Are we? So far we have been linked with D Villa....and as much as I love surprises (Davids, Kranjcar, VDV, LLoris) I really cannot see this happening. Two young croats yes, world cup winning all time spain top scorer from Barca....nope of course this all depends on his going rate. and if Arsenal lavish 50m on Rooney and Torres who both massively under performed last year would be something of a gamble.
This should really be in the transfer thread, but according to a few sources (for some time) the deal with Barca was agreed a while ago, and so have the personal terms with Villa himself. Apparently, it's down to him to just make his mind up. To me, he doesn't want to play for us. simple as that. - he's got every right not to want to either, so fairplay to him. he's at Barca FFS. However, we need players who want to play for us, not ones that our coach has to phone and plead with. - That is the only part of this deal i don't like. If he joins us, I do have concerns about how much of the real DV we will get, or whether he'll be a pension collector.
Despite what Neville says I think Rooney needs a change and I'd go as far as to say he'd be better off almost anywhere than staying at United. As an England fan I hope he goes to Barca.
do you know who the others are? I'm guessing Arsenal is one of them. As good as DV is, i think us missing out on him could be a blessing in disguise. yes, he's better than anything we've got, but we really need to be using £10m on someone younger as a priority (who we can make a profit on, and/or will grow into a top player.) An experienced forward like Villa, should be a luxury if we can afford it, but after we've got a long term striker in the bag. £10 mill on a 31 year old really does go against our usual policy. It's quite strange. it's also a lot to throw away if it goes tits up. - then everyone will moan that we should never have paid £10m for a 31y/o.
We need to put ourselves in best possible shape for this season. If spending £10mill means we get a top striker like Villa, even if it was only for one season, then we save like £10mill to spend elsewhere on another player compared to the cost of signing someone like Soldado. Not sure why you want a "work in progress" striker, if we don't get top 4 then Bale goes and Lloris, Vertonghen, Kaboul, etc might fancy moving for CL football. It would be little consolation if we signed a striker now who only came good 2/3 years after we sold Bale. Anyway, it's David F-ing Villa, of course it's luxury he oozes class. I doubt anyone wishes we didn't sign Davids, Klinsmann, Ginola, etc and instead signed a youngster who might get good.
very good points YV, so yes, it's definitely something we should be considering. However, the fact that he's having to be persuaded does concern me that the effort might not be there. we still need that "work in progress striker though mate, as defoe is kicking on now and we've got to get someone in as a long term replacement. otherwise we're in the same position in a years time.
I just think that should be an after thought. If we manage to sell Ade or Defoe then fine and if someone becomes available at a good price then fair enough but I just don't see any need for urgency at the moment.
See, I do. Ade - basically ****e all season and scored **** all. Defoe - basically didn't score after the first half of the season. Villa is 31 and may now be get a few more injuries than he's used to. The backup is poor.
Good strikers are for chumps. Chelsea's are crap and they won the Europa League and Wigan won the FA Cup with Arouna Kone! Defoe's a useful player and I can't see Ade being quite so bad again, if we do keep him.
If only there was comedy value in this player and team combination. Hmmm. http://sulia.com/getfootballnews/f/...8f/?guid=26cc5fc0-ff95-43a6-b0a6-c06e4530448f
LOL, you might be ok with taking that risk, YV, but I'm not! To say chelsea's are crap is hardly true! we all laugh at torres for costing £50mill, but he still scored a decent amount of goals last season. Ba isn't bad, and Lukaku had a blinder at West Brom!
In what world are Torres/Ba/Lukaku "crap"? Kone is also a decent striker, holds the ball up well and has a good turn of a pace. I agree old strikers play less of a role than they used to due to the decline of 4-4-2 but you still need a good one to win things and have success.
