It's that man Leandro Damião again

No sooner do I jokingly mention Leandro Damião and the following day he is in the news.

Leandro Damião


Don't worry folks we haven't put in a bid, the Champions League finalists Atlético Madrid have. The reported bid for the 24 year-old Santos striker is £10.6 million which is about £10 million below the valuation his former club Internacional were quoting us.

After a poor season they eventually sold him to Santos for £10.97 million in the end and he has missed out on a World Cup place in his home country this summer.

Two more managers have been linked with us, both appear to have virtually no chance, Sunderland boss Gus Poyet and Sampdoria head coach Siniša Mihajlović.

Poyet with little managerial experience and no trophies is simply a non-starter. Inside Futbol have the cheek to suggest his name is being 'increasingly mooted' which means nobody is talking about it at all. He has just kept Sunderland in the Premier League, hardly the achievements we are looking for.

The Italian press seem very keen to have Italian managers names linked with the soon to be vacant Spurs Head Coach post. Cesare Prandelli was the back up option but he signed a new 2 year extension with the national side.

The next name they came up with was Massimiliano Allegri with one Italian league and one cup win to his name at Milan. Now it is the turn of
Siniša Mihajlović. 

He is a 45 year-old Serbian who, according to Sport Mediaset, have received an offer from Tottenham. By offer of course they mean an informal approach as a first step i sounding out potential candidates before anyone thinks we have broken the law and slapped a firm offer on the table.

He was appointed Sampdoria boss in November last year and has guided them from the threat of relegation to mid table security. The story is that he is stalling on a new contract.

As a manager he hasn't won a thing so again the story has nothing going for it.

The next managerial appointment will be to take the club past the building of a new stadium, where working with youth rather than expensive talent will be the order of the day.

Money will be tight so a winner who is proven to develop youngsters is essential. It's why Tim Sherwood was given the interim role to blood a few of them and see if he had it within him to become a Spurs manager in the future. He needs experience but in time he will probably be a top manager but is not ready for the Spurs hot seat on a permanent basis yet.

Frank de Boer remains the front runner but we can't meet with him for another 9 days at the very earliest while he is away with Ajax on a post season tour of Indonesia.