Daniel Levy, stripped bare and naked

Club AGM. Questions asked and answered. Four topics of discussion.

Bale.
Redknapp and England.
Stratford and N17.
The January Transfer Window.

With boy wonder Gareth, Levy has basically said he's not for sale which means he won't be sold, citing the examples of Carrick and Berba as not quite the same thing because both players wanted to leave (with 2 years left on their contract). And because they wanted out the club sold them off. You can look at that in two differing ways. One way, the romantic notion of loyalty embraced, is that if a player doesn't want to wear the shirt he should not be deemed worthy of remaining at the club for a second longer it takes to kick him out. The alternative is to let the player sulk around the place, defecating on the badge and placing a gun to your head whilst holding you down, repeatedly calling you his little b****.

Player power, no matter the years on the contract, if they want to leave they can usually quite comfortably navigate and negotiate their way out. And let's be honest, it's the club that matters as a complete entity so if you have a malignant part of it, you want to see it removed. Players are commodities in that no matter how depressed/sad/angry you are when they leave controversially - they are always replaceable.

In the case of Gareth Bale, he appears not to be tainted with the ego virus. Not yet. All players are born with it, just a case of whether it ever manifests. He's level headed, feet on ground, leaving full-backs and transfer stories behind.

He's on a long contract and for the moment all is good. We don't need the money. Bale doesn't need to be playing his football anywhere else. I don't think for a second anybody actually believes some of the rubbish printed on paper and online about this that and the other being interested in the player. Even Fergie won't be bothering with a tap dance this new year.

No shocker with this answered question from Mr Chairman. Just confirmation of the obvious.

Harry and England? Levy points to another long term contract. Side-step by Daniel in that how exactly is he meant to answer it other than say it will be dealt with if it happens? And by deal with it, he means 'get compensation' from the FA. Because Harry would crawl over broken glass with Pompey and West Ham fans making sure said broken glass was aplenty at all times during the crawl.

Everybody knows Harry looks after number one. If England came calling he'd go. But that wouldn't be a disaster. Spurs are stable. Which was the whole point of bringing him to the Lane back in the days of two points eight games. The next appointment would have to be…ah, let's discuss this when we actually have to.

Again, no massive confirmation of anything we didn't know or could guess.

A proper side-step with questions around moving to the site of the Olympic Stadium. Levy is aware of the mood of the fans. Which would mean he knows the fans are fragmented with some of us not wanting to move and others happy. Mr Chairman states that he's a fan and he has friends who are fans and he interacts with them every day. And that he doesn't need a survey because he has a 'pretty good feel' as to what the mood is. Which is fragmented. Unless all his mates love East London. Which in that case, wipe that tear away and kiss Bill Nicholson Way goodbye for ever.

So pretty much nothing in the way of headline making news again.

And finally, the Jan transfer window. Take note 'In the Know' communities. You need to base your inside info around Daniel's comments about how he expects it to be a 'quiet transfer window'. So lay off linking us with 473 players in the next three weeks.

In all seriousness, soz, but nothing to read into again because we have another side-step from Levz. And why not? It's not like we want him to tell us we have X amount in the Consolidation War Chest and we're be paying £25M for young up and coming midfield engine room Scottie Parker.

What he does confirm is probably the only telling piece of information. We need to rationalise our squad (largest in the Prem league). In other words, goodbye to the likes of Robert Keane. Sell on, cut down on wages etc. And stating we do not anticipate a busy transfer window does sort of contradict this in that you'd expect us to sell more than one player which could be deemed as busy. And obviously sign a player. Or two. Although we do have one new arrival (from Africa) already due to arrive. So that would also fall under the 'busy' banner.

Okay then, hands up, I admit it. That wasn't actually a very telling piece of info was it? Much ado about narda.

Daniel Levy. Not quite stripped bare and naked with teasing finger in mouth. Rather fully clothed with a thick winter coat on, scarf & gloves and Ugg boots with additional darkened glasses moving slowly and strategically away, quietly repeating whatever it is you're saying.

"You ain't seen me, right?"