OhForAGreavsie

Anyway, who, as in which players, caused the so called curse? A bunch of players who were never going to be good no matter what number they wore.

Just under £100m for 20th in the Premier League last season.

Yep, that's a good observation. I said earlier that City were presumably buying a backup but maybe they aren't.

I have one very slight disagreement, and one somewhat larger one, with what you've said here. The slight one is that, while I love the idea of Moara in a two, and of us playing 3-5-2 to accommodate it, I can't quite see Michy as a great fit. I'm a fan of Bats and believe he has more than he was able to show last year but I think there are better potential styles to dovetail with Morata. The larger disagreement relates to your point about the market price. Buyers are a part of the market. Unless they pony up, inflated prices are just a sellers fantasy. As far as we can tell, no one has yet been willing to pay Madrid's asking price, so the going rate for a talented Madrid backup has not yet been set. If someone comes close to that valuation, I hope it is not us. We have to discipline ourselves, the entire Premier League has to exercise self-control. If we are handing such a large percentage of our annual revenues to secure the services of a player Madrid basically don't want, then we have no hope of ever closing the gap between them and us. If Madrid want a King's ransom, then let them sell us one of their kings.

Everybody's price is negotiable if the sellers are willing negotiate.

If he's got any sense he'll realise that backup at City is a great gig for him. Indeed, if it's true that he's joining them, then it seems that he does understand that.

Wonderful news. Extremely pleased about this. City presumably are buying a backup. Not sure if he's up to it but that's their problem. We need a starter and that ain't this lad. Get Pereira.

Forget this bloke - get Pereira.

Such a black and white comment. No room for whys and wherefores. Our club is not a democracy; Roman rules the roost. You are therefore entitled to believe that the board is doing Roman's bidding and simply applying the policies agreed with the owner. Whatever those policies may be. Are you now going to start talking about Roman as a joke? He's the final decision maker here after all. The buck stops with him.

I didn't rate him at all when I watched him at the youth tournament he took part in. I heard a lot of hype but didn't see much reason for it. Will be interesting to see how things go in France but my expectations are not high.

Shevchenko is a great example. Sheva was linked before the 2006 World Cup, and joined after it. Having watched him in Germany I commented, elsewhere, that he had nothing to offer and that he shouldn't be signed. (Although I did add that if Sheva was the price we had to pay for having Roman on board then it would be worth paying.) A conversation developed with someone who was in favour of the signing. That person quoted the Ukrainian's stats and asked for my answer to them. My opinion then was the same as it is now so I told him that I would rather believe the evidence of my own eyes. Stats and previous record can serve as a reasonable sounding excuse when a signing goes wrong but, in the end, they are just crutches. Judgement, or should I say, good judgement, is ultimately what it comes down to. Who has good judgement? All of us do at least some of the time but someone has to have the responsibility for making incoming transfer decisions. I hope that person is Antonio and I hope no one is trying to gain say his judgement but quoting stats at him.

I did, and spoke positively about Marcos as soon as he was linked to us. I don't feel able to speak positively about Danilo however.

And so they will too.

It'll be at a discount in January, not a premium.

You to explain the transfer process to them? It is all so easy for you, and given that you love the club just as much as any of us, don't you think it's time you offered to help them out? They might talk big, but deep down they'd probably appreciate it.

Then do it I say.

I really like Morata and would love to have him here. So much so that I'm increasingly in favour of a 3-5-2 to accommodate him. You are however right, both in fact and in principle. The stat that this player, or that player, won a particular point is among the silliest claims made by the number crunchers. Premier League clubs need to pause for a moment and consider how they are hurting their league with their spending habits. Madrid's decision to bring Morata back was, in my view, a purely money making exercise. If they succeed in selling a player they don't really want for £80m, a player they clearly do not believe will hurt them if he joins a potential CL opponent, then how are our clubs ever going to close the gap to the Spanish Giants? Such spending only bolsters the selling team's ability to out compete us. The money we pay to them subsidises their wages and transfer budgets. I have believed for years that premier League clubs should stop competing on transfer fees, and compete harder on wages instead. An interesting league, featuring popular, competitive football is an attractive prospect. Top that up with £300,000 - £400,000pw and the better players, the ones who mostly prefer the continental giants at the moment, will be more likely to want to make a fuss to join our clubs. We'll have a better chance to get the absolute cream and we'll stop subsidising overseas clubs ability to match the wages we pay. Consider Morata. If we tempt the player with a starting spot and £300,000pw, the chances are he would not have returned to Madrid in the first place, but, since he has, there is now a big fee to pay them. When amortised over five years, the difference between a £40m fee, and an £80m fee is an extra £160,000pw. Are £300,000pw - £400,000pw wages feasible? For the right players they are, yes. The Premier League got rich, but it has not yet found the courage to get smart. Any PL club wanting to claim the £153,000,000 prize, doesn't have to run faster than the monsters in Munich, Madrid, Milan and elsewhere, it just has to run faster than the other teams in Manchester, London and Liverpool. So what if a club is stocked up with overpriced, middling players? As long as their overpriced players are better than their national competitors overpriced players what do they care? Maybe the 16% drop in TV viewing figures will help them find the courage to stop taking the easy way out.

If Roma attempt to sell you Belotti, check the paperwork very carefully.

Especially at Barca.

The first thing which some people here simply refuse to accept is that selling clubs in this situation DO NOT NAME A PRICE. Conspiracy theories apart, Juve's only interest, if they have to part with Sandro, is to maximise his price. Naming a figure is counter productive to that so they won't do it. What sellers attempt to do instead is tease escalating bids out of the would be buyer, and keep doing that until they genuinely believe there will be no further bids. Only then will they decide if that bid suits them or not. One tactic sellers use to to indicate that only bids north of £x will be considered. Then they receive a bid of £x +1 and announce that it isn't 'northward' enough. The most reliable way sellers can be sure that the have genuinely received the maximum bid is to drag the 'negotiation' out until deadline day. Barring that, they have to read the signals coming from the buyer and make a judgement. That's not likely to be a painful error for Juve if they read it wrong in this case however, since they do not want to sell and they don't need the money. Would be buyers interests are clearly not served by dragging negotiations out so they have to consider the way they approach negations. There is no sense in bidding £x on Monday, £x +1 on Tuesday then expecting £x +2 to be accepted on Wednesday. If sellers can encourage increased bids out of you so easily, why should they stop encouraging? Rapidly increasing bids just convince sellers that there is plenty more where that came from. Buyers therefore have to finesse their behaviour and sometimes delay before upping their offer. Only three circumstances are possible with this deal. It has been done but the clubs have agreed not to announce it, it is still under discussion, or it is dead. I don't think any of us here know which.

Speaking just of the rumoured swap deal with Arsenal. I don't believe it at all. I just don't see Nemanja as an Arsene Wenger player. If that deal really is on the table then take it , unless... We face an either/or situation where both Arsenal & Juve insist it's Matic or no deal. The preference obviously would be to involve Nemanja in one of the deals and pay cash for the other, but, if we have to choose, I suppose do business with Juve and find another solution for RWB. I'd really like The Ox here though.

Cause and effect? The goal, let us not forget, is to win. We should promote youth only in as much as doing so helps us achieve that goal. Few people here follow the development sides as closely as I do, but selecting academy graduates is not an end in itself.

And how the hell do you know what Juve wanted two or three weeks ago? This kind of post, this kind of thinking, is really irritating.

Do I remember correctly that @TheWiz lives in Austria? At least Turin is a little closer if he should want to watch Nemanja play live. Meanwhile, if our Serbian should join the Italian champions, I hope in won't mean TheWiz leaves this forum.

Barring one brilliant assist in the baby Euros this year, I have not seen anything which causes me to believe in this lad. His young player of the tournament award at the last proper Euros was an indictment either of the judgement of those who voted, or on the quality of the other under 20's at the tournament. If it wasn't for the hype which surrounded him because he had just joined Bayern, and because Portugal won, I don't believe he'd have been selected. Based on what I've seen, I hope that if Chelsea's squad builders do select him, it is definitely on loan only.