Lets just call it all off, you guys keep Siggy, we have Ben and Vorm. Lets forget it all ever happened, ta
I might have come to this late but let's see if I can clarify. There are two separate issues here: the national team that you are qualified to play for and the league that nurtured you. So there is the issue of whether you play for the national team of England, Italy, France etc and separate to that is the issue of whether your footballing education took place in The EPL, Serie A or Ligue 1 etc. The criteria for the two things are different. To qualify for playing for England you need basically to be English in some form or other (English parents, British passport (?), being a naturalised citizen of England etc). The criteria for where your footballing education took place (whether or not you are "homegrown" for the sake of the rules about how club's squads cannot have more than 17 non-home-grown players in their squads for the EPL) are that a home-grown player is someone who, "irrespective of his nationality or age, has been registered with any club affiliated to the Football Association or the Football Association of Wales for a period, continuous or not, of three entire seasons or 36 months prior to his 21st birthday (or the end of the Season during which he turns 21)". Gylfi Sigurdsson is Icelandic. So internationally he plays for Iceland. However, he moved to English football very young and as such spent 36 months in the English leagues prior to his 21st birthday. As such English clubs can claim him as "home-grown" when it comes to the limit of 17 non-home-grown players in the squad. If you want you could think that as far as international football goes he is a foreigner (and not qualified to play for England) but as far as club football goes he's sort of, kind of English. Ish. Does that help?
No, because i already fully understand it. Its other people not understanding my point that is the problem, and i fully accept that is probably my diabolical skills at the english language
**** me, is this still going on ? For what it's worth spurm, for once, i understood your point perfectly.
Sigurdsson's official, from their end: http://www.swanseacity.net/news/article/gylfi-joins-1777692.aspx Our OS confirmed it too, plus Davies and Vorm coming to us: http://www.tottenhamhotspur.com/news/deal-for-swansea-duo-agreed-230714/
Anyone else see the stat that Real Madrid's front three of Bale, Rodriguez and Ronaldo cost more in transfer fees than Ajax have paid for all of their transfers throughout their entire history? Not checked the numbers but that's astounding if true.
Who'd have saw that coming?! Ben Davies and Michel Vorm are Spurs players... Blimey that's a shock! Best of luck to Gylfi, I didn't really want us to sell him but I'm happy for him that at Swansea he'll get guaranteed first team football and be a "main man" there. Fantastic pro and a great player on his day, wish him all the best. Fair to say both clubs can be fairly happy with today's dealings.
Yeah it's definitely a strange one, though not that I'm complaining. A player of his calibre to challenge and compete with Hugo will be awesome.
He was faced with a similar situation at Swansea, though. Flapianski signing basically pushed him down the pecking order. I'm sure other teams would've shown interest in him for the supposed price, though. From what he's saying, I think that he expects to get plenty of game time in the cups. Could be true, as long as we progress in them.
There was a rumour before we were even linked with Vorm that Flapianski joined Swansea as an initial replacement for him due to a couple of teams lurking around and showing interest (which clearly never materialised), so I suppose he had a choice of Swansea's or Spurs's benches, with us having Europa football to offer and no doubt a pay rise, no brainer for the bloke really.
Delighted the deal has gone through, Vorm is a superb signing as a second choice 'keeper and I can't wait to see what Davies can bring us, he's been a player I've always enjoyed watching at Swansea. Hopefully we can get another experienced centre back sorted soonish and then wait for a mad deadline day going for big signings, like when we signed VDV.
"so I suppose he had a choice of Swansea's or Spurs's benches, with us having Europa football to offer and no doubt a pay rise, no brainer for the bloke really" Well if the first half of the season repeats 2013-14, Vorm will be getting at least 10 cup games to play in before mid December.
I think he was nailed on for Liverpool and that is why we signed Fabianski, but Reina not joining Napoli and going back effectively killed that move and then we were stuck with three keepers (personally I'd have kept him as our number 1). He's been a great keeper for us and deserves the chance to take that next step up in class and secure his family financially with the last serious contract. As for Ben, play him on the wing, we all know what happens when you put a welsh left back on the wing Hopefully they can both make the step up except against us of course
"As for Ben, play him on the wing, we all know what happens when you put a welsh left back on the wing" All welshmen must play on the left for Spurs. Tis one of our commandments.