Your Tottenham Hotspur morning digest on Friday, February 3.
New sponsorship deal gets conditional approval
Conditional approval has been given for South Africa Tourism to tie up a £42.5million sponsorship deal with Tottenham Hotspur, it was confirmed on Thursday.
Leaked documents emerged earlier in the week in South African media outlet Daily Maverick, who claimed that the country's government, through its marketing agency SA Tourism, was preparing to sponsor Spurs for 910million South African rand (£42.5million).
The media outlet claimed that they had seen documents from a presentation given by SA Tourism this month for a three-year sponsorship beginning next season and the matter was due to be discussed further by another presentation on Tuesday night (January 31) and that the deal was close to being finalised.
READ MORE: Pedro Porro struggles, curious case of Matt Doherty and Tottenham transfers that didn't happen
Redknapp tells how he wanted to sign former Liverpool and Barcelona star
Harry Redknapp has claimed that he was keen to sign Luis Suarez at Tottenham before the striker eventually joined Liverpool. Speaking to talkSPORT, the former Spurs boss revealed: "Loads over the years, so many it’s crazy. You think you’ve got one done and you’re sitting around late at night trying to get it done and it doesn’t come off.
"When you’re in a relegation battle and you’re struggling and you know you need one or two or you’ve got no chance, or if you’re trying to make the top four, that’s when you really need it.
"I tried to get Luis Suarez at Tottenham but couldn’t get it done and then the chairman Daniel [Levy] let me have a couple of free transfers instead. When it’s over it’s quite a relief, to be honest, you think ‘the windows shut, let’s get on with it, let’s get the best out of what we’ve got'."
Merson predicts City win over Spurs
Paul Merson has insisted that Manchester City must overcome Tottenham in order to keep their Premier League title hopes alive. Spurs are set to welcome the reigning champions to N17 on Sunday as they look to avenge their defeat in the reverse fixture last month.
Speaking to Sportskeeda, Merson said: "The pressure’s going to be on Manchester City this week. They’ll probably be eight points behind Arsenal when they play this game, and they can’t afford anything less than a win here.
"If they don’t beat Tottenham, I don’t see how they can make up the difference. I think Julian Alvarez would start in any other football team. He’s a very good player, and he changed the game against Arsenal. Erling Haaland is going to start up front, with Mahrez on the right – these guys are shoo-ins.
"At the moment, Pep Guardiola seems to fancy Grealish more than Foden," the former Arsenal midfielder added. "Manchester City have a nice fixture list in the Premier League after this game, and this is a big match. Tottenham will sit back and make it hard for them, but City should be able to win this game."
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Tottenham's Pedro Porro transfer structure explained amid defender decision and youngster's move
The Pedro Porro problem, that Qatar meeting and Leandro Trossard - Tottenham behind the scenes
