I'd rather we spent the money (approx £10-12M) on other areas of the team, such as a replacement for Fox, but who can also defend.
He would have to be insisting on a move which would force the price down a bit, but agreed it's not going to happen and there are far better players around for £12m plus he's on higher wages than we were paying in the PL.
It is nonsense I agree, but to say "we cannot afford him" is not correct. We just wouldn't be stupid enough to pay that sort of money, especially after getting our fingers burnt with RvW and to a lesser extent Hooper.
'technically' we could afford to buy him but 'technically' we could probably afford to buy andrea pirlo. what i meant is that he is on more than £40k a week at blackburn and we would have to blow our entire transfer budget simply to secure one player. with relegation clauses i would doubt any city player is going to be on more than £20k per week and those on that wage will likely leave, so in that respect, though we could afford to pay both his fee and wage, it would cripple the club and we know they won't do that, so we cannot afford him as he would never fit into our new wage structure.
I appreciate it's a little trite, but compared to five years ago we are undoubtedly fantastically well run from a "business of football" POV
Financially we are brilliantly structured and as a business we make money commercially so credit where it's due David McNally, in terms of general business decisions regarding the club playing football where a combination of common sense, ambition and realism is concerned I think we're absolutely woeful.
I fear the negativity of some supporters may well make the fight for promotion even more difficult. Of course it's everybody's right to voice their feelings, but there is one guy on the Pink'un site saying City supporters are too nice, and that we should start booing and demonstrating to get Adams out if things aren't going well after 10 matches! I can remember many doubts being raised when Dave Stringer was appointed manager for the 1987 First Division season with no previous management experience whatsoever. City were in the top two most of the season and eventually finished fourth and qualified for Europe (though it never happened because English teams were banned from Europe the following season). Let's give the guy a chance, FFS. As for Deeney, I think he could be a good acquisition should another striker leave and he'd bring something different to what we already have. At 25, he's coming into his prime and his scoring record has been good over the last two seasons for Watford. Lots of other teams apparently interested though. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troy_Deeney
Imagine a strike force of Hooper, RVW, Grabban and Deeney (or McCormack)!!! Goals galore! (Providing we sort out the problem outlined in my final paragraph! ) Of course Id fully expect RVW to be the man to leave rather than Becchio but if I had my way I would keep RVW (providing he wanted to stay and fight for his place). Opinion is very much divided on RVW but my lot is well and truely in the "the service, tactics and style of football provided for both he and Hooper were bloody terrible" camp.
There is more chance of England winning the World Cup than there is of that being our strike force next season
Don't be so harsh surely England winning the world cup is as likely as David McNally inventing a time machine going back in time and bringing a younger version of Grant Holt back to play in the team.
