Lenny, in any other situation i would agree with you 100%. it would be stupid for people to say "it's peanuts" or a "no brainer", but in this situation, I personally feel those comments are totally relevant. We've all sat here for the last 18 months crying out for certain players, where its evident that we needed them so badly. Let's be honest, as much as we all love Ledley, how much of a pain in the arse have his knees been for years and years? we've been desperate to find someone like Vertonghen for a long time. the premiership is getting tighter and fees are going up because there is so much attention paid towards getting in the champions league. it's the golden nugget for everyone. because of what's at stake, everything is getting more expensive. we just don't have a choice in this one and we can't let him get away, not with his desire to play for spurs. (or so we keep hearing).
http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11675/7777970/Caulker-eyes-Swans-return sorry Steve, you're grounded i'm afraid.
Perhaps we should include a loan for Caulker in the Vertonghen deal? A year at Ajax might be good for everyone.
with rumours of Nelsen going to the MLS, as well as the likelyood of gallas retiring, king probably doing the same, and Uvini wanting to go back to Sao Paulo, I'd say we need to keep him PNP! (saha supposedly being released too. not that he's a defender, but does tie in with my next comment...) if that's true (saha and Nelsen in particular), Levy must have some serious plans this summer. Makes you wonder whether he's got a pot which he's divided up already for certain players and said to himself: "i cannot spend more than "x" on this particular player, or "x" on this other player". Hence why the vertonghen deal is being dragged out, perhaps??!
lenny makes a good argument. A very good argument (even with his "polished" statistics ) However, i still think we should pay it. This guy is quality centre back, a position we need to strengthen in. Not only that but he actively WANTS to play for us regardless of our wage structure and CL participation. We should be ignoring the fact his contract is up and be looking to get this guy on board ASAP before someone pinches him. These opportunities do not come along often. If his contract wasn't up no-one would be battering an eyelid at £12m, he's worth more than that. Not only that, but if he was going on a free he'd be commanding a higher wage and a chunky signing on bonus so we probably wouldn't save that much by waiting a year, and thats assuming someone else doesn't nick him this summer or someone bigger/better doesn't nick him in january or next summer.
In this case, Levy should just slap down the money and complete the deal. We need to sign Vertonghen, and the sooner we get that deal done the sooner we can move on to Remy et al. Ajax aren't going to budge, so we should spend some of the money saved from spending sod all on players in the last two windows. In fact, I'm wondering if this isn't part of Levy's plan with transfer activity being monitored by FFP - be frugal signing players whilst making a profit on sales in 2011-12, and re-invest that money in 2012-13. As for the suggestion of loaning Caulker to Ajax for a season, if both parties agreed to that it would be beneficial to both - certainly better than trying to dump Khumalo on them - but only if both parties agreed to it. In other news, now that Jack Butland has been called into the England squad, his value has doubtless gone up by a couple of million quid - despite him never playing a match in the Championship, never mind the Premier League.
We've also been heavily linked with a £3m move for Jonas Olsson, though. Kaboul, Vertonghen, Ollson, Dawson... doesn't leave much room for Caulker, if it happens. Might be better to bring in a utility player and loan him out, again.
For me, the issue is not so much is £12mil too much, or not. It's more about who else of the same calibre could we get for the same sort of outlay? Plus, of course, he actually wants to join us, ahead of teams like Arsenal.
The argument about his reduced value due to an expiring contract is irrelevant, as it's not going to get the chance to expire. We can't wait til next summer and then sign him for nothing, as he'll just go somewhere else. I hope that Levy gets this negotiation right, as it's looking a bit precarious.
If Olsson is being brought in as a low cost alternative for Dawson in the early part of the season, it makes a certain amount of sense - but when Daws recovers that would mean Olsson would be dropped or loaned out, to be sold on at the end of the season. It makes sense from a footballing perspective, given he's a solid centre back and he's got a year on his contract, but it does come across as a short-term solution. We should be considering centre back prospects, frankly. As, it appears, Uvini won't be staying, we should look for another one. We've been linked with Brighton pair of Grant Hall & Lewis Dunk, Man Utd reject Ezekiel Fryers, and Argentine prospect Julian Velazquez - even we can't balls up all four, surely?
Ajax are now claiming that we're close, according to the BBC: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/18211213
Both could do a decent job elsewhere, but I don't think they're right for us at the moment. Cheers to the pair of them and good luck for the future.
i wish Levy would pay up and tie this deal up,it's no use trying to wait another six months,he'll just join the goon's.As he want's to play for us regardless,get it sorted before we're gazumped
I can see this being another Petit (or Henry, i can never remember which one it was). Basically the player was talking to Spurs and at the end of it Spurs gave the player some taxi money (WTF?) which the player then used to get a ride to Highbury and sign for Arsenal.
if reports are true,we can recoup some money back as they are saying QPR want jenas to be a replacement for Barton.
