The ears of numerous Tottenham fans undoubtedly pricked up this week as the news emerged that Damien Duff was moving from Chelsea to Tottenham in an ?11m deal. The BBC, forever defenders of truth, even carried the story citing that he had his medical on Sunday and would move within the next few days. As Wednesday approaches and the end of a ?few days? comes around, the transfer fee ranged from ?7-?11m, his salary from ?40,000-?65,000 and the transfer was off. Was this another vicious rumour or is there no smoke without fire?

The World Cup has filled a void that must be a football writer?s nightmare, the period between the end of one season and the beginning of another. Match of the Day, Soccer AM, Jimmy Hill?s Sunday Supplement, they are all on holiday and don?t need to worry but for the football journalist, the back pages do not take a break and they are tasked with filling the space. Invariably, the space usually dedicated to match reviews et al is filled with transfer rumours. The Damien Duff story is the latest in a long line of transfer gossip that has emanated from the British tabloids and enthralled the fans. If you believe everything you read, don?t it?s dangerous, Tottenham have spent millions signing the likes of Darren Bent, Fernando Torres, Pascal Chimbonda, Lucas Neill, Micah Richards, Curtis Davies and Kevin Nolan, to name but a few. In attempting to balance the books, Michael Carrick has signed for Manchester United, Jermain Defoe has gone to Portsmouth and perhaps the best deal of all, Callum Davenport has been sold to all 24 Championship clubs for ?1.5m each, an excellent deal if ever I saw one. So it would seem that instead of taking a break, absolute rubbish fills the back pages??but it is interesting!

My all time favourite transfer gossip relates to the signing of Juan Sebastian Veron by Manchester United in 2001. A leading tabloid newspaper ran stories that he was signing for Real Madrid, Barcelona, Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester United and Juventus. When the deal was eventually signed to take him to Manchester, splashed across the back pages was the words ?World Exclusive? with an inset of the original story they had ran months before. It is perhaps because I do not get out much but it really made me laugh as they failed to mention, in their ?World Exclusive? that they had already had him signing for the five other teams. It is obvious that once Lazio were going to let Veron go, he would only go to one of the teams with the financial clout to pay c?30m for him and also, guarantee him a certain standard of football. This is why the tabloid tales this summer have intrigued me so much. In the past two season, Tottenham have been linked with players that the likes of Aston Villa, Everton and Man City would go for. Now, after a fine season under Martin Jol, we are being linked with players from the top clubs (Duff ? Chelsea), that the top clubs are after (Zakora ? Man U and Arsenal) and who the top clubs want (Carrick ? Man U, Real Madrid). Although league positions are most important, it is nice to see that even the tabloids recognised it was a good season at White Hart Lane. The problem is, while as a fan it keeps our attention for the commute to work, it can cause disruption for the squad.

Martin Jol strikes me as an honest. I have never met him but on television and in interviews, he comes across as the type of person you respect because of his honesty. Maybe he said too much or maybe he was just being honest but when he recently remarked that the squad had been affected by the numerous reports of transfer activity, you begin to see the ugly side of the gossip. Players are only human and are likely to read the papers and constant transfer rumours have to unsettle you. Although the first eleven may be comfortable, for those considered fringe players it is a different story. The likes of Andy Reid, Wayne Routledge, Reto Ziegler and various others have the potential but not if a new ?10m+ signing takes their place. It must therefore, be hard for Jol to let them know they have a chance, especially with Comolli pulling the transfer strings. This is where the transfer rumours become so destructive as players request transfers because they feel threatened. Credit to Jol, only Stephen Kelly has seemingly taken his chance and jumped ship as rumours of other Chimbonda stories circulate, thus far. I think it will be a test of character for Jol to keep the squad united over the coming months and into the start of the Premiership season.

So will Damien Duff sign or is it duff info, only time will tell!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 19th, 2006 at 8:11 am and is filed under Tottenham Hotspur. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. Both comments and pings are currently closed.