Tottenham back out of Defoe move

[spurs4europe]

from BBC Sport...

Tottenham have ended their interest in bringing back striker Jermain Defoe after Portsmouth received a "massive offer" from another club.
Spurs boss Harry Redknapp, who left Portsmouth to join the London club earlier this season, brought the 26-year-old Defoe to Pompey 11 months ago.
"I think they've a massive offer from somebody for him, so good luck to them - I paid about £9m," said Redknapp.
"He is a good player but we're not going to pay over the top for anyone."

Redknapp has already had a £6m bid for West Ham striker Craig Bellamy turned down as he looks to bolster his squad's forward strength that includes only Darren Bent, Manchester United loanee Fraizer Campbell and Roman Pavlyuchenko, who is cup tied in Europe.
"Bent and Pavlyuchenko were £30m and that is a lot of money to spend on two strikers and then say they can't play together," added Redknapp.
"I'm left with that problem and whether they can, I don't know."
The Spurs manager also revealed he is interested in signing Middlesbrough winger Stewart Downing.
"I like Downing but I don't know whether Middlesbrough want to sell him," Redknapp said.
"If could find a wide-left player I would like to get one. That and a frontman would be the priority."


He's a decent player, but I think we can do better.

What does look promising though is from the offers reportedly being made, it seems as though the we seem much less likely to be paying vastly over-inflated prices for mediocre players than we might have possibly done in the past and that can surely only be a good thing.

 

[The Apprentice]

Anything over 9m would be a joke. Good call twitchy.

 

[hughy]

Honestly - I'm gutted due to the fact that what Redknapp says insists that the move could have been a possibility. I think he's the exact type of player we need to see along-side Pavlyuchenko.


I'm slightly worried about Redknapp. I'm in no doubt we'll make signings in January, but will they be the right ones if he's not willing to pay?

 

[PT]

I hope our washing aint gonna be hung out in public each time Harry gets aproached by his press mates.

 

[al_pacino]

I hope our washing aint gonna be hung out in public each time Harry gets aproached by his press mates.

Thats my biggest problem with him, I get the impression he talks to Jim White on the phone everyday.

 

[Rabbi_Krustofski]

Great news. He's been and gone ..and I never rated him. The worst of the old famous front 4 in my opinion.

 

[VegasII]

City are an obvious candidate but I wonder whether Chelsea might go in for him. They're looking for another striker & he's different to diver & le sulk.

This could be why Harry's been looking at Bellamy instead.

 

[donny1013]

I think Man Citeh will start off a chain of transfers in January. They don't stand a chance of signing the top players in world football so i think they will go for targets similar to us which is annoying, Defoe being one of them.

 

[Goldman]

Although it is nice to finally have some of these rumours killed early. Might help trim down some itk info.

 

[NEVILLEB]

That's just embarrassing. Not being able to afford your 4th choice striker from the year before.

 

[fazza]

Got to be Man City or Chelsea, probably City.

 

[rich75]

Honestly - I'm gutted due to the fact that what Redknapp says insists that the move could have been a possibility. I think he's the exact type of player we need to see along-side Pavlyuchenko.


I'm slightly worried about Redknapp. I'm in no doubt we'll make signings in January, but will they be the right ones if he's not willing to pay?

I wouldnt have thought its Redknapps call how much we pay for players to be honest, I imagine he tells Levy and then gets told if we're willing to pay for them. In fairness if Man City have offered 20 million then he's quite right in backing out

I hope our washing aint gonna be hung out in public each time Harry gets aproached by his press mates.

At least we all know where things stand , and it isn't exactly dirty washing is it, all he's said is someones offered a huge pile of money while he paid 9 million 11 months ago, so he doesn't fancy getting taken to the cleaners. Seems quite sensible to me. Besides the press will have found out anyway one way or another

 

[rich75]

That's just embarrassing. Not being able to afford your 4th choice striker from the year before.

yes and a year ago Man city weren't worth more than the national debt either.

 

[hybridsoldier]

That's just embarrassing. Not being able to afford your 4th choice striker from the year before.

very very true mate, good post.

To be honest I don't see the point of buying Defoe! We have Bent who is younger and has more goals this season. He seems to be strugling but so is everyone else and thats because nobody really knows what our best system is at the moment.

As said, we shouldnt have sold him in the first place if we didnt think that Bent could do a better job, which I believe he can - the service is the problem (its not up to scratch).

I've always said this about us, our midfield is shit,it has been for ages and Keane and Berbatov's creative abilities masked this. Seriously go look at the stats our top assists last 2 seasons was Berba and Keane, the midfield do fuck all!

Put Bent in a team with a half decent midfield (Pompy before Diarra left, Villa, hell even Wigan!) and he would easily get 15 league goals a season. FACT.

 

[Max_Junglie]

That's just embarrassing. Not being able to afford your 4th choice striker from the year before.

I imagine that we're quite capable of affording him, but I doubt we'd want to pay the asking price for a player the club was quite happy to see leave 12 months ago. No doubt Pompey still owe us some money for him anyway, so we'd be looking to cancel that and maybe stump up £1 or 2m - whereas anyone else will actually pay them a proper transfer fee.

Harry's always talked up targets in transfer windows. I doubt any of it reflects the true situation. It's smoke and mirrors. If Sir Fergie was doing it he'd be hailed as genius. I note Harry isn't quoted (in this report) as having actually said Defoe was a target.

From what I've seen, Campbell is very similar to Defoe in his approach. If Harry isn't playing Pav as a target man alongside a poacher now - when we already have two fairly good poachers - it suggests to me that he won't change that system to fit someone like Defoe. The conundrum he's faced with is fitting Modric into the side - which with the current squad means a lone striker. IMO Harry will either look to reinforce the midfield with some real quality to allow Modric to play in a midfield 4 or he'll buy a proven lone striker / target man and keep Modric playing a support role behind him.

Notwithstanding the intricacies of the transfer rules or the likelihood of Levy sanctioning a move for a player he already deemed surplus to requirements, I can't see Defoe having been a genuine target anyway - it's just an easy name to drop to curry favour with the fans - and not too hard an angle to spot given that we sang Defoe's name when we played Pompey and in Harry's first couple of games in charge... Butter us up a bit to soften the blow when he unveils Kevin Davies next weekend.*



*For the love of God, please no...

 

[rich75]

very very true mate, good post.

To be honest I don't see the point of buying Defoe! We have Bent who is younger and has more goals this season. He seems to be strugling but so is everyone else and thats because nobody really knows what our best system is at the moment.

As said, we shouldnt have sold him in the first place if we didnt think that Bent could do a better job, which I believe he can - the service is the problem (its not up to scratch).

I've always said this about us, our midfield is shit,it has been for ages and Keane and Berbatov's creative abilities masked this. Seriously go look at the stats our top assists last 2 seasons was Berba and Keane, the midfield do fuck all!

Put Bent in a team with a half decent midfield (Pompy before Diarra left, Villa, hell even Wigan!) and he would easily get 15 league goals a season. FACT.

oh for fucks sake, its not remotely true, its totally fucking myopic. If pompey said you can have him back for 9 million I suspect we'd buy him. If as would seem to have happened Pompey said well, you can have him back but you'll have to outbid another side who came into a rather large sum of cash in the summer and are now willing to piss it up the wall regardless of market economics then guess what, we won't buy him. What the hell is wrong with that? It's got fuck all to do with how much he's worth, ( Levy is the king of selling players for more than they're worth after all ) and everything to do with not competing on a completely unlevel playing field

 

[theaman]

City, Chelsea or Villa it has to be but likely to be the former.

Would have been good to see him back but maybe Redknapp will go for Crouch who, I think might be a better bet....

 

[llamafarmer]

The conundrum he's faced with is fitting Modric into the side - which with the current squad means a lone striker. IMO Harry will either look to reinforce the midfield with some real quality to allow Modric to play in a midfield 4 or he'll buy a proven lone striker / target man and keep Modric playing a support role behind him.

I think (hope) you could be right there mate.

Definitely a lot of smoke and mirrors going on at WHL.

 

[Bus-Conductor]

Funny how we reported Ferguson and Benitez for tapping, yet Redknapp has openly discussed his desire to sign both Bellamy & Downing.

I wish he'd keep his mouth shut, especially if he's going to say stupid things like "I like Downing".

 

[dannythomas]

Didn't Defoe support L'Ar5e as a kid ? It couldn't be them could it ?