barnard and Johnnie Jackson. So Spurs are in regular contact with this agency. Witness the recent contract extension signed by Ledley, for which we are all grateful.
But go on to the Stella Group web site and see what other players they represent, both in the UK and overseas. And there in the 'Germany' section is one Marek Mintal. Fancy that. Coincidence? You decide.
5. MESSAGE BOARDS AND FAN FORUMS
Apart from our own wonderful SpursCommunity, there are a number of other message boards and fan forums. You can find like-minded people on Come On You Spurs (COYS), FromTheLane (FTL), Glory-Glory (G-G) and On the Shelf. And there are many others, as well as general fan forums like the BBC 606 Message Board and football365.
Anyone and everyone can post in these places, and stories spread like wildfire. Eventually, they feed each other, and may be picked up by other web sites and even the printed media. And these places are home to possibly the most controversial source of transfer information: The ITKs!
6. IN THE KNOWS (ITKs)
The best is saved until last! Before the web, we could only hear stories down the pub or at games. Now thanks to the internet, football gossip can be distributed around the world at the push of a button.
Experience shows that those claiming to have inside knowledge of what is going on at Spurs usually fall into one of three categories:
Genuine ITKs
There are a few people that really do have contacts within the club and communicate this news to the rest of us. Sometimes it takes the form of cryptic clues, but that's another bag of worms. But there's no doubt that some message board predictions by posters have turned out to be true before the popular press or other web sites got hold of the news.
Most of the genuine ITKs post on COYS and FTL.
Wanabees
Next down the food chain comes those who want to be ITK but are not. They read what others have written and rehash it, claiming it as their own.
Wind-Up Merchants and Bullshitters
Probably the largest category. Stories are made up using friends and relatives who know/saw someone somewhere. In January we had a grandmother seeing Iaquinta, Dirk Kuyt walking in and out of White Hart Lane once a week and Defoe visiting Liverpool on a regular basis.
The big problem is working out which ITK falls into which category. Experience is on the only guide to this. Well, that and common sense. But even the so-called genuine ITKs can get it wrong. Remember how we've enjoyed Wayne Bridge putting in those crosses for Torres to head home since January? No? Well according to the ITKs, both those deals were in the bag.
And really, all an ITK can say is that we are interested in a player. There's a long way from that to a signing. And the club may be happy with that, to mislead other clubs about who they are genuinely interested in, or to drive up the price of a player they don't want to eliminate competition for their true target.
So there you have it: a pocket guide to the coming madness. And if it all gets too much, close your browser and remember The Golden Rule!
