Thiago Alcantara

[MojoRisin]

Rafael Hernández ‏@RafaelH117 7m
Thiago is a little closer to renew his contract with Barcelona, club alledgelly offered a renewal doubling his salary & more years

Next best possible outcome after us signing him

 

[Matt the Giant]

Rafael Hernández ‏@RafaelH117 7m
Thiago is a little closer to renew his contract with Barcelona, club alledgelly offered a renewal doubling his salary & more years

Next best possible outcome after us signing him

This.
I'd hate to see him go for peanuts to the rags.

 

[Deleted member 52846]

Makes you think!

Boils down to the ridiculous Robinho signing, for me. He was exactly what we didn't need since we were just an okay mid table side; he's the sort of player a top side has to come off the bench as a bit of a luxury flashy player who contributes little to team play. And we came out all guns blazing giving it the big one about "gonna be the biggest club in the world" and smashing out £32m on him.

Everyone saw us coming from that moment on. £14m for Kolo, £24m for Adebayor, £17m for Santa Cruz, £24m for Lescott, £23m for Milner, £24m for Balotelli, £27m for Džeko, £16m for García...amongst others, plus players we've missed out on due to ridiculous asking prices (although we have got some good deals, it must be said). Overall we've well overspent and it all goes back to that first day.

I don't think it was the Sheikh's fault. It was others. I reckon if Ferran and Txiki had been here since day1 this situation would be very different.

Good point but not sure how you can make the last statement

I don't think there would have been any brash shouting about "going to be the biggest club in the world" I doubt we would have let the Kaka situation develop (we were third from bottom at Christmas and tried to sign Kaka for something like £70m in January! - a ludicrous thing to do and another reason why we're always rinsed out of money or can't reach ridiculous asking prices for transfers) making us look daft. I think we would have gone about our business quietly and effectively, like we are now, from the beginning.

 

[Neville Kneville]

Rafael Hernández ‏@RafaelH117 7m
Thiago is a little closer to renew his contract with Barcelona, club alledgelly offered a renewal doubling his salary & more years

Next best possible outcome after us signing him

Best place for him as well imo. Much better suited to their needs than ours, or the rags'.

 

[Neville Kneville]

Boils down to the ridiculous Robinho signing, for me. He was exactly what we didn't need since we were just an okay mid table side; he's the sort of player a top side has to come off the bench as a bit of a luxury flashy player who contributes little to team play. And we came out all guns blazing giving it the big one about "gonna be the biggest club in the world" and smashing out £32m on him.

Everyone saw us coming from that moment on. £14m for Kolo, £24m for Adebayor, £17m for Santa Cruz, £24m for Lescott, £23m for Milner, £24m for Balotelli, £27m for Džeko, £16m for García...amongst others, plus players we've missed out on due to ridiculous asking prices (although we have got some good deals, it must be said). Overall we've well overspent and it all goes back to that first day.

I don't think it was the Sheikh's fault. It was others. I reckon if Ferran and Txiki had been here since day1 this situation would be very different.

Good point but not sure how you can make the last statement

I don't think there would have been any brash shouting about "going to be the biggest club in the world" I doubt we would have let the Kaka situation develop (we were third from bottom at Christmas and tried to sign Kaka for something like £70m in January! - a ludicrous thing to do and another reason why we're always rinsed out of money or can't reach ridiculous asking prices for transfers) making us look daft. I think we would have gone about our business quietly and effectively, like we are now, from the beginning.

I agree in part with that, but Robinho was a very important signing which put us on the map. Txiki & Soriano would have tried to keep spending costs down, but as we are seeing with Cavani, it's unlikely we would have got the players we wanted without spending the money.

Wages would still have to be high or the players themselves wouldn't have signed. The big spending was as much to do with creating an image of a club which was serious & therefore attractive to players.

People laughed at the idea of Adebayor etc coming to City. Now they only laugh when it's Messi's name mentioned.

Much easier to start cutting costs now, than it was then.

 

[Deleted member 52846]

Good point but not sure how you can make the last statement

I don't think there would have been any brash shouting about "going to be the biggest club in the world" I doubt we would have let the Kaka situation develop (we were third from bottom at Christmas and tried to sign Kaka for something like £70m in January! - a ludicrous thing to do and another reason why we're always rinsed out of money or can't reach ridiculous asking prices for transfers) making us look daft. I think we would have gone about our business quietly and effectively, like we are now, from the beginning.

I agree in part with that, but Robinho was a very important signing which put us on the map. Txiki & Soriano would have tried to keep spending costs down, but as we are seeing with Cavani, it's unlikely we would have got the players we wanted without spending the money.

Wages would still have to be high or the players themselves wouldn't have signed. The big spending was as much to do with creating an image of a club which was serious & therefore attractive to players.

People laughed at the idea of Adebayor etc coming to City. Now they only laugh when it's Messi's name mentioned.

Much easier to start cutting costs now, than it was then.

Yeah, I suppose it was a much more difficult situation for us than it was for Chelsea. We were a mid table team when the Sheikh came, when Abramovic went to Chelsea they were already an established top three side who'd got to the CL quarters in 1998 and won the ECWC in 1997 as well as a few FA Cups around that period too. We - and everyone else - knew where we wanted to end up but we were only a mid table club at the start so even though we had to get there in stages we were almost forced to spend the top wedges from the outset.

I just feel that both of the Robinho and Kaka deals were far too high in price and at the wrong times. But I do think we've learnt a lot as a club from that time, which is why Ferran and Txiki were brought in.

 

[Deepest Blue]

The United option seems to me to be just leverage to get him what he wants from FCB.

As I've guessed before I think United will end up with another quality player such as Strootman or van Ginkel from Arnhem.

 

[Stoned Rose]

The United option seems to me to be just leverage to get him what he wants from FCB.

As I've guessed before I think United will end up with another quality player such as Strootman or van Ginkel from Arnhem.

Are they 'quality' though?

Funny how average players become quality when the Scum are in for them and quality players become average when we're in for them.

 

[ACMilan]

Strootman was made to look like a whiny, goon woman against Italy u21

for all the hype I heard on him, and Milan being linked to him... I dont want him after the 4-5 showings Ive seen of him.

Good, nothing more

 

[sympatheticblue2]

just tweeted i love barcelona ...