No, I have something called self-respect. It's always baffled me why Karl Pilkington takes the amount of **** from Gervais that he does.
From what I've seen around and about on Twitter etc. We're close to signing Chadli The Benteke bid relies on selling Adebayor. On Adebayor - Besiktas want him and we're fine to sell him but he doesn't want to go and is effectively blocking the move. West Brom want Dempsey. Twitter rumour - we've bid for some Brazilian called Leandro (not Damiao thankfully) from a club called Gremio. A reasonable ITK source states that we're also looking at Negredo. That's about it I think. Me personally - I think we'll get Chadli soon - not sure on Benteke, but a front 3 of Chadli, Benteke and Bale would be awesome.
I'm sure his bank account will answer that for you. Also Derek was brilliant, with Pilkington being very good in it, so Gervais is giving him a career he never would have otherwise had.
If the Benteke deal relies on offloading Ade then I think we ALL know the likely outcome: Ade gone, Benteke to Chelsea, Defoe injured
The bank accounts of so many Weakest Link winners will say something, apart from why they didn't tell Anne Robinson to introduce a turkey baster to her person at the earliest opportunity.
The Dutch press are insisting Chadli will sign a 5 year deal next week. From what I've seen over the years, the Dutch have been a hell of a lot more reliable than our lot. I remember them reporting first the deals of Gomes and Vertonghen about a good 24 hours before British media did. Great news if true, Chadli seems like an ideal player for our team and style.
Do you guys really want Benteke ? I know he had a decent season last time, but he could quite easily be a one season wonder. Also some of the figures being banded about for him are ludicrous, it seems that Villa won't let him go on the cheap. I mentioned it a while back, but don't you think Ba would be a better option ?
Most of us have said we'd take him but not for the money Villa are asking. I personally rate him at around the £15m mark, maybe a bit more with performance based add-ons but definitely not a straight £25m fee. I'd happily take Ba. Would rather Benteke (for a decent price) or Soldado but I wouldn't be disappointed with Ba at Spurs, though I can't see Chelsea selling him to us. The likes of Ba, Negredo (though seems £ity bound), Cisse, Gomis, Lopez, Damiao, Fred would all be players I wouldn't mind seeing in a Spurs shirt if the main two targets are unobtainable. I wouldn't mind seeing us take a gamble on Hosiner too, I know he's in an inferior league but his strike rate last season was unbelievable.
I tend to agree with you, re the price and the risk. As I said in an earlier post, you can sort of understand why Villa have pitched the price where they have. He's young, and IF he's the real thing, that's cheap in today's market. Also, if Carroll was sold for £35mil, the Villa probably assume that £25mil is cheap.
I seriously doubt Chelsea will sell anyone half decent to us for a start, and Ba certainly qualifies as half decent at the very least. His form for Newcastle was exceptional at times but I don't know of he's ever going to consistently replicate that form. He strikes me as being similar to Defoe in that regard - genuinely top class at times but then injury/form of other players/other factors causes them to lose their place in the team and as such they only have purple patches. Case in point if you like - Ba's first season at Newcastle he got 16 in 36, same year Defoe got 17 in 38, and I don't think Ba has hit the same heights at Chelsea IMO. He's a 28 year old with 3 years left on his contract, who'd want first team football and a higher wage than we'd want to be paying, that we'd probably have to pay over £10 million for, and personally I don't think he's too much of an improvement on what we've got anyway. We'd be better off looking elsewhere for me. Don't get me wrong I have reservations about Benteke but taking a risk on him may be a better investment than spending over the odds on Ba. If I remember correctly he has a dodgy knee as well doesn't he?
Agree with all of that Huddlefro excellent post. I know Benteke would be a gamble but we are running out of options. And for all we know he could improve from last season rather than be a one season wonder that everyone seems to think.
I don't think it's a fan's remit to get too worried about transfer fees. For me he's the best striker available to us so I naturally want us to get him, it's the area of the pitch that let us down most last season so if we're going to "overpay" in any position then I'll be more than happy for it to be on a striker. As for Ba, I don't see the point in signing a new striker if they're not a significant improvement than Ade. Ade isn't a bad player, he just didn't adapt very well to the system AVB wants us to play and I can't see anything in Ba's game to think that he'd fair any better.
apparently Chadli is "plan b". - is this leandro bloke a winger? if so, he could be the "plan A". unless of course we're looking at Bernard again?
I've heard that Bernard is a target who we're really interested in still. The cup that he's playing it finishes in a few days (may even be already done) so we may finally see him move to Porto this week lol As for Leandro - yes he's a winger.
I see the point you're making about fans and fees, but would you really be getting value for money at £25m for Benteke ? If you're going to spend that much, surely there is somebody else who is worth it ? It is an area that you're pretty desperate to address, and selling clubs know that, but the chairman and manager have to ensure that they get a decent player without getting ripped off. I agree with NSIS, Benteke is worth no more that £15m tops at the moment. If he has 2-3 seasons like he's just had, then maybe he would command a higher fee, but currently he is just potential. Adebayor for me, is not a good player. He has skill and guile, but his attitude stinks and it affects his performances on the pitch. We saw it at Arsenal, City saw it too and so have you. I'm afraid that Adebayor is all about Adebayor, the team and their priorities come second to that.
Your comments on Ba are largely irrelevant given the fact that Chelsea wouldn't sell him to us (not for anything reasonable at least). Benteke is a risk but at least I'd rather spend £20m+ on a striker who has at done it once in the PL before. That's a far more managed risk than spending similar money on Damiao or Negredo.
Summing up other rumours of today: According to someone considered to be reliable - Benteke is agreed 'in principle'. The last person we agreed 'in principle' was Villa who promptly moved elsewhere so I wouldn't get your hopes up too high. According to someone else 'ITK' - there will be 1 in this week, 1 next and 1/2 out this week. BAE not going with Naughton/Rose the ones who might leave. Also - I've read that Mr Damiao has agreed a deal 'in principle' with Napoli for €22m
Worth is complicated and subjective. Was Bale worth £10mill when we agreed to pay that much for him? Simple answer would be no. No one doing fairly well in the Championship is worthy of a 8 digit fee. But he was performing at a high level for his age and had potential, which has ended up paying dividends for us and made the £10mill we agreed at the time look cheap. You could also argue that the value is not so much on the player but on the staff involved in making these decisions. That makes it even more complicated though so best not to go there.
