PORTSMOUTH
Budget: Probably £25m or thereabouts.
What's Being Said: "I'm always trying to improve the squad and I'm sorry you have to move players on and get ones that are better. It's a continuing process" - Harry Redknapp.
"If you said I could sign four players now, they'd all be English - or Irish - and all play in the Premier League" - Redknapp.
"We're going to bring in more players, strengthen the team and get better and better. We want to retain this [the Cup] for a start and obviously do better than we did this year in the league. We had a great season, finishing eighth, but maybe we can go up a couple more places next year. We'll be looking to bring more quality players in and widen the squad as well. It's our job to go on and win more. We're not going to stand still now. We need to build on this" - Peter Storrie.
Courtesy of their triumph in the FA Cup, Portsmouth's standing in the Premier League has never been higher. At no point during the past 50 years, not even when Southampton were an established top-flight club, has the south coast been such an attractive destination. So Pompey need to make hay while the sun shines this summer.
As Storrie implicitly concedes in his remarks, repeating last season's success will be difficult if not impossible, and either the club needs to make significant additions over the next three months or 2008/09 will inevitably be an anti-climax - or, worse still, a disillusioning regression.
In many respects, the club is at a cross-roads. While there is no point turning towards the Big Four, Pompey should be intent on following, if not catching up, the next best things: Everton, Aston Villa, Blackburn and, although their actual league position suggested otherwise, both Tottenham and Newcastle.
To that end/destination, reports that Richard Dunne is preparing to snub Spurs for Pompey signals a critical breakthrough. Nor will it have come cheap. While the south coast is an increasingly attractive and fashionable destination, its lure has been enhanced by Alexandre Gaydamak's largesse. It is worth dwelling on the fact that Lassana Diarra enjoyed a payrise when he left Arsenal for Fratton Park in January, and if Dunne does indeed move to Portsmouth it will not only be because he wants to enjoy the sea air and have his picture taken with the FA Cup.
So far, Portsmouth have failed to express a formal interest in Peter Crouch but once their defensive concerns are soothed then the part-time Liverpool forward will surely be their next target. That said, because of Pool's excessive valuation and the suspicion that it is Benitez who will have to blink first, the issue could drag - perhaps even all the way through the summer. Nonetheless, pairing Crouch will Defoe has an obvious appeal.
Defoe, along with Diarra, was acquired during the January sales and so a decent chunk of Redknapp's work this year may already have been done. Indeed his principal task over the next months may be warding off interest in his star players and the Pompey boss must hope that Niko Kranjcar and Diarra have quiet summers. The latter has been included in France's Euro 2008 squad at the expense of the Milan-bound Mathieu Flamini and it will not be long before the 24-year-old is offered a third opportunity to make his name at a third big club. Redknapp cannot argue he has not been warned: On the very day he signed for the club five months ago, Diarra declared that he was only using Pompey as a stepping stone.
Even after his man-of-the-match performance at Wembley, Diarra will not have been lulled into thinking that he actually arrived at one by accident. Nonetheless, as he no longer needs to fret about his inclusion in the France squad for an upcoming major tournament, the purchase of Dunne and Crouch along with one or two other eye-catching signings, should be sufficient to secure the addition bonus of persuading the new Anelka to stay put for at least another season.
SUNDERLAND
Budget: £50m.
What's Being Said: "We need at least £40m to buy four, five or maybe six players to compete at the next level. We need more quality. For us really to compete I would be looking at spending up to £50m on five or six players. I want to sign top, top players" - Roy Keane.
"If £50million is what he needs, that's it. He can't do it without the money and if that is the money that he needs, well then some way or other he must get it" - Charlie Chawke, a director of the Drumaville consortium which owns Sunderland.
Sunderland's predicament is similar to that of near-neighbours Newcastle: plenty of cash but an unattractive location, and a manager whose charisma is offset by a narrow familiarity with the products available.
One difference is that, according to Roy Keane rather than Kevin Keegan, significant funds can make a significant impact. The Irishman's refusal to commit himself to Sunderland until he was handed a substantial kitty was tantamount to blackmail only without the moral stain. Now he must identify the players capable of making Sunderland challenge "the likes of Aston Villa, Blackburn and Spurs" and then - and this is the more difficult half of the equation - persuade those targets to move to Sunderland rather than the likes of Aston Villa, Blackburn or Spurs. Keane's lament last summer about a 'weak' player who "decides he doesn't want to come because his wife wants to go shopping in London" is worth reiterating ahead of his own shopping this year.
To date, Keane has proved disconcertingly keen on recruiting his former team-mates, whether they be of the Celtic, Manchester United or the Irish variety. That so many players have agreed to the reunion speaks volumes about the regard in which he is held. The flip side is that such a narrow field of recruitment damns Keane as a student of the game. He will never be invited to fill the hot seat at either Old Trafford or Celtic Park if he persists in only signing their refugees and rejects.
Nonetheless, his first piece of business is set to be adding a few millions to the Old Trafford coffers in return for Jonny Evans. Nor would it be a surprise if Ryan Giggs begins next season on Wearside - although the left-winger Keane has in mind might be Damien Duff, another former team-mate.
Yet the Sunderland manager must be aware that if Sunderland are to develop then so must he. As such, Keane will surely be in the queue to sign Steve Sidwell and the Kenwyne Jones success story is likely to provoke further forays into the Championship. It would also be misleading to suggest that transfer targeting is a one-person process. Keane has had a year to establish Sunderland's scouting system; if he has failed then not only would it have been folly for the club's hierarchy to make such a bountiful kitty available, but he should forget any hopes of succeeding Sir Alex.
Taken at his word, Keane's intention is to average around £10m per signing. Yet, in reality, the maths isn't quite so straightforward. Acknowledging the need to realign the club's wage structure along the Premiers League's established lines, Keane continued: "I can speak to players and say 'We're going to do this and that', but they'll say 'Where's my 50, 60, 70 or 80 thousand pounds a week?' I did exactly the same as a player. I said, 'If you love me that much, pay me that much.'"'
Such candidness could prove costly. Once wages and signing-on fees are added to the equation, a £10m signing may reduce a club's transfer kitty by £15m. If Keane does pursue "top, top players" then he is likely to find that even a £50m kitty does not stretch particularly far.
TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR
Budget: £30m plus funds raised through selling Dimi Berbatov.
What's Being Said: "We cannot have a squad which is too big. If players come in, then others will have to leave" - Juande Ramos.
"Samuel Eto'o is not a priority for our team. Moreover, we're not interested in him" - Gus Poyet.
A quiet summer at the Lane? No chance. By most accounts, just five or six member of Spurs' current squad can be absolutely sure that they will begin next season with their present employers, and what goes out must be brought in. Along with Chelsea, Spurs should be the busiest club in the Premier League this summer.
As with their London rivals, Spurs have opened early for business, recruiting Luka Modric before the season's end. The £16m fee is considerable, but it was a fair price for the completion of a major coup. Modric is a fine player, capable of playing in many different positions but probably earmarked to take a spot on the left of midfield, and the only risky unknown is his ability to acclimatise. Eduardo, a compatriot of Modric, might quibble with the suggestion that the Croatian first division is likely to be as robust as the Premier League but the latter is undoubtedly a much quicker league.
While a centre-half, a midfielder and a goalkeeper are bound to be targeted, a striker - or two - must also feature on Juande Ramos' shopping list given that Dimitar Berbatov has decided to leave in order to seek Champions League football. His departure will leave Spurs with just two of the four strikers that began last season and nobody is yet convinced that Ramos is convinced by Darren Bent. There is also likely to be a complete revamp of Tottenham's right flank. Pascal Chimbonda is available for transfer, while it would be no surprise to see Aaron Lennon leave the club as well. Just two years ago, Lennon was one of the hopes of English football. Since then, he has fallen backwards and Spurs are among David Bentley's many suitors.
To have an idea of how radical the revamp at Tottenham could be, here's a rough sketch of the Spurs team for next season.
Goalkeeper: Unknown - but unlikely to be Paul Robinson.
Right-Back: Alan Hutton.
Centre-Half: Jonathan Woodgate. If he's fit.
Centre-Half: Unknown. Could be Ledley King, could be Michael Dawson, could be Richard Dunne.
Left-Back: Fitness depending, Gareth Bale?
Centre-Midfield: Up for grabs.
Centre-Midfield: Jermaine Jenas is still in contention, but he will be watching transfer developments with some anxiety.
Left Midfield: Luka Modric.
Right Midfield: Place available.
Striker: Robbie Keane. Definitely.
Striker: Darren Bent. Possibly/probably.
In summary, while most clubs are intent on securing four or five players to bolster their squad, Tottenham are seeking four or five players to go straight into their first team. But that's easier said than done. Moreover, it remains to be seen whether Ramos will still have the funds necessary to buy a second midfielder and forward of sufficient calibre to instantly claim a first-team spot once he has secured his priorities - midfielder number one, forward number one, cover at centre-half and Robinson's replacement. Not only has he already spent a small fortune on Modric but Giovani dos Santos, the Barcelona forward apparently set to compensate for Berbatov's departure, will cost at least £11m, while both Hutton and Woodgate were expensive additions in January.
Ramos revealed last month that he had not been told "a stipulated amount of money for transfers" and the size of his kitty "depends on the income we get from the players". 'Player' more like, because whatever funds are raised offloading the likes of Robinson and Chimbonda will be small change compared to the amount Spurs should receive in return for selling Berbatov. In that sense, it is a little surprising that they have apparently attempted to quell interest from both Chelsea and Manchester United by quoting a fee of around £35m while touting Berbatov around Europe for just £25m. Yet Spurs remain a deeply ambitious club and only a club still intent on dislodging the big four would be prepared to embark on a policy of revolution not evolution in a single summer.
PG