The Summer Transfer Thread

JPA

Higuaín would be a huge improvement for Chelsea IMO. A reliable striker is what they need. In saying that he's not the hard working type Mourinho likes

jive

I don't see why he'd be considered any more reliable than Lukaku would be other than being older and having a more 'proven' record. He's second choice at Madrid and has been for years. He'd be a good signing for Arsenal but not any other of the big 4. If you had to spend €30m+ then he wouldn't be a good signing for anyone, IMO. You could get someone like Kießling far cheaper, Gomez went for about €15m and Negredo about €24m.

Chelsea would be far better off going for Rooney and I really don't see anything in the Higuain rumours. If Mourinho rated him highly he would have used him more at Madrid and given that he has 3 strikers at Chelsea who are on a similar level to Higuain, Ba arguably isn't but Torres and Lukaku definitely are, then I don't see why he'd splash the cash on him even if money is no object.

Rayne Wooney

Beefy78 wrote: »

If Mourinho rated Higuain that highly then why did he so under-utilise him the last couple of years?

It's a weird one.

He didn't really tbh, he used him perfectly. It's hard juggling two 25 year olds who both have a knack of scoring on average 20+ goals a season.

Goals
Higuain Benzema
19______21 12/13
26______26 11/12
13______26 10/11



When you look at Higuain's injuries during that period then look at Benzema's, who only had 23 days out injured during that 3 year period, you can see why Benzema played maybe 20 more games than Higuain.

I think he's a top class player who would do brilliantly at either Chelsea or Arsenal

Blatter

Fiorentina say they have reached an agreement to sell Stevan Jovetic to Manchester City.

The fee is apparently £22.4m

Morzadec

Where is this idea that Higuain is 2nd choice coming from??

Him and Benzema have been juggled the last few years. Each have gone through patches where they are in favour.

Rotated around but not 2nd choice.

As for Chelsea -

1.Torres: no longer good enough
2. Ba: Good striker, but still the level below
3. Lukaku: Still young, still raw, still somewhat unproven. Another loan move could be an option, but otherwise there's plenty of games in the Carling Cup to use him, plus him being a different option from the bench. and if he's good enough then great, a nice selection headache for Mou.

I still maintain that, imo at least, the difference between Chelsea trailing 5-10 points behind the leaders or actually making a real challenge and having a great chance of winning the league is a quality centre-forward.

In fact I would probably tip them for the title if they were to sign Rooney

Smithwicks Man

Blatter wrote: »

Fiorentina say they have reached an agreement to sell Stevan Jovetic to Manchester City.

The fee is apparently £22.4m

+£6m in performance related add ons


Very, very good player but not sure that City is the right move for him. Would've preferred to see him somewhere where he'd be guaranteed full games whenever he was fit.

Great signing though

Blatter

Smithwicks Man wrote: »

+£6m in performance related add ons


Very, very good player but not sure that City is the right move for him. Would've preferred to see him somewhere where he'd be guaranteed full games whenever he was fit.

Great signing though

Think himself and Negredo are a big downgrade on Tevez and Balotelli.

TheBza

Aguero, Negredo, Dzeko and now Jovetic all to choose from. City have a nice little problem of choosing who will be in their starting XI.

Seaneh

I think Jojo is a great signing for city.
I can't think of many 23 year olds in the world with his ability. Fantastic player.

Paully D

Blatter wrote: »

Think himself and Negredo are a big downgrade on Tevez and Balotelli.

I'd agree that they are a downgrade. Regardless of their temperament you can't argue with the latter two players records of around 1 goal every 2 games.

I like both Negredo and Jovetic but feel that City have got weaker, rather than stronger up top with these moves.

Seaneh wrote: »

I think Jojo is a great signing for city.
I can't think of many 23 year olds in the world with his ability. Fantastic player.

Funny thing is, Balotelli would be one of them and he's a year younger.

Seaneh

Paully D wrote: »

I'd agree that they are a downgrade. Regardless of their temperament you can't argue with the latter two players records of around 1 goal every 2 games.

I like both Negredo and Jovetic but feel that City have got weaker, rather than stronger up top with these moves.



Funny thing is, Balotelli would be one of them and he's a year younger.

Mario is different. He had Milan DNA. Only so long he could stay at a small club like city before going home.

:pac:

Smithwicks Man

Blatter wrote: »

Think himself and Negredo are a big downgrade on Tevez and Balotelli.

Depends on the team they're playing for really.

Milan's Balotelli >Negredo and Jovetic
City's Balotelli where he wanted to leave and was being played out of position out wide was better off leaving and Jovetic will offer more.

When will they lear that too much of anything is a bad thing. If none of them get injured then they will be left with players on the bench who feel they should be playing and it will be very hard to rotate between them all. It's things like that that lower team morale, they shouldn't have bought both Negredo and Jovetic imo

Smithwicks Man

Paully D wrote: »

I'd agree that they are a downgrade. Regardless of their temperament you can't argue with the latter two players records of around 1 goal every 2 games.

I like both Negredo and Jovetic but feel that City have got weaker, rather than stronger up top with these moves.



Funny thing is, Balotelli would be one of them and he's a year younger.

Different players but I'd have Balo any day

Rayne Wooney

Paully D wrote: »

I'd agree that they are a downgrade. Regardless of their temperament you can't argue with the latter two players records of around 1 goal every 2 games.

I like both Negredo and Jovetic but feel that City have got weaker, rather than stronger up top with these moves.



Funny thing is, Balotelli would be one of them and he's a year younger.

Negredo has a better record than 1 goal in every 2 games in La Liga


I think he's going to be great in the PL with service from Silva and Navas.

Jax Teller

Robinho has signed a new contract at Milan. Some of the lads on here will be delighted

GTR63

Smithwicks Man wrote: »

+£6m in performance related add ons


Very, very good player but not sure that City is the right move for him. Would've preferred to see him somewhere where he'd be guaranteed full games whenever he was fit.

Great signing though

Those are the 4 biggest words in your post, he has a poor enough injury record or at least it feels like he does. Was hoping he`d stay at Fiorentina cause Montella has been doing a cracking job there, it seems to me that he just moved now for the sake of it tbh

GTR63

Jax Teller wrote: »

Robinho has signed a new contract at Milan. Some of the lads on here will be delighted

bradlente

TheBza wrote: »

Aguero, Negredo, Dzeko and now Jovetic all to choose from. City have a nice little problem of choosing who will be in their starting XI.

Wouldn't be surprised to see Aguero take up a position around midfield or out wide more if all 4 are available to accommodate two of those other player's.It may be easier for Pellegrini to juggle his big striker's compared to Jose because Navas and Negredo are his player's and playing 4-4-2 is going to give a lot more opportunities to striker's who can easily be rotated if they go a few game's without a goal or playing well.
If Chelsea sign another striker I think it's a real possibility that one of their top name's up front will be frozen out.That's not even including Ba who I think at this stage is already on his way there,He'll get very few chance's this year as it is imo and another signing up there will likely put either Torres or Lukaku in that position too.

Big Pussy Bonpensiero

jive wrote: »

I don't see why he'd be considered any more reliable than Lukaku would be other than being older and having a more 'proven' record. He's second choice at Madrid and has been for years. He'd be a good signing for Arsenal but not any other of the big 4. If you had to spend €30m+ then he wouldn't be a good signing for anyone, IMO. You could get someone like Kießling far cheaper, Gomez went for about €15m and Negredo about €24m.

Chelsea would be far better off going for Rooney and I really don't see anything in the Higuain rumours. If Mourinho rated him highly he would have used him more at Madrid and given that he has 3 strikers at Chelsea who are on a similar level to Higuain, Ba arguably isn't but Torres and Lukaku definitely are, then I don't see why he'd splash the cash on him even if money is no object.

Is this a joke? For a start Kießling is 29, Higuain 25. Kießling has had only 2 20+ goal campaigns in his careers, and has a grand total of 6 international caps for a country who aren't exactly blessed with strikers.
Higuain had his first 20+ goal season at 21, and has had 2 more since then, this playing at Real Madrid when the likes of Raul and Benzema were at the club and playing in a system based around Ronaldo. Injuries also largely hindered his appearances. He also has 20 goals in 32 games for Argentina, a country with a wealth of strikers.
He's a few levels above Torres and Lukaku, and would the main striker at every PL club bar United.

Higuain would be a fantastic buy for any club in the world, much better than what Kießling would be, taking into account their prices. Goals win championships. Higuain is a guaranteed goal getter. Kießling, Torres and Lukaku certainly are not.

jive

THFC wrote: »

Is this a joke? For a start Kießling is 29, Higuain 25. Kießling has had only 2 20+ goal campaigns in his careers, and has a grand total of 6 international caps for a country who aren't exactly blessed with strikers.
Higuain had his first 20+ goal season at 21, and has had 2 more since then, this playing at Real Madrid when the likes of Raul and Benzema were at the club and playing in a system based around Ronaldo. Injuries also largely hindered his appearances. He also has 20 goals in 32 games for Argentina, a country with a wealth of strikers.
He's a few levels above Torres and Lukaku, and would the main striker at every PL club bar United.

Higuain would be a fantastic buy for any club in the world, much better than what Kießling would be, taking into account their prices. Goals win championships. Higuain is a guaranteed goal getter. Kießling, Torres and Lukaku certainly are not.

You say it like a goalscoring record at Leverkusen is like-for-like with Madrid when obviously it's not. Madrid have 100+ goals in the league every year since the 2009/2010 season, Leverkusen have scored 65 tops. Germany have had plenty of decent strikers over the years don't know how you think otherwise.

If you think injuries hamper his appearances (not really the case) then how is he guaranteed goals? He mightn't even be guaranteed games. Higuain averages 0.57 goals per game, Kiebling 0.45 goals per game for an inferior club who score on average half the amount of goals that Madrid score in the league each year, nevermind other competitions.

Gomez went for roughly €15m and is 28. Higuains career goal return, over a shorter career, is 0.44 per game whereas Gomez's is 0.59 per game. If you want to base your criteria on 'goals win championships' then surely Gomez would have been a better purchase considering he is half the price?

If players like Tevez, albeit older, can move for €12m then I highly doubt anyone will be willing to pay €30m+ for Higuain. I don't think he will end up at Chelsea, and if he does move in this window I don't see him going for more than €25m.

Blatter

Just saw this on twitter, sounds about right.

Stefan Jovetic will be Manchester City's 20th £20m + signing since Sheikh took over.

Equium

Blatter wrote: »

Just saw this on twitter, sounds about right.

Or very wrong, depending on how you look at it.

Pj!

Blatter wrote: »

Just saw this on twitter, sounds about right.

That's crazy

Xavi6

Could be another on the way too, the Independent says we've bid for Eduardo Salvio of Benfica.

I know absolutely nothing about him.

GTR63

Xavi6 wrote: »

Could be another on the way too, the Independent says we've bid for Eduardo Salvio of Benfica.

I know absolutely nothing about him.

They paid €14m for him a few years ago after he didn`t settle in Atletico Madrid I imagine City will have to

Smithwicks Man

GTR63 wrote: »

Those are the 4 biggest words in your post, he has a poor enough injury record or at least it feels like he does. Was hoping he`d stay at Fiorentina cause Montella has been doing a cracking job there, it seems to me that he just moved now for the sake of it tbh

Good point. It looks like he has just moved for the sake of it which is a big pity.

Smithwicks Man

Jax Teller wrote: »

Robinho has signed a new contract at Milan. Some of the lads on here will be delighted

Wages have been reduced from €4m to €3-3.5m apparently with 2 years added on. I suppose it reduced the wage bill for this year and stops him leaving on the cheap but I'd have rathered he just left...

Cue Robinho getting his act together and scoring 15+ goals in the league next year

Xavi6

Seaneh wrote: »

I think Jojo is a great signing for city.
I can't think of many 23 year olds in the world with his ability. Fantastic player.

You should read Stan Collymore's tweets on him, "Dzeko MKII" was the jist of it despite them being completely different players

population

Smithwicks Man wrote: »

Good point. It looks like he has just moved for the sake of it which is a big pity.

I don't understand? He has moved from an admittedly improving Fiorentina, but who have no Champions League football to Manchester City who are one of the favourites for the Premier League title and probably Champions League as well. Suggesting he moved for the sake of it makes no sense. His new club and the challenges in front of him are a big upgrade on where he was last week. Any player would have made the same move.

Beefy78

Yeah "for the sake of it" with 'it' being much more money, stronger league and a chance to win things.

Dempsey

Xavi6 wrote: »

You should read Stan Collymore's tweets on him, "Dzeko MKII" was the jist of it despite them being completely different players

I saw no tweets comparing the players but I did read this

Jovetic.Dzeko both good not great at what they do. Not going to get any club anywhere near a Champions League final.

He was passing comments on the Rooney saga too, dont tell me you thought they were all about Jovetic!

Xavi6

Dempsey wrote: »

I saw no tweets comparing the players but I did read this



He was passing comments on the Rooney saga too, dont tell me you thought they were all about Jovetic!

His words were "Jovetic.Dzeko mk 2.."

I've posted a selection of the tweets in the City thread

Dempsey

Xavi6 wrote: »

His words were "Jovetic.Dzeko mk 2.."

I've posted a selection of the tweets in the City thread

Jovetic.Dzeko mk 2 but 4 years younger and less prolific .Similar talents.Seen a lot of him.Surprised City thrown so much cash at this one.

Didnt see that one

Given the context of his other tweets, he's clearly talking about level of ability and how much he can improve the team. In that regard, he is Dzeko Mark II.

And you put up a tweet where he does compare him in the way he plays the game

I'll put it in plain terns. Jovetic is no Kinkladze. Few think the lad is some sort of attacking behemoth. Good, not CL class. You'll see.

GTR63

population wrote: »

I don't understand? He has moved from an admittedly improving Fiorentina, but who have no Champions League football to Manchester City who are one of the favourites for the Premier League title and probably Champions League as well. Suggesting he moved for the sake of it makes no sense. His new club and the challenges in front of him are a big upgrade on where he was last week. Any player would have made the same move.

I don't think he is even going there knowing if he'll be a starter or not or whether they'll play him up top or in behind or out wide.
He made so much noise about going to Juve now it looks like he hopped on the first train that came after they didn't pay his buyout. I doubt he was City's first choice either.
Sure he can make more money and win more but you could see him there lost in the shuffle and constantly rotated around the field and in the starting XI.

Nuri Sahin

Great signing for City.

I really wanted Dortmund to sign him as a replacement for Lewandowski originally.
A Jovetic - Reus partnership would've been something else.

astonaidan

Xavi6 wrote: »

His words were "Jovetic.Dzeko mk 2.."

I've posted a selection of the tweets in the City thread

You think he might have meant, superstar player to be confined to the bench rather than comparing styles

Smithwicks Man

population wrote: »

I don't understand? He has moved from an admittedly improving Fiorentina, but who have no Champions League football to Manchester City who are one of the favourites for the Premier League title and probably Champions League as well. Suggesting he moved for the sake of it makes no sense. His new club and the challenges in front of him are a big upgrade on where he was last week. Any player would have made the same move.

It's a great move for City by all accounts and a yes it is an improvement for him but will he be guaranteed a place? Will he be afforded time to settle?

Had he stayed at Fiorentina then they would have had a fantastic chance at making champions league for next season and he would have continued to be their hero up front, most likely playing in the hole behind Giuseppe Rossi and Gomez.

Now, he'll be playing for City where he'll absolutely have to hit the ground running, the fans have no reason to be loyal to him and he is likely to be tossed around different positions to suit Aguero and the likes which, similarly to what happened Balotelli, could well hamper his development.

By all accounts, a very good player and a very good signing by City, but after all the Juve talk, I just don't think it was the right move for Jovetic at this time in his career.

Still expect him to do very, very well however.

DoctorGonzo08

GTR63 wrote: »

I don't think he is even going there knowing if he'll be a starter or not or whether they'll play him up top or in behind or out wide.
He made so much noise about going to Juve now it looks like he hopped on the first train that came after they didn't pay his buyout. I doubt he was City's first choice either.
Sure he can make more money and win more but you could see him there lost in the shuffle and constantly rotated around the field and in the starting XI.

Jovetic is a player Mancini was tracking since the end of the 11/12 season. The club has been interested in him for a while.

Smithwicks Man

DoctorGonzo08 wrote: »

Jovetic is a player Mancini was tracking since the end of the 11/12 season. The club has been interested in him for a while.

Yes but his desire was to play for Juventus. Now it looks like his desire was to leave Fiorentina which looks even more true by the comments he made in the media about how the fans only seem to like him when he's scoring and they lose patience with him when he gets injured/doesn't perform

GTR63

DoctorGonzo08 wrote: »

Jovetic is a player Mancini was tracking since the end of the 11/12 season. The club has been interested in him for a while.

He was tracked by the old manager who was always 'tracking' Serie A players like (Cavani, De Rossi, Hernanes, Hamsik, El Shaarawy and the guys PSG have been hoovering up).

population

Julio Cesar's agent said on Radio CRC that Napoli's wage offer is nowhere near what is expected and therefore he does not imagine a deal can happen. Could be of interest to Arsenal fans.

extra gravy

Barca have called a press conference for 7.30pm. Speculation that it may be about Tito's health rather than a signing but we'll see...

miralize

extra gravy wrote: »

Barca have called a press conference for 7.30pm. Speculation that it may be about Tito's health rather than a signing but we'll see...

They are creating a subset of the youth system to specifically develop CB's and fast track them into the first team. Some of the activities involve a 100km jog with Puyol, Log throwing, Hunting bears with your bare hands, pictures and videos of Puyol getting angry at Pique, and a hair growing seminar from the man himself.

Jax Teller

Benteke signs a new deal at Villa & withdraws his transfer request .

Lord TSC

Jax Teller wrote: »

Benteke signs a new deal at Villa & withdraws his transfer request .

Great news for Villa if true.

Jax Teller

Teamshadowclan wrote: »

Great news for Villa if true.

It is true . http://www.avfc.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10265~3322341,00.html

jive

Could be the difference between Villa staying up or going down

hufpc8w3adnk65

Jax Teller wrote: »

It is true . http://www.avfc.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10265~3322341,00.html

Love the little jersey plug at the end.ha ha

Blatter

PSG Officiel ‏@PSG_inside 43s
PSG is delighted to announce that Marquinhos, has signed a five-year contract with the club after transferring from AS Roma.

Marty McFly

I can see how that one played out, hand in transfer request making Villa sweat no interest from any big Champions League Club sign an extension with Villa for more money