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London Mayor Boris Johnson insists Tottenham Hotspur’s new stadium plans must go ahead to revitalize the area torn apart by last month’s riots.

Spurs were recently given local planning permission to build a new stadium on an industrial site just north of its current ground at White Hart Lane.

The Northumberland Park site and its surrounding area are in desperate need for building and the Mayor believes a new football stadium will give the borough the boost it needs.

Tottenham was the source of the horrific violence that afflicted the capital in August, with even the White Hart Lane ticket office not escaping damage.

Looters and rioters ransacked shops and homes throughout London and caused the international friendly between England and Holland to be abandoned due to safety concerns.

But the north London club have not given up hope of moving into the Olympic Stadium after next summer’s games.

Spurs have mounted a legal challenge against West Ham’s winning bid, which would leave Johnson’s plans and the area in disarray.

Johnson and Haringey Council met today with senior Tottenham executives, including chairman Daniel Levy, to come up with a solution.

They put forward a joint £17million offer to help fund improved transportation links and infrastructure works.

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News has been released recently hat big spending Manchester City have been given permission by a local council to sell the naming rights of their City of Manchester Stadium to any and all welcome bidders. City chief executive Gary Cook hopes that a long contract will bring in up to £100 million in a deal with a big name company/corporation, with current shirt sponsors Etihad Airways expected to be interested in buying the rights. Arsenal, and the Emirates stadium are a guideline for Cook and City, as the 15 year deal that The Gunners signed with the airline brought in a vast amount of income that can be spent on the team and additional resources. The only sacrifice? The scrapping of tradition and sentimentality, as classic stadium names such as Highbury and Maine Road are made obsolete by the power of the pound.

Football fans are passionate beings, and feel a loyalty and bond to all facets of the team they follow, whether it be the club colours, nickname, mascot, badge or personnel. However one of the main affiliations fans identify with is their place of worship, the stadium they religiously attend to follow their team through thick and thin. Classic grounds of English football stand out as pillars of the game, with Old Trafford, Stamford Bridge, Upton Park, White Hart Lane and Anfield amongst others holding a special place in supporters hearts up and down the land. However football has lost some big names stadia of late such as afore mentioned Highbury and Maine Road, which have been sent to the graveyard also inhabited by famous footballing grounds such as Roker Park.

The sale of stadium names could also open a world of additional advertising, with clubs looking to cash in other facets of the game, which holds the threat of things getting out of hand. The next step would be increased sponsors on team strips, players advocating big name businesses and McDonalds signs popping up on the big screen when their sponsored players score, and television advertisements every time the ball goes out of play. Again, all these far fetched but feasible ideas could bring in more money to football, but go against the traditional values and principles of the game. In the end, does football really need more money?

In a era of professionalism money plays a massive part in the game, no doubt, and with the investment in Premier League football clubs the stakes are only going to rise. To succeed and in some club’s cases to maintain within English football’s elite, a sizeable investment has to be made. Despite this football clubs are now generally owned by wealthy investors or shareholders, and ran as a business; but what price for success and breaking even?

Would Man Utd fans abandon Old Trafford for £100 million extra to spend on new players, and attend the Starbucks Stadium every other week? The Kop, would they feel at home watching their new multi-million pound signings at Nike Road? My argument is no, and that despite the additional impetus on the pound sign in the modern game, some things are just too valuable to be discarded. Call me sentimental, but some things are worth more than money.

However the current trend dictates differently, as four of the twenty Premier League teams in Bolton, Stoke, Wigan and Arsenal all have renamed their stadiums to please sponsors and bring in extra money. With West Ham moving to the Olympic Stadium and Tottenham dabbling with the idea of a new home, added to City’s potential rename, it starts to set a trend that other clubs may inevitably follow. With this increase in revenue clubs will prosper financially, and fans may be slightly consoled at the loss of their long standing stadium names if the money generated is put back into investing in new players, but the sentimentality and memories generated over the years will be washed away, and a new sense of identity, with a corporate feel, will be forced upon the club’s main source of income; the fans.

Read more from Gareth at www.ninetyminutesonline.com

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Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy has confirmed they have abandoned any plans to move to a stadium next to their current home at White Hart Lane.

Spurs are bidding alongside West Ham United to take over the Olympic Stadium in East London.

Tottenham had previously sorted out planning permission for a site next to their current home.

But despite getting the green light from the local council for the Northumberland Development Project, the costing of the proposals mean Spurs no longer consider them viable.

“That is absolutely dead in the water,” Levy said.

“We have made it clear that the current stadium proposals at Tottenham are not viable so that is not something we are able to proceed with.

“At the moment we do not have an alternative.”

Source: Sky Sports

Daniel Levy has finally revealed his hand – Tottenham either move to the Olympic Stadium or go nowhere.

Some see this as the Spurs chairman throwing his toys out of his pram in an effort to persuade the Olympic Legacy Commitee to choose the Tottenham bid.

The Lilywhite fans will see it as Levy being sensible with the club’s money in these hard economic times.

The biggest losers in this battle is Haringey Council and the people of the area. It is a poor, run-down district of London and the Northumberland Development Project would re-generate the borough.

The issue with White Hart Lane is transport. Has Levy looked into increasing capacity at the White Hart Lane ground while spending money on improving transport links?

This will benefit the club and the surrounding areas, but with anything in football nothing is as simple as that.

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Tottenham Hotspur have submitted a planning application for their new 56,000-seat stadium and hope to be playing at the venue by 2012.
The ground will feature a single-tier stand, like the Kop at Anfield, and allow fans to be nearer the action than at other modern stadiums like Wembley.
It will be built adjacent to White Hart Lane, where the team will continue to play during construction.
The site also includes 434 new homes, a 150-room hotel and a supermarket.
Tottenham are refusing to declare the cost of the stadium project, with reports suggesting a figure similar to the £400 million Arsenal spent to build the Emirates.
“We have designed what will be a vibrant area 365 days a year and not a stadium with dead space surrounding it,” said Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy.
“Our desire from the outset has been to create a scheme of major benefit for local people and to deliver the most fan-friendly stadium in Europe.

“The inclusion of a new single-tier stand combined with a fantastic stadium design demonstrates our absolute commitment to create the most atmospheric stadium for our supporters.
“Every fan will have an exceptional view of the action and will find themselves closer to the pitch than at any other comparable stadium.”
Spurs submitted their planning application to Haringey council on Monday and hope to be in a position to start building in the new year.
The decision to continue using White Hart Lane while the new ground is being built allays supporters concerns over the possibility of a temporary ground share with another London club such as West Ham.
Spurs intend to move into the partially-built new stadium for the start of the 2012-13 season, with the final 56,250-seat venue ready for the following campaign, a club spokesman told BBC Sport.
The capacity of the ground during the transition season w

ill exceed the current 36,000 limit at White Hart Lane, he added. (BBC Sport)

These are indeed ambitious plans, not just in terms of scale but also in terms of timing. With the club going from strength to strength on the field of play there is not a better time to be looking to a bright future with a space age stadium that will of course bring in yet more revenue to the club who could easily greatly increase their average attendance.

The news that the club will not have to spend a transitory spell at another club’s ground will be met with a huge sigh of relief from Tottenham fans who would have been very much against having to ground share at the likes of Arsenal or West Ham in any interim period.

Now the club just has to hope it gets the green light from Haringey council.

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Will Real be getting a manager who can resurrect their season or will they get the man who failed so badly in the Premiership? I believe that he will thrive being back in a familiar league, as it was hinted at that the language barrier played a big part in his Spurs downfall. Even though he may feel comfortable in his new, familiar environment, the Real board are unlikely to let him go crazy with the cash, considering he is on a contract that only runs to the end of the season: why bring in expensive players now that will only get turfed out by the new boss in July?

Ramos appears to understand some people may have felt he never lived up (anywhere near) to his reputation at Tottenham and hopes its doesn’t happen again:

I hope I don’t let anyone down and that I achieve the successes that this club has set for this season.

Ramos arrives with the nine-times European Champions in a bad way, physically and mentally. With Mali international Mahamadou Diarra recently joining others such as Ruud van Nistelrooy, Gabriel Heinze, Pepe, Wesley Sneijder, Miguel Torres and Ruben de la Red on the treatment table. Goalkeeper Iker Casillas shed some light on the morale at the Santiago Bernabéu:

We are going through a bad run. Defensively we are vulnerable – and I’m the first (to blame). At the moment it seems that our opponents will have three chances and score three goals and it’s clear that we are all to blame.

I have been 10 seasons in the Primera Liga and this, for now, is the worst start I have had.

With the way that Spurs tended to leak goals under his tenture, are Real destined to climb or fall in La Liga table with Romas at the helm?

Fast forward to the present day and the same thing appears to be happening. In that case, the champions were Chelsea. The £30m man, Andrei Shevchenko. This time round, Manchester United and their £30.25m signing Dimitar Berbatov. As I sit and watch Berbatov wandering the Aalborg pitch like a ghost, making small mistakes here and there, I wonder. Is history repeating itself?

There are factors to consider. That it takes time to adjust, seeing as the Tottenham style of play differs from that of Manchester United. That he only played one pre-season game with Spurs. He has also had to put up with a lot of criticism from White Hart Lane, with ex-Spurs manager Terry Venables calling the striker ‘poisonous’ and blaming their poor start solely on him:

You got your way but your poisonous presence at the start of the season – the brooding and the reluctance to play – has cost the club that believed in you.

Thats a lot for one man who was previously held with such affection in North London to take.

Shevchenko’s time in London had very different factors. He was brought in as the chairman’s friend, with the manager having to shuffle his team about and fit him in. Plus he was bought to solve the striker problem at Stamford Bridge, something which his 9 league goals did nothing to help.

Berbatov’s arrival at Old Trafford, while drawn-out, comes with less pressure. United are not a team in desperate need of some goals. And the Bulgarian was not bought as a supposed jewel in the Glazer’s crown. Yet, despite assisting Carlos Tevez’s goal at Anfield only minutes into his debut, he has looked lethargic, out of place and out of touch. Could Berbatov emulate Shevchenko’s terrible time at the home of the Champions?

Things may change. He just scored twice and he’s nearly smiling…

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As talks between Spurs and Zenit St Petersburg roll on, Russian Euro 2008 star Andrei Arshavin has been likened to a Slave by his agent Dennis Lachter. Lachter has gone on to accuse Zenit of being a dictatorship, not considering the wants of the player as a person:

Nothing will change because this is the old Soviet Union way. For the Russian sports establishment the desires of the player mean absolutely nothing.

They are the big bosses. It is a dictatorship. He is a slave

Zenit are said to be holding out for their asking fee of around £27 million, while Spurs are only looking to pay £20 million to bring the 27-year-old to White Hart Lane.

The likening of one of the best paid players in Russia being likened by a slave is made a mockery by Lachter himself. Back in June, just before the end of Euro 2008, when Arshavin’s stock was at its highest, he said:

There are not that many clubs in the world that can match his pay at the moment.

Can someone who makes that claim, then declares they are upping sticks, then is made to wait while the club sorts out a price, really be taken seriously? Is Lachter aware of how much slaves were paid? Maybe he attended the same history classes as Sepp Blatter.

Has Blatter ruined football through his ridiculous claim that Ronaldo was a slave for not being allowed to move to Real Madrid? Will any player who does not get his way now claim to be a slave as a way to gain sympathy from fans? Are players that deluded that they think fans can forgive their disloyalty by being told they are held against their will, despite the lack of a barrel inprint on their head when they signed their £80,000 a week contract?

I’m sure most of us who get paid a quarter of their weekly wage in a year would rather be elsewhere, but we do not liken ourselves to slaves. We do our job for the people that pay our wages.

Do Tottenham really want a player who, through their agent at least, seem to be doing aynthing to leave their current club? If you do get him and he does well, whats to stop him accusing Spurs of treating him like a slave when they do not sell him on the cheap to a bigger club? Would he be worth the hassle?

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David Villa, who scored curcial goals for Spain at the summer tournament, has been linked with a host of European clubs this summer with Tottenham, Liverpool and Chelsea usually top of the list. However, Valenica are making moves to take him off of their radars as they get him to commit to Los Che.

They are looking to adding a further €500,000 to his current €3 million a year deal to keep him at the Mestella.

Villa’s agent, Jose Luis Tamargo, has said that his client is more than happy to remain with the La Liga club and commit his future to them, as he told Spanish newspaper AS:

It’s been a satisfactory first meeting and we’ve got everyone seeing our way of thinking. All I can say is that we are all in the same boat, Villa and Valencia.

David Villa is a Valencia player, he has a contract, and he feels an emotional attachment to the club.

He’s happy at Valencia and always has been, and I hope he continues to be for many more years.

This news will be a blow to many fans of top Premiership clubs who have been speculating all summer about Villa moving on and possibly gracing White Hart Lane, Anfield or Stamford Bridge. However, along with other Spain stars Marcos Senna and David Silva, he is set to stay and light up the Spanish league for many more years.

I suppose it can be seen as good news. With this out the way Tottenham, Liverpool and Chelsea can focus on finalising the long running transfers of Arshavin, Barry and Robinho.

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Diego Capel, who made his senior debut at just 16, was subject to a reported £12 million bid from Spurs in recent weeks. The bid was rejected by the Rojiblancos as they look to keep their remaining stars after the sales of Seydou Keita and Daniel Alves to Barcelona, and Christian Poulsen to Juventus.

Talking to Spanish newspaper Marca, Capel stated that he was happy to stay at the Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán stadium:

I am calm and I am only thinking about succeeding here at the moment.

It is clear that in the future you do not know what may happen, but I have a contract with Sevilla and I am comfortable.

Capel’s comments, coupled with the £23 million from the sales of Robbie Keane and Paul Robinson, could reignite Ramos’ interest in bringing Blackburn winger David Bentley to White Hart Lane. Tottenham were reportedly in pole position for a £17 million move for the England international, only for new Rovers boss Paul Ince to say otherwise. However, after missing out on one winger and with more funds firmly in the pocket, it can only be a matter of time before they move for Bentley.

The question is, who would Spurs rather have in their squad? 20-year-old Capel or 23-year-old Bentley? A £12m Spaniard or a £17m Englishman?

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Cameroon international Samuel Eto’o has expressed his desire to leave Camp Nou this summer and his wishes moved closer to coming true as new Barca manager Pep Guardiola said he could go, along with Ronaldinho and Deco.

Now the striker has revealed to Corriere Dello Sport that three clubs have made a move for his services, naming two Premiership clubs and the Italian champions:

“I have a few important offers. Which ones? Chelsea, Tottenham and Inter.”

Whether the clubs will actually make a move or not is still in debate. Tottenham assistant manager Gus Poyet recently said they would not bring Eto’o to White Hart Lane, while new Inter manager Jose Mourinho has stated he is targetting a midfielder over a striker.

This only leaves Chelsea as a realistic destination. With questions over Drogba’s future, would Stamford Bridge be a reasonble destination for Eto’o?