Duff for Spurs

masterK

Seems to be close to a done deal judging by reports this morning.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/t/tottenham_hotspur/5186380.stm

Personally I think it's a great move for Duff, his first team oppurtuinities will become limited at Chelsea this season with the signings of Ballack and Shevchenko.

I also think the Spurs style of football will be more suited to Duff's natural game, I always felt a lot of his individual skill was supressed by the Chelsea style of play.

Big Nelly

Strange one if Spurs get him, thought he would go to Utd

dohboy

Good move alright. Might actually see Duff beat an opponent again, instead of taking it inside and laying off to a midfielder.

Wonder what Andy Reid makes of it all......

masterK

I can't see Reid being there at the start of next season, his days were numbered before Duff's arrival.

Big Nelly

masterK wrote:

I can't see Reid being there at the start of next season, his days were numbered before Duff's arrival.

Reid was unlucky, was starting to get a good run in the team last season and got an injury. WIll prob leave if duff signs. How many midfielders do SPurs actually need?

Dont be at yourself

Spurs' cunning plan is to buy every single midfielder in the world, obviously. Surely more than half their entire squad are midfielders now!

Playboy

Atm we have:

Carrick
Jenas
Davids
Murphy
Tainio
Ghaly
Huddlestone
Zokora
Lennon
Reid
Routledge

I think the players in bold are most likely to leave to find first team football although Jol has said he wants 2 players in every position so Reid could stay. Murphy might also be given the oppurtunity to prove himself whilst Davids could be kept around for his effect on the yougsters etc.

dohboy

Is Davids not gone back to Holland? Thought he went to Ajax.

Playboy

dohboy wrote:

Is Davids not gone back to Holland? Thought he went to Ajax.

Nope he is still here. Ajax withdrew their interest in him because they said he was taking too long to make up his mind on whether he wanted to stay or go.

BaZmO*

Good move in the sense that he's leaving Chelsea and he'll be getting regular games, but Spurs? Strange choice, but maybe Keane had a had in his decision.

super_furry

You have to look at it from Chelsea's point of view though. They don't have to sell him, can afford to pay him to just sit in the stands and won't want to sell him to league rivals such as Liverpool or United. Spurs may be Duff's only option.

jobonar

good move for Duff and for Ireland! get duff back to his best and his understanding with Keane will only get better too! good news all around i think!

WhiteWashMan

i fail to see why so many people think its a strange move for duff.

i recall when this came up a number of months ago and loads of people said he would never consider going to spurs.

BaZmO*

WhiteWashMan wrote:

i fail to see why so many people think its a strange move for duff.

i recall when this came up a number of months ago and loads of people said he would never consider going to spurs.

Proabably cos many people think that Duff is too good for Spurs. Personally I don't. I've always liked Spurs and think that at the moment Jol is building a really team.

Playboy

Surely if Carrick stays and duff arrives then Spurs will have one of the best midfields in the premiership and a team capable of challenging for a top 3 finish. Jol still wants to sign a RB (Chimbonda or Micah Richards), a CB (Curtis Davies and a 4th striker as cover for Berbatov. Its gonna be an exciting season at the Lane

---

Robinson

---

RB (Chim or Richards) ---- King ---- Dawson ---- Lee/Ekotto

Lennon

---

Carrick --- Zokora/Jenas ---- Duff

---

---

Berbatov --- Keane/Defeo

---

Bench

Stalteri
Davids
Gardner
Davenport
Tanio
Murphy
Routeledge
Reid
Huddlestone
Ghaly
Barnard

Dont be at yourself

Is Chimbonda not a left-back by trade?

Anyway, that is some team, Jol is doing a fantastic job with them. I reckon this year they could finally break the top four.

6ix

Big Nelly wrote:

How many midfielders do SPurs actually need?

Apparently more and more! Nedved now linked according to his agent.

Playboy

NekkidBibleMan wrote:

Is Chimbonda not a left-back by trade?

Anyway, that is some team, Jol is doing a fantastic job with them. I reckon this year they could finally break the top four.

No he played RB for Wigan all last year when he got into the premiership team of the year.

casanova_kid

Playboy wrote:

Surely if Carrick stays and duff arrives then Spurs will have one of the best midfields in the premiership and a team capable of challenging for a top 3 finish. Jol still wants to sign a RB (Chimbonda or Micah Richards), a CB (Curtis Davies and a 4th striker as cover for Berbatov. Its gonna be an exciting season at the Lane

---

Robinson

---

RB (Chim or Richards) ---- King ---- Dawson ---- Lee/Ekotto

Lennon

---

Carrick --- Zokora/Jenas ---- Duff

---

---

Berbatov --- Keane/Defeo

---

Bench

Stalteri
Davids
Gardner
Davenport
Tanio
Murphy
Routeledge
Reid
Huddlestone
Ghaly
Barnard

I still don't think that's a top three team, there's still noone that's genuinely world class in there, reminds me very much of the Leeds team from a few years ago.

Playboy

casanova_kid wrote:

I still don't think that's a top three team, there's still noone that's genuinely world class in there, reminds me very much of the Leeds team from a few years ago.

As a team I think quite a few of those players will develop into world class and Duff already is imo. King, Dawson, Lennon, Carrick, Zokora, Jenas, Defeo, Keane and Berbatov all have the potential

WhiteWashMan

casanova_kid wrote:

I still don't think that's a top three team, there's still noone that's genuinely world class in there, reminds me very much of the Leeds team from a few years ago.

theres that much bandied world class catagory being thrown around again.
man utd have one wolrd class player in rooney.

personally, im going to wait and see what happens.

but i think duff would be good for spurs, and i think spurs would be great for duff.
we are playing attractive football, but more importantly, we are far more consistant and stronger and positive than we have been in years.
i think the future looks bright at white hart lane.

by the way, that leeds team got to the quarter finals of the CL a few years ago. not bad for a bunch of journeymen, by your reckoning. just a shame that leeds were in 96m quids worth of debt. perhaps they could have built on that, instead of having to sell their players?

WhiteWashMan

by the way, i also think that carrick will join man u this week, and we will sell defoe.

as long as we dont get john oshea. jesus hes useless!

zAbbo

Good news, Spurs my new 'second' team.

Hope it works out for Duff, and it can only help his international career, playing more often and alongside Robbie Keane.

Jol is making good business getting rid of two english players(carrick & defoe) who no doubt will have inflated prices.

BaZmO*

Playboy wrote:

As a team I think quite a few of those players will develop into world class and Duff already is imo. King, Dawson, Lennon, Carrick, Zokora, Jenas, Defeo, Keane and Berbatov all have the potential

Keane 'has' potential? Are you for real? He's more than proved himself at this stage.

Nalz

BaZmO* wrote:

Keane 'has' potential? Are you for real? He's more than proved himself at this stage.

by fallin over every time he puts on Irish shirt!? He's not WC, he's average. Irish top goalscorer because of the amount of friendly games and we've nobody else to play up there. He's good but he hasnt more than proved himself. he can improve and probably will still. Besides, he had Keane in a list of players there, he wasnt pointing him out individually.

O Shea wont go to Spurs, dont worry!

Great move for Duffer, Spurs and Irleand should it happen. Always had a soft spot for Spurs even though I'm an United fan. Hope he moves and gets out that hell hole of Stamford Bridge and comes back to haunt that Portuguese shaper of a manager!

Anam

Duff trained with Chelsea today,would he really do that if he was on the way to spurs within 48 hours as has been said?I doubt it tbh.

Somehow i dont see this happening.

Robbie Keane was excellent last season but he is still fairly young so it wouldnt be unfair to say he has potential.

Playboy

BaZmO* wrote:

Keane 'has' potential? Are you for real? He's more than proved himself at this stage.

Most people would agree that Robbie Keane had his best season as a player last season and improved immeasurably as a player. He is still not world class though but if he continues to improve like he has under Jol then there is no reason why he cant be world class in the near future

HashSlinging

Looking forward to seeing keane and duff playing together, if it happens it'll be great for Ireland.

mike65

So long as Jol plays Duff on the wing!

Mike.

WhiteWashMan

mike65 wrote:

So long as Jol plays Duff on the wing!

Mike.

this is MJ youre talking about, not houllier

blastman

I think this would be a great move for Duff, and certainly far better than warming the bench (or possibly a seat in the stands!) at Chelsea. I don't want him to become the Irish Shaun Wright-Phillips.

Q_Ball

It'll be great for duff to actually hold down a place for his hard work, which seems to be a fruitless endeavour at chelsea. It'd be good for ireland too to see duff (and reid if he has a good season) playing with keane. He has come on leaps and bounds last season and the familiarity arising from training with each other can reap rewards at international level.

I have my fingers crossed for this one.

Now if only leeds could stop signing the oap sections of the championship i'd be happy

Harding + cash for currie? christ...

PHB

Robbie Keane was at Inter at 20. He had back then the potential to be a top class striker, but hasn't lived up to that yet. He is beginning to settle at a club, now the captain of club and country, and let's hope he can improve further. Him and Duffers playing together can only improve things.

That said, I'd be suprised to see Duff at Spurs. I'd imagine if he is for sale cheaply, both Liverpool and United would be in for him. That said, perhaps Chelsea don't want to sell to them.

Necronomicon

I don't see why it's so surprising, I think Duff would suit Spurs and vice versa. I'd like to see it happen, it would only be good from an Irish point of view to see Keane and Duff play every week together.

Gileadi

arent spurs after making a bid for Nedved? and have also made moves to get downing from 'boro

could be a case of him waiting and seeing, if they were to buy Nedved he would presumably take one of the wing spots, with andy reid and aaron lennon already there it could look like that he wouldnt be an automatic starter and might decide he could atleast win more at chelsea

Rollo Tamasi

if spurs get Duff i doubt they will chase after Nedved. Nedved is a short term option similar to Davids, Jol would probably only be able to get 2 years out of Nedved anyway.

therecklessone

Gileadi wrote:

arent spurs after making a bid for Nedved?

Says Nedved's agent.

If Duff has completed a medical (as has been suggested) @ WHL I reckon he's weighed his options already. Andy Reid will not keep Duff out of the Spurs team, Nedved won't be signed and Lennon plays on the right.

Nalz

Duff trained with Chelsea today. He is supposed to have talks with José Mourinho about his situation. Reports on skysports news suggest that he wants to stay with Chelsea and get a new deal, but would want more first team action. Only thing in concrete at this stage is that Spurs and 2 other clubs (which skysports believe one of them is Liverpool) have made enquirys about Duff, but thats all.

therecklessone

Trilla wrote:

Duff trained with Chelsea today. He is supposed to have talks with José Mourinho about his situation. Reports on skysports news suggest that he wants to stay with Chelsea and get a new deal, but would want more first team action. Only thing in concrete at this stage is that Spurs and 2 other clubs (which skysports believe one of them is Liverpool) have made enquirys about Duff, but thats all.

Of course he trained with Chelsea today, he's a Chelsea player and its the 1st day of their pre-season.

Sky Sports are regurgitating the usual message board rumours and dressing them up as "news". All of that info was available during the day depending on what fansites you're reading.

[Jackass]

jobonar wrote:

good move for Duff and for Ireland! get duff back to his best and his understanding with Keane will only get better too! good news all around i think!

My thoughts exactly...I really hope it goes ahead!

WhiteWashMan wrote:

by the way, that leeds team got to the quarter finals of the CL a few years ago. not bad for a bunch of journeymen, by your reckoning. just a shame that leeds were in 96m quids worth of debt. perhaps they could have built on that, instead of having to sell their players?

Semi's actually, but they took a bit of a hiding against Valencia...but as you say, if it wasn't for the debt, they had a fantastic young team that possibly could have gone on to dominate domesticly like Arsenal/United did...Would love to see spurs surpassing or at least in tight competition with the likes of United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool without the need for that kind of money...

Lemlin

Duff is a top class player and I hope to see him stay at Chelsea. Spurs will win things but not anything in the league of Chelsea and I'd like to see Duffer get his chance.

He had a great first season under Mourinho and I'm sure Jose is hoping he can recapture that form.

There's no better player to get the ball into the box for Sheva and Drogba than Duff.

gosplan

Jesus I hope he leaves.

I've nothing against Chelsea, well actually I've a lot against them but regardless I feel he does a much different job(when playing) there then we need him to do for Ireland. The tackling back and winning free kicks we don't need so much of. We need him as a threat going forward which I feel is being worked out of hm at the Bridge.

He's in the last year of his contract with Chelsea so he re-signs or leaves.

I really think that Chelsea may move to Capello/Lippi's italian style 4-4-2 with wide midfielders as opposed to wingers. Duffer can play this role but would Mourhino keep him there or just buy one of the better players?

Chelsea advised that they would be getting rid of one of their wide players. Joe Cole signed a new contract this year, SWP singed one last year so it's Robben to Real or Duff to Tottenham perhaps??

In reality we won't know until we know, the good sign is that this one appeared out of nowhere, I don't think it was simply an agent looking for $$$.

Hope hope hope

Bateman

Could be a good move, but I've always felt that however much to blame Mourinho was for not giving him enough football, his tendency to get injured and his all-round poor form last season was mostly down to himself, and just having a poor season. It happens. I'd like to see him stick out at least another season at Chelsea, playing in the Champions League rather than the UEFA Cup. If he scores goals and provides assists on a regular basis, then he can feel aggrieved if he doesn't start every week, and look for a move.

Nalz

anyone see the back of star yet? They claim Spurs are willing to hand 4.5m sigining on fee to Duffer.

GuanYin

Great move for Duff and Ireland. Spurs style of play (at times) will really suit Duff.

They do have a tendancy to sit back a bit much sometimes against stronger teams, if memory serves.

I think the players they have are good enough. I don't think there is enough winning experience or leadership though. Duff has experience but he's not a great leader. Keane has all the "oomph" but none of the level-headedness (although he is improving).

I think Duff is an eyebrow raising signing, but they basically went for a player that was in a career lull and they are rescuing him. I think spurs need to make a genuine audacious bid for one of the italians.

eirebhoy

Bateman wrote:

Could be a good move, but I've always felt that however much to blame Mourinho was for not giving him enough football, his tendency to get injured and his all-round poor form last season was mostly down to himself, and just having a poor season.

I don't think his form was poor at all last season. He didn't try to do what he does best and take on the full back. That is not his choice, that's the manager making him do this. It's obvious and I hope he gets out of Chelsea asap.

Spurs would be an excellent choice. I don't care how many medals he wins, I want to be proud to call Duff Irish again. atm he's as exciting as Gary Doherty. I used to love watching Duff in his first season at Chelsea and I want to get that feeling back again.

Stats comparision between Duff/Davids/Lennon:
http://home.skysports.com/list.asp?hlid=403787&CPID=8&clid=6&lid=&title=Omens+look+good+for+Damien+chase

Anam

I dont think its as simple as Mourinho making Duff play a less attacking game.He was poor for Ireland last season too,and how come Joe Cole was excellent at attacking on the wing for chelsea?

If Duff was following orders from mourinho so carefully then Mourinho wouldnt let him leave.

I would love to see Duff retain form,but he had a great first season under mourinho scoring lots of goals,i dont see why he cant do it again.That said,i think his form might suffered in some way as he had gallas behind him,duff tends to link up with full backs really well and he didnt do this with Gallas.

To be fair he would be great at spurs with Lennon playing on the other wing.

astrofool

I think when Mourinho publicly criticised Duff when he played for Ireland but was injured for Chelsea, was always going to mean he'd have limited chances.

Bateman

eirebhoy wrote:

That is not his choice, that's the manager making him do this. It's obvious and I hope he gets out of Chelsea asap.

Disagree. In every match he played in, he had the ball in advanced positions, and almost always passed back or tried for a throw/corner, rather than actually trying to beat the man. I see that as being his choice, no matter what kind of thinking Mourinho has introduced him to. Joe Cole usually tried to beat the man, and got his rewards.

eirebhoy

Why would it be his choice? Does it actually matter? It doesn't mean you aren't in good form just because you play a less exciting game.

I don't think I'm just being biased when I say that Duff was Chelsea's best player in his first season at Chelsea. He didn't have one bad game and he had as many goals+assists as he had games played. He was MOTM against Portugal, Italy, Croatia and Sweden by destroying the defenses of those teams. I want to see him play like that constantly and that means getting out of Chelsea as he's too obedient. Playing the same type of game for club and country can only be a good thing. Mourinho doesn't want him to be one dimensional but I prefer the old fashioned winger that Duff can be. I want him to get the ball and beat his man at every opportunity as it produces the best results.

BaZmO*

eirebhoy wrote:

I don't think I'm just being biased when I say that Duff was Chelsea's best player in his first season at Chelsea

I remember doing a poll at time as to who was Chelsea's most important/valuable player and the result was a unanimous one in favour of Duff. I think you might've posted the same poll on an English/Chelsea fan site and I think the results were the same, or he came second.