Chinese Whispers

ionman34 wrote: I was just typing an answer to Max's article post when a thought struck me. To help finance the purchase of a wanted player, particularly a highly rated one, clubs will often sell on other players......... ready funds, reduced wage bills etc. So I started thinking about the players that we should be offloading and how we'd manage to get a decent price for them.

Run with me on this one guys because I'm still working it out in my own head!!!

I wondered how clubs manage to 'quietly' let it be known that certain players were up for sale? Jenas for example. We all know that his days at Spurs are numbered. The Hudd, Modric, Palacios, Lennon, Krnkjar and Bale are all ahead of him and now Sandro is coming? That puts 5 ahead of him for a central midfield berth.

Thankyou JJ for your endeavour on the behalf of Tottenham Hotspur .............. Good luck at your next club.

Then a second thought struck me, we've been doing this for a number of years now haven't we. Our progression has seen us 'trading up' on players as we've moved upwards. And where did the sold players go? To teams following the same pattern, teams like Sunderland or Portsmouth. Teams looking to move up, as we have, by using players that have been there and done it ...................... but who weren't/aren't quite good enough to make the grade at the top end of the tree.

How many of our ex players have Sunderland bought? What had them thinking that these players, who had been prevalent in our push up the table, would be available? Didn't they buy two in one hit? Malbranque and A.N. Other? Don't forget Bent either.

Jenas was prevalent too, when we first made Europe, under Jol, he can do a job. Someone is going to see this and think the same ....................... Particularly if it's 'quietly' noised about that he is available.

Then there's Bentley, O'Hara, Keane again, Hutton ........................ A reasonable list that'll net us a good 20 mill at least, not to mention the wage saving.

Methinks Tottenham have the art of 'Chinese Whispering' honed to a fine edge here, we'll see some movement in the transfer market but more out than in IMHO.