£116m last Summer, who would you have bought?

[Gym Beglin]

So that's £83m income from sales of Reina, Suarez, Kelly, Agger, Robinson and Coady. You then get a £33m top-up from the board. Have at it:

 

 

Schneiderlin - £16m (did not move)

I think we could have got him for that. When Southampton got more and more money from us and Arsenal and United, it meant they could hold out for more, so he wouldn't have gone for less than £35m in the end.

Had we made him our target from the off, we might well have gotten him for a lot less, I don't think Koeman knew much about him at first.

 

 

Memphis Depay - £20m (did not move)

Again, who knows, maybe a bidding war could have ensued with Van Gaal if he became available. But, clubs like PSV don't go turning down £20m offers. They might have held out for £23m, but they crumble eventually, they always do. He's young and inexperienced in some ways, and that plays into our hands as at this stage the likes of Madrid and Barca aren't interested in an unfinished talent. We'd have been over-paying, but we had a lot of money, we could do that with a couple of these lads.

 

 

Toby Alderweireld - (loan)(as cost to Southampton)

Not sure if Atletico would have loaned him to us, considering we are CL and Southampton are not. Who knows, maybe we could have bought outright.

 

 

Dusan Tadic - £10.9m (as cost to Southampton)

His form last season spoke for itself, he was a brilliant technician and hard worker for Twente, and it was clear that we needed to help Sterling and Coutinho out in creating chances across all competitions.

 

 

Ricardo Rodriguez - £14m (did not move)

I can't see Wolfsberg holding out for more for a left back, and this would be the ceiling for bidding for him. As it goes, he's now injured, but he's who I would have bought.

 

 

Gylfi Sigurdsson - £6m (around £3m to Swansea, + Ben Davies)

Not sure how much Swansea paid for him because the Ben Davies deal muddied it. However, Spurs only paid £8.8m for him and so I'd not go over that valuation, and would actually expect to pay closer to £6m.

I've just always liked him, he's got a winning attitude as well, he's very self-assured, and you always need players who can self-motivate and not be affected by pressure. He's a true number 10 as well, so it gives us that option of playing something other than a 433 from time to time.

 

 

Moussa Sissoko - £14m (didn't move)

Again, might not have gotten him, but I'd have bid. His performances for France in the World Cup impressed me no-end. Big, strong, technical, scores goals on occasion, still room to improve.

 

 

Fraser Forster - £10m (Southampton, £10m)

This would be a weird signing in some ways, because he's not a massive improvement on Mignolet. That said, I think the price represents value and we needed another top keeper. I would happily rotate Mignolet and Forster while we find a suitable long-term solution, a la Lloris, the sweeper-keeper.

 

 

Salomon Kalou - £4m (went from Lille to Hertha Berlin for 5m euros)

He went for as little as this, and joined Hertha Berlin. Already has 3 goals in 4 games. I would certainly have enquired about him, and to know he was available for as little as this would have sealed the deal.

 

 

Juan Iturbe - £20m (went from Verona to Roma for 22m euros)

Another one to overpay for, but I think it's clear to see that you're paying for someone with real ability and work-rate and strength and attacking potency, he's so direct.#

 

£114m total.

 

 

Notes:

 

(Jay Rodriguez is a favourite of mine, but I wouldn't be able to justify spending big on a key player who was injured, and still is)

 

(Kasper Schmeichel would have been a GK option for me, but with Leicester coming up they wouldn't have let him go for anything sensible, so non-starter)

[Gym Beglin]

GKs: Mignolet, Forster

Defs: Johnson, Flanno, Sakho, Toure, Skrtel, Alderwerield, Enrique, Rodriguez (with intention of retiring Toure in 2015)

Mids: Gerrard, Allen, Henderson, Sissoko, Schneiderlin, Lucas

Attackers: Coutinho, Sigurdsson, Iturbe, Sterling, Tadic

Strikers: Sturridge, Kalou, Depay, Borini

 

Sure, still some gaps, but a solid and exciting but hard-working team to give us a good season to further build.

[ratcatcher]

I stopped reading when you mentioned Forster as a keeper.

[Gym Beglin]

I stopped reading when you mentioned Forster as a keeper.

Nice one. Are you serious?

[ratcatcher]

Nice one. Are you serious?

 

Are you serious about forster?

[Gym Beglin]

Are you serious about forster?

Are you serious about me being serious?

[Tony Moanero]

This thread is rubbish.

[Dr Nowt]

I stopped reading when you mentioned Forster as a keeper.

 

You started reading?

[Adebisi]

Sissoko looks like a bit of a dozy cunt to me. Song is twice the player he is and we might have been able to get him on loan too. 

I don't see the big hoo-ha about Rodriquez either. I think Moreno will develop into a better player. I don't rate Sigurdsson, no better than what we've got and turned us down once before for money, now he's back playing for Swansea, he can get to fuck. 

Kalou looked a better player for Lille than he did Chelsea, but even Joe Cole looked good for Lille, for that reason alone I'm out. 

Not seen enough of Forster to say whether he's good enough, but I don't think he's any better or worse than Mignolet. He also has a more organised defence and DMs in front of him. Not sure he'd have 6 clean sheets if he was playing for us 

[Baltar]

Fabregas. It was obvious he was leaving Barcelona and that Arsenal weren't interested. We might have had a chance of getting him. We should have made a crazy offer to him, he would have improved us immensely. 

Schneiderlin too would have been a good option for central midfield.

 

I know we tried to get Sanchez but the prick didn't want to come here but he would have been brilliant, very disappointed that didn't come off.

[Nelly-Szoboszlai]

I would have bought Tommy Hindsight.

[INTORRESTING]

Fabregas, costa, moreno, manquillo, lallana, cech and alderweireld

[nando1000]

Fabregas 

[Bjornebye]

Moreno, Wanyama, Volland, Loris

 

Loris

 

Flanagan

Skrtel

Sakho

Moreno

 

Wanyama

 

Gerrard

Henderson

 

Sterling

Sturridge

Volland

[Guest Numero Veinticinco]

Rodriquez

Di Sciglio

Fernando

Konoplyanka

Vietto

 

And if we'd sold Suarez I'd have looked at spending a big chunk on Higuain.

[bouncebrigade]

Bring back Rafa and Torres.

[Xherdan]

I would not have signed the players who have not succeeded with us thus far and replace them with players who have played well this season. 

 

Management is piss easy with hindsight.

[ngogswilly]

Bit of a rant here but...

As someone said, we lost out to Arsenal with Sanchez when that fuck Wenger was over in Brazil playing futsal on the fucking beach. 

 

We knew Suarez was going to fuck off and Sanchez was leaving Barcelona. We should have been all over that. Instead we let Wenger get the deal sorted way ahead of time. 

 

Fair enough maybe he simply preferred London but to be honest I doubt we had our shit together in trying to sign him. Because we rarely seem to. 

 

He should have been priority number 1. 

[Guest Numero Veinticinco]

Bring back Rafa and Torres.

And Fuckkkkinnnnn RRRRrrrrrrushie-ehhhh.

[Pidge]

Bit of a rant here but...

As someone said, we lost out to Arsenal with Sanchez when that fuck Wenger was over in Brazil playing futsal on the fucking beach. 

 

We knew Suarez was going to fuck off and Sanchez was leaving Barcelona. We should have been all over that. Instead we let Wenger get the deal sorted way ahead of time. 

 

Fair enough maybe he simply preferred London but to be honest I doubt we had our shit together in trying to sign him. Because we rarely seem to. 

 

He should have been priority number 1. 

 

He was.

[J-V]

Bit of a rant here but...

As someone said, we lost out to Arsenal with Sanchez when that fuck Wenger was over in Brazil playing futsal on the fucking beach.

 

We knew Suarez was going to fuck off and Sanchez was leaving Barcelona. We should have been all over that. Instead we let Wenger get the deal sorted way ahead of time.

 

Fair enough maybe he simply preferred London but to be honest I doubt we had our shit together in trying to sign him. Because we rarely seem to.

 

He should have been priority number 1.

It's all old news though. Loads of us in the Summer transfer thread were saying the same thing before it even came to light Wenger was in Brazil tying up a deal.

 

This "hindsight" bollocks is a load of shit aswell. I see a lot of the same people mentioning the same names they did before the window even opened.

[ngogswilly]

He was.

 

We don't know that for sure though do we? 

 

I mean I don't he wasn't. I obviously cannot categorically state that. All I know is it seemed like we tried to convince him to come only when the Suarez deal was in the pipeline which was already a few weeks after Wenger had been talking to him. 

[Jairzinho]

Wouldn't have sold/loaned out - Reina, Agger, Ilori, Wisdom, and Ibe.

 

Would have sold/released - Jones, Mignolet, Johnson, Toure, Lucas, and Borini.

 

Happy with the signings of - Moreno, Markovic, Origi, and Can (despite not really knowing much about him when we signed him, so could scrub that one).

 

Wouldn't have signed - Lovren, Lallana, Manquillo, Lambert, and Balotelli.

 

Would have signed - a goal keeping coach, and a young goal keeper. A nine foot six, 28 stone holding midfielder, from Guinea-Bissau. Enner Valencia. Nicolas Castillo. Zlatan Ibrahimovic (I am not being serious here, he wouldn't move to us). Maybe break the bank for Reus.

 

Would have actually played Suso.

 

We'd have probably wrapped the league up by February.

[Boss]

Wouldn't of bought any of the players we've signed. Would of signed a striker capable of hitting 20+ goals in the league immediately ie Cavani or Falcao. Would of got rid of Johnson, Lucas and forced Borini to leave.

[Harry Squatter]

Kelly Brook

Kate Upton

Katy Perry

 

All 3 and we would have pissed the league