CHOULO19

The Ballack slap was wrong but that does not in any way justify that horrible tackle. Slaps don't end people's careers, horrible tackles do. Did I miss something?

He's like Modric.

I get the hype about Isco because he is young and has loads of potential but to compare him to an established world-class player and definitely one of the top 5 players in the entire PL is a crime. Mata is what Isco hopes to become like in a few years. Tell me then, if Isco is so much better than Mata, why is he with the U21 NT and not the senior NT instead of Mata?

Yeah we should wait and see what Jose's system will be. Right now, we don't even know if he's going to stick with 4-2-3-1.

Certainly not if he goes to City because he will be rotting on the bench all season.

Well I read that the Schurrle deal will reach 24m. But of course there is no certain value as the club did not disclose the fee. Anyway, I'm positive that Nani would not go for more than 12m. He has fallen out of favor at united and he wants to leave. He was signed for 19m because he was supposed to be the next Ronaldo. Most of the names I've mentioned would go for a lot less than Schurrle. Remy is rumored to have a clause in his contract that if QPR got relegated he could leave for something like 7m! All the players I mentioned should cost under 15m (except Lijajic, but he is some player!) and I'm not saying that they all will, just that we could certainly have found someone similar to Schurrle for a lot less money than we paid. Yes, Nani did not live up to his potential. But that was a long time ago, it is completely unfair to keep comparing him to Ronaldo. But compare him to the average winger in the PL and he is still a pretty good player. I think he'd make a great squad player. I said offensively he is consistent, but his work-rate cannot be questioned. The reason united don't want him is that they have a similar player to him in Valencia, and he does not fit Fergie's system. Anyway, we already got Schurrle and there is no way Nani is coming here..

The Spanish players are just toying with the ref here!

Yes, Nani. He's inconsistent offensively but he always tracks back and defends the wing well. He's also one of the few remaining "traditional" wingers who can actually cross and can give us a different option than the ones we currently have. I think we've moved way off topic here. Move this to the general transfer talk?

Criminal positioning for the goal. And he could see across the line as well, was just watching the ball instead of stepping up. Amateur mistake.

I don't things are as 'rigid' as we make them out to be. First, we won't just have a starting XI that will be the same for each match. Team selection is greatly influenced by the opponent. For example, if we are playing against Eveton at Gudison Park, I'd rather play Moses over Mata and Schurrle at RW because he would help keep Baines quite. And similarly each match will dictate it's own requirements. I also think that one of the main advantages of 4-2-3-1 is the positional 'freedom' for the 3 behind the striker especially when that striker plays with his back to goal and gets involved in the link-up play. I remember just before the start of last season, we were having a very similar discussion here and there was an almost unanimous agreement that Mata, Hazard and Oscar can't play together. But then they proved us all wrong and we actually had our best performances when those 3 were playing at the same time. Mata who could not play at all at RW in 4-3-3 had some of his best performances this season at RW because in 4-2-3-1 he could drift inside and switch positions with #10 and even with the striker. So I think we will need to see how everyone fits in the system and formation before we can tell who can and cannot play in a certain position.

Who is that clueless RB?!

LOL haven't noticed him yet! Thought Fiberglass was playing up top!

I still can't wrap my head around this false-nine nonsense. If Spain had a decent striker up front, they would have scored by now.

No, I intentionally only mentioned those related to us in order to make it relevant. There are loads of players that fall into that category. Off the top of my head: Remy, Turan, Muniain, Ljajic (would probably cost the same but is sooo much better), Rakitic, Lamela...etc Should I go on? And didn't Nani want to leave united? I'd love him here and he'd cost much less than Andre. This is something that annoys a lot, that whenever we are linked with someone that is hyped, everyone seems to act like he's the only player in the world who will be our savior. But teh fact is, unless we are attempting to sign Messi, there are plenty of other fish in the sea.

Tbf, Reina was a superb keeper a couple of years ago..

Mata cost less than Schurrle. Don't tell me you think Andre is better? We also bought KDB for 7m and he is better as well. We sold Danny for 12m and he is the most similar player to Schurrle I could think of. Point is, we paid over the top for Andre. I stand with what I told you the other day on twitter: We will NOT sign a striker this window. We have three strikers for a system that only utilizes one of them, and even of loan Lukaku out, neither Ba nor Torres are going anywhere. You can't just keep needlessy throwing big money at your problems. That is the mentality we need to get rid of. In fact needlessly throwing big money is what created this problem when we bought Torres. We can't keep spending just for the sake of spending to get the shiniest name out there. Spending big does not mean solving problems, in fact if we look at our recent history, our "average" money signings have mostly worked much better than the big money signings.

People forget that one of the main reasons we moved to 4-2-3-1 was Mata's inability to to play on the wings in a 4-3-3. He simply doesn't have the pace for it.

That's why I did not mention the signings of Hazard and Mata and such because those signings were necessary. But spending big does not always mean getting better quality. I don't want to get into the Schurrle discussion here, but I think we can all agree that we could have someone similar to him in may be half the price. And spending 60m on one player is just ridiculous. That is what I mean with change of transfer policy, I'm not saying we should become Everton and never spend more than 10m, just that for every Mata there should be an Azpi.

Yes the board has done very well in the past couple of years in terms of sponsorship deals (though I can't see how you could credit Gourlay alone). But all that would count for very little if we don't change our transfer policies. We've seen glimpses of that change with signings like Moses, Romeu and Azpi, but this window has been alarming so far with the signing of Schurrle for 23m and our reported interest in paying 50m for Cavani.

I"m not saying that he would, just that we would be in a better position if we did not lose money every year.

No I'm pretty sure about that part. We owe Roman no money but we owe a lot of it to the company.

The thing is, practically, we as a club, owe Roman no money. All the money we spend are loans from an intermediate company he's set up. So he can leave and we as a club would still owe his company A LOT of money. That is at leats my understanding of the matter.

A Brazilian loving an Argentinian player? Now I've seen it all!

Just assume for the sake of discussion that Roman decides one day that he does not want to own a football club anymore, what business man wants to come buy a club that is constantly losing money unless, like Roman, he has love for the sport and has a couple of billions he does not need? I'm not saying that Roman is leaving tomorrow. But in fact, if the club does start to spend more wisely and actually start making money, or at least not losing, that will make it much more likely that Roman actually stays for a very long time because he would have absolutely no reason to sell a club that is making him money.

Yes at Inter was Cambiasso and Zanetti as first choice with Stankovic and Thiago Motta as second choice. Although what Jose implemented back then was a very 'customized' 4-2-3-1. It was a work of tactical genius. And I'm glad I could help