"and can slot in at right-back if required" - close season transfer banter 2014

OTM

along the same lines, the progression of Pogba's career brings me great joy

spurs also linked with Esteban Cambiasso, who's wiki page has already been updated to call him a former footballer.

no notion of his being required. unless we do the unthinkable and sell Sandro or bentaleb

Manchester United were offered Colombia’s James Rodríguez for £5m
Attacker touted to Old Trafford but Bebé signed instead

― mizzell, Monday, 30 June 2014 16:31 (5 hours ago)

the trouble with this is that everyone in the entire world with a spare £5m could have transacted with his agent, it's not the same as for example when houllier was tracking cristiano ronaldo but wasn't prepared to pay £12m

there's an argument that richer clubs should automatically offer 20% more than what porto offer for a player given that they have by far the best scouts in latin america, but it's not some cheapshit comparison with bebé (who incidentally is looking something like a £7m player now and is still 23)

Rakitic on Suarez: "To have the character and strength to apologise in front of the world shows what a noble person he is."

lol at what stage tho is that trolling suarez

Eredivisie sale again for the PL:

Dusan Tadic (Twente) off to Soton
Siem de Jong (Ajax) off to Newcastle

Pelle to Soton is a done deal

dude screams flop so hard (looks cumbersome, pushing 30, two good seasons, in holland) that he'll probably end up a success

Really hit or miss tbh. Was a huge flop at AZ, left for Italy where he also didn't play well. Koeman was scorned for buying him at Feyenoord but got him scoring loads of goals.

how much would it take to get depay out of psv?

http://www.statsbomb.com/2014/07/who-should-liverpool-buy-to-replace-luis-suarez/

i'm hearing that sanchez doesn't want to move to pool, and also apparently balotelli is being linked? that seems nutty

PSV gave him a price tag around £17m iirc, last week, knowing he'll be desired and probably (sadly) unable to keep after this WC.

xp

Can't see Alexis at LFC. Just give us our £80m thanks very much.

Wouldn't be surprised if Depay goes to ManU though. It's been years since I've seen Van Gaal and a young player click this good. When you see the two together in training these days, Van Gaal is being highly affectionate about him, constantly joking and working with him.

depay would be p cool, as would the powercube

Is there a thread where we discuss the inflated pricing in the PL for UK players btw? The amounts paid for Shaw, Carroll, Lallana in mind, it's bizarre.

Or is PSV just stupid should they just ask 30m for Depay? I mean, Shaw's good and all, but twice Depay? Never.

livermore, snodgrass, dawson, £20m

Those too. Bonkers.

There's some kind of logic in that not everyone coming into the epl can adapt so you pay a premium for those already here, but tbh it's not like it's hard to cite an expensive flop if you really must.

Brb on the phone with Eindhoven telling PSV director Brands to ask 50m for Depay

Liverpool should just keep Suarez imo. Maybe take Sanchez too.

Ok, I can kind of see that IK. But a national transfer like Carroll's and him flopping so hard is just... Damn.

The thing is you'd probably still be saying that even if £15m to West Ham was his only transfer

Did I miss the bit where Barcelona are allowed to buy players again? I was away for a bit so it's quite possible I did.

I think the ban was lifted pending their appeal

bet Suarez gets his ban lifted/reduced if he goes there

flop must stop

bet Suarez gets his ban lifted/reduced if he goes there

― Number None, Wednesday, July 2, 2014 2:43 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

was thinking the same thing tbh

Barca offering £70m, they can gtf

item has a bit of "wear and tear" so to speak

Other than that, a squad with Neymar, Messi and Suarez? Quality, sure, but maybe at least one captain too many on deck? I foresee trouble.

Was gonna go with 'I foresee messiness', but, y'know...

item comes with extras more like, should be a hefty premium imo

in other news, my heart breaketh

that does seem like a fair enough price for the bitey one tho? idk at this point I'm just pissed off we didn't get more for Ronaldo when you see vastly inferior players like Bale and Suarez going for similar money

Steady on. His buyout's supposed to be £80m, the Echo says Liverpool want £75m for some reason and not necessarily Sanchez as part of it, so presumably £75m it'll be. Dunno who we spend it on though, Aspas can't do it on his own. Wouldn't mind Lukaku.

I don't know NN, what was it, £80m? That was a big deal in 2009 iirc. But we're five years and huge inflation on.

theres no clear evidence of the value or terms of any buyout clause; beware biddable local journalists

liverpool can probably get away with fighting this in a way that they couldn't with mascherano, making clear they won't accept a lower fee because of the ban, i hope they do

they know they can afford to keep an alienated suarez for another year and he will still perform for them

rodgers' transfer history is poor, sturridge was supposedly pushed by the rest of their adjunct committee rather than being a pure rodgers target such as sigurdsson

he is now using leverage to spend money in a way that doesn't make a huge amount of sense

there is ample precedent that signing a lot of players at the level of lallana (not athletic, technically good but not special, already 26 -- limited upside) or essentially unproven talent like can (physically powerful, not seen as intelligent enough in possession by bayern hierarchy) in one window can be risky

suarez doesn't guarantee, but certainly gives a good chance they can requalify for the cl

without him, and with perhaps 10 or 15 more games than last season, and serious money invested elsewhere (and now two football managers in manchester), that chance falls significantly

The Croatian was officially unveiled at the Nou Camp yesterday and he said: 'The fact he has had the character and the strength to go in front of everyone and say sorry says a lot about him as a person.

'Not every person has that strength to admit they have done something stupid. I rarely say that I am wrong so this says a lot about him, he has shown the character and strength he has so he should be commended for that.

This stuff is just uh

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/jul/03/massimo-cellino-leeds-united-paddy-kenny

Cellino is so suspicious of the number 17 that he had the seats at his former club, Cagliari, taken out and replaced with 16B. Now he has instructed the new Leeds head coach, Dave Hockaday, not to select Paddy Kenny after discovering that the goalkeeper’s birthday is on 17 May and concluding that he is bad luck for the Championship club. Kenny, the second-highest earner at Leeds on £10,000 a week, has been left at home while the other players embark on a pre-season trip to Italy and he will not play for the club again.

ah lols

apparently they've just rechecked his birth certificate and his birthday is actually on May 16B

Leeds are now embarking on a cost-cutting process that has seen the canteen at their training ground closed down

you would think paddy kenny leaving would have slashed enough costs in that area already

McCormack handed in a transfer request yesterday so he will probably be Fulham bound, leaving Leeds with a transfer kitty. Although I am not sure how much transfer autonomy the manager has in this euro-dictatorship type model.

rodgers' transfer history is poor, sturridge was supposedly pushed by the rest of their adjunct committee rather than being a pure rodgers target such as sigurdsson

I thought Rodgers wanted to buy Sturridge the summer before but was overruled by the committee? I agree that the transfers have been more miss than hit. Would like to see both Borini and Suso back.

Daniel Sturridge has been tearing up the Premier League since moving from Chelsea to Liverpool last January.

According to The Times journalist Tony Evans, Brendan Rodgers didn’t actually want to sign Daniel Sturridge.

Evans claims he wanted Clint Dempsey, but the Liverpool owners forced Daniel Sturridge on him.

can never be entirely sure of these things but from the football editor of the times it should be reasonbly trustworthy

suso is a proper player, spain produce so many like him