Manc said:
If he can sort out his fitness level, as in stamina, he'll be a game winner more than he already is. People suggesting we should accept 25 million for him whether it be from Dipperpool or anyone else are, in my opinion, are the same that said Silva was to lightweight or that Yaya was overweight & lazy! Some people just pick up on what the idiots at the match shout at our own players to fuck off back to which ever club/town/country they originally come from (like the prick who sits behind me who was shouting for Mancini to fuck off back to Italy not so long ago) & then see it as their opinion.
AJ is a quality 'young' player & needs to be encouraged as well as guided, something I'm sure Mancini & Kidd have been doing, to become the player he clearly has the potential to be.
Again more crackpot idealism here. For starters the cross-section of people who don't want us to sell AJ, at 25 million are more likely the ones who snickered at the idea of buying Silva and Yaya. lets not be disingenious here, but most who liked Yaya and Silva before they came a probably those who were football fans as opposed to Prem fans. Thus they are less likely to have thought Silva couldn't hack it! It is more likley the case that is the Prem Only Lovers (i.e. the same ones who believe Messi and Barca wouldn't survive at Stoke in February) that didn't think Silva or Yaya would hack it. More likely than not, those same folks are more likely to be sentimental about selling AJ.
Now that is a generalization, but a more plausible one than your version that claims the inverse to be the case.
As for the actual arguments, it is laughably emotionally driven. AJ is a non-key member of the squad, wanted by another team for 25 million, and people are saying we shouldn't consider it? I mean examine the reasons you just gave? "He is young and needs guiding and encouragement!" Now how is that a reason to not sell him for the an overstated price (25 million folks!!) That is as much or more than we payed for any of the key starters to our squad. Kompany, Silva, Tevez, De Jong, Yaya and folks are saying we shouldn't consider. If AJ was a foreign player he'd be worth 8-12 million dollars. Assumedly we'd be getting double that, and folks are saying we can't replace him with similar quality. Here is a thought, we can replace him for free. Vladimir Weiss is a Mini AJ. Similar skill set, strenghts and lack of vision.
We can literally sell AJ not buy anyone and still not miss him. But yet we could go use that money to buy Gervihno, Shaqiri, Elia, Mata, Bryan Ruiz, Gaitan, Hulk e.t.c.
The number of continental players who we can buy for 25 million or less who are either better than AJ, or would comfortably take over his role without losing a piss are too numerous to count.
It would be negligent and foolish on our part, to not consider a 25 million bid for a player who is not a starter. And it is irritating listening to folks pretending there really is some justification for it outside of their personal sentiment towards him being English. For fuk sake, we could get Downing for less! He is English!
-- Tue Jun 14, 2011 5:20 pm --
flightless said:
I don't think even a bid of £25m would be worth selling for, especially considering the premium we pay to get new people in. He's not a top earner, and there's other players we can shift for FFP without weakening the team, no need to sell.
Selling him would not weaken the team. We would just send for Wiess to come back. And then buy Mata with said money. Which will in fact make us stronger.
Barring a total intentional fukup. Selling AJ for 25 million should never weaken the team.