Friday, March 20, 2009

The Facts on Lennon's New Deal & Early Team News Ahead of Chelsea

Aaron Lennon has agreed to a new deal at Tottenham, which will bring his salary more inline with the other first-team players at the club. Some websites and papers are reporting that it's a five-year deal, while others are reporting that it's a two-year deal.

From what I have been able to gather, he has signed an extension to his current deal, which ran until 2012. He signed for an additional two years, keeping him under contract until 2014, and adjusted his pay rate for the years in the previous deal, bringing him more in line with the others at the club.

In the rumors that Lennon might be headed elsewhere, the fact that he wasn't among the top earners, or even in the same league as the top earners at the club was a sticking point, but this has now been rectified.

Does this mean that Lennon won't be a target of big clubs this summer? No, I think Liverpool and possibly Real Madrid might try and make a big for him this summer, but with him signing a new deal, it does show that he wants to be at the club, and hopefully we can keep him. This is certainly encouraging.

Jermain Defoe has been ruled out for tomorrow's match against Chelsea, I didn't think he was training yet, so of course he'd be out. Alan Hutton will play a reserve match on Monday night to help regain fitness, but otherwise no injury worries. Ledley King expects to play after having the week off for his knee. Here is my early thoughts on what the lineup will be tomorrow.

Gomes

Corluka, Woodgate, King, BAE

Lennon, Palacios, Jenas, Modric

Bent, Keane

Substitutes: Cudicini, Dawson, Chimbonda, Bentley, Zokora, Huddlestone, Pavlyuchenko

I think that Harry will keep the pairing of Bent & Keane after the way they played last weekend, though bringing back Pavlyuchenko would not be a bad idea with his height.

The other changes I would think would be possibly Chimbonda at right-back because of the pace of whatever winger is on the left side for Chelsea, but Corluka certainly did the job against Villa last Sunday. Also, Carlo Cudicini could come in the side, if anyone knows the tendencies of Chelsea players it would be Carlo, but I doubt Harry disrupts the side too much. We'll see what Harry pulls out of his hat tomorrow.

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