Morning All, Manchester City plan a 10m pound raid on Sam Byram in the Summer. I'm just thinking, if he was loaned back to us for next season, and GFH cough up an additional 5m, then a 15m kitty would be an attractive proposition to any Championship club / potential new Manager This would of course mean that every single penny from the transfer was reinvested in the squad. If this also meant that we could take a couple of City players on loan for the season, then surely, thats not a bad deal. Thoughts??? Warnock has admitted that he holds a grudge against Mark Hughes. I'm stunned Di Matteo HAS TURNED DOWN LEEDS. We could only offer him £8000 a week, whereas he was being paid 40k per week at Stamford Bridge. Thoughts? Who deserves to go up to the Premiership this season? Who (from the top 6/7) would you like to see go up? This leads nicely to DILEMA TIME!!! Last game of the season, we play Watford. If we were already safe who wqould want Watford to beat us if it meant them leapfrogging Hull for the second automatic spot!!!
Morning Elland. If we got 10m for Sam, remember it's paid in stages, I think over three or five seasons. Therefore even i gfh wanted to reinvest it, which they won't fully, it would probably get two players per year. But here we go again Elland, set to lose our best remaining player and many will try to put a positive spin on it. One of the ideas for our takeover in December is that we wouldn't have to go through this **** of selling our best. If Sam goes, same as when Max, Snoddy and Becchio went, we will be weaker again. As for DiMatteo, we were never getting him. At a max of 8k a week and no money to play with, it's obvious the calibre of manager we'll be getting. Probably reason we haven't replaced Warnock yet, is no one wants the job, certainly Redfern doesn't and he has a fair idea whats going on at the club. On the Watford thing, oddly enough, with Cardiff unfortunately getting up, I don't give a toss who else goes up with them.
I suppose for the first time I have to admit Cardiff deserve to go up. Solid defence, they never let a lead slip, and they are 9/10 points clear of the rest. They have come close over the last 3 or 4 years, and always lost their bottle towards the end of the season. This season, they are a lot better organised and are grinding out a lot of 1-0 or 2-1.I don't think anyone would like a local rival to go up, so I suppose I'd have to say Watford, though I don't like how they have exploited a loophole to allow a dozen players from one overseas club to join them free.
Morning All, I'd pick a team that was likely to beat us to go up, so any one of the 23 other clubs! Thought Di Matteo was a cert last night, Elland? Admit it, you really were playing FIFA13 (or whatever you call it!).
Morning all Sometimes you have to take one step back to take two steps forward, so sell Byram for £10M, loan him back for the season, get a top manager in who'll work for peanuts, invest all the money in the team, get promoted, buy Byram back when the FFP rules kick in - happy days
Good moaning one and all. Just noticed on BBC website that Man City are set to go into the transfer market in a big way. I don't really understand this financial fair play system, as there seems to be no club taking any bloody notice of it at all. Especially if they are loaded. But if the expectation that some truly exceptional players will be on the way, I can't see them going for Sam Byram, and certainly not offering £10m for him. They know our guys are strapped, and that £2m would do it, with add-ons. Is he going to be the next big thing? As for only offering £8k per week for a manager, no wonder we don't have McDermott. We are looking at bargain basement players and managers I am afraid. I'm going to plump for Brian Deane being our next manager, not because I want him, but because he would do it for £4k a week. That's still £200k per year. But paying peanuts on a manager has always failed - the 80s proved that, and only when we stumped up and gambled big money on Wilko and backed his plan did we get out. With GFH playing this game, we will never get out of this league other than being plain lucky.
Morning all Cardiff have showed that it's fairly easy to get promoted from this league if you invest in a bit of quality. They haven't spent loads but enough to be the best team in the league. That said, they'll probably go straight down next season. We won't sell Byram for £10m. We'll wait until he has 6 months left on his contract and them offer him a derisory wage increase and watch as he leaves on a free. To Norwich. In all seriousness, let's keep him, whatever we're offered. We can't go on selling our best players. Imagine if 20 years ago Man U had decided to cash in on Giggs, Beckham, Neville etc. Different situations I know, but we'll never get anywhere by selling our best players.
Morning all - GFH will want to and probably have to show a return to shareholders and investors sometime this year (2013) and prove that LUFC was a wise move. The easiest way to do that would be to sell Byram and if it is for £10m you can guarantee a very small percentage will be given to a new manager, probably as little as 3m Offering 8k for a manager, lingering bottom half of the table as the season draws to an end, looking back on the season and that we sold our leading scorer and brought in another donkey and now fresh talk of selling a star player, does it feel like GFH are no different to Bates in the slightest? Deserve to go up - Cardiff and tight between Watford and Hull for me, to be honest whoever finishes 4, 5 and 6 they don't deserve to progress when compared to the top 3
It's not so much the fact we're selling our best players, it's the fact we're never adequately replacing them. As a mid-table championship team, it's inevitable our best players will attract interest and we may well struggle to keep them. But when we don't re-invest the money in the team, that's when the problems start. Man Utd eventually sold Beckham, but only because they had Ronaldo waiting to join them. We never seem to work like that
Morning all. Sam Byram is very attractive for Prem clubs because he is English, and helps with the quota. This is the reason talented English youngsters are so valuable, so £10m for Sam is not unrealistic, as it scarex off other potential bidders. Of course, it would be brilliant to sell him for £10m and get him back on loan for the season, again not a bad call as it gives him another competitive season to grow and learn, especially if its in a promotion season with all the pressure. The big danger is GFH simy pocket the money and nothing goes into the squad.
Totally disagree with this post. Cardiff have spent shedloads year after year after year. This time they just managed to keep the team playing all season, instead of falling by the wayside post January, like we always do. What they have done is built every year to make sure they give themselves a chance each year, and they have been there or thereabouts for the last 5 or so. We have not even been in the reckoning.
Has anyone forgot that Manc already have a internationalist Leeds lad at right back? Would Byram really displace Richards? And £10m? Absolutely no chance that anyone would pay that for him. This is just newspapers making something up on a slow news day.
Yea, Maicon and Zabaleta are approaching the end of their careers though Still, I dunno why they would be looking for any other options there