The Summer Transfer Thread

[stokeriño]

You know how earlier when Corluka's move to Spurs was confirmed, my reaction was "fuck"? This was for two reasons: firstly, because he's in my Fantasy Football team, and I trust Man City to let in slightly fewer goals over the season than Spurs. And secondly, now I end up in the bizarre position of not wanting Spurs to concede. What. The. Hell?

But I take it all back, because now I can want to see Man City lose and not be in any way torn.

[Summers]

Yeah, the best part of this is how Man City fans were a big part of hating on Chelsea's spending power and financial bullying.

Yet they'll act like it's fine for them to do it now.

Seems like Madrid blocked a Chelsea bid and only accepted the Citeh one. Robinho going to Citeh says a lot about him. In that, I mean that he's clearly a money grubber.

Berbs made the right decision. He wanted to join United, he has. Robinho wanted to join Chelsea.. but money spoke anyway.

[Zaz]

Reckon it's the start (from a few years back anyway) of something bad for the Premier League? Clubs with tradition and history may end up losing out to those who simply have more cash and who can bring in the best foreign talent.

[Summers]

What annoys me most is how some pundits and reporters are saying "Thank god there's now a club, with an English manager, who can battle the evil Chelsea money-wise!"

Well.. that just makes two evil clubs, surely? They probably tried to spend 100m yesterday, it's ridiculous to be honest.

[9 to 5]

Plus Hughes isn't English.

[Summers]

Maybe they said British. I wasn't listening to the verbal fellatio.

Edited September 2, 2008 by aweSUMmation

[stokeriño]

Seems like Madrid blocked a Chelsea bid and only accepted the Citeh one. Robinho going to Citeh says a lot about him. In that, I mean that he's clearly a money grubber.

Berbs made the right decision. He wanted to join United, he has. Robinho wanted to join Chelsea.. but money spoke anyway.

I can easily imagine the situation having gone something like this:

Real Madrid: "We've accepted an offer from Man City. Go talk to them."

Robinho: "...Well, that's nice and all, but why not Chelsea? I mean they have Champions League etc., and I held my own freaking press conference on a Sunday just to say how much I want to go there!"

Real Madrid: "Yeah, but we DON'T LIKE Chelsea, so you have two choices: join City now, or stay here where we may or may not be inclined to make your life a Living Hell for the next six months or so. You have...oh...one hour left to decide."

Which is why I don't so much blame Robinho, more Real Madrid for being cocks. And being cocks to Robinho himself, as much as Chelsea or anyone else.

Edited September 2, 2008 by stokeriño

[Summers]

Lol, SSN just claim Robinho SNUBBED Chelsea to sign for Middle East United.

[stokeriño]

The media do enjoy the word 'snubbed', no matter how incorrectly they apply it...

[Summers]

I don't think anyone has any doubt that Robinho would be at Chelsea had he had his way.

[Zaz]

I've only been closing following the Premier League for a few years now, but I'm gonna guess one of the reasons why Man Utd was so popular during the 90's was the core group of talent in Beckham, Giggs, Scholes, the Nevilles etc. that they brought through the youth system and went onto become club legends? Nowadays, you bring in an established player or a recognised future superstar for tens of millions, play them for a couple of years until someone better comes along and then ship them out again. You may bring in more casual fans but surely it'd probably be harder to maintain the diehard supporters, the ones who buy season tickets and attend all the games.

Someone on the Football365 forum said that there was more enjoyment watching Man City during their lower league times as there was a real club feeling and you could really get behind them. Now you're trying to support basically a new team each year. Look at Tottenham, for example. Bale, King, Zokora, O'Hara, Bent and Jenas are basically the only ones who were here at the start of last year. And the year before that there was no Bale or Bent, and the year before that no Zokora or Jenas.

[Summers]

15m for Felliani is a lot, just thought I'd mention that.

& yeah, very few teams keep the same team for very long. Players get replaced because they have to, because other teams do it, and other clubs need to keep up.

[FireDoughnut]

A crop of talent like Giggs, Beckham, Scholes, Butt and the Nevilles will never be repeated elsewhere in the world. It will never happen again, but it was a big part of helping the "Man Utd brand" as the players weren't paid for and the money could be thrown into the one or two signings needed a year (4.5 million for Cantona) and the rest was a marketing plan.

[ONO]

Not even a striker brought in? Fucking hell O'Neill. What is the man playing at?

Talks balls. I've counted at least three windows when he said he's looking at a few players on the last day, and they haven't came at all. Forget Mario as the Billy Bullshiner.

[Summers]

We bid for Heskey, were in for Doyle. And appaz enquired about Ashton.

If clubs don't want to sell, we can't buy. Would rather us not spend 5m on a player MON doesn't want, just to have a new face in.

[ONO]

I think that is a poor excuse. We're supposed to be looking to break the top four. The fact is these days you have to spend the money throughout the squad to even have a look in.

We need a constant goalscorer to challenge Carew and Agbonlahor. Heskey won't get 15+ goals a season, nor will Doyle I'd imagine.

He seems to have concentrated on a striker and has failed to bring one in. Other clubs are splashing money on strikers. Same old Villa really.

[TheArsenal]

Why the hell didn't we do ANYTHING yesterday?

[Guest Ant]

I think that is a poor excuse. We're supposed to be looking to break the top four. The fact is these days you have to spend the money throughout the squad to even have a look in.

We need a constant goalscorer to challenge Carew and Agbonlahor. Heskey won't get 15+ goals a season, nor will Doyle I'd imagine.

He seems to have concentrated on a striker and has failed to bring one in. Other clubs are splashing money on strikers. Same old Villa really.

When was the last time we spent nearly £50m on new players? Hardly same old Villa.

[FireDoughnut]

Unless the player has wanted away before yesterday, I doubt any deals were going to be sorted in 24 hours.

Berbatov and Robinho have wanted away all summer so it made sense for their deals to go through, while the Saha deal was sorted on Saturday and just confirmed yesterday. And a number of the other deals that went through had been talked about leading up to the final day.

No-one that is settled at their club were going to get a call at 10.30 last night from their boss and be like, "Oh yeah, we're selling you to West Ham for £7 million... bye!"

[Baddar]

I can't explain how delighted I am with the Berba signing.

But, being the pessimist that I am, I'll reserve my joy at his signing until after the two Bulgaria internationals he'll be playing in. It would just be typical for him to pick up a nasty injury.