I know what you mean, and you raise some good points, but I just can't see Delph holding down any sort of position at Man C and as a result his career will stagnant, he'll lose his England position and will regress as a player. Yes he'll have more money and be at a better/more successful club, but IMO as UiR says it'll have killed his career.
United are reportedly close to completing Schweinsteiger and Schneiderlin deals. I have to say that both of them are tremendous players and if they get a striker, they will definitely be in contention for the title. I really hope Wenger has got someone lined up in that defensive midfield position and doesn't rely on Coquelin to remain fit for the whole season. We NEED another holding midfielder.
Wouldn't have thought united would get Schniederlin too...thought them signing Schweinsteiger would mean that you lot had a clear run at signing Schniederlin
Still need to sort out the CBs tbh. Add that to your list and still a way to go before being able to challenge. Midfield options will be fcking tremendous though
Haven't Jones and Smalling recently signed new deals? I feel it's unlikely you're going to significantly strengthen in that position and the Ramos reports seemed to have cooled down. Schneiderlin and Schweinsteiger are both very good players who will improve you no end. But would that spell the end of Fellaini? What would happen to Mata? You still have Herrera and Carrick too. How would you keep them all happy?
I think the plan is for Jones or Smalling to partner a better CB who will offer a bit of leadership at the back. God knows we need it. Add to that playing in CL and I can understand why we're keeping them. Re Fellaini, lets hope so. He did a job for us given the task last season but he's simply not good enough. Cant stand him tbh but was willing to give him credit where it was due. The others will be interesting. If you're asking me, I want Herrera and Mata to start every game. Then it's a toss up for the holding role between Schwein/Carrick (both injury prone recently) and/or Schneiderlin.
Hmmm. Either the BBC aren't as reliable as we thought or Delph has done a massive U-turn. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/33494840
It's very strange isn't it? All the noises saying he's going to sign, he's going to have a medical, then the BBC trumpeting that he has signed and now apparently it's off and Delph is staying with Villa. Very weird (unless Delph read my and UiR's posts on here and decided it wasn't the best move...)
To be honest, I would understand whatever decision he made regardless. But, as you say, the sequence of events is very bizarre. Some people are claiming that Lerner's going to sell the club and they'll get new ownership so that may have played a part? Or maybe his wife was settled in Birmingham? I guess we'll never truly know, but at least he'll be guaranteed regular football at Villa.
I heard it was the thought of Nasri welcoming him to the club with a couple of kisses on the cheek that put him off...
Sterling going to join Man City for £49m! Outrageous sum of money. I still can't understand why City were so willing to fork out that much for him when he's not fully proven himself yet in the Prem and is only 20 years of age. That being said, he is still one of the most talented young players in Europe and he is being sold to another English club. Nevertheless, I think these inflated fees are becoming problematic for the future of football...ridiculous amounts of dosh being spent by clubs. Needs to be a cap at some point otherwise they are going to spiral out of control!
They will spunk it on Benteke most likely, reports that we could be in for him have been denied thankfully
Wow just wow, £49m for Sterling is a great bit of business from Liverpool. City are a bunch of mugs and pool took them to the cleaners. But totally agree Brunel gooner, there needs to be some sort of cap, players are going for insane sums of money nowadays!
The problem is that Dyke's ridiculous Home grown law is only going to increase the insane premium on English players, meaning increasingly huge transfer fees on average to good english players. When the issue is that English players need to be encouraged to play abroad to gain new skills/experiences and broaden the player pool.
And people thought we were mad to spend £42m on Ozil ! Ozil is light years ahead of Sterling in terms of quality and skill. City are just continuing their trend of throwing as much cash at the wall and hoping some sticks. Crass and very undignified in my opinion.
And Sanchez was.bought for £35m who is in a completely different universe to one season wonder Sterling. He isn't worth no more than £20-25m max and I'm being generous. As I said earlier, it was a great bit of business, for a player who hasn't proved it yet.
About £10m of that goes to QPR so the rest will go on Benteke and some youngsters that no one has heard of I guess.