Not that you needed any but ha'way. Chelsea are reportedly keen on signing Fiorentina left-back Marcos Alonso. According to The Telegraph, the Blues have opened talks with the Serie A club, who are demanding £21m for the 25-year-old. That seems like an awful lot of money for a player who failed to make a big impact on the Premier League during spells with Bolton Wanderers and Sunderland not so long ago. However, Alonso is still young and is coming off the back of a fine season in which he helped his side to fifth place in Serie A. Furthermore, looking at Alonso’s stats, he actually did much better at Bolton and Sunderland than people give him credit for. Despite playing for two prime relegation candidates, Alonso was on the winning team in 11 of his 25 Premier League appearances. That gives him an overall Premier League win percentage of 44%, which is bloody good. To put that into context, Chelsea only picked up maximum points in 12 of their 38 matches last season, given the Blues a win percentage of 31.58%. So, Marcos Alonso is officially better that Chelsea. Officially
What's even more bonkers is that our neighbours are hoping to sign 33 year old Daryl Murphy for £5 million...now that IS totally bonkers.
It is bonkers but it does highlight how badly run our club is. We could have signed Alonso for a third of that fee but chose no to. Also we sold Alfred N'Diaye for £2m but he was sold on to Villa real for £6m. No wonder we have accumulated so much debt
I dont agree with the part that says he never made an impact in the Prem. He was quality for us. He even got motm on his debut against Man U. He was a kid when he was at Bolton so that doesnt count. If we had money to burn like Chelski i certainly wouldnt complain if we paid 20m for him. Its a shame cause i always hoped hed come back to us when he left Fiorentina.
I've been banging on about signing Alonso for ages but I gave up when there was no indication it would happen. I'm not sure who I'd have out of him and PVA for first choice LB mind, Alonso's a safer pair of feet but less exciting.
Id have Alonso any day of the week over Pva. Id even have him over Danny Rose and he was also quality for us. Alonso loved it here and even indicated hed like to stay when his loan finished. Well probably sign him when hes 33 and play him upfront.
The lad loved it here as well. He's always on Twitter etc when we were in the Derby's etc. Was gutted we never signed him, miles better all round than PVA.
He is better than PVA to be honest but I've got a bit of a soft spot for him, think he'll be a great player for us.
He wanted to come back, they were keen to sell but he improved dramatically here and when he went back for pre-season they realised and kept him. He's not anywhere close to £21million that's absolutely ludicrous frankly, but he's a very good player and I'd have loved him back, good defender as well as getting forward. We all know PVA could play further forward as he's direct with very good feet, crossing and shooting. We've said before and it stands, he could be a top winger if he did some skill training.
My interpretation ob football bonkers is paying somebody to take an international keeper when you pay a repored 14m for an average keeper who is good at being a sweeper keeper.
