£150 million

[el matador]

he was bought as a great prospect not a world class messi-esque player who would walk into the team at 19.

some of the quotes surrounding this lad included someone from Fiorentina (who were also after him) saying that he would be the best player in the world one day and that how great a talent he was.

[RedReet]

we paid £6m for a 19 year old i think so when we signed him he was rated as a world class YOUNG talent.

Im not saying he's a bad player but i dont think he has been the player I and others thought he would so he hasnt lived up to the reputation that he had as a kid.

Did Arsenal not play a similar amount for a 17 year Denilson who had hardly played first team football? £18m Anderson, £17m Nani, £16m Mikel etc etc.

Regardless of your ‘expectations’ £5/6m is a sound piece of business, and will eventually prove to be a steal.

[carheex]

we paid £6m for a 19 year old i think so when we signed him he was rated as a world class YOUNG talent.

Im not saying he's a bad player but i dont think he has been the player I and others thought he would so he hasnt lived up to the reputation that he had as a kid.

Whatever we paid, it was too much. The problem with lucas is that he is extraordinarily average.

[carheex]

Did Arsenal not play a similar amount for a 17 year Denilson who had hardly played first team football? £18m Anderson, £17m Nani, £16m Mikel etc etc.

Regardless of your ‘expectations’ £5/6m is a sound piece of business, and will eventually prove to be a steal.

Never in a million years will we make profit on him. NEVER.

[RedReet]

Never in a million years will we make profit on him. NEVER.

Don't be stupid. We'd make a profit if we sold him today. He'll be worth a lot more this time next year.

Oh, we got £30m for that uselss cunt Alonso too.

[Mattshark]

Don't be stupid.

You are asking the impossible from Carheex there.

[RedReet]

You are asking the impossible from Carheex there.

It wasn't until I hit send that I seen who wrote it. That's why I went back and added in the Xabi bit. Otherwise I wouldn't have bothered.

[Whelan5]

I think this argument about how much Rafa spent v utd isn't comparing like with like. As for eg Ferdinand was already there when Rafa came in. I think the fairest way to do it is to add up the total cost of each team/squad and compare. I remember doing that after we beat them the last time and also in OT, and the figures were something like 80m for us v 130 m for them, the gap got even bigger when you included the bench.

[el matador]

the main point is that rafa spent that money on a **** team. Fergie spent that money on a very good side and made them even better.

Rafa would have had to have spent another £150m for a valid comparison.

[Exiled_red]

the main point is that rafa spent that money on a **** team. Fergie spent that money on a very good side and made them even better.

Rafa would have had to have spent another £150m for a valid comparison.

Rafa had to use that money to build a squad more or less from scratch, where as Ferguson used that money to make minor changes, add a couple of new players and replace a few. The squad Utd had at the time was challenging for the title, the squad Rafa took over was battling it out for 4th place.

[el matador]

Rafa had to use that money to build a squad more or less from scratch, where as Ferguson used that money to make minor changes, add a couple of new players and replace a few. The squad Utd had at the time was challenging for the title, the squad Rafa took over was battling it out for 4th place.

i think that's why the vis a vis comparison against united isnt fair on rafa.

[Exiled_red]

i think that's why the vis a vis comparison against united isnt fair on rafa.

To be honest I don't think there is a fair way to compare the two at all. There are so many factors that influence things one way or another.