The Transfers Thread

[ADL9798]

Maybe if Rafa hadn't just spunked £20m on Aquilani and £18m on Glenn Johnson they might have been more inclined to put their hands in their pockets.

It wasn't their pockets they were putting their hands in, the £300m in debt that FSG have paid off will attest to that.

And I'd hardly call £17m on Glen Johnson a waste.

 

[Magma]

most reports saying sturridge has been at melwood and signed the contract completing the 12 mil move.

 

[ADL9798]

most reports saying sturridge has been at melwood and signed the contract completing the 12 mil move.

What I'm hearing too. Will be unveiled at Anfield tonight before the Sunderland game, in line to debut v Mansfield in the FA Cup on the weekend. Not sure what number he's getting, Carroll already registered with #9 until the end of the season.

 

[moomba]

It wasn't their pockets they were putting their hands in, the £300m in debt that FSG have paid off will attest to that.

It's besides the point really. Rafa could have used the money he spent on Aquilani or Johnson and spent it on Falcao instead. But we cant criticise Rafa now can we when there is Hicks & Gillett to blame everything on.

And I'd hardly call £17m on Glen Johnson a waste.

I wouldn't expect you would.

 

[ADL9798]

It's besides the point really. Rafa could have used the money he spent on Aquilani or Johnson and spent it on Falcao instead. But we cant criticise Rafa now can we when there is Hicks & Gillett to blame everything on.

I wouldn't expect you would.

Everything in hindsight I suppose. I'm sure there are many players City would have preferred to have spent their money on than £17.5m on Santa Cruz, £22m on Lescott, £16m on Kolo Toure, £26m on Milner, £15m on Rodwell etc, etc. At least Johnson is still a valuable member of our first XI.

 

[Cooldude]

Rafa was planning to buy both Aquilani and Jovetic with the money from Xabi's sale. But half that money mysteriously disappeared on him, after he was promised all of Xabi's sale funds would be used for transfer

Thought that was well known all over but doesn't stop some people from selectively picking on facts to suit themselves

Oh, and Johnson's a fine signing

 

[jod23]

Johnson has been a terrific signing.

 

[Stratton_Gun]

Angelo Henriquez has gone on loan to Wigan from United. Any United supporters able to tell me how well he has been doing for your reserves?

Been carving it up from what I heat but I havn't actually seen him play

 

[Stratton_Gun]

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

Are you sure you don't mean Rogic

 

[ADL9798]

Been carving it up from what I heat but I havn't actually seen him play

How old is he? Has he come through your academy?

 

[Stratton_Gun]

How old is he? Has he come through your academy?

Nah he signed in 11' from Universidad Chile

 

[moomba]

Everything in hindsight I suppose. I'm sure there are many players City would have preferred to have spent their money on than £17.5m on Santa Cruz, £22m on Lescott, £16m on Kolo Toure, £26m on Milner, £15m on Rodwell etc, etc. At least Johnson is still a valuable member of our first XI.

I'm not sure what City's signings have to do with the previous owners of your club being blamed for not buying a player, and ignoring the reality that the money was there to buy the player but your manager at the time preferred other people.

 

[Stratton_Gun]

Yeh but City have so much money that 1 or 2 poor signings aren't going to make much of a difference. Liverpool on the other hand blew it with Carroll

 

[Zidane98]

Maybe if Rafa hadn't just spunked £20m on Aquilani and £18m on Glenn Johnson they might have been more inclined to put their hands in their pockets.

Johnson was an excellent signing considering Portsmouth still owed us about 8-10 million for Crouch and his age when we signed him (24). We probably wouldn't have got the rest of our money for Crouch if we didn't offset it against Johnson's transfer fee.

Using your logic Fergie would have been denied transfer funds after blowing huge amounts on Veron/Forlan. Did it happen? Of course not. Benitez is an excellent manager hamstrung by quite possibly the world's worst football club owners. Any manager in the world would have struggled to compile a competitive squad with the financial pressure he was under.

 

[Magma]

a small footnote that people always get wrong. milner was 18 mil. ireland was listed at 8 mil in a p/ex. not a big deal but he really was 18 mil.

i don't see the point in the should coulda woulda's either. who knows how falcao would've turned out if he didn't go to porto. a move straight to england could've killed his career. it could've blossomed. you just can't say 'oh damn we could've got such and such before he got big' because their career would've been so different.

 

[Zidane98]

Didn't you also almost have Aguero but only wanted to spend 8m instead of the asking 11m?

Quite possibly, we were a club where the very best wanted to play; it's a pity that the transfer funds weren't forthcoming to capitalise on it. Which is daft; Rafa's 08/09 squad cost something like 70 million odd and managed 3 points less then City's hundreds of million odd squad. Will take us at least 3-4 seasons to get back there the hard way (not just buying up endless amounts of players on obscene wages without selling to buy).

 

[moomba]

Using your logic Fergie would have been denied transfer funds after blowing huge amounts on Veron/Forlan. Did it happen? Of course not. Benitez is an excellent manager hamstrung by quite possibly the world's worst football club owners. Any manager in the world would have struggled to compile a competitive squad with the financial pressure he was under.

I'm not convinced Falcao was ever going to Liverpool, the list of players that Benitez "would have signed if it wasn't for Hicks & Gillet" is about as long as Bent 'Arrys "I would have signed him if we weren't blown out of the water.

But the fact remains, Liverpool spent over £40m on new players that summer. Benitez made a choice to spend it on Aquilani, Shelvey, Johnson etc. Can't blame the owners for him making that choice.

 

[Zidane98]

We aren't like City, we don't just spend 40 million without selling 40 million first. Shelvey and Johnson were excellent signings, Aquahack was a dud. Arbeloa, Kuyt, Torres, Garcia, Alonso, Mascherano, Bellamy, Reina & Sissoko were all excellent signings that were sold at a profit or still at the club (Reina). Only exception is Kuyt who put in 6 seasons and left for 1 million. Considered a successful signing. Hicks & Gillette should have been bending over to give Benitez transfer funds with that record. Compares well with the hundreds of millions you lot have blown on about 10 different strikers.

 

[Zidane98]

You might want to take a look at these stats moomba:
http://lfcstats.co.uk/rafatransfers.html
Benitez spent a grand total of 3 million in the summer of 2009. Blows your "but he wasted 40 million on players" argument right out of the water.

EDIT: We all wish we could blow nearly 100 million a year like your lot:

http://footballblog.co.uk/lavish-spending-ruining-premier-league.html

With that amount of spending you should be winning a minimum of two titles a season at the least. Especially considering Benitez, supposedly a poor manager according to you, managed to rack up 86 points with a team that cost 1/5 of what Mancini's team did.

 

[moomba]

We aren't like City, we don't just spend 40 million without selling 40 million first. Shelvey and Johnson were excellent signings, Aquahack was a dud. Arbeloa, Kuyt, Torres, Garcia, Alonso, Mascherano, Bellamy, Reina & Sissoko were all excellent signings that were sold at a profit or still at the club (Reina). Only exception is Kuyt who put in 6 seasons and left for 1 million. Considered a successful signing. Hicks & Gillette should have been bending over to give Benitez transfer funds with that record. Compares well with the hundreds of millions you lot have blown on about 10 different strikers.

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.

 

[moomba]

You might want to take a look at these stats moomba:
http://lfcstats.co.uk/rafatransfers.html
Benitez spent a grand total of 3 million in the summer of 2009. Blows your "but he wasted 40 million on players" argument right out of the water.

You are missing the point totally

EDIT: We all wish we could blow nearly 100 million a year like your lot:

http://footballblog.co.uk/lavish-spending-ruining-premier-league.html

With that amount of spending you should be winning a minimum of two titles a season at the least. Especially considering Benitez, supposedly a poor manager according to you, managed to rack up 86 points with a team that cost 1/5 of what Mancini's team did.

Again, this has nothing to do with Manchester City. If I was blaming our owners for Mark Hughes buying RSC instead of a striker with working knees then you would have a point.

 

[Zidane98]

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.

 

[jod23]

Dont poke the bear people.

Rafa was a terrific manager for us, his final year was tough, he messed up a couple of signings. He was sacked. Everybody moves on.

 

[Cooldude]

So basically, Rafa wasted all the spending, despite the fact that he had to scrap a signing already lined up coz the owners ate the money they promised him, and it was a class forward that would've been a great 2nd choice to Torres

Yet the same person blames Rafa for not buying a forward and having to play Ngog, coz it's "poor squad management"

Someone really needs to get their head together and make up their mind, before contradicting themselves any further

 

[moomba]

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.

He had a choice. He made a bad one. That to me doesn't make him blameless.

Pretty defensive on Rafa you lot are, it's not like I'm saying he's a bad manager. Just that the failure to sign Falcao (if it was even possible) wasn't entirely down to the owners at the time.