- Aug 31, 2012
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In all honesty he probably just saw our hideous new kit. Dont blame him.
Lucky Paulinho is already signed on the line.
Lucky Paulinho is already signed on the line.
You arent a fan of Paulinho huh.
i'll be honest here. i think it's clear (if we were actually in for villa) that he's just flat out chose atletico over us, nothing else. my problem is that spurs need a striker, we have needed a striker for years, everyone knows we need a striker. yet here we are, still needing a striker and we've just spent a large chunk of our budget on a midfielder we didn't desperately need. does signing paulinho for 17m have any impact on our striker targets? hopefully not, but to me, signing paulinho for such a big fee makes it less likely we're going to fill the positions we urgently need(lf, cf) with the quality of player needed.
if you'd asked me a few weeks ago whether it's possible we could sign say bernard and benteke this summer for example, i'd've said yeah, it'll be difficult but it's doable. now i just don't see it happening.
To be honest I was never that excited about Villa. Was a big fee for an injury prone forward thats in his 30s.
Benteke & Damiao please.
A big fee? He just went for peanuts, injury prone? Other than his recent broken leg he hadn't had that many bad injuries.To be honest I was never that excited about Villa. Was a big fee for an injury prone forward thats in his 30s.
Benteke & Damiao please.
Sorry, went to agree but pressed wrong one4.4million even for a season or two is surely worth a gamble. Everton just signed Kone for more!
Well that's a better way to put your point across for a start!
I know where you're coming from, but I'm not sure Levy approaches the market like that - or its that simple, it rarely is. In other words one potential deal may not affect another the way we might think. Furthermore we don't even know what our budget is, although I grant you its eaten well into it...we ain't exactly Man City.
Levy will approach deals the same way he always does. Try and get the best possible terms possible, sounds obvious but true, and if its right for the Club he'll do it.
In terms of Paulinho I'm really not surprised we splashed out for him. Firstly, he looks a fantastic all round midfielder. He's youngish, playing for the Brazil national side and honestly I'm impressed that we've managed to get a player of that ilk and standing in. Sometimes when you have an opportunity like this you have to take it. I know you're not convinced, but I am.
Secondly, although we look extremely strong in the midfield department it could be a slightly more precarious position than we think. Parker is going to be moved on and I think that's the right call. He wasn't the same level as his first season and he's not getting any younger. Sandro has had a severe injury and Dembele's injury problems are becoming a little chronic in nature even if we don't know the full extent of such.
My point is that Paulinho, or a midfielder of that sort of ability was needed I reckon. Obviously we all want a new forward and we hope this hasn't impacted on our capacity to acquire one (and one of the required level of ability)...not a Saha deadline day special.
I don't think it will though. We have the money from the new TV deals etc...determined enough to keep Bale etc. My bet is we'll get a good forward in but, typically, it will be late on in the window.
It's not even a case of blaming the club, imo. For the fee that has been released, we'd have paid that without hesitation. We had agreed in principle personal terms by all accounts from the ITKs. Nup, Villa just fancied a bit of Atletico.
Bugger it.
Agree with all of this, but in terms of attainable strikers that are better than what we have, there aren't a lot of options left IMO
Benteke's still a risk, and could prove to be a one season wonder playing for a team where he has more space to play than he will inevitably get for us against 'park the bus' tactics. Soldado's quality but signs are that Valencia want big money for him. Same with Jackson Martinez and Porto. Negredo's going to City, Gomez is going to Fiorentina, Higuain's probably going to the scum.
Our only other option is to unearth a new gem. If it were that easy, we'd have had this striker situation sorted a long time ago.
Whilst I'm sure that he simply chose Atletico over us, not getting Villa could prove to be a massive kick in the teeth.
How on Earth is one broken leg injury prone?
I'm pretty sure most of our squad especially our forwards are substantially more injury probe than Villa.