No it's not though. As Commolli said, the landscape has changed since the sale of Luis, and Barca's previous record of just coming up and taking whoever they want from the Prem on the cheap, including the likes of Henry, Masch, Faberagas, etc. We are now comfortably well off, they are financially over-extended. Plus, even if Ford has the hump until September, when the window closes he'll have to get on with things as it's WC year. All that said, the more of that £198m we can get the better (and they can still **** off with the £100m being quoted in the Mail today), and £130m would be impossible to turn down if, as I say, we invest it in the ground. Wonder what the chances are for a deadline day day deal for Mata for @ £20m? He'd more than do for a year.
Gut instinct is he's a quiet lad and even if he wants to go he'll wait a year due to lateness in pre season. Depends on his agent as well I suppose.
No, not on that showing. I suppose he could have just been having an off night, but he did himself no favours there.
Way I look at it. If there's an equivalent available now surely Barca would be sniffing there too. I haven't heard so I'm assuming there's not. We can't keep not resisting as you say. It just tells players they should go once they hit a competitive level because we aren't really interested in comp
Deffo. I don't see him going into a strop - he looks like he's sulking even when he's happy so he's got nowhere to go on that one. Even if he wants the move, I expect him to just get on with it when it's definitely out of the question.
That's true. But we know how media will twist it to make it look like he isn't happy and wants away. Ie suarez goal celebration he always did of kissing hand.
Once the Neymar deal was settled, we were bound to come under pressure to sell Couthino. With £198m cash available to spend, the question is not whether Barca will get him but for how much? I read in the papers that the Barcelona management are now under huge pressure to make one (or two) big signings. FSG will see even a £100m bid as a massive offer/profit that they can't turn down. Waiting for a year will have risks for the owners. What happens if he has a bad season or gets an injury? And his value drops to a more realistic £60-70m. This is a loss of £40m which is not insignificant. If I was a betting man, I would bet he is going (if the bookies are prepared to give odds on this).
Hoping the Suarez thing actually helps. Despite acting up he had to wait a year and it didn't hurt his Barca career at all. Hopefully Couts if he's adamant at going just arranged the same deal but without the fuss and behind closed doors. Allow club to find a replacement calmly.
Or we could grow some and hold out for £135m. Selling at £100m represents a £35m loss just as much as not selling him now and risking 'a more realistic' £70m. But, as the bar has been set in the last year at £100m for Carlton Pogba, and £90m+ for Lukheskey suggests that fears of £70m being a 'realistic' price for Ford is poppycock.
I thought he was decent defensively. Snapping into tackles and getting around players quickly to block and win the ball back
We all know the price for players depends on how desperate the buyers are to fill a need. Pogba and Lukaku are worth nowhere near the price paid. I would say £50m-£60m would have been more realistic prices for them. I hope you are right but the price that Barca will offer is because they are desperate. IMO if they manage to get another player to plug the Neymar gap this season, they won't be so desperate to get our player and they won't offer a high price. Not such a bad thing for Klopp and the fans but for FSG may be they'll think they would have missed an opportunity to make a killing.
It's the last sentence I'd disagree with. Ok, in the real world £100m is an obscene amount of money, but in the hermetically-sealed fantasy world of football it no longer is. Basically the top clubs are now playing pass the parcel with the same huge wodge of money. No matter how much we get for him, it's not a killing if we then have to spend it to compensate.
Good point. Let's hope that FSG feel the need to compensate and keep the players quality high. But in the new world, the difference in ability between a £70m player and a £40m one may be very small IMO. It all takes two big clubs or a desperate club bidding for a player or an unwilling seller and suddenly there is premium of £30-40m.
http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/spor...lo-ancelotti-praises-liverpool-after-13419448 Apart from injured keeper Manuel Neuer, it was close to a full strength Bayern line-up that Liverpool swept aside. “Of course we are #worried,” Ancelotti said. Ancelotti's pre-game praise for LFC was just about making deluded Kopites swoon though @Tobes @moreinjuredthanowen ?
