The 2012 Summer Transfer Window thread

[Lineker]

It's been only 2 hours for years.

[Baddar]

They miss Lovejoy, tbh.

[Summers]

Lovejoy misses Soccer AM. He's pretty bland on Sunday Brunch.

[Lineker]

To be fair though, Rushden is very good. For all the pisstaking, he is a solid presenter with good bants.

[Hobo]

Florent Sinama-Pongolle is a free agent!

Sign him up Brendan! He is known for scoring against United!

[brenchill]

What's Sean Dundee doing these days?

[Colly]

To be fair though, Rushden is very good. For all the pisstaking, he is a solid presenter with good bants.

From someone old enough to remember 'the glory years' Rushden is no worse than Lovejoy in any way. Soccer AM had a bit of a dip the year that Fenners left and the guy who replaced Lovejoy came in, since then its as good as ever. It's never been outstanding but for a footie interview/highlights if you've missed em show with some cheap jokes in it does the job before Footie Focus and Soccer Saturday/going to the match.

[Summers]

Yeah, Goldstein was shit. Rushden is as good as Lovejoy.

[Colly]

That's the fella, Andy Goldstein. Now on Talkshite.

[Lineker]

Anway.

PSG have completed the signing of van der Wiel.

[brenchill]

Raul Meireles has joined Fenerbache.

Didn't see that one coming.

[Lineker]

Celtic have signed Tunisia striker Lassad Nouioui on a two-year deal, subject to international clearance.

Levante claimed they had captured the 26-year-old, who was out of contract after leaving Deportivo La Coruna.

But Celtic manager Neil Lennon insisted after his team drew 2-2 with Hibernian the forward was on his way to Glasgow.

[Starvinho]

Hulk to Zenit confirmed. €50million apparently. It's a 5 year deal and he'll wear #29.

Edited September 3, 2012 by Starvinho

[GoN_]

Awesome. I just hope that Witsel won't go to Zenit too, since it was also rumored.

[Khain]

Anway.

PSG have completed the signing of van der Wiel.

You just said to me that France doesn't matter in the FM thread, oh the irony

Edited September 3, 2012 by Khain

[Crybaby Bunting]

There are talks that Hulk is being sold to Zenit.

Have Zenit actually ended their unofficial policy of not signing black players? Some people were linking them to Nani last month as well though obviously there wasn't any truth to those rumours. I'm curious if there has been a change or whether this is just people rumour mongering without doing research.

I thought the unofficial 'no blacks' policy came from Russia having a lucrative league with harsh weather conditions meaning only Russians (and Eastern Europeans) would want to play there. The rush for foreign talent has only really kicked off within the past five years, but that's mostly been down to Jo succeeding and the entire Anzhi project making South Americans realise that it isn't THAT bad. Zenith are just late to signing a black player, but five years ago a player of Hulk's stature wouldn't have even considered Russia so works both ways.

Pedro Pinto ‏@pedrocnn

Latest on Hulk - he is close to agreeing personal terms with Zenit after FCP accepted an offer of around €50 million.

This makes sense. From what I heard earlier this week, Porto are in serious debt and had to sell either Mounitho or Hulk this transfer window. The move for Mounitho only started happening when Zenith's main bid for Hulk broke down over personal terms so it's possible that the Mounitho deal broke down because Zenith had made a last minute (in the EPL transfer window) bid for Hulk which was preferable to Porto.

They'd be better off banking 50m Euros for Hulk and keeping the backbone of their midfield than banking less for the core of their midfield. Strikers are MUCH easier to replace and I'm sure Porto have a youngster knocking about who could do a decent job as a striker until the next transfer window.

It also means that Daniel Levy really messed up if he thought he had a hold on Mounitho despite the transfer window shutting in Russia much later. In fact, it could be that Mounitho was used as a pawn to urge Zenith into making a final bid, knowing that only one would leave this transfer window.

[jack95]

There are talks that Hulk is being sold to Zenit.

Have Zenit actually ended their unofficial policy of not signing black players? Some people were linking them to Nani last month as well though obviously there wasn't any truth to those rumours. I'm curious if there has been a change or whether this is just people rumour mongering without doing research.

I thought the unofficial 'no blacks' policy came from Russia having a lucrative league with harsh weather conditions meaning only Russians (and Eastern Europeans) would want to play there. The rush for foreign talent has only really kicked off within the past five years, but that's mostly been down to Jo succeeding and the entire Anzhi project making South Americans realise that it isn't THAT bad. Zenith are just late to signing a black player, but five years ago a player of Hulk's stature wouldn't have even considered Russia so works both ways.

When Dick Advocaat was manager of Zenit he stated that he wanted to sign black players but the fans wouldn't let him. I think Zenit's fans have always had both a strong white nationalist influence and also have quite a lot of say in the way the club operates. I suppose for a player the calibre of Hulk they might be willing to put their views to one side, but I was curious as to whether the current manager or someone involved in running the club had outright stated they wouldn't tolerate that signing policy any longer.

[Crybaby Bunting]

Oh, speaking of Russia, I've been hearing that Russian newspapers were running a story yesterday about Chelsea agreeing a deal for Falcao which will go through on January 1st.

I have no idea how much truth is in it but the rumor/story seems to be gathering pace.

[Lineker]

Anway.

PSG have completed the signing of van der Wiel.

You just said to me that France doesn't matter in the FM thread, oh the irony

France doesn't; Holland does

[GoN_]

Witsel is officially a Zenit player. http://www.fc-zenit.ru/main/news/60736.html

We're fucked.