Alex Teixeira

[Cormack74]

To all the people saying how "notoriously difficult" these guys are to deal with (based on 1 experience we had with a different club)... how do other clubs manage to buy players off them?

I'm guessing here but presumably there's a better chance of a deal in the summer transfer window as there's more time to source a replacement and also any player who's nearing the end of a contract and has indicated he's not staying is probably more likely to be cashed in on.

I suppose we weren't intending to buy a forward this window but the various injuries have forced JK's hand.

[Tee]

Douglas Costa for £21m....go figure. We could have got this done, I reckon their Chairman must have seen that picture of Ayre on his ****ing Harley

[Saveloy]

That's the most half arsed Ayre bashing ever. It doesn't even make sense.

Put some effort in Tee!

[gratziani]

Come on Arsenal got Ozil for 40 million and Sanchez for 35 , this fella is nowhere near their level and we got to walk away when this silly money is mentioned

Spend 40 million on Gotze or Ambeyang (sp)and nobody would care.

[Tribute]

Alex Teixeira

I'm sure there will have been some signals from both parties that a deal could be discussed this month, hence the meeting. Much like the Firmino deal, Ayre looked to move quickly and I really don't think Liverpool, Ayre or FSG come out this looking bad. I certainly don't think Ayre will have looked desperate. As FluxKev and others have quite rightly touched on, why should we overpay? They say €50m, we up our offer only for them to ask for €70m; they're just not in need of money and, as pointed out, they're difficult to negotiate with. It doesn't mean we simply shouldn't try though.

Each player will have a maximum value (rightly or wrongly) and we simply can't keep throwing money away.

I'm more than happy walking away at the recent price touted by the CEO of £50m but still don't get why we'd go all the way over there to 'negotiate' a price much lower than even the £38m originally.

Not blaming Ayre or the club, just feels like a completely pointless exercise if they were never going to negotiate less than the £38m. Our initial offer of £26m or whatever is nowhere near that... so why table it... unless Shaktar have just gone full 360 almost overnight when Ayre was over there...

[Fivex]

Maybe the Chavs have just had a word in their ear and said they'd pay £40m in the summer. You could see why there'd be a sudden price hike overnight if so.

[Leyton388]

£53m they can **** right off.

[MrMichael]

I'm more than happy walking away at the recent price touted by the CEO of £50m but still don't get why we'd go all the way over there to 'negotiate' a price much lower than even the £38m originally.

Not blaming Ayre or the club, just feels like a completely pointless exercise if they were never going to negotiate less than the £38m. Our initial offer of £26m or whatever is nowhere near that... so why table it... unless Shaktar have just gone full 360 almost overnight when Ayre was over there...

But how do we know if they're not going to negotiate unless we actually make our offer? None of us have any real knowledge of the circumstances around any of this but obviously there are all sorts of stages, agents & third parties involved in these sort of deals and we must have received enough encouragement to have thought it worth pursuing as we did.

£24m+addons is a pretty reasonable opening offer if the "asking price" is a silly £38m, I suspect we were prepared to pay something in the middle and that probably would be all the money for this player at this time.

I just don't think we should look to blame the club for trying to buy a player. It doesn't always work out, Shaktar probably have had dozens of agents telling them how much more they can get from x or y club in the summer and decided not to play ball. I'm not sure they'll get the bidding war they seem to want but the goal posts have obviously moved so unless they decide to be sensible all of a sudden we just move on.

[baitman]

Reckon abramovic has wired 100 billion roubles as a down payment and said save him for me in the summer.

or it could have been done with paypal

[niallers1]

John Barnes reckons that we'll still push a deal through before Mondays deadline. I wonder is he just speaking for himself or does he have a bit of info from the club?

[frank the tank]

I dont think he would be linkedIn to be honest....

[TheElephantMan]

I'm pretty sure John Barnes hears more genuine information than 99.99999% of the bull****ters on twitter.

[Bender]

I'm pretty sure John Barnes hears more genuine information than 99.99999% of the bull****ters on twitter.

I don't Bull**** ...FACT

[Fosterbloke]

It's dead. No way we're signing him.

[G]

That Benteke performance might focus some minds.