Bassong injury blow for Tottenham

In happier times

via Yahoo!UK/Eurosport:

Tottenham's injury problems show no signs of abating, as Sebastien Bassong has revealed he is likely to be out for a month with a hamstring problem.

The classy Cameroon defender played the entire 90 minutes of Spurs' 3-0 defeat at Arsenal on Saturday, but manager Harry Redknapp said after the game that Bassong had picked up an injury.

Redknapp did not elaborate on the nature of the problem, but Bassong explained that a hamstring injury is likely to rule him out until December.

"It's not good news. It's a hamstring. I'll be out maybe four or five weeks. It just feels like my muscle is gone," he said in the Daily Mirror.

Anyone have him at enough of a discount that they'll take the zeros for a month or so?

He's available for Sunday

Hat tip to the Assitant Manager for the news.

He [Bassong] was sent off in Newcastle's penultimate game and given a 2 game ban. He served the first of these vs Villa on the last day of last season & it's rumoured the club ensured the registration papers for Bassong went through after the 5pm Saturday deadline, meaning the Premier League will recognise that he missed Newcastle's game vs West Brom on Saturday as the 2nd game of his suspension. Harry Redknapp confirmed yesterday "He's available for Sunday".

Yes, Spurs host Liverpool in their opening fixture, but it is at White Hart Lane and Liverpool are not coming into the season in top gear. They have injury doubts across their back line and have just lost Xabi Alonso to Real Madrid. Meanwhile his replacement is out with an ankle injury and Torres had ANOTHER injury scare of his own, coming off at the weekend with his own ankle knock.

Then in midweek, Spurs travel to Hull. And I'm making it my personal mission to line up as many players against Hull every week as I can. I'm not sure it will be "Who is Playing Derby" level of sheer annihilation and guaranteed fantasy point collection... well, at least not until later in the season when their fate is sealed and they've all quit on Phil Brown.

So Bassong at 5.5 is now VERY MUCH in my thoughts for week 1, if I haven't figured out how to squeeze him into my team yet.

Two good moves

The F365 Transfer Blog: Friday August 7

08.10: Morning everyone. Couple of things from last night to let you know about before we get on to the real business of bulls**t pedalling - Sebastian Bassong has completed his move from Newcastle to Spurs for about £8million, while Newcastle have also accepted a bid from Hull for their other good defender, Habib Beye.

In addition to the move for Bassong that we have discussed previously in this space, it looks like Beye will be on his way back to the Prem with Hull. That's at least two good moves this week for Hull who have otherwise had a pretty frustrating summer. Beye was a pretty good fantasy player for a pretty useless NUFC team last season so no reason to think he won't be at least as good for Hull this season. Who knows, maybe we'll see a few stretches like the one they had at the beginning of last season that saw them essentially accumulate enough points to stay up before November.

Bassong to Spurs seems to be on

Teamates now

Football365 | All The News | Football News | BASSONG EXPLAINS NEWCASTLE EXIT

Looks like it's happening for Spurs and Bassong. Here are a few quick thoughts.

1) Nice move for Spurs as they need a young, healthy, high quality centre back with upside.

2) You have to wonder why Arsenal wasn't interested at this price - throwing an additional £16M for Bassong and Chamakh seems like a reasonable use of their K2 & Toure money. Maybe the rumored deal for Migueal Veloso is really on and that is going to suck up the cash.

3) For fantasy purposes my assumption is that Spurs start the season with Bale on the left, Corluka and Bassong in the middle, and Hutton on the right with Corluka moving to the left to supplant Bale if/when one of Spurs oft-injured CBs returns to health. Could make Bale an interesting play until he is sent back to the bench. Not sure he'll ever live up to his first fantasy season but at 6.12 it's worth thinking about.

Why not more NUFC transfers out?

Image via Wikipedia

The Chuckles Gossip

Hull want to sign Habib Beye from Newcastle...

Among other items found in the always amusing Football365 gossip column is this note about Habib Beye being a target for Hull. Sort of makes you wonder why more of NUFC's useful pieces (insert your own joke here) haven't been the subject of more rumors. I suppose it may have to do with the fact that the club is in such a mess that no one is sure who is making the decisions but still, Transfer Rumors tend to be pretty much baseless so why not more involving Newcastle?

I'd personally think that Beye (Villa?), Bassong (who, to be fair, has appeared in the rumor mill pretty regularly with Arsenal, Spurs, and Fulham all rumors), Guthrie (Sunderland?), Geremi (Pompey), Guttierrez (Stoke or WHU?), Ryan Taylor (Everton?), and Nolan (Big Sam reunion at Rovers?) would all be useful additions to Premier League sides. They may not all be starters and some are likely overpaid for the role that they are currently best suited for. That said, it would seem that NUFC need the money and there are plenty of teams that need to improve the depth of their squads.

Just something to ponder this morning while we're waiting for some actual news. Plus, I figured I should write something about a team other than Arsenal as I warm up for the new season.