Tottenham may try to swap players with Villa for defender

Aston Villa have very few nice things and Ron Vlaar is one of the nicest of them all. So of course Tottenham are interested in stealing him away. Apparently they are considering a cash-plus-player offer to Aston Villa to secure the services of Concrete Ron, who is in high demand after leading his Dutch team to a third-place finish in the World Cup. The last time Villa engaged in a major cash/player switch we gave James Milner to Manchester City for some money, Stephen Ireland, and years of lingering regret.

But the player on the offer here is a bit better than was Ireland, that is if the rumour is true. Lewis Holtby would most likely be the makeweight this time, though Spurs have also considered Michael Dawson. The former has been on the Villa radar all summer (mostly wishful thinking, it seems) and the latter doesn't want to leave London. So let's operate under the assumption that it would be Holtby+cash. Depending on how much cash is offered, this could actually be a half decent deal. I still don't want to see Vlaar leave, but there is always a price at which selling makes sense.

There are, however, a few reasons that this doesn't seem too plausible. The first is the fact that Paul Lambert has stated, in no uncertain terms, that Aston Villa will not be selling Vlaar. Sure, he could back down, but as of right now we see no signs of that.

The second is that this looks like an entirely unsubstantiated rumour in The Mail. That's pretty much all we need to say, really. But finally we've got Tottenham's last attempt at stealing away a Villa star (and Christian Benteke signed an extension when that fell through, so perhaps we should encourage Spurs). I guess that's not really a reason, but it's fun to point out the times when Tottenham have failed.

I don't see this actually happening. It's just another sign that we're in for (... checks calendar...) another 38 days of this! Strap in, everyone, this should be fun!