colinh9

With the way that clubs value players as "assets" it would be a staggering loss for them to sell at anything less than 25 million right now. That simply isn't going to happen, which is why you see a loan move being touted. You get the wages off the books but you retain the asset. Only a loan move makes sense for Andy- especially because a really strong season could recoup some of his value. I think it would be a mistake to bring him back here. A player like that is going to look for first-team football or he'd just fight at Liverpool. We shouldn't offer first-team football.

Shoot me a private message- I can help you out as I've made the trip twice now

what a great thread

OP is spot on IMO. So far we have gotten rid of dead weight, which is a promising sign. I think Simpson is a great player to keep in rotation- but it seems he is asking for far too much $ to stay on board in that role. In that case, you can acquiese to losing him. Guthrie never was going to break into this team, and you probably already have cover for that role. You could bring in 1 more experienced player and one more youngster and that decision to get rid of him is negligible. Lovenkrands is useless, you could replace him with me and still lose nothing. You even can forgive the board for selling one of their top assets, especially if a 20million pound (or higher) bid is placed.... at least in the next year or two. We can probably get 2-3 very good players for that price, and have shown that already with Cisse. Who here wouldn't take Cisse AND Ba over Carroll? And they cost 1/3 of the transfer price combined. You can make the argument that we've rode our luck with signings and getting the best of them- but it's most assuredly more than luck. The amount of work and effort done as far as recruiting is concerned has paid huge dividends. Now, all that said, we still need more signings in this window for cover. It's obvious we need at least 2 defenders, most likely a winger and at least one proven goalscorer. Might be 20 mil in outlay. I don't think any of us are expecting to compete on every front this year. A good cup run, especially some good times in Europe, and a top 10 league finish would probably satisfy the fan-base. More than anything, I think it's about showing improvement and positive steps forward every year.

No doubt. There is absolutely no necessity for the Sports Direct bullshit. It's a total disaster and a cheap stunt. However, you have to be happy with the current model. The years of buying idiots like Michael Owen are over and that's a good thing. We are building something solid here, and even if we get rid of a Tiote for 20 million this year- you hope that it puts us on a long-term path to strengthen. Now, if in 5+ years, we are still selling our best players then it really becomes an issue. I think one of the issues, and I know I fall into this mind-set, is that the 5th place finish may push our expecations up by a few years. Meaning, I was happy with steady progress before last season. Now I want to win a Cup.

Heh- well with everyting with Man Utd lately you can see it's not a stable way to run a football club. Unfortuantely, we aren't owned by sheiks or Russian billionares. That's not an all out defense of Ashley. There are still things he has gotten utterly wrong but at least you get the sense that certain things have turned around and are logical.

Love FIFA as well. I tell you, Legendary on career mode either is so easy for me or so difficult. I can't ever seem to get a consistent season, but I only started playing the CPU recently....normally just online. Which is nice actually, beacuse in the past the CPU has been awful and so easy to beat. There are certain glitches in this game though- still need better overall gameplay.

I don't know of any others at our level that do actually. I love this game- been addicted since I was a kid. The last one I had going I took Wolfsburg to a few German titles but could only get to quarters of CL. Took over Liverpool in like season 5 and won 5 Champions League Cups in a row, and 4 league titles in a row. I haven't picked it back up, just kind of got bored of it. I usually go through crazy phases with it though. Do you guys use Genie? Certain games I am tempted to but it almost feels like cheating

Fair enough- I assumed as such. Cheers for the last suggestion, will use that.

I used to believe that loaning a player out to a lower league would be beneficial, since he would get "match practice" but I've come to realize that the lack of quality training, the lower level of play (ie hoofing the ball in the lower divisions) etc has actually the exact opposite effect on a young footballer. I'd hope he would be used in a few League Cup matches and possibly EL matches if they aren't as consequential as others. We have enough matches to use a proper rotation

Oh, I'll be heavily involved in this thread

I get this. We have a wage structure and a ong-term vision in place. My assumption is that as time goes on, the wage cap increases as does our revenue. It might not lead to glory but it's a respectable way to run a football club- unlike Manchesters, Chelski etc . Don't even get started on La Liga Anyway- time to get in a striker or two, some cover in mid/defense and Debuchy

Any way to have an option to make it 20, 50, 100 posts per page etc instead of the default? Can't seem to find it. Just preferred browsing on my part, no big deal.

Seems like a good signing to me. Can't go wrong with young players on small fees. Tons of upside- little downside