We are building our squad, not our bank balance. None of this year's contracted signings will be leaving in the summer.
Maybe we could give some of the profit to Ipswich to help pay their cash strapped suppliers before Xmas. Everyone keeps telling me that ME is one of the richest people in the UK though. So maybe not.
Sorry, thought I'd posted it http://www.sportsdirectnews.com/pre...wich-serie-a-pair-eye-canaries-midfielder.php I doubt we'd sell, but I'm not the slightest bit surprised to see others are interested.
4mil was an absolute steal wasn't it? Prices are always inflated in January so it would have to be a lot if we did sell as he is clearly our player of the season so far
£12m sounds like a lot of money, but it isn't much if City get relegated after he leaves in January (as the article suggests - not the summer). I couldn't see any of those teams stumping up that much money, and even if they did, City would be mad to let him go. Speculative journalism, IMO.
If scouts have been watching him recently they would of had a mixed bag of performances where he has been good (West Ham, Newcastle and West Brom) with matches his been poor (Palace and Liverpool).
Unfortunately our club will always be in this position for the foreseeable. The bigger clubs will come sniffing around our unearthed gems. Until we are in a position to invest in keeping and adding to the real class players, we will have to be prepared for them to move on, albeit at considerable profit to us. We just need to be one step ahead and be ready to replace said player with the next unearthed gem!
Selling him for 12m would be a false economy in my opinion. There are signs that we can build our team around him and Howson in midfield and long-term that must be worth more than 12m.
I agree, but ultimately it's the players choice, not the clubs. And if a bigger club with more money and promises of brighter lights come along, it's hard for us to keep hold of them. All we can do is promise investment in better players and better times. Along with more money of course.
Etuhu and Francis were sold and we went down, the club is very solvent now so Leroy will not be sold it so we will have a Holland international at the World cup after that who knows?.
Not really worthy of a separate thread, so I'll put it here. John Ruddy got the 'WhoScored?' player of the weekend award: http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2013/dec/10/premier-league-bundesliga-tactics-west-brom
The long term future of the club will very probably depend on being able to sell players for profits and will remain a necessary process. It is very difficult to imagine a scnario where it is not the case. Ever increasing wage demands, financing ground expansion will mean we need to cash in on some players.
I'd like to think that we can keep all the players bought this summer at least until January 2015. I think by then Fer will be a real top quality operator in that midfield. I also see Hooper banging in the goals from here til the end of the season, he's such a clinical finisher, one of the best I've seen at Norwich. The jury is obviously still out on RvW with his slow start and then the injury. I really hope him and Hooper form a good understanding. Then there is Redmond who you'd expect tone right at the top in a few years if he can sort out his final ball, but then that's something all young players seem to struggle with.
The offer, irrespective of the value should be dismissed out of hand as a sign of our intent. Fer has become one of the first names to be inked in on the team sheet and is currently central to us rising up the table. As Dave has said the words F and O to Napoli
