Middlesbrough Football Club News

• Nickname:Boro
• Founded:1876
• Manager:Tony Mowbray

• Ground:Riverside Stadium
• Capacity:35,049

Boro shocked by Spurs antics

27 Aug 2006 - 10:01:23

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Middlesbrough have slammed Tottenham for the way they have told the media they are interested in signing their England international Stewart Downing.

Spurs boss Martin Jol confirmed on Saturday he had made an offer, believed to be in the region of £10million, for Downing and was awaiting Boro's response.

Middlesbrough chief executive Keith Lamb has reacted angrily to the disclosure and said that they would be interested in signing Aaron Lennon.

"We made a very good bid for him. Our highest bid to be honest," said Spurs manager Martin Jol after his side's 2-0 home defeat to Everton on Saturday.

However, Lamb told Boro's official website: "(Chairman) Steve Gibson and I are appalled at the way Tottenham conduct their business.

"We are shocked and disappointed that they should talk publicly about their interest in one of our players.

"They have not made a £10million offer for Stewart - and would be wasting their time if they did. In actual fact, they made a derisory offer.

"I won't even be responding to the bid because they knew in advance that it would be unacceptable.

"We can only consider that it was a mischievous attempt to unsettle Stewart and cause a problem between the player and his hometown club.

"If that is the case it won't succeed - and we won't be giving their offer even the courtesy of a rejection.

"We would be more interested in buying Aaron Lennon from Spurs than selling Stewart because we remain extremely ambitious to take this club forward.

"In fact, during the course of our talks with Spurs, we have already expressed our interest in signing Lennon."