Beef Bagel

January 3rd? Just three days of the transfer window gone and I’m all ready exhausted. It certainly takes its toll when your club is on the wrong end of the biggest story of the winter sales. Word today is that it’s going to cost the right suitor one whopping great bag of cash for the signature of the world’s favourite Bulgarian and I’m starting to see this picture that’s being drawn between Emil Dantchev and the Tottenham Board.

The latest update is from a press conference with Ramos who, looking rather depressed in his Italian leather jacket, said:

“It (speculation) is normal because the transfer window has just opened, but we want this footballer to stay with us.”

“He is here now and unless somebody comes along with an offer that is too good to refuse, he will stay here and we are happy to have him.”

That’s the first time we’ve had anyone from our camp admit that there is a possibility of him going if the money is right and, in this case, bloody enormous. And just in case any prospective clubs out there want to know where to start bidding, the player’s agent, Emil Dantchev, has made it perfectly clear. He said:

“Spurs do not want to sell - at least for now - and would not take £30m. It would have to be at least £35m.”

Is anyone else starting to think that the deals more or less been done a far as Berbatov an Spurs are concerned? It looks to The Bagel like everyone at the club has has come to terms that the guy simply wants to go and it’s now just a question of going through this dance in front of the rest of the world to ensure that we get as much money for him as possible.

To sell him now we can achieve that kind of cash. If we wait til the summer it could be up to £10m less. If that’s the case, let’s ditch him now. I love him but what’s another 6 months compared to an extra £10m? Trebling your money on a player is good business, particularly if he’s as unhappy as we’re led to believe. Despite what the media think, despite what’s apparent from his four goal bonanza the other day, he’s not playing as well as he did last season and maybe he wont again until he’s got that move he desires? We’ll be lucky to get another player as good as him but for £35m we should be able to get two more players that are as good as or better than anyone else we have. No Darren Bents need apply.

The real gutting part to Berbatov’s departure will be having to watch him score goals on MOTD in another Premiership shirt, all smiles and hugs with his new compadre. In an ideal world he’d go to Milan but we all know it’s going to be either United or Chelsea. He’s often said he’d prefer the former, while the latter would pay us more cash. Now, I really don’t know why but I’d rather he went to Chelsea. I hate Chelsea and, relatively speaking, I like Man U but I’m sick of selling them our best players. I just sense this enormous wave of smugness if they get their man. At least with Carick we don’t see that much of him. He doesn’t play an awful lot and when he does he rarely scores the goals but we’ll have to deal with Man U’s Dimitar inspired glories everywhere we look should the Bulgarian head to the North-West. Somehow with Chelsea I feel they’re just a bunch of cunts who buy what they want and get the sneering they deserve for doing so but if Berbatov goes to Man U, it’ll be hailed as a real coup and one that’ll stay bitter in my mouth for seasons to come.

If/when Dimi leaves another player has popped up the might/could end up replacing him and I’m not taking about David Villa. The danger for us if Berbatov leaves now is that we’re down a target man until Sergei Bent sorts both his hip and his act out. However, there’s a Macedonian in Italy who’s made life a little easier for us:

“I’ve told to my agent that I’d like to play in the Premier League.”

“Liverpool, Tottenham and Everton are the most interesting sides for me. I’d like to play for one of those clubs.”

Bagels and gentlemen, meet Goran Pandev. Twenty-four years old, just over six feet tall and around 12st. Here’s his head…

…reminiscing all he can about the very large lady he met last night.

Pandev’s been tearing it up at Lazio where he is work on the field is often referred to as ‘magic’ and to begin with I was too busy crying into my Dimitar Berbatov shaped pillow to care but when I stopped to have a look at the goals as scored by “The Greatest Ever Macedonian Footballer” - although that does rather sound like “The Greatest Ever Uzbekistani Bagpipe Player” - I’ve got to say I was mighty impressed and a little reminded of you know who…

…good turns, can hold it up, can dibble, nice shot; provided these aren’t the only moments amongst 89 other minutes of complete rubbish, then he doesn’t look such a bad option.

Naturally, he could opt for one of the other teams or even stay in Rome with Lazio extending the two and a half years he all ready has left on his contract. It’ll be interesting to see what Ramos or Poyet make of him or if this is simply a call for more cash from a player with no intention of leaving his club.

At the back it could be all change with the formation as up for grabs as the players. According to the Mail, Crazy Gus’s comments after the Villa game are tantamount to admitting that we’re going to be going with 3-5-2 as a regular. He said:

“When we changed the formation, the players adapted fantastically. We started passing the ball and controlled the second half, we were on top, created opportunities and got ourselves back in the game.”

Personally, I’ve stopped trying to work out the formation the minute Ramos replaces like for unlike because you’re never really sure if he’s going to play the sub out of position anyway. If you spend more than 60 seconds trying to do the mental arithmetic you usually miss a goal. In Juande I trust. I also don’t happen to believe that 3-5-2 will become the standard, God forbid, but it’s good to know we can play it as an option and with comfort.

Dutch left-sider, Urby Emanuelson, is still looking on the cards but the wont that just wont go away is Espanyol centre-half, Dani Jarque. Too much smoke without fire here and Ramos is going to have to bring in a fellow countryman sooner or later, if only to have someone to talk to.

The new twist on an old story is that Villa Villain, Martin Laursen, may yet bring his heading ability and kitbags full of experience down to WHL along with some lessons for the rest of the defence. The new play is apparently to offer Teemu Tainio in a briefcase disguised as a particularly large amount of cash. Personally I don’t buy it and I’d be amazed if Villa did as well.

For the money, for the bagel, and for the fun… mostly for the money.

The Bagel.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 3rd, 2008 at 4:59 pm and is filed under Transfer News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.