Transfer Rumour Axel Witsel

kithnou · July 31, 2016

bluestevon said:
Thing is mate, for what this signing was meant to be, ie a statement one, what really has happened int he deal is actually not as important as how the deal will be reported and percieved, and it ha slost nearly all impact it will have made

Carvalho would have an impact - as their has been relatively little press about it and a lot of articles saying about how he is on the radar of massive clubs etc

Koulibaly would send a HUGE statement as we wou;ld have shown we can outmuscle financially Chelsea for a player and the cost would leave that in no doubt

Witsel due to the lenght of time it has taken, and the fact it isnt a massive fee involved will just have lost any sense of making that statement

We shouldn't care about statements. We just need quality additions into the squad.
Rising up the table is the best statement.

mill · July 31, 2016

The Esk said:
As I've stated many times in recent days if he doesn't want to join us all he needs to do is make that statement and it makes Juve's job easier. The fact is he hasn't made that statement.

We're hardly his last choice either, he and his team will have had countless offers from other clubs which will have not been persued.

Was going to make this point.

No way are us and juve his only offer.

And to still be in the mix when juve are is great. Yeah we have to pay over the odds but there are only a handful of clubs in the world who could compete with juve in a fair fight.

This time last year we wouldn't have even been mentioned re this transfer. The money has given us options. It's still going to be difficult to get the players in but it should get increasingly easier with each quality player that signs.

Midfield is the priority for me short term. (based on pre season). Finding a long term goal keeping solution is the most important one though. But that might have to wait.

Darren Higgs · July 31, 2016

Really wanted this to happen but im giving up on this transfer, carvalho, kiloubaly and mata. Its been a month since we made the offer for witsel and he hasnt accepted. I could have bought a house quicker. Its amazing how on dead line day teams can buy half a dozen players and we cant get 1 done in a month.

Can see us buying 6 or 7 above average premier league players and wasting the 100mil. Just increase the wage bill but barely improve the team.

Its no wonder stones and lukaku want to go. Had we gone and bought 3 or 4 world class players we would have a much better chance of convining them to stay. An dont start with they wont come. City bought robinho within 15hrs of the sheik buying them. Im sure they bought half the team before they qualified for the champions league.

boris · July 31, 2016

bluestevon said:
Thing is mate, for what this signing was meant to be, ie a statement one, what really has happened int he deal is actually not as important as how the deal will be reported and percieved, and it ha slost nearly all impact it will have made

Carvalho would have an impact - as their has been relatively little press about it and a lot of articles saying about how he is on the radar of massive clubs etc

Koulibaly would send a HUGE statement as we wou;ld have shown we can outmuscle financially Chelsea for a player and the cost would leave that in no doubt

Witsel due to the lenght of time it has taken, and the fact it isnt a massive fee involved will just have lost any sense of making that statement

I don't think the Witsel deal has been over played in the media though, certainly not in this country anyway.

We must remember that were looking for every snippet of information we can find and to be honest, there's hardly anything in our press about it. I bet you 90% of the country don't even know he's a target of our and certainly won't realise how long it's dragged on.

I also think a lot of these big deals seem to take this long. Why isn't Sane at City yet, Lacazzette at Arsenal, Lukaku at Chelsea, Pogba at Utd. All these deals were muted last season and for the stature and proven recent record of the clubs involved, should be a lot easier to make.

bluestevon · July 31, 2016

kithnou said:
We shouldn't care about statements. We just need quality additions into the squad.
Rising up the table is the best statement.

We shouldn't care mate, BUT we have an owner who by all accounts does care about making a statement in the transfer market.

Media perception does make a difference on how the club is percieved by agents, players etc - especially from abroad i would guess as well

Cities owners are far from stupid and they realised the importnace of that early on.

Mourinho is a master at playing the media perception game, and as good a player as Pogba is, the benefit to the club of getting him and how it makes them appear is almost as important a deal.

United will get so bigged up this summer that going into next season on the back of Old trafford being a easy place for teams to go play it will be a place that teams dread going to - without any substance as to why - purely because it will be the mantra of 'United are back' drummed into us week in week out before a balls been kicked - and it will work

bluestevon · July 31, 2016

boris said:
I don't think the Witsel deal has been over played in the media though, certainly not in this country anyway.

We must remember that were looking for every snippet of information we can find and to be honest, there's hardly anything in our press about it. I bet you 90% of the country don't even know he's a target of our and certainly won't realise how long it's dragged on.

I also think a lot of these big deals seem to take this long. Why isn't Sane at City yet, Lacazzette at Arsenal, Lukaku at Chelsea, Pogba at Utd. All these deals were muted last season and for the stature and proven recent record of the clubs involved, should be a lot easier to make.

Partly agree, but this is different to those deals mate, in the fact that we have agreed with the club for closing in a month and it's the player/agent which has delayed this now, all thos eother deals seem to be involving the clubs agreeing on fees with the other clubs not down to the player waiting to see on his options

BUBSY77 · July 31, 2016

boris said:
I don't think the Witsel deal has been over played in the media though, certainly not in this country anyway.

We must remember that were looking for every snippet of information we can find and to be honest, there's hardly anything in our press about it. I bet you 90% of the country don't even know he's a target of our and certainly won't realise how long it's dragged on.

I also think a lot of these big deals seem to take this long. Why isn't Sane at City yet, Lacazzette at Arsenal, Lukaku at Chelsea, Pogba at Utd. All these deals were muted last season and for the stature and proven recent record of the clubs involved, should be a lot easier to make.

Totally agree .Was out yesterday with a few mates who whilst not quite as obsessed with their respective teams as I am, know their stuff
Talking about the upcoming season and I mentioned that we were still in the hunt for Witsel and this was met with some pretty blank faces. Had to explain to a couple of them who he was (the Belgian with the afro that isn't Felli) and one of them still was none the wiser
Due to my newly formed love in with Witsel , my hours watching YouTube clips of him and googling his name under the 'News' tab to see if anything has moved along , this now feels like a massive signing for me , but to the rest of the football world , I don't honestly believe it will rustle too many jimmies either way

Michaelcoyb · July 31, 2016

Hope Zenit just cut their losses and accept the €22m so we can banish this biatch to the archives.

Somerset Blue · July 31, 2016

BUBSY77 said:
Totally agree .Was out yesterday with a few mates who whilst not quite as obsessed with their respective teams as I am, know their stuff
Talking about the upcoming season and I mentioned that we were still in the hunt for Witsel and this was met with some pretty blank faces. Had to explain to a couple of them who he was (the Belgian with the afro that isn't Felli) and one of them still was none the wiser
Due to my newly formed love in with Witsel , my hours watching YouTube clips of him and googling his name under the 'News' tab to see if anything has moved along , this now feels like a massive signing for me , but to the rest of the football world , I don't honestly believe it will rustle too many jimmies either way

Unfortunately, we have arrived at the money table at the same time as the Chinese league and Premiership clubs have more cash than at any other time! It's going to be a very patient wait to get big deals sorted and almost the wrong time to be minted and not in Europe...Everton that!

Eggs · July 31, 2016

chrismpw said:
I'm beginning to think Everton is the reason all these signings are sensibly delayed, not the players. They're hanging on us making a big sale, before we can really make the big wages a possibility under ffp. Once Stones or Lukaku is on his way then these will be wrapped up quickly.

....possibly. @roydo said the Stones money is ring fenced to cover the salaries of incoming big signings but I'm not sure if that is linked with ffp. I suppose there could be a dependency on selling Stones, I dare say Roydo is more qualified to comment.

roydo · July 31, 2016

Eggs said:
....possibly. @roydo said the Stones money is ring fenced to cover the salaries of incoming big signings but I'm not sure if that is linked with ffp. I suppose there could be a dependency on selling Stones, I dare say Roydo is more qualified to comment.

Just copying what other, more qualified lads have said mate. The rules relate to the new TV cash, and they say that it cant all be used to inflate wages, so to attract/pay new players a club has to show an increase in other revenue other than the TV money.

So hence the need to show a profit on a player sale, which is quicker/easier than improving commercial revenue.

Woolverhampton_Blue · July 31, 2016

Read that this fell through at the start of the month?

Apparently on his way to Juve now. Can't say I'm too devastated tbh.

BUBSY77 · July 31, 2016

Somerset Blue said:
Unfortunately, we have arrived at the money table at the same time as the Chinese league and Premiership clubs have more cash than at any other time! It's going to be a very patient wait to get big deals sorted and almost the wrong time to be minted and not in Europe...Everton that!

In the world and cider and rugby union too here mate!

Darth Toffeeman · July 31, 2016

Darren Higgs said:
Really wanted this to happen but im giving up on this transfer, carvalho, kiloubaly and mata. Its been a month since we made the offer for witsel and he hasnt accepted. I could have bought a house quicker. Its amazing how on dead line day teams can buy half a dozen players and we cant get 1 done in a month.

Can see us buying 6 or 7 above average premier league players and wasting the 100mil. Just increase the wage bill but barely improve the team.

Its no wonder stones and lukaku want to go. Had we gone and bought 3 or 4 world class players we would have a much better chance of convining them to stay. An dont start with they wont come. City bought robinho within 15hrs of the sheik buying them. Im sure they bought half the team before they qualified for the champions league.

Robinho thought he had signed for Manchester United. He did not realise that there was a Manchester City. I guess that explains the swiftness of the deal and why he was never truly happy there.

toffeejack · July 31, 2016

Woolverhampton_Blue said:
Read that this fell through at the start of the month?

Apparently on his way to Juve now. Can't say I'm too devastated tbh.

Take it to the ITK thread friend