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Southampton Bungled It

By The Boy -

Good morning and welcome to another shift at Fawlty Towers.

Obviously the news today is totes revolving around this whole Tobes Alderweireld transfer debacle.

The ‘latest’ is that HLN a Belgian outlet are saying that the deal was done on Saturday night. In Ibiza, if you please.

Tobes’ fee is thought to be €13million, not including the ubiquitous add-ons. The contract is for 5 years.

And this is where (unless I’m reading my Google translate wrong) there comes a twist in the tale.

The Belgians are suggesting that whilst an agreement was brokered between Atlético Madrid and Tottenham Hotspur, Southampton waited in vain for a signal from the Spaniards, relating to this now well discussed and apparently confusing ‘release clause’.

So here it gets messy.

HLN believe that Atlético gave Saints an option to buy Alderweireld for €8.5 million, an option Atlético could remove if they compensated the English club to the tune of €2 million.

Southampton are apparently threatening to take legal action as they didn’t get the €2 million and one would imagine are complaining about sharp practise.

It looks to me as if Southampton have either bungled this in quite spectacular style. or they aren’t being straight with their supporters.

For a start, non if this is any great shock and if the Saints were aware of the content of the contract, then they ought to have acted in a more timely fashion than they did.

If you want a player, then you need to ensure that all your ducks are in a row. Your most important duck being the player, of course.

This looks to me as if Ronald Koeman didn’t have the move nailed down with Alerweireld and simply presumed all was well on the proposed return to St Mary’s.

I take a view that if Southampton wanted the 26-year-old that much, then they should have spoken to the lad and got the deal done, well before now.

Presumption; the the mother of all flip ups.

In the interim, Tobes agrees (without duress) to sign for Spurs.

Is our transfer legal? Who knows the specifics of the actual contract. Strictly speaking it may well not be, but you simply cannot make a footballer honour his contract.

There are also ‘bigger’ laws governing the rights (certainly in Europe, anyway) in relation to defending possible restraint of trade.

If Alderweireld has signed for Spurs, even be it on the back of a Leefe beer mat, then this is all over bar some shouting, and boy is a Tottenham player.

I foresee every Saints fan in the country getting a free bag of horse sh*t for their garden this summer, from their club.

Especially good for the roses.


Belgian newspaper Het Nieuwsblad go with a cartoon of the Spurs Fab Belgian Four.

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