The Transfers Thread

[Cooldude]

Btw, Aquilani is one of the best players in the Serie A this season and is a huge reason why Fio is up as high as they are

And he was actually pretty good whenever he did play for us, and one of Kenny's biggest mistakes was letting him and Meireles go

 

[BluesMan]

Just got told Marco Rojas to Reading could happen.. Very interesting. Not sure if he's ready to move to EPL yet.

I've seen them in for Rogic, but not Rojas.

 

[ADL9798]

Why are people trying to turn this into an issue about City? It has nothing to do with us.

It's not about managers making mistakes, every manager does. It's not about whether or not H&G were good owners, they weren't. It's not about whether Benitez was good for your club or not, don't particularly want to get into that debate again.

But he had £40m to spend that summer. He had the money to buy Falcao if he wanted to. He chose to spend it on other people. It's as simple as that, and that to me makes the owners less than 100% culpable for that particular event.

I brought City into it because it illustrated how easy it is to make these judgements with the benefit of hindsight. As you said, every club wastes money on players/could have spent it better. No-one could have predicted in 2008/09 how good an as yet unproven Falcao would become by 2012. It was just a 'what if' scenario and to be honest I don't see the point in them.

Regarding Rafa, I'm not saying every one of his signings was a success, but even if we forget the fact he had a net spend of approximately zero for much of his time at the club (which was by the way 100% the fault of the owners, the club at that point was bringing in more revenue than at any time in its history and should have had money to spend, instead it was used to pay off debt and the club had to sell to buy for the 3 seasons when it should have been at it's strongest financially, it's simple logic that to improve your squad you would generally need to have a positive net spend). For every £1 Rafa spent poorly he would spend the next £5 extremely well. It's selective bias to only use 2 or 3 players to base your entire argument.

 

[moomba]

Soon to be freebies according to http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...-Frank-Lampard-Ashley-Cole-Rio-Ferdinand.html. Apparently foreign clubs are free to negotiate with people on this list, they'll be available to anyone in the summer. Some decent names there:

Arsenal - Theo Walcott, Andrey Arshavin, Sebastien Squillaci, Emmanuel Frimpong, Lukasz Fabianski
Aston Villa - Richard Dunne, Andy Marshall, Eric Lichaj
Chelsea - Frank Lampard, Ashley Cole, Florent Malouda, Paulo Ferreira, Hilario, Ross Turnbull
Everton - Phil Neville, Sylvain Distin, Jan Mucha
Fulham - Mladen Petric, Damien Duff, Mark Schwarzer, Chris Baird, Philippe Senderos, Mahamadou Diarra, Giorgos Karagounis, Brede Hangeland, Neil Etheridge
Liverpool - Jamie Carragher, Doni
Man City - Kolo Toure, Richard Wright
Man United - Rio Ferdinand, Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs
Newcastle - Steve Harper, Danny Simpson
Norwich - Elliott Ward, Marc Tierney, Simeon Jackson
QPR - Kieron Dyer, Brian Murphy, Clint Hill, Shaun Derry, Radek Cerny, Ryan Nelsen
Reading - Stuart Taylor, Ian Harte, Brynjar Gunnarsson, Noel Hunt, Jay Tabb, Alex Pearce, Simon Church
Southampton - Frazer Richardson, Richard Chaplow, Danny Butterfield, Artur Boruc, Jason Puncheon
Stoke - Michael Owen, Matthew Upson, Carlo Nash, Rory Delap, Dean Whitehead, Ryan Shotton
Sunderland - Titus Bramble, Louis Saha, Matt Kilgallon, Fraizer Campbell
Swansea - Gerhard Tremmel, Luke Moore, Dwight Tiendalli, Mark Gower
Tottenham - William Gallas, Carlo Cudicini (signed for LA Galaxy I believe)
West Brom - Boaz Myhill, Marc-Antoine Fortune, Steven Reid, Zoltan Gera, Goran Popov, Chris Brunt, Gonzalo Jara, Luke Daniels, Yassine El Ghanassy
West Ham - Jussi Jaaskelainen, Gary O’Neil, Freddie Piquionne, Winston Reid, Joey O’Brien, Carlton Cole
Wigan - Maynor Figueroa, Callum McManaman, Franco Di Santo, Albert Crusat, Piscu, Mike Pollitt, Ronnie Stam, David Jones, Emmerson Boyce, Antolin Alcaraz

 

[Super Hans]

I've seen them in for Rogic, but not Rojas.

Maybe that's who I meant, I'm not sure.

 

[moomba]

I brought City into it because it illustrated how easy it is to make these judgements with the benefit of hindsight. As you said, every club wastes money on players/could have spent it better. No-one could have predicted in 2008/09 how good an as yet unproven Falcao would become by 2012. It was just a 'what if' scenario and to be honest I don't see the point in them.

Regarding Rafa, I'm not saying every one of his signings was a success, but even if we forget the fact he had a net spend of approximately zero for much of his time at the club (which was by the way 100% the fault of the owners, the club at that point was bringing in more revenue than at any time in its history and should have had money to spend, instead it was used to pay off debt and the club had to sell to buy for the 3 seasons when it should have been at it's strongest financially, it's simple logic that to improve your squad you would generally need to have a positive net spend). For every £1 Rafa spent poorly he would spend the next £5 extremely well. It's selective bias to only use 2 or 3 players to base your entire argument.

You're missing the point as well. It's not a debate on whether Benitez is good in the transfer market, it's a debate about someone putting 100% of the blame on the owners for Liverpools failure to sign Falcao.

All I'm saying before the Rafa Defense League pipes up again, is that he was not entirely blameless in that (if it actually happened) as the money was there to buy Falcao if he wanted to.

I'd be amazed if Benitez came anywhere near a nett zero spend at Liverpool.

I'm also amazed that some managers seem to get exemption from criticism because of the owners, yet the bloke who took over at the club had it much worse and gets 100% of the blame for bad signings.

 

[Magma]

roque santa cruz, michael johnson and bridge can be added to that list for us. and yes, cudicini has signed for the galaxy.

 

[ADL9798]

Several of those are soon to be retired I would've thought, and doesn't that assume the rest won't be signing contract extensions before the end of the season?

 

[Cooldude]

Thought Carra has one more year to run on his insane deal, would be a relief to the wages books if he retires

Actually would be a huge relief if we get rid of Carra, Joe Cole and Downing's wages. That's upwards of 12+ million you're saving annually

 

[ADL9798]

I'd be amazed if Benitez came anywhere near a nett zero spend at Liverpool.

Net spend for 08/09 & 09/10 (when as I said, Liverpool's annual revenue was at it's historical peak) was -£2.4m.

 

[moomba]

roque santa cruz, michael johnson and bridge can be added to that list for us. and yes, cudicini has signed for the galaxy.

Have read that Johnson has been released, RSC and Bridge will be nice to get off the books.

I reckon Stevie Ireland is coming up to the end of his contract for Villa as well.

 

[BlueBen]

roque santa cruz, michael johnson and bridge can be added to that list for us. and yes, cudicini has signed for the galaxy.

What ever happened to Johnson? Has it just been bad luck with injury? I remember when he burst onto the scene at Man City pre-takeover and people were proclaiming him as "the next Steven Gerrard"! Obviously it didn't quite work out like that...

 

[moomba]

Net spend for 08/09 & 09/10 (when as I said, Liverpool's annual revenue was at it's historical peak) was -£2.4m.

Sorry, I misunderstood. I thought you meant net spend of zero in his time at Liverpool, not just a couple of seasons.

 

[Magma]

What ever happened to Johnson? Has it just been bad luck with injury. I remember when he burst onto the scene at Man City pre-takeover and people were proclaiming him as "the next Steven Gerrard"! Obviously it didn't quite work out like that...

terrible run with injuries + didn't have the mentality to be a pro footballer. loved the drink too, recently got done for a drink driving charge. just a ****load of problems after his injuries. still remember when he scored that goal vs villa.

http://hereisthecity.com/2012/12/06/whatever-happened-to-manchester-citys-michael-johnson/ <- a pretty good summary. a huge waste of talent. really, really could've been a premier english midfielder.




so much potential. just classy as ****.

 

[moomba]

What ever happened to Johnson? Has it just been bad luck with injury? I remember when he burst onto the scene at Man City pre-takeover and people were proclaiming him as "the next Steven Gerrard"! Obviously it didn't quite work out like that...

Had about two years out with various knee injuries, spent too much time in the pubs and not enough in the physio room. Played at Leicester last year on loan and looked good apparently but couldn't stay fit.

 

[moomba]

Several of those are soon to be retired I would've thought, and doesn't that assume the rest won't be signing contract extensions before the end of the season?

Yes, but they are free to negotiate with foreign teams now.

 

[BlueBen]

Thanks for that. A real shame for him I suppose. I remember the goal he scored against Derby vividly and it just seemed inevitable that he would become a star. Would probably have a Premier League medal had he stayed fit.

 

[hawkman]

Think your missing the poin t. With Rafas record in the transfer market H&G should have allowed him to buy who he wants within a limited net spend. You can't improve your squad with a net spend of 3 million and this at a time where Liverpool could sign just about any top quality player wanting to play in the EPL. Absolutely absurd to focus on that one bad transfer of Aquahack.

Everton seem to have done alright with a negative net spend. We are going pretty well with net spend of 2 million over the last 4 years

 

[moomba]

Thanks for that. A real shame for him I suppose. I remember the goal he scored against Derby vividly and it just seemed inevitable that he would become a star. Would probably have a Premier League medal had he stayed fit.

I think he certainly had the ability to hold his place in the squad.

 

[ADL9798]

Everton seem to have done alright with a negative net spend. We are going pretty well with net spend of 2 million over the last 4 years

The gap from 5th/6th to 4th is nowhere near as big and doesn't require anywhere near as much in the way of resources as the jump from 3rd/4th to 1st.

 

[hawkman]

The gap from 5th/6th to 4th is nowhere near as big and doesn't require anywhere near as much in the way of resources as the jump from 3rd/4th to 1st.

But your whole 08/09 squad was built on 70 million. It can be done

Also we are now looking David Villa

 

[ADL9798]

But your whole 08/09 squad was built on 70 million. It can be done

Also we are now looking David Villa

Wow, a near title winning squad on £70m? Whoever managed that side must've done an incredible job. What a brilliant manager!

 

[Magma]

Newcastle United FC ‏@NUFCOfficial
#NUFC have given Demba Ba permission to speak to Chelsea. As a result he won't be included in tonight's squad. More on http://nufc.co.uk

interesting

 

[moomba]

Wow, a near title winning squad on £70m? Whoever managed that side must've done an incredible job. What a brilliant manager!

He was until he lost his marbles over the Ferguson facts rant.

Probably fair to say that it's probably a bit cheaper to build a title winning side (or one that comes close to winning a title) if you're already a regular top 4 team. Our spending for example took us from 16th (when Shinawatra came in) to 1st. Rafa's took him from 4th (I think) to 2nd and then 7th.
Everton spent a bit in the early years of Moyes, but they were a perennial relegation contender and are now comfortable top 6/7.

 

[moomba]

But your whole 08/09 squad was built on 70 million. It can be done

Also we are now looking David Villa

I don't know about Villa. A cracking player, one of the most clinical forwards I've ever seen. But he must be in his 30's now and I've heard Barca are looking at £15m+. Wages would be high and I don't think they'd consider a loan.

Too pricey for me, although I'd love to see him in the league.