trousers

http://www.tottenhamhotspur.com/news/dream-come-true-for-toby-080715/

Alderweireld TobyVerified account‏@AlderweireldTob Very excited to join @SpursOfficial. Looking fwd to this but also looking back @ a great @SouthamptonFCseason. Great club & fans! Thanks!

Tottenham Hotspur ‏@SpursOfficial 3m3 minutes ago .@AlderweireldTob: "I’m very proud to be a #THFC player. I’m happy to be here & hope to have a wonderful time with this team." #WelcomeToby

Cheers Les. Pretty much matches my hunch of how things panned out. First time for everything.

Source?

So, given the paucity of available players, our starting 11 today might look something like this? ------------------------- Stekelenburg ------------------------------ Martina ------- Turnbull -------- Stephens ------------ A.Leftback* ------------------------------ Reed ---------------------------------- --------------- Isgrove ------------------ Ramirez ----------------- -------- Juanmi ----------- Gallagher --------- Rodriguez -------- Edit: forgot Martina is a right back, not left back *Do we have a natural left back in the list of available players? maybe we'll play three CBs instead? (Turnbull, Stephens and McCarthy)

When it comes to transfers, I much prefer to be a pragmatist than an emotionally charged "jumpy football fan". Maybe I'm in the minority?

That assumes the chronology was: 1) Saints become aware that Toby wants to join Spurs rather than Saints 2) Saints play the "legally he is ours, so hands off him" card The chronology might have been: 1) Saints play the "legally he is ours, so hands off him" card 2) Saints become aware that Toby wants to join Spurs rather than Saints Maybe? Maybe not?

Sometimes (often?) in a negotiation situation (and/or legal dispute) you have to convey that you're confident of success even if, deep down, you're not. Especially when things might still be in the balance.

Because Toby might prefer Spurs to Saints? Or AM want to cut off their nose to spite their face because we rubbed them up the wrong way somehow?

Ok, I'll try and nail this *not* like-for-like comparison one more time then I'll give it up as a lost cause.... We "slate" other clubs who leak stuff through the media as a matter of routine behaviour. We do it rarely and as a last resort. Certain other clubs do it as a first resort. Ergo, there's no contradiction here whatsoever. IMO of course.

# CB Fry files post away in hindsight time capsule #

The club (or any company) employs people to do the scrutiny. If the people paid to scrutinise contracts miss something that later proves to be crucial then that's human error rather than being systemic throughout the company. Anyway, this is obviously all guesswork and I don't wish to cast aspersions on someone who may have had nothing to do with it. It just happens to be one possibility out of many potential theories.

My hunch is that Les Reed and co *were* satisfied that the contract situation was watertight but that some kind of loophole recently emerged. *Maybe* the way the contract was worded meant that the supposed 'end of June' deadline date for AM's £1.5m buy out clause ALSO applied to our £6.8m purchase clause. Maybe this went under the radar due to our since departed legal chap not spotting it, or it getting lost in translation, when the contract was drawn up this time last year. I'm convinced as I can be that the timing of his departure is too coincidental not to be connected to this affair. So, "the club" may have been acting under what they believed to be a watertight contract when in fact there was some ambiguity that only recently came to light when they re-scrutinised the contract wording. All supposition on my part, obviously, but the pieces of the jigsaw seem to fit.

Whenever I drive up for events in London I tend to park at Hatton Cross (near Heathrow) and get the Piccadilly Line in from there (need to change lines for Wembley further down the line obviously). Its not exactly close to Wembley but, to me, that's not necessarily a bad thing as it saves the potential problem of getting snarled up in traffic the closer you get to Wembley. There are probably better options than that but thought I'd share anyway.

I think this post of mine was wasted on the other thread: http://www.saintsweb.co.uk/showthread.php?p=2210297 Anyone want to take the honours of digging out today's "this time last year" posts?

http://m.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/13375680.Ramirez_s_Saints_career_could_be_revived_by_holiday/ We all know what'll happen next, don't we? Gaston will have a stonking season then be snapped up by Spurs or Liverpool on a free because of his contact situation. You heard it here first (and probably last)

He also said in the same post that Clyne was close (to signing a new contract with us). Not picking holes in K.Billy's source(s), just observing that things often change after posting info in good faith.

Wots occurring guv? Gis a clue. Cheers

Cheers for the update Monk. Sounds like we're still in the race then?

This. One 'source' repeated exponentially. (That's not to say the root source wasn't correct of course. It may well be.)

I couldn't possibly comment...

Or, Yoshida has a stonking season and everyone has a bit of a chuckle at a panic laden thread about Toby back in July 2015....