Is Paulinho waxing lyrical about Spurs or holding out for a bigger move?

Twitter has been awash with the news that Spurs have "landed" £17million target Paulinho.

There are pictures and quotes from a Monday press conference but the only aspect of the move that has been confirmed is that the Brazil international will indeed leave his club Corinthians.

Tottenham have refused to comment and the newspapers have steered well clear for now.

The switch may well be announced later this week, but, by making the details public, Paulinho and his agents are doing everything in their power to hold the door open for a bigger club to hijack the deal.

Tottenham will have wanted the move kept quiet as the transfer market is competitive enough when you can offer Champions League football, let alone when you cannot. 

And it is not in Corinthians' interest to publicise the bid - Spurs have already met Paulinho's release clause, so any further offers would also come in at £17m. 

So why did Paulinho reveal the news himself? Surely only to advertise his availability while the world's eyes were on the Confederations Cup.

And if it wasn't strange enough that our own target would risk jeopardising his move by leaking important information, the plot thickened further with the Corinthians announcement.

Whoever heard of a press conference purely to confirm that a player will be moving on while his destination is so far undecided? Paulinho is 24-years-old, his name can't be etched that far into club folklore. It's not as if he is Pele - or even Neymar, who recently joined Barcelona from Santos for £46m.

Paulinho said: "What I have to say to Corinthians is 'see you soon'. Pretty soon I'll be back, owing to everything you have done for me.

"The other interest we got was from Inter Milan - but the only offer came from Tottenham.

It all works as a somewhat desperate "come and get me" plea to anyone who is listening.

But why are we and Inter Milan the only clubs interested in the resilient midfielder?

Well, transfers involving South American players have a track record of problems. Look at the Carlos Tevez ownership complications, not to mention the trouble we had getting hold of Sandro and the problems we're still having with Leandro.

Brazilian and Argentinian stars tend to have third party contracts that involve a lot of red tape and a minefield of financial obstacles. Even Spurs' Paulinho bid is reported to be split 50-50 between Corinthians and an investment firm.

Then you have to look at the player. What if he doesn't settle in Europe? What if he doesn't suit English football.

Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Manchester United and Man City will all be watching this deal like hawks, happy for us to take the first step.

Then if Paulinho is a success, they will he all launch their bids next summer. So don't be surprised if the negotiations are held up over the player wanting a buy-out clause to facilitate an easy move in 2014.

If we do complete the transfer, then Paulinho will be a huge statement of intent. And placed alongside Sandro and Mousa Dembele in midfield he is one very exciting prospect for Spurs fans.

Who knows, after a season he could even decide his future lies at White Hart Lane.

But until then, with the player and his PR team doing everything possible to covertly advertise his services elsewhere, this is one deal that really does need tying up as quickly as possible.