Transfer Rumours
- Thread starter Frogfish
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ha! I was shoe-horning in a lame pun.
I don't really have an opinion on Bony, I haven't seen him play enough. The only thing I would question is paying upwards of £15m (which we would pay) on a third striker. But I will bow to your greater knowledge on Bony himself.
Brodge doesn't want those kinda one-dimensional, one-trick Bony players
He prefers to see them in 3D
He prefers to see them in 3D
Bernard is a light weight midget.
No thanks Jeff.
No thanks Jeff.
Actually Shakhtar is (or was) not such a bad place for young Brazilian players to go to acclimatize to European football – there is always a big Brazilian colony there and a coach who is good at working with the South Americans and teaching them the European tactics gradually. Bernard probably needs one or two more seasons to fully acclimatize – even in Shakhtar he was not getting much playing time, despite being clearly the most talented player there. But now it's so unsafe in Donetsk that he just has to move somewhere and since Shakhtar wants to recoup the €25M they paid for him last summer, it has to be a pretty rich club.
What's not to Loic?
And lightweight midgets like Juninho, Coutinho, Silva, etc etc have never succeeded in the Premier League.
Are they prepared to hold onto him if they don't get a good enough bid?
It seems to me that if all the above is true things the cards are stacked a little more in favour of the buyer than they're normally used to. Generally you don't get your money back for a player that's not playing regularly and desperately wants out.
I think Arsenal were linked with him quite a lot in the past so perhaps they'll stump up the cash.
Normally Shakhtar are quite willing to drive a hard bargain. However, now that the literally artillery shelling right outside Donetsk and armed gangs and kidnappers roaming inside, all bets are off. By the Fall situation will (hopefully) stabilize, but I'm sure Bernard and many of his compatriots have already made up their minds not to return at any cost.
That's why Mystic is right.
Didn't we as a club turn our noses up at ronaldo as we thought hew was too lightweight?
"I saw him (Ronaldo) in the Toulon U21 tournament and we went for him, but we had a wage scale and we weren't paying the sort of salary he wanted," Houllier is quoted as saying in the Daily Telegraph.
"Then Manchester United played a friendly against Sporting Lisbon and all their boys said to Sir Alex Ferguson, 'You have to sign him'. But I agreed with not breaking the wage structure. I thought it would cause problems in our dressing room.
"I know some of the signings were not as sharp as they could have been. Maybe we would have won the title with Ronaldo, but we had Harry Kewell, who was outstanding at the time"
😱
"Then Manchester United played a friendly against Sporting Lisbon and all their boys said to Sir Alex Ferguson, 'You have to sign him'. But I agreed with not breaking the wage structure. I thought it would cause problems in our dressing room.
"I know some of the signings were not as sharp as they could have been. Maybe we would have won the title with Ronaldo, but we had Harry Kewell, who was outstanding at the time"
😱
Phil Thompson
"One star who got away in surprising fashion was Cristiano Ronaldo, who shocked us when he signed for Manchester United in 2003, for an astonishing £12m. I say astonishing because we had been offered the player for £4m.
"I was invited to watch Sporting Lisbon play Porto in the last game of the season. Ronaldo was playing for Sporting. Tony Henry, the former Manchester City player and agent, was on the phone on a regular basis to see if he could take us to watch him.
"I met Tony at the airport and travelled to Porto. I met the player's Portuguese agent before watching the game. Ronaldo was quite good, but not as impressive as the first time I saw him. Tony was pushing the boy and saying he was a talent. He was saying: 'He will only cost £4m.'
"He added: 'It can be paid over the course of his contract, £1m a year.'
"He also said that the player wanted £1m tax free. I said: 'The boy is only 18. That is a massive problem,' but Tony suggested it was negotiable.
"I returned back the following day impressed with what I had seen and mentioned it to Gerard. He said: 'I will ask Rick.'
"We had just signed Florent Sinama-Pongolle and Anthony Le Tallec, both on far less than Ronaldo's aspirations. And we would have had anarchy if the other players had found out how much we were considering paying for an 18-year-old kid.
"We looked for a compromise. Ten days later I was sitting in a lounge at Anfield having some lunch and looking at the big TV screen. Up came the news United had signed Ronaldo from Lisbon for £12.2m. Gerard and myself nearly choked on our food.
"Gerard said: 'Contact Tony Henry,' and I went straight out and rang him. I said: 'what happened? More importantly, what happened with the price?' He said: 'After you had been with me, I got a phone call the following week and was told to drop everything on the deal. Hand on heart, I really don't know what happened.'
"I went back and told Gerard the story. What happened, God only knows. For the fee to jump from £4m to £12m, especially as they seemed so desperate, was surprising to say the least."
"I was invited to watch Sporting Lisbon play Porto in the last game of the season. Ronaldo was playing for Sporting. Tony Henry, the former Manchester City player and agent, was on the phone on a regular basis to see if he could take us to watch him.
"I met Tony at the airport and travelled to Porto. I met the player's Portuguese agent before watching the game. Ronaldo was quite good, but not as impressive as the first time I saw him. Tony was pushing the boy and saying he was a talent. He was saying: 'He will only cost £4m.'
"He added: 'It can be paid over the course of his contract, £1m a year.'
"He also said that the player wanted £1m tax free. I said: 'The boy is only 18. That is a massive problem,' but Tony suggested it was negotiable.
"I returned back the following day impressed with what I had seen and mentioned it to Gerard. He said: 'I will ask Rick.'
"We had just signed Florent Sinama-Pongolle and Anthony Le Tallec, both on far less than Ronaldo's aspirations. And we would have had anarchy if the other players had found out how much we were considering paying for an 18-year-old kid.
"We looked for a compromise. Ten days later I was sitting in a lounge at Anfield having some lunch and looking at the big TV screen. Up came the news United had signed Ronaldo from Lisbon for £12.2m. Gerard and myself nearly choked on our food.
"Gerard said: 'Contact Tony Henry,' and I went straight out and rang him. I said: 'what happened? More importantly, what happened with the price?' He said: 'After you had been with me, I got a phone call the following week and was told to drop everything on the deal. Hand on heart, I really don't know what happened.'
"I went back and told Gerard the story. What happened, God only knows. For the fee to jump from £4m to £12m, especially as they seemed so desperate, was surprising to say the least."
Maybe it's a ploy between the two owners to bolster each others funds by doing overpriced deals in alternate summers? Cynical perhaps, but could happen.
R
RedZeppelin III
Guest
wondering a little why we put so much effort into getting him just a few months ago but don't seem as fussed now . Were we buying for the sake of buying? Do we think we can get better now we have champs league ? Has sterling's rise convinced rodgers he doesn't need this lad ?
a) I think we were desperate for a player to give us an extra option on the flank
b) I think (or hope?) we are after better options
c) I don't think Sterling's rise has much to do with this.
Don't think we were buying for the sake of it, but either of those other suggestions is possible IMO. Or maybe we were sufficiently put off by the way Dnipro dicked us around not to want to risk it again. Twoshortplanka was never the only fish in the sea.
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