Jim Duggan's TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR site

Jim Duggan - Shelfside season ticket holder, White Hart Lane resident & supporter since the early 70s

Yet again, our new owners ENIC have come out of the situation with the Club's dignity intact, and our future under them looks certain to be so so so much better than the mismanagement under Sugar. This is the statement, with thanks to the official site www.spurs.co.uk

Sol Campbell will leave the club having rejected our latest contract offer.

The big defender is set to officially announce his intentions in a statement expected later today (Sunday) from Monaco where he is watching the F1 Grand Prix.

Campbell has demanded a £20m three-year deal including a clause that he can walk away from the club as a free agent if we fail to achieve a Champions League place by the end of next season. This we found unacceptable.

For our part, we had made Sol an offer that would have made him the highest paid player in our history and one of the best paid players in the Premiership.

However, there was no room for flexibility in his demands, leaving the club disappointed that this issue could not have been resolved six months ago when Sol Campbell stated that his decision was not about money.

In the meantime, we have brought in former England manager Glenn Hoddle and have signed two international players - Goran Bunjevcevic (awaiting work permit) and Teddy Sheringham - sharing our vision for the future with Sol and keeping him abreast of our intentions and plans.

We are determined that we will be a European competing club again, but clearly - and sadly - Sol does not share that view. In the end, no player can be bigger than the club and if he has made the decision that he does not want to play for us, then that is it.

We wish him all the best for the future and hope that he enjoys success in every way. We will certainly miss him

If these were the only reasons, why did he not annouce them when it was clear that we were not Champions Leaue bound earlier in the season & if Sol wanted to go for footballing reasons he should have left last season when the prospect of Thatcher coming in and Ginola going out, with the Goons in charge did not spell Champions League to many people.

Don't get me wrong - Sol has been a great player for us and good luck to him in the future (as long as its not with the Scum). He deserves better than the mid table crap or worse he has had to put up with in recent years, but the timing of his decision is as much money related as football.

In a statement, Campbell said: "Following lengthy discussions with Tottenham Hotspur I have decided to leave the club at the end of my contract on June 30, 2001.

"This has been the hardest decision of my football career.
"My decision has been a prolonged one. This is because I wanted to give the club every opportunity to have inputs into my future.

"I will be 27 in September and need to be playing in the major European club competitions sooner rather than later.

"My decision has been based purely on football. I have been at Spurs for 10 years and my commitment to the club during that time is there for all to see.

"I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the people at the club who have supported me over the last 10 years and would like to say a big 'thankyou' to all the fans."

As ever Stevie Carr is on the ball with his comments about Sol - and I share his sentiments 100%

I'm back in Ireland enjoying my time off at the moment but I've seen the news that Sol has rejected Tottenham's highest ever contract offer and is to leave the club. I hope the fans won't have a problem with this. We're not in Europe next season and that's where Sol needs to be. In my opinion, he may have stayed at Tottenham longer than was good for him, and that's why the fans should wish him well.

I feel no anger or resentment towards him. He's been incredibly loyal to the Spurs cause. He's been here all his life and he gave 100 per cent right up to the last game he played. He's doing what is right for him and his career as a footballer. He has Europe's top clubs after him including three or four Premiership teams and wherever he goes, I wish him luck.

Sol is in a very strong position. I've played with him for years, he was here when I joined Spurs and I think he's become the best defender in the world. He should be winning trophies and playing in all the top competitions and the decision he has made will be based on that, rather than the money. I heard that Sven Goran Eriksson advised him to seek a club where he could play Champions League football and that's absolutely right and proper.

He'll be incredibly difficult to replace. I don't know who is available of the same calibre but losing him will be a massive blow to the club. He held us together as a team when we maybe weren't performing so well at times and as club captain he has the respect of everyone here.

I've talked many times about what it is that he gives to a team, I rate him highly enough to have put him in my Fantasy XI and the top clubs all recognise his qualities too. Good luck to him, he's a fantastic footballer and a great man who deserves everything he gets.

I'm often asked if I consider the Bosman ruling fair to clubs and I think that it is. The clubs had it all their own way for far too long and at the end of the day, we're the ones who go out and do it on the pitch every week. Sol has seen out his contract and is now weighing up where to go next. That's his right.

As I said, if Sol leaves it will affect everybody at the club including the fans but one piece of good news is that is Teddy Sheringham is on his way back to Spurs. Teddy proved with his Player of the Year Award that he's still one of the finest front-men around.

I hope they don't engage on a slanging match with Sol over this issue, as the Club has handled itself well up to now. Sol's gone, we know the club did its best to keep him, but its over now and we should move on.

"Campbell has demanded a £20million three-year deal including a clause that he can walk away from the club as a free agent if we fail to achieve a Champions League place by the end of next season. This we found unacceptable," it read.
"For our part, we had made Sol an offer that would have made him the highest paid player in our history and one of the best paid players in the Premiership.
"However, there was no room for flexibility in his demands, leaving the club disappointed that this issue could not have been resolved six months ago when Sol Campbell stated that his decision was not about money."
Vice-chairman David Buchler added fuel to the fire when described Campbell's demands as "ridiculous", and told talkSPORT: "There was no question of the club agreeing to those sort of demands. Those sort of demands, frankly, are ridiculous.
"We are building, we need to build a team that is absolutely committed to the future rather than to the monetary side. In doing that, I think that's where we will achieve success.
"I think it is almost impossible when you are dealing with the amount of money being bandied about in the game. It's almost impossible to get to any sort of reason at that sort of level.
"At a certain level, it all gets out of reason and out of kilter. It'll all end in tears. We are not prepared to do this with our club."

At 22.15, 26th May - I read the news on teletext that I had been dreading for a while now, Sulzeer Jeremiah Campbell is off. Tottenham announced that Sol Campbell has rejected their final offer to keep him at the club and have stated that he will be leaving this summer.

A Tottenham source confirmed that Campbell had rejected the club's offer of around £80,000 a week, which would have made him the highest-paid player in Britain. Rumour has it that he wanted £20million over three years - which works out at almost £130,000 a week, AND a clause in his contract whereby he would have been allowed to leave on a free transfer had we not qualified for the Champions League at the end of the 2001/02 season.

Again, who knows - but this does not sound like Sol, as it seems to contradict everything he has said over the last year about ambition. The influence of Sky Andrews, while obviously working in Sol's best financial interests, might not be in his best overall life interests - as Sol wil go down as the first greedy player in history to demand these massive wages - and puts a lot of pressure on him to live up this billing as the most expensive European player.

There will be the official version from Sol on Sunday, but the club have stepped in to put us out of our misery.

For what its worth, I hope Sol does well (as long as he does n't go to Arsenal, whereupon he would become the biggest traitor in Spurs history, although it would amuse me to see them fork out £130,000 a week for him - cos he aint worth that) and I think ENIC have done their best to keep him and preserved the image and dignity of the club.

I'm actually glad its over and hope now all the money on offer can be used to tempt other good players, notably two top class midfielders, a left sided defender and another top striker. The future us still bright without him - King, Doherty, Gardner , Perry, Young and Bunjecevic will be more than enough cover in hte heart of central defence, and you never know it could turn out for the best if the money is used wisely on other positions where we are more deficient.

This could be a big blessing in disguise, the future is still bright under Glennda - Come on you Spurs - IN HOD WE TRUST.

First the good newsTed said: "Lets hope the good days are back at Tottenham." & revealed that Ferguson made a last-ditch attempt to persuade him to stay at Old Trafford, but the striker set his heart on a return to the capital after talks with Tottenham's non-executive chairman Daniel Levy.
He said: "The Manchester United manager wanted me to stay but after speaking to Daniel Levy he convinced he it was the right move."
"There was a lot to take into consideration but it is good to be back. But the aim is to win something. I want to make Tottenham better. I sense this club is on the way up."

but - will it be a re-sun of summer 1997, with this time Sheringham signing a contract and Sol being the one to leave? Sol has announced that he will put us all out of our misery on Sunday - lets hope its not goodbye, but that it is the right decision for both Spurs and Sol

Lots of huff and puff about the Sol Man over the last 24 hours - but here are the only quotes.

The club's executive vice-chairman David Buchler said today: "As a club we are disappointed that Sol's agent saw fit to release details of the discussion to the press. It takes two to make a contract, negotiations are continuing and we hope that these will continue in private arena. The club has offered him a contract which is probably the highest contract paid to anyone in English football today in order to keep him. That is how much we value him."

Executive vice-chairman David Buchler said: 'We have gone a long way to try to get near the demands being asked of us and talks are still going on.' Campbell's agent said further talks would take place early next week.

Judging from that the reported £80,000 a week wage offer looks like what has been offered but until Sol is quoted as saying he has turned it down, he is still favourite to stay with us. [on a personal note, I think we are mad to pay Sol this, as £80000 gets you Sol on £40000 and another one possibly two top international players with the rest of the money. I also hope that it does n't give Anderton inflated expectations over his current worth to the club].

Other things that it is not worth losing sight of include the emergence of King, Doherty, Young and Gardner, with the fairly reliable Perry and the signing of Bunjecvcevic, mean we have a number of good or better players at the centre of our defence, and that while Sol is a great player, I'm sure Hoddle can develop the other players he has at the club into an organised defensive unit. At Southampton, they went 7 games without conceding a goal this season with two bob players. Don't get me wrong, Sol would be a great part of the new Tottenham, but he is not the be all and end all.

Our major problem is in midfield, where we need a complete overhaul and up front where we need another top striker to go alongside Ted, Rebrov, Ferdinand, Iversen and Armo. I assume that there is only a certain amount of wages per week, so giving so much to one player where we already have strength in depth is probably not the best move in the long term - although that I appreciate that ENIC are doing their best for the club and to be seen to be letting hte Solman go would be equally bad.

Campbell 'wants £100,000 per week' - until I see this in quotes from either Sol or Sky Andrews, I just don't believe it as it does n't stack up with other stuff Sol has actually been quoted as saying

Vice-chairman David Buchler ensured the Spurs supporters that skipper Sol Campbell will not sign for arch-rivals Arsenal. With Campbell still mulling over his future plans, Buchler insists the one place Campbell won't be going is Highbury. "There's no chance of Sol leaving for Arsenal," he said. "He is a Spurs fan and there's not a hope in hell of him playing in an Arsenal shirt."

The Press conference - who knows what will be revealed?

1/2Fav - Dual player of the year and England goalscoring hero last night Teddy Sheringham will be unveiled. This was first broken to you by TOPSPURS.COM on this very page on the 4th May. While I am pleased we have signed a player that will improve the squad and who is a Tottenham legend, I am a little concerned that, along with Les, we could have a forward line that has a combined age of 70. Despite their similar styles, I think Ted will be the man to make Rebrov a Premiership star, as his striking partners frm Cascarino thro Armo (his best ever goals return came during his one season with Ted), Shearer (who'd not scored an international goal for two seasons before he was paired with Ted and the goals flowsed) and Andy Cole (a useless striker who even Cantona could not help before Ted gave him some sort of credibility).

7/2 - Ziege - this deal looks rumoured to be closer and will be a positive step for the club

16/1 - one of the 100's of other players we have been linked with since the ENIC and Glennda revolution is unveiled

1000/1 Sol, Ted, Effenburg & Guardiola all sign together and there is a massive party in the corner pin which lasts until the middle of June

And finally - as for Ramon Vega telling Sol to leave - SHUT IT ONCE AND FOR ALL. This hopeless cunt who was so bad this season Graham had to drop him and get him off on loan to the pub football arena of Scottish footbal. Everytime the press are looking to dig hte knive into the club, Vega can be relied upon to deliever a quote slagging us off. This is the same Vega who pleasded for another chance with Tottenham under Hoddle (as his crap form was all down to Graham apparantly) less than a month ago. Vega you are useless snide cunt, so fuck off.

What a story this would be - on the 20th April this year, Ex-Pat Mexican topspur Steve Edmunds mailed me with the following information regarding Mexico's star forward Antonio De Negris, and urged me to get this through to someone at the club.

My one and only "snout" was sucessful in getting this thro to Pleaty, who passed it on to Graham Carr the chief Scout and promised us the club would have him watched in the England - Mexico match on Friday night. Read what Steve thinks about De Negris and lets see how things develop - we were promised a drink if he ends up signing!

I have had the great fortune this season to witness the incredible rise of what I consider to be one of the finest young stikers in the world today. His name is Antonio De Nigris, and he plays for the local premiership team here in Monterrey.

He is 6'2", 22 years old, lean but lion-like, with a craving for goal that I haven't seen since the days of Ian Rush. He is powerful, quick, can head a ball, knock in 25 yarders, as well as play neat football on the deck. He is a team player not a prima donna, and his heart is as big as an Ox. He never, never knows when he beaten. He doesn't get injured but he doesn't shy away from tackles. The hatchet men don't put him off and at times he makes them look a bit ridulous as he turns in and out of the most crunching of tackles, and believe me, in Mexican football, there is no shortage of them! His trajectory to become a footballer has taken him through Amercian football (perhaps that hardened him up) and tennis (perhaps that has given him the speed of thought) to Football, where he scored 20 goals in Monterrey's 38 game season, his first in Premier football, this without a recognised play maker behind him, and only relying on one wide man.

De Nigris was called into the national team two months ago, scored two against Brazil on his debut, and another two against Canada, I think it was. So far he has 4 international appearances under his belt, and four international goals to show for it, two against the might of world football. You can witness one of his performances youself as it is sure he will play for Mexico against England at Derby on 25 May.

Someone at Spurs should be here to see how he perfoms at club level. I am not lying when I say it is fascinating to watch him both on and off the ball.   Why am I telling you this, you are no doubt thinking?! I've recommended players to Spurs before but never heard a hoot back, and guessed you may be able to find the right 'route' to Hoddle. While I am no professional football scout, I know my game inside out; I know Spurs style inside out after so many seasons chugging around the country watching them (1st team, reserves and youth!), and then monitoring their abysmal showings over the past few seasons via Internet.I love my team to bits and feel that this player is right up our alley!   Please try to get this to the right person, Jim!   Looking forward to better times next season.   Regards,   Steve  

Graham - you also heard it here first that the thieving gooner bastard was only at Tottenham for the money - and now he is trying to fiddle the rest of his contract out of the club. This man is Utter Utter scum, and while £1.5m is a small price to pay for getting rid of him, the club should not be made to pay for flushing this piece of shit away.

Top marks to Zenden for smacking Lee Dixon in the mouth during Seamen's benefit match - becoming an honoury topspur in the process [not that this site advocates violence, but Dixon is Dixon]. Just to prove that the good god does get his way sometimes, Seamen scored an own goal in a 2-0 defeat.

Gardner's injury - Disaster!! No other word for it. Ant will be out for at least 3 months with serious damage to his medial ligament. You could tell it was a bad one as soon as it happened. This means that Ant will not be back in training until the end of August at the earliest and in first team contention until around the middle of Sept at the earliest.

Lets hope for a Speedy recovery and that a summer of rest puts him spot on for the important role he has in the Hoddle revolution next season.

Ted - as reported here last week, the club have agreed terms with Sheringham's representatives and from the well informed spursweb site (www.spursweb.com, not to be confused with the rivals soundalike) suggested that Ted had a 10am meeting with the top man Daniel Levy this morning. This is likely to be true but sums of money and length of contract is likely to be guesswork.

As I have said before, I never stopped liking Ted and think he is still a good player, my only reservations relate to the fact that he is 35 and will soon be too old for the Premiership. As a short term fix to get us back to the top table, he is probably ok.

Ziege - Apparantly we have had a £3.8m bid turned down by Liverpool for the player we should have signed 12 months ago, when Bollock brain chose to invest the same sum of money in someone like Ben Fatcha. While the former Bayern Munich and Milan left sided player is obviously a talented bloke - events at Milan where he was not a success and Liverpool where he has not got a look in, suggest that he has something to prove.

If he is up for the challenge to resurrect his career at the Lane, he would be a great buy, even at the £5m Liverpool will probably hold out for. He's one of those signings who could be great or rubbish, but I feel that £5m is a risk worth taking, esp if we can offload Fatcha for a couple of million.

Lampard - Again his name has been linked to the club, and again at £10m he is far too expensive for a podgy run of the mill premiership midfielder with a couple of caps. While he would undoubtedly be an improvement to the squad, the money could be spent better.

Last but not least - Sol - Again I have heard that Sol is more interested in the ENIC money going on wages of OTHER players to come in and make the squad one that can challenge for honours next season. I firmly believe that Sol is waiting for ENIC and Glennda to put in place a squad that is befitting of Campbell and one that has a chance of doing well next season. Lets hope the club move quickly and sign top players to keep Sol at the Lane, cos while we will survive without him, it would be great to have him at the helm when we take the Premiership by storm next season.

Today we actually have some quotes from the great man - "Going abroad is not in my mind," said Campbell. "The ball is in Spurs' court now. It is a typical type of negotiation situation. There are ups and downs and we have to find somewhere everyone is happy. I am in no hurry because I want to look at the whole picture. We will just have to wait and see what happens in the next two or three weeks."

Campbell's agent Sky Andrew held talks last week with Barcelona, but Campbell has yet to rule out extending his Spurs stay after meeting club officials on Friday. And the chances of Campbell remaining at White Hart Lane have been improved by the arrival of former England coach Glenn Hoddle.

"Glenn is trying to put a team together at the moment and when things go well it is a wonderful club," said Campbell. "You could see that when we beat Manchester United on Saturday. The atmosphere and the feeling were both great."

As I mentioned last week, the fact that he is waiting til the end of the season when English clubs can have the same access to him as the foreign ones have had since Jan 1st means that he is likely to stay here. I read this as a fairly positive statement, and his body language and lap of honour last week suggest that he is up for staying, as long as we have a strong squad for the start of next season.

I think Sol would be wise to have an opt out clause if we do not reach a European place/things do not go well next season and I think if he signs now, the club owe him that.

I was further encouraged by the words of Inter president Gabriele Oriali who hinted that Sol Campbell is set on staying at Tottenham Hotspur. Oriali stated that interest in Spurs star Campbell was likely to be ended by the player choosing to sign a new contract with the London club. "Sol Campbell seems destined to stay with Tottenham," admitted Oriali. "At the moment it does not look like he will move, but we will keep in touch with the situation."

Its difficult to get a feeling for the Man U game - many of the players that won the championship will be missing, but the chance for Spurs to take advantage is again blunted by injury. Iversen, Rebrov and the great Steffen Freund could all return and the fucking usless wanker Sherwood has a groin injury (as he is one big bollock, he should be hurting all over - lets hope Leicester away was the last game in our colours)

The team will come from: Sullivan, Carr, Young, Doherty, Thelwell, Davies, Leonhardsen, Clemence, Etherington, Gardner, Korsten, Piercy, Jackson, Ferguson, Hillier, Toner, Walker,Iversen, Rebrov & Freund

A big issue of debate is who should be captain with Sol and Deadwood out. I'd give it to Nutter if he is fit, but would probably like to see Carr get the honour if the mad kraut is not available. I just hope its a good game and gives us something to look forward to over the summer - although a win would be nice and could take us to 10th if results go our way.

An excellent publication (despite coming from a Murdoch paper) and have feature TOPSPURS in the Spurs links section for awhile - so while I'm not complaining - they published this in the April edition

Why I hate: The myth of Gross and Graham

BY JEREMY JACOBSON

Ah, the beauty of received wisdom. No need to elaborate with explanations. Simply mention Christian Gross, and readers/listeners/viewers can be assumed to chortle at how the Swiss buffoon blundered hopelessly at Spurs. Evidence? Well, he had a German accent and once travelled by Tube. Then, of course, there is George Graham, a canny successor to Gross whose dismissal was a crass error by the new owners. He might not have brought excitement, but he was effective.

So, which of the two won more points per game for Spurs in the Premiership? Er, ahem, Christian Gross.

Now I wonder where they got a crazy idea like that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! - I was boringly banging on about this since the start of the season - http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,681-112663,00.html

Its even more official today - Read all about him at www.topspurs.com/gbunjevcevic.htm - with many thanks to Penny Bowyer