The Inevitable Summer Transfer Market Topic

[Clawson]

I'd rather do a Fulham or even Wigan about improving and do it piece by piece in a methodical manner than a Man City "money = KAKA" way and fall flat on our face.

Yeah, let's mention the one failure that City had during the last Transfer Period as proving a point they just buy players for the hell of it. We just threw money away without caring about position. It's not like we got anybody to help our problem areas of left back or striker.

Oh wait...oops.

[therockbox]

Lots of rumours on the Liverpool forums this morning that Hicks and Gillett originally told Rafa he'd have £40m + money from player sales to spend this summer, now they've told him there's nothing and that the books need balancing.

Still, it's our year.

[Adam]

Well, the news story breaking last night was that the yanks are £40+ million in debt and have to refinance the club in the next 6 weeks. :/

[Matt]

Won't affect Liverpool, they'll either refinance it or sell up.

[stokeriño]

Bloody Perez. Kaka, Ronaldo, Ribery, etc... At least the first time around he limited himself to one ridiculously huge transfer every summer. Now it seems, in Perez 2: Los Galacticos Strike Back, he's going to try and outdo himself by BUYING A WHOLE TEAM OF THEM AT ONCE.

There's an article on BBC Sport talking about how the combined spending on Real Madrid, Manchester City and Chelsea will make this a summer overflowing with massive transfers.

Chelsea really are the odd one out in that trio. We know Real are intending to buy big. We know City are intending to (keep on trying to) buy big. Chelsea...get linked with the usual suspects to fill column inches, but I still can't see them spending more than £30m (as a total of 2 or 3 players too, not just 1) in this window, if that. I really can't.

Edited June 5, 2009 by stokeriño

[therockbox]

Well, the news story breaking last night was that the yanks are £40+ million in debt and have to refinance the club in the next 6 weeks. :/

The debt is around £300m I think, although that's 'normal' for a club of our size. We made losses of £40m last year, £36m of which was interest payments on the loans Waldorf and Statler took out to buy the club.

Edited June 5, 2009 by therockbox

[Adam]

Well, I hope it doesn't affect Liverpool and they can still bring in some new players-it's been reported that Valencia may have to sell both Silva and Villa, and I'd love to see both of them at Anfield. Apparently, Benitez spoke with Silva last week, and Torres & Villa up front would be great in the Premier League.

[therockbox]

We won't be signing Villa, the Gerrard/Torres partnership isn't going to be broken up and he's not going to come as a backup. Silva would be a good signing, but I don't think we'll be able to afford him. With Perez now throwing money about, as well as Abramovich's apparent renewed interest in Chelsea and Man City's scattergun approach to transfers, he'll be priced well out of our league.

[Crybaby Bunting]

I don't get Valencia at all. Earlier this week their president resigned and said that Villa and Silva may go but they're now worth loads more than what they were valued last year.

Valencia are in £300m+ debt (with no Billionaire backer to allow this to run smoothly), they have struggled to pay player wages this year, they own two stadiums and two training grounds and can't sell either of them until the 'new' ones have been completely built, they are technically owned by a bank after they seized control of the club after lack of repayments.

How the hell can these players be magically worth more? How can they turn down £30m+ bids if these players wages alone would cripple the club even moreso?

It seems like Valencia want their two biggest players to leave and magically cure all their financial problems, whilst the rest of the world realise that unless Valencia consistently pay these players their wages they could sue the club and/or leave on frees.

[Matt]

They're just trying to get maximum value, essentially saying "we won't be ripped off" when deep down, they know they will, but if they try and bluff everyone, they might get a bit of extra money out of a City or Madrid who have money to piss away and want to move in before the price drops to the the price everyone else is willing to pay.

They're turning down 30m offers in the hope they'll get a 35m offer from one of the big spenders by playing hard ball, if not, the price'll drop to 30m and everyone else will come back in.

[IAceI]

I'd rather do a Fulham or even Wigan about improving and do it piece by piece in a methodical manner than a Man City "money = KAKA" way and fall flat on our face.

Yeah, let's mention the one failure that City had during the last Transfer Period as proving a point they just buy players for the hell of it. We just threw money away without caring about position. It's not like we got anybody to help our problem areas of left back or striker.

Oh wait...oops.

I was referring more to the fact you tried to sign someone like Kaka, who essentially laughed it off. As would many players who we try to sign.

If Robinho didn't get scared everytime he played outside of Manchester he could have been hailed as the greatest signing of the year, but he only played really any good in the home matches anyways.

I don't want to see us going for the players out of our reach like City did you with Kaka. I'd rather we gradually improve. Plus there are a few players who were signed, and don't seem to have made it into the squad like City would have expected. I guess the main problem is when you throw money around, like we found out with Keane, you just end up with loads more players than there are places on the pitch and bench.

We need to sign sensibly and sell what we can over summer, but not to the point we have an entirely new team. There are several players in there, Gordon, Collins, Richardson on his day, Jones on his day as well who can stay in the team - keep some of the nucleus. Plus there are more, but players like McShane need to go.

[Clawson]

Yeah but you have to admit that Manchester fucking City are batting .500 on big money signings is impressive.

Hell, I'd rather embrass myself and miss out on 10 world class players while signing 2 of them. Still means we have 2 more world class players to use next year.

[therockbox]

Man City are a godsend to journalists. Need to come up with a couple of stories fairly sharpish? Pick a top European club, take one of their top players, link them with Man City and then fuck off down the pub.

[Matt]

Yeah but you have to admit that Manchester fucking City are batting .500 on big money signings is impressive.

Hell, I'd rather embrass myself and miss out on 10 world class players while signing 2 of them. Still means we have 2 more world class players to use next year.

You're assuming you haven't made approaches for other big money signings that simply didn't get off the ground. Besides, didn't you fail for Berbatov too?

[Guest Ringmaster]

Man City are a godsend to journalists. Need to come up with a couple of stories fairly sharpish? Pick a top European club, take one of their top players, link them with Man City and then fuck off down the pub.

I love that, every day on the BBC pages, "Man City to bid eleven trillion for _____ ". Not to mention that a few American journalists have started doing this with the MLS, this week I heard about how Cuauhtémoc Blanco was going to City for 18 mil in a transfer record for the MLS, like . Wonderful people over on Setanta North America! Guy's a million years old and he stands on the left wing, waiting for someone to pass him the ball so he can hit a killer pass. And that's when he's not headbutting people.

Clearly the greatest Man City related thing this week though was Jean-Michel Aulas saying that if City decided to bid for Benzema, he'd charge them three times the price, just because they'd probably pay it.

Personally, I'm more curious as to where Trezeguet is going. He's gonna go fairly cheap and if Liverpool's owners weren't a bunch of tools he'd be a great signing. He's like a worse version of Torres and he wouldn't mind sitting on the bench, perfect fit! Either that or Arsenal might steal him, Wenger has a hard on for him whenever he commentates

[therockbox]

I'd love us to sign Trezeguet If our summer signings consisted of Tuncay, Distin, Trezeguet and Lavezzi I'd be ecstatic, with Babel, Dossena and Voronin all going. Unfortunately I don't see clubs wanting to sell their players for some loose change and party size boxes of smarties.

[Munro]

Bloody Perez. Kaka, Ronaldo, Ribery, etc... At least the first time around he limited himself to one ridiculously huge transfer every summer. Now it seems, in Perez 2: Los Galacticos Strike Back, he's going to try and outdo himself by BUYING A WHOLE TEAM OF THEM AT ONCE.

There's an article on BBC Sport talking about how the combined spending on Real Madrid, Manchester City and Chelsea will make this a summer overflowing with massive transfers.

Chelsea really are the odd one out in that trio. We know Real are intending to buy big. We know City are intending to (keep on trying to) buy big. Chelsea...get linked with the usual suspects to fill column inches, but I still can't see them spending more than £30m (as a total of 2 or 3 players too, not just 1) in this window, if that. I really can't.

I am pretty sure that Roman Abramovic stated that is he isn't into dishing out the big money anymore. I can almost guarentee that was floating about last Summer and almost certainly this January. I only expect them to spend about £30million, possibly more depending if the likes of Deco, Carvalho and Drogba do leave.

As for Madrid, I last heard it was Kaka, Ronaldo, David Villa & Silva, Alonso, Benzema, Maicon and a world class central defender for £350million? I Lol'd.

[Grounded Wingman]

I don't get Valencia at all. Earlier this week their president resigned and said that Villa and Silva may go but they're now worth loads more than what they were valued last year.

Valencia are in £300m+ debt (with no Billionaire backer to allow this to run smoothly), they have struggled to pay player wages this year, they own two stadiums and two training grounds and can't sell either of them until the 'new' ones have been completely built, they are technically owned by a bank after they seized control of the club after lack of repayments.

How the hell can these players be magically worth more? How can they turn down £30m+ bids if these players wages alone would cripple the club even moreso?

It seems like Valencia want their two biggest players to leave and magically cure all their financial problems, whilst the rest of the world realise that unless Valencia consistently pay these players their wages they could sue the club and/or leave on frees.

The big plus for Valencia is that Villa and Silva have both said that they are happy to stay (as has Albiol). This gives the club a bit of negotiating strength because if the players don't spit the dummy then the club can pretty much still name their price, regardless of their financial situation.

[Grounded Wingman]

I'd love us to sign Trezeguet If our summer signings consisted of Tuncay, Distin, Trezeguet and Lavezzi I'd be ecstatic, with Babel, Dossena and Voronin all going. Unfortunately I don't see clubs wanting to sell their players for some loose change and party size boxes of smarties.

That's a bit overkill on the striker front, considering it'll only be 1 up front unless Benitez either changes system or reverts to heavy rotation. One decent striker, who is happy to play backup, is a must, any more and there is danger of another Robbie Keane situation.

Having said that, it's catch 22. If the only striker signed is Tuncay, and Torres gets injured then we are fucked. If a big name striker signs and doesn't play he'll be crying about it (and being 'misquoted') within a few months.

Somebody said the me the other day that they'd love to see Owen back, and then they spat the dummy when I said that Owen is a little shit and I'd rather have Crouch back.

[Matt]

If you have Kuyt going, you need 2 "back up" strikers one to play in the Gerrard role and one to play in the Torres role. Owen would be a good signing, he'll probably accept being a back up at Liverpool given his injury problems and besides, he'll want to go to a big club so he can win something before his career's over.

You need to get some wingers, or at least 1, though and a couple of full backs (Johnson? ).