More reports surfacing of us closing in on Chadli now. If we end up with him and do manage to pull off a deal for Benteke, I'm thinking we should look at a name change, "Belgiumham Hotspur", decent ring to it.
Lots of reports are claiming that we're on the verge of signing Nacer Chadli for about £6.5m. Wouldn't surprise me.
If the club feel we can afford £25m for Benteke and sign him why does it matter if he was overpriced? I'd rather have Benteke for £50m than not signing a striker or trying to find a cheap unproven striker. Fact is Benteke HAS scored goals in the league already and we NEED to sign a striker this season and £25m isn't that overpriced. If he has a poor season he's only 22 and has shown he has the power pace and finishing to be a top top player. If we sign Chadli and Benteke I'd e happy if we signed noone else.
Torres and Carroll also scored goals in the League prior to big money moves... Benteke is overpriced at £25m. If this was after 2 or 3 seasons then £25m would be a fair deal, one season just isn't enough to justify a mega price like that unless around 40%-50% of the fee is performance related.
So you'd rather we signed an expensive unproven striker than a cheap unproven striker? By that logic you would have been annoyed had we signed Benteke last summer, for £7/8m, but you're happy for us to sign him one year later for £50m - purely on the basis that he's had ONE good season in our league
A quick glance at the Belgium national teams last few games shows Chadli just behind Benteke in a couple of them, I also noted Lukaku doesn't get much of a look in as a result.
One good season at one club does not make you worth £25m. We need to sign a striker certainly, but if we put ourselves in the "clubs that will pay anything" category, it will be counter-productive. Because, as we all know, we aren't able to do that with any kind of regularity and setting a precedent like this will put a premium on all future deals.
Benteke's transfer supposedly "moving along". He's got a 3 match ban, so it'll be interesting to see when this deal is concluded.
LOL it'll be typical of us though. - We'll actually get our reinforcements in early so they get a pre season, but we end up having a striker who can't play the 3 games at the start. same problem, different circumstances!
dunno if anyone's said this, but have you all noticed that it's gone quiet on the 2 young Croatians? Apparently Jedvaj is close to joining Roma and Halilovic doesn't want to join us, as Barca have shown interest.
Spent ninety seconds researching, and I think Chadli would be an excellent signing for 6 million. I particularly like that he can play on either wing, when that's just what we need, and that he plays regularly for Belgium. Seems to score about 1/4 games, a decent number for a winger. He's 6'2", incidentally. You'd think we might be able to score a header or two next year with Bale, Gylfi, Ade, Dempsey, Paulinho, Vertonghen, Kaboul, Caulker, Walker and perhaps Chadli. Caulker and Paulinho seem particularly good. How about Brazelgium Hotspur?
Sky, quoting Croatian sources are now saying that the deal for Halilovic has fallen through over his demands. Reportedly, he wants £1mil per year, a house, and a scholarship for his two brothers!..cock little bastard, I'll give him that!..
