Transfer Rumours

The Franchise wrote:

messixaviesta wrote:What do you guys think of clubs holding players against their will?

My thought is that as far as possible this should be avoided. A healthy spirit is great to have. Yet at times clubs are helpless because letting the player go would be too big a loss.

Fans usually want the player out that minute but the board needs to be more practical.

e.g. Suarez at Liverpool, Bale at Tottenham, Rooney at ManUtd, Lewandowski at BVB, etc.

These sagas are expected to run right till the end of the transfer window and we can take bets on who among these are staying and who are leaving.

I think the clubs are better of selling as early as possible, while the player is at the peak of their interest and therefore probably giving you the most money in return and also time to find replacements or strengthen the squad.

Clubs think its impossible to replace these guys, but I dont think it is at all.

First of all, when that star player goes, inevitably some of the others who remain step up and take the chance. They were waiting for the chance to be a big star in their own right.

Also, with the money you might be able to strengthen the squad in weaker areas.

These comments make good sense to me but clubs usually try a bit too hard to hold on to such players. If the player leaves at the end they are left with very little time to adjust. If he stays he is sometimes not at his best. Even then at times clubs have managed to extract value from a want away player in his last season.

Sakho is available  ...but ofc he's never played in midfield before, so ... 

Nah, not Busquets back there. He is too good in midfield and his replacement, be it Song or JDS are good back up but you wouldnt want them in vs a really strong opponent.

Also Busquets compliments Pique horribly because of his lack of speed.

gondov wrote:
Sakho is available  ...but ofc he's never played in midfield before, so ... 

Ahm, yeah. Sakho is horrible. Glad Barca isn't linked with him at all.

oh man its looking like we're going into the season without any defencive reiforcement    

hopefully im wrong though

Apparently we're looking into Laurent Koscielny which is a good sign. He looks more of a realistic prospect than the likes of Agger, Luiz, T.Silva and Vertonghen.

The Sanchez wrote:Apparently we're looking into Laurent Koscielny which is a good sign. He looks more of a realistic prospect than the likes of Agger, Luiz, T.Silva and Vertonghen.

I hope it's OK for me to chime in on the Barca forum - but I really don't think Koscielny is any more likely to come than the names you mentioned. He's the best central defender at the club, he's not near the end of his contract, there hasn't been anything like a protracted transfer saga (a la Nasri, Fabregas, or RvP), and Wenger's mentioned that he has no worries about losing players this time around.

Anything's possible I guess but I really don't think Barca could even get him this summer, whatever they offer.

We have an eye on Sakho as we were interested in him early in the year but the rumours cooled down... Hopefully if we're running out of options that we look to him as we do need someone...

Chumlum wrote:whatever they offer.

Dude, if you are an arsenal fan, you should know that every Arsenal player has a price tag. Other thing is if we are willing to match it or not.

Daniel Agger's representatives have indicated he would be open to a move to Barcelona if Liverpool can agree a fee for the defender's release................

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2389472/Daniel-Agger-wont-rule-Liverpool-Barcelona.html

i don like this move at all.....other than him being injury prone, his age is also not encouraging to spend much. He is 29 right?? How much you think we should pay him at best?? 20 m??

His agent confirmed that the initial bid is rejected already

free_cat wrote:

Chumlum wrote:whatever they offer.

Dude, if you are an arsenal fan, you should know that every Arsenal player has a price tag. Other thing is if we are willing to match it or not.

Sure - every Arsenal player and every player, period, has a price tag. But what I was getting at is that the price needed to get Kos this summer would probably be high enough that going for the others that were quoted would be just as feasible. He seems quite happy at Arsenal and I don't think he'd really be a cheaper option than, say, Vertonghen or Luiz.

Liverpool trying to sign Siqueira... pls feck off, he is our Marcelo back up

Chumlum wrote:

free_cat wrote:

Chumlum wrote:whatever they offer.

Dude, if you are an arsenal fan, you should know that every Arsenal player has a price tag. Other thing is if we are willing to match it or not.

Sure - every Arsenal player and every player, period, has a price tag. But what I was getting at is that the price needed to get Kos this summer would probably be high enough that going for the others that were quoted would be just as feasible. He seems quite happy at Arsenal and I don't think he'd really be a cheaper option than, say, Vertonghen or Luiz.

Happiness being with a club changes so fast you know:D ......The happiness of a player can only be tested when a bigger opportunity comes......
Btw, did he say something like " I will leave Arsenal if trophy drought continues" just 2 months ago

Well, maybe we'll see what happens if Barca come knocking for Koscielny in the next few weeks.

Barca reported to have a maximum valuation of luiz at 35 € and Chelsea a min of 50 €. Hopefully nerman and dani can tap him up in this int break and convince him to stand up against mou, but otherwise i can't see us spending that kind of money.

I mean we didn't want to spend 40 on TS a season ago, which now looks like a complete bargain

We are still not at all being linked to Sakho but he is very likely to leave and other clubs have been mentioned in the media. The way this is going we will likely end up with no one.

I want to say something about Mascherano. As a player many of us may not like him but as an individual he's been just as great as he could have possibly been. He's been a completely selfless team player. He has never complained about minutes. He's not had any known problems with anyone at the club. He's always given his all when on the pitch. He's openly spoken many times about how blessed he feels getting to play for Barca. He's also clearly said that if Barca don't want him to stay all we need to do is tell him that and he will find his own path. Today he has gone so far as to say that he plays as a center back but is not a center back. Of all players in our team he is the one who has been most vociferous about the team needing to buy a center back even though its his position that will come most under threat. I have to say hats off to this unassuming Argentine.

messixaviesta wrote:I want to say something about Mascherano. As a player many of us may not like him but as an individual he's been just as great as he could have possibly been. He's been a completely selfless team player. He has never complained about minutes. He's not had any known problems with anyone at the club. He's always given his all when on the pitch. He's openly spoken many times about how blessed he feels getting to play for Barca. He's also clearly said that if Barca don't want him to stay all we need to do is tell him that and he will find his own path. Today he has gone so far as to say that he plays as a center back but is not a center back. Of all players in our team he is the one who has been most vociferous about the team needing to buy a center back even though its his position that will come most under threat. I have to say hats off to this unassuming Argentine.

True. I have nothing but respect and admiration for him.

I don't want to jump on the Barcelona faithful, but it hurts me when Mascherano always gets blame for everything while his partner in crime, Piqué, can walk off after having countless mediocre and poor performances in the past couple of seasons.

Not to mention Mascherano is actually not a CB and it is not his fault he's played out of position.

Pique gets slack too but he's the one that has to deal with Masch being his partner. That's a tough job for anyone.

No disrespect to Masch, I love the guy...but he's not good enough and hasn't been for a while. Why he gets the minutes he does in a team like Barca is a mystery to me. Hell, why he's even here is a mystery to me.

I don't know what you've been reading if you think Pique hasn't gotten any blame. He does, the thing is is that we've seen how good he can be with Puyol...long story short, his poor performances correlate with who his partner is- his pairing with Masch being consistently worse.

Does that excuse poor performances? No. But do we see who the "cancer" is per se? Yes.

That is why Mascherano should go.

messixaviesta wrote:I want to say something about Mascherano. As a player many of us may not like him but as an individual he's been just as great as he could have possibly been. He's been a completely selfless team player. He has never complained about minutes. He's not had any known problems with anyone at the club. He's always given his all when on the pitch. He's openly spoken many times about how blessed he feels getting to play for Barca. He's also clearly said that if Barca don't want him to stay all we need to do is tell him that and he will find his own path. Today he has gone so far as to say that he plays as a center back but is not a center back. Of all players in our team he is the one who has been most vociferous about the team needing to buy a center back even though its his position that will come most under threat. I have to say hats off to this unassuming Argentine.

No question, he seems to be to be a top level guy and top level professional. His attitude and selflessness is remarkable and if he was a great player, he would endear himself as one of my favourite players.

CBarca wrote:Pique gets slack too but he's the one that has to deal with Masch being his partner. That's a tough job for anyone.

No disrespect to Masch, I love the guy...but he's not good enough and hasn't been for a while. Why he gets the minutes he does in a team like Barca is a mystery to me. Hell, why he's even here is a mystery to me.

I don't know what you've been reading if you think Pique hasn't gotten any blame. He does, the thing is is that we've seen how good he can be with Puyol...long story short, his poor performances correlate with who his partner is- his pairing with Masch being consistently worse.

Does that excuse poor performances? No. But do we see who the "cancer" is per se? Yes.

That is why Mascherano should go.

Players don't magically become better next to a classy partner. The fact that Piqué looked good next to him can be, and I believe is the result of many little reasons. Most importantly, Puyol is a leader and organises the defence. He communicates constantly with the backline, goalkeeper and even midfielders. Would Mascherano also not look better when paired with someone like Puyol? I bet he would.

You can disagree but to me Piqué has not been any better than Mascherano in the past two years. In the meantime, he has been paired with Ramos in the national team and he's consistently been the worse of the two.

IIRC Masche looked way better with Pique at his side than Puyol. They compliment each other better whereas between him and Puyol there is no one to bring the ball forward and Busi has to go deeper.

MD reporting that if Agger and Luiz fails, we will go for Vertonghen or Mathieu. Of these only the last looks feasible.

Garbage. They knocked out the Neymar deal before the window even officially openend. Now here we are with less than a week before the season starts again and they are still trying to figuring out who to sign. They don't need a massive blockbuster signing. It's like thats the only thing they think they can do. Thiago Silva, Luiz or Agger. Thats pretty much been the only discussion the entire summer. And none of the are in clubs that want to or need to sell them. So retarded.

Hate to say it but I hope we start off licking balls at the back just to team the board a lesson of how retarded they are.