After making a reported £12m for Loic Remy, we look to be the favourites to sign the France striker.

His agent claims that Marseille are interested, but that he’d prefer a move to England and is expected to confirm a deal next week. No one seems to know that much about him and the Spurs fans I spoke to over the weekend were split between those that are backing Harry’s judgement and some who had concerns over his less than brilliant goalscoring record of 32 strikes from a total of 101 appearances.

Perhaps the lack of goals shouldn’t be a huge concern when you consider that he has spent much of his career playing on the flanks by all accounts. That Thierry Henry bloke was another player who started as a winger and coincidentally, had also scored 32 goals from a total of 161 games, before the Scum bought him. He didn’t turn out to be too shabby as a striker, did he?

Remy was on target this weekend against Leyton Orient Lorient, scoring the winning goal with a header. He looks pretty mobile from this footage and at 6ft tall, could possibly be the player that Redknapp has been searching for, to play on his own up front.

Gallas, Adebayor and Hleb have all been linked with a move to Spurs in recent weeks. Are we trying to create a reunion of the team of ‘kids’ that we beat 5-1?

The Adebayor rumour is just that I reckon. City have got too many players, we need a big striker who can pay on his own up front and journalists know that the headline will attract attention. In some ways he’d actually be a very good signing for us and is the type of player that we need, except for the fact that he is clearly a complete tosser.

Speaking of tossers, Gallas has been the latest of the former-Goons to be linked with a move to Spurs. Again this would make sense on some levels. He’s available for free and can play in every position across the back line.

Apparently though he wants a two year contract, while we’re only willing to give him one. Another problem is the fact that he clearly has an inflated view of his own self-worth. Would he be happy to be a squad player? Because that’s all he’d be at Spurs and why pay so much on wages for someone who’s going to be spending most of his time on the bench?

Finally, there’s Barcelona’s Hleb, who unlike our other 5-1 defeated targets, at least doesn’t come across as a complete tosser on a personal level. He’s never really settled at Barcelona and there could be some truth in our interest, if Harry fails to bring Ashley Young to Spurs, having already missed out on Joe Cole. As is the case with Young though, he’s not a player that we desperately need.

Ultimately I don’t want any of them at Spurs and I would be surprised if most Tottenham fans felt differently. The one bonus to signing any of them of course, would be the sheer annoyance factor that it would create for the South London Nomads. Signing Adebayor would surely annoy them the most, followed by Gallas and then Hleb.

So maybe there’s something in the idea after all. Any idea how we could change the lyrics to that Adebayor song though?

Martin O’Neill has walked out on Aston Villa just days before the season starts and there is speculation that his decision was prompted by a row over the future of Ashley Young.

There’s some logic to this. O’Neill has known about James Milner wanting out for months now, so you wouldn’t think that his sale would prompt the Villa manager to walk. I suppose there could have been a row over the size of the fee accepted by Villa, or the amount of that money available to O’Neill for transfers, but again, the Milner to City deal has been talked about for such a long time that you wonder what could possibly upset O’Neill sufficiently for him to do something like this.

That said, with Villa playing hardball with Manchester City over Milner, why would they accept a bid from us for Young, unless it was for a similarly exorbitant fee? There’s been talk of a swap deal involving the likes of Jenas, Keane and Bentley going to Villa, but what chairman would agree a deal like this over his manager’s head? It would have to be cold, hard cash.

I don’t believe that we are potless as Harry has indicated, but I find it equally hard to think that we’d pay megabucks for Young when a striker seems more of a priority.

It’s all quite puzzling and guaranteed to get the message boards buzzing. Do you think Young will join and if so, do you want him at White Hart Lane? Regardless of my misgivings over the possible fee, I think that Young on one wing and Lennon on the other would be a frightening proposition for opposition defenders next season.

The one positive from all of this which is surely definite, is the fact that it will be very hard now for Villa to compete within the top six, as they have done in recent seasons. The downside is that their new manager probably won’t have any interest in signing Jenas and Keane.

Over the last few days there has been mounting speculation over Peter Crouch’s future at Tottenham. The press have been reporting that Harry is ready to sell and that Liverpool might take him back.

I think that the Liverpool link mainly comes from the fact that their manager is now Roy Hodgson, who tried to sign Crouch last summer. Just because he wanted Crouch then, doesn’t mean that he’d still want him. Liverpool is a very different club to Fulham. They’ve got less money to spend for a start.

If there is any truth in the story, then I’d be surprised that Harry is prepared to sell a player that he has now worked with at three different clubs. We can tend to become a bit one-dimensional when Crouch is in the side (which isn’t his fault), but he offers a unique option compared to our other strikers and judged on his England performances, would most likely cause chaos against European defences next season.

The reason could be that with no clubs looking particularly interested in signing the likes of Keane and Pavlyuchenko, Harry is ready to sacrifice a player that he likes, in order to give himself better options in the transfer market. Liverpool and Roy Hodgson may or may not be interested in Crouch, but it’s likely that somebody will.

I’d like Crouch to stay, but would understand if he’s sold, providing that money went towards a striker who could play on his own up front. What do you think? Should we sell the big man? Or would you rather retain his services and more importantly, keep hold of the World Cup’s top WAG? Have your say in our poll.

On This Day In Spurs History: 30th June

1995 – On this day in 1995, we broke our transfer record to buy Chris Armstrong from Crystal Palace for £4.5m. Armstrong had a successful partnership with Teddy Sheringham in his first season at the club, but struggled somewhat for the rest of his Spurs career. In total he made 173 appearances for the club and scored 62 goals.

Spurs Quote Of The Day: 30th June

“It’s magnificent to be in Europe, and this club – a club like Tottenham Hotspur – if we’re not in Europe…. we’re nothing. We’re nothing.” – Bill Nicholson.

Spurs Goal Of The Day: 30th June

Jurgen Klinsmann v Southampton

Spurs In The News: 30th June

The Mirror reports on Spurs’ denial of Palermo’s claim that we have bid £28m for Simon Kjaer and Edinson Cavani. Who ever heard of untrustworthy Sicilians?

Paul Merson backs Harry to become England boss in the Daily Star.

The Daily Mail claims that AC Milan have now made a bid for Joe Cole.

The Telegraph thinks that we’re back on the hunt for Klass-Jan Huntelaar.

Best Of The Web: 30th June

I pick a Manchester United lookalike XI at betting.betfair.

‘Pies features a great bit of training ground skill from Spain’s Mata.

Dirty Tackle looks at the worst example of play acting in the World Cup so far.

At the start of the summer there was frenzied speculation (often on this site) about the players that Spurs were to imminently sign. However, we’re now a just week away from the end of June and there is no sign of a Dzeko or a Turan.

No one else is signing anyone either and it very much looks like it could stay that way until the end of the World Cup, or at least until some major talent begins to get knocked out.

One World Cup star who we’ve been consistently linked with is Uruguay’s Diego Forlan. He’s already got two goals in the tournament and given Uruguay’s draw, he is a real contender to be the top scorer in the competition.

I think that Uruguay will overcome South Korea and either Ghana or USA, to reach the semi-finals of the World Cup. There’s not much between the sides, but what the South Americans have in their favour are strikers that can and will score. Forlan has notched 26 goals in 65 international appearances and his strike partner Luiz Suarez (also linked with a move to Spurs) has just had a brilliant season with Ajax.

Having scored 48 goals in 49 games for Ajax and aged just 23, there are some that would believe Suarez to be the more attractive signing. The quoted figures of £35m+ seem to rule out a Spurs bid though and Martin Jol has indicated that he believes that Suarez will only leave Ajax to join a true European giant.

Also, whilst Suarez’s statistics are impressive, there is always a doubt as to whether what has been achieved in the Dutch league, can be replicated elsewhere. For every Van Nistlerooy, Ronaldo or Romario who has left Holland and hit the big time, there has been a Kuyt, Alfonso Alves or Mateja Kežman who has struggled to score goals on a bigger stage.

Forlan’s spell at Manchester United between 2002 and 2004, indicated that he too was a striker who would not be able to cut it in the major league. Yet whilst he failed to cut at Old Trafford, he has excelled at Villarreal and Atletico Madrid in La Liga.

Whilst at Villarreal, Forlan scored 59 goals in 125 games. Since joining Atletico he has hit a further 86 in 153 games. He has twice been the top scorer in the Spanish league and on both occasions also claimed the title of Europe’s deadliest marksmen.

I would wager that if Forlan returned to England he would be a success. My memory of his time in Manchester was that he was a player who always seemed to be hitting the woodwork or going desperately close to scoring. As a young player, it must have affected his confidence and he went some eight months before netting his first goal for United. Perhaps if he’d have got an early tap in, things might have turned out differently.

Forlan is said to be keen on a return to England, but at 31 he might have left it too late. He is still at the top of his form and as such, Atletico are quite rightly reluctant to sell and reputedly wouldn’t settle for less than £20m for the striker. It would be quite a price to pay for a man who might only have a couple more seasons at the top.

The Verdict: In terms of talent, Forlan would seem to be an ideal purchase. Redknapp has indicated that he is after players this summer who would be ready made first team members, rather than youngsters who will need time to settle.

Yet Daniel Levy has traditionally been loathe to purchase anyone for a major fee if we will struggle to get that money back. If we signed Forlan for £20m, that money would have to be completely written off, because even if he had a couple of fantastic seasons, no one is going to pay major money for a 33-year old.

So unless Atletico take a sudden interest in Giovanni Dos Santos and Roman Pavlyuchenko, I’d be very surprised if Forlan ended up at Spurs. In fact, I can’t see anyone paying the sort of money that it would take to sign him. Unless of course it’s someone who really could afford to write the money off. Like Manchester City.

We’ve long been linked with a move for Micah Richards and this week there has been speculation about us signing Curtis Davies from Aston Villa. Both deals make a lot of sense in some ways, but not in others.

Richards and Davies both fall into a category of player that Redknapp has a history of signing. Whilst at Portsmouth he took on a few players who were rated as brilliant prospects in their youth and breathed new like into their careers, before they returned to the big time again. Glen Johnson, Lassana Diarra and our own Jermain Defoe all benefited from Harry’s trademark arm-round-the-shoulder routine.

Micah Richards certainly falls into this category. Not so long ago he was a member of the England side while still a teenager and being touted for a move to either United or Chelsea for £20m+. Now the apparent going price is only £9m and he’s nowhere near an England World Cup squad, despite the fact that there are few obvious contenders for the right back position.

He is still only 21 years old and yet has a reasonable amount of experience, having played over 100 games for City. There have been question marks about his attitude and concentration, but he’s still very young and certainly not at an age where he should be written off. With his pace, strength and ability on the ball, he has all the attributes to be a success, either at full back, centre back, or even as a defensive midfielder.

Richards is the exact type of player that will benefit from working with Redknapp and the experienced coaches that we have at Spurs. If you consider the way that Assou-Ekotto and Bale have improved during Harry’s reign, then there’s no reason to think that a similar recovery job couldn’t be done with Richards.

Where the signing perhaps doesn’t make much sense, is the fact that we’re already pretty well stocked at right back (some would say over stocked). Hutton is clearly for sale, but what happens to Naughton and Walker if Richards joins our ranks?

There is talk that Naughton could be sold. He’s not been given a chance for us, but he’s actually only a few months younger than Richards and yet has made far less progress in his career. With Richards also having the advantage of being a very versatile player, bringing him in would definitely improve our squad, even if it doesn’t seem like a massive priority.

The case for Curtis Davies is less clear. He does seem like a very capable player and only lost his place in the Villa team when a shoulder injury kept him out for a number of months. With Woodgate still apparently a long way from recovery, Davies might be a decent addition.

There are a number of question marks though. If he can’t get in Villa’s admittedly very good defence and wants first team football, why would he come to Spurs where there is arguably even greater competition for places? Why for that matter would we need him, even with Woodgate out? We still have Dawson, King, Bassong and Kaboul available, with the likes of Corluka, Huddlestone and perhaps Richards, able to provide emergency cover.

That’s where the Curtis Davies deal doesn’t make sense to me. It could well just be that some journalist has realised that he’s available for transfer, seen that Villa are interested in the likes of Keane and Jenas, and put two and two together.

The Verdict: We don’t need either player, but it could be that in Richards, Harry sees the potential for a player to grow into a world class talent and is eager to snap him up. If we sign him then there is surely no way that we will also make a move for Davies.

Unlike the other Tottenham Transfer Target Guides that I’ve written, there’s really no need for introductions here. We all know Joe Cole and what a quality player he can be. The question is simply, would he come to Spurs?

He might… Maybe… But there are so many ‘ifs’ and ‘buts’ that can be applied to Joe Cole’s situation, even if the papers are reporting that we’re now the favourites for his signature.

It seems pretty clear that Chelsea aren’t going to offer Joe Cole the six-figure sum a week that he’s requested. I can’t imagine us offering him that much either. Manchester City would and United might, so it all comes down to whether Cole is thinking about the money, or whether other factors will come into play.

If it’s the money then he definitely heads north and if he were to join United, then it would be a pretty smart football decision also. However, Cole is a London boy who’s never played outside the capital, so that could be a consideration. His wife has a modeling and tv ‘career’ and with the showbiz world being rather London-centric, she might not fancy a life of eating meat and potato pies while watching Rugby League.

Were it to be a straight decision between Chelsea and Tottenham (though there have also been murmurings about Arsenal being interested) then I suppose it comes down to who would make Joe Cole feel the most wanted.

Ancelotti doesn’t appear to be Cole’s biggest fan, but he is loved by Chelsea’s supporters (the ones that can bother to make a noise and aren’t Japanese tourists). He’s been at the club a long time and obviously feels at home there, yet Cole surely can’t have missed the fact that his career has stagnated somewhat. If he misses the cut for the World Cup, then it might be the kick up the backside he needs to move to pastures new.

Harry would give Cole the love and support he’s been missing at Chelsea. He’s made some well-timed comments in the media recently, about how Cole was the best young player he’s ever worked with. The inference was clear: Joe Cole has never quite fulfilled his massive potential. Come to Spurs where Uncle Harry appreciates you for what you really are.

Cole has spent most of his Chelsea career out on the flanks, when his talents would be better served as a second striker, or as an attacking midfield playmaker. Now we also have the same dilemma with Luka Modric, but with European football at the Lane and a possible change of formation next season, both men could get their time in the middle. These two are good enough to even alternate positions during a game. Harry should get watching those videos of Holland’s Total Football.

Joe Cole might seem like an unnecessary luxury when we’ve got the similar Modric and Kranjcar, but to paraphrase Danny Blanchflower, “it’s the bad players that are a luxury”.

There aren’t too many bad players at Spurs these days, but our squad would definitely be strengthened by the signing of Cole. He’s a very versatile player and it would make economic sense also. Cole could be signed on a free, allowing us to perhaps move the likes of Jenas and Bentley on.

The Verdict: Yes please. Though I’ve a sneaking suspicion that all this talk of a move might come to nothing and he might sign a new contract at Chelsea. That would be a shame, because they have never really got the absolute best from Cole and that would be a sight well worth watching.

According to some reports, Tottenham have agreed a deal in principle to sign the Galatasaray winger Arda Turan, with Giovanni Dos Santos going the other way.

Turan is a left winger who has been compared to Lionel Messi and at 23-years old, has already won 34 caps for Turkey. He’s also Galatasaray’s captain, which suggests that he might be the sort of vocal character that Harry is always stressing we need (or that Galatasaray will do anything to keep him).

For a player of such repute I’ve got my doubts as to whether the reported fee of 5m euros plus Dos Santos would be enough. We paid £4.7m for the Mexican forward two seasons ago and you would hardly think that his value would have increased in that period. So I’d expect we’d have to pay at least double what has been reported, with Dos Santos as the makeweight.

Do we really need to shell out that sort of dosh for someone that plays in a position where we’re pretty well stocked? I think that Redknapp sees Bale as an attacking full back long term, while Modric and Kranjcar might play more centrally should we switch to a 4-3-3, so perhaps signing Turan would make sense. It would be a bit of a kick in the teeth for Danny Rose though.

Harry has talked about our need for ‘special’ players that could lift us to another level. These highlights videos don’t tell the full story of a player, but they do suggest that Turan possesses the sort of skill that would put him into that sort of category.

The verdict: On the face of it another left midfielder doesn’t seem like a priority, but you just know that if we did sign Turan, we’d all wet our pants at the thought of watching him at White Hart Lane next season. Considering that Dos Santos has hardly featured for us since he’s been at Tottenham, then perhaps we should take a chance on this deal.

It would seem that our top target this summer is Edin Dzeko and it’s easy to see why. Aged 24, the Wolfsburg striker was the top scorer in the Budesliga last season, was nominated for the Ballon d’Or in 2009 and was second top scorer to Wayne Rooney in the UEFA qualifying section of the World Cup, despite playing for Bosnia and Herzegovina.

At almost 6ft 4″ tall, this is a striker who is a real threat in the air, but also shows great skill when the ball is at his feet. When I say that, I don’t mean it in a ‘Peter Crouch has got a great touch for a big man’ way either. Dzeko has the pace, power and ability to take players on and the composure to finish the chances he creates for himself.

So if he’s so great then why doesn’t every other club in Europe want to buy him? Well that’s the problem. They do. Throw a stick in the general direction of a top club in England, Italy and Spain and you can bet that they’ve been linked with Dzeko.

He would cost at least £30m, which is a fee we could afford if we shipped out Pavlyuchenko and Keane. It’s not like we’re going to need to bring in several players this summer, so we should be prepared to pay big for the right man who could make a difference for us.

Crucially, Dzeko is able to play on his own up front and I think that Harry will be looking to recruit a striker who can perform in that role. Our midfielders are far more suited to a 4-3-3 or 4-5-1 formation, than a 4-4-2, but strikers that can score enough goals when playing alone in attack, are few and far between.

The Verdict: Signing Dzeko should be our number one priority this summer, but you can’t say that we’ll start as favourites for his signature. I’d be mightily surprised if we got our man, but then I’m still getting over the shock of finding out on Teletext that Klinsmann had signed for us. We’ve been known to pull off a shock deal.