Well said, Harry!

[aspursfan]

Harry Redknapp has urged Tottenham to break the bank to hold on to Gareth Bale.

Bale - who will miss tomorrow's FA Cup fourth-round tie at Fulham with a back injury - signed a new £45,000-a-week deal until 2014 in the summer, and Redknapp is determined Spurs won’t become a selling club.

‘You have to be keeping him here and pay him his wages, look after him. He is one of the players that make the difference,’ he said.

‘When I was at West Ham they sold Rio Ferdinand and that was the beginning of the end. Once you start selling the best young players you’re no longer building a team, you’re dismantling a team.
HEAR HEAR!

‘We won’t be doing that here, the chairman is ambitious and so are the owners. We’re not going to sell Bale.

‘You can’t afford to lose him and if you sell him, it sends out the wrong signals. If you are going to be a big club you don’t want to sell.’

[Gareth Keown]

if Bale is a truly world-class player (and I sense he is) then he owes it to himself that he he plays at the highest level possible...that means,,,

1) REGULARLY and realistically fighting for the league title

2) REGULARLY and realistically fighting for the Champions League title

3) earning as much as his peers, in what is a short career that could end anytime with a horrendous tackle.... meaning upwards of 150k a week

can Spurs offer ANY of those criteria.... I really doubt it..

sold in the summer for 45-50m and use the money to mitigate costs of any new stadium.... lower your expectations for the next 5yrs as we consolidate the club into the new location (I dont think the Olympic Stadium is now a goer anymore).... in this contect, I have absolutely no doubts that Bale will be sold in the summer, after we now finish 5th and out of next year's CL..

fans I know will find this hard to take.... they want a banquet when all thats REALISTICALLY on offer is a readymade-meal from Tesco (for the length of the new stadium relocation and consolidation)....

you make do with reality..... its called Life.

[dedleysting]

Oh god, peanut brains are back! Nice to see you Martin :-S

I personally don't think Bale wants to leave right now - player power and all. If he doea ge certainly ain't making much noise about it.

[Metalanimal]

Nicely said Arry!

For a while we have been a selling club selling of our prized players when a decent offer comes in and it has to stop if we are to have any chance of fulfilling our ambitions for honours and on the pitch success, not just club profit.

Ah the ignore button has just been re-employed 

[Gareth Keown]

on 2nd thoughts, I think you are all correct..

I now think that Spurs will reject all offers of even 40m+ in the summer...... also continue to reject further offers for Kranjcar as he is just so nice to have around the place..

we will continue to plan and then build a new super-stadium seating 60,000+ as well as spend whatever 10s of millions it takes in salaries and transfer-fees, to continue to challenge for the title for the next 5yrs+, as well as continue to at least make Top4 so as to play in the CL and thereby attract/retain top-class players..

I also believe that any top-class player at the club will see this to be true, and continue to be content to be paid half what they could earn elsewhere, even tho' any loss of form/injury could instantly damage/end their careers, at a moments notice..

I now, thanks to you amazingly insightful and intelligent people, see that all of these things will happen.

I thank you.

[aspursfan]

It must be torture for you having to go through this every transfer window with Fabergas, Gareth.

[dedleysting]

It must be torture for you having to go through this every transfer window with Fabergas, Gareth.

   nice one mate!

[Gareth Keown]

Fabregas is very good but rather over-rated... last season Ars*nal actually fared better without him in the team for a good slice of the season... They have got to the stage that when a significant player leaves there is a ready-made replacement.... "its the team stupid"..

I'd actually like v.Persie to go now, as I think the team functions better with Bendtner as the central striker..

it would be nice to see Spurs eventually evolve to that level of team-regeneration.... alas, the reality still..

[millers-tach]

I love the way we say he isnt for sale at any price and Inter are now claiming our valuation is too high? I would say that was obvious?
 
Inter are just going through the motions to look like they are trying to buy players....bit like Chelski really!

[Gareth Keown]

I love the way Inter didnt incriminate themselves into a tapping-up charge..... but still conveyed a message to Bale (and Levy) that there is greener grass perhaps...

and of course, we all know that Inter are the only possible suitors for Bale, as he seems so unattractive to Madrid, Barca, AC, Citeh, ManU and Blackburn...

[aspursfan]

I'm not sure where you're getting that info, Gareth, but I have a feeling he's more likely to end up at United than he is at Inter. I was just talking about how ridiculous I find the way the transfer windows are run on another forum. This is what I was saying on there as far as what would make more sense to me.

Maybe the day before each transfer window every team publishes a list of players who they are not willing to sell. If a player is on that list then another team is not allowed to bid for them. There could be varying factors such as they can't be on that list if it's the last year of their contract or they're a certain age, but I think there should be something like that. Then all this nonsense you hear about reasons players move to another team would be eliminated because if they sign a 4 year contract, that's it. I think that would also stop teams making players sign new contracts simply to get more money from them if they're sold.

I suppose the papers wouldn't have much to write about if that happened though.

[Gareth Keown]

ASF... I see sarcasm is still beyond most United Statians sensibilities to comprehend 

as for your little solution to the transfer-window, its positively draconian even Fascistic in conception, as well as being a tad too simple....for 1 thing: EVERY player is available at any transfer-window at the right price.... if Madrid offered 1m for Bale the answer would be 'no, add 2 more zeros to the number and the answer easily becomes a 'yes'...

also, we in the European Union have these pesky things eg. Employee-rights, etc.... I know the good ole USA looks upon employees as mere wage-slaves (accent on the 'slaves' there) who are only there to enhance shareholder-rights and nothing more.... what it boils down to is this :-

same as anyone else, even footballers have the right to terminate contracts with a period of notice.... in essence, a current club should not even have rights to a transfer-fee.... the present setup is mere conventional fudge..... unless it can prove that it has materially added value to the player (thru youth-development, improved quality of game-experience, progression into a national-team with number of caps)....

[aspursfan]

Gareth, do you find that this approach at communicating usually works for you? You come off sounding like the real world is a crushing defeat for you on a daily basis and this is the only outlet for you to feel like anyone cares what you have to say. The problem is that when you spit out drivel like that which is written in a way that screams "little person syndrome," you're not going to be very important on here either.

I know life must be hard for you. It has to be for this internet personality to have been created in the first place, but hang in there. We all think you're very important. Don't give up!

[millers-tach]

Gareth, do you find that this approach at communicating usually works for you? You come off sounding like the real world is a crushing defeat for you on a daily basis and this is the only outlet for you to feel like anyone cares what you have to say. The problem is that when you spit out drivel like that which is written in a way that screams "little person syndrome," you're not going to be very important on here either.

I know life must be hard for you. It has to be for this internet personality to have been created in the first place, but hang in there. We all think you're very important. Don't give up!

 
 
I never see what he says but i can only imagine how witty and clever he sounds
 

[DC76]

Redknapp didn't just hit the nail on the head, he drove it in with a single shot. We don't want to give people the impression that we're in a rebuilding phase or anything, because let's face it - while Spurs are no Man U in terms of success on the pitch, we're clawing our way into the upper tier. I don't think we want to go back to the "mid-table madness days," or worse, end up like Newcastle did, needing to actually drop to Champs to get a wakeup call.

Sell Bale? NOT ACCEPT.

PS: don't feed the troll. He might actually go back under his bridge.