13 and a half hours to go: Corluka gone, Makukula linked

The news we had all been waiting for: Vedran Corluka has signed for Spurs for an undisclosed fee. I said I wouldn't believe it until I saw him in a Tottenham shirt - something I now have the pleasure of being able to do here. MCFC.co.uk claims that he put in a transfer request.

This is a bit of a disappointment. I hoped that we'd have Charlie for years, that he'd turn into a special player for us. But it seems that Hughes has made a footballing decision - that Pablo Zabaleta is a better right-back than Corluka is. This is entirely his call to make, and he is the only one with the knowledge and judgement to make it. I certainly feel less bad about it than I would have done had the move taken place three weeks ago under different circumstances. The fear then was that the move was forced by the board to clear payments on Eriksson signings, and done without Hughes' consent. But now it seems like Hughes has someone he prefers in that position.

We've also been linked with Benfica striker Ariza Makukula. From a very quick look at wikipedia, he's spent the last eight years or so being loaned around the Spanish and Portugese leagues, and never scoring many goals wherever he played. Could he be this window's answer to Benjani?

UPDATE 10.55. BBC report a £8.5million fee, which does represent a profit.