Unsettled Russian had no say in £14m move

Casual racist Sergei Rebrov wasn’t the only one who didn’t want Roman Pavlyuchenko to move to London - according to his mummy Lyubov, the man himself never wanted to leave his home nation:

“Roman was sold by the club,” she said. “He didn’t want to go to England or leave Russia. It was 100 per cent Spartak Moscow’s decision to sell him.”

And reports in Russia suggest that CSKA president Yevgeni Giner has now called the 26-year-old to say he is welcome back at his former club should he wish to leave London.

Confident her son will be back on home soil sooner rather than later, Lyubov said: “I know for sure he’s ready to return to Russia anytime.”

The Telegraph claim that Pavlyuchenko was on the verge of signing for another Russian club (most likely Lokomotiv Moscow) when Spurs and their giant chequebook swooped in, and that he has failed to adapt to life in London.

Is this new found home sickness the reason for his ineffectiveness in the North London derby?

Fellow Eastern European emigre warns of ‘dark-skinned people’

Sergio Rebrov, who contributed little except for bad feeling in return for a pay packet at Tottenham, has been kind enough to offer advice to Roman Pavlyuchenko following his arrival in North London. Yet he didn’t dispense useful tips for avoiding traffic on the north circular or let him know that an umbrella might come in handy in Blighty - his comments had a much more discriminatory tinge:

‘I wouldn’t go for a walk on my own around White Hart Lane.

‘A lot of dark skinned people live there. So naturally the crime rate is higher than anywhere else.

‘It’s not nice to be a robbery victim. So I suggest that Roman doesn’t walk but drives around that area.’

Perhaps Rebrov thinks life is much more glamorous in his hometown of Horlivka, where the decline of the mining industry has made it more depressing than listening to a Coldplay album while thinking about how much cheaper petrol was five years ago. As if this wasn’t bad enough,