Do striker links hold water or are we just being taken for a ride?

FOOTBALL agents must have been busy yesterday as Tottenham fans woke to the news of moves for TWO out-and-out strikers.

That new TV money must have gone to everyone's head.

The links in question report a possible £10million bid for Spain's record goalscorer David Villa and a much-higher figure to bring in Porto's Jackson Martinez.

I'm afraid to say that I can't really get excited about it as it feels like we're being taken for a ride.

It seems like either lazy journalism, or a good news leak to distract from the fact that an announcement on Gareth Bale's contract is not yet forthcoming - or to make up for another early summer transfer disappointment.

Our prime transfer target - the world-class Joao Moutinho - has just signed for Monaco from FC Porto for the £21.5m we refused to match until the August 2012 transfer deadline had passed.

As far as the media goes, we have been linked to Villa a number of times before. 

With us wanting a striker and him struggling for first team football at Barcelona, freelance press desperate for some cash are always going to put two and two together to make a few quid from some easy column inches.

And, as far as Porto's Martinez goes, Andre Villas-Boas' former players are always going to crop up on the list of supposed targets - but if we didn't get Moutinho, we're hardly going to shell out even more this time around.

While we need an out-and-out striker - and an experienced player with a taste for winning would come in handy - Villa is a 31-year-old who has struggled for form since breaking his leg in December 2011.

The last few summers, Spurs have wanted players out the door before spending on new names. 

With Jermain Defoe, Emmanuel Adebayor and Clint Dempsey already on the books, and a 25-man squad to bear in mind, it's difficult to see Daniel Levy splashing out just yet.

More believable is the line on Villa that says Levy is wrangling over a few million quid. Barca want £12m, we value him at £10m. Amazing considering the new broadcasting deal means that clubs are richer than ever before.

The team that finishes bottom of the Premier League next season stands to win the same amount in prize money as Manchester United did for winning the title this season.

Still, Arsenal will probably bid £11m and pip us to Villa before he comes off the bench to score the winner in the North London derby next term.

So you see why It's difficult to take all this news with anything other than a pinch of salt, and maybe a splash of vinegar - balsamic, if you've got access to some of that new TV money.

Eureka! UEFA save the Europa League but stamp all over Spurs' toes in the process

UEFA must be having a laugh at Tottenham's expense.

With our wounds still fresh from Arsenal nicking fourth spot last Sunday, Europe's footballing governors choose now to announce plans that will give the Europa League winner a Champions League spot.

It's all a bit annoying for Spurs as we embark on a third consecutive season of struggling to motivate our players to take part European football's thankless second tier.

The rule would come into place for the 2015-16 season, meaning that the first team to benefit would be lining up for European Cup football at the start of the 2016-17 season. By which time we will be firmly entrenched in Champions League tradition (*cough*).

On a positive note, the decision will save the stricken Europa League.

The promise of a Champions League spot for the winner - or possibly even for a losing finalist, if the winner has already qualified through the league - will transform the Europa League from a footballing backstreet dentist into a silver travelcard to the metropolis.

But why has this Eureka moment taken so long when it makes so much sense?

UEFA's second-tier competition has for years been sneered at by the big clubs ("Thursday nights, Channel 5" goes the chant). And this easy fix was always available but completely ignored - in favour of tarty new names and ineffective rebranding.

Managers of clubs involved have for years seen scant reward in the contest's gruelling 16-game format. They brave long-haul flights to Baltic states to play in cryogenic temperatures in front of hostile, sometimes racist crowds. 

All that, only to be accused of devaluing the competition when they field a weakened side to protect their league season.

And for what? The opportunity to come back and do it all again next season? No thanks. 

Can you see this year's winners Chelsea fighting tooth and nail to defend their title? No, not least because they will have to get themselves knocked out of the Champions League to get the chance.

But who is to say that dangling the Champions League carrot at the end of the painstakingly long Europa League stick will have such an immediate effect?

For a start, it is an admission of the Europa League's rightful place as a second-tier contest. Teams have for a long time been "relegated" from the top tier, but never promoted to it.

The chance of promotion alone gives the tournament a full identity, a much-needed purpose - to find a champion among underdogs and nearlyclubs and thrust them into the European elite - and, dare I say it, even a bit of romance.

Most importantly, it gives those involved the potential of progress, always top of the agenda for modern football clubs.

No longer will UEFA and supporters need to fight tooth and nail to convince viewers of the tournament's importance.

The hope, glamour, extra sponsorship and added clout injected by the possibility of a European Cup place will sell the advertising space all on its own.

And you can bet your left winger it will not be back on Channel 5.

Away from Europe, a positive knock-on effect should ripple down to domestic cup competitions. An indirect route into Europe's top table could even be what the FA Cup needs to be able to hold it's head up and look its proud history in the eye.

With UEFA also poised to change the law  that saw Chelsea nick our Champions League spot, the whole thing seems set up purely to rile Spurs fans.

All the talk is that the European Cup winner will be allocated a seperate spot, so as not to step on the toes of teams who qualify fairly over a full league season.

Nice one, so not only have we been forever falling foul of soon-to-be defunct laws but, if we ever get our own back on either of our rivals, then their backstreet dentist experience may not be so brutal.

Ever get the feeling you've heard it all before?

SPURS' biggest star is wanted by a host of European football giants.

Following a season of top-notch displays by the individual in question, media attention and crowd adulation, the money men have taken notice.

The manager is touting the importance of keeping our prize asset and the chairman is having his heels reinforced ready to dig them firmly into the tarmac on Tottenham High Road.

It's a familiar story.

We have all been here before.  Luka Modric went to Real Madrid for £30million in the final week of August 2012 and chairman Daniel Levy eked an extra few bob out of Manchester United in the deadline-day 2008 sale of Dimitar Berbatov for £32m - and we all knew it was only a matter of time until it was Gareth Bale under the spotlight.

If the Modric saga is anything to go by, then we might just keep Bale another season on a "wait and see" basis but when we fail to strengthen enough to match the player's ambitions next season, he will be off.

Is there really reason to feel renewed hope that, this time around, we might get it right?

All the sounds coming out of the gossip vents around White Hart Lane seem to indicate "yes".

Bale is "set" to sign a contract extension, manager Andre Villas-Boas has "identified" a big-name midfielder and a marquee striker to strengthen the squad, certain "names" will be sold to make way for improvements and owner Joe Lewis has agreed business must be "done early" in the window in order for the side to ready for the start of the season.

That would all be very encouraging to hear but is it just a smokescreen to keep us all quiet after yet more ultimately self-inflicted heartache? Many Spurs fans have been calling for these things for years, so why has it taken until now for the club themselves to realise?

It's not always that simple - obviously - but in the opening three games of the 2012-13 season we took only two points. We lost at Newcastle and drew at home with West Brom and Norwich. A run of four straight wins followed.

Players rarely arrive just ready to slot in. They need accommodation, language lessons, not to mention overcoming homesickness or just convincing/arguing with their families or other halves over the move -remember the furore over Hugo Lloris not getting first team football immediately after his arrival last summer?

A few more weeks to settle down - without the August departure of most of our midfield (Modric and Rafa van der Vaart) - might have yielded those two vital extra points to put us in fourth place.

Surely we learned the perils of a bad start after losing Berbatov, when an impressive pre-season campaign spiralled into an infamous - and, thanks to former boss Harry Redknapp's penchant for repetition, unforgettable - two points from eight games.

To Villas-Boas' credit, he seems to have the players, the press and the board on his side - all key ingredients for a successful summer.

But until we arrive at next term with a squad ready to give it their all from the word go, then the fear will remain that all these encouraging signs are just to drive up the season ticket renewals until we rush out deadline day with a chequebook flush with the funds of a freshly sold Gareth Bale.