Has Tottenham beaten out rivals for Brazilian?

Tottenham is on the verge of edging out Paris St. Germain, Portsmouth, West Ham, Middlesbrough and Manchester City to the signing of Brazilian international striker Fred from Lyon.

Seems a bit counter intuitive to me. Tottenham has scored 42 goals this season, no worries there, but has leaked an incredible 40, that’s a relegation number. Dimitar Berbatov doesn’t look to be heading away from the Lane, and the club has seen the return of Ledley King which will hopefully lend some stability. I don’t see a reason to do it except that they are picking up a pretty good bargain, around 9-11m pounds.

Harry Redknapp may offer Jermain Defoe a way out of Tottenham.

Another reason the Fred deal looks set is because Jermain Defoe has been told he can go and Darren Bent is being shopped around. Personally, I’d rather have Fred than either Defoe or Bent, but how can it be that players can barely last a season after a 16m pound move. I mean, hey, this wasn’t just up to Martin Jol.

Fred, 24, has lost his regular starting spot at the 5 times French champions to Karim Benzema who has wowed everyone with some stunning football.

Fred has finally spoken out to the media about his future:

“I hope my future will be sorted on Wednesday, I have two offers, one from Tottenham and one from Paris St Germain”

Newcastle sign Czech international

Czech international defender David Rozehnal has agreed terms with Newcastle United for a transfer from French club Paris St. Germain.

Newcastle had initial approaches rebuffed, but raised their initial 2m pound bid to about 3m pounds, an offer which was eventually accepted. Borussia Dortmund offered the same amount but the player chose Newcastle over their German rivals. It appears Newcastle’s hand was forced when Tal Ben-Haim chose to join Chelsea.

Borussia Dortmund had been hoping to pull off the signing but pulled out after failing to match the personal terms offered by Newcastle. Sevilla were very closer to derailing the deal with offers of Champions League football and the pedigree of a 2 consecutive UEFA Cup triumphs.

Newcastle boss Sam Allardyce though has gotten his man and put money behind his commitment to revamp the Newcastle defense after releasing Titus Bramble, Craig Moore, Oguchi Onyewu and left-back Olivier Bernard.

Rozehnal is due to undergo a medical on Monday before signing a four year contract.