PLEAT PLAYS DOWN PAPER TALK

TOTTENHAM have played down the usual weekend bout of transfer talk, although David Pleat has admitted that Spurs scouts have been out in force recently.

Malaga`s Fernando Sanz was watched by the North Londoners recently, a story broken on planetfootball.com, but it appears that he did not impress sufficiently.

"We watched Mallorca play Malaga recently," admitted Pleat. "But there will not be any follow-up."

A similar situation concerns Hibernian hot-shot Kenny Miller, one of many strikers to have been linked with a move to White Hart Lane. "We are aware of the brighter young Scottish players, like Miller, and did watch a recent Hibs game which explains this link," added Pleat.

"However, there is nothing to report," continued the director of football.

One story, which emanated from Scandinavia, has been flatly denied by Pleat. Rosenborg`s John Carew, who is expected to join Dortmund, was linked with Spurs when the club allegedly contacted Rune Bratseth, on his mobile phone, during a press conference.

"This is absolute rubbish," countered Pleat. "George Graham has watched him and Carew even spent some time here training with us, but we will not be signing him.

"In fact, it looks like he will be going to Germany in the summer. Any stories put out by his agent that we have been in touch with Rosenborg about Carew, or they with us, are untrue."

This might suggest that Spurs were enquiring about another RBK player, possibly Andre Bergdolmo, but Carew has also gone on record recently as saying the only English club he would play for is Arsenal.