Summer 2013 Transfer Rumour Thread - Mk2

Is it like Mikey said and you still have the old Saints head on?

 

How much would you have to pay Higuain in wages though? Transfer fee isn't half of the story.

 

Not at all, if I did I'd be so excited at being linked with a high profile player that I'd ignore that it might not be great business.

Probably not a whole lot more than we'd have to pay Damiao. I don't buy into the idea that we keep everyone on small wages etc, that's nice to think about but nobody high profile would join us if it was true.

 

Probably because his name is "Fred". Not really the kind of name that City normally go for!

 

The problem is that as a smaller team ambitiously clutching at players above our level we will always have to overpay for a player more regularly than we will get a bargain, sure Isco and Higuain are going for that amount but there is not a snowman's chance in hell we would get anywhere near those players so it's fairly irrelevant. The important question is whether or not there is a better player available to us (Struggling to think of any personally), not even if there's a slightly worse player for half the fee, I think that for Cortese 2nd best is not good enough and that is the mentality he is trying to install. If Damiao has been highlighted as the best player we can get then how ever much it takes to get him that is how much he is worth, if we are conservative and go for safer options, then that will be the kind of club we become.

The fee gives me a little bit of vertigo too but if that's what it takes then so be it. Personally not sold on us needing a striker at all but if we are set on one then I want the bestestest one evah!

 

If we sign Damiao, I guarantee Higuain will be earning at least twice as much. Though you're right of course about the general idea of keeping everyone on relatively low wages.

 

Fred has signed for Shakhtar, yes, but he's like 21 and is a winger.

 

Just had a read of some articles, most of which are claiming Arsenal are going to pay around £125,000 a week to Higuain. I can't see us paying that kind of salary to Damiao, maybe £80ish, who knows. I really wish Cortese would give me a call and discuss things with me.

 

it turns out a different Brazilian named Fred just signed for them

 

That's the crux of the issue, and where he and I differ, and what the transfer is all about. Of course, he knows running a football club better than I do and I'm not claiming otherwise, but we're all allowed our own little disagreements otherwise there'd be nothing to talk about.

Of course, there's also the worry that he just won't be good enough. How many people were getting excited about the prospect of Jo a few years ago? But hey, that applies to every transfer (if more significantly with Damiao).

 

I've just had a horrible thought.......

Godders must be due back off his holidays soon, he's going to be pissed with all these new posts and no new signings, quick Nicola.......

 

The Sun saws Shaw will sign a 5yr contract on 25k per week.

 

Of course, I wasn't suggesting otherwise.

Personally if I had two buttons in front of me and one resulted in us completing our transfer window with Lovren, Wanyama and Banega for £25m and the other was Lovren, Wanyama, Banega and Damiao for £45m, I'd be chuffed to bits with either in reality but push come to shove would press the former. Whether that's right or wrong I don't know but that's my gut, although remove one of Wanyama or Banega from the latter deal and it becomes more of a pickle. The main problem for me is overstretching ourselves, doing too much too quickly can cause you take one step forwards and two steps back. Lovren was a must-have, Wanyama and Banega would strengthen us greatly but I'm happy with a striker trio of old Rickie, understudy JRod and talented-but-raw Mayuka competing for one spot, throw in a hit-or-miss-coming-off-an-injury £20m Brazilian and I get a little bit queasy. I worry that the attraction of Damiao is too much about wow-factor and not enough about football, but then I ask myself the question I posed earlier, 'Who could we realistically get who's better?' and I am really drawing a blank. Then again if you'd ask me that question a week ago and proffered Damiao as a possible answer I would have laughed...

I worry this is transforming from 'coherent post' to 'stream of consciousness' haha, I'm really getting myself into quite a higgledy-piggledy over a transfer that's quite unlikely to happen, I could easily see us ending the summer with none of those three players...



... I'd really forgotten how painful the transfer window was...

 

I do agree with you for the most part, Mikey. The only one I can think of who'd be better than Damiao is Osvaldo, but he's older with a very questionable character and clearly not interested anyway, which puts me at a blank. Still, the sooner this window ends the better.

 

25 grand seems kone hell of a pay rise, think of the new sterio and rims he could buy for his mk2 Escort. The sun also calls him a wonder kid several times, he is good but that's going abit far.

 

If being first-choice in your position for a top-half () premier league team doesn't make you a wonder kid I don't know what does.

 

I would really enjoy telling people we signed Damiao for 20 million and he plays for Saints! Ultimately though, I think I'd enjoy that aspect a little bit more than Damiao actually playing for Saints. Which means that deep-down I guess I think we'd be spending too much. I feel a bit the same about Banega. Like the idea of him more than the actual reality.

I'd feel a (perhaps slightly guilty) excitement if we signed either of them, so certainly wouldn't complain if it happened. But if we don't get them, I'd also breathe a small sigh of relief. So kinda win-win for me. I like the idea AND the reality of Wanyama though. Still prefer him if we can get him on our terms.

 

Reports in today's press seem to be linking Hooper (Celtic) with a £4-5m move to Norwich or QPR(why?)
For an English, Champions League experienced, regular goal scorer that seems an absolute bargain to me and surely would add depth to our front line (sell or loan Mayuka)

 

Long-time PTF target Simon Kjær has gone to Lille for just €2m

 

Is that the lad we were linked to last summer?