S-Clarke

Oh well, kitman next then. ''The lure of washing kits for the Champions league was too much to turn down''

Wasn't he the coach at the time we were in L1, and he said he'd need to leave to get in the squad? I must admit though, I'm so bored of the Champions league stuff. If it's not players saying ''they need to play in it'', it's coaches saying they ''need to manage in it'' or it's national team coaches saying that they need their players ''playing in it.''. How long before we lose our Groundsman to the lure of cutting the grass in the CL?

That bloke has always been such a pillock-head.

No one knows what's going on..!!!!!

That's no news. It's just that we ''expect'' to sign him due to the agreement, not that we will.

I've got it on, and they never said anything of the sort? Unless I've gone deaf.

I don't know why anyone is bothering to engage with him. He's no where to be seen when things are going well, but as soon as a bit of doom is on the horizon up he pops. There are seemingly quite a few posters who linger in the hope of bad news, to then try and ram their views down our faces. I'll tell you what is intolerable - this forum during pre-season.

Yeah, but that way of swinging it doesn't fit his agenda.

And there is another ridiculously over the top post. You will look back in a year and cringe.

But that would spoil his mantra. Please don't quote him. For what it's worth, what he is saying above....that exact same person, and website claimed this only 1 day ago. ''Stories abound of Levy flying to Madrid to sign the Belgian centre-back but as I pointed out the other day, my reading of what I hear is that Alderweireld has already changed his mind and is going to Southampton, which Spurs will know. That still seems to be the case as he is talking with them.'' The fact of the matter is that everyone is playing games. This is a typical transfer merry-go-round, and it is utterly pointless going OTT as some on here are doing right now.

Not if we feel we have a legitimate claim to get him for 6.3m. Would be foolish to spend an extra £5m if that was the case.

In other news, Rudi Skacel has signed.

This is all a bit of a mess and it does sound as if Atletcio are playing games with us, seemingly to get more money elsewhere. Which is fair enough, given that they own him - but if the latest news is correct, then it does indeed get very messy. Personally, I think there are lots of dirty tricks at play away from the actual official transfer talks. And behind the scenes it's probably a hell of a lot more calm and straight forward than it seems to us outsiders. From what I could gather from the end of season stuff, and Koeman a few weeks back, that it rests on AM. They decide to sell to us for the fee, they pay us the agreement and sell to the highest bidder, or they keep him. 3 options. Seemingly they've decided they can't keep him as he doesn't want to stay, and they seemingly want to get the highest fee for him in that case. If the club feel they can still get him for the £6.7m, then they are well within their rights to hold back on any potential £12m until they're sure. The attitude of ''just spend it, get it done'' isn't going to get us far. An extra 5-6m is a big deal. As I've always thought, the Spurs stuff has never been as close as media have speculated. They may well be interested, but seemingly Atletico are trying to drum up interest where they can.

There are some dirty tricks at work here, that's for sure. Welcome to the world of football transfers.

Link to where it says done deal?

As close to. ''Morgan set for Utd medical'' ''Transfer to be done this week'' ''Fee agreed between clubs'' This part of the transfer window is the most tedious, as there's very little else going on, this gets all the attention and every single bit of info that is leaked is magnified. Bring on August.

You're simply assuming we aren't. Let's not start wetting the bed before there's anything to wet it over.

You're about 14 hrs behind. And I'm not sure how you can say we've been frugal. Sod it, more Osvaldo's and Gaston's for me!!!!

It doesn't feel anything like last summer what so ever, this is just wet trash. What are you on about re: boardroom mentality of buying who went/then selling? Were you asleep during the Cedric transfer? And what some people seem to be missing, Toby was NEVER our player. He was never owned by us. We borrowed him for a year, so I'm not quite sure how we can plan to replace a loan before he's gone. Plus I think we're still pretty optimistic we'll get him. Enough of this OTT trash please, as the usual culprits will clutch onto this as it's what they're waiting for. Great ammunition.

A Belgium journo, who I believe is the one who broke our interest last summer? (may be wrong) https://twitter.com/svenclaes

Cheers Monk. Kind of how I've felt this is panning out, there is some dirty play going on here. The constant leak of Spurs specifics is suspicious to say the least. Atletcio are playing games, not just us, but with Toby as well.

Same The Spurs stuff is a little too noisy for me.

There are certain posters who are hanging around the edges of these threads, waiting for the bad news to drift around. They're waiting to pounce for meltdown v 2.0.

Whilst it can quite often be a case of ''no smoke without fire'', it just feels like there's a little too much messy noise regarding Spurs. Lots of repeating, lots of rehashing and the releasing of info which is pretty irrelevant in the most case. I'm not in the know or anything like that, but I just can't buy the Spurs stuff. I may be wrong, and so be it, but it just feels a little too noisy to me - something isn't quite right about it. Whilst we're not saying zilch, which is very often the case when we're working on stuff. I will stick my neck out here and say it's a combination of this... Spurs wanting the Atletcio defensive midfield player, Matteo Suarez, and agents/atlectio touting Toby's name around. The media get hold of it, put 2 and 2 together and come up with 23535353. Remember, he's only just got back ftom holiday, so I can imagine any move is ramping up as we speak. We'll know next week, I'm sure. I'm still pretty confident, I think the club are quite calm about it too.

Levy will hold talks with Atletico chief executive Miguel Angel Gil is believed to want any deal finalised by Sunday night. Based on this use of the English language, I have no idea who wants it done. A crucial word is missing somewhere in there.