schmuckdonald

I hope so.

Talking about Silva leaving before he even signs. Bonkers.

I am genuinly beginning to think that we'll probably just sign a Distin or a Turner and that'll be our business done. I really haven't the foggiest about Silva anymore, we were obviously in for him but it's been months.

Snippet from The Times: "Leandro Fernández, the Dynamo Moscow and Argentina defender, is among Liverpool’s targets for cover at centre half. Sylvain Distin, of Portsmouth, remains the most likely option"

Madrid reported to have had a £18m bid for Alex turned down.

Is Spearing the captain at reserve level? I don't know if i'm correct in this, but when I watched highlights of one of their games the other day I think Palsson was captain?

Seeing as he's a striker and expensive i'd dare say the lunatics at City are one of them. Who else has been in the market for a striker? Blackburn? Arsenal?

Surely we're not actually interested in him? We would have included it in the Alonso deal if that were the case? Not that I can guess who the 4/5 clubs are if they want £15m.

Barcelona are a good team and definitely less c***y than Real.

Reported to be on E155,000 a week, wasn't he? Or something absolutely insane. Plus he wouldn't want to be second fiddle to Torres and would just play in a similar way to Dirk when he's shafted upfront.

Phillipe?

Sky Sports: 14.24 Reports in Spain claim that young forward Juan Mata could buy his own contract from Valencia for €20million and then move to Barcelona in the next seven days as Los Che seek to ease their financial worries. Seems a strange one. But that might ease their worries a bit more, might have an effect on the Silva situation.

You said it was a stupid statement, and then basically affirmed what I said. It's just a phrase, they're similar types of player, that's what I meant. But Silva is a higher profile version of Yossi. I dont know who's better out of the two, i've not seen Silva enough. My whole point was that people seem to be suggesting that Silva is going to be the answer in replacing Riera as the out and out left winger, but he is more Yossi-like.

People who are saying that Silva will provide us a better option on the left....he's not an out and out winger, is he? He really just is an up-market Yossi. He wouldn't give us width, he'd just give us options. For when Yossi, Riera and Babel aren't firing we can change up the way we play. Not to say that he won't be first choice...but I doubt he's just going to be put out on the left game in, game out.

Sean Dundee; Erik Meijer; Mark Gonzalez; Harry Kewell and Ritchie Partridge. From the Horses mouth.

Valencia don't have any backing, the takeover fell through, they have massive debts and have to sell off a big player. It's as simple as that. Rafa knows that if he goes too early they'll demand a high figure, but if he puts pressure on them they'll have to cave or risk administration/being Leeds.

The Spanish media are talking about high figures atm, but they'll lower as August progresses and Valencia need the money more desperately. If Rafa's shown anything this Summer, it's that he's ruthless. He'll wait Valencia out.

To be fair though, judging by the comments coming out of Italy, Spalleti is a nazi of a trainer and injures players regurarly. We won't sign an injury prone player that can't be fixed Besides, just look at Fabio Aurelio (the most injured player in the world) - he played most of last season and excelled. We don't really sign many crocks, not under Rafa anyway, and our facilities and staff are good enough to deal with a lot of problems as well. They'll see if he has no legs. Full faith he's going to be quality. Note: the exception could be shown to be Degen, but I refuse to regard him as a footballer.

We'll just play the same way but with Aquilani in the Alonso role. And i'd liked to be proved wrong about Villa. But it won't happen, not that we really need him.

We are never going to sign David Villa. NEVER.

He can be cover for Lucas then.

So: Aquilani; Mascherano; Lucas and Poulsen? I think Defour is just being used so won't come.

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Considering Roma apparently rejected a E30m bid from Inter last summer, I think it's a bit of a snip. I'm gathering it's £10m upfront with £5m in add-ons.

Yeah, the snippets i've seen of him shows him to have a bit about him. Always good to see. There seems to be a few youngsters who have the potential to have potential.