Luka Modric Won't Feature For Tottenham Against Manchester United Tonight

By Matt Holmes / August 22, 2011

Update:Teamtalk have more revelations from the talkSPORT interview with Harry Redknapp yesterday where the Spurs boss revealed Modric won't feature in their Premier League match against Manchester United tonight because the player's 'head is not right'. Statements Arsenal fans might recongise were previously attributed to their own boss Arsene Wenger when speaking about Cesc Fabregas when he was adamant he would not be sold to Barcelona!

"He's got a little bit of an injury. There's a possibility he could have played through it. But at the moment his head's not in the right place."

So another curveball in Modric's transfer saga that looks like it may go all the way until the end of the transfer window... ORIGINAL ARTICLE BELOW.... Tottenham boss Harry Redknapp believes Chelsea's expected signing of Spanish midfielder Juan Manual Mata has probably 'killed' the Blues desire to sign their want-a-way playmaker Luka Modric. It's something I just mentioned in my news post below - with Spurs chairman Daniel Levy adamant that his Croatian midfielder won't be sold for under £30 million, Chelsea have grown tired of the lack of negotiation room with their London rivals and have gone out to get a 23 year old left winger for around £23 million and who has dominated the Spanish league in the last season. Redknapp spoke to talkSPORT soon after the Mata deal became public;

"Chelsea have signed him... I didn't know that. Well, I would think that's the end of the Modric deal then, surely. I would . I had no idea about that."

Redknapp also announced that they were looking into buying Mata at around the same time as Arsenal were making moves;

"We tried to get , to be honest with you. We were in for him strong about three weeks ago... I was driving back from the pre-season game with Brighton and the chairman said that he was confident he was going to sign the boy that night. He obviously turned it down but has come out of the blue."

Interesting now to see what happens regarding Modric and Tottenham. Last Thursday Redknapp admitted that he thought Modric could join Chelsea as early as this week, so clearly the deal was still alive then, but a few days later the Blues have decided to pursue another target. Last week I mentioned that Redknapp was already starting to spend some of the Modric cash - looking at securing the signatures of Real Madrid midfielder Lassana Diarra and unwanted Man City striker Emmanuel Adebayor but now with that revenue stream no longer coming in... will these deals happen? And for Modric, who has made it known he is desperate to leave for a title challenger and Champions League club, is there another team who would want or afford him? Arsenal won't spend the Fabregas cash that would secure him and for Modric, the North London club probably wouldn't be much of a step up. Manchester United seem to have done all their transfer dealings this year and would be more interested in Wesley Snejder. Manchester City certainly have the cash to buy Modric, but they have looked at Samir Nasri as their new midfield playmaker. Liverpool have certainly spent enough this summer but they don't even have European football this year, let alone Champs League. That would leave the likes of Barcelona (who may not be able to fit Fabregas in their side), Real Madrid (certainly possible) and the Italian clubs, but there has been no word of their interest. Perhaps he now has to stay at Tottenham for another year, Redknapp saying;

"I think Daniel has said he will sit down with Luka in a month or so and have a chat with him and a look at his contract... I want to keep him for sure. I just felt that if he didn't want to be here that much that maybe we might have to sell him. If people don't want to play for you, you might have to sell him and go and get three or four players in. As a player I couldn't be happier to keep Luka Modric, he's a fantastic footballer and as I've said many times you couldn't meet a nicer boy."