Today my worst fears were confirmed. Our two leading scorers from last year, Berbatov and Keane, are leaving Spurs. Our chairman Daniel Levy confirmed that both players have been contacted by Manchester United and Liverpool, respectively, and that they both desire to leave the club. Furthermore, Levy confirmed that he expects neither of them to be playing in a Spurs shirt at the start of next season. What makes this devastating is that Berbatov and Keane were our two starting strikers. Last year they scored 23 goals each (46 total). In fact, they accounted for half of all goals scored by Tottenham last year.
There is more to this story. According to Levy, the manner in which Manchester United and Liverpool lured these players away from Spurs was explicitly against the Football Association (FA) rules. It's called "tapping up". Basically, another club is not allowed to make contact with another player or their agent without approval from their current club. Even making comments to the media about the desire to sign another team's player is considered very inappropriate, if not the same thing. Regardless, without Tottenham's approval, our chairman has stated that both clubs have made contact with Berbatov and Keane and/or their agents. Due to their actions, Spurs have filed a complaint against both clubs. The penalty could be a fine or a points deduction, but they'll probably get away with a relative slap on the wrist.
Reagarding Berbatov, I'm not as disappointed as I am Keane. There have been rumors circulating for almost a year that he was headed to Manchester United. Tapping up Keane really bothers me though. Not only was he our Captain, but he was an emotional leader and someone we all believed was Spurs through and through. Keane also signed a new five contract a little over a year ago. My problem with this situation is it appears that Keane was lured to Liverpool in a completely wrong manner. It appears he would have stayed at Spurs for another four years had it not been for Liverpool breaking the rules and contacting him and/or his agent. If Keane wanted to leave Spurs he could have approached the club and asked to be transfered to Liverpool. However, because of the chairman's statements, it appears as if Liverpool initiated this deal and held a carrot in front of Keane's nose. We'll probably never know exactly what happened, unless the FA issues a report along with punitive measures. In the end though, Tottenham get the short end of stick. Even if both deals are called off, Spurs are stuck with two players that have said they do not want to be at the club anymore. It essentially puts the club in a no-win situation. Because of this, the deals will probably still go through.
Why have a rule if the penalty isn't large enough to prevent clubs from breaking it? I have a feeling nothing is going to happen to Manchester United or Liverpool - or at least not large enough to make it hurt. If these reports are indeed true, these clubs should have to pay a huge sum of money to Tottenham or be deducted points from next year.
Maybe I'm naive, but contracts should be worth something. What are they worth to the club if another team can cause a player to leave while under contract at any time with an offer or comments to the media? Not even the paper they are written on. If a player, on his own, asks to be let out of contract, that's one thing. This is the football equivalent of your closest competitor calling your employees and offering them more money to come work for them...on top of the fact that they are under contract to you and that it's against your industry's "rules".
Although no deals have officially been announced, it is essentially done. It is probably impossible to replace two 23 goal scorers in four weeks (when next season starts), let alone find two strikers of decent quality. Add to this the fact that a striker partnership takes time to develop, it could be another long year for Spurs fans.