Cove - do you know, if Toby was to move again, whether he can only play for Ajax as he's already played for two clubs this season?
If a player has played for a club in a winter or summer league, like the Norwegian, Russian, Finnish, Danish and Brazilian leagues, he may play for 3 clubs in 12 months. If not, the player cannot play for a third club within 12 months. Article 5.3: http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/affederation/administration/01/27/64/30/regulationsstatusandtransfer2010_e.pdf
not sure if this has been covered, but fulham are reportedly close to signing steven defour from porto. does anyone know what type of midfielder he is (just thinking about us, i know his name was mentioned in the summer)? could be a good signing for them.
More fuel to the Ciani fire: http://www.soccernews.com/norwich-keen-lazios-ciani/136530/ Looks like this could be on and I think £2m is a good price from both club's points of view
More central/defensive midfielder than attacking midfielder. Doesn't offer a huge amount in terms of goals and assists, but is pretty classy. You could call him an upgrade on Fox. However, he has massively gone off the boil recently and has been getting very little game time. If we were able to get him for c.£5m I'd say that was a good signing, but I fear we'd have to pay more than that and high wages for a player who's performances may well be on a downward trajectory
Looking at the reports, that would explain why Fulham are chasing a loan deal rather than a permanent
well as i've stated before, i'm keen for a new centre back coming in, so on the face of it this is positive
Speaking of United, a £35m bid for Mata is interesting, for two reasons. Firstly why is it being done through "intermediaries"? Isn't that what caused them issues when they tried to sign Herrera in the summer? And secondly, how are they going to accommodate Mata? They've got an arguably similar player in Kagawa, who they barely use, so why is signing Mata the answer? It's not like Kagawa isn't good enough for the Premier League, they simply don't play in a way to suit him. Very odd, and smacks of more desperation in the red half of Manchester.
Very clever by Chelsea letting him leave to Man U, by selling to Man U I bet the chosen one is hoping he helps united take points of off the rest of the top 4 as Chelsea don't have to play Man U any more this season. Or am I reading to much in to the transfer !
I has to be said that Mata, van Persie and Rooney could be a pretty devastating front 3 when it comes together. They still need a lot of players but the name United still draws players and they are not short of cash either.
Nope, I'd had the same thought! If that kind of logic is involved though, I think they'd be shooting themselves in the foot longer-term. United won't threaten them this year, but you know they're going to spend big in the summer, which will be easier for them if Mata helps them get Champion's League football for next season. I'd keep Mata, or sell him overseas to reduce the risk of United qualifying.
Olsson's pretty much made the LB position his own, and Garrido is acceptable cover, with Whittaker and possibly Gutierrez capable of playing there if we get desperate. In my opinion it's not a priority area to be looking at. I also think we'd run into the same problems that Villa are in trying to acquire Wessi, in that they won't want to sell to a relegation rival, particularly when Colback has barely been out of their side. Good age though, with plenty of experience, although I think Sunderland is his boyhood club so might be hard to tempt him away. His Ipswich connections won't help either!
Blimey, the telegraph reckon Chelsea have accepted United's £37m bid for Mata, who has agreed personal terms and will have a medical Thursday. That's moved quickly. Glad we've already played United twice now!
No to colback for me just for his tantrum at Carrow road when we won 4-1. Although it might irritate a few Ipswich fans perhaps
