The walters step over

The other side to that argument is that he did absolutely nothing else besides that late goal, against an old Milan defence I thought we played into their hands having dirk up front . Personally, I'd have preferred Crouch with his technique bringing deep runners into play or Bellamy with his speed running behind their back four to have started before him - game of opinions though and all that.

He's got an obvious axe to grind so his opinion means feck all. Like you say, he wasn't here when the contract was signed so he's going on second hand info and passing it off as knowledge. The club have already said that their lawyers have gone through the clause and stated that we don't have to sell at £40m+ and I'd find it staggering if Henry and co haven't had a second, or even third and fourth opinion on it so it would seem that we're on solid ground on that score. Arsenal will have been given a copy of the contract by Guardiola to see if their people can do anything and the fact that a transfer hasn't happened yet suggests they know they can't. All the whispers in the papers seem just that, designed to put pressure on us and the threat of legal action is laughable imo - clubs like Madrid,Bayern etc, won't want to touch Suarez (or do business with his agent) if he tries that trick. I wouldn't be surprised in the slightest to actually see him joining Madrid this window for around the figure we've rejected from Arsenal . Very few transfers are paid in full in one go and I can see a deal being structured so that his fee goes onto their accounts for next year. Also, unless they move Ronaldo upfront (and according to Sid Lowe, he really, really doesn't want to play up top) they still need a top quality forward and after Suarez there's no one else on the market.

There was a Spanish journalist on radio the other day saying that Guardiola is absolutely despised by Barca. He's supposed to have been using his brother to get access and tap up quite a few of the Barca youth teamers behind the clubs back - essentially he said that if he wasn't Peps brother then he'd have feck all business. Once September 2nd rolls around I can't see him being Luis' agent anymore. As for Luis, I've heard people talk about him striking or sulking if he's still here next year but I can't see it tbh. Next year he's gonna have the best chance he'll ever have of winning the World Cup but he'll know that for any chance of that happening he has to go into the competition in good form - if he stays I can honestly see him being more Ronaldo than Tevez.

I honestly think that it will come into the equation for Levy. He knows that the top three is sewn up, that leaves Spurs, ourselves and Arsenal scrapping for fourth. If he holds onto Bale for one more year then Madrid go for Suarez, we get weaker and at the same time Arsenal miss out on another world class striker.

That's a complete guess on your part, there's no way of knowing that anyone was p*ssed off with anyone form the club. As for the bit in bold, once Dortmund made their interest known he had a choice, a team that has finished outside the Cl places the last three seasons or last years finalists - there's no conspiracy theory at all, just a player choosing to go to a club that he thinks has better prospects. All of this getting worked up over "I think this happened, and IF it did, then Henry/FSG/Ayre/Rodgers should be sacked/shot/whatever" isn't doing anyone any good. Players turned us down when Bob was in charge, and Kenny,and Souness and Evans and Houllier and Benitez and Kenny again. Sometimes players just think they'll do better for themselves elsewhere, nothing more, nothing less.

Exactly. If I were Luis I'd be asking Guardiola "you got me to stick my a*** in the air for Madrid without having a guarantee that they were definitely going to buy me if I did and now that clause you've been telling me about all year is worth feck all?-What exactly am I paying you for, you incompetent pr*ck?". If the clause IS a definite "you can leave for £40m+" then fair enough,it just looks like we're trying hard to keep hold of a player. If guardiolas got it wrong then he looks a fool and I can't see much more business being thrown his way in the future

By "right owners" I take it you meen "willing to spend £200m+ over two summers"? Because that's what it seems to take if you look at Chelsea and City as examples. If there were a billionaire willing to do that and FSg are syaing "nah" then they deserve all the criticism but otherwise, what are people demanding? That they put us in debt chasing the dream? We had a chance to be taken over by DIC who had stated they would've gone big in the transfer market but (if the rumours were true) Moores was too big of a egotistical f*cking moron to take the deal and went with the two shysters who were buttering up his ego and offering a lifetime presidency. Me saying this doesn't mean I'm happy that 4th is the absolute best we can hope for or that I think the sun shines out of Henrys a*** but I am grateful that they took over because f*ck knows what would have happened had RBS had granted Hicks an extension. Administration, a player firesale and relegation were absolutely real possibilities for us so I can't get myself upset over FSg not being willing to spend two hundred million or pay the £300,000 a week wages it would take to turn us into a title winning team. There just seems to be an eagerness to be as negative as possible and when some start saying that the board have made bids that they know will fail for players just to say "look, we're trying" then it just seems to me like people are making things up to get angry about.

If he wants to go to Barca (and according to the radio interview his dad gave a few months ago, he does) then we would've ran the risk of having him not being fully focused on the games he was playing for us. Imo, that's too big a gamble to take on the most important position in the team. Then we would've had to sign a keeper next year knowing that any selling club would have us over a barrel when it comes to negotiaitions. I honestly can't see what else we could have done tbh. The fact that we haven't let other clubs know that he's for sale and sat back waiting for offers pretty much says that Reina knows where he'll be playing in 12 months time so we might as well put his wages towards a player that wants to be here.

No one knows what the club, the player, his agent or the selling club thought about anything. It could quite easily be the case that because he and his agent knew we were a cast iron option that they used us to flush out any other interested parties. If it was the case that we were trying to screw the price down then isn't that exactly what we want them to do - get as much as they can with the money we have? The second bit in bold is true, but it was always going to be like that. We've fallen behind and aren't as attractive as we were a few years ago so we have a choice, we either pay over the odds and have players signing just for the money - and fans will get on the boards case if that were to happen - or we accept that sometimes players we go for will turn us down for better situated clubs.

That's what a Madrid based journo was saying on ESPN the other day, Luis is trying to push it through and they're not too fussed either way - Bale is this seasons galactico and any other business they do depends on if they can agree a fee with Spurs. If Bale does join them I don't see where they'd fit luis tbh, him and Ronaldo would be running into the same spaces as it is. Add Suarez into the mix and they'd have three players (and that's not even taking Ozil or Modric into account) that are at their best when they can roam around centrally. I can see him ending up in France with Monaco or PSG.

What makes you say that? I don't recall there being any indication that FSG have promised any manager X and then said "nah, changed our minds, we're taking a slice of any fees coming in". We can only judge them on what's gone before and as far as I can tell no-one has ever said that they've been skimming transfer fees into their own pockets. They may well do that, but it just seems a strange thing to worry about.

If the clause thing is all boll*cks then it might be possible for Monaco to get involved and push the price through the roof. If they say to him "come here and if we don't get CL this year then you can go to Madrid for £..." he could be tempted. Another possibility might be PSG. A French journo on ESPN was saying the other week that Ibra' has told them he wants to go back to Italy this summer so in an ideal World we might have two oil rich clubs competing for his signature - maybe more if a couple of Russian clubs fancy their chances. Whatever happens, LFC are in total control of his future in a season whereby Uruguay are going to think they're dark horses to win a South American held World Cup.

Why would City want him? I think he's done alright this season, but it's not like he's had us punching above our weight and getting more out of the squad than anyone thought possible. In the cups we were shyte at best so what would the City board base their decision on - his time at Swansea? They're going to be wanting to challenge from the first minute of the first match - I just can't see them taking such a big gamble on an unproven (at that level) manager and hoping that he can make the step up. If that was their thinking then I'd have thought that Laudrup or Martinez would be further up the list than BR. They aren't going to risk having another trophyless season and having players like Yaya,Silva and Aguero wanting off at the end of the year in the hope that a good young manager will grow into the job. I wouldn't find it utterly unbelievable to learn that Br had put his name forward on the off chance though.

Why would City want him? I think he's done alright this season, but it's not like he's had us punching above our weight and getting more out of the squad than anyone thought possible. In the cups we were shyte at best so what would the City board base their decision on - his time at Swansea? They're going to be wanting to challenge from the first minute of the first match - I just can't see them taking such a big gamble on an unproven (at that level) manager and hoping that he can make the step up. If that was their thinking then I'd have thought that Laudrup or Martinez would be further up the list than BR. They aren't going to risk having another trophyless season and having players like Yaya,Silva and Aguero wanting off at the end of the year in the hope that a good young manager will grow into the job. I wouldn't find it utterly unbelievable to learn that Br had put his name forward on the off chance though.

The problem we have is that our options are going to be limited when it comes to transfers. Any player we buy will have likely been looked at by all of the Cl clubs in Europe and will have some sort of question marks about whether they can cut it at the top level. Anyone we sign will have been passed over by the other big boys - there's just too many clubs and not enough talent for us to be able to unearth some gem the likes of Munich or PSG aren't already aware of. I am optimistic though because with the performances of Sturridge and Coutinho I think we've shown players that perhaps haven't fulfilled their potential that signing for us would be better for their careers than sitting on the bench at some CL club.

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If he'd been given a one year rolling then the fans would've been up in arms and every press conferance after January would've started with "so Kenny, are you going to be here next year?". Every other week would have had some paper with an "exclusive" about who was going to get the job that summer and the whole thing would've been too disruptive. Besides, although fans are assuming that Kenny would've been happy to work under those conditions maybe he said he wouldn't do it without the security of a few years on his contract. Then once he'd been sacked he was entitled to his pay off - as was Hodgson,Rafa,Houllier etc. The thing that I would point the finger at FSg for though is that if they didn't believe Kenny was a good long term appointment they should've said so that summer and got who they wanted instead of who the fans wanted.

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Probably wishful thinking on my part tbh. I do think there would be a chance though, Spurs/Utd/Arsenal/Chelsea wouldn't be interested I would have thought so in my mind at least it would leave us and City. Obviously he'd choose City over us but if they try for Mourinho he could be interested in us.

And even if they were surely he'd know that if you're basing the clubs transfer policy on signing younger players then inconsistency is one of the prices you have to pay while you wait for them to mature. I thought that was the whole point, we pay cheaper prices for younger, unproven talent and indulge their mistakes as they grow into a team that can challenge. If Ancellotti is serious about wanting to come back to England it wouldn't surprise me if FSG had a word to see what our chances were.

I feel the same tbh. For me it's more the money thing. Up to about 15 years ago the playing field was more balanced, a team could still realistically come up to the top division and carry on their momentum and win the title - it didn't happen that often, but it was possible.Now any promoted team (or a team showing promise a la Swansea) just has their best players taken away and have to start over again. Even with us, we could be utter shyte one year but I'd still be optimistic that a couple of decent signings would see us challenge with good management. Now it's pretty obvious that unless we get a billionaire owner ready to spend £100m+ in one transfer window and then fifty or sixty more the following year to strenghten the squad further then the chances of us winning no 19 are about as far as they've ever been. Footballs changed to the point whereby getting fourth place year on year but winning feck all is seen as some sort of achievement by Wenger and I'd bet that there a shed load of our fans that would take a big check for fourth this year over having a day out and watching us trying to win the UEFA again.

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