Other clubs' transfers

[Mowen]

Good point from ONut, of the teams above us (catchable) I'd say only Tottenham and Villa have done better in the transfer market. Pompey have lost their most important midfielder, Blackburn have lost two of their best and most influential players, City seem to be in turmoil but we'll see, Everton haven't got anyone in yet and West Ham have also struggled. It could be very tight from 6th to about 12th this year.

 

Good point but it generally is, which is why a player coming in who can score/create an extra 15 goals would mean the world of difference. Someone who can turn draws into wins and losses into draws by doing something out of the ordinary. We don't have that type of player. Yet.

 

I think that's what we all crave. I'm convinced we're looking for one (attempting to get Modric and Aimar), I just hope we get someone who can really do it.

[Kimbo]

Looks like Berbatov to Man U is on.

[Baggio]

What do you think of Sebastian Larsson, Brummie?

 

I really rate him and would be quite happy if we signed him. I know we've been linked with him, vaguely, but I can't help thinking it is fanciful, they'd never sell him to us. Not after we sold them Liam Ridgewell

 

He's by some way the only player of theirs I'd want. That's not saying that much, but he's a very promising player.

 

Apparently we're the only club that have put a bid in for him that was rejected, I rate him too and just wondered what the opinion of him was down your way.

 

He'll be a top centre mid in a few years when he matures, similar to Barry he won't be stuck out wide forever.

[Cajun]

Looks like Berbatov to Man U is on.

 

Hope that doesn't go through too quickly.

[midds]

Good point from ONut, of the teams above us (catchable) I'd say only Tottenham and Villa have done better in the transfer market. Pompey have lost their most important midfielder, Blackburn have lost two of their best and most influential players, City seem to be in turmoil but we'll see, Everton haven't got anyone in yet and West Ham have also struggled. It could be very tight from 6th to about 12th this year.

 

Good point but it generally is, which is why a player coming in who can score/create an extra 15 goals would mean the world of difference. Someone who can turn draws into wins and losses into draws by doing something out of the ordinary. We don't have that type of player. Yet.

 

I think that's what we all crave. I'm convinced we're looking for one (attempting to get Modric and Aimar), I just hope we get someone who can really do it.

 

Me too.

 

Just got to trust the boss and hope he comes up with something special. I'm hopeful. 

[Incognito]

I think MON has spent very well in the past week.Villa will be cetainly vying for 5th this season,and to give MON credit,this time last week,i was thinking they were falling behind Spuds and Pompey,squad wise.Not now,the defence looks really strong,and perhaps with a bit of creativity,whether up front or midfield,they may scare the so called big 4.

[Incognito]

Looks like Berbatov to Man U is on.

 

Hope that doesn't go through too quickly.

 

Monday will do!

[Mowen]

Good point from ONut, of the teams above us (catchable) I'd say only Tottenham and Villa have done better in the transfer market. Pompey have lost their most important midfielder, Blackburn have lost two of their best and most influential players, City seem to be in turmoil but we'll see, Everton haven't got anyone in yet and West Ham have also struggled. It could be very tight from 6th to about 12th this year.

 

Good point but it generally is, which is why a player coming in who can score/create an extra 15 goals would mean the world of difference. Someone who can turn draws into wins and losses into draws by doing something out of the ordinary. We don't have that type of player. Yet.

 

I think that's what we all crave. I'm convinced we're looking for one (attempting to get Modric and Aimar), I just hope we get someone who can really do it.

 

Me too.

 

Just got to trust the boss and hope he comes up with something special. I'm hopeful. 

 

Same here. I'm quietly optimistic, but I don't want to get my hopes up too much!

[brummie]

What do you think of Sebastian Larsson, Brummie?

 

I really rate him and would be quite happy if we signed him. I know we've been linked with him, vaguely, but I can't help thinking it is fanciful, they'd never sell him to us. Not after we sold them Liam Ridgewell

 

He's by some way the only player of theirs I'd want. That's not saying that much, but he's a very promising player.

 

Apparently we're the only club that have put a bid in for him that was rejected, I rate him too and just wondered what the opinion of him was down your way.

 

He'll be a top centre mid in a few years when he matures, similar to Barry he won't be stuck out wide forever.

 

He's told the Porno Dwarf quite clearly that he isn't interested in staying and wants out.

 

Sullivan will shit a brick about having a rapidly depreciating asset on his books and sell him toute de suite. You'll end up with him, I would have thought. Although I had heard Blackburn were interested too.

[GG]

He's told the Porno Dwarf quite clearly that he isn't interested in staying and wants out.

 

Went to my school, did the Porno Dwarf. 

[Martin Lol]

Looks like Berbatov to Man U is on.

 

Hope that doesn't go through too quickly.

 

Don't worry, he's been walking through pre-season when he's had the mind to do anything,

[Syrette]

Daily Hatemail suggesting it should be sealed tomorrow...

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1044128/Fergie-banks-Berbatov-United-seal-deal-25m-Spurs-striker.html

 

Fergie banks on Berbatov: United seal the deal for £25m Spurs striker

 

 

Dimitar Berbatov is expected to agree personal terms and seal his £25million move to Manchester United.

 

Sportsmail understands that the Bulgaria striker is due at United's Carrington training centre after finally being given permission by Tottenham Hotspur to talk to the Barclays Premier League and European champions.

 

The 27-year-old will be offered a four-year deal worth in the region of £80,000-a-week. United hope he will appear on their official pre-season team photo, scheduled to be taken on Friday.

 

 

If Berbatov agrees terms, his signing will end an 18-month pursuit by Sir Alex Ferguson, who will be on the verge of fielding his dream attacking line-up featuring Berbatov, Carlos Tevez, Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo when the latter two regain health and fitness.

 

Ironically, the Premier League board are discussing Tottenham's allegations that United have behaved improperly in their pursuit of Berbatov. White Hart Lane chairman Daniel Levy believes United 'tapped up' their player and made a complaint to the Premier League in mid-July.

 

However, the League are not expected to find in Tottenham's favour - especially as the clubs have been negotiating for the last few weeks. As Sportsmail revealed last month, United's first offer of £20m for Berbatov was turned down with Spurs originally wanting £32m for the player.

 

But it is understood the clubs have now agreed on a fee of around £25m - money which Spurs will need to spend immediately on a replacement.

 

At United there will be jubilation if the deal goes through as Berbatov has been targeted to lead the line since impressing Ferguson in 2006-07.

 

With Louis Saha so often injured, United have not had a 'through the middle' striker since Ruud van Nistelrooy left.

[Martin Lol]

Daily Hatemail suggesting it should be sealed tomorrow...

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1044128/Fergie-banks-Berbatov-United-seal-deal-25m-Spurs-striker.html

 

Fergie banks on Berbatov: United seal the deal for £25m Spurs striker

 

 

Dimitar Berbatov is expected to agree personal terms and seal his £25million move to Manchester United.

 

Sportsmail understands that the Bulgaria striker is due at United's Carrington training centre after finally being given permission by Tottenham Hotspur to talk to the Barclays Premier League and European champions.

 

The 27-year-old will be offered a four-year deal worth in the region of £80,000-a-week. United hope he will appear on their official pre-season team photo, scheduled to be taken on Friday.

 

 

If Berbatov agrees terms, his signing will end an 18-month pursuit by Sir Alex Ferguson, who will be on the verge of fielding his dream attacking line-up featuring Berbatov, Carlos Tevez, Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo when the latter two regain health and fitness.

 

Ironically, the Premier League board are discussing Tottenham's allegations that United have behaved improperly in their pursuit of Berbatov. White Hart Lane chairman Daniel Levy believes United 'tapped up' their player and made a complaint to the Premier League in mid-July.

 

However, the League are not expected to find in Tottenham's favour - especially as the clubs have been negotiating for the last few weeks. As Sportsmail revealed last month, United's first offer of £20m for Berbatov was turned down with Spurs originally wanting £32m for the player.

 

But it is understood the clubs have now agreed on a fee of around £25m - money which Spurs will need to spend immediately on a replacement.

 

At United there will be jubilation if the deal goes through as Berbatov has been targeted to lead the line since impressing Ferguson in 2006-07.

 

With Louis Saha so often injured, United have not had a 'through the middle' striker since Ruud van Nistelrooy left.

 

The only dispute seems to be whether it's £25m plus add-ons up to £28m or £28m up front as the Times says.  Levy's love of an add-on makes me think the former.

 

What's held it up is getting another striker in.  Arshavin was in London today so I hope a fee has been agreed with Zenit otherwise the price will another couple of mill upwards.

[Syrette]

Eto'o will be staying at Barca after all by the way, not sure if that's been mentioned.

[Taylor Swift]

Why would Levy want add-ons when he could get all the money up front? Makes no sense.

[Guest quklaani]

Because you can get a larger overall fee with add-ons, and with Carrick spurs have pretty much got the full 18.6 million by now I'd have thought.  It'll probably be something like 26 million up front or 24 plus 4 million of random add ons.

 

Slightly off-topic, but in response to the Villa talk what impressed me most about them last year was their performances against the teams above them.  Spurs invariably get battered by the "Big 4", yet everyone says they're the team to break it.  Villa on the other hand, once you look past their biannual maulings by Man Utd* have done very well.  Their record against Chelsea over the last couple of seasons is probably the best in the league, and they should have won at both Anfield and the Emirates this year.  They also got good results against Everton, Spurs, and the rest of that group. (Portsmouth aside.)  They're clearly the team best equiped to force their way into the champions league places, and them leapfrogging Barry at Liverpool would be utterly hilarious.

 

*Villa signing Friedel might change this.

[Martin Lol]

Why would Levy want add-ons when he could get all the money up front? Makes no sense.

 

Because Utd will never offer what Spurs want up front.  Quklaani has got the concept worked out fairly accurately.  If you assume that Man Utd will win more Premier League titles, Cups etc, it's logical to get something added on for that eventuality when it happens rather than if it happens.  Spurs have received the full £18.6m for Carrick, the last payment came with the CL success, but that method of payment does usually, produce more than the basic flat fee.  It really depends on who the player is being sold to and the expectation of achieving the trigger for the payment of the add-ons.  The details should come out when the transfer goes through and the LSE are informed (I did say should, not will).

 

FWIW, I also generally agree with Quklaani with his thoughts on Villa.  Defensively, they are always a tight unit which is always necessary when meeting the Big 4, something that Spurs haven't done in the past. With that in mind, I still think at the present time that Villa will be ahead of Spurs at the end of the season.  If, however, the 4 signings still being discussed (2 strikers, 1 CB, 1DM) actually happen, I think that maybe Spurs could be ahead of Villa this season irrespective.

[Guest Johan]

Why would Levy want add-ons when he could get all the money up front? Makes no sense.

 

Because Utd will never offer what Spurs want up front.  Quklaani has got the concept worked out fairly accurately.  If you assume that Man Utd will win more Premier League titles, Cups etc, it's logical to get something added on for that eventuality when it happens rather than if it happens.  Spurs have received the full £18.6m for Carrick, the last payment came with the CL success, but that method of payment does usually, produce more than the basic flat fee.  It really depends on who the player is being sold to and the expectation of achieving the trigger for the payment of the add-ons.  The details should come out when the transfer goes through and the LSE are informed (I did say should, not will).

 

FWIW, I also generally agree with Quklaani with his thoughts on Villa.  Defensively, they are always a tight unit which is always necessary when meeting the Big 4, something that Spurs haven't done in the past. With that in mind, I still think at the present time that Villa will be ahead of Spurs at the end of the season.  If, however, the 4 signings still being discussed (2 strikers, 1 CB, 1DM) actually happen, I think that maybe Spurs could be ahead of Villa this season irrespective.

 

Agree with you on this, defeating the top four at their own game, in other words outplaying them is very hard. Something we have found out in our games against Man Utd etc. Teams like Bolton under Big Sam who played 11 men behind the ball have found some success against some of the top teams. But with a team like the one at spurs right now you are perhaps more geared towards getting points from the rest of the teams. If you get enough points from the bottom teams that could be enough to break the top four without actually having that great of a record against them. Problem for Spurs right now is that the middle teams are that much better than when we got into the Champions League, you need a really balanced team to consistently get points from teams like Villa, Everton, Newcastle, Portsmouth etc.

 

Villa is overrated btw:)

[Broadsword]

£26m up front now with no add ons is much much better than £28m over 4 years including £4m add ons.

 

The interest alone on a up front £24m is well over £1.2 million per year. It will work out much better to take the upfront payment than the yearly drip payments.  It also avoids any inflation over the 4 years too. 

 

If Spurs are offered £24m up front they would be foolish to not snap Man Uniteds hands off.  However theres no way Man U would ever entertain offering a single payment of £24m for any transfer. 

[Martin Lol]

Why would Levy want add-ons when he could get all the money up front? Makes no sense.

 

Because Utd will never offer what Spurs want up front.  Quklaani has got the concept worked out fairly accurately.  If you assume that Man Utd will win more Premier League titles, Cups etc, it's logical to get something added on for that eventuality when it happens rather than if it happens.  Spurs have received the full £18.6m for Carrick, the last payment came with the CL success, but that method of payment does usually, produce more than the basic flat fee.  It really depends on who the player is being sold to and the expectation of achieving the trigger for the payment of the add-ons.  The details should come out when the transfer goes through and the LSE are informed (I did say should, not will).

 

FWIW, I also generally agree with Quklaani with his thoughts on Villa.  Defensively, they are always a tight unit which is always necessary when meeting the Big 4, something that Spurs haven't done in the past. With that in mind, I still think at the present time that Villa will be ahead of Spurs at the end of the season.  If, however, the 4 signings still being discussed (2 strikers, 1 CB, 1DM) actually happen, I think that maybe Spurs could be ahead of Villa this season irrespective.

 

Agree with you on this, defeating the top four at their own game, in other words outplaying them is very hard. Something we have found out in our games against Man Utd etc. Teams like Bolton under Big Sam who played 11 men behind the ball have found some success against some of the top teams. But with a team like the one at spurs right now you are perhaps more geared towards getting points from the rest of the teams. If you get enough points from the bottom teams that could be enough to break the top four without actually having that great of a record against them. Problem for Spurs right now is that the middle teams are that much better than when we got into the Champions League, you need a really balanced team to consistently get points from teams like Villa, Everton, Newcastle, Portsmouth etc.

 

Villa is overrated btw:)

 

I wouldn't have said Villa are overrated tbh.  They're always organised, got a top quality manager, very hard to beat.  They may not be the most flamboyant going forward but results are what count at the end of the day.  Barry is pivotal to Villa though, if he did make the move to Liverpool, he would be hard to replace.

 

The balance of the Spurs team isn't quite right just now but losing Berbatov isn't so much of a loss when he's not interested.  He hardly contributed anything to the win against Roma (and went home at half time when he was told he was being substituted) and I think his goals will be replaced with the added creativity in midfield.  It doesn't seem as though Berbatov will be going until his replacement is sorted out.  Arshavin to replace Keane, Corluca to bolster the defence and a DM expected to be coming in and I think there should be enough options for Ramos to provide a better balanced team this season than last.  The only problem for Spurs right now is that the other clubs know we're awash with money 9(in spite of the signings, we've still spent less than we've received even before Berbatov's departure) and the prices keep changing, and it's never downwards. 

[Martin Lol]

£26m up front now with no add ons is much much better than £28m over 4 years including £4m add ons.

 

The interest alone on a up front £24m is well over £1.2 million per year. It will work out much better to take the upfront payment than the yearly drip payments.  It also avoids any inflation over the 4 years too. 

 

If Spurs are offered £24m up front they would be foolish to not snap Man Uniteds hands off.  However theres no way Man U would ever entertain offering a single payment of £24m for any transfer. 

 

Almost all fees are paid over the term of the player's contract.  Man Utd offered £16m for Carrick spread over the contract, the fee agreed was £14.4m over the contract plus add-ons for a further possible £4.2m.  The add-ons have been paid but the £14.4m is still paid over the contract.

[brummie]

 

I wouldn't have said Villa are overrated tbh.  They're always organised, got a top quality manager, very hard to beat.  They may not be the most flamboyant going forward but results are what count at the end of the day.  Barry is pivotal to Villa though, if he did make the move to Liverpool, he would be hard to replace.

 

I actually thought we were pretty good to watch going forward last year, Young and Agbonlahor breaking from midfield.

 

I know we scored a lot of goals from free kicks, too, but lest we forget, only Man United (and maybe Spurs) scored more goals than we did.

 

You don't go to Stamford Bridge and score four goals without having a go, although that match highlights what our main problem was last year - keeping clean sheets. Second half of the season, we paid for Carson's Croatia nightmare in practically every match, we didn't keep a clean sheet for months and months.

 

If we'd have had a decent goalkeeper, quite a few of those draws would have been turned into wins.

 

Also, re Barry - he's not pivotal to us. A lot of opposition fans tend to take the "he's their best player" route because they just assume he is. He might be our highest profile player, but he went missing for big chunks of last season, and Young, Laursen and Bouma all had better seasons than he did.

 

If he goes, he'll need replacing, but I'd be far more worried if it were Young going.

[Guest kingdawson]

SSN reporting that Mark Hughes has called a press conference for 3:00 pm today.

[Dave]

SSN reporting that Mark Hughes has called a press conference for 3:00 pm today.

 

Probably to address the rumours. Already said today that he's not leaving.

[KaKa]

SSN reporting that Mark Hughes has called a press conference for 3:00 pm today.

 

Probably to address the rumours. Already said today that he's not leaving.

 

Hmmm ... I don't know. Seems a bit much for just addressing some rumours.