Carroll, Gallas, Lamela, King, Spurs XI v Dinamo Tiblisi

Tottenham Hotspur's bright young prospect Tom Carroll is rumoured to be in talks with Crystal Palace over a loan move.

I have to admit I have been expecting this to happen earlier. Carroll going on loan to a Premier League club and getting a seasons football under his belt returning a more complete player ready for next year make perfect sense, or it did to me at the start of the window.

It makes even more sense with the players we have and are signing.

Also At Palace Ian Holloway has met with William Gallas about playing for them. He said he was a very pleasant man but they were miles away from completing a deal. They have had a chat and he'll wait and see if anything comes of it.

Erik Lamela has shown Gareth Bale how to leave a club with dignity. He even trained with Roma!

“Perhaps I wasn’t able to express all I could’ve and wanted to do here [Roma]," Lamela told ANSA.

"It’s also true that there was something missing for the whole team.

“I hope this season will go better. I saw the lads are hungry to do well and are very concentrated. I wish the club, the coach and my team-mates to go as far as possible.

“I am proud to have played for Roma and hope one day to return.

“As for myself, now I hope to do well with Tottenham in London. I am ready. I want to thank and salute the fans who always behaved well with me. I embrace them all. They will always be in my heart.”

Ledley King has been speaking on Spurs response to losing Gareth Bale to Real Madrid.

"It's a difficult situation for everyone involved.

"They've dealt with it well. The club always tries to deal with these things as professionally as possible. If you do lose players you have to replace them as best you can and the club have been brilliant at that.

"In the past they've always brought in new players and that's what the club will continue to do if they want to compete.

"They have been brilliant in the market though. I've seen Paulinho in his first few games and he's been brilliant. Soldado is a goalscorer and he knows how to find the back of the net.

"He was so calm with the penalty [against Swansea] and that was great to see. Etienne Capoue also looks brilliant. I didn't know too much about him but I've been very impressed with him.

"The future for Tottenham looks very good."

I had to chuckle when I heard Harry Redknapp had tried to contact him to come and play for QPR. Ledley said he didn't get hold of him but he wouldn't have played if he did.

Finally the Spurs XI for tonight is: Friedel, Walker, Kaboul, Vertonghen, Naughton, Holtby, Sandro, Carroll, Sigurdsson, Townsend, Defoe

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