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.
I personally think Isco would be the better option also!
There is an unsavoury aroma of ‘told you so’ about this post.
The fact that Moutinho has an agent who is a pimp and that there may or may not now be other clubs in for him, as his pimp says, does not alter the fact that our club left negotiations too late to finalize a deal for a player who was willing to come but now may be on to bigger and better things.
They had agreed the fee. Then Porto and/or a 3rd party with a stake in the player decided to reneg at the last moment.
That has nothing to do with leaving it too late. It had to do with owners that didn’t actually really want to sell.
There’s nothing in the coverage of this saga to indicate that DL & Co made first contact with Porto towards the end of the window. As far as I could tell, they had been in various stages of negotiation basically starting the day after AVB was hired. The fact that it took the players’ owners until 11:45pm on the last day of the window to conclude that £30m wasn’t enough after all is hardly anyone else’s fault.
There’s nothing in the coverage of this saga to indicate that DL & Co made first contact with Porto towards the end of the window.
Well in that the day we hear that a bid was accepted was the last day of the window, I strongly disagree.
As far as I could tell, they had been in various stages of negotiation basically starting the day after AVB was hired.
That’s sheer guesswork, no evidence of that at all!
The day we heard a bid was accepted was the day the people involved in the negotiations decided to make it public. Doesn’t mean that was the same day they started talking.
And yes, it is a bit of guesswork, based on the amount of times AVB mentioned Moutinho to the press. So there is some evidence, circumstantial as it may be.
Look, I can’t prove what went on with regards to these negotiations any more than anyone else who wasn’t actually there. I just don’t get why in this case, so many are entirely convinced that Levy left it too late.
Sure, he might have left it too late, based on the firm evidence (nothing). But he might also have started talking to them much earier with an eye to closing the deal quickly. We don’t know, so I think Levy deserves the benfit of the doubt on this one.
No, Danny is not sent from heaven and above criticism. I just think he’s done enough lately that we shouldn’t assume that “he never learns” from the late transfer deals. Speaking of circumstantial evidence, there is quite a bit to indicate that Levy sees the value in closing deals early on. He’s just also not afraid to try and use the pressure of a closing window to his advantage if it comes to that. Look at Vert, Siggy (OK, maybe hasn’t proven anything yet, but we all wanted him, and we got him early), Modders to name a few deals that have been closed out before others were even starting to make calls.
not forgetting Berbatov at 10.8m of course
Sure, he might have left it too late, based on the firm evidence (nothing).
Incorrect. The evidence I have is that the club was granted an hour extension to the deadline to finalize the deal. The fact that they were working frantically on something at 11pm on deadline day does not signify to me that they started work on it on 1st July. Remember doing essays and stuff?
There is also plenty of anecdotal evidence that Levy has form in leaving things very late. Note the backtracking over the Lloris deal in which he saved a couple of million by doing the hot and cold routine. Note Martin Jol complaining that we as a club went in very late and left him no time to replace Dembele. Note that Dempsey was seemingly not a target until deadline day itself. Do I really need to continue?
We don’t know, so I think Levy deserves the benfit of the doubt on this one.
I really can’t see the reasoning for giving him that benefit other than blind man-love for the little tinker!
Speaking of circumstantial evidence, there is quite a bit to indicate that Levy sees the value in closing deals early on.
I think the weight of evidence is against him on this. Modric was a really unique case. Vertonghen, I think he had the benefit of knowing that we were the only club he wanted to join. Even still it seemed to drag on for some time.
Look at … Siggy (OK, maybe hasn’t proven anything yet, but we all wanted him, and we got him early)
Did we? I can’t remember anyone saying they really wanted him tbh, until he appeared in a white shirt. Same as Dempsey. These are indeed typical Levy deals, last minute (which they were – if we hadn’t have acted so fast they would have gone elsewhere), trumping of other clubs – personal victories over what the club really requires perhaps? I don’t know. Just throwing it out there.
Or perhaps after months of negotiations the deal fell flat at the last minute-in any event you can hardly say we’re worse off with Dembele and Dempsey-who didn’t take too long to sign for us after we’d shown an interest-therefore indicating they actually wanted to join us, given the speed of their transfers-If the player really wants it-he gets it-agent can be bypassed by the player if the desires there.
I suspect with regard to Dempsey it was more a case of ‘anywhere but Fulham’ once the Liverpool deal fell through and the clock was ticking.
He has a fair bit to prove as far as I’m concerned. I’m still not happy that we’ve signed a player who effectively went on strike to force through a move away — something which seems to a large extent to have been forgotten about.
Scoring the goal that ultimately broke a 23-year hoodoo is a good start, mind.
I tend to agree with you about Dempsey.
There’s plenty of competition at Spurs, though.
Small fish, big pond.
I’d like to think he’s settling. But come January – another Belgian. Fellaini.
The only point I was trying to emphasis Unc, was agents only work for the players-If the player really wants the move and it’s a goer,he’ll get it regardless.
I’d love to see us sign Fellaini. I’d like to see him in a defensive wall along with Benny and Thudd. Their hair alone would completely obscure the goal.
Demsey going on strike has been forgotten because it wasn’t true. Dempsey has said that he requested a transfer but was still willing to play. Jol didn’t play him and the media picked up on that and invented the strike story in typical media fashion.
Dempsey is a true professional, I would believe him rather than the rags.
@ Uncle Kev.and they can sing ‘when will I see you again’ at half time if Charlie puts in an appearance
Forget about him, our midfield is already second to none in this league……we need strikers!
Yes we need strikers but that doesn’t mean you “forget” about strengthening in other areas as well.
Why do we need strikers? Defoe is playing well and Ade’s not going to be injured forever, at most we need a youngster who’s willing to spend most of the season on the bench but we’ve got some of them already.
So Defoe gets injured Thursday and Adebayor isn’t back, I guess we play Dempsey (an attacking midfielder) up front on his own :hae:
Dempsey can play a few different roles but yeah, he’d probably be the choice. You have to be realistic about the standard of striker you’re going to get if they’re going to be content with being 3rd choice for us, they’re not going to be much better than Dempsey.
If we had both Kyles out injured, would we be bemoaning having to play Smith? A club like ours can’t afford and doesn’t have the stature to keep 3 quality players happy that only play in one position.
We should be spending big on a quality first choice striker and let Adebayor and Defoe fight for the scraps…..
Neither Defoe or Ade would accept that and who is this quality striker that would be better than Defoe and Ade? The only one I can think of that we can afford and can hold a candle to our current pair is Ba and even then we’d have to face losing at least one of the other two.
Defoe and Adebayor have been 2nd or 3rd choice strikers most of their careers, what are you talking about?
Several reasons. Firstly, what would we have done had Defoe also got injured 3 or 4 games ago? We’d have been knackered. Yes we have some young guys but yet they are not yet good enough for a top 4 team which we hope to be this season. They may never be good enough, we don’t know yet. Additionally, we need a more clinical striker who can score against teams that park the bus. Ade and Defoe lack that ability which was proven on several occasions last season.
It’s about time we forget about last season and concentrate on this manager and what he’s doing.as opposed to the previous regime, We have a raft of new players, a manager with a different perspective and an entirely different set of circumstances.
surely the point of change is to change and not only in the short term. Modric’s gone-there is no replacement for him and no guarantee either that he would’ve suited AVB’s style or plans for that matter.
Harry’s gone and so have all his coaches and we have new ones with their own idea’s.
All these factors have to be considered and time’s needed for them to materialise..or not, but let’s look forwards not backwards eh?
Who’s looking backwards? Your post makes no sense. Needing another striker isn’t looking backwards, were not looking to use him last season are we.
By looking backward I clearly meant, many are trying to put our players into last seasons team. Of course we need new strikers-we also need a decent full back on the right hand side=and another on the left, but it’s October not the end of December. Let’s wait and see how the next few months unfold, let’s see whether we’re taking the Europa seriously and lets see how AVB plans and tactics unfold before buying players that would’ve suited last seasons team and not this seasons
I stepped on something foul and smelly this morning. I thought it was an agent but luckily it turned out to be just dog sh*t.
Phew! Close call.
It always confused me that Moutinho is on Barca and Real’s doorstep, known to both clubs-yet Real went for the dearer option on Modric? Stange when you consider Real’s boss, speaks the language, knows the player-yet looks elsewhere?
I’ve thought this same thought. Unless it’s a case of RM & Barca being quoted a higher price than us, I don’t quite understand it.
Or maybe he’s just not all that..just a thought
He’s not all that…..
Oh yes, that’s occured to me. He’s just looked so damned good every time I’ve seen him play (not that I’ve watched all, or even most of his games).
I’ve only seen him play during the Euro’s, and TBH only because we were linked with him. I thought he was an OK player, but a ‘stand out player’, not for me and definitely not an upgrade on Modric as many were proposing. He may be a good longer prospect-but I doubt if he would be one to hit the ground running as Dembele has for example, and at 30 plus million?, not for me I’m afraid.
We will never get an “upgrade” on Modric, it may not exist but something close would be good. Where you get 30 million from?? The figure quoted was 22 million not 30. As for hitting the ground running, Dembele has been playing in PL for several seasons, hardly a fair comparison is it.
That’s the whole point, why risk 20-30 million on a maybe-when we’ve paid 15 for a definite-not rocket science is it?