TartarugaJones

I don't take any notice of x points would have done x in a different season, such comparisons are entirely meaningless. Obviously I'm not saying it is impossible for Spurs to win the league, it is possible just as it is possible Hull will win it. It still isn't going to happen, not a chance. Spurs will be in the region of 10-15 points of the title. You were 17 points off last season and at this moment in time, even though you've added to your squad and Man Utd haven't I just don't see you having a prayer of closing that gap enough to put you in with a shout. And that is with you holding on to Bale. Haha. Not meaningless, not impossible, not the same chance as Hull, yes a chance. I think it's just you like to be emphatic though. The saying of the day: People within the paradigm rarely realise the shift when it arrives! (Just made that up but seems like it could be a saying)

We've finished 4th two of the last four years. We didn't collapse last year for instance. 2 ppg in 2013, 18 from our last 8, meant only Arsenal and Utd had a better record in 2013. In fact we were 2 ppg from September 1st, so remarkably consistent. Unfortunately we lacked depth, so when Sandro got injured we had no like-for-like cover. Parker came in a did his best but his age was showing, and AVB was forced to play Dembele every game and so he inevitably flagged. We also had to rely on Defoe as a lone striker for long periods of the year, and then for a while we had no fit strikers at all. Similarly our best CB missed the entire season. So new manager, new tactics, in a scratch team which had just lost Kaboul, King, Modric and VdV and we improved as the season went on. We beat Arsenal, Liverpool, Utd, and City last season, we battered Utd at WHL, we dominated Liverpool at Anfield. The ingredients are there, we shall just have to wait and see whether they can be put together so as to be more than the sum of their parts!

Almost certainly not, but stranger things have happened. But actually we were talking about challenging, and/or being within 10 points of the winners. Still improbable, but less so.

I don't, I don't think you are even close to be being in the running. With or without Bale I don't think Spurs will be within 10 points of the title, probably 15 points or more away. And I think you will finish above the other two so they will be even further behind. It will be a 3 horse race for the title but it won't go to anyone outside those three or even come close to doing. There's a difference between what's likely and what's possible. If you said to me that on rolling a dice it's likely I'd throw any number but a six, you'd be correct, however that doesn't rule out rolling a six. We got 72 points last season, two seasons ago that would have got us second. Arsenal, Liverpool, and ourselves are long-shots, but in my opinion it's not as improbable as you think!

Borussia Dortmund! I like Dortmund, but them as an example is overblown. Germanys different from England because they only have one club with huge financial power whereas England has at least 3, plus Dortmund are one of the biggest German clubs, they just fell on hard times. 80000 fans regularly, it's not quite comparable Except their CL finalist team contained only one player who they'd spent more than £5m on. Although they are in Germany, where you're right after BM there are no real financial behemoths, they still have to compete on the world market for their players, and they compete against Europe's best in the CL. What they have is a formidable combination of owners, Sporting Director, Scouts, Manager, and coaches all pulling in the same direction and agreeing on what makes a winning team, and crucially being right in their convictions. They won't be right every season, but they regularly sell their best players and replace them with bargains and their team continues to perform. They - and Arsenal from the late 90's early 2000's - have to the model for teams like Villa and Spurs. It's very difficult, but I simply don't accept that it's impossible for us to do it without a benefactor.

I have to say I agree with you there. Fair point, I suppose the Dortmund team were in a similar position before they won the league. I do think you have a fantastic squad of players and if you keep Bale, stay lucky with injuries and maybe sign another couple of quality players then you could be genuine title contenders this year. I think we are already outside bets, shorter than the bookies have us anyway. I also think Arsenal and Liverpool are outside bets.

Lloris - France and Lyon Captain Vertonghen - Ajax Captain Capoue - Tolouse Captain Soldado - Valencia Captain Fair point but only Vertonghen has won a league title out of all of those players and the Dutch league is hardly the pinnacle is it ? We're hardly likely to sign players who are Captains of current PL/BL/BBVA/SA champions. In Spain it would mean Ramos or Puyol, in England Rio, or Yaya, or Terry, in Italy Buffon or Ambrosini, in Germany Lahm or Kehl. If we did sign players like that it would be because they were past it and surplus to requirements at their current clubs. Rather you look for leadership qualities which I think is one of the strengths of the current Spurs squad.

Lloris - France and Lyon Captain Vertonghen - Ajax Captain Capoue - Tolouse Captain Soldado - Valencia Captain

Parker is choosing between Fulham and QPR, fee agreed at £3.5m for QPR, don't know if it's been agreed with QPR. Adebayor has been offered a deal on the same terms he's on with us, and a fee of £5m - £8m (hope he doesn't go as I think he could be important for us next season). If Ade stays then I reckon we'll get around £8m for Defoe, we got £6m for Dempsey, an inferior player of the same age. We've had years of this now from Levy so I'm pretty confident, how much did we sell you Hutton for?. We'll revisit this as the players go out, I won't shy away if I turn out to be totally wrong.

I've always assumed that's all included in the headline figure?

You'll find that was Euros not £'s (there is a bit of a difference) and with the lack of interest since it's safe to say the £8m Spurs want (according to his agent) isn't going to be achieved and they will more likely to settle for £5m. I think Spurs will be close to the top 4 if the new striker stays fit and they keep Bale and he stays fit. Failure of either of these and it'll be the same top 4 again with Wilshire like a new signing for Arsenal Really, he took a 130K a week pay cut to join Spurs or is that 90K that spurs are paying him not counting the rest that Man City have to pay him? Also if Spurs had an offer of around £8m for him then why haven't they accepted it? Finally 30 year old Jermaine Defoe worth £8m? Adebayor negotiated a £5m pay-off from City, the payment of which was the point of argument between Spurs and City for most of last summer. That £5m was in lieu of silly wages. Hence he's on £90k a week. I accept it may only be £5m that we get. He hasn't gone to Beksiktas because he didn;t want to. He may choose to remain and fight for his place. Something I'd be happy for him to do. I;d prefer Defoe to go than Adebayor, even though Adebayor's not got us in his blood and Defoe has. I said Adebayor or Defoe deliberately. We finished top four for two out of the last four seasons and finished 5th in the other two. Hopefully we'll be in and around there again, and I hope we'll even push on beyond that. I think there are three or possibly four teams of similar quality this season and that realistically places from third down are up for grabs. I think we're stronger in respect of our rivals than ever before, however I think we're not stand-out stronger than any of them, and because randomness plays a huge part it's quite possible we finish 6th or below.

No chance you'd get £14m, even if you sold all four of those players. Spurs would be lucky to give Adebayor away given the wages he's on. Adebayor's on £90k p/w. We've already had an offer of around £8m from Besiktas. Defoe will also go to a mid-table type club for a similar price. Parker is subject to a £3.5m bid from QPR. BAE I imagine will raise about £3.5m. So 8m + 3.5m + 3.5m = £15m. Expert knowledge, or wishful thinking?

Borussia Dortmund!

Not sure about that. There are such random variables that even a side with the quality Chelsea possessed a couple of seasons back could finish outside the top four. I think ourselves, Liverpool, and Arsenal are much of a muchness, if you were forced to rank us you'd probably, as it stands, go Spurs, Arsenal, Liverpool, but the quality difference is so slight that randomness means it could go in any order. I honestly think Liverpool are nowhere near either of you cockney spiv brigades in terms of quality of squad. They were 11 points off last season, their signings aren't a patch on yours and their star man is a raving lunatic. I think the points difference between us can be explained by random variables as much as a quality difference. Perhaps we were over all a couple of points better, but if randomness causes Liverpool to achieve five points less than their expected total, and we achieve five more for the same reason, then you easily get that 11 point gap.

Not sure about that. There are such random variables that even a side with the quality Chelsea possessed a couple of seasons back could finish outside the top four. I think ourselves, Liverpool, and Arsenal are much of a muchness, if you were forced to rank us you'd probably, as it stands, go Spurs, Arsenal, Liverpool, but the quality difference is so slight that randomness means it could go in any order.

£35m. If we sell Parker, BAE and one of Adebayor or Defoe, that'll come down another £14m or so to around £20m. [Edit] Forgot to add Capoue, so make that £43m.

Only 12 miles from Chelsea mate!!!

They don't have near enough depth in defence or attack for that. Not yet anyway. Man Utd V Spurs Defence Vidic (CB) Evans (CB) Ferdinand (CB) Smalling (CB, RB) Jones (CB, DM) Evra (LB) Rafael (RB) Buttner (LB) Dawson (CB) Vertonghen (CB, LB) Kaboul (CB, RB) Walker (RB) Naughton (RB, LB) BAE (LB) Rose (LB) Midfield Carrick (CM, DM, CB), Anderson (DM, CM), Cleverly (CM), Kagawa (AM), Giggs (AM, LF) Paulinho (CM, DM), Sandro (DM, CM), Capoue (DM, CM, CB), Dembele (CM, AM), Gylfi (AM, LF), Holtby (AM, CM), Carroll (CM, AM) Forwards Rooney (ST, AM), RVP (ST), Welbeck (LF, ST), Young (LF), Valencia (RF, RB), Nani (AM, LF), Hernandez (ST), Bale (AM, LF, RF), Soldado (ST), Lennon (RF, LF), Chadli (LF, AM, RF), Townsend (RF, LF), Defoe (ST), Adebayor (ST) Coaches Moyes AVB I think you can argue about quality and depth, but personally I think it's pretty close depth-wise. There are question marks over both defences in terms of ages and injury problems. In their prime Utd's defence clearly beats ours, and they also have good versatile alternative CBs to come in if needs be, whereas we've only really got the unproven Capoue who can cover. Midfield-wise I think we have more depth a more options. Up front a fit and in form Rooney with RVP is a frightening thought, but I have my doubts over Rooney. Without him they start to look a bit flimsy. Meanwhile Soldado is unproven in this league, but comes with a good pedigree, and Bale is our ace in the pack. Based on past records Utd's top two win, but not by much and as I say there are question marks over form and fitness. After those two in terms of depth I think it's pretty equal. Obviously all is on paper, and no one will be surprised if Utd romp away, whereas everyone would be surprised if we challenged, and that's probably the true measure of the quality gap, however I don't think it's totally true that we lack depth where the top clubs don't. Perhaps yes when it comes to comparisons with City or Chelsea, but not in comparison to Utd.

That was a self-confessed WUM on Twitter making stuff up, but got picked up by the Metro and then by blogs etc (he is training with us to keep fit so there's the seed which makes it semi-believable, but he is paying a fee for the privilege arranged by his agent)... There's another example of that happening this summer with a fellow on Spurs Community pissed off with all the media hype around Bale, and also that a lot of other stories based on so-called inside information being lifted from SC without being attributed, getting together with a few fellow posters to start a rumour about Suarez to Spurs. They included a few made-up specifics just so they could be sure, and lo and behold the next day there was the story in the nationals. Private Eye got on it, and realised the spoof and printed a story on the whole affair in their current edition if you want to have a peruse. The power of the internet eh...

If he doesn't repeat last seasons stats, at least, Madrid will go for the next new shiny player out there. The thing about last season was that he scored so many ridiculously good goals,which were also winners and were also almost in the last minute the hype just went crazy. Unless he just gets better and better I don't think Madrid will ever pay as much again. I agree. Almost the best thing for us next season would be for him to have good but not spectacular year, we win the league anyway and we keep hold of him!!!

What kind of money. I think the problem was Perez is all talk and no balls. Levy called him out on it and he scurried back to his burrow muttering about him being too expensive. £60m is about the right price for Bale (even that's steep), but £60m is no where near enough to tempt Levy into selling. Hence any deal was always improbable.

Perez seems to have a screw loose!! I can only guess that his pride was pricked? When Barcelona stole the headlines with their Neymar purchase, he felt he had to respond to the Messi-Neymar threat with an equivalent Ronaldo-Bale duo. It doesn't make sense though, Bale's only had one exceptional season, he's worth nothing like the price it would take to buy him, surely Perez should wait to see if he repeats his exploits this season and then get him for £60m next season when he only has two years on his contract? That way everyone wins!!!!

Mate, Soldado, Paulinho, Capua, keeping hold of Bale maybe... but Stephen Ireland... we're not at that level yet!!! What position does 'Mate' play? I've never heard of him. Croatian lad, CM, because we need to strengthen there!! http://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/en/mate-males/profil/spieler_44230.html

You can if they don't pay what he's worth. Levy already promised AVB he wouldn't sell Bale for any price. Only Real's interference stopped him from signing his new contract, telling him that if he didn't kick up a fuss he'd never get his move. If Real back-down, as Perez has just suggested they're doing, then Bale will be free to get on with his career. I think they'll definitely sign him next summer, which is what we planned for all along. Everyone's a winner!!!

I think there's that possibility yes, but I don't think it is the case. First of all, thanks to the massive new TV deal all clubs will get a minimum £30m boost to their coffers. Depending how high we finish and how many of our games are shown on TV that could rise to as high as £60m. Let's be conservative and assume we get an additional £40m in TV money. Then consider we've spent a net £-30m on player transfers the last two seasons. Whereas typically we'd spend a net £16m. So far we've spent a net £46m. So all things being equal, given the TV money boost and our typical spending from a few years ago we're within budget. But all things may not be equal, Levy has shown himself to be willing to spend much more than £16m in a season. In 07/08 he spent £34m net on players. And remember that's when our turnover was less than half what it is now. Then you factor in any additional player sales this summer (not inc Bale). You also need to consider whether they think this is the year to make a push, a couple or three of our rivals have question marks hanging over them. We need a big sponsorship deal next summer and a high-profile successful team will help with that. And perhaps into the equation you throw the inkling that ENIC might be looking to sell the club... Basically all in all I think our spend this summer is quite explicable without the need to suggest a forced sale of Bale.