Let's be honest here, there is clearly an intention by our owners to try to replicate what they did with the Red Sox. That is to buy good youngsters cheaply and build a team. This shows their lack of football knowledge. The scouting systems the top European clubs have in place means that any decent prospect is already being tracked by the big clubs when they are 15/16 yrs old. By the time said players are 18+ they are already targets for the big clubs if they are any good, so to sign them you have to pay decent money. Any player aged 18+ who you buy for £12m or less is probably going to be pretty average. I would rather see us sign 3 players with proven pedigree than 8 players who might develop into something. I suspect we will not sign anyone this window and if so could easily find ourselves in 7th/8th place and well off the top 4 by mid March. This would also probably mean losing Suarez in the Summer as well.
On Fernando. Part of me thinks that we are working on some thing here with this guy. We desperately need a DM and Fernando is an ideal candidate. M'Vila is another. M'Vila would cost around £16m I believe and I believe would definitely join us. But Fernando will be available for a free transfer this summer. There is not much between M'Vila and Ferndando in terms of quality, experience and style, but saving £16m would be a big advantage and that £16m could then be put towards signing another player. M'Vila also has some bad points in his reputation. Waiting till the sumer to save £16m. Do you agree to that? If he does agree to join United before deadline we can bid for M'Vila.
I disagree. Lets look at Chelsea. They were bought out in 2004 and spend insane riches on a lt of high profile players who were around there peak. It brought instant success. But it did not last. Those players past there peaks to soon and Chelsea were stuck with an expensive squad of past there best players on insane wages. This hit there form and financial strength. Suddenly they fell behind and were a battling for 4th place team again. Chelsea built with no long term plan and it was not sustainable for them. If we do the same as Chelsea did any success will be short lived, and as we are not as rich as Chelsea we could end up worse than we were 2 years ago.
I knew it... Huzzah! This Is Anfield ‏@thisisanfield 3m NEW: Liverpool to announce Garuda Indonesia commercial deal http://dlvr.it/4nd4K1 #LFC
Garuda sounds like a South American C/DM, Vauxhall at times can be a flash winger and Dunkin' Donuts sounds like a LB in the same mould as Cissokho Ming Flano, Skerts, Sahko, Dunkin Garuda, Gerrard Suarez, Ford, Vauxhall Sturrdige Sorted
Apparently Benfica have announced that there young DM Andre Gomez has been sold for £15m but they have not said who to. Links suggest us and Chelsea. The players agent knows Mourinho. A Benfica forum post I just read described him as good potential, like Thiago Illori, but in need of match experience.
Hmm.. same amount is "rumoured" to be enough for someone like M'Vila who's on a few years older and played at the highest level? Again, until someone is leaning against a wall in Melwood, I'll believe it when I see it... By the looks of it, we may have to wait until the summer for these pictures...
Very true, but lets be honest, even if we did get top 4, there was a chance he'd be off, esp. if the likes of RM come calling again.
Can someone give me the gist of this mornings conversation in here please? Can't be arsed with reading it as there are a few long comments in there too #boringbatards
The point I was trying to make is that it is fine planning for the future but you still have to maintain a decent team, otherwise by the time the 2/3 players you bought as youngsters do make the grade they are playing in a crap mid table team and the first thing they will want is a transfer out. We have to maintain a team that can challenge for top 4, whilst still buying for the future. Difficult to get it right I know, and we do not know how many of our youngsters with potential will make the grade.
The Garuda deal must surely be something big. The owners can't be stupid enough to expect us to get excited about a standard sponsorship, especially after one of the worst transfer windows I've ever witnessed.
