Sign martinez now

[Blue Coop]

Will Athletic sell? He's one of their bright young players.

Of course if he wants to leave, then great. I just can't see a Basque wanting to leave Athletic, a club that is sound financially and has no apparent reason to sell. Glad we have M'Vila as a backup.

I think he has to leave for a greater chance to win trophies, which is what every footballer is ultimately seeking.

Didn't they finish 10th this season?

 

[Blue Haze]

True. Hope that is enough to convince him.

 

[Ray78]

Will Athletic sell? He's one of their bright young players.

Of course if he wants to leave, then great. I just can't see a Basque wanting to leave Athletic, a club that is sound financially and has no apparent reason to sell. Glad we have M'Vila as a backup.

I think he has to leave for a greater chance to win trophies, which is what every footballer is ultimately seeking.

Didn't they finish 10th this season?

Yep which means no Champions League football. He is at a unique club which still has the appeal to give him a reason stay and try to help Athletic achieve Champions league qualifaction.

 

[adrianr]

perhaps in Europe but Lescott has proved time and time again throughout his career he is a top CB in the English league.

I agree but that doesn't answer the question of is Lescott the type of CB that Bobby wants partnering with Kompany.

I think that Mancini has no issue with Lescott in the prem but i think he has massive issues with him in Europe where centre backs are more ball players because contact is all but outlawed.

I think whoever we get will rotate Jolean with vinny being permanent cb

Room for both if you ask myself

Hopefully irrelevant as if we're bringing in Martinez it should be for the midfield. He's got way too much promise to be a CB, especially a rotated one (which I would disagree with anyway - If we're going to conquer all we chose our best CB pairing and stick with it). He could be our long term Yaya replacement and as we all know that is no small praise. My only worry if we did manage to sign him would be the usual plays with us till he's a world beater, Real Madrid come in and sign him when he's hitting his prime, we have to rebuild the midfield again without Martinez and without Yaya.

Hope we're not fucking about with a 30m ceiling with this lad though. If his release clause is 32m we'll have a whip round for the other 2 because going on some of the prices being banded around we're not going to get better for cheaper elsewhere!

 

[Stoned Rose]

If Hazard is 32m then Martinez is at least that.

Get the wallet open Mr Mansour ;)

 

[Joehannes]

If Hazard is 32m then Martinez is at least that.

Get the wallet open Mr Mansour ;)

Pretty sure his release clause is around that, 40 million euros, just under £33 million

 

[LoveCity]

If we offer Bilbao a friendly (like PSG allegedly are doing with Napoli in the Lavezzi deal) it could lower the price a bit. They have their new stadium opening in the near future, but I heard somewhere they could play the rags to open it. Is that true, if not we could offer to be the showpiece opponents to open it.

 

[Bulldoglikeapproach]

I agree but that doesn't answer the question of is Lescott the type of CB that Bobby wants partnering with Kompany.

I think that Mancini has no issue with Lescott in the prem but i think he has massive issues with him in Europe where centre backs are more ball players because contact is all but outlawed.

I think whoever we get will rotate Jolean with vinny being permanent cb

Room for both if you ask myself

Hopefully irrelevant as if we're bringing in Martinez it should be for the midfield. He's got way too much promise to be a CB, especially a rotated one (which I would disagree with anyway - If we're going to conquer all we chose our best CB pairing and stick with it). He could be our long term Yaya replacement and as we all know that is no small praise. My only worry if we did manage to sign him would be the usual plays with us till he's a world beater, Real Madrid come in and sign him when he's hitting his prime, we have to rebuild the midfield again without Martinez and without Yaya.

Hope we're not fucking about with a 30m ceiling with this lad though. If his release clause is 32m we'll have a whip round for the other 2 because going on some of the prices being banded around we're not going to get better for cheaper elsewhere!

Thats the best part about it, though, we dont have to choose. He can do either one!

 

[RavenFreak]

Re: Javier Martinez Bid to start summer spending

He is going to cost more than 25m, he has a buy out clause of 40m euros which I reckon is close to 38m. If I was Bilbao I would want full amount no need to sell. Given his potential and reading posts from others seems to have the lot this lad and at 23 even if we paid the full amount I am sure he would actually gain in value.

-- Sun Jun 03, 2012 11:59 am --

Oh by the way Mods can we please merge the Martinez threads.

40m euros = 32M in pounds :D

But I think he's worth his price tag. Seen him play a couple of times and he seems a class act. Plus, we need someone to tighten our defense (remember Kompany's suspension, we actually had to start Savic :O).

 

[Roll On City]

True. Hope that is enough to convince him.

He wants to leave hint, "Martinez: I'm not worth €40 million"
<a class="postlink" href="http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story/_/id/1028694/bilbao-starlet-javi-martinez:-i'm-not-worth-%E2%82%AC40m?cc=5901" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story ... 0m?cc=5901</a>