True Spurf, however it is worrying that Bale hasn't said a thing.....and bookies very rarely get it wrong! Obviously I would rather Bale stayed at Spurs, but I just don't think it would be doom for us if he did go....a la Modric!!
We obviously want to keep him. But, it's not a question of what we want. It's a question of what a levy, and the player himself want. Real's behaviour throughout this has been arrogant, presumptuous, and disrespectful to both Levy, and the club. I don't think that will easily be forgotten, IF there is anything to negotiate.
I agree with you Pirate. I would rather get it over with now if he does want to go and if that really is the offer from Madrid it's a pretty good one. I really don't want another Berbatov or Modric situation. With the squad we now have and with Coentrao, Soldado and Angel Di Maria even without Bale we would look very strong and perhaps a more balanced team. We would have plenty of options on the bench as well. As YV said earlier in the thread if we can keep Bale and get Soldado then that is the ideal scenario.
does this not work 2 ways though? Why would he say anything? He could be making Levy sweat by actions speaking louder than words. By this I mean that he could purposely be keeping schtum to see whether levy shows the ambition to keep him. - which so far he has by breaking our transfer record once (paulinho) and looking to do it again by signing Soldado. - and obviously chadli too. By bale keeping quiet he doesn't piss anybody off and doesn't say something he could regret later on in the transfer window. Hopefully the ambition we've shown should be enough to make him say "ok, I'm staying. Now, My levy, can we discuss a new contract please as I won lots of awards last year". If we don't show the ambition Bale is looking for (which we already are) he says "Right, I'd like to leave." - Either way, he's not given any indication until that point about what his intentions are, and has essentially let levy decide his fate for him. So far Levy appears to be doing all he can to keep him. Its a horrible situation for us fans, but come august 31st, we could all be saying what a favour Bale has done for us, in that he's basically held Levy to ransom without even saying anything! Levy knew he'd have to strengthen, after a few disappointing transfer windows and with Bale having a season with all eyes on him. This situation is actually very good for us!! However, if Bale does decide to go, I'd wish him well. He's a true pro and deserves to be playing in the CL.
Bookies follow the money the mass follow whatever crap the media dish out. Says nothing does it. Bale will speak when it suits all parties for him to do so not just to make an interesting read for the papers.
If Levy is put in a "Modric" position, not only do I hope we screw them for every penny, but I also hope Levy sacks off this pathetic "partnership". It can't be worth much (even if there's more to it than we know), as their behaviour towards us and their tapping up has been completely unprofessional and proves they don't give a **** about whatever the agreement is. They want our best players, end of. ****s.
Again very true, but if you know anything about the betting industry, it takes an awful lot of money to cut the odds from 5/2 to 1/2....maybe the masses are having a flutter or there are some shrewdies lumping on.....time will tell I guess! And hopefully they won't be so shrewd!!!
I think people saying Di Maria "wouldnt be happy" joining Spurs are a little off the mark. Both Di Maria and Coentrao would rather be playing first team football as long as we can match their wages and I'm sure they would be confident that we'd get champions league if we added them + soldado + another £25m to our squad. They aren't stupid - If Madrid try to trade them off they'd much rather go somewhere they are wanted I'm certain.
I've bolded the most important part there. If we match their wages, all our other players will want a pay rise. Think about it - 2 new guys come in on more money? You'd be a bit miffed.
On a more positive note: [video=youtube;QdOQ66PS2Vg]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdOQ66PS2Vg[/video] That's what we're trying to get. What I really like is that, whilst there are some awesome volleys, a fair few of the goals are just simple finishes in the box. That's what we lacked last season.
Maybe it's just me but I don't agree. Again, I don't think you are giving players enough credit as people. The only people who could possibly argue with being paid more are Lloris (who will be on a hefty wage already), Sandro, Vertonghen and Paulinho (again will be on a hefty wage). The other players *know* they aren't of the same calibre and *know* they aren't going to be paid as much as them regardless of where they go. I appreciate there are a lot of "money grabbing" players out there but I also think you'll find a lot of them have their head screwed on and we seem to have a good bunch of lads that are the latter. If I was at my job, a guy came in and could do things that I couldn't as well as being better at the stuff that I could do, I would not be "miffed" if he was paid more, as he's more valuable.
Completely agree. I mentioned the other day about how poor our conversion rate is from chances created. If we had say the likes of van Persie, Falcao, Ibra (or Soldado?) or someone of that ilk up front, we'd be looking forward to a Champions League campaign this season in my opinion.
Agreed - Especially with our midfield the actual "creating" of chances isn't going to be so hard as the finishing off of them. This is one of the reasons I wanted Hooper. For £5m he has all the traits of a finisher - even if you forget his pace, strength, ability in the air, he is always in the right place, at the right time and for £5m he'd have been a steal as a backup striker. Also if he flunked I am fairly sure at his age we would easily be able to recoup alot of if not more of our £5m selling him to a well off lower level team (QPR, Cardiff, Leicester, Back to Celtic)
Yeah - if Ade goes then we'll still need another striker. Hooper would've been perfect. Although I suppose Remy won't be so bad if we move for him (I suspect involving Parker going to QPR).
I just don't like going for players from Scotland. Half decent strikers look like world beaters over there mate. Even take Keano for example, clearly on the decline and wasn't getting a look in here (when he did he could barely hit a barn door) yet goes Celtic and hits something like 10 in 12. Hooper wasn't even top scorer in the SPL, Billy Mckay, a former Northampton Town player was third top scorer with 23 goals! Lee Griffiths was second and he's on loan from Wolves! WOLVES!!! To be fair Hooper does seem a good finisher but with a team of our aspirations, I just don't think Hooper is a player we should've been looking at, even as a back up striker. It'll be interesting to see how he does at Norwich as I could end up with egg on my face. Though if I was to take a guess, I reckon Hooper will end up with about 7-8 league goals.
Has Remy's "gang rape" stuff cleared up? I hate to be picky about striker's and I was furious that we let Remy slip through our fingers and join QPR as he has the traits of a top top striker - but if he has a pending rape charge I'd rather our club wasn't dragged into that mess. That's fair enough mate. I was the same when we were being linked with Kris Boyd and Jelavic. Both players scored goals with pace, power or skills in the SPL which I agree, even lower end Championship / top end League 1 teams can do in Scotland. Hooper I feel just had that something extra about him, he was never interested in trying to take it round 6 players then bend one into the top corner. He was all about timing, movement, positioning and predatory instincts. I don't think he'll score more than 10 goals at Norwich due to their rather poor midfield. But with a midfielders like Paulinho, Dembele, Bale, Chadli, Lennon, Gylfi, Holtby - He would be given chance after chance as all of those players are looking for the clever runs, timing and positioning. What I am trying to say is, in general, no I don't think Hooper would score more than 15 goals for a premier league club, but I think he would score more than 20 for OUR club as the way he plays would compliment the way out midfield play. Hope that makes sense but I fully appreciate why you'd be sceptical about taking someone from the SPL
