Pre-season musings and ramblings

Earlier this summer I bemoaned the lack of activity - transfer wise at White Hart Lane - in or out, and now, with a week to go till the big kick-off, I'm flippin twitchy!

Anyway, with the new season already underway - well done Blackpool last night - and the Prem season starting next week, I've got a few observations about this pre-season so far.

So in no particular order:

Rumours of Man City putting in a bid for Wesley Sneijder. I believe the presence of David Silva does not necessitate a bid for Sneijder but it would be a good move for City if anything to stop Utd from buying him. Edin Dzeko is due a big season as well - he must have settled in now

Transfer sagas - fed up now with the never ending story of the Spurs/Modric/Chelsea, ArsenalCesc/Barcelona and Arsenal/Nasri/City rumours.  All their current clubs are right to hold firm and demand the best fee they can get, but have to be wary of 'cutting off their nose to spite their face' by potentially disrupting the teams' pre-season preparations and early season form.  It may be worth Spurs and Arsenal sacrificing a couple of mill to ensure they get satisfactory replacements in time.  This is more specific to Arsenal as I believe Cesc and Nasri is due to leave more than Modric - but of course if City get Sneijder, surely the Nasri deal would be dead.

Furthermore, the wages boom over the last few seasons has resulted in clubs struggling to offload unwanted players.  Keane, AveragebyYour, Bellamy, SWP, Bendtner, etc anyone?

By all accounts Arsenal messed up the Juan Mata deal. Apparently he had a release clause fee which Spurs met - but he wasn't keen.  Arsenal were interested but despite the talk, Arsenal did not put in an offer. If the release clause was met, the player would have been interested in going to the Emirates. Now he will cost around £5m to £10m more...

Has anyone seen Sky Sports Fantasy League advert with Jeff Stelling and Harry Redknapp?  In normal circumstances it would be quite amusing - in real life, as a Spurs fan waiting for transfer action - its a pisstake! (notice how 'Sandra' is being referenced in the ad - thank Darren Bent for her increased profile!)

The Newcastle/Joey Barton situation earlier in the week highlighted how poor Sky Sports News reporting was - more or less reading out his tweets.  We can ALL follow @Joey7Barton and do that SSN!!!! Up your game!

The Joey Barton transfer listing certainly sparked debate as to whether he would be acceptable at your club. Good player, and on a free, he would be the signing of the summer, but the history has put fans off.

West Ham have done well to buy Matt Taylor and Kevin Nolan - signing of the summer right there! Is that enough however to carry them to promotion? We shall see...

Until next time...