Martinus

Mirror football on Twitter reporting... MirrorFootball MirrorFootball @shein_lfc Mata's agent has said he prefers Liverpool... story to follow 2 hours ago

Downing is okay and he will offer genuine width but we should'nt be paying more than 12mill. The fact Young cost £17mill with a year left on his contract would suggest we may well end up paying the £19mill they alledgedly want. For that amount you could get so much better.

Had a great game against City hopefully he can produce that on a more consistent basis, slight concern that game was after 4 or 5 matches where he seemed to get gradually better each time. I think he then got injured again and came back for the Spurs game where he wasn't great so hope it's not a case that he need's a run of games to get any kind of form going.

Haha! That must be it i'm clutching at straws hoping for a decent link!

Think I read somewhere that we can't sign anyone from abroad until the 1st of July? Not sure how accurate that is but might suggest why the Marveaux deal has not been announced, think a few other people have suggested also that we plan on making our british signings first before any from abroad, again I dont know how accurate this is? Maybe there is more to come outside of the names we are hearing about now?

I think Mata would be a great signing watching the U21 game the other night he's got that ability where the ball appears to stick to his feet in tight situations. Saw something Ben Smith said yesterday in relation to us yesterday which is quite interesting... bensmith_Times Ben Smith @ @insidefootball3 The way it has been described to me is that this is phase 1 ... who knows what, if anything, phase 2 will bring 18 hours ago

I don't think we paid £20 mill for Henderson did we? Does anyone still think we will make any 'Marquee' type signings this summer? Most people a few weeks back thought we would sign at least one...

No problem Case apologies for bringing the Rafa thing into it! Take on board what you say and to be honest I agree with a lot of it but at the same time I genuinely believe we can sign better quality than what we have been linked with. I like the policy of signing young players with potential and would like to add some real quality on top. Scott Dann for example would cost £10 million + for a 24 year old without an international cap feel we could do so much better i don't feel he is better than Skrtel or Carra and from what i have seen of Dann he has a tendency to knock it long which will be even more tempting with Carroll in the team, id much rather we were looking at centre backs who are comfortable on the ball like Agger but preferably fit! Clichy didnt have the best of seasons but was good prior to that....so not sure!

Hopefully it's a centre back as a big f*** off to Jones for turning us down for the mancs Case I'm not interested in arguing with you or anyone else I'm just here to give my opinion like anyone else and as far as I know all i have said is that I'm not particularly happy with some of the players we have been strongly linked with and that our rivals seem to be after better players not sure why you or anyone else have a problem with that...?!

Case getting all high and mighty I could say you are elm weren't you the one that wanted Rafa sacked after a month?

You don't think it's important to see who the teams above us are looking at signing? I would think it is after all wasn't our interest in Jones what forced the Mancs step in?

Gomez, Jones was listed before they signed him!

I made no comment on there alleged list of targets, I just posted the list and commented it was a bit different. You have made the assumption i'm suggesting it's a better list then ours!

FreddieBoswell7 Christian @ @smok77 Tweeted this 3-4 nights back.United - Wesley Sneijder - Benzema - De Rossi - Phil Jones - Rolando - Hazard - Silva - Luca Modric - United's so called targets, bit different hey?

No no not Kenny but alot of our fans seem to have that mentality

ha-ha your on! But seriously i'm really not that negative not as bad as Elm...I hope ;-) a quote I like. 'Aim for the stars and you will reach the ceiling, aim for the ceiling and you will stay on the floor' I understand that not all our signings are going to be top class first choice signings but surely we agree that with the finances we now have there should be one or two if we are serious about challenging for the title, I don't like this mentality of only getting back into the top four.

Is Rushiebushymoustache Roy Hodgson? seems happy to wallow in mediocrity?

As a winger yes but is he going to score more than Kuyt did last season? Either way the point i am making is the difference in quality is small enough for us to maybe dislodge Spurs to 5th. However should Mata sign as well as Downing things will look a lot more positive but at this stage that is a big if. Tony Barrett was saying yesterday that are targets are well known, there is no surprises so is Mata a realistic option as he never seems to get mentioned in the reports as being a target.

That is a fair point Kenny does have this amazing ability to build a successful team, Downing does remind me of the likes of Ripley and Wilcox but unfortunately the game has moved on, you now have super rich clubs like Chelsea and City who will buy better players. Honestly unless the players being brought in are significantly better than what we currently have I'd rather sign no-one. Dann and Adam would not imo replace anyone in the current starting eleven. Downing is no better that Kuyt or Maxi but agree he does provide an option we don't currently have but for the money he will potentially cost don't see the value.

For this also see Dann, Adam and Downing!

Hope we have a decent alternative in mind. Surprised Jones would choose the Mancs over us.

Jones is massively better than Dann. Dann is a mid table player.

Could mean we end up with that very average Birmingham centre back then :-(

That's what I would like to see but would we really spend upwards of 15 Mill for Downing and Henderson for them to be squad player's?

Henderson will offer more than Kuyt on the right side of midfield? Football is a squad game it's irrelevant if N'gog is a starter or not you don't simply sign players because they are an improvement of what you currently have there are loads more factors that need to be taken into account.