Transfer Rumours Let's ignore the big ****ing elephant and blame the latest manager, again. Are we nearly there yet?

Get what your'e saying but we have been ripped off too many times and for far too long.
We should set a maximum value to us and stick to it then if the parent club goes beyond that limit walk away. I genuinely think we had/have a ceiling of £80m (Ajax asking price) but had no intention of going with that straight off given the players wish to leave.
Now we are 5 days from the window "slamming shut tm" and Ajax are crying no time to replace him, not our fault they stuck to one figure and they still don't have to sell him but i think they will.

 

Of course people have not spent every second of every day on this deal. What I meant was this cat and mouse game was silly and had only one winner and wasted 3 months of possibly getting the player trained and getting used to others in preseason. Now whatever outcome we look like useless imbeciles who have no clue when to negotiate and when to accept an asking price.

 

Mate we didn't put in an offer until last week. So what exactly have Ajax "stuck to" since May if no offer was ever made?

It's not the player, or the amount (although to claim some sort of win because we might just pay £3m less than the asking price is funny in itself), it's the way we've gone about it that's poor. It's like we've deliberately gone in late to take the piss. If it was the other way round for one of our best players we'd be exactly the same. Let's see if you're right. I seem to recall we played this game of chicken with Dortmund and that didn't work out too well either.

 

Pretty sure Anthony has been mentioned for quite a bit of the summer

The way things tend to work is that both clubs "discuss" a situation and once it becomes clear a deal can be done then a first offer is made. After that the real negotiations start and i feel we are in a fairly strong position with the player wanting to leave, yes we should tip up the odd £5m if it seals the deal but not let clubs take the piss on valuation just because it's us and then act as if they never saw it coming and only have 5 days to react.

 

I'll repeat. We did not make an offer until last week.

Whether we were "interested" before that is neither here nor there. I'm sure the board at Ajax don't base their pricing on what's written on the back of the Daily Mirror. How it tends to work is a club puts in an offer the other club either accepts or rejects it, then the buying club decide whether they want to increase or not.

WTF were Ajax supposed to do until an offer came in? They've done nothing wrong.

 

He's asked for the transfer. Usually ends one way, I'd assume a deal can be struck.

The de Jong thing now very quiet. Ah well, the one that got away. We can go for him in January!

 

I suppose in the case of de Jong, Barcelona are happy (need) to sell, so they won't play the 'no time to find a replacement' card.

Could happen very last minute. Unlikely, but could.

 

I can see a loan deal for de Jong coming along. The player needs to play with the World Cup coming up, we can take his wages off the Barca books and if we have an option to buy the player might be convinced by the EtH project at the end of the loan spell.

 

The situation with Ajax is that they have already lost 7 players during this transfer window - Tagliafico, Martinez, Schuurs, Mazroui, Gravenberch, Haller and Daramy (only the last of which was at the initiative of Ajax). It has long been the practice there to never lose more than a maximum 4 players in any one transfer window - in order to maintain some sort of continuity on the field. Ten Hag knows this and he, himself, was supportive of this policy in the past at Ajax. Ten Hag has also tried with Jurrien Timber and Brian Brobbey. Ajax have also fended off bids from Everton and Newcastle for Mohammed Kudus and Edson Alvarez respectively. Basically if they sell Antony they risk a very serious riff in the club between Alfred Schreuder (the head coach) who feels his team is being gutted and the club's hierarchy. Their hopes of a quick replacement for Antony in Hakim Ziyech also look to have fallen through.

 

I don't blame them. I just think had we officially bid for Antony back in May we would either have him already or gone for another player.

Do you think they'll sell if we now go to the 100m Euros they are demanding (as is being reported)?

Not sure I like the player threatening to go on strike. That sort of **** always comes back to bite you on the arse as Leicester are seeing with Fofana, considering he acted up at St Etienne when Leicester themselves were going for him.

 

Funny how Barca have managed to register all their new players despite failing the La Liga financial rules. In the end they get what they want.

I'm not so sure about De Jong anymore with 3 days to go. We're obviously still interested, Barca still want to sell, but looks like the player himself wants to stay at the club and I wouldn't be surprised if he goes further and agrees to their demands for a wage decrease.

 

You mean you were confident until now? This deal was dead before it was born. Why people at Utd persisted with it has been a mystery? Did the player secretly say something different. Because in all his statements he has always said he didn’t want to leave Barcelona or to come to Utd as he valued playing in the CL .

 

Don't want to appear pedantic, but at no time has the player said that he doesn't want to come to us.

 

Doesn’t “I don’t want to leave Barcelona for any club” not rule out coming to Utd? and mean “I don’t want to go to Utd (or any other club)”. Utd are not part of Barcelona as far as I know. He couldn’t have been clearer IMO.

 

It's all been public posturing on his part to strengthen his negotiating position. If he had ever said he was open to a move the fans would turn on him in a flash so he just keeps spouting that neutral mantra that he doesn't want to leave the club etc etc - while all the while trying to get his cash so he can then **** and find regular game time ahead of the world cup.

 

Yes. This is what many people speculated. His public stance was different to his private one. Etc. some like me chose to believe his public statements and lo and behold yes, he was being truthful all this time. He will accept a lower pay and forego most of the 17m owed to him because indeed he is so damn keen to play for Barcelona.

 

Not wanting to leave Barcelona and not wanting to play for United are two different things.

You can keep saying it as often as you like, but at no point has he ever specifically said he does not want to come to United.

And he's never going to say he wants to leave Barca as he then forgoes all the money they owe him.

 

Looks like we are finally close to a deal for Antony

 

A stitch in time saves 20 million!

 

semantics if the outcome is the same: he is staying at Barcelona