4th round draw and transfer speculation

The 4th round draw for the FA Cup was made yesterday afternoon and surprise, surprise Tottenham drew Manchester United at Old Trafford. I said to my wife, Em, in the morning "I'd like to draw Kettering or Torquay at home but I bet we draw Man United at Old Trafford", and alas this is what happens. I would like to have seen the odds on this draw as I think I would have come into quite a large amount if I was a betting man.

As it turns out Torquay drew Coventry at home and Kettering will entertain Fulham. As for the giantkillers of this round, Hartlepool have been rewarded with another Premiership team at home in the shape of West Ham and Nottingham Forest have an all East Midlands clash with local rivals Derby.

It's shaping up to be an interesting competition for the big teams as well with Chelsea struggling in this round too, although, if they do get through they have a relatively easy tie at home against Ipswich awaiting them. While the other two big teams, Liverpool and Arsenal, have tough games with Everton and Cardiff respectively.

And so, we move on to the transfer speculation. It was no surprise to see that the majority of column inches in the sports sections of the national press would appear to be packed with Spurs-orientated stuff. Stewart Downing has handed in a transfer request at Middlesbrough today which, if you believe what you read will put us on red alert!!

However, a deal between us and Portsmouth to bring Spurs' old boy Jermain Defoe back would appear to have hit the skids as the two clubs cannot agree on a fee for him with Pompey pushing for something near to the £20m mark and Spurs looking more at around £15m at the most.

In other news, an awesome display of darts from Phil Taylor won him his 12th PDC championship trophy as he absolutely tonked Raymond van Barneveld 7-1!!

Also, across the pond, San Diego, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Arizona all confirmed their spots in the next round of the American Football playoffs which is great news for the sport as both Batimore and Arizona haven't qualified for the postseason for a while so it brings something fresh to this late stage.