Memphis Depay

[tanner]

Stop the god damn whining...
We can't expect a top talent from another country to choose us over a club in champions league, better recent record and with a manager from the same country.
Also, we know feck all about what really happens behind doors. Any gossip from journos or players or agents is most probably used for someones gain.
For all we know we might have played this right until United entered. He might have waited for their offer...

Everyone stop posting opinions on a football forum! What the feck do you all think this is!

[The_weatherman]

Everyone stop posting opinions on a football forum! What the feck do you all think this is!

[tanner]

We could be smarter about things though, we need to identify targets early and act fast, but we always haggle and haggle until we lose our top targets. Might be better of then to target second tier players from the start.

How long was it that the guy from PSV said Liverpool and PSG were front runners about Depay but United just wanted to be kept informed, the it took them what three or four days to tie up a deal.

Its one of the negatives about having an unknown like Rodgers in charge too, which was one of the reasons I was against his appointment. We need all the help we can get to attract decent players here.

[Muddled]

Chelsea decided against Markovic, United went for Shaw and now one was going to pay 25 million for Lallana.

We decided against Depay.

[Leyton388]

We're just a ****ing joke. A year and a half wasted ****ing about. Same **** time and time again.

[Daniel 7]

I doubt very much we got a 'free run' at them. Other clubs will bid for players; The examples you have chosen - bar the odd one - will have been subject to several bids.

Snippets from the press ...

Markovic

'Markovic was tracked by numerous Premier League clubs since making an impression at Partizan Belgrade as a teenager, most notably Chelsea who seemed in pole position to sign him.'

Lallana

'It is little wonder, then, that Lallana has been linked with a transfer to a club of greater standing during the summer window, with Manchester United, Liverpool and Tottenham all have been linked with respective moves for the player.'

Moreno

'Manchester United are reportedly planning a January swoop for Sevilla defender Alberto Moreno. United are keen to secure a long-term replacement for 32-year-old Patrice Evra and have so far been unsuccessful in their attempts to sign Everton star Leighton Baines.'

I can't be bothered searching the rest.

Linked with and beaten to a signing are two wildly different concepts though. The Markovic links with Chelsea referred to there are from Partizan Belgrade, sure they might have wanted to sign him then and he would have ended up one of a multitude of owned by Chelsea loanees. Was anyone else in for him when Liverpool moved? I can't remember, but I doubt it.

I also can't remember anyone going for Lallana, other than vague paper talk. Suarez was the same.

Moreno was a weak link based on Evra getting old and it looking unlikely they were getting Baines.

[Daniel 7]

Stop the god damn whining...
We can't expect a top talent from another country to choose us over a club in champions league, better recent record and with a manager from the same country.
Also, we know feck all about what really happens behind doors. Any gossip from journos or players or agents is most probably used for someones gain.
For all we know we might have played this right until United entered. He might have waited for their offer...

You know what, you're right. Lets just stop all this unsubstantiated speculation and rumouring. Its utterly pointless talking about stuff.

Infact, I'm going to evolve my social interactions beyond petty chat. From tonight, I'm just going to stare, spoken word and typing seems so primitive to me now. We need to get beyond the inanities of human communication.

[captainfog]

This didn't take long to move to General Football. I thought we'd be strung along for at least another couple of months.

[McDermotX]

TBH....we were relatively uncontested for most of the signings made recently IMO.
Only Lallana garnered some Spurs paper-talk, but I'd suspect that was no more than a negotiation effort on the part of Southampton and Lallana's agent and our way was always clear.

Certainly Southampton were clear as ****ing crystal........25m !
Strewth !

[tanner]

Linked with and beaten to a signing are two wildly different concepts though. The Markovic links with Chelsea referred to there are from Partizan Belgrade, sure they might have wanted to sign him then and he would have ended up one of a multitude of owned by Chelsea loanees. Was anyone else in for him when Liverpool moved? I can't remember, but I doubt it.

I also can't remember anyone going for Lallana, other than vague paper talk. Suarez was the same.

Moreno was a weak link based on Evra getting old and it looking unlikely they were getting Baines.

Chelsea apparently had the option to buy him for £12m whilst we were negotiating, but Mourinho decided against it. So the papers said anyway, both here and abroad.

[ronanm]

At least we're getting deals closed early this year. Progress

[Muddled]

Linked with and beaten to a signing are two wildly different concepts though. The Markovic links with Chelsea referred to there are from Partizan Belgrade, sure they might have wanted to sign him then and he would have ended up one of a multitude of owned by Chelsea loanees. Was anyone else in for him when Liverpool moved? I can't remember, but I doubt it.

I also can't remember anyone going for Lallana, other than vague paper talk. Suarez was the same.

Moreno was a weak link based on Evra getting old and it looking unlikely they were getting Baines.

Yeag, I agree - it's not an exact science, I've just Googled some snippets to highlight that other names are mentioned in the players we approach. How far down the transfer line? Who knows.

I believe we will have battled to sign Markovic, Lallana and Moreno. We even had to battle a couple of Italian teams to secure Borini. There will always be a number of clubs chasing high profile players. Lambert will have been approached, but as soon as he knew we were interested other clubs probably stepped aside.

[Roboklopp]

I doubt think we can ignore the trend in these things to be honest. Too many examples to disregard.

[Daniel 7]

Chelsea apparently had the option to buy him for £12m whilst we were negotiating, but Mourinho decided against it. So the papers said anyway, but here and abroad.

They already had Salah. I think we might have been linked with him at some point as well!

[Nicey]

We've been sending a delegation of reps to watch him and talk to his people pretty much fortnightly for 18 months possibly even two years.

Sure United will have also put some spadework in but ffs. Same **** every time.

United are a ****ing Machine ... and they look nailed on to get back into the Champions Lg and with the amount of money they will spend .. probably stay there

They can offer him more of everything perhaps except playing time but he would probally walk into that United side.

He would have been nice ... but I would rather we blow our budget on Jackson Martinez or Benzema .. although i am not holding my breath .. one thing is for sure BDog and his Committee dont get it right this summer he is out on his ear , just before the brand new historic shinny stadium gets unveiled, everybody knows what is required this summer ... lets hope that A. Lady luck shines on us and we manage to pip United to 4th and B they get it right with Strikers this summer