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It's that time again. Yes, it's Tuesday and, for no other reason than its alliterative qualities, that means it's time for Tottenham Hotspur transfer rumors. It has been an interesting week for Tottenham Hotspur. They picked up a trophy in South Africa on Saturday and meanwhile rumors of a move for a new striker, namely Mirko Vucinic, continue to swirl.
It seems that and Luka Modric to Chelsea rumors have cooled, particularly given that Chelsea seem to be the likely destination for Palermo midfielder Javier Pastore. It was believed that Blues owner Roman Abramovich would challenge Spurs Chairman Daniel Levy's resolve with a bid of £27 million plus Daniel Sturridge, but that looks like it will be unnecessary should Pastore join.
With the future of Luka Modric at White Hart Lane secure it is now time for the Club to press on and sell some of the deadwood and buy a striker. We have to do something, right? With that in mind, on to the rumors!
Teams Are Queuing Up For Three Meter Peter: Can a queue have only two people? Last week I mentioned that Queens Park Rangers were interested in Peter Crouch. Now, it appears that Stoke City are joining the chase for Tottenham's gangly striker. Stoke are also rumored to be interested in Carlton Cole, who if combined with Crouch would create the world's lowest scoring striker pairing ever. It's true. I saw it on OptaJack's Twitter.
Big Sam Sends A Warning To Spurs: It's not your typical warning, but then again, Sam Allardyce is not your typical manager. Basically, Big Sam, with whom Harry is good friends, want Spurs to make their move for Scott Parker and do it soon. Interest in Parker seems to have waned as the summer has gone on and now West Ham are stuck with him and most of the rest of their squad that was relegated from the Premier League last season. It seems amazing that a player that's gotten as much press as Parker has stayed put. Not sure if that's a result of West Ham's asking price or something else. Either way, I maintain my stance that I do not want Parker.
Rafa Wants More Dutchmen Speakers At The Lane: Apparently being able to communicate with Gomes in Dutch is not enough for Rafael Van der Vaart. He has suggested that manager Harry Redknapp bring in some of his countrymen, namely Arjen Robben. The Bayern Munich midfielder seems unlikely to join due to his high wages and the lack of Champions League football. Robben would be an amazing addition to the club, but I can't see the oft-injured 27 year old coming to London. Robben would provide Spurs with a dilema on the right wing, but would provide, in combination with Gareth Bale, the goalscoring punch needed to play a lone striker formation. Could you imagine a 4-3-2-1 with Bale, Van der Vaart, and Robben as the attacking Midfield trio? That sounds awesome, but unrealistic. If nothing else, Robben could keep Ledley King company in the physio room.
We're Going To Buy A Barca Player: That's right folks, David Villa is coming to the Lane. Ok, that's not very believeable. The actual rumor is that Ibrahim Affellay is on the way out at the Camp Nou. The Dutch winger (remember when I said Rafa wanted more Dutch players?) joined Barcelona from PSV Eindhoven last year, but never really got a lot of chance to impress. Now the addition of Alexis Sanchez could see the 25 year-old fall further down the pecking order. Affelay already has 36 caps for Holland and is a year older than Aaron Lennon. The two play the same position and I'm not sure how this would work for Spurs. We already have decent depth at the position and Affelay isn't an immense improvement over Lennon. But for £4 million, maybe it wouldn't be a bad bit of business.
Stop Me If You've Heard This One Before: In addition to Affelay, Spurs are also looking into signing Alvaro Negredo from Sevilla. If that name sounds familiar it's because Juande Ramos wanted Negrado when he played for Almeria. Instead, Negrado went to Real Madrid and then Sevilla. Madrid had a buyback clause on the player, but elected not to use it. His value is thought to be close to £18 million. Negredo scored 20 goals in La Liga last year and is more than capable of leading the line. I think I would be alright with this signing.
Player We're Not Being Linked With But Should Be: No new or interesting striker rumors this week. Mostly because we've covered the Mirko Vucinic and Emmanuel Adebayor rumors at length already. So, I suppose it's up to me to create one. Interest in Moussa Sow seems to have cooled and interest in Papiss Demba Cisse seems nonexistent. While both of those would be excellent buys, I would like to see Spartak Moscow striker Welliton.He lead the Russian Premier League in scoring in 2009 and 2010 with 21 and 19 goals respectively. We had decent luck with the last two time Russian top scorer we bought (Roman Pavlyuchenko), perhaps Welliton would be an even better buy.
Player We're Actually Going to Buy...This Week: At this point I have no idea. Can I say no one? Is that even allowed? I suppose it's my post and I can say whatever I please. That's what I'm going with this week. Spurs will actually by no one. The summer transfer period will come and go and there will be no new additions to the squad. I hope I'm wrong and based on percentages (I've only called the Friedel signing), I probably will be. Maybe I'll regret not picking someone like Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, Jefferson Farfan, or Abel Hernandez, but probably not.