"No disrespect, but..."

We may be struggling to attract the players we want, but it's nice to see that the appeal of moving to Sunderland remains as strong as ever, with the agent of Spurs central defender Younes Kaboul quoted as saying: "Younes wouldn't join Sunderland even if there was an earthquake". (Which, incidentally, would do a couple of million pounds of improvement. Oh yes, the old ones are the best.)

And Rudy Raba wasn't finished there, either: "We have more interesting options than Sunderland. I can tell you for sure that he's going to stay in England next season and, at Portsmouth, you are more watched. No disrespect, but playing at Sunderland would not help his international career". Disrespect away, Rudy...

Hopefully one of those "more interesting options" isn't us - the last thing our defence needs is a big-money flop whose haplessness helped land Spurs in the relegation places early last season.