DARREN Anderton is reportedly threatening to leave Tottenham Hotspur following their miserly offer to increase his salary to an alleged £24,000 per week.

Who can blame him? Undoubtedly a star of the national team he has shown an obvious ability to compete successfully at the highest levels of the game. If I was Sir Alan Sugar I would unequivocally pay him the going rate, possibly 30-grand per week.

At the same time however, I would insert a clause in his contract that if he is unavailable for work, his salary is reduced by 90 per cent. Darren has an attendance record that even a compulsive schoolboy truant would die for. He has been known to suffer cruciate ligament damage opening his pay packet. Call me an old cynic but I suspect that Spurs might see a little more of Mr Anderton on the field and a little less on the treatment table for which he is thought to have been offered a season ticket.

NEIL A YATES, 50 Livesey Street, Rishton, Blackburn.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.