The key, as has long been thought, is offloading Roman Pavlyuechnko to free up funds and wage budget.

Zenit St Petersburg, considered one of the front runners for Pav’s signature, have today officially pulled out of the race to sign him after having a loan bid rejected.

And Pav himself has distanced himself from rumours linking him with former club Spartak Moscow’s arch rivals, insisting “I just cannot imagine myself wearing Zenit’s shirt.”.

All is not lost however. Harry Redknapp has refused to deny reports of a recent meeting with Ruud Van Nistelrooy’s agent and confirmed his interest in  signing the Real Madrid striker.

“It’s an interesting one.” said Redknapp.

“Van Nistelrooy is a fantastic player with a proven goalscoring record in England, and if he was available it could be of interest to us.”

“But I’ve already got four strikers and if I ended up trying to keep five of them happy, that’s a problem I could do without.

“Pavlyuchenko is looking to move, and I could only do something with Van Nistelrooy if someone came in for Pav and he decided to go.”

Reading between the lines, the fact that Redknapp is commenting on the story would suggest that Tottenham are confident of striking a deal for Pav soon and we can expect serious moves for a top notch central midfielder following that transfer. Birmingham have been mooted as potential buyers.

Reports today suggest that former Arsenal midfielder Mathieu Flamini, who had been heavily linked with Tottenham, has flown in for talks with Man City about a loan move there.

But the on off saga of Sandro’s move from Brazil to Spurs could still happen. And Spurs are still believed to be interested in Sulley Muntari (of Inter Milan) and Miguel Veloso of (Sporting Lisbon).  

And amazingly, the Telegraph is today reporting that Spurs are in the market for a new right back with 29 year old Mathieu Chalme of Bordeaux top of the list. If that happens, I’ll run down the Tottenham High Road naked, so you’d better hope it doesn’t!

In other news, Jamie O’Hara is back in the squad for tomorrow’s match against Liverpool after he returned from his loan spell at Portsmouth and Tom Huddlestone pulled out of the squad with a knee injury.   

• VIDEO: Best of Harry Redknapp interviews including loads of Effing and Blinding (2 Comments)
• Redknapp explains Keane and Hutton departures – Both still have Spurs futures (30 Comments)
• Veloso To Spurs? Agent: “We Will See Soon”… (10 Comments)
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• Frantic Dash To Seal £10m Striker Switch (8 Comments)

“I wanted to sign a new deal at Tottenham, but I also want to play football.”

“Being at Portsmouth is a learning curve and it’s a chance for me to show everyone what I can do.

“If I enjoy it down here and Tottenham bring in a few players during the January transfer window, maybe there will be an option to stay here.

“I’m looking forward to giving my best for the club and the manager, and you never know what will happen. If I do well, something might happen.

“I’ve come here to play and if I play and I’m enjoying my football, then why wouldn’t I want to stay?”

On the World Cup…

“Obviously, it’s a big ask to be pushing on for England. But once I have the confidence in my ability from playing week in, week out, hopefully someone will pick up on that.

“Hopefully, I can start pushing myself into that squad and it would be nice to get in – it would be a fantastic achievement. I’m going to get my head down here and work as hard as I can.”

• VIDEO: Best of Harry Redknapp interviews including loads of Effing and Blinding (2 Comments)
• Redknapp explains Keane and Hutton departures – Both still have Spurs futures (30 Comments)
• Veloso To Spurs? Agent: “We Will See Soon”… (10 Comments)
• Begovic Deal Back On? (4 Comments)
• Frantic Dash To Seal £10m Striker Switch (8 Comments)

Jamie O’Hara has signed for Portsmouth  on loan until January with an option to extend the deal until the end of the season. He’s also extended his contract with Spurs until 2013.

“It was frustrating to be sat on the bench at Tottenham,” O’Hara said. “Hopefully I can come here and get some games under my belt.

“My agent told me that Paul Hart was really interested a few days ago and Harry Redknapp asked me if I’d like to go out on loan.

“It’s a chance to play for a side who have done really well over the last few years, so I jumped at the opportunity.

“I know Younes from when he was at Tottenham and Kevin-Prince Boateng and Michael Brown have also joined, so it’s good to meet up with them again.

“I’m always going to give 100 percent and hopefully I’ll fit in straight away and get to know the lads quite quickly.

“If we’re going to play 4-3-3 then hopefully I’ll play in the centre of midfield, where I can attack and score some goals.”

We reckon this is a clever move. A ball winner is definitely coming in at Spurs because we have no one to cover for Palacios, especially now that O’Hara is gone -  read more about that here. Jamie’s chances at Spurs will be limited and he can gain experience at Portsmouth instead of kicking his heels on the Tottenham bench.

COYS

This leaves us with Wilson Palacios, Jermaine Jenas and Tom Huddlestone as our only senior central midfielders. Yes we’ve got Bostock  but he’s not ready for anything other than cameos against weaker opposition. And yes we’ve got Modric but like it or not, Harry has him firmly in his thoughts for the left side (rightly so in my opinion).

Add to this the fact that if O’Hara goes, Wilson is the only player currently at Spurs who is anything even approaching a ball winner and there’s only one conclusion:

We’re getting a ball winning central midfilder.

Harry has confirmed his interest in Sandro and the link between us and Internacional (published today on Spurs official site) would seem to indicate that this one really does have some legs.

However the deal is quite far away due to the usual problems of third party ownership with Brazilian players rearing its ugly head and sources in Brazil claiming that the player hadn’t wanted to move to Europe this early in his career and is dragging his heels.

There’s also the Kevin Anin option and the possibility of a swoop for Sulley Muntari for Harry to mull and one or both of these deals could still happen  instead of the murky Sandro deal.

This is all without even addressing the question of whether or not Harry reckons we need another player for the left side on top of Gio and Modric. Man City’s Martin Petrov has been linked with Spurs again today.

One thing’s for sure: There something brewing in Spurs transfer land, lets hope it’s exciting.

COYS

COYS

The O’Hara and Thudd concerns are not what interests me. I’m not convinced by O’Hara as anything more than a squad player (who would in any case benefit from training and playing with Vieira) and if Thudd isn’t good enough to get in the side, then so be it.

But I just don’t get this Luka Modric thing.  Why do so many Spurs fans think he needs to play in the centre? He was brilliant last year playing a disciplined role on the left when we didn’t have the ball and drifting in a free role when we did. It was only when Harry moved him to that position in January that Spurs and Modric started playing. The reason for this is that with Lennon on the right and Modric in the team, Spurs need the other two midfield players to offer proper physical presence, especially in the Premiership. Credit must go to Harry for finding a great solution to the problem of how to fit Modric into the team and I’m baffled as to what the issue with this is.

Do people disagree? If so why?