Wednesday, April 02, 2008

Spurs Scout In Norway For Central Defender

A Tottenham Scout named as one Bryan King (former Millwall and Coventry goalie) has been watching a Molde FK twenty year old central defender... Vegard Forren

The story is backed up by the kid's agent who said
"I can confirm the interest of Tottenham. The London club watched him and yesterday took official steps. A bid from the English club could be made in the coming hours. I accept all major credit cards and Luncheon Vouchers."



The money is thought to be around the million pound mark.


I'd love to presume that this interest in 'one for the future' doesn't reflect our buying policy for the next window and we'll also be in for some finished articles. But presumption is the mother of all f*ck ups, so I shan't.



32 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks Harry, good to see any interesting news around this time.

Harry Hotspur said...

I wish it were...

Anonymous said...

Not another Forren...er!

Anonymous said...

Well as has been proven on prior occasions... HH only commits to blogging about genuine transfer links, unlike many of the other waste of space sites around. I await further developments with interest. And nothing wrong with scouting for future talent comparatively cheaply IMO. Though that strip the fella is in makes him look more like a speedway rider than a footballer!

TMWNN said...

Is he any good?

Anonymous said...

Or will he turn out to be another Kaboul or Rocha??

Anonymous said...

it doesnt matter if he were to turn out like kaboul/rocha. at 1 mil its worth the gamble. bad eg. kaboul @ 8mil. dats 1 ugly bisnez there. 16.5mil for bent, 6-8mil for zok, we do get conned a lot recently.

Anonymous said...

on the lighter side, theres a rumor that keane will be leaving this summer for the LA galaxy

Snap said...

Can we nick your story?

Daily Foul

Anonymous said...

He's young, so he's still sufficiently malleable to be turned into a fine footballer before unwelcome habits of play have crystallised.

(But then, Kaboul is only 22. Who knows, perhaps next season we'll see the 'New Model Kaboul'..?:O))

Woodgate and King will certainly provide splendid guidance and example for the lad to learn from.

Is there any truth in rumours that his agent is trying to negotiate his client's right to grow a 'Viking Beard' as part of his package? Hope not.

Sometimes, in order to truly flourish, what a football club needs is something akin to the Goldilocks Principle. A club can plan, prepare, coach, manage and manouevre itself into a position which is favourable for its success. But the imponderables which determine a squad's ability to achieve - such as players' temperaments, injuries, draws, refereeing decisions - are beyond its control. And, occasionally, it's that little bit of good fortune (which makes conditions 'just right') that tilts the club toward success rather than failure.

It's the difference between being a great club and a 'nearly club'. It's that point which sees a club go to the brink and step over it to the next phase, rather than shrink away from it.

In the meantime, hard work and planning can go a long way - maybe all the way - and there is much progress that we can reasonably hope to see next season.

But perhaps only the Goldilocks Principle, causing things outside the club's governance to fall sympathetically to it, will finally ensure football flourishes at Spurs.

9.37 Anon

Anonymous said...

Don't get your hopes up. None of our youngsters ever seem to be able to make the step up, ie Jackson, Marney, Ricketts, Blondel et al. Reserving judgment on whether the likes of Lennon and Hudd are or will be consistently good enough to be considered first team regulars. Lennon has been here a few years now but doesn't seem to have improved all that much. Perhaps once the new coaching set up has settled in this will improve.
I'm tired of the constant and obsessive investment in 'potential' (Kaboul, Boateng). Let's give the youngsters we have a few finished articles to aspire to. A few more Berbatovs, Huttons and Woodgates please.

Anonymous said...

22:09 :O)

Vegard Forren? Rearrange the letters of his name to get:
Forever Grand :O)
Fag Vend Error :O(

What's in a name? Dimitar Berbatov:
Bad vibrator item
Barmaid bit overt
Brr, I motivate bad

9.37 Anon

Harry Hotspur said...

The Daily mail are just breaking the story that Taarabt came on against Toon...

Anonymous said...

No more Ledley for this season I see... more recovery time for his knee apparently. Sounds like a good plan, if we want him to feature regularly in the future.

Not so long ago all the talk was of imminent retirement, that his injury problems would never go away, even an arthritic problem was mentioned as I recall.

Do you honestly think he can recover fully Harry?

I wish him all the best. There's been a lot of talk of "Lane Legends" here lately. This guy we are talking about truly is one.

Anonymous said...

King is most definately a legend. He doesn't run, he floats just above the surface of the pitch. Like a man walking on water, then again, that guy was a King too wasn't he......

Harry Hotspur said...

Mysterious Stranger:

I shall risk the wrath of the Litigious Levy (easy for me to say) and say again that King, to the very best of my knowledge is crocked. There's a long term degenerative condition type thang going on and not being medically trained myself suffice to say my understanding is that be it his hip or his knees or his wishbone for that matter, he's f*cked.

Anyone who once played as frequently as he did and now is wheeled out on casters for special occasions is either in medical trouble or lost a bet with Devil.

Sources for this nasty nasty story vary from the odd character claiming that his sister in law's stepbrother's uncle was a consultant who made the grim diagnosis to good folk on the Hill deep in the THFC Supporters' Trust. Yeah. The latter of whom were not happy at all when I bubbled the tale initially.

Here's the original piece http://harryhotspur.blogspot.com/2007/02/tottenham-hotspurs-nasty-rumour.html

EL said...

Does anyone remember that squad of 'best upandcoming English talent' we were accruing a couple of years ago?

Whatever happened to them?

Actually, I propose a serious(ok, semi) question if I may Mr Hotspur:


Of all the players Ram... sorry Comolli aquires for us during the summer, how many would you guess, will be English?

Anonymous said...

Harry,

Whilst I respect the man's right to privacy and the club's imperative to conduct its business as it sees fit, what's the point of the secrecy surrounding King's injury? Who benefits?

The fan's deserve an honest appraisal from the club of King's ability to continue playing long-term football at all, let alone at top level. And his fellow players (assuming they're in the dark, like us) merit a frank report of his capacity to perform alongside them in the campaigns THEY embark on, as his contribution directly affects them.

One and all, we deserve the truth.

Unless, of course, the injury really isn't as bad as we suspect, and King's recuperation and career is actually moving forward in leaps and bounds. Andd unless the story as publicly reported is accurate.

Like many on this blog I find the official line open to question. We're not fools, and all the flippant fending off of inquiry with bland reassurances that the man is fine (albeit still in recovery) doesn't wash.

We have a right, surely, to know how significant a part this great Spurs man will play (and I mean PLAY) in the club's future. No one will hold it against him if he confesses to physical frailty or invalidity. Many, however, WILL hold it against the club if a falsehood is protractedly maintained that our star player's condition truly is not professionally terminal.

As I say, who benefits?

If King's injury is, to some extent, an open secret in the Premier League (as one would expect it to be), then no advantage is won by 'bluffing' other clubs when we field King in teams to play them.

Is the benefit connected to revenue and King's marketability? Is it connected to club and fan morale? If's it's morale, then the uncertainty is far more uncomfortable (and potentially damaging) than the truth.

20:15 observed that King doesn't run - he floats. It sounds ridiculous, but the man really does float. He glides. In motion, he's a genuine Rolls-Royce of a player. It's one of the biggest misfortunes of modern English football that he hasn't been able (really 'able') to feature more in an England shirt.

As fans, we're apt to live in sentiment as often as we live in hard reality. We have our personal and collective favourites, whom we imagine worthy of the Hall of Fame. To some of us, Spurs without King is unthinkable. The same might be said of Lennon, or Berbatov, or Keane. Summer, with its speculated departures and arrivals of playing staff, proves to be a time when some sentiments and attachments nmay get trampled underfoot. I don't think it's melodramatic to suggest that the club needs to draw an unequivocal line under this matter, or demonstrate an emphatic advance, so that we can all move forward.

Or I suppose we could all just p*ss off down to Funky Buddha and check out the dude for ourselves.

9.37 Anon

Harry Hotspur said...

El ~ in a nutshell, my own preference being Hazlenut. Tricky to crack but ultimately tasty pfffffffft, I'd say it'll be a miracle if any 'Brits' get through.

And to a large extent I'll won't be weeping as a result mate. I don't say this based upon some Daily Wail theory that JR will miraculously 'import' some Greatest Hits of his last Club...

Our much vaunted English backbone has left us, so far... with Curviture of the Dream.

Anonymous said...

I was led to believe the same, having first heard the rumour/fact (as applicable) when I was at both the Sporting Braga and Watford games last year. I have noted that those games actually took place after you posted the article, and I confess to not being a reader or poster here at that time. But at those games and in and around the Essex area plenty of Spurs fans were saying just that. Whether they had read your blog and were simply regaling the tale of woe as reported by yourself, or whether they had been made aware of it independently from here I naturally couldn't say...

However I have little reason to disbelieve that around that time you certainly believed the story had validity, or you wouldn't have published it. And additionally I would back you over any other "Spurs site" when it comes to reporting the truth, be it in regard to players we may or may not be interested in buying, to this.

I'm sure you won't mind me saying I'd like to think, or at least hope you had this one wrong... but now that's been said I´m inclined to believe you're more likely to be "on the money" once more.

Harry Hotspur said...

9.37 (far from) ANON

I tell you what, Insurance Job is an unwholesome phrase, but one that kindda works here...

Anonymous said...

Aha...

Cheers, Harry.

9.37 Anon

Harry Hotspur said...

At least that's the only 'sane' avenue I can see as the route into or out of this fiasco, and it is a fiasco. The club was apparently threatening to sue purveyors of 'wrong' stories before the CC Final. Then Ledders plays how many games? Now he's out again? Pleeeeze.

Cagney death scenes are entirely out of place when dealing with one of the greatest players I'VE ever watched put our shirt on.

Maybe this all Conspiracy Theory hutzpah. Maybe he's the black Lemony Snicketts. Maybe this is just a whole series of unfortunate entirely unrelated bad luck medical events.

Mmmmn.

Anonymous said...

I see Zenit St Petersburg hammered Berb's old club 4-1 away tonight.

Arshavin scored one and was instrumental in much else, it seems.

Wendy has stated than Lennon is very much part of the club's future, and that there may be fewer changes at the club in the summer than some expect.

That'll be just a new goalie, then, and a bottle of Cif in the toilet.

9.37 Anon

Harry Hotspur said...

Arshavin.a player I tipped to sign for us who STILL yet to not sign for us.


Ahem
*coughs*
slopes off...

Anonymous said...

Well, Harry, Ramos has recently said "I like good players from all countries, including RUSSIANS, Italians and Brazilians."

It could be rhetoric, could be smoke and mirrors, could just be Wendy fencing and playing with the media. On the other hand, it could be AA.

Or maybe he meant 'players' as in 'footballers who mercenarily link up to many clubs in order to explore fiscal opportunities without committing to any'.

Sums up the transfer market, really.

9.37 Anon

Anonymous said...

El. Never mind how many signings will be English ?
The real question is : How many will be any good and not overpriced ?

Answers on a postcard please.

Anonymous said...

Harry, I still think we have a British core.

Hutton, Woody, Daws/King, Bale.

Lennon, Huddlestone, Jenas, O'Hara

Keane, The Foreigner.

I've heard Ramos' comments regarding English players and it seems to me that he understands that you need an English/British core to survive the English leagues. All the recent successful teams do... Man U, Chelski, Spurs... Think thats about it..... ;)

Anonymous said...

A couple of random musings...

Daniel Levy has said in an interview with FC Business magazine that he would consider an offer to buy Spurs only if it were right for the club, the shareholders and fans.

He's then quoted as saying "We live in a free enterprise world. What is wrong with individuals building up a value that one day - whether in six months or 60 years - can be realised?".

To me, this seems to be a little contradictory, almost as if the club were regarded purely as an asset and a commodity, and not the rich seat of culture and tradition that we know it to be.

Levy rarely gives interviews, so the fact that he has given this one ought to make us sit up and take note. Is this interview a signal of some kind to potentially interested parties who may wish to table an offer?

Levy seems determined, however, to deliver the new stadium, apparently favouring modifications to WHL. This is hardly a short-term project, as building work is apt to become protracted - although usually, it's true, when public money is involved.

I wonder what assurances Ramos was given when recruited. New owners, if they come, may want new personnel. Ramos is no schmuck, so the fact that he has taken the job in a period of potential change (albeit one promising to last a few years) is, to some extent, confidence-boosting, for fans. Then there are the plans for the new training-centre, which are impressive.

I was also considering JJ's recent absence. Does anyone know the nature of the 'illness' that sidelined him? I often wonder if some 'illnesses' are used as diplomatic cover to hide a variety of other issues. For example, if a player were subbed and expressed unprofessionally his dislike at the decision, the coach might want to impose some punitive measures - say, to bar him from first-team play for a couple of matches.

This sends a message to the player and, if he gets it, he doesn't behave unprofessionally again. But the coach doesn't just crack the whip. He is fair also, because he protects the public integrity of the player by excusing his absence through illness, thereby demonstrating to the player that, if the player shows loyalty, the coach will reciprocate when he could just as easily humiliate him.

Like I say, random musings. It's almost the weekend.

9.37 Anon

Anonymous said...

If that were the case though, surely Keane and Chimbonda would have caught the same bug?

Anonymous said...

whats all this crap about keane to liverpool i keep reading over the net. vicious rumours i hope

Anonymous said...

Keane isn't British. Shame, becuase add in Robinson and Bent instead of the "foregner" and you would have a reasonable looking British 11.