If Nacer Chadli fits the current Belgian trend then we're onto a good thing

White clouds gather and again the pendulum swings in the great Real-Bale back 'n forth.

Bored, I think is the correct word.

The question bugging Taxi For Maicon at the moment... "Is there any limit on the number of Belgian players one side can field?"

Our most recent arrival - Nacer Chadli, a £7million acquisition from Steve McLaren's Dutch former employers FC Twente - joins last year's signings Jan Vertonghen and Mousa Dembele. 

Not to mention - although I'm just about to - that we were linked strongly with Aston Villa striker Christian Benteke.

It would seem we are trying to buy up the whole team. But why Belgians? Well, in case you hadn't noticed, as a footballing nation they are pretty good of late.

They are leading World Cup qualification group A on 19 points, 3 ahead of Croatia and yet to lose a game. 

And it hasn't gone unnoticed. Most bookies have them as sixth favourite to win Brazil 2014 - that's better than England and level with 2010 finalists Holland.

So in buying Belgian, it looks like we're onto a good thing - although we're hardly ahead of the curve.

Belgium is rapidly becoming a go-to nation for Premier League scouts. Apart from our three Flemish imports, loads of Belgium's latest international squad play at our top clubs. Here is a rather useful list to paint a picture: 

Marouane Fellaini (Everton), Kevin Mirallas (Everton), Simon Mignolet (Liverpool), Vincent Kompany (Manchester City), Eden Hazard (Chelsea), Romelu Lukaku (Chelsea), Kevin de Bruyne (Chelsea), Thibaut Courtois (Chelsea), Christian Benteke (Aston Villa)

Working out whether or not Belgium are embarking on a path to football domination, however, is not why you're here. You want to know why we signed Chadli...

We first came across him during our 2010 Champions League run, when he played against us twice for FC Twente - and scored twice. 

The 23-year-old got Twente's only goal in a 4-1 drubbing at White Hart Lane, then scored an impressive free-kick in the return fixture, a 3-3 draw in Holland.

Not only can he play on either flank but he's a bona fide two-footer. Of his 23 Eredivisie goals in the last two seasons, he has bagged 11 with his right and 8 on his left.

Of course, the fact he has come from the Dutch league is always worth taking into consideration, such is the difference in standard.

His former Twente boss Co Adriaanse dubbed him "the new Bryan Ruiz" - in England, that's not a huge compliment (Ruiz is that Fulham striker who never scores any goals).

But there have been some genuine Eredivisie gems that have taken to the Premier League straightaway - Fellaini, Luis Suarez and Vertonghen, to name three.

Chadli seems to have all the hallmarks to succeed at Spurs. But with Aaron Lennon, Gareth Bale and Lewis Holtby in our ranks, there is no reason to think the Belgian will be thrust into the starting eleven before he's good and ready.

And if we have to bow to Real's financial force and sell Bale NEXT YEAR, then with any luck we'll have a settled winger ready to step in and soften the blow.

A final taxi call for Spurs' Champions League fall guy

MANCHESTER CITY defender Maicon has completed a move to Italian club Roma to end his Premier League nightmare.

The attacking right-back has never really been the same since Gareth Bale tied him up in knots during our 3-1 Champions League win over Inter Milan.

Having adopted the unfortunate full-back for the title of this fanzine, it seems only fair that we now bid a fond farewell to a man who played such a key role in one of the greatest nights of Tottenham's recent history.

Just in case you have forgotten, let me refresh your memory...

It was a crisp, tense European Tuesday night in November 2010 at White Hart Lane. The visitors had just pulled a goal back to halve the deficit and the home faithful held its collective breath as a neap tide of attacks battered our weary, and all-too-often wobbly, defence.

From nowhere, a Younes Kaboul interception set Gareth Bale flying down the left wing. Three touches and a pinpoint cross for Roman Pavlyuchenko to tap home sent Paxton Road absolutely bonkers.

Spurs had breathing space - 3-1 up against reigning European champions Inter Milan. But where was Maicon - the so-called best right-back in the world - during all this? Nowhere to be seen, that's where.

He was left gasping for air and scraping dust off his teeth in the wake of Bale's devastating dart down the wing and the Spurs fans duly rubbed his nose in it by singing Taxi For Maicon for the umpteenth time and sealing the song's place as the soundtrack of the season.

**********

It completed a torrid few games for the Brazilian, he was also turned inside out in the second half at the San Siro. We lost 4-3, but the Welsh winger announced his arrival on the European scene and Maicon's fortunes began a steady descent. Did Gareth Bale really ruin his career?

Firstly, you have to ask whether Maicon was ever as good as all the press and pundits claimed.

After winning the Brazilian title with Cruzeiro in 2003, he secured a move to Monaco before arriving at Inter. He won four consecutive Serie A titles, plus the Champions League and a host of minor honours.

At international level he has 66 Brazil caps - no mean feat when you're competing with Barcelona's Dani Alves - and they've brought him two Copa America wins, and two Confederations Cups.

Then there's the personal feats: six appearances in different Team of the Year line-ups, a World Cup Man of the Match award and UEFA Club Defender of the Year award for 2009-10.

So, yes, it could easily be argued that he was at the very top of his profession. Yet, strangely, the trophies, the form, the accolades, all dried up at the same time.

Maicon's appearances for Inter plummeted during the 2010-11 season, making a total of just 38, compared to 51 the previous Champions League-winning year. The following season was even worse, playing just 28 games and notching a meagre four assists - the lowest in his six-year Inter spell.

He was dropped from the Brazil squad in 2011 and has not featured since, there are no individual awards post-2010 and in a disastrous stint in Manchester last year his presence graced the first team on just 13 occasions.

The reasons behind Maicon's mysterious downfall from benchmark to bench-sitter could of course be explained by niggling knee injuries, or even managerial instability - he had four different managers in his last two years with Inter.

But there's a nagging feeling that the trauma he experienced at the hands of Bale on November 2, 2010, may have damaged his confidence beyond repair.

In Rome - the home of once-mighty soldiers and fallen emperors - Maicon will be in good company. And, while we wish him all the best in rediscovering his form, we can't help but raise our collective voice for one last time... TAXI!

Spurs must wait to cash in on Bale, regardless of money

Real Madrid's expected cat-and-mouse pursuit of Gareth Bale has not materialised this summer but it has been mooted that any bid close to the rumoured £85million would be too good to refuse.

But where would that leave Tottenham? Flush with cash? Maybe. Moving forward, not so much.

The possibilities for a club earning a lump sum that size are dictated purely by circumstances and,  in Spurs' case, the timing of any transaction would be crucial.

Having finished fifth and qualified for the Europa League, we are not an attractive proposition for Europe's top players.

Signing the quality striker we need will be difficult anyway, without having to explain to them why we let our best player leave.

A well-publicised kitty of close to £100m would make matters even worse. 

Just look at Liverpool, who were forced to pay Newcastle £35m for Andy Carroll having scooped £50m from Chelsea for Fernando Torres. 

And now Napoli, who will have to pay well over the odds to prise target Gonzalo Higuain from Real now that everyone knows they have £55m from the sale of Edinson Cavani to Paris Saint-Germain.

The Reds had no choice but to cash in on Torres, so clear had he made his intention to leave.

Bale has expressed no such desire to leave North London - as yet. He wants Spurs back in the Champions League, he gets on with manager Andre Villas-Boas and he even spearheads the promotional campaign for the new kits.

Real regularly claim that spending huge sums on the world's best players pays for itself because of the money generated through sponsorship, shirt sales etc. So while we have one of these rare breeds in our ranks, it would be sensible to take advantage of his ever-rising stock - starting with the playing squad.

We may not be able to offer top European football but the pulling power of Brand Bale can counteract that to some degree. His stature in world football is growing rapidly and his presence has already helped to secure the signature of Brazilian midfielder Paulinho in a £17m deal.

One thing is for sure - if we do not make the top four next season Bale, the clamour for his signature will be unbearable. But, at 23, he is still going to be worth big money next summer and he is on a long-term contract, so the board need not rush into anything.

We can continue to rake it in from replica shirt sales and sponsorship deals, all the time increasing the profits from his £10m move from Southampton in 2007. And in the meantime, using his presence to bring in two more big names now would pay dividends if it propels us into the top four.

Whatever we spend in the next six weeks would easily be covered if and when Real make a bid next year and being able to offer - hopefully - Champions League football would increase the quality of the Welshman's replacements.

Selling Bale now, regardless of the size of the bid, would be counter-productive to the squad and the ambitions of the club, not to mention bad for business in the long run. Keeping him another year at least gives us the chance of cashing in when we are in a stronger position to move forward.

The game of cat and mouse is sure to intensify as the transfer deadline approaches but if we can keep hold of our asset then come next summer you never know, we may be more cat than mouse.

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.

Fanfare and fixtures

The same old certainties always arrive with the divisional diary: You play every team, you play them twice, club managers will claim they have a "tough start" and the national team boss will complain about not having enough time with the England squad.

For the last three years, Tottenham have been third at the turn of the year only to fall away and miss out narrowly on Champions League football, so it clearly makes no difference what order the games come in.

Significant points include an early north London derby, a Manchester double in November and a simple enough six-game run-in at the end of the season - although Arsenal have it equally simple.

Two of our first five games are newly promoted sides, plus Swansea and Norwich at home, so there is at least the opportunity to make a solid start.

Here is the fixture list in full...

Sat Aug 17 Crystal Palace A
Sat Aug 24 Swansea City H
Sat Aug 31 Arsenal A
Sat Sep 14 Norwich City H
Sat Sep 21 Cardiff City A
Sat Sep 28 Chelsea H
Sat Oct 5 West Ham United H
Sat Oct 19 Aston Villa A
Sat Oct 26 Hull City H
Sat Nov 2 Everton A
Sat Nov 9 Newcastle United H 
Sat Nov 23 Manchester City A
Sat Nov 30 Manchester United H
Wed Dec 4 Fulham A
Sat Dec 7 Sunderland A
Sat Dec 14 Liverpool H
Sat Dec 21 Southampton A
Thu Dec 26 West Bromwich Albion H
Sat Dec 28 Stoke City H
Wed Jan 1 Manchester United A
Sat Jan 11 Crystal Palace H
Sat Jan 18 Swansea City A
Wed Jan 29 Manchester City H
Sat Feb 1 Hull City A
Sat Feb 8 Everton H
Wed Feb 12 Newcastle United A
Sat Feb 22 Norwich City A
Sat Mar 1 Cardiff City H
Sat Mar 8 Chelsea A
Sat Mar 15 Arsenal H
Sat Mar 22 Southampton H
Sat Mar 29 Liverpool A
Sat Apr 5 Sunderland H
Sat Apr 12 West Bromwich Albion A
Sat Apr 19 Fulham H
Sat Apr 26 Stoke City A
Sat May 3 West Ham United A
Sun May 11 Aston Villa H

Does AVB owe it to Spurs to snub Paris Saint-Germain?

Rebuilding a damaged reputation was always part of the motive for Andre Villas-Boas' arrival at Tottenham. We all knew that.

What we did not realise was that Europe's juggernauts would be pounding on our door with a suitcase of cash and a pen calling for his signature after just one season. Especially when that season only just met expectations.

Oil-rich Paris Saint-German are looking for a replacement for their title-winning and seemingly Real-Madrid-bound coach Carlo Ancellotti and our man is top of their list.

Reports claim the Ligue 1 champs want him on a short-term contract until Arsene Wenger becomes available to serve out a footballing dotage in his home country.

But are Spurs within their rights to expect a level of loyalty from AVB? Of course we are, but it works both ways. 

This time last year, the acronym AVB raised a smirk throughout football, so great was the debacle of his eight-month Chelsea reign.

Fresh from winning the title and the Europa League with FC Porto, he arrived on our shores heralded as a footballing Sherlock Holmes - memorising dossier after dossier and scrutinising the game under a magnifying glass.

Within months Villas-Boas went from hot property to hot potato, wonderland to wilderness, Chelski to Hell-ski. Nobody wanted him. His record was tarnished, his card marked. Despite his youth, he was labelled as 'finished' - in this country at least.

So when he was linked with succeeding Harry Redknapp in the Spurs hotseat, it appeared the worst possible tonic for having our Champions League spot nabbed by AVB's resurgent former club.

The Blues had given us the blues and, worse still, their past failure was about to become our future. Nobody gave Villas-Boas a chance but stubborn chairman Daniel Levy saw it through. AVB became the Tottenham boss.

The Portuguese had a slow start but knuckled down. Consistency, then support, followed. As well as a 3-2 win at Old Trafford  - where we had not won since 1989. 

Even losing out on Champions League football, AVB was once again a credible name. 

And it was Levy and Spurs that gave Villas-Boas the platform to clear his name and to turn his career around.

At Spurs, he seems less distracted than with Chelsea, much more comfortable in his surroundings. Most Spurs fans now believe he has us on the right track and, given the right backing, he can help us progress as a football club.

And therein lies the other side of this coin - backing from the board.

It may not even have crossed AVB's mind to move on but it is now mid-June and the club has remained very quiet over both contracts and transfers. 

Why should he show us any loyalty if we are not going to support him in his vision for the club, especially with the possibility of a glamour stint in Paris.

Arsenal have announced their intention to spend, crowing about their increased financial clout now that years of investment and money-saving has come to fruition. 

And whilst talk may be cheap, AVB needs some signs from the chairman that
he will be allowed to do his job.

With PSG waiting in the wings, now is the time to show some direction. That could be deciding Gareth Bale's future, or making some changes to the squad in time for pre-season.

AVB is clearly some way towards restoring his reputation but it's now Spurs who must act to make sure we're not left picking up the pieces of our own. Levy's stubborn side clearly paid off at the start of AVB's reign -  hopefully it won't contribute to an early finish.

Players' desperation for Champions League football wrecks their chances of being remembered

Halls of fame at football clubs are accumulating mites and dustballs, so seldom are inductions in the modern day. Loyalty has been replaced by immediacy. Players, managers and clubs must succeed now and to hell with the big picture as everyone chases the dream.

None of this is news to us, of course, but it is a problem that will affect Tottenham more than any other Premier League club this summer, as the chasm between Champions League and Europa League qualification takes affect.

Top player after top player will brush aside our advances in favour of European Cup football unless the club can convince them that we are going places (and that they have to live on slightly less money).

With just Europa League football to offer prospective playing staff, our summer has started on the back foot.

We have already missed out on top target Joao Moutinho from FC Porto and we are failing to keep Gareth Bale off Real Madrid's radar.

The latest warning shot that our fifth-place finish could draw a big red line through our transfer shortlist comes from a long-term target, Internacional striker Leandro Damiao.

Damiao, 23, told the Sunday Mirror: "I would prefer to play in the Champions League but the most important thing is that they share the same ambition I have."

Not only does he almost compliment the club - by hinting that our drive to succeed might just live up to his own heady horizons - but he also leaves the door open for Europe's elite to beat us to his signature.

If Damiao really must chase the Champions League dream to the letter - and the day - then let's hope he joins Real Sociedad and they go out in the qualifiers.

But it's not just incoming players that display this impatient desperation.

Roberto Mancini was fired by Manchester City for coming second in the Premier League, Wayne Rooney wants out of Manchester United because he is not playing as often as he would like and Roberto Martinez has called time on his Wigan reign after being relegated to the Championship.

There is no doubt that agents play their part in convincing subjects to cash in while their stock is high but there are more and more glowing examples of the grass not always being greener.

Harry Redknapp refused to nail his colours to our mast when the England job came up, playing some part in his downfall as Spurs boss and he has now been relegated with QPR.

Mark Hughes left a burgeoning Blackburn Rovers setup for Manchester City - last week he was appointed Stoke boss having been fired by Fulham and almost been relegated with QPR.

Fernando Torres left Liverpool for Chelsea under a £50million price tag. His form dried up dramatically and, without the goals he provided at the Anfield club, Liverpool are not top-five - let alone top four.

Even Cesc Fabregas, who left Arsenal for Barcelona in August 2011, is already unhappy with his role in the squad.

All of the above left behind the opportunity to go down in their respective clubs' hall of fame. They gave up full stadia of fans singing their name and the chance to be remembered as an idol by forever loyal followers.

If there is anything the 2012-13 Premier League season has shown us, it's that the other side of the coin pays far greater dividends.

Manchester United legend Alex Ferguson retired at the top of the pile, Jamie Carragher had TWO farewell parties at a packed-out Anfield and even Newcastle goalkeeper Steve Harper was given a hero's send off, despite making only 157 appearances in 20 years at St James' Park.

Fabregas need only look to Frank Lampard, who has been told time after time that his Chelsea days are numbered only to knuckle down, break Bobby Tambling's all-time Blues scoring record and earn the contract talks he had been denied all season.

Eyeing the big prize can out work - Robin van Persie's title-winning move to Manchester United is testament to that. And nobody can deny the glamour of David Beckham's globe-trotting.

But even new Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho has exchanged a journeyman lifestyle of trophies and galacticos to go "somewhere he is loved", so perhaps those like Leandro should start taking that into account.