A small supporter in a white shirt, seen from behind, haggles with a huge bollard outside a sunlit stadium.

TransfersThe High Road Herald

Gerard Martin Clause Near €100m Sends Season Ticket Holder To Stadium To Haggle With A Bollard

Barry Napier · Transfer Correspondent20 October · Reading time: one pint

German outlet Fussball News reports that Tottenham are among several clubs monitoring Barcelona defender Gerard Martin, whose release clause is believed to be €100 million, and the bollard has made no counter-offer.

A season ticket holder spent Tuesday morning outside the stadium negotiating with a bollard over the fee for Barcelona defender Gerard Martin, after reading that Tottenham are among several clubs monitoring him.

The Herald understands the report originates with German outlet Fussball News, which puts the release clause at around €100 million and adds that Barcelona could enter talks at €55 million to €60 million.

The man opened at €55 million. The bollard, which he had appointed to represent Barcelona, did not respond, a silence he interpreted as a hardening of position.

They'll say a hundred. They always say a hundred. I'm going in at fifty-five and I'm not moving.

Bayern Munich, Inter Milan, Liverpool and Chelsea are also said to be interested, and the man has assigned one smaller bollard to each, placing them at intervals along the railings. Chelsea has been given the one by the bins.

Martin's contract runs until June 2028, and Barcelona are reported to be considering an extension to 2030 or 2031. The man noted this on the back of a receipt and held it up to the bollard for several minutes.

By noon he had raised his offer to €58 million, which he described to a passing delivery driver as the very top of his range. The bollard remained, in the words of the man, difficult.

He will return at two.

Send this to a mate

Before you go

The Monday Post-Mortem

The match report, in your inbox the morning after every game.

Free. One email per fixture. Unsubscribe whenever you like.

Marmoush, Udogie, Porro Injury Update Is Read Four Times, Growing More Concerned Each Time, Calf Unchanged

The Evening Standard's weekly injury briefing lists Marmoush, Udogie and Porro among Tottenham's latest return dates after the Coventry win, and quotes Roberto De Zerbi as saying there is nothing important, three times.

A Tottenham man sat down to breakfast on Tuesday morning and read the same injury update four times, on four websites, each of which was a little more worried than the one before.

The underlying news is brief. Spurs beat Coventry on Monday night and, according to the Evening Standard, picked up four new injury concerns in the process. Omar Marmoush went down holding his calf. Andy Robertson and Tosin Adarabioyo were also forced off, and Destiny Udogie missed the squad with a knee problem.

The first website, the Herald understands, called Marmoush's calf a concern. The second called it a worry. By the third it had become a scare, and by the fourth the calf was described as sparking fears, though fears of what was not stated.

That's four calves now. Well, one calf, but it's in four places.

On the matter of Pedro Porro, all four sites agreed he is closing in on a comeback. The evidence is a video of him rehabbing at Hotspur Way, captioned "almost back", which the Herald notes is a caption of two words and a quotation mark.

Roberto De Zerbi told reporters at full time that there were no injuries and nothing important. He said so about Marmoush, and again about Robertson, and again about Adarabioyo. The websites quoted him faithfully and then went ahead with the concern regardless.

Our correspondent counted the new facts added across the four versions. There were none, though there were eleven additional adjectives, three of them huge.

I'll just check the first one again. It might have changed.

The Chelsea game is at the weekend. The toast went cold on the second read.

Send this to a mate

Before you go

The Monday Post-Mortem

The match report, in your inbox the morning after every game.

Free. One email per fixture. Unsubscribe whenever you like.