The inevitable has happened

I thought I'd wait a while to see how many reports are saying that we have made a bid for Ashley Young, the player we could have signed 3 seasons ago for around £8m- painful I know. As expected, I couldn't count the number of reports on two hands, but Harry's seemingly dismal transfer window doesn't leave me to optimistic. He's either being really shrewd or it just hasn't been his day, everyday.

O'Neill is a clever man. I have the uppermost respect for the former Celtic boss and do not believe that he would replace Ashley Young, arguably one of England's brightest young assets, with Stewart Downing, a player that-in my opinion- would be lucky to make the starting eleven for Darlington. This is why I don't believe Ashley will be leaving this year unless he desperately wants to.

Still though, O'Neill has invited these transfer rumours upon Aston Villa and why they have splashed out on Downing seems a mystery to most; maybe Martin felt a lack of depth last season in the Villa side. But these rumours will continue to come and I can't believe Levy would be willing to spend a reported £30m straight off plus with the expectation of fairly large wages. Besides, we don't really have much of a transfer budget this year- do we?

Still though as Spurs fans we can hope; seems like we end up doing that for most of the season anyway. But, at the moment, it seems as though we are more likely to win the league before signing Ashley Young. Shame really.

Regards,
Ben

Martin O'Neill does Spurs a favour

'Aston Villa have agreed a £12m deal for Steward Downing,' this headline has made my summer. All along I felt uneasy and rather worried at the fact that Downing was still at 'Boro and just had to hope that Redknapp wouldn't get his man. Thank god for Martin O'Neill.

It seems as though the Villa boss wanted us to also make a push for the Champions League by ensuring we don't sign such a bad player and upset us fans in the process; lets be honest, the call for Harry's head would've come around in October should we have signed this player- and I'm an optimistic Spurs fan! Signing Downing would have left us scrapping for our Premiership survival -so no change there then- instead of actually looking above that of 10th spot. Yes, HE would have left us fighting relegation.

Here is a classic case of killing two birds with one stone. The fact that we won't be signing Downing, I'm sure, floods relief through N17; I can feel it running through me now. There is also the future of Ashley Young that comes into question, pulling off such a quality signing would complete our team in my opinion. But then again, there's the price issue, other clubs and so on, that's a whole different matter.

How Downing will/has passed his medical is beyond me; they seem to be easier to pass than 'GO' is on a Monopoly board.

Regards,
Ben

Ashley's to young for Spurs

Ashley Young, great young prospect and future England star in the making. A year ago today you could stick David Bentley's name in place of Ashley's and their would be a sense of mutual agreement; his potential looked as though it could go beyond that of David Beckhams'. Now, he can't even make the England bench. In the past few season, Spurs have started off their season with poor results and were left to rot in the bottom half of the table at the start of the season. Since O'Neill took over at Villa, the Birmingham based club have been challenging for the European competitions and have never looked likely to be stuck fighting relegation.

So, my first point is that I would question why Ashley Young would even want to join us, even if Aston Villa made the biggest mistake in letting him speak to Tottenham. Let's be honest, to better Villa last season we'd have to finish in the Champions League- and that won't happen. To present, Spurs have ruined two of the brightest England prospects in that of Darren Bent and David Bentley- Jermain Defoe left at the right time and Mr. Lennon seems to have done alright as well.

Furthermore, this paper talk about us 'closing in' on Ashley Young is just not true. Only 2 weeks ago did Redknapp state that he was looking for 'three experienced players' at a cost of £30m; sorry, Ashley Young is hardly an experienced full England international, is he. So unless 'Arry was having us all on, he is not going for Villa's new best player.

We decided not to invest in Ashley 2 seasons ago, his loyalty to Villa and gratitude to Martin O'Neill for taking that 'huge' £9.75m gamble would be worth much more than that of an extra five thousand or so every week at a side that could end up in another relegation battle.

The lad would be silly to go, he's not an idiot.

Regards,
Ben