Castiel

This plays right into our hands. Modric wants to leave, Levy has said he wont sell at any price. Now Modric will have to hand in a transfer request (forcing hand) or stay where he is, unhappy. Abramovich, I f**king love you.

According to Modric we are. :D

I can't edit the OP. Mods!!

I agree with this, our negotiation tactics for these high profile players can only be described as artistry. Any offer gives the player something to think about, plants a seed in their mind of playing for a better, more ambitious club. Which leads to them admitting their desire to leave in the press, which then forces the selling clubs hand. By starting so low it leaves remarkable room to negotiate the transfer well below what you'd usually pay had we come in with an offer of 30m off the mark. Its so good it should be illegal! Roman

Because Fabregas is from their youth academy and would fit into their style more easily than Sneijder. They're both world class midfielders but I think Fabregas suites Barca more.

I honestly don't see the hype about this guy. On other forums they've got hundreds of pages about signing him. Maybe we just don't care as much about media speculation but I think he's being overrated by his club. When I've seen him (incidentally when watching another player) he seemed very inconsistent. Sometimes I didn't realise that he was playing. In contrast to Modric however who works incredibly hard in all his games, he actively makes sure he's running the show from midfield. Pastore seems to only function if things happen to him. But thats just my limited observation. I wouldn't even contemplate spending 40m on him.

We're the original destroyers of football.

Haha this is brilliant.

I'm sorry not involved in the whole grammar nazi business but that literally made me laugh out loud considering the point of the post. On the topic (I'm still confused about what you're asking) but I'm pretty excited about all of our links so far. Don't worry about Torres, we'll be able to judge him fairly next season.

Well you dissected my points and said: I replied by saying thats how I've seen him play. IIRC even before VDV came in he always dropped very deep. And I replied by saying Modric and Lampard do not share a skill set, which other posters agree with. If you think Modric is to replace Lampard then you're assuming that Modric takes on the responsibility of our midfield goal threat, which is not in his skill set. By highlighting that you're validating it as the most important point I made, then you went on to say that it isn't as important as you first claimed it was - just that its helpful, which coincidently is exactly what I originally said. If you misunderstood what I was saying or I misunderstood your reply or some confusion is going on somewhere then thats fine. But as far as I can tell you're trying to agree with me in a bizarre way, and arguing against my own points for the sake of it isn't a practise I care to indulge in.

So you've gone from disagreeing with everything I've said, to agreeing with everything I've said, while somehow making it seem like you're disagreeing with everything I've said? What point are you trying to make exactly? Or are we just on a merry-go-round here?

£9m for a Bale type winger and £14m for a Drogba like striker on condition of loaning De Bruyne out for a season is an outrageously good bit of business. Both should qualify as home grown by 21 as well if I'm not mistaken.

Since we're being wildly optimistic: ----------- Cech ----------- Ivan - Luiz - Terry - Cole ---- Modric - Essien ---- Neymar - Sneijder - Zhirkov ---------- Torres ---------- :blush:

It might be a language clash, at least thats what I'm putting it down to. Hard to convey tone in writing, and he did say he was learning English. He's said "thats what the Brazilian media is reporting" which doesn't suggest he means to convey it as fact. Anyway sorry to refer to you in the 3rd person Brazilblue, I do enjoy hearing a South American perspective, specifically on the players from that region.

I think I'd have an aneurysm if the club signed Neymar, Sanchez, Sneijder AND Modric...

I hope you pessimists realise that you're waving your right to freedom from ridicule in the event Neymar does sign for us.

If he's to return then what the hell was he fired for in the first place? This will be pretty suspicious considering it was one of the major factors causing the outrageous slump in form mid season. I mean I trust the men up stairs and I trust Roman because, well, he's made us one of the best clubs in the world. But firing someone then taking them back six months later would be beyond sensible comprehension for me.

9m for Bale is better than 50m for Bale. :D

Quite unnerving how quiet this story has gone. The player has categorically stated that he intends to leave this summer and the only club making a bid so far is Juventus. I hope we at least put a cheeky bid in on the sly.

We've already made an enquiry bid into Modric, a player I think everyone would love to have - and the window hasn't officially opened yet. Our CEO has also basically admitted that the new manager is already in place and will be announced within a week or so, certainly before the pre-season begins. What more could you possibly want them to do?

I'm sure he was up to some shady business, the man has a private army. But he's born of Soviet Russia, thats a kill or be killed environment. 4m roubles is only worth about $175k. Somewhere inbetween he turned that into $13.4 billion - which would require a certain standard of business intelligence I would imagine. Unless there's a "become a billionaire in seven easy steps" book released from Argos I'm unaware of.

Good news on the derby front, that'll be an interesting one. And I'm sure Spurs will find a way to f**k that good fortune up; don't worry about that at all.

You have a valid concern but I'm far from convinced that they'll be a force to contend with for a few seasons yet. We'll see how they do over the season though.

Man United away in September. Nice. Just Arsenal to worry about at the business end of the season.