I'm not doubting his ability, I've seen the snippets of him playing. I'm just surprised to hear his name again connected with us, we were seemingly going to be outpriced in the last TW, so I kind of switched off about him. He still can't talk about us without mentioning PSG. Someone pulled me up for mentioning Leonardo at the time, saying Ancellotti was manager, he is, but I had to leave it as the poor guy didn't know who CA's DoF is!
Personally, I suspect that this guy is the real deal, as it were. I think Internacional know it, and are trying to cash in for as much as they can get. Can't blame them I suppose. They got him to sign a new contract last summer. So, I think he's under contract till 2016 or something. The problem for us is that top strikers are like gold dust - only more expensive!!
Hi everybody, First ever post!! For me Damiao appears to be a quality player, shame we didn't get him last season when he was much cheaper. Is anyone else concerned about the effect of squad harmony? I think we have one of the best squads in the league, but I think it is the blend of players that has made us so effective this season. I think we need a Gk and a CB more than another striker. COYS
Welcome Babdolla ( might have to ask you to explain that one?) whilst I would agree that we will obviously need a longer term replacement keeper, we most certainly do need a top quality striker. There is no guarantee that Ade will be with us after the end of the season, or that Saha will stay fit for more than 5 minutes. That would leave us well short of serious firepower.
Welcome, always good to see a new face...as such! Damaio - I feel his agent may have scuppered any chance of a cheap deal, convincing him to stay in Brazil and see their season out, its about 6 months out of synch with ours. I also read he signed a new deal...with an expensive release clause no doubt...funny that! Squad harmony, it didn't show v Toon, bit early to tell, the next couple of PL games will tell us all we need to know because of the opposition, Goons and United. I'm delighted the FA have been so quiet, and Harry's finally run out of things to say! GK yes, CB not so sure, too many ifs atm, Ledley? Steven Caulker? I still say a striker is more urgent, 2 of our 3 are loanees!
Nothing to explain really, it was my old champ manager name... I needed a name I wouldn't forget! You have to pay top money for a striker 25m plus success is never guaranteed, I still remember Rebrov! I hope that Ade will sign permanently (and cheaply) but what are the chances that he continues to play at his current level? He's never been that consistent. If we continue to play with 1 striker holding up for VDV, Bale and Lennon supporting why go and buy another? We already have Defeo as back up, he wont want to stay long in that role, regardless of how much Harry rates him. Buy Ade or loan him for another season, keep Defeo as backup for 1 more season and then we could buy a quality young goalkeeper (Rene Adler?) and new cb and still have money left over. This way VDV,Bale and Lennon can continue to tear defenses apart.
Welcome Babdolla We certainly need another younger keeper who can challenge BF for the first team position. We don't need another CB - we have Leds, Kaboul, Daws, and Gallas as well as Nelson this season and Caulker to feature next year. That's more than enough in terms of quantity and quality. We do need another striker, whether or not Ade is here next year. Damiao would be a good option but as mentioned above I think that maybe the 'cat being out of the bag' will put the mockers on this option. Squad unity is vital and everything I see suggests that the current squad is very much together (although it's much easier to be happy when winning and getting lavish praise.) Many would have thought that Ade would have had a negative impact - and this has proved not to be the case as he is clearly popular with fans, teammates and management alike. Agree with Notso that the next 2 games will give us a better idea of that unity - especially if things don't go as well as hoped.....
I think we may try for Remy again in the summer - I think our interest was serious in Jan! I don't see Ade signing permanently...
What if we brought in Leandro and Remy in the summer? How much would we have to inflate the fees for Bentley, Jenas, Khumalo, GDS and Gomes to break even?
Doing a bit of mental arithmatic, we'd get... GDS - £4-6m Bentley - £5-8m Jenas - £2m Gomes - £6m Khumalo - £1m That's about half what it would probably take to bring Leandro and Remy into the club - and that may well be the majority of our summer budget. In other words, we probably won't be meeting Newcastle's valuation for Tim Krul, so will be looking elsewhere for a new keeper...
We surely have some cash left over from last seasons CL run? The way I see it we stick or twist. Twist and buy a striker (thinking about it we do need another) and get rid of some dead wood or stick and hope that we reproduce the same form as this season again.
We need to have a bit of a clear out, but we should have plenty of money available, assuming we secure a top 4 spot. We made quite a large profit on player sales this season and we could still make some more, too.
The latest one we've been linked to is Nikolay Mihaylov of Twente. Because the last keeper we signed from a Dutch team worked out for all involved, didn't it?
Mihaylov was at Liverpool for several years, before they let him join Twente for a relatively small fee. Parallels with Friedel, I guess, but I think we're just being linked with any young keeper that's on form, at the moment.
We've been linked to Jack Butland, Brum's third-choice keeper, currently doing a decent job at Cheltenham (he wasn't in goal for our 3-0, before anyone asks) and has been capped for England U16s, U17s, U19s, U20s, and U21s. Doubtless he'll soon be compared to Joe Hart...
