May 21, 2008

I reckon at least a dozen keepers have been strongly linked with a move to White Hart Lane and, whilst it’s true that Paul Robinson hasn’t been the sturdiest stopper around, I seriously doubted the ability of most of those connected with a move to Spurs and whether they were good enough for Juande Ramos’s north London revolution. However, the latest goalie hinted to be on his way to Tottenham is a damn good one!

Tottenham are lining up a £10million deal for Manchester City goalkeeper Joe Hart - with Paul Robinson going in the opposite direction. (Daily Mail)

Hart is possibly the hottest custodian in the country (Ben Foster and Scott Carson may run him close, though). Whenever I’ve seen the Man City man in action, he has exuded confidence beyond his tender years and is sure to be an England regular of the future. Given all that has happened at Eastlands in recent months, it is surely possible that a great many of their talented players may leave, which would be a real shame for the loyal Blues fans who have manfully supported Sven throughout his poor treatment at the hands of Thaksin Shinawatra.

How do City fans feel about the potential exodus from their club and do Spurs fans rate Hart highly?

Moscow might have developed into a shiny new example of capitalist consumerism but the 50,000 English fans arriving on Wednesday for the Champions League final were given a flashback to how the city looked under the greyest days of Communism.

Four hours before kickoff in European soccer’s most important game, soldiers and police outnumbered fans by about 300 to one and not a metre of the route from the Sportivnaya Metro station to the Luzhniki Stadium was unguarded.

The few fans who wandered into the areas surrounding the stadium were dwarfed by the immense military presence - around 15,000 are on duty - as bank upon bank of troops and police stood in line, staring blankly through the cold evening drizzle.

With no alcohol on sale and precious little else on offer in terms of entertainment, most of the fans already here seem to have opted to stay in the city centre before making their way out for the 10.45 local time kickoff.

Thousands more were being bussed straight from the airport, and will go straight back there in the early hours, their entire Russian experience being restricted to what they could see along the roadside through their windows.

A handful of souvenir stalls were offering the usual array of military fur hats and Russian dolls for prices that would have purchased a holiday apartment on the Black Sea 20 years ago but there were few takers, hardly surprising in the wake of the outrageous flight and hotel costs the fans had been forced to bear in this most ill -thought out UEFA experhyment.

With the leaden skies and constant drizzle further dampening the atmosphere it all added up to a very flat build up for a game that should never have been here in the first place.

Mitch Phillips, Moscow

PHOTO: Matryoshka dolls with portraits of Manchester United players are displayed for sale at Red Square in Moscow, May 20, 2008. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin

May 21, 2008

Alan Curbishley appears keen to beef up his goalscoring options for next season, which is comprehendable when you think about that when you take Dean Ashton out of the equation, last season’s next top scorer only managed four league goals. And hence the latest rumour relating to possible attacking targets.

West Ham are after an attacking £10m rated pair as Curbishley looks to capture Manchester United striker Louis Saha and Bolton winger El-Hadji Diouf. (The Guardian)

Now I think that when he’sn’t plagued by injury (which is pretty much all the time at present), Louis Saha is a 15-goal-a-season striker in the Premier League and well worth think abouting a bid for, especially if the price is right. However I don’t see the worth in pursuing Diouf as I can’t see him doing much forWest Ham. What do Hammers think of this pair? Worth purchaseing or better to steer clear?