Good morning.
Ah, the familiar strains of the lesser spotted weasel faced football agent. The following from Pini Zahavi [ taking to Izvestia] who appears to be representing Joao Moutinho. Moutinho some some readers may vaguely recall was linked with us in the last transfer window.
If this quote is anything to go by, we don’t feature prominently in the boy’s future.
“I will not hide that there is interest on the part of Zenit, and we will analyze their proposal in January! Zenit is a very strong team, who may be the next step in the career of Joao.”
“However at the same time we have to take into account the interests of Joao! Any footballer would like to play in Barcelona, and this option is a priority for us. In my opinion the style of his game adapts perfectly to that of Barcelona. In addition he is a fan of the club”
When you see how characters like this are at work how easier it is to magic up a tale that the incompetence of Levy & Co. is in fact the driving factor behind unsuccessful transfer deals.
Oh well.
Moutinho has always struck me as someone looking for a step up.
If we buy him, he’ll still be looking for a step up. And with the agent he has, will be encouraged to move on again asap.
We’ll have another Modric on our hands. And I don’t want that. I like the players we have and would hope to perhaps get an established star who is looking to do something in the PL and not prostitute himself throughout the UCL big hitters.
Sign of the times I’m afraid. We are seen as a “step up” club by many. If you don’t take that risk with players you will never buy any. How can you tell before you buy? In any case, are you trying to say that a player cannot be of valuable service whilst he is at spurs? The days of undying loyalty are all but gone. Live with it.
You cannot have a team made up of other people’s targets.
We already have Bale and Sandro. Our future superstars…Vertonghen, Lloris, Walker (if he gets his act together) and Caulker will form a nucleus of the team. We cannot afford to add players looking to step up to pastures new within two years.
I reckon Moutinho is one such player. He has a greedy but ambitious agent.
If we lose our best players at the same time – for example, if we win a major honour – then the rebuilding will be traumatic.
Long contracts and an injection of stability are paramount to ensuring we maintain our standing.
Arse only lose two players and look worse than last year. Walcott is leading them a merry dance and Diaby’s dischuffed with Song going.
We could do without all of that crap.
Bang on I say! We can ill afford another Berbatoss or Modrich-er scenario.
Leave him and go for isco from Malaga younger and better. Probably cheaper too
Based on this quote I think we can put this one to bed now. Re. Parker – I think AVB is likely planning on him being a useful squad member for cup games and occasional PL matches to give Sandro a rest. Pure speculation on my part. If Parker’s okay with this he’ll stay. If not, as the guy further up suggests, you could do worse than put a few sheets on ‘Arry being at Upton Park by January and making Parker one of his first buys…
Parker is a Roman god of old. I’d start with Parker and in tough away games take a lead and send on Sandro. What an iron wall we’ll have then.
I think he may use Parker and Sandro in away games, with Dembele more advanced (dropping Siggurdson or Dempsey from that role).
We all saw how well it went when we tried playing two defensive CMs in Sandro and Livermore. Sure, Parker has a bigger repertoire than Jake, but he’s no Xavi either. Unless we have a complete strong forward up top (which we might have if Adeboy is firing on all cylinders), four relatively small attacking players is too little, even in away games, unless we’re defending a lead.
Unless something fairly major changes in our squad, I hope Sandro/PNB remains an either/or option more often than not.
Away from home it worked OK.
Btw, Parker is quite a lot better than Livermore.
Don’t reckon Adebayor is anywhere near the complete strong forward. Not clinical enough. Which makes the rest of your argument sound.
@LLL I think you’ll agree that away from home it has worked better with only one holding CM in the last couple of games.
@TMWNN Not going to argue with you there. He’ll score quite a few in a good team, but clinical he is not.
Redshnapps will end up at QPR, it’s only a matter of time.
I can see that
2 more games til they reach the inevitable ‘Redknapp singularity’.
2 from 8.
2 from 8.
2 from 8.
:daumen: Place ya bets now!
Sahin went to Liverpool from RM for a loan (a song) when we were negotiating the Modric deal.
He has just started to click with Suarez.
It was a no brainer.
Perhaps but it’s a loan deal, only a loan-so whether he makes Liverpool a better side-it’ll be a temporary thing at best..I’d prefer something a little longer term myself