Mastery of the market has proved elusive this summer

But then what's happened with Keane is in line with Rafael Benitez's spending on non-Spanish players. He pays over the odds. He did it with Ryan Babel, he did it with Yossi Benayoun, he did it with Jermaine Pennant, and now he has done it with Keane.

But the money, and much more if Dimitar Berbatov goes, at least gives Spurs a chance to mount a proper challenge this time.

I don't make a habit of agreeing with Peter Kenyon but he's surely right to point out it's time for some of the Premier Leagues also-rans to raise their game. Since the Premier League started, Spurs and Newcastle have spent money on a par with Arsenal, with precious little to show for it. That's their fault, not the Big Four's.

Meanwhile, another troubling thing about the transfer market is who doesn't go. I expected a big clearout at Chelsea and it hasn't happened.

What's the point of signing Deco, when Frank Lampard is staying? And why are Florent Malouda and Shaun Wright-Phillips still around when both have been bitter disappointments? The former has no heart and the latter no consistent technique. Even the wretched Andriy Shevchenko is still on the premises. How come?

Then there's Didier Drogba, whose stupid sending off for a typical piece of petulance cost Chelsea the Champions League. Last season he kept hinting he was going, so why hasn't he? Most of us would be delighted if he did. Drogba kept implying big clubs were after him. Maybe 30-year-olds with a dodgy knee and an excess of attitude don't command top dollar. How sad is that, at least for us?

If Drogba stays, I hope Big Phil will take a leaf out of Greg Dyke's book and tell him to "cut the crap".

Chelsea not a hit in Asia

Chelsea's bid to be the best-supported Premier League club in Asia is faltering. Their game in Macau attracted only a few thousand punters, while in China there were 15,000 empty places in an 80,000-seat stadium. Was exhausting the players in the heat, risking their limbs on poor pitches and putting them through an eight-hour time change worth it? I know what I think.

Bad-boy Barton should be kicked into touch for good

How clever of Joey Barton's lawyers to get him out just in time for pre-season training.

So far this summer Barton has had regular meals, regular exercise, not much alcohol and very few late nights. If he has a great season, the obvious conclusion is that more footballers should be banged up in June and July.

Lee Hughes had no problem finding another club after his contract was terminated by West Brom despite having killed a man through dangerous driving, absconding from the scene and being sentenced to six years, so I guess it was inevitable Barton would be welcomed back at Newcastle with open arms.

But if it's right to ban Dwain Chambers for life from competing in the Olympics, ought not football ban some of their bad boys for life as well, to make clear that consistently bringing shame on the game will not be tolerated?

Chambers doped himself but Barton has assaulted a couple of players, and various members of the public, in a career dedicated to drunken violence. Is one worse than the other? I don't think so.

But if Newcastle made an example of Barton, other Premier League clubs would try to sign him on the cheap. There's no morality in football but maybe there should be.

Men like Barton ought to be beyond the pale, and the Premier League would win some much-needed respect if they could ever bring themselves to make such a ruling, and then force all their members to obey it.

GB chief sends wrong message

The British Olympic Association's Simon Clegg is a great one for encouraging the troops. On the eve of battle, he says he is not troubled by how many medals we get in Beijing; all he's bothered about is what we win in 2012. Quite the little Wellington, isn't he? Can you imagine the American Olympics chief, or the Australian, or the German, coming out with such cobblers? No, neither can I.

Burnham is way off target with his support for Blatter

Andy Burnham, Secretary of State at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, is a true football man, as he proved when he gave me fantastic service as secretary of my Football Task Force.

And his special advisor Phil French, late of the Premier League and Supporters Direct, has forgotten more about the game than most of us will ever know.

Sad, then, to hear Andy expressing sympathy with Sepp Blatter's hopeless proposal about a quota on foreign players.

Not only is it against EU law, but it won't improve the English game, or prospects for the England international team, by bringing more local journeymen back into the top flight.

Don't do it, Andy. You're far too bright to fall for this stuff.

I'm agog over Beijing smog

International Olympic Committee grovelling to the Chinese has become increasingly humiliating. Beijing is so enveloped in smog, you can't see the Olympic stadium from 500 metres away. But the head of the IOC commission in charge of preparation for the Games says the smog "poses no risk to athletes". Get off your knees, man.

Cricket bosses are not playing fair

The England, Australia and New Zealand cricket teams are obvious targets for Muslim fanatics, so the players are surely right to be sceptical about attending the ICC's Champions Trophy in Pakistan in September. After all, the last high-profile person to go on tour in Pakistan was Benazir Bhutto.

The fact the International Cricket Council swept security objections aside is yet another justification for their new nickname; the Indian Cricket Council, where only the sub-continent teams get a fair hearing.