Lots of rumours of us signing him this summer fron Porto. 25yrs old, Midfielder, had United after him not long ago but chose Porto. Has a €50m clause in his contract so is obviously highly rated! Think we'd have to pay £10m+ for hin but what a signing it would be! Can you see it happening? Excited much?
A lot of this is cut and paste from the original story, which did seem to be serious. I can't see it happening, but then I never thought RvW would happen either!
Unless Porto are skint why would they sell him? I can't imagine that we would be able to offer the kind of wage increase he would be looking for but if he is looking to put himself in the shop window in the Prem then he could do worse than be the main man for us for a season or two before he gets the big money move somewhere else. I would love this to have some substance (and it is a lot more fun thinking about players of this quality rather than who we can nick from League 1) but I can't see him coming here unless there is something on the cards we are aware of. I suppose given the huge amount of cash we are coming in to we probably should be looking at pushing the boat out and increasing the wage structure to attract this quality of player as long as it is structured so that we have survival bonuses and relegation cuts in salary we will not be risking the future of the club.
this would be an awesome signing. sounds like ewan chester and co have been spending a lot of time in portugal. personally, i can't see it happening - porto are about to win the domestic title, so champions league awaits for him. maybe ricky could persuade him to join?
I dont see us being able to sign Defour, but I didnt think we could get RVW either. Players like this would be the start of us moving to bigger and better things.
Would love this to be true, this guy is awesome! Would fit nicely into our current formation but even better could prob do the DM job on his own freeing up another attacking option......as mentioned previous posts financially could cost a hell of alot plus would he turn down CL football???
Quality his obviously highly regarded, but does anyone know what his vision and passing range is like?
I think that's why we're likely to be looking abroad, we probably doubled Ricky's wages too. However, the problem will be that nearly every other team in the Prem could too. Whoever we sign I don't think there'll be too much speculation beforehand, as if other clubs realise certain players are available we could well lose out.
that's how we stole a march on ricky, getting in there early before anyone else and outside of the transfer window €600k is peanuts in the prem, even for us - around £10k per week.
I think this is exactly the sort of wage we are going to be able to beat, massively. I have no doubt that McNally will still (fortunately!) keep the budget in tight control, but such is the new money coming in we are still going to have no problem, in wage terms only, of attracting this sort of player. I agree about our scouting - it sounds to me a bit like (and I have no evidence at all), if there is any substance to it, there is a distinct strategy in our scouting now. We have obviously accepted that we simply don't have the developed, Europe-wide scouting system of longer standing Prem clubs and so it sounds like Norwich might have identified a country (Portugal) where we have financial clout and may be able to lure some of the best players from. There is no sense looking all over Europe - much better to start very focused in a relatively small area like Portugal. Simply because of our wage offers and the chance to play Prem football, we may well be able to pick off players at Europa League/Champions League clubs who are really struggling to make the first team (as sounds to be the case here) or players who are at big clubs that are struggling (like RvW). We may have identified Portugal because they are struggling financially. Other teams have picked France - if this speculation is true, I am glad we have gone somewhere a little alternative. Porto would also be willing to sell because if we offer a decent price for a bench-warmer, why not sell? I can't imagine their finances are particularly great, judging by the rest of their league, though of course that is a complete guess. Anyway, pure speculation, but I think it holds some water and is a nice thought!
good post rob, and you could be right on the portugal strategy. might also cover spain as well as geographically close. i didn't realise that he had only played 40 odd times over 2 seasons for porto, per wiki, so clearly some time on the bench or injured. also 30-odd appearances for Belgium. these are exactly the type of players we should be looking at
He had a very serious injury a couple of seasons ago, but obviously has overcome it. We maybe monitoring him, but I really can't see us getting him. This maybe one step too far! But you never know, especially now!
I would say not a chance guys, sorry. Obviously if we get him I'll be delighted, but he's a really classy midfielder. Great passing, sits deep and controls the game a bit, easily Champions League quality. If he move, I'd be surprised if it wasn't to Liverpool/Spurs hope it happens though!
Completely agree, probably out of our reach. Wouldn't be surprised if we perhaps enquired about him, but can't see him really being interested.
Yeah, I think whilst we all said something similar about Ricky, in this case I really can't see lightning striking twice. If we bring anyone else in of the same quality/price as Ricky I'll be very surprised.
We better move quick mind you, before Chelsea (Mourinho) or Spurs (AVB) snap up Moutinho for €30m, might not need to sell then...
Porto have signed a player to play in the similar role as defour ready for next season and some believe it's to replace him. Also, when they signed him it was part of a double signing where the other player has gone on to be one of there best players yet defour hasn't gone on to fill his boots. If we didn't have a chance then why would even bother trying to sign him, there must be something not right for us to even contemplate a signing like defour.
Fun though this speculation is as far as I am aware nobody at either club have suggested that there is a grain of truth in it. Personally I would not be shocked if we picked up a couple of marque signings as there is no point in buying squad players if the first team is not strong enough to do more than attempt another fight against relegation. This is the season where we need to kick on. We now have some financial clout even relative to some of our peers due to our lack of debt and this being our third season in the Prem and we need to use this to improve the squad.
