The Football Thread; transfer hype + stuff

[Saint of Killers]

Thankfully there are plenty of amazing players out there who're willing to look past lack of CL football for a few extra zeroes on their wages.

Hopefully Woodward will be able to find a couple of them.

Kroos is one but Bayern won't sell him right now.

[Codename 47]

Bit surprised at the timing of the Fabregas announcement, didn't think any big deals would be announced until after the World Cup.

Fair play to Chelsea, they are going to have a pretty awesome team next season. Team to beat at the moment in my opinion.

Chelsea not messing around - pretty much two big deals signed and sealed before the World Cup. I reckon all they need now is at least one more striker and possibly a center back. I wonder where he'll play though? Will he be back in the center or given an advanced role? I guess that versatility is the one thing he has over Mata - i don't know how well he'd do in a center midfield role.

I can see why Wenger maybe didn't go for him as there is an abundence of central/attacking midfielders at Arsenal right now. Ozil, Ramsey, Cazorla, Wilshere, Rosicky and the Ox. I'm sure he would've been tempted to make a move but at the end of the day just figured there was no real space for him.

[Parksey]

Arsene must have something in mind if he rejected the chance to re-sign Cesc.

We can say Chelsea have been reduced to signing Arsenal rejects.

That's the only positive I've got so far.

Don't Arsenal get a decent chunk of the fee? I am surprised they didn't try and resign him (they have first refusal) but I have also heard that within the club, they felt it was better to take the money and pursue fresh options.

And it is stupid to think Man United aren't a big draw. The lack of CL football - for just one season, potentially - doesn't outweigh the fact that they are establish as a Champions League winning club.

They have more going for them than Arsenal and City in that respect. They aren't just a team that traditionally turn ed up in the second round or quarter finals - they challenged for it. They know their way around Europe and how to beat the elite consistently. Yes, obviously, I am talking past tense here, but when players dont watch a team week in, week out (and live abroad) it is not just getting in the CL that counts - it is knocking out the big guns and winning it. And that will stick in the memory, as United have been doing it for years. They have a richer CL heritage than Chelsea, Arsenal or City. Liverpool still feed off their successes in Europe, despite having a lengthy absence from the tournament.

[PurplePenguin]

Clearly we're going for final day shenanigans again, we'll be lucky to sign Michael Owen again at this rate. As much as I admire Fabregas it would of been £30 million on the wrong player he's not the midfielder we need at Man Utd right now we need someone who can sit in the middle of the park keep things tidy and put in the tackles. We also need a winger who has the pace and the skill to beat his man not someone who tries to continually come inside and put in poor crosses.

I think Van Gaal will bring in the right players eventually he's probably trying to sign half the Dutch team as we speak. I feel less apprehensive this summer than last summer because at least Van Gaal has the pedigree in Europe whereas Moyes scouting network probably consists of his local lollipop man and barber.

[Kanbei]

From all the rumours and gossip, apparently the 3 bug name midfielders we are interested in are Schweinsteiger, Pogba and Strootman. Get 2 of them, we are interested in Sanchez so him and Januzaj on the wings with RVP, Rooney and Mata rotating for the 2 highest up positions and we will be back no problem!

[Cosmo]

I think Arsenal were looking for about £5m from the Fabregas transfer.

[PurplePenguin]

From all the rumours and gossip, apparently the 3 bug name midfielders we are interested in are Schweinsteiger, Pogba and Strootman. Get 2 of them, we are interested in Sanchez so him and Januzaj on the wings with RVP, Rooney and Mata rotating for the 2 highest up positions and we will be back no problem!

I'd take Strootman and Sanchez but I'm not sure Schweinsteiger is even worth pursuing it isn't going to happen so why waste time on it. Shaw, Strootman and Sanchez would be brilliant for us.

[tomvek]

Looks like Chelsea will be pushing City hard this year. Really good replacement for Lampard.

[PES Fan]

We weren't interested in Cesc. Van Gaal didn't want him.

Not sure why Mourinho let go of Mata and signed someone identical to him. Would be interesting to see how Cesc reacts when Jose decides to park the bus. We all know Cesc has been critical of that in the past.

[Finiarél]

.

[Mommy Christmas]

Do you think there is one player on the planet who signs for a club because of what that club won in the past? No one gives a strawberry float.

[Finiarél]

Aye. It's all about the money. That's what it is sadly.


Holy strawberry float




http://instagram.com/p/pJrwP9OJUm/

Sagna confirming he's off.

twitter.com/MBisson_WFI/status/477137866179756032

Poor Wenger.

[Joer]

I feel sick about this Cesc thing. Totally ruined my World Cup hype with the timing of that. Made me hate football again.

I can totally understand why we said no, because as i've said on Facebook - we've got Aaron Ramsey. Fabregas isn't better than Ozil in that role, and if Ramsey hasn't earned himself a starting role in our midfield - I don't know what it'd take for him to do it. We'd be signing him as a squad player (which I am OK with), but he's definitely not a player we need at the moment.

EDIT: And in regards to Sagna - that's how you leave a team with dignity. Nothing but respect for him.

[Joer]

[Tomous]

Arsene must have something in mind if he rejected the chance to re-sign Cesc.

We can say Chelsea have been reduced to signing Arsenal rejects.

That's the only positive I've got so far.

Don't Arsenal get a decent chunk of the fee? I am surprised they didn't try and resign him (they have first refusal) but I have also heard that within the club, they felt it was better to take the money and pursue fresh options.

And it is stupid to think Man United aren't a big draw. The lack of CL football - for just one season, potentially - doesn't outweigh the fact that they are establish as a Champions League winning club.

They have more going for them than Arsenal and City in that respect. They aren't just a team that traditionally turn ed up in the second round or quarter finals - they challenged for it. They know their way around Europe and how to beat the elite consistently. Yes, obviously, I am talking past tense here, but when players dont watch a team week in, week out (and live abroad) it is not just getting in the CL that counts - it is knocking out the big guns and winning it. And that will stick in the memory, as United have been doing it for years. They have a richer CL heritage than Chelsea, Arsenal or City. Liverpool still feed off their successes in Europe, despite having a lengthy absence from the tournament.

It's all well and good talking about the past, and the future, but players tend to care about the now. It's a case of who can pay me the most money now and where can I play at the highest level-i.e. the Champion's League. United are going to struggle to compete with clubs in the Champs League-both convincing players to come from those clubs, and when going for the same signings as those clubs.

If they are trying to sign top players like Fabregas, they are going to have to pay a significant premium to convince them to come. That's going to take those players out of their budget. Could they afford to pay Fabregas £50k a week extra over Chelsea? Probably not.

They need to make some astute signings and bring in quality without going for the really big names.

[PES Fan]

Arsene must have something in mind if he rejected the chance to re-sign Cesc.

We can say Chelsea have been reduced to signing Arsenal rejects.

That's the only positive I've got so far.

Don't Arsenal get a decent chunk of the fee? I am surprised they didn't try and resign him (they have first refusal) but I have also heard that within the club, they felt it was better to take the money and pursue fresh options.

And it is stupid to think Man United aren't a big draw. The lack of CL football - for just one season, potentially - doesn't outweigh the fact that they are establish as a Champions League winning club.

They have more going for them than Arsenal and City in that respect. They aren't just a team that traditionally turn ed up in the second round or quarter finals - they challenged for it. They know their way around Europe and how to beat the elite consistently. Yes, obviously, I am talking past tense here, but when players dont watch a team week in, week out (and live abroad) it is not just getting in the CL that counts - it is knocking out the big guns and winning it. And that will stick in the memory, as United have been doing it for years. They have a richer CL heritage than Chelsea, Arsenal or City. Liverpool still feed off their successes in Europe, despite having a lengthy absence from the tournament.

It's all well and good talking about the past, and the future, but players tend to care about the now. It's a case of who can pay me the most money now and where can I play at the highest level-i.e. the Champion's League. United are going to struggle to compete with clubs in the Champs League-both convincing players to come from those clubs, and when going for the same signings as those clubs.

If they are trying to sign top players like Fabregas, they are going to have to pay a significant premium to convince them to come. That's going to take those players out of their budget. Could they afford to pay Fabregas £50k a week extra over Chelsea? Probably not.

They need to make some astute signings and bring in quality without going for the really big names.

For the last time, we didn't try to sign for Fabregas.

Do you really believe if City and Man Utd were interested he'd go for as little as £27m? Chelsea might have got him still but not for £27m.

Chelsea had a free run and fair play to them. They got him for a bargain price.

[Tomous]

Mentioning Fabregas was more to use as an example of a top player.

[PES Fan]

Arsenal fans



Did Cesc really say that?

[Finiarél]

twitter.com/oliverkaytimes/status/477175434464219136

[PES Fan]

So James Ducker, who is a reliable times journalist is saying we close to signing Schweinsteiger.