Not A Total Bale-out

I'm on vacation right now but not loving it. I caught a stomach flu from my little nephew. Right now I can't keep any food down and I'm pretty sure while I was napping some hooligans beat me with a sack of nickels. At least that's how I feel right now.

Horsfield's little piece over at Sportingo caught my eye. He touches on nearly done transfer that would have Spurs buying Cardiff's Chris Gunter for up to £4 million pounds. He goes on to point out how much these lower clubs could use the cash.

I don't doubt they need the cash. Both Cardiff and Southampton are toying with administration right now. The problem is in quoting the full potential value of the deals and implying they'll help the clubs.

Rumors have it that the deal for Gunter will only be £2 million up front and possibly rising to £4million dependent on Gunter meeting certain benchmarks. The same with Walcott. Horsfield says that Southampton made £20 million off the deal. They didn't. They only made £5 million up front. And that cash is what is most important for a club that is hanging in the balance financially. Sure, they've gotten some of the up to £10million since then but there are no guarantees they'll reach that full figure.

As you may have guessed, the same applies with the transfer of Bale to Spurs. Horsfield again reports it as £10 million deal. Again it was actually £5 million up front and possibly up to £10m total if the right benchmarks were met.

This doesn't mean that the money doesn't help lesser clubs. But we really should get the amounts right if we are to talk about how much it helped. In the case of Southampton, had they gotten cash up front the way Horsfield reported they could have paid off most of their debts just from a couple players. Unfortunately Southampton still has well over £25 million in debt; these deals have helped them tread water but not gotten them out of the woods. And even if Gunter were to earn Cardiff £4 million up front, it won't make much of a dent in their debts.

Transfers? But It's Not Even Summer Yet

It doesn't seem to matter that the summer transfer window isn't open and that some leagues haven't finished playing yet, the press is already talking heavily about transfers. Most of them are still rumors. But a few are already done deals. I'll try building off of this list from time to time. More so, I'll make a point of keeping a list of rumored moves that were claimed to be serious but never panned out.

Tottenham Hotspur
In :
Gareth Bale - The 17 year-old decided to not spend another year with with Southampton and head to the Premiership. It's shame since as talented as he is, he still has a lot to learn about defending. The headlines say it's a £10 million move. But the details are £5 million with up to another £5 million possible depending on first team appearances, national caps, etc. Not as sexy as the reported 10m but it's a lot less risky of a move for Spurs. Saints on the other hand need the money since they were not promoted and their golden parachute from their Prem days has now ended.

Arsenal
In :
Luksz Fabianski - The terms of this one have not been announced. As a 22 year old goalkeeper, it's unlikely that Fabianski will see a lot of playing time next year despite being a member of the 2006 WC team for Poland.

Liverpool
In :
Sylvan Distin (FAILED) - Distin was rumored to be joining Liverpool but he joined Portsmouth instead.
Out : Robbie Fowler, Jerzy Dudek

Portsmouth
In :
Hermann Hreidarsson - Signed from now relegated Charlton
Sylvan Distin -
Bonaventure Kalou (Rumor)
Out : Andy Cole (Rumor) - Was on loan at Birmingham and may be signed now that they've been promoted

Manchester United -
In :
Berbatov (Rumor) - If there is any truth to the rumor Sir Alex will send Luis Saha plus his entire transfer budget, £27.5 million, for the summer to Tottenham's Ditmar Berbatov. It would be a nice bit of business for Spurs but it's hard to picture any team spending that much for Berbatov. More so that Manchester United have just spent big money to bring Owen Hargreaves in from Bayern. Owen Hargreaves - Sir Alex Ferguson has been pursuing him since last year. The deal is set to go through when the summer window opens in a couple weeks. Manchester United with be sending £17 million to Bayern. Ben Foster - Technically not a transfer but after 2 years of being on loan at Watford it feels a bit like bringing a new face into the team. Rumor has it that SAF has already decided that Foster will get the starting nod. Watford signed Arsenal's Estonian GK Mart Poom as a replacement.
Out : Saha (Rumor)

Real Madrid
In :
Christoph Metzelder - The German international will be joining Real Madrid. No word on how much Dortmund got for the 26 year-old center back. No word on who's going to be heading out