Left wing or striker. Hasn't been given a squad number for the season - Tito has selected Cuenca and the returning Afellay ahead of him it seems. Good finisher and pace.
Because when City come calling, clubs think 'oh ****, our player will want to leave now', or alternatively, the player hears about the interest and says he wants to leave - lowering the price City pay. Saying that, they will still pay higher fees than most do.
That's normally only the case if the player is running low on his contract. Can you give a few examples where City/Chelsea have paid less rather than more on a player? I'm honestly struggling to think of any in recent times...
According to transfermarkt we have a net spend of 3.03m so far this summer, which suggests to me that we're definitely going to buy a few more players - there's no way either the owners or Rodgers are naive enough to think we can progress up the table by spending 3m... Look out for some more 10-20m signings; I think there could be a couple more left in the transfer kitty.
I think I said around the £17m mark on that net spend prediction thread, unless we sell one or two then I think only one big (by which I mean over £10m) will come in.
If we don't get rid of anyone then I think you're right; 2 leave, 2 come in... both presumably younger. However, if we start to offload Cole, Jones, Adam, Bellamy etc... then I'd be worried we'd be eroding the squad a bit. I'd prefer we got rid of them, made an awesome signing (around 20m) and then promote some of the youngsters.
I wouldn't be too bothered to see all four of them go to be honest. Cole wasn't part of the first team last year, Jones wasn't involved most of the season because of personal circumstances, Adam is a bag of brown stuff and we have better options at the club already without anyone else coming in and Bellamy only played a bit part because his knees supposedly (still played three games in a week for Team GB) can't take it. Plus, that's probably at least £330k per week (guessing at £120k, £40k, £80k and £90k respectively) in wages which equates to £17.16m a year. Edit: I am keen to see Shelvey given more game time and we already have Gerrard, Lucas, Spearing, Henderson and Adam. Do we need Allen...? If we are aiming for two players for every position then fair enough but that also means we are a little short up front with Carroll, Borini, Bellamy, Downing, Cole and possibly Pacheco and Sterling. How may of those front players will be at the club come 1 September...?
So Laudrup, Allen is worth 20 mil? 10.19 BST - DONE DEAL: Spain midfielder Santi Cazorla has signed for Arsenal and joined up with the pre-season training camp in Germany after completing a £15 million move from Malaga. 3, no 4x the player with miles more experience. Laudrup can do one and this allen nonsense can as well. Much better value for money out there if Swansea are playing hardball ( fair enough to them but we shouldn't bite).
For 24 mil we could get Ramirez and Lass Diarra. I know which I would rather have. We shouldn't really try to play this game as it all points to paying over the odds. again.
I'm think we should at least wait till next summer now. Then we can see how he handles his 2nd season and he should be cheaper. Still think he will do well though, unlike Adam...he has class.
This. Sorry Brendon, not the right time to go after him, let's wait and see what happens or see if one of our can fill the void ( Hendo, Shelvey). If not hey January is right round the corner! I would be ecstatic if we got Ramirez and Lass Diarra. Our Midfield would immediattely go to another level.
He's back though and I can't see Valencia letting him go on the cheap ( I realy wish though). Right before Rafa was sacked I think we had him lined up at 8 mil. Good call that H&G.....
Getting a tad ridiculous now..... 13.39 BST: Paris Saint-Germain have been in contact with Sao Paulo about a €45 million bid for Lucas Moura, the Brazilian club have confirmed.
