Source: Telegraph
Tottenham's pursuit of extra striker turns ugly
It perfectly captured the state of confusion on Monday at Tottenham, who learnt that Pascal Chimbonda was coming from Sunderland while failing to inform Darren Bent that he could be going in the opposite direction. [LNB]Given Tottenham's parlous position in the league, with just 21 points ahead of Tuesday night's game against relegation rivals Stoke, it would be expected that they could more accurately monitor interest in their own players. [LNB]But when Bent pitched up for training at Chigwell on Monday morning he told Harry Redknapp about a message from his agent saying that Sunderland wanted him, only for the manager to deny contact with anyone on Wearside. [LNB]Sunderland's move for Bent was sparked by the brazen manner in which Tottenham had pursued Kenwyne Jones, their star striker, when the Trinidadian wanted to stay at the Stadium of Light – and it gave Redknapp the chance to throw the accusation of unsettling a player straight back at them. [LNB]"I don't know what unsettling Jones is," he said. "The fact that the chairman makes an offer? And he talks to [Sunderland chairman] Niall Quinn about it? If you don't want to sell him you say, 'No, thank you very much.' Why are they mentioning Bent? Is someone upsetting him?"[LNB]The pursuit of an extra striker has turned ugly for Redknapp since his £15 million capture of Jermain Defoe. First he was rebuffed by Craig Bellamy, who favoured Manchester City; now he has been drawn into a hostile battle with Ricky Sbragia, his Sunderland counterpart, over Jones. [LNB]Sbragia claimed on Monday that Jones was not leaving for any price and has mischievously tried to tempt Bent by expressing sympathy with the striker, after Redknapp publicly criticised him for a wretched miss against Portsmouth. [LNB]Consequently, Tottenham have been forced to scale down their attacking ambitions and were on Monday night on the verge of signing Fred, the Brazilian forward, from Lyon. [LNB]The 25-year-old is out of contract until the summer and despite suggestions that the French champions are demanding a fee of £5 million, it is understood that they are eager to remove him from the wage bill and could allow him to move to White Hart Lane on for free. [LNB]Redknapp conceded that Fred featured on his January shopping list but could not conceal his anger towards Sunderland over the Jones row. Having admitted that the search for Jones was dead, he was indignant at the impression put about by Sbragia that Tottenham, through negotiations led by chairman Daniel Levy, had been guilty of 'tapping-up'. [LNB]Mounting his defence, he slipped from the language of Premier League manager into that of East End salesman: "There must be a glimmer of hope for both parties or you don't talk to each other any more. If you asked me if I wanted to sell my car and I said 'no', that is the end of it. [LNB]"You don't keep ringing me up. '---- off, I don't want to sell my car'. You don't have dialogue with someone if you don't want to. But they decided they wanted to keep him, so good for them."[LNB]Tottenham did complete one major piece of business with Sunderland on Monday, bringing back Pascal Chimbonda from a six month-long stay in the North East to satisfy Redknapp's call for more cover in defence. [LNB]They also brought in Carlo Cudicini, Chelsea's reserve goalkeeper, on a free transfer, casting immediate doubt on the future of first choice Heurelho Gomes. While Cudicini has been criticised during his Chelsea career for lacking motivation, due to the pre-eminence of Petr Cech, Redknapp confirmed that he would be expected to challenge the error-prone Gomes. The Italian said: "There's a time in your life when you need a change, and this is the right time for me."[LNB]With Gomes out with a groin injury, Cudicini could make his debut on Tuesday, when Redknapp faces a reunion across the dugout with Tony Pulis, whom he recruited at Bournemouth as his assistant. Redknapp fondly recalled Pulis as a "lunatic"; back in 1992 he drove to Newport, south Wales, hoping to see the hard-tackling midfielder in action. Instead he found Pulis in the tea room, not even playing. "I tapped him up anyway," he said, the glint in his eye brighter than ever. [LNB]
