Hughesy

Jesus - all I did was read on wikipedia that he had scored 39 goals in 76 games for Twente. Just thought he might have stats more like Van Nistelrooy, Kezman, Alves etc..

His goalscoring record in the league for Twente is better than 1 in 2. True, but think about how prolific other have been in the Dutch league. I was almost expecting closer to a goal a game.

He hasn't been as prolific in Holland as I'd thought he had. Is he more a creative player than a pure goalscorer?

How good is he? What type of striker is he - can he be compared to a Premiership striker?

I find watching football at home a proper luxury, hopefully will be staying in for it. Going to the pub is what I do when the match is on Sky. I'm a loser, basically. Exactly the same - except that I have Sky, so I rarely bother going to the pub to watch any games..

This. Was thinking the other day how the only years I was really enthusiastic about England was from Italia 90 to probably Euro 2000. After Shearer retired, I never really felt the same enthusiasm. Remember watching the Italia 90 video endlessly when I was young and trying to recreate Platt's volley against Belgium in the garden...

I didn't say that we should match offers from other clubs. I do think that we brought him in on the cheap and he's had a very good season so we might have to look at doing something with his contract which we do seem to be doing. He's our player and he's said many times that he's happy here so we should have a good chance of working something out as long as we don't make him feel that he's being taken for granted. Agree with the sentiment, but I am not sure how, even if we left things as they were, Ba could justifiably feel like he was being taken for granted.

Are Man United a feeder club for Real Madrid? I mean.. they sold Ronaldo, Beckham and Van Nistelrooy to Madrid, so that must make them a feeder club.

Genuinely don't quite understand why we aren't in the market for another striker anyway. We can't go through a season with only Cisse, Ba and Ameobi. Even if Best doesn't go, we should be looking to sign another striker.

France at 12-1 with their squad is surely the value bet of the Euros.

Never scored 20 league goals in one season in his entire career.

so have we insured him or not ? As Roger says I assume. Obviously I don't know for a fact, but I can't see an insurance company insuring a £7m signing (see Stoke transfer). And if they do, I assume the premiums would be huge. I reckon Ashley knows this and probably assumes that the list of clubs willing to take a chance on Demba isn't quite as long as the media and/or Demba's agents would like to make out. He is therefore unwilling to up Demba's already pretty decent salary after a good 1/2 to 2/3s of a season. Again, how relevant is this? I imagine the premium for insuring professional footballer's wages and "value" is prohibitive in any case. Why would millionaire/billionaire owners of football clubs insure their assets per se when they know they only people making money from this is the insurance companies. If you have 30 professional players on the payroll you will always have one or two serious injuries. I imagine football clubs can do their own risk management when it comes to this without having to rely on handing over huge insurance premiums. So you don't think that clubs take out insurance policies on their players ie their most valuable assets? I can't believe that a club would spend millions of pounds on a player and agree a contract to pay him millions of pounds and then not take out insurance. With Ba - I don't know if he is uninsurable or just that the premiums for a player with a degenerative knee problem are just very high. Again, the risk of taking Ba on a free and possibly not insuring him/or paying higher premiums are not nearly the same as a club buying Ba for 7m and paying wages in excess of 50k a week. I could be wrong on all this - but it seems to me to be common sense.

Again I am not 100% certain - but I can't believe that a club would spend millions of pounds on an uninsured asset that could be worth nothing. After having paid £7m in transfer fees and then, for example, £15m in wages... you would want some sort of insurance. It's probably explained in the accounts.

so have we insured him or not ? As Roger says I assume. Obviously I don't know for a fact, but I can't see an insurance company insuring a £7m signing (see Stoke transfer). And if they do, I assume the premiums would be huge. I reckon Ashley knows this and probably assumes that the list of clubs willing to take a chance on Demba isn't quite as long as the media and/or Demba's agents would like to make out. He is therefore unwilling to up Demba's already pretty decent salary after a good 1/2 to 2/3s of a season.

I really can't see any club being prepared to pay £7 million for him and pay him more than the £50k a week he is currently on. Whichever club he signs for will not be able to insure him, so I think it is just too much of a risk for any purchaser.

Spot on.

Can't say I have seen much of Clyne, but I know he has been highly thought of for quite some time now. Has there been any particular reason why no club has made a move before now, bearing in mind he has been on the scene for a relatively decent amount of time?

They could shift Vermaelen to LB or at least play a 3-5-2 formation (they might do already, I don't know).

Belgium should, relatively, have a very good national team at the moment. Courtois in goal, a defence including Vermaelen, Kompany, Vertoghen and Alderweireld. Midfield of Defour, Hazard, Fellaini, Witsel and Dembele. If Lukaku comes good...

I'd say it's more than half of Spurs' fanbase that want rid of him to be honest..

Err. Roy's won quite a lot..

His managerial 'achievements' are mediocre at best.

Really need another striker in addition to our current strikeforce and 2 more strikers if Ba leaves. No way we can survive the ACON with just Shola (assuming Best and Lovenkrands have gone).

Williamson's blazer..

I still don't think there are many clubs out there who would take a risk on him to be honest.