If we do sell him, it will not be to Spurs. Do you have £15m+ for a centre-back? Would we sell to a team we want to finish above next season? Would we sell a rival our (about to be) player of the season? Will HIAG admit he's a closet Liverpool fan?
I think that's unfair. When he first moved to England he was... rough and ready, shall we say, but he's definitely progressed technically. He's a very accomplished tackler now, who does, on occasion, crunch people. But then, so do Terry, Vidic etc. If your view is slanted by Skrtel's duel with Bale in the 0-0, then you have to say Bale gave as good as he got (constantly diving).
If he puts in a transfer request there is very little the "King" will be able to do about it. And you won't get any thing like £15 million for him. £5 million tops.
I have to say Liverpool are bigger than us, so it would seems strange to take a step down, especially as it's unlikely we'll pay significantly higher wages than Pool to him.
Value in 2010: $822m Value in 2011: $522m Value in 2012: $619m That's a drop in value and then some. Meanwhile, our value has increased year-on-year without a new stadium. Also, the 2011 entry on Forbes website says "New England Sports Ventures paid $476 million to buy the debt-laden team from Tom Hicks and George Gillett in October." - which is exactly what I said and, considering Kenny has been told his transfer budget has been greatly reduced, they're certainly not as flush with cash as they once were (which was when they were Champions League regulars) Anyway, back to Skrtel... My main issue is that we don't need to sign a centre back to play as back-up, as we have Dawson and Caulker for that purpose (as well as whoever remains out of King, Gallas and Nelsen), what we need is a centre back who can go straight into the first team alongside Kaboul, preferably one who can fill in for ledders as a centre back who can read the game and pass the ball around. Skrtel isn't really that type of player, so isn;t the one we need as first-choice.
The supposed size of a club is irrelevant, but the wages aren't. Would Skrtel join City, if the opportunity arose? Of course he would.
You're on your own in thinking Ghoddle10 talks sense. Just look at the categories he's nominated for in our End of Year awards... Worst Grumpy old man (2 votes) Worst views contributor (2 votes) Most annoying contributor (2 votes) Most repetitive tedium contributor (1 vote)
Whilst defensively we DO need reinforcements, surely there are more important things to spend money on. We need to secure a striker, whether it's Adebayor or someone else. That'll be expensive. We also need someone to play on the right side of midfield, as Lennon isn't going to be fit 100% of the time
With Walker and Kaboul crocked, and Dawson, Gallas & King still out, we could do with Skrtel, even if it is until we get our proper defenders back.
Kaboul has had one good season. King is crocked and only plays well on occasion. Gallas is extremely dodgy. Skrtel would walk into the team.
Kaboul was also good last season, but didn't get any credit for it If we needed to replace Kaboul or Dawson, Skrtel is the player to do it - but we don't need to replace them, we need to replace King, and Skrtel isn't the player to do that.
Silly scousers - There isn't one Pool player I would want in the Spurs team, you must be fackin jokin!! , they're all ****e and why you've had your worst season for decades, 8th and 17 points behind us. Kryten Head being part of that would not walk into our team, now **** off and pitch him at another mid table side!