Gaz Baz

[Kenneth]

how can anyone seriously beleive losing xabi and bringing in barry could compensate anything. iknow everyone has their own opinions on this subject but come on......barry is slow and hasn't got nearly half the passing ability that xabi has got. it is a huge step backwards to even consider selling our most important midfielder. he is just as valuable as torres or stevie. we would be lost without his passing and eye for oportunites. to lose xabi the only way to improve would be to lure iniesta or xavi from barca and as that ain't happening you would have to be retarded to sell xabi.

No he isn't.

[Kenneth]

I dont think we should sell alonso, even for 30 million euros. What next? 70 million and torres can go? 75m for gerrard? No thanks.

Top clubs dont sell their best players, they build around them.

We're a top club, not a selling club. We're not spurs.

Top clubs look to imrove year on year. If bringing in Barry + another quality player in MF is possible with money from Xabi, why not look at it? We'll see what Rafa thinks in the summer but it's too simplistic to say we're not a selling club.

[Craig_H]

Top clubs look to imrove year on year. If bringing in Barry + another quality player in MF is possible with money from Xabi, why not look at it? We'll see what Rafa thinks in the summer but it's too simplistic to say we're not a selling club.

How does selling one of our best players improve the club?

[Cormack74]

How does selling one of our best players improve the club?

By allowing us to buy someone else's best player(s).

[Craig_H]

By allowing us to buy someone else's best player(s).

Who may or may not work in our system - eg Keane?

Why fix what isnt broken?

How about we raise funds by NOT buying 4 average £6m players each year? Might be worth a try.

[dww]

Top clubs look to imrove year on year. If bringing in Barry + another quality player in MF is possible with money from Xabi, why not look at it? We'll see what Rafa thinks in the summer but it's too simplistic to say we're not a selling club.

How does selling one of our best players improve the club?

I think Operation has a fair point (albeit one I disagree with in this instance). It is not the selling that might strengthen the club but what we could do with the money. If one viewed Barry say as a reasonable replacement for Barry and the difference in price obtained for Alonso and spent on Barry allowed us to get (for the sake of argument) Silva or Aguero then the overall effect might be an improvement in the team.

[Craig_H]

I think Operation has a fair point (albeit one I disagree with in this instance). It is not the selling that might strengthen the club but what we could do with the money. If one viewed Barry say as a reasonable replacement for Barry and the difference in price obtained for Alonso and spent on Barry allowed us to get (for the sake of argument) Silva or Aguero then the overall effect might be an improvement in the team.

But there's no way that Barry would be able to give us what Alonso does.
No chance.

Why not sell Babel & Dossena, which would raise around £15m, and use that to get Silva (for example). Then you'd have the pre-sales kitty to sign Barry for around £9m.

[Cormack74]

Who may or may not work in our system - eg Keane?

Why fix what isnt broken?

How about we raise funds by NOT buying 4 average £6m players each year? Might be worth a try.

Take the Keane point to its' conclusion and we'd never buy anyone.

Also I'm not aware that we sold one of our best players to obtain his services so it's hardly the same.

Certainly not advocating buying loads of (cheaper) squad players but if we can replace him with a player that strengthens the team overall surely we should do so?

[Kenneth]

Take the Keane point to its' conclusion and we'd never buy anyone.

Also I'm not aware that we sold one of our best players to obtain his services so it's hardly the same.

Certainly not advocating buying loads of (cheaper) squad players but if we can replace him with a player that strengthens the team overall surely we should do so?

Well we sold a striker who was an England regular.

[Craig_H]

Take the Keane point to its' conclusion and we'd never buy anyone.

Also I'm not aware that we sold one of our best players to obtain his services so it's hardly the same.

Certainly not advocating buying loads of (cheaper) squad players but if we can replace him with a player that strengthens the team overall surely we should do so?

I'm not saying never buy anyone, but i certainly wouldnt sacrifice one of our best players, who we KNOW delivers for us, in order to buy a player who may or may not flop.

I didnt say it was the same - it was suggested that one reason why we should apparently sell one of our best players, was to buy other teams' best players - which Keane was. So i never said that we'd sold one of our best players to sign Keane. Although now you mention it, Crouch was one of our best strikers.

As for the last point - yes we should if that's what we're replacing him with. But Barry isnt that.

[dww]

But there's no way that Barry would be able to give us what Alonso does.
No chance.

Why not sell Babel & Dossena, which would raise around £15m, and use that to get Silva (for example). Then you'd have the pre-sales kitty to sign Barry for around £9m.

You are shifting the goalposts there though - originally you were questioning the idea of selling one of your best players as if this could never result in an overall squad improvement. I happen to agree with you in this specific instance but the point stands that it is perfectly valid to view the relative worth of players differently and that it is possible to sell your best player and improve the squad/team by using the generated funds well.

In your specific scenario I would suggest that we may need to sell Alonso, Babel and Dossena in order to get Silva (in addition to getting Barry in).

[Craig_H]

You are shifting the goalposts there though - originally you were questioning the idea of selling one of your best players as if this could never result in an overall squad improvement. I happen to agree with you in this specific instance but the point stands that it is perfectly valid to view the relative worth of players differently and that it is possible to sell your best player and improve the squad/team by using the generated funds well.

In your specific scenario I would suggest that we may need to sell Alonso, Babel and Dossena in order to get Silva (in addition to getting Barry in).

To clarify, if we could sell one of our best players and bring in players who would be an obvious improvement, then that's fine.

I dont see this as being an example of that.

As for Silva, reports were claiming that £15m is the maximum Rafa is prepared to pay, so i used that as the figure. Whether they'll sell for it, i dont know but i wouldnt rule it out.

[red g]

To clarify, if we could sell one of our best players and bring in players who would be an obvious improvement, then that's fine.

I dont see this as being an example of that.

As for Silva, reports were claiming that £15m is the maximum Rafa is prepared to pay, so i used that as the figure. Whether they'll sell for it, i dont know but i wouldnt rule it out.

reports in 2 red tops Mirror/Star i think that mentioned that 15million figure today.

[Cormack74]

Well we sold a striker who was an England regular.

But one of our "best" players ?

[Kenneth]

But one of our "best" players ?

let's not start a discussion about what best means.