Speculation Blackburn may make a cheeky bid for Defoe as a part of any deal taking Chris Samba to White Hart Lane. http://bit.ly/pX1aQK

Signing Samba would be great for Spurs. A Physical presence and peeing off Arsenal at the same time as they want him.

My views on the Starting line up for those interested:-

..................Friedel
..Walker Dawson Gallas Ekotto
Lennon Huddlestone Modric Bale
...............VDV
......................Crouch

Gomes will probably play the Cups to keep him happy, Corluka may get some game time to rest Walker (whose come on leaps and bounds at Villa & the U21's) - it seems more & more like Hutton will be sold. King will play the odd game when fit to rest Dawson/Gallas and Sandro will rotate a bit with Huddlestone in the middle. VDV will drop back to RW when arry decides to give Defoe a run out.

All this assuming we dont sign someone else.

You are assuming Modric is still there

Well, erm - he is.

It is better to travel in hope, than arrive in vain. Allegedly.

Unfortunately 'Arry loves Gomes - so he may well get the starting spot. IMO it should be Friedel, Carlo then Gomes. I reckon Kyle will be our right back - Charlie Chugboat is a bit sluggish for my tastes. Kyle bombing up and down the right would provide an alternative to the Bale Express. I'm worried about our midfield - Sadro was outstanding last year for a first season (hopefully he'll get well soon). Modric offski - fair enough £35m please.

VdV will drop back to RW - nah. He's in all my TFF teams. A thin version of Fat Frank - bombing into the box to smash it home (& takes pens).

Crouchie - hmmm. Does a job I suppose in partnership with VdV. I'm a SupaPav man myself. Let's see what we can get with that £35m

So my line up would be (same as yours really)

..................Friedel
Walker Dawson Gallas Ekotto
Lennon Huddl £20m Bale
...............VDV
......................Pav (A.N. other $15m)


Players out in the summer: Bentley, Keane, Modric, Jenas (does my head in), Hutton, Bassong, Gomes, Niko

Is Pienaar the forgotten man? Why did they buy him?

So 'Arry buys someone and doesn't play him, best check where the money went

oh, he'll get plenty of playing time when Bale hurts his back, or VDV hurts his hamstring, or Huddlestone hurts his ankle, etc...

I'm not sure Pienaar was bought to be a first teamer - more the versatility of his being able to slot in anywhere needed. For £3m that was sound business. The current rumour mill has Crouchie off to Stoke or QPR - WOuld be nice to see Pav get a run if we fail to buy a 20goal a season man.

Vucinic is being linked, apparently.

Kranjcar seems to be getting some pre-season game time. Is he likely to feature when the proper stuff starts?

Cheers, fekdrink.

What is Gallas status? Haven't seen him play at all pre season, still not recovered from injury? Still nailed on when fit though I assume?

Think the above underestimates how HH is a fan of Corluka. Walker might get decent game time, and with the European games I expect the two of them to be rotated fairly regularly.

Once Sandro is back I think he'll compete with THudd for the CMF role alongside Modric. Will shield the back 4 when HH thinks we need a DMF. Sandro could be a superb player if he is allowed the time to develop properly.

Hows VDV doing on the injury front?

Look at Sunday's final friendly when Athletic Bilbao visit WHL. Barring further injuries, I would expect that the starting-line up will be the one that takes the field against Everton next Saturday.

The 2 definite injuries are King (no kidding ) and Sandro - no idea if Gallas and VDV are ready.

Must admit to be suprised by the lack of transfer activity - but expect several outgoings and, maybe, a couple of new faces by the end of the Window.

its not sunday its today.. saturday 5.15 itv4 spurs vs bilbao. should field a pretty strong team as we want their striker llorente so we should be aiming to show how good we are lol.

vdv is out for 2 weeks apparently and is due to miss the everton game.

sandro wont be back for a while but once he is hudd will be fighting for game time as sandro will be first choice unless hudd seriously improves his defensive game.. sandro was great for us last season.

kaboul and corluka have been good pre season which will make it tough for walker as both can play right back and both are better defensively. not sure whats up with gallas.. old age i spose haha. i think kaboul will get more time at centre back this year unless king has some miracle recovery. gallas wont be able to play all the games on offer this year.

pav, defoe and crouch have all been sh*te. defoe doesnt look like he cares as always in pre season. he should be trying alot hardewr as he is by no means first choice. pav has looked sloppy.. the ball has just been bouncing off of crouch. apart from that long range goal he scored the other day which he will never do again.

kranjcar has been good but where does he play? nowhere unless he can muscle in on the right wing and perform. wouldnt be to bad actually if he played as an inverted winger but dont see it happening.

thats just a few bits and bobs for anyone interested.

Spurs beat Athletic Club Bilbao 2-1...

Spurs (4-1-4-1): Gomes (Friedel, 46); Corluka (Walker, 46), Dawson, Bassong (Kaboul, 46), Assou-Ekotto; Huddlestone (Bale, 46); Lennon (Livermore, 80), Jenas (Defoe, 46), Pienaar (Modric, 24), Kranjcar; Pavlyuchenko (Crouch, 46)

Goals: Crouch (50), Defoe (53)

No Gallas or VDV (as stated above) and Pienaar went off with an injury. Doubt if that will be the starting line-up next week as I'm sure that Bale and Modric will be in that one.

Keane, Bentley, Palacios, Hutton, Cudicini and Rose all appear to be on the outer fringes of the squad - I'd guess that the first 4 are definitely available at the right price.

Who do people think will be first choice goalkeeper?

Personally I think they'll stick with Gomes but I know a lot of Tottenham fans want Friedal to start.

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how has Bale done pre season fellas is he looking back to his best more to the point do you spurs fans expect him to start the season strong are is going to take a few weeks from what you seen in pre season and how is vdv doing is he missing on saturday ?

Keane looks to be on his way to the LA Galaxy!

http://www.rotowire.com/Robbie-Keane-googid11792-spsoccer.htm

Keane signs for LA Galaxy...fee rumoured to be £3.5m and he was one of the top earners at WHL. I'm sure that all Spurs fans will wish him well - a tremendous player in his day, and his partnership with Berbatov was something special.

It will be interesting to see Harry's team selection for the Europa League Qualifier at Hearts on Thursday. My guess is that he will field a near full-strength line-up, to avoid the risk of being under-prepared for the visit to Old Trafford on Monday.

Any news on VDV?

what about Modric?

bale was great pre season and he has said he is over his injures and nothing is reoccuring. i think from a fantasy footy point of view bales points will depend on the signing of adebayor if it happens. with the crosses he whips in someone who can put those goalward he should assist alot. pre season he went at goal more himself aswell. even lennon could do well this season with a new forward. and with the supply the new forward will get he should do well to lol.

VDV was touch and go for the everton game so he should be near enough ready for a return.

VdV looked very good tonight against Hearts, Huddlestone played and looks good as well.

Bale looks back to his best, Lennon and Defoe also. Only Hearts but all five should play v Man Utd I'd imagine.

Now that the Transfer Window has closed, the final comings and goings from Last Season...

In: Freidel, Parker and Adebayor

Out: Keane, O'Hara, Woodgate, Hutton, Palacios, Crouch (if confirmed), Bentley (loan), Jenas (loan).

A reasonable profit on transfers plus a reduced wage bill; although Parker and Adebeyor will be on the current max and that figure is likely to rise in an attempt to 'reward' Modric for his 'loyalty' . Many will be disappointed that Cahill didn't arrive, but that may only hurt the club if they can't get either King or Gallas fit for any length of time. Parker should help to steady the ship, but I'm not convinced it will be a good move for him once Sandro returns - unless he can push Huddlestone to the sidelines.

In addition to the state of Luca's mind and Ledley's knee, the other key to this season is now probably held by Adebayor who has the potential to answer all the problems up front, or compound them, depending on his response to a move down the ladder.

We got rid of some of the rubbish. We've got Caulker out on loan ready to come back at centre half. If Modric gets over this we will do ok. Getting rid of some of the dross will also allow us to further blood some of the youngsters.

Just confirmed that Stoke have paid 10 million for Crouch - 1 million more than Spurs 'gave' to Pompey . Wish the same thing could be said about the Palacios deal - he really went backwards at Spurs (and was terrible in the World Cup as well).

Very pleased that Kranjcar has survived the cull - he and Pienaar (when fit) should get plenty of chances in the Europa League or when the inevitable injuries happen to Lennon and Bale.

Wilson was never the same after the death of his brother. He did a good job till then. I hope he does well for Stoke decent lad.

Agreed.

On the other hand, I wouldn't exactly say the same ('decent lad') about David Bentley - one of Spurs' worst ever signings. However, I do hope that he does well enough at West Ham to help them get promoted and encourage them to take him 'permanently', for a few million, in the summer.

Also glad to see the back of Hutton, a terrible defender who never looks as if he has the ball under control when going forward, either.