Spurs turn their back on Michael Ricketts

By Gary Beaumont
January 21 2003

Tottenham Hotspur have decided against purchasing 24 year old Bolton striker Michael Ricketts. Spurs who are on the search for a striker, looked set to sign the player after he had handed in a transfer request yesterday.

It seems Tottenham have given up all hope of trying to lure the player after Bolton refused to budge on the £6 million pound asking price.

A Spurs spokesman commented today

"We have decided to look elsewhere and are not interested in Ricketts at that price."

It is thought Spurs offered cash plus a player to secure the striker but this was refused.

Sam Allardyce issued a statement in regard to the Michael Ricketts situation.

He said: "We have now accepted Michael's transfer request but that's not going to make us let him go for any less than our valuation and nobody's offered any real financial deals yet. It's all about player-exchanges.

"And it's the financial aspect of things we have to be interested in, first and foremost, before we consider looking at other clubs' cast-offs."

This looks set to cause further problems for the relgation bound side.