Morientes is still Hoddle's target

Adrian Curtis13 April 2012

Tottenham manager Glenn Hoddle will not make any further moves towards landing a new striker until he knows for sure that his bid for Real Madrid striker Fernando Morientes has failed.

Hoddle told Standard Sport today that Morientes remains his No1 target and he is still hopeful of signing the Spanish international.

Talks between the two clubs remain on-going, despite suggestions that Spurs would have to up their initial offer of £15.8 million to £17 million.

Hoddle also dismissed speculation linking the club with three other strikers - Brazilian World Cup winner Ricardinho, Brondby's Peter Madsen and Ajax's Nico Machlas.

Hoddle said: "These stories are all agent-driven I'm afraid. Either myself or David Pleat get phoned by agents telling us about this player and that player and, while all we do is thank them for the call, the next thing we know it is in all the papers that we are interested in them.

"It is how the game works these days unfortunately and, in all these cases, it is just agents trying to get more interest in players.

"We are still trying to get Morientes."

The club narrowly missed out on landing Ricardinho's Brazilian team-mate Rivaldo in a sensational swoop two weeks ago and the alleged link with the Corinthians midfielder was revealed by the club's vice-president Roque Citadini.

Citadini said: "Ricardinho is training with Corinthians because he belongs to our team.

"What I can't assure is if he will continue with us because there is a strong interest from the English team Tottenham Hotspur in buying him."

Spurs were also linked with Ajax's Greek star Machlas, after he was omitted from the squad that faced PSV Eindhoven on Sunday, and Danish marksman Madsen, who is rated in the £5 million category by Brondby.

The 24-year-old hit 22 goals in 31 games for Brondby last season and earned a spot in Denmark's World Cup squad.

But Hoddle insists all the new links are primarily coming from agents.

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