http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/23620554 Etienne Capoue: Tottenham agree £9m deal for France midfielder BBC seem to think its confirmed. Hopefully this doesn't mean Sandro's injury problems are a long term concern.
Coentrao would be an insanely good signing. One of my favourite players for a number of years, when he left Benfica for Madrid I gave up hope. Really hope this happens. Capoue seems a decent signing but can't say I've seen enough of him. We sign one French midfielder who can possibly fill in at CB and everyone is happy as larry again. This time a week ago the world was ending and I was told I was naive for having faith in AVB / Levy / Baldini.
The answer, as strange as it may sound, seems to be that we don't want to watch sports. Americans watch sports in order to watch people dick around. There are five minutes of action in a typical four hour baseball and NFL game. We know participation is too much for most Americans. Apparently even vicarious participation is as well. We want to **** off while watching other people **** off. Be as many removes from action as possible. My reaction when I watched football with interest for the first time is: "Praise be to God they're playing a ****ing game...for minutes on end! It's a miracle." On the original topic: I really like the signing of Capoue. Sandro probably won't be back to full strength for a while, so we need a first rate DM. And the fact he can step in at CB in an emergency (like opening day) makes it killing two birds with one stone. If Bale stays we've got a squad that should challenge for second or third--except: they need time to gel, maybe considerable time. We're going to start the year with a bunch of strangers. Consider how much better Chelsea were at the end of the year than the beginning (though they were also adjusting to a new manager.) Finally, while I agree everyone has a right to their own opinions...IMO, we have one player who consistently tries to dribble the ball out from the back when we're under pressure (to be fair, Gallas tried to head it to a team mate, and Jan dribbles out at times). It's invaluable, because almost everyone else kicks it right back to the other team and lets the pressure continue to build.
everything that the british media have reported has been based on reports abroad though. Hopefully it's as close as we think it is. i don't think it's got anything to do with sandro, i think it's more about having cover for every position and not being significantly weaker when someone else has to step in.
This is proper ITK/Bollocks stuff but.. My mum works with someone who knows Gareth Bales mum and she is saying that "Gareth would not want to play football again if he is sold, he loves Tottenham" no lie, my mum spouted that the other day.
With the comma: Lorem parum est, et ceruicibus sumus Without the comma: Nos autem non sumus nimis prope est
Wonder if City would be interested in a swap deal involving Richards and Walker? He would be a good understudy to Zabaleta / rotations and offers more than Richards going forward which would suit City more than us. Richards I think would be better for us thanks for the fact he can play CB and is more sound defensively. City could also take the "risk" on Walker's potential as they have money to burn and Zaba to step in, where as I think we need someone more reliable in the here and now.
Richards seems to be struggling with injuries, which I think we have enough of. He only played 8 games last season.
That's a good point actually - Although wasn't that one longer injury rather than a few niggling ones? I was under the impression he was "recovering" hence only made a few substitute appearances. Could be wrong.
Too much criticism of walker for me. He had a much better second half of the season than the first. He's young and I think we will see him have a great year!
I really like Walker and think he's one of the best RBs around. My point was Richards, while not as good as Walker overall, is a little more consistent and can fill in at CB which is a major plus for us considering our injuries at the back.
I've been following one of the man city forums for fantasy football reasons and hes back in favour and most of the fans are confident he will be in with a chance of the RB spot as their new manager likes attacking full backs.
He really is good attacking. He really is a little dodgy defending. But he is young, and getting stick seemed to make him get down on himself. Part of the problem, maybe the biggest part, may have been AVB trying to get him to play in a more disciplined way (I'm guessing).
He has pace though and thats what our Defenders need,playing a high line,does Richards have that pace
I can't remember who said it, but I like the theory that (if the money isn't being spent against Bale being sold this year), it's being spent against either Bale getting sold next year, or CL money, because we're likely to have one or the other. And if we spend it this year, it's more likely to be the latter and not the former.
I love this quote from Perez Talking with ESPN Deportes TV, Perez appeared to send a message to Spurs that paying such an astronomical sum for Bale would be over the odds. "We talk with lots of people and we will see what happens in all our negotiations, with this player [Bale] and with others," Perez said. "We do not usually talk about other players out of respect to the player, the club and the president, with whom I made a good friendship last season during the signing of Luka Modric. (No you get your pathetic lap dogs to do your bullshitting) "If I do not talk about names, I do not talk about money. [But] €100 million seems a lot to me, a lot for everything. I do not talk about players nor money because I should not and cannot, out of respect." And as they say in the states money talks bullshit walks
Belgian press claiming that Barca have bid 27M for Vertonghen, you can quickly go off those Catalans. We could always demand Messi as part payment, that should make them run a mile.
