There have been some developments since I wrote about the possibility of Robbie Keane departing White Hart Lane. Thankfully, they seem to indicate that Keane will be staying. The first piece of information involves Peter's Crouch's apparently imminent transfer to Portsmouth. It had been rumored that a Liverpool bid for Keane's services would have included money and Peter Crouch. In Europe, a good rule of thumb is that any deal rumored to involve a player swap is merely media speculation. I don't think I've seen one player swap deal go through in the years I've been following European soccer. The second, and probably more relevant, development is Spurs assistant coach Gus Poyet's admission that Tottenham 'can't afford' to lose Keane.

It's not gospel, but it's encouraging.

I have to say, the mind-boggling amount of money being offered (and not even taken!) in player transfers concerns me. Real Madrid has been linked with a move for Cristiano Ronaldo that involves a tranfer fee in the vicinity of $140 million and players for the winger. Chelsea have been linked, though not as heavily, with a bid in the neighborhood of $170 million for the services of Fernando Torres. Aston Villa continues to hold out for a transfer fee of $36 million for their captain, Gareth Barry. Granted, he's their captain and he's worth a great deal to the midlands club, but he is in no way worth thirty-six million dollars. Then there's the transfer of CSKA Moscow player Jo to Manchester City. Jo completed the move for 19 million pounds. That's about 38 million dollars. I'm utterly bemused by the amount of money involved in this transfer. I've seen Jo play live. Twice, in fact. I drove up to Canada and saw four games of the 2007 U20 World Cup. Two of the games were Brazil-South Korea and Brazil-USA. While undeniably a talented player, Jo failed to score in all four games at the tournament for a Brazil side that was disappointing overall. Now, compare Jo's exorbitant transfer fee with the much more reasonable price paid for a player far more successful in the 2007 tournament than Jo. I'm talking of course, about Josmer Altidore. In Altidore's five games at the tournament he scored four goals, including a brace against Jo's Brazil. With the exception of a few nice touches, Jo accomplished next to nothing for Brazil. Despite this, Altidore has been sold for a fraction of the price of Jo. If I'm honest, the $10 million paid for Altidore is much closer to his value at this point than the $38 million paid for Jo. There is the fact that Jo is two years older than Altidore and has been plying his trade in Europe, while Altidore has toiled away in the swamps of Jersey. There is something to be said for Jo's 30 goals in 53 games for CSKA Moscow, two of which came against Inter Milan in the Champions League. Perhaps Altidore's potential to surpass Jo in the next three years can be measured by the fact that Altidore has made his way to a more prestigious club in Villarreal at 18 than Jo's Manchester City. In spite of these facts, I can't help but feel that American players continue to be undervalued while players like Jo are consistently bought and sold for well over their actual value just because they're from a country like Brazil.

Okay, it's time for full disclosure. I'm a big Tottenham Hotspur fan. This is despite the fact that I live in New Jersey and have never set foot in England. I've been a fan of the club since the 02-03 season. The 2002 World Cup had just ended and my 12-year-old self was on the lookout for more soccer. This was before I knew about Fox Soccer Channel or its ilk so a weekly highlights show on MSG called, I believe, Premier League Review had to suffice. My choice of club, having no actual links to England generally or North London specifically, came down to two factors. The first was that I didn't want to root for one of the big four clubs. Even at the tender age of twelve I desired the masochistic pain that comes with rooting for a club that flounders in perpetual mediocrity (I'm also a New York Red Bulls fan). I found Tottenham to be a sufficiently middling club: they finished ninth in the 2001-2002 season. The name itself may have given the club an advantage over its mid-table compatriots. Being an American, it's likely that I was preconditioned to prefer team names that resembled the American 'place'-'team name' formula. Tottenham followed that formula. The second factor had been born at the 2002 World Cup. I am entirely of Irish descent. Every branch of my family tree can somehow trace itself back to Ireland. So, I naturally had a soft spot for the Irish at the World Cup. The fact that the Irish and the Americans performed so well in Japan and South Korea is probably why it remains my favorite major tournament. In any case, I was spellbound by the play of Robbie Keane in Ireland's four games. From his late equalizer against eventual finalists Germany, to his spinning volley against Saudi Arabia, to his game-tying (all for naught) penalty against the Spanish in the Round of 16, to his manner of celebrating goals, the man played spectacularly. The fact that Tottenham had just signed one of my favorite players from the World Cup tipped the scales. I was hooked. Which is why I find the latest rumors about Keane asking to leave Tottenham for Liverpool to be particularly distressing, despite questionable veracity.

Perhaps it's denial, but I can't buy Keane leaving Tottenham. At least not for a few years. He's just about to turn 28 (in four days), undeniably in the prime of his career. At Spurs, Keane is already a legend and shares a magnificent partnership with Dimitar Berbatov. The pair of them form what is perhaps the only true, old-school style strike partnership in the Premier league. Keane has found stability at Spurs, something that eluded him when he was bouncing around from club to club before 2002. I doubt he'd want to leave just as the Juande Ramos revolution (fingers crossed) begins. Then there's the fact that Keane was on his honeymoon with new wife Claudine Palmer when the news broke. It's suspect that business such as transfer requests were at the forefront of his thoughts. In addition, Keane has reported for training for Spurs. Which is, incidentally, the last place you'll see former Aston Villa Captain and Liverpool target Gareth Barry. It's unlikely Keane would make the effort if he planned on leaving the club in the near future. Then there's the fact that the deal just doesn't make sense to me. What does Tottenham need a meager 5 million pounds and Peter Crouch for? They already have the far superior Berbatov to play the role of target forward, so unless Berbatov leaves (which I doubt will happen, despite relentless media links away from White Hart Lane), Spurs have no need of Peter Crouch. Keane also has to consider the fact that he would be relegated to the bench at Liverpool far more often than at Spurs in favor of a five man midfield with Fernando Torres by himself up top. I suppose you'd have to consider the unlikely (and horrifying) prospect that Robbie Keane simply does not figure in Juande Ramos' plans for the club. Ramos has many connections in the Spanish soccer world and if there's one thing Latin countries are good at producing it's creative withdrawn-forward, attacking-midfield players; precisely the role Keane plays for Tottenham. Yet, Ramos went to Croatia to find a central midfielder in Luka Modric to pull Tottenham's offensive strings.

All I know is, however unlikely the prospect, I may weep if this deal goes through.

So, here's the deal. I've just finished my freshman year at college and I have little to no idea of what I want to do with myself. I've had varying ambitions throughout my life, but two of the only constants have been soccer and writing. I'm decent to good at both, but probably not good enough to merit much success in either past a certain age. It seems that an ideal solution would be to marry the two together and write about soccer. We'll see how much time I'll be able to devote to this undertaking with school and other things weighing heavily on my time, but it'll be good practice for the time being. Unfortunately, this idea struck me just after the fantastic Euro 2008 concluded and now I don't have much to write about besides Major League Soccer, a couple scattered World Cup qualifiers, and transfer speculation until late August, just in time for school to start up again. Fantastic. Perhaps I'll throw in a retrospective on Euro 2008 for the hell of it later on. We'll see.