Teasy

Blowing £5 million Your worse than Llambiarse. £5 million is nothing in today's market. It's still a value for money signing, at that price. He's got at least 3 decent seasons left. His wages also won't be high. Two premiership clubs want him, his wages won't be cheap. There's nothing to suggest he'll be good at 32-33, most forwards who've relied on pace in their careers are nowhere near the level they've been at that age. Like I said good short term fix for next season at least, after that it'll be downhill, how quickly is anyone's guess. Btw Is this just you sticking up for an African again? Can't have anything bad said about Africans can we. The other club is Everton.. No offence to the Everton fans here just saying they aren't going to be part of a wage war, anymore than we are. Also whenever I've seen him he always looked like he had quite a bit more to his game than just pace.

History? Sod that theres 4 or 5 on our books now Goes without saying yeah

I don't think wanting to sign a player for a reasonable fee who would improve us suggests low expectations. We've signed numerous players far worse than Arouna Kone in our history. As people have said, if he's the only signing then its disapointing overall, but as a first signing it would be very positive IMO, and far better than Darren Bent.

Where would Darren Bent be? Also do you actually have a list and is it realistic in the slightest?

Yeah I mentioned in the other thread that apparently he's quite a strict muslim. So strict that he wore last season's Wigan shirt, sponsored by 12bet.com. Oh well that's one obstacle out the way then

Yeah I mentioned in the other thread that apparently he's quite a strict muslim.

He's certainly not in the top bracket, but he's good enough and in some games has dominated there. Anyway the point is he improved a lot from his first season when he could easily have been described as weak as piss in the air. I think Yanga-Mbiwa should be given a season before he's declared weak as piss, that's all.

What do you mean by go toe to toe with Cisse? I'd say Kone is the kind of player who could possibly work up front with Cisse. As well as in a front 3 with Cisse and Ben Arfa. Unfortunately I have this feeling we won't get him

He's quicker, more direct and more skillful than Gouffran. Also as much as I believe Gouffran could score goals if Pardew had given him a chance in the center Kone proved last season he can score goals in this league. Think he's a step up from Gouffran personally.

Think he'd be a very good signing, he's quite a good all round player as well as a good goal scorer. Age is the only downside really IMO.

Any idea what Fulham are paying Berbatov?

It doesn't, but Dave Whelan says we've had one accepted according to Sky Sports News. Too slow.

Apparently Dave Whelan says we've had one accepted according to Sky Sports News. I agree unfortunately, if it wasn't for Martinez being there I'd be reasonable confident.

Honestly Scott?, geniune interest eh?, cheers for the info, I thought the £5m bid being accepted meant we had no interest.

Agree on Mbiwa, I think he's going to be a quality for us. On Kone and Bent, they're very different players, couldn't be much more different as strikers to be honest. Also yeah I'd absolutely love to have Kone here instead of Bent. Bent is a 100% goal poacher, with a lot of chances created for him he'll score lots of goals, but he does nothing else at all. Kone is the kind of player who can nick goals (1 in 2.9 is still a good record), but he can also come deep and link up play, as well as being able to run at players. He could play up front as part of a 2 or wide in a front 3, much more to his game.

Deserves one more to be honest, all we've heard is talk about Bent, we've had a bid officially accepted for Kone.

Without Moyes there we're basically both mid-sized clubs with shit chairmen. I think we might even be able to offer slightly more money. (Beat Everton to Ba as well, didn't we?) I agree, the only sticking point is Martinez.

He's nothing like Cisse, he's the type who could play wide of a front three if needed and do a very good job IMO.

I suppose its still most likely he'll go to Everton though with Martinez there. Also he's quite a strict muslim, so I wonder if the Wonga thing will have an effect.

Kone's a good player.. Obviously not exactly finding an unearthed gem like but we'll have to leave that to Carr, if he's allowed to do it now

At £5m he could still have resale value relatively speaking, nothing to say you can't get a few million for a player over 30 as long as he's still in contract. I can't possibly stress how much I'd prefer Kone to Bent BTW!!! Both similar age, both similar fee (assuming Villa aren't really insane enough to expect anything like £8m). But Kone offers so much more and would fit what we need so much better than Bent.

Coloccini looked weak as piss in the air in his first season. Mbiwa isn't weak in the slightest, he's a bit tentative at the moment as he gets used to the league.

This. The fact that he is going for a quite affordable fee suggests we were just hoping a bargain would emerge rather than actively trying to sign up a player we have wasted 18 months scouting and watching regularly. Had on. What suggests that, exactly? The fact we didn't get involved when he was about to join a club that can offer Champions Legaue football? If they're getting him for 13m euro, that's not too far off the £10m we bid for him in January. i think the fact we didn't make a bid suggests that we didn't make a bid tbh. We had time to make a bid before Dortmund emerged that was a fairly recent development, but we didn't. but Mike Ashley appears keen to recruit within a budget again. You don't think that just maybe, like most clubs looking at a transfer, we've spoken to the players representatives and knew that at this stage he wasn't willing to sign for us? So naturally we've asked his club and his representatives to keep us informed so that we can react accordingly. Unfortunately the only reaction that's worth considering when a club like Dortmund comes in is "Oh well, next".

That's what the people talking about what a good buy he'd be are missing, he won't be backup, he'll be first choice under Pardew. Or I certainly hope they're missing that, because anyone who wants to see Darren Bent as a first choice player in our team can simply fuck off.