Pretty sure Robinson doesn't play for us anymore. Robertson might be given a chance though Expect Robertson to start tonight. Coutinho not to be involved in the squad tonight as he's focused on a move to Barca?
Didn't see the game but understand we played well but my comments had nothing to do with our performance at all. More to do with keeping up that level of performance all year and pointing out the critical positions that we still need quality cover on if we want to challenge properly. You call it negative....fair enough. I call it being realistic.
Sh*t! Well if they must have Couthino, we'd better have £120m if that. Would still leave them £78m for another player or two!!
If we qualified for cl, would first game be before end of window? Be interesting to see if we cup tied him.
Lala was both offside and baulked the goalie on the line, and I said that at the time: thing is though that the ref saw that and there was no flag, and he pointed to the centre circle for a goal. No idea how it was disallowed from there as I was convinced they'd kicked off again, but it was the right decision.
Liverpool have apparently (rightly) said we're not interested in makeweights. Interestingly, Barca are insisting on £198m in cash. So no excuses IF they still want Ford - £130m cash, or, as PSG told them last year over Veratti - **** off, we don't NEED your money or to sell.
Some ****wit with a yellow tie on Sky now reckons that Barca will try to replace Neymar with Ford, and that as we got him for a 'song' from Inter we will find it impossible 'business' to turn down £89m (even though we know that Barca will have £198m burning a hole in their pocket). Liverpool will have to sell, evidently, as they don't want an unhappy player, but they grudgingly pointed out that it is WC year, so Ford is unlikely to go on strike. Hmmm. Same Sky, of course, that opined that Ford would find it hard to resist going to Barca to be Neymar's mate....
Feck even 130...who are they (or we) going to get by the time Neymar is done? Keep Coutinho, see how we go this year and let them come back next year.
Fear is though Frank that Fsg will cream themselves at the thought of £87m, never mind £130m, and Barca will know that. As you say, we can'y replace Ford per se, and to make things worse, as with the Torres £50m, everyone will know we'll have at least £89m burning a hole in our pocket, so we'll have to park it or use it to build a tier on the Anny Rd End, or we'll have another Carroll on our hands. Just hope we've got VVD by then (f we get him all) or Soton will simply slap another £10-20m on him.
Exactly. We're all gagging to see how Coutinho shapes up in a deeper role with the three in front of him, but we don't know. It might be great, but it could also be a bit of a let-down. He has blown hot and cold since he came here, but last season his consistency (when fit) seemed to be improving. We need to see how this works out, because we don't want to throw away this potential without seeing if it can be realised. And if it isn't the revelation we're all hoping for then we can consider selling him next year.
My incredulity is to do with the fact that a fortnight ago Sky were parroting every word the Catalan press were saying about it being a done deal, contracts agreed with the player, etc, as Neymar wanted him there as his buddy - now it's all the above except Barca need him to replace Neymar! But if they're right that he wants to step out of Messi's shadow to win the World Player of the Year, there's another solution - why don't we swap them Ford for messi, plus they can pay half his wages? C'mon, we're doing them a favour, but I 'fear' Barca may try and price us out of a deal...
I'm just hoping they see it more long term by even a year. We didn't spend the Keita money. (Say we do spend the VD money). So if Keeping Couts Best case scenario: keep coutinho we have a blinder this year win a trophy or two hell say (I did say best case lol) the league or CL. Barca won't have time to replace him any more than we do and if they had an alternate target we would have heard. It weakens a CL rival. So we go back into CL with all its cash, still have Keita money to get him next year. If coutinho insists on going well we'll get around the same anyway. Get it done early and time to buy our replacement (after spending the year sounding one out lol) Worst Case Scenario: we don't sell, get dumped out of CL, don't make top 4. Then we sell and use dosh for whatever is needed. To me the very worst at this point is sell and worst case above happens and no one decent wants to come so we go back to buying ****e with all that money AND no coutinho...and probably mane wanting to go etc..pointless.
Yeah. All the top players (and those who think themselves to be) want to win things. We have to push on this season and compete at the top or they'll become dissatisfied and start looking around. I would still hope that the owners realise that sustained success is the way to make money and that buying and keeping the best players is the only real way to do it. Having said all that, if a ridiculous sum for Coutinho could buy us an adequate replacement and leave us some beer money then it might not be such a bad deal. However, I don't find the time to watch much foreign football so I don't know if such a beast exists and is available.
