Woodgate to Spurs... no, Newcastle.... no, Spurs again for £7m

[Joe King]

Boro have agreed another bid from a third club for Woody

[The Erectile Banana]

Does the madness ever end?



Anyone know who the third club is?

[Darth Marty]

arsenal

[tsb]

Arsenal make dramatic late move for Woodgate


'We've got an abundance of centre-backs and Gareth felt he could let one of them go'

Sean Ingle
Monday January 28, 2008
Guardian Unlimited


Woodgate: off to north London, but to Arsenal not Spurs? Photograph: Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images



Tottenham's hopes of completing an £8m deal for Jonathan Woodgate this morning have been dramatically cut asunder by Arsenal, who have also agreed a fee with Middlesbrough for the England international.
It also looks like Alan Hutton, another long-term Spurs target, will spurn the opportunity to move to White Hart Lane. The Rangers defender flew to London at the weekend for talks with Spurs officials, but has told friends that, despite Rangers' efforts to sell him for £8m, he would prefer to stay at Ibrox.


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But it is the prospect of losing out on Woodgate to their north London rivals that would hurt Spurs hardest. Woodgate, who missed his team's FA Cup victory at Mansfield Town supposedly with a calf strain, travelled to London on Saturday to talk terms with Spurs after spurning the chance to rejoin Newcastle United, who were also given permission to open talks by Boro. Yesterday evening Spurs were confident they had a deal which would have bettered Woodgate's current £65,000-a-week wage - but after Arsenal's late intervention it now seems more likely that he will be moving to the Emirates.
"We've agreed a fee with Tottenham and as far as I'm aware he went down at the weekend to have a medical and we're just waiting to see," said the Middlesbrough chief executive Keith Lamb. "We agreed a fee with Tottenham, Newcastle and another club but we left it up to Jonathan, he could stay or go."

Woodgate, who turned 28 last week, has had a stop-start-stop career marred by injury and ill-fortune. He took 561 days to return from a torn thigh muscle first suffered while at Newcastle United in 2004 and 13 months to make his Real Madrid debut, after joining them for £13.4m. After playing just 14 times in three seasons at the Bernabéu, he joined Boro on loan at the start of the 2006 season but has only played 52 matches for the club.

"We've got an abundance of centre-backs and with the emergence of David Wheater and with Robert Huth back and Emanuel Pogatetz, Gareth felt he could let one of them go," Lamb told talkSPORT.

[Gaz]

Breaking News on SSN he's signed for Spurs

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11661_3085362,00.html