The Official Summer 2011 Silly Season Thread

[Addick]

This type of loyalty kind of makes me want the club to get rid of him. Being a greedy twat and trying to drive up your price is one thing, talk like this another.

Nasri Not Ruling Out United
French Star Coy On His Future

5 June 2011
Sky Sports
Pete O'Rourke

Arsenal ace Samir Nasri has refused to rule out a possible move to Manchester United.

Premier League champions United are reported to be monitoring Nasri's contract situation at Emirates Stadium with the midfielder yet to agree a new deal.

[...]

Nasri is remaining coy on speculation linking him with a shock move to Old Trafford.

"Do I want to go to Man United? First, we should see if it's real and if it is concrete," added Nasri.

Complete Article

[d_phaneuf]

ya that looks like a come and get me plea, Berbatov pretty much said the same thing 2 years ago

[Addick]

Originally Posted by diane_phaneuf

ya that looks like a come and get me plea, Berbatov pretty much said the same thing 2 years ago

Although his departure would be a massive blow as we couldn't end the Cesc saga, he's broken our trust and a part of me wants to see the club give him a one-way ticket to Spain or Italy. If he thinks he's we'll give him to United he has another thing coming. Spurs were in a different position a couple of years ago, today I think they'd be able to handle it differently.

[Montana Moe]

Leaked photo of Wayne Rooney's new look after his hair transplant.

[d_phaneuf]

TonyBarretTimes Tony Barrett
by OliverKayTimes
Joe Cole to Spurs isn't happening. No interest in him from the North London club.

thank god... was getting a bit worried 'Arry was going to go for the Freidel/J Cole/Parker/Phil Neville sweep

[d_phaneuf]

Originally Posted by Addick

Although his departure would be a massive blow as we couldn't end the Cesc saga, he's broken our trust and a part of me wants to see the club give him a one-way ticket to Spain or Italy. If he thinks he's we'll give him to United he has another thing coming. Spurs were in a different position a couple of years ago, today I think they'd be able to handle it differently.

I think if he goes there is no way Arsene lets Fabregas lead, Ramsey and Wilshere are the future of that midfield but I dono if you can go in to a season relying on them to be 2 of your best 3 players (with RVP)

and I completely agree on not selling to United, Levy basically said the same thing last January. It doesn't help to be a feeder club to Manchester United. If your best players want to go send them out of the country, unless a team is willing to pay double what they are worth (like everyone who has sold to City)

I would be very surprised if Wegner lets him go to Manchester

[Addick]

Originally Posted by diane_phaneuf

I think if he goes there is no way Arsene lets Fabregas lead, Ramsey and Wilshere are the future of that midfield but I dono if you can go in to a season relying on them to be 2 of your best 3 players (with RVP)

If Ramsey didn't lose a year I could potentially see him as being ready but that oaf Shawcross has had his way... I'm a bit worried that Wegner might actually be senile and have enough confidence in the Welshman to let both Nasri and Cesc go.

I've started to wonder if we could pull off some sort of swap with Inter that would see Nasri head to the San Siro and Sneijder to the Emirates. While I don't think Sneijder is as silky as Nasri, he would bring a lot to the table. As much as it pains me to admit though, I'm not sure if Sneijder would fancy the move.

[d_phaneuf]

[Addick]

A somewhat comforting article about the Nasri situation.

Samir Nasri Gambling With His Arsenal Future As He Seeks Pay Parity With Cesc Fabregas

6 June 2011
Goal.com
Wayne Veysey

Arsene Wenger is reluctant to bow to the Frenchman's demand for £110-a-week deal and will sell the 23 year-old if he overplays his hand at the negotiating table.

By casting public doubt over his readiness to sign a new Arsenal contract that was agreed in principle four months ago, Samir Nasri has lit the blue touchpaper for another transfer saga that will dominate the window.
Arsenal fans already fretting over the possibility of losing Cesc Fabregas are now facing up to the reality that their next most creative player is questioning whether the grass is greener elsewhere.

However Nasri’s comments while on international duty with France are interpreted, it is clear there are issues to be resolved between player and club.

Many will view the Frenchman’s desire to discover whether Manchester United’s interest in him is “concrete” as a clear 'come and get me' plea to the Premier League champions.

Yet Goal.com understands that Nasri has no desire to leave Emirates Stadium - for United, Manchester City, Serie A, La Liga or or anywhere else. He is content at the club that brought him to the Premier League from Marseille in 2008 but his reluctance at signing the improved contract offered to him by Arsenal earlier this year is down to hard cash.

Complete Article

[Addick]

A few English clubs will be on alert.

Bayen Munich Confirm Miroslav Klose Departure

6 June 2011
Goal.com
Stefan Coerts

The experienced attacker, who has been linked with a number of European clubs, has decided not to extend his contract with the Bundesliga giants and will leave on a Bosman move.

German powerhouse Bayern Munich have confirmed on their official website that veteran attacker Miroslav Klose will leave the club this summer.

The Germany international has an expiring contract with the Bavarians and has made the decision not to accept Bayern's renewal offer.

"Unfortunately, our talks with Miroslav Klose have not produced a positive result. We’d have been happy for him to extend his stay, but when it came to the length of a new contract, we were unable to agree on a mutually acceptable period,” commented club chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge.

Complete Article

[d_phaneuf]

Originally Posted by Addick

A somewhat comforting article about the Nasri situation.

do you think Arsene pays him though?

he has let guys go before because of wage demands, and he is very stubborn

I thought Nasri was your best player last year, outside of RVP but he didn't play enough

[Montana Moe]

Nasri was invisible the second half of the season, but the first half was amazing. If he could replicate that form for an entire season, he'd be worth every penny.

[Addick]

Originally Posted by diane_phaneuf

do you think Arsene pays him though?

he has let guys go before because of wage demands, and he is very stubborn

I thought Nasri was your best player last year, outside of RVP but he didn't play enough

I honestly don't know.

To start, we aren't dealing with the Arsene Wegner we have come to know and love. Even if he does manage to restore himself to Arsene V1.0, who would tell Nasri's agent to piss off, things are complicated with the Cesc situation. Nasri is in a prime position and this could potentially force Arsene into making large compromises.

Also, one of the problems with the current squad is that due to our youth policy we have to pay our players salaries that are based on their potential rather than their performances in order to protect our investments in their development. So although he is rather prudent, Arsene does have a tendency to engage in speculation and pay up. As such, I can see him potentially caving to wage demands in this particular case.

This would really suck because, like Moe stated, if in the second half of the season Nasri played like he did in the first his demands could have been fully justified. So if we pay up we'll just further develop this atmosphere of complacency in the club. This attitude is what helps stall the development of players like Bendtner and Denilson and results in the poor efforts given during crucial matches and parts of the season.

The article mentioned that the club are pushing performance based wages, which I firmly believe this is the way forward. I wouldn't mind paying Nasri and the other lads all this money if they put in the effort and earned it. However, Nasri and his agent may not fancy any of that. This is why I said the article was somewhat comforting, it may not be a case of Nasri being a disloyal Judas but rather just a greedy #######. Anyway, if he is simply the latter I might be open to keeping him if he agrees to a heavily performance-based salary. Hell, give him £120k a week so long as we win a bloody trophy!

[d_phaneuf]

Forwarding this to Alex Ferguson

Spurs midfield dynamo Luka Modric will not be moving to Manchester United this summer, according to the player’s advisor.

The Croatian international has once again impressed at White Hart Lane with a string of fine performances in both the Premier League and Champions League, and was rumoured to be the Red Devils’ top transfer target.
However, Mario Mamic believes that the stubbornness of Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy to sell the club's prized assets would mean that Modric, whose contract runs through until 2016, has no hope of securing a deal away from North London, even if he wanted to.
"Luka will not go to Manchester United and he will also stay at Tottenham because I know that president Daniel Levy will not let him go," he told Croatian newspaper Jutarnji List.
Although a transfer is unlikely to happen in the near future, Mamic’s father Zdravko is vice president of Modric’s former team Dinamo Zagreb and has hinted that United would have to break their transfer record of £30.75million - paid for Dimitar Berbatov - to stand any chance of signing him.
"I heard that somebody has offered £20 million pounds for Luka but that's crazy," he said.


"When we talk about Modric, that price would only be enough to buy peanuts."

[d_phaneuf]

what did Sunderland ever do to anyone to have David No'Gog forced on them

bensmith_Times Ben Smith
by DavidBGJones
#LFC have offered £11m plus N'gog for Henderson. #SAFC want a tad more. A deal will be done.

they want 13m plus N'gog

[d_phaneuf]

deal is done, pending medicals

[Addick]

Classy European Champions...

Barcelona Expect To Pay Less For Cesc

7 June 2011
Arseblog News

In news that will shock nobody, Radio Catalunya have announced that Barcelona have reached a ‘preliminary agreement’ with Cesc Fabregas over his transfer to the club this summer.

According to Sport (Spanish – Google translation), they said in their sports talk show ‘El club de la mitjanit‘ that Cesc’s agent will travel to Barcelona on Friday to discuss the strategy to enable the move to happen.

The two keys to this are:

1 – Arsene Wenger will not stand in the way of the player leaving

2 – Cesc should cost less than what Barcelona offered last year because he’s spent another year at Arsenal and his value has ‘amortised’ accordingly.

Complete Article

[d_phaneuf]

the article says if Henderson is valued at 20m than Cesc is above 30m, I would about double that

there are problably 5 world class real box to box midfielders in the world at this point and he is one of them

I hate so much of the way Barca chooses to be, they are the most arrogant club in the world. From the boardroom all the way down to the last guy on the bench.

[d_phaneuf]

Phil Jones for 16m to Manchester United

[united]

Sunderland put in 12m total bid for Wes Brown, Darren Gibson, John O'Shea.