It might require another Modric-style signing, Roo.
Someone who's not quite broken into the big time, but who other clubs aren't willing to take a risk on.
Edit: Nuri Sahin doesn't seem to have been given a chance at Real and if they signed Modric, then he'd be pushed back even more.
He seems very highly rated by a lot of people, though I'm not particularly familiar with him.
I agree PNP. I like the idea of this.
However, when we signed modric, it was an expensive buy, for someone that no one knew anything about. - and it's been a good buy, thank goodness.
Now that we're going to potentially be on the receiving end of a 30-40mill deal, we have to buy someone that everyone's heard of, at least. even if it's someone who's been good abroad and got to prove themselves in the prem, or might be out of form, or might be "known" to have potential... it's just got to be someone that football fans know.
top quality players generally come with a premium. to replace Luka properly, it's very very likely to cost us a decent chunk of that cash, even if we go down the route I mentioned above.
we've built so much in recent years, the club must make some sort of statement with his replacement.
otherwise, again, we will look like the club who just sells it's best players. (although we're getting better at covering it up)