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It's hard for me to imagine Robbie Keane wearing something other than a Tottenham Hotspur kit. He's been the heart and soul of that team for the last six years. When he did that little dance after Spurs won the Carling Cup Final, he looked like he would be at White Hart Lane for life.

Yet there he was at Liverpool's training ground, completing his physical and coming to terms with another club. Like every other big-name Premier League player, Keane wanted Champions League action, and he wasn't going to get it with Spurs. So the club has granted him his wish today and sold his contract to Liverpool for £19 million.

Keane's move breaks up one of the best strike partnerships in the league, and chances are Dimitar Berbatov could leave, too, if another club meets Spurs' hefty asking price. It's kind of amazing to see this club sell off its two best forwards just as Juande Ramos finally addresses the club's midfield and back line issues, but it seems this sort of thing is standard practice at White Hart Lane. Without Keane and Berbatov, Ramos will likely face a huge struggle to win anything more than another bid to the UEFA Cup next year.

We've known for a while that Juande Ramos would make some major changes to the Tottenham Hotspur lineup during the summer transfer window, but we didn't know they were going to get this big a head start.

The Carling Cup champs have already jumped ahead of Newcastle, Arsenal and Chelsea to make a deal to acquire Luka Modric from Dinamo Zagreb for almost £16 million. The Croation midfielder is expected to take over on the left wing for Spurs next season.

The Offside suggests that this move might mean that Dimitar Berbatov will be tempted to stick around. He's been whining about wanting to move to a Champions League club for months. Could Modric's accurate crosses be enoguh to convince the Bulgarian striker to stay one more year?

(H/T: EPL Talk)

Tottenham Hotspur are facing some hefty roster changes this offseason. Dimitar Berbatov is angling for a transfer to a Champions League club, and the rumor mill has other clubs raiding White Hart Lane for several key midfielders. Juande Ramos might end up looking to fill a lot more holes than the big gaping ones still in Spurs' back line.

He might get some help from an unexpected source -- Billy Beane.

Turns out the Oakland Athletics GM and part-owner of the San Jose Earthquakes is a huge Spurs fanatic, and according to The Guardian, he's talking to Tottenham about applying his Moneyball strategies to the Premier League.

At first glance, it would seem difficult to apply the sort of in-depth statistical analysis available in baseball to the less rigid sport of soccer, but Beane, who has followed Spurs since 2003, is working with a company called Match Analysis to break games down into measurable factors -- things like "number of touches" and "balls won per 90 minutes" for defenders. (Spurs would do well to look closely at that.)

Beane's Moneyball concepts have gone so far as to infect the mixed martial arts world. Could the Premier League catch the bug as well? If it could get Spurs into the Champions League, you can be sure the rest of Europe will stand up and take notice.

Y'know, Robbie Keane probably deserves better than this. After all, if you had just won your first trophy in nine years, you, too, would probably dance in a manner that made you look like a complete fool.

Clearly, this video is the handiwork of embittered Arsenal supporters, who know full well that if Robin van Persie ever did this dance, he would probably rip his Achilles tendon.

(H/T: The Offside)

Tottenham Hotspur's Carling Cup victory may feel like a rip-off later this week, but it might have a ripple effect on the rest of English football.

On the one hand, this was Tottenham's first trophy since 1999, and it's the kind of victory that could propel a club to go on a major run. Spurs may not have a shot at a league title, but they are still in the UEFA Cup, a title that Juande Ramos has won with Sevilla in 2006 and 2007, and his players believe a double is a real possibility.

What's more, winning the Carling Cup gives Spurs an automatic UEFA Cup bid next season. That's one less European spot available to the Premier League table, where the battle for fourth place remains tight. Everton climbed back into the drivers seat with a 2-0 win at Manchester City yesterday, while Liverpool and Aston Villa are only 3 points back and Portsmouth are nipping at their heels. Villa is already preparing for the worst by applying for the last Intertoto Cup.

Perhaps most importantly, though, Tottenham's dominance on Sunday sent a message to the rest of the world: Chelsea is in chaos.

Don't tell Tottenham Hotspur players the Carling Cup is a meaningless competition -- or the supporters who will be dancing in the streets in London tonight. When you haven't won a trophy since 1999, any hardware will do.

For Spurs defender Jonathan Woodgate, any goal would have done, too. His extra-time header, which bounced off Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech's fists and back off his head, won it for Spurs, who upset Chelsea, 2-1, to take the Football League knockout title in Wembley Stadium.

The injury-prone Woodgate joined Spurs last month from Middlesbrough as Juande Ramos attempted to help solidify Tottenham's woeful backline, which held firm after Didier Drogba's goal in the 39th minute. Spurs dominated possession in the first half and had numerous scoring opportunities but were unable to convert.

Their big break came in the 70th minute when a sideline judged called Chelsea's Wayne Bridge for handball in the penalty area. Dimitar Berbatov converted for the equalizer. Spurs might have clinched in extra time, too, if Didier Zokora had any clue what to with the ball.

Pundits will credit Ramos' diet and workout regimen for Spurs' extra stamina in extra time, but the bottom line is that Spurs were clearly hungrier than Chelsea throughout the entire match. If they play like this for their UEFA Cup matches, they might even get a double.

Tottenham Hotspur manager Juande Ramos is a total health nut. That's why when he arrived at White Hart Lane from Sevilla last October, he looked around the training room, saw a layout more suitable for journalists than athletes, and came to one conclusion -- these Spurs were fat slobs.

So Ramos teamed up with two of his longtime associates, fitness coach Marcos Alvarez and endocrinologist Dr. Antonio Escribano, and set out a goal for his new players: lose 100 kilograms by the end of the season. That's about 220 pounds, folks.

They weren't calling Dan Marino and asking about NutriSystem, either. Dr. Escribano, who became famous at Sevilla for mixing up vegetable smoothies and serving them to players at halftime, put it this way:

"You wouldn't just put any old petrol from a normal service station into a Formula One car. You give it a special kind of fuel. That's the case with food for a footballer - and for as long as they are footballers they need to understand that."

Those smoothies appear to be doing the job. Spurs players are not only halfway toward their weight loss goal, but since Ramos and his fitness team arrived, the club has climbed out of the relegation battle and now finds itself in the Carling Cup final and in the hunt for the UEFA Cup. If Tottenham ends up with either of those trophies this year, Dr. Escribano will have to beat back the hoard of health book publishers at his door.