What scurrilous Tottenham rumours are doing the rounds today?

Adebayor channels Mercury and croons “I Want It All”
Well the Daily Mail reports that the Emmanuel Adebayor deal is potentially off as the brawny striker is demanding five million quid from Manchester City – basically all of the fee Spurs are willing to pay the Champions* – to compensate for having to accept a lower salary (that would probably still make him Spurs joint-highest paid player) at White Hart Lane.

Adebayor is basically in a no-lose situation here. He can stay at City and earn a lot of money for occasionally turning up on the bench (and putting paid to any Robin van Persie move). Or he can pocket a large wad and still pull in a respectable 100k a week or so at Spurs.

I will shed no tears if the deal falls through. Good and all that Adebayor was last year, the guy typically suffers from “second season syndrome” – an affliction that sees his form falter and his mood deteriorate wherever he plays. He’s a domestic disturbance waiting to happen and AVB should walk away.

* Well, technically.

Bit part midfielder moves to bigger club

The Luka Modric thing rumbles on with “sources close to the situation” contradicting each other with regularity. It does seem that Luka did not apologize for anything but is training with Steven Pienaar and the reserves in London. Anyway, enough has been said about that to fill a season full of back pages.

The new development today was talented but very slow former playmaker Niko Kranjcar – now at Dynamo Kiev – weighing in with all sorts of accusations about how Daniel Levy is a liar and lied to Luka and all that sort of thing.

Brave Niko (now in Ukraine) said a lot of inflammatory and unnecessary things which is a bit unfair when he was presumably well paid and always treated well by fans.

Firstly, the old chestnut, “Dynamo Kiev is a bigger club than Spurs”, wasn’t long coming out. Yes, this pointless my-dad-is-bigger-than-your-dad nonsense that has absolutely no bearing on anything whatsoever.

Next up: “Levy did everything to protect the interest of the club and make a profit. He has also used lies to deceive the public, which is allowed in business, but if you were in Luka’s shoes, you would probably do the same as him.”

So, first of all Daniel Levy did his job. Fair enough.

Then we balance these so-called “lies” (presumably he wasn’t present to witness these promises that Levy reportedly made to Modric so we’re talking about the same source here) against the lack of integrity that Modric has shown as a professional footballer.  Don’t wish to labour a point that has been made frequently, but 12 months after signing a six year deal, Luka decided to agitate. There’s something wrong with the game when this is considered valid by the likes of Kranjcar.

Here’s more. “It was the same with me. They held me back for two years until, finally, my new club paid what they were asking, and not a pound less.”

I’m not really sure what the complaint is. Firstly, he was given a contract that promised him a salary regardless of whether or not he played. One can only surmise that the contract was not Klinsmann-like – i.e. it didn’t say he had to play if he was fit and could even lend tactical insight if he thought ‘Arry’s “get up and at ’em lads” rhetoric wasn’t having the desired effect.

So if by “held me back for two years” he means that he wanted to leave because he wasn’t getting a game but no one thought he was worth Spurs asking price then perhaps he should have negotiated a release fee in his deal at the time.

If players wanted they could try to negotiate 12 month contracts all the time. I mean that would put an end to transfer fees and being tied to any club for longer than a year. But players (and their agents) seem to want the best deal possible at the time. And three years of guaranteed income (unless you’re at Portsmouth – hey, count yourself lucky there Niko) probably seemed inviting at the time to Mr Kranjcar.