The buyout is largely irrelevant, but Porto do see reluctant to let him go and he seems pretty overpriced for someone that's only really done it in Portugal. Can't see it, to be honest.
The buyout is relevant to the point that it's in Porto's hands as to whether they will sell, as no one would realistically meet the buyout least of all Spurs. Porto want to keep him so it's never going to happen. More nonsense from the fail.
Me neither but he has been very impressive for them in Europe also. I think he'd be worth the money at around £35mill but I doubt there's any truth to it.
Why would Man City want him. Surely they have enough strikers, given they usually only play one in the team?
I think Mancini said the otherday that he still needs 2 or 3 players. No idea why but perhaps he feels he needs a player who can play wide in a 4-3-3.
He might need to replace Tevez, as he still looks to have his mind set on a move. Having said that, I think that Aguero is his replacement... Maybe he wasn't impressed with his side's display during the Community Shield? They obviously haven't spent enough money!
Being a grumpy old man anyway its really easy to get me going whenever Citeh are mentioned! If they buy up all the strikers, at what point is it anti-competitive? And how stupid are these new strikers, do they not care that unless the unusual 2-2-6 formation is used most of them aren't going to be playing very often? Or don't they care? Also they could theoretically buy a load of players then lend them to multiple premier league clubs. Since those players couldn't play against Citeh, they would effectively be playing for the benefit of Citeh without being in the team... in other words they have effectively got round the limitations of the 11 man team! Yes I know we had/have players on loan to other premier league teams but I'm starting to believe in principle its wrong to lend to teams in the same league. Anyway, here's to Citeh imploding at some point. I find it unlikely all those players (for which you could read "egos") are going to be stay happy. ... and don't get me started on their 'fair play' sponsorship deal from Etihad (sp?). NB I have nothing against the pre-takeover City supporter, just those that seem to think they have some kind of right to their billions and their lofty position (which we effectively gave them I would argue). How long before we hear on the phone-ins City supporters with less than Manchester accents!
I'm starting to agree with this too. Although we're loaning players that we want to sell but can't find a buyer so loan them out as a last resort with a view to the clubs buying them. As for City, I'm sure they would find a way around it as they have with everything else.
A very interesting point has been brought up. City could in theory loan players to teams who aren't a direct threat to them that would improve such teams unless playing City (using City as an example due to having a squad of about 50 internationals!!). For example, they could loan say Adam Johnson to a Sunderland type club. AJ playing for Sunderland would improve them and give them a greater chance of taking points off Arsenal, Chelsea, Spurs, United etc. Yet when City play them, AJ couldn't play making Sunderland slightly easier to beat for City. You could say there is room here for the current system to be abused. I personally don't believe you should be able to loan players to clubs in the same league as you (even though my club has done this also).
I think that if started looking like a club was doing that, then the other members of the premier league would quickly put a stop to it. It wouldn't be in their interests to let another club flagrantly abuse the system in that way.
When you have as much money at your disposal as Citeh, there's a lot of room to abuse the syatem. They could, for example, buy players just take them off the market, and keep them away from their rivals. I don't think that a lot of people realise just how much money we are talking about, here. It's not millions - it's not even a few billion. It's hundreds of billions, running into trillions. The rest of us.(Chelsea included) can only hope that UEFA's new FFP rules actually have some teeth and can, at least to some extent, create a slightly more level playing field. If not, then English, and European, football will be the loser.
That's a very fair point!! Imagine if he actually had the bottle to send City out to win games...worrying.
