Soccer

Spurs to test chelsea with Bridge bid

Tottenham will test Chelsea's resolve to hang on to their fringe players by making a £6 million move for England left-back Wayne…

Thu Jan 12 2006 - 00:00

Tottenham will test Chelsea's resolve to hang on to their fringe players by making a £6 million move for England left-back Wayne Bridge.

Coach Martin Jol today offloaded defender Noe Pamarot along with midfielders Sean Davis and Pedro Mendes to Portsmouth in a £7.5million deal and then refused to rule out making a move for Bridge.

Chelsea coach Jose Mourinho has repeatedly insisted nobody will be leaving his Stamford Bridge squad unless they are unhappy and want to quit.

But that situation may change once Spurs make an official approach for Bridge who is desperate for first-team football ahead of this summer's World Cup finals in Germany.

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England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson has told the former Southampton defender he needs to be playing regularly to stand any hope of being included in his squad for the tournament.

Bridge has yet to figure in the Barclays Premiership for Chelsea since recovering from the serious ankle fracture he sustained against Newcastle in the FA Cup quarter-final last season.

Spurs lack cover on the left side and Bridge would help Jol to push Lee Young-Pyo into a more attacking role.

When quizzed about the possibility of a move for the Chelsea defender, Jol refused to deny their interest in him.

"We are still working on the left-back but I don't talk about new players," he said. "I still feel that if you want to be a top side, you need two players in every position. With the three players going now we have to do something.

"If Lee is out on the left side, we don't have a left-winger. Andy Reid is fit again but he is not a real wing player."

Spurs have also been linked with Udinese striker Vincenzo Iaquinta as a replacement for Grzegorz Rasiak but Jol believes the £7million price tag is too expensive for Spurs at the present time.

Rasiak has not settled at the club and was taunted by Spurs fans during their 3-2 FA Cup defeat at the hands of Championship side Leicester on Sunday.

The club's sporting director Damien Comolli is believed to have flown to Italy to assess the possibility of a deal for Iaquinta who is expected to be part of their World Cup squad this summer.