Yacine Brahimi, James Rodríguez, Juan Bernat & Memphis Depay

Good morning and welcome back to Tottenham News Shorts, quick bits of bitesize news surrounding Tottenham and the glorious game of football, soccer to some.

Yacine Brahimi, James Rodríguez, Juan Bernat & Memphis Depay


Before we get into today's Tottenham News Shorts - Issue 9 here is a quick reminder of some recent articles you may have missed. Click on the links to find out more and share on your favourite social media sites.

Erik Lamela will be staying at Tottenham this summer despite interest from Italy. Many clubs were hoping to get him cheap or on loan but it would make little business sense to Tottenham so has no chance of happening.

Paulinho being dropped by Brazil is no surprise, his attitude at Spurs exposed flaws which he doesn't appear to have addressed at the moment. The West Ham Wall Fiasco demonstrated that weakness.

Hugo Lloris is another player not going anywhere unless a stupid offer comes in. Lloris himself has no desire to leave. Tim Krul not replacing Hugo Lloris and neither by the way is Swansea City goalkeeper Michel Vorm.


We all see players taking too long on the ball to make a decision, the reason is statistically proven and ought to be easy to solve, quite why it isn't is a mystery. Players need to speed up decision making takes a look at this problem.

Right let's get into the Tottenham News Shorts - Issue 9 recent news which concerns Yacine Brahimi, James Rodríguez, Juan Bernat and Memphis Depay.


Nabil Bentaleb's teammate in the Algerian side, 24 year-old Yacine Brahimi of Granada in La Liga believes he still has a lot of improving to do.

"I learned from my time at Rennes and in the last two years I have grown and matured.

"My goal is to go to a more upscale club but I still need to improve some things: my scoring, making assists and not just dribbling for the sake of dribbling."

That rather confirms to me my initial impression, that his release clause of £12.02 million (€15m) was too much to pay.


Colombian international James Rodríguez is said to be another target but I think the words of his agent, Aytekin Erayabakan, probably tell us that we want be buying him. Napoli are interested in the Monaco playmaker but his transfer fee will be far too high also.

"But the Neapolitans are not the only ones that are following Rodríguez. Let's see what the future holds.

"There are several European clubs after him, but it's best not to say anything at the moment.

"How much will he cost? I don't know. But what I can say is that his price has increased after the way he's played these past few months."

If you consider our transfer policy is to buy players we can increase in value while adding to the team then the fact his value has increased is against our aims.

The fact that Rodríguez cost Monaco £38.4 million (€45m) takes him out of the equation, Daniel Levy wouldn't pay anywhere near that sort of fee. Amazing the number of players who go to Monaco and then want to leave after a year!


Valencia winger and Spanish Under 21 international Juan Bernat, who can also play full-back has been watched by our scouts for a while now. He has a year left on his current contract and talks over a new deal have stalled.

Buying a player with just one year left on his contract reduces his transfer fee so makes good financial business sense. You'll have noticed we get linked with a lot of players with just one year remaining on their deals.


Target Memphis Depay has scored twice for Holland in three group games and caught the eye of a number of clubs. He is fully aware he is being watched he told Algemeen Dagblad

"Of course I've read that Manchester United, Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur are interested. But no more than that.

"I'll see later. My agent Kees Ploegsma is here [in Brazil] too, but we are not talking about that kind of stuff. That is for after the World Cup."

Having first caught the eye playing for PSV Eindhoven in the Eredivisie and been valued at 17 million the 20 year-old does not rule out staying in Holland where he has a contract until 2017.

"I don't rule that out. I've not become a champion with PSV. The fact is that people now ask me what I'm going to do and I understand that. But now it's the World Cup."

With Louis Van Gaal and Manchester United interested we may not be in this race bit £17 million is a lot to pay for potential.