Not sure why we are slagging off a club playing hard-ball with an under contract player

[Yesterday Once More]

Just wish Arsenal had done it a year ago.

[seasider7]

who:

a) Lied about needing to escape UK press.
b) Demanded to be released for a contract he signed in good faith.
c) Refuses to put in a transfer request that my forfeit 'loyalty bonuses' that he somehow feels he's entitled to.

I still think he leaves Liverpool. I think we could still get him. My concern is that he doesn't want to join us per se, he just wants a CL club. Hardly gives us a warm feeling to kick off the relationship.

[Brentwood]

If we had forced RvP to stay, we'd have got 0 in return and would have finished in the same league position

[PET]

[Brentwood]

Of course we offered him better terms to stay. Unfortunately, he wanted to leave to give himself the best chance of winning a big trophy before his career ended

[Bergkamp's Brain]

our lack of strength was!

[PET]

(i) Money for his own contract. One can presume any offer that would have been within 10% of the Manu offer would have forced a serious rethink

(ii) Money for building the team. With this 40 odd m, we easily could have spent it on the top 2 vulnerable positions that would have made the team competetive...

[Brentwood]

[PET]

Being a striker for Manu or Arsenal is one thing, being a striker for City is another. Ask Tevez or Dzeko, I am not even going to mention Ade or Balo ...

[Dorset Gooner]

to be in love with money! "whats the point of keeping a player who wants out & ending up with nothing"
Well in this case they will not have strengthened a rival & once he is over the sulks in world cup year he makes them stronger.
Makes perfect sense to me :shrug:

[Free SL]

We didn't have this money last year, the new deals (sponsorship and TV) have started kicking in this year, hence being able to start trying to compete for players of that standard.

[Red N White Army]

[Dorset Gooner]

assumption. On that basis what is the point of us trying to buy a world class striker if it makes no difference?

[Free SL]

I'll reserve judgement on their stance until September 3rd.

[Dorset Gooner]

the £25M compare to the cl revenue?
You also name two players there have been more than that, ade, cesc, henry, vieira I can go on.

[PET]

only this season ? Wasnt enough money available last season itself ? Forget all the deals... they dont even kick in this year ...

[Dorset Gooner]

[Free SL]

so what part doesn't kick in this season?

[Red N White Army]

Henry and Vieira were seen as surplus given who we had coming through (namely Cesc and Adebayor), and wouldn't have been happy to play a lesser role, nor could we afford to have our top paid players not playing all the time.

[Luis Anaconda]

[Free SL]

but there is almost a month for that stance to change.

Just like their stance over Torres changed within a couple of weeks when a huge bid was received, I expect the same to happen this summer if a bid of over £50M comes in for Suarez.

[Red N White Army]

Or that the Suarez situation is comparable.

[PET]

be worth last season ??

aside the deals, Were we skint last summer ??

[Luis Anaconda]

[Red N White Army]

[Free SL]

read into that what you will.

Of course the directors had an inkling of what would be available this year, but it's available this year not last year. Not rocket science is it?

We all know they won't spend more than is available, so there was not a chance in hell of them spending this years money last year.

[Free SL]

it's almost as if we've got too much money and don't know how to spend it, we seem to have confused ourself on a lot of deals.

[Dorset Gooner]

we would have at least finished 3rd with rvp sulks or no sulks.

[Dorset Gooner]

but we have gone downhill year on year over the last 9 years, that is a fact.

[Red N White Army]

Which is ridiculous, but it could become quite poisonous again.

[Free SL]

[Red N White Army]

[Free SL]

if we can't get Suarez. A couple of £20M "name" signings to get the fans onside, which is always a worry.

[Red N White Army]

[Free SL]

except Suarez of course