That's a good point. If Monaco is operating under a separate tax regime to all other Ligue 1 clubs, that's a clear advantage in itself, regardless of having some Oligarch owner who seems determined to prove he can chuck money around more freely than all his compatriots.
When they don't have to pay the amount of tax the other Ligue 1 club with an über-rich owner does, you know that's going to cause the least sympathetic argument in French football history.
Pursuing Villa again,I'm not at all happy with signing a 31 year old,I don't think that we should do it. I have reservations about Bentenke too.
Villa still has a few years in him - Remember he was arguably the best striker in the world 2 years ago, even if he's lost a little pace he'd still be good enough for Europa League / battling to top 4. You won't find many players with his experience and quality for £10m. Benteke was one of the best players in the premier league last year. Strong, fast, can finish, singlehandedly kept Villa up and is only 22. Villa desperately need to strengthen and BEnteke wont want to be there next season - £15-20m would be enough and he would learn alot playing with Defoe, Villa, Bale etc. If you aren't happy with them 2 you need to stop and take a look at what you are expecting us to sign considering we aren't in the Champion's League so none of the big players will want to come to us, and our budget isn't exactly high enough to spend £50m on 2 strikers. Whats the other options? Wilifried Bony - Id like to see him in a Spur's shirt, scored over 30 goals for Vitesse in Holland last year and is similar to Drogba. Possibly but would be expensive. Michu - Pretty sure hes a one season wonder and his form totally died off after the January Transfer Window - Also signed a new contract midway through season so would cost well over £20m Carroll - Could be incredible could be awful. Would definetely cost us £20m and would you rather have him than Benteke? Dzeko - Might be worth a shot as he's been frozen out by City but whether he'd take a wage cut or not is debatable. Higuain - Would never move to a non-champion's league team from Madrid. Damiao - Completely, and I mean completely, unproven at a top level - Had an average Olympics and the brazilian league isn't know for its defending. Anyone better than that lot I think the only way we'd get this is with funds from selling Bale or a transfer involving Bale (e.g. Bale for Rooney +£10m) or something along them lines. But then still, why would Rooney take a pay cut to join a team not in the champions league? Who would you realistically prefer for £25-30m?
Roberto Soldado or Pablo Osvaldo, perhaps even Huntelaar? Any of those three, along with (and I spit before I say this) Da-meow?
Negredo and we are chasing Damiao. I'm not sure about top players not wanting to come to us because going to top teams they wouldn't be guaranteed a place whereas for us they probably would be. Besides we are not that far away from making top 4 again,it was only 2 points and one match away from Chelsea. We were 4th last season and without Ferguson and City with a coach who doesn't stay very long at most of his teams I feel a top player would only have to wait one year.
Villa is a good buy, but we need a young striker in addition. - someone who can learn from him. 10m is a lot of money (for us) to spend on a 31 year old and goes against our "sell on" strategy. If we have got a tight budget, I'd rather the money was used on an up and coming striker rather than villa. -he's quality, but it's a lot of money to spend and his wages won't be cheap.
I'd snap Barca's hand off for Villa personally. I know he's 31 and £10m is a hefty amount but he's nigh on guaranteed to get goals. It was only about 2-3 years ago where Villa was regarded as the best striker in the world before Falcao decided to come along and make every striker in Europe look average, so even if he's lost a yard of pace, he's still a damn site better than Defoe/ Adebayor. I'd rather £10m goes on him than an unproven lad. IF we get Da-meow (or Lisandro Lopez who's been mentioned in press recently) too, I'd be a happy man this transfer window, with or without any other dealings.
I'd rather we got Soldado as one of our options as he's proven in a decent league. Like Jamspurs says, Da-meow is completely unproven. He's look decent when I've watched him, but he's not exactly been playing against particularly good opposition.
Soldado will cost a bomb mate. Easily a £20m striker in my opinion. Don't see why he'd leave Valencia for us to be honest. Damiao is just a realistic option, I don't know anything about him but the likes of Soldado, Benteke, Lukaku are just out of reach in my opinion. Bony could be a decent signing if the price is right.
but Damiao is supposedly going to cost £17m... there's not a massive amount of difference to be fair!
Was £17m in Jan, could probably get a couple mil knocked off I reckon mate, plus he's 5 years younger than Soldado so gotta look at "sell on value" and that **** lol. Oh yeah Benteke was great value but you're not always going to be able to find a bargain like Benteke/ Michu.
to be honest, I think there's going to be positives and negatives behind any striker we're interested in. There's no way of getting that perfect player as there will always be something which raises an eyebrow. - That may be age, price, GS record, sell on value, proven or not, type of striker.... the list goes on. Unfortunately we aren't in the position to choose any player we want, so we've just gotta take a punt on someone. - we've wasted some money over the years, but there's a different team of management at the helm now, and they need to be given what they need. Previous mistakes cannot cast a shadow over how we move forward. 4 or 5 years ago, the money that was paid for Modric, Pav and Bentley was pretty sizable, but that's simply the going rate nowadays, especially for the clubs at the top of the table wanting the better players. So, whether anyone thinks "pav and bentley were a waste of money and cost us a fortune"....well ok, fine, you're probably right. But at the same time, the current "reasonably cheap and cheerful" approach means we're still falling slightly short of CL qualification. What it comes down to now, is trust in the coach. A man who in his first season gets us our highest points total in the premier league with everything considered (which we've discussed to death), deserves at least the money that ****ing Ramos got!!!! However, my head tells me that we'll go "cheap" with strikers and it'll be a case of squad numbers rather than squad quality. - A bit like how our midfield is overrun with very similar types of players, yet none of them can score. Anyhoo, we'll see. We all know what we need, but I won't be holding out any hope. It's always a let down.
£10m for Villa, £17m for Leandro - that covers all the options. Also, been meaning to ask... ...who the hell is that sat between Andre and Dembele?
http://www.standard.co.uk/sport/foo...david-villa-and-jackson-martinez-8634131.html If we bid for Martinez and signed him, I would literally.... Well... I'd just be really ****ing happy. He was the striker I thought would be a "dream"/ unrealistic signing. I don't know how credible the Standard is but if there's a time for it to be true, this really would be it. The guy is a goal scoring machine and the last Colombian striker that left Porto hasn't too badly either!
