Mata

[Kenneth]

Yeah, it was never going to happen.

[Mostar]

I really wanted us to get Silva a couple of years ago, then he went to City. Then I wanted Mata, now it looks like he's off to Chelski. Very disappointing especially considering he's younger than Downing (and will be better imo) & would've cost the same money as Downing before 1 Aug...

Same here.

We missed out on 2 great players and as much I understand we really couldn't sign Silva as we were skint I cannot help it but to think that we really missed out on Mata.

I hate to see "I told you so" comments coming out soon.

[dww]

If Chelsea or Arsenal were in for him do you really think Mata would have chosen us?

[Mostar]

How do you know that he wouldn't? (Chavs showed no interest until now)

Not every player insists on playing on CL as the condition to make the move.

He had the chance to experience Anfield, he is a good friend with Pepe, we are building team for the future etc.

We can only guess "what if" and it really doesn't matter any more.

[Craig_H]

We could have got him before Chelsea even made their move.

[dww]

I just think it is far more probable that a/ other teams could always have outbid us and b/ he would have chosen them over us given relative positions and competitions available. It's fair enough if you disagree but in general people seem convinced that we have missed out on lots of players who always looked wildly unlikely to join us in the first place.

[Mostar]

We could have got him before Chelsea even made their move.

I think that too but there is always a possibility that we tried and he said no I suppose.

[Craig_H]

There's always the possibility that players may not have been interested in joining us - and i've seen that posted now for several players. Fair enough, but it seems like it's just the easy conclusion to draw, as opposed to the possibility that the club may have just not gone for them and, in not doing so, may have been in the wrong - which i get the feeling, sometimes people are just going to have as the last possible option of what could have happened.

Sometimes it's true, other times not. Some players probably WOULD have turned their noses up at us, but some perhaps not.

I think it's unrealistic to think that none of these players would have possibly even entertained the idea of joining us, but as i say, it's maybe easier to conclude this than to consider that we may have made a mistake.

[Mostar]

There's always the possibility that players may not have been interested in joining us - and i've seen that posted now for several players. Fair enough, but it seems like it's just the easy conclusion to draw, as opposed to the possibility that the club may have just not gone for them and, in not doing so, may have been in the wrong - which i get the feeling, sometimes people are just going to have as the last possible option of what could have happened.

Sometimes it's true, other times not. Some players probably WOULD have turned their noses up at us, but some perhaps not.

I think it's unrealistic to think that none of these players would have possibly even entertained the idea of joining us, but as i say, it's maybe easier to conclude this than to consider that we may have made a mistake.

I cannot say that I disagree.

It conceivable to think that not every player we tried to sign would say yes but it is also very possible, should I say very likely, that we decided not to bid on some for the exact reasons you mentioned in bold.

Either way we missed out on some top, top players this summer and not having at least one more game changer could cost us top 4 spot.

[Craig_H]

It's what i have seen posted more often than most other stuff recently - "oh well who says he would have come to us?" etc - well yeah, fair enough, we dont know.

But who says the club just made (IMO) a bit of a ****up of judgement and just DIDNT go for him? I dont know whether people think that making such a criticism (or rather, assumed criticism, to be fair) of the club is 'wrong' and they cant be seen to do it. I'm not sure if it's that. But just like me assuming that we didnt make any attempts to sign any of these kind of players would be an unrealistic thing to assume, likewise it's also unrealistic to just assume that NONE of them would have entertained the prospect of joining us.

I think the truth is somewhere in the middle - and that therefore would mean that yes, in some cases, we were just daft enough (if one would consider it as being daft) to opt for other 'safer' options, who are however, generally and widely accepted as being slightly inferior players.

[Mostar]

It's what i have seen posted more often than most other stuff recently - "oh well who says he would have come to us?" etc - well yeah, fair enough, we dont know.

But who says the club just made (IMO) a bit of a ****up of judgement and just DIDNT go for him? I dont know whether people think that making such a criticism (or rather, assumed criticism, to be fair) of the club is 'wrong' and they cant be seen to do it. I'm not sure if it's that. But just like me assuming that we didnt make any attempts to sign any of these kind of players would be an unrealistic thing to assume, likewise it's also unrealistic to just assume that NONE of them would have entertained the prospect of joining us.

I think the truth is somewhere in the middle - and that therefore would mean that yes, in some cases, we were just daft enough (if one would consider it as being daft) to opt for other 'safer' options, who are however, generally and widely accepted as being slightly inferior players.

Absolutely.

My concern is that we threw all eggs in one basket when it comes to our signings (excluding Enrique) in hopes of getting the best out of Carroll and I'm worried it could backfire.

Was hoping that this summer we'll get one top notch player like Mata, Hazard, Kun etc and yes their wages may be high but that is the price you have to pay if you want a chance to push for trophies.

Many are making point that our shopping is 2 step process where step 1 is to build the squad to get into top 4 and then next year we bring some high quality players but we already spent 100m (through sale of players or not)..

What if we don't have money next year to do so (new stadium).

What then? What if our spending will be very restricted?

I don't think other 2, 3 will stop any time soon..

[Mostar]

@OptaJoe
12 - Juan Mata made more assists in La Liga last season than Lampard, Malouda and Kalou managed in total in the Premier League (9). Creator.

[Craig_H]

And moreover, what if the plan of doing it this way to get us into the top 4 doesnt actually achieve that? Then we'll be a whole extra year out of the CL, which would make us even less attractive to all these players who apparently must have CL football - and all the while, it'll also mean that the kind of top players who were at 'lesser' clubs this summer and were at the only possibly point in time where they were buy-able (before the very top clubs got them), will have all been snapped up already as well.

[DeanoUK]

Aguero and Mata for £59m and we got Carroll and Downing (or Henderson) for est. £55m.

*sob*

Sorry I'm not contributing much to the conversation, but I'm pretty peeved at what we've got for similar money.

[Kenneth]

Seeing as we couldn't actually buy the others, I don't think the comparrison holds.