Somthing big on Guardian at 5.30

[The Acolyte]

Rafa will be fuming!

[Trumo]

Inter has never spent huge amounts on one player. They've always kept it 'sane'.

 

No fucking way they bid 40m pounds for Gareth Bale.

 

A decade or so ago they bought Farinos, Okan, Emre, Luciano, Van Der Meyde, Morfeo, Hakan Sukur, Domoraud, Keane and numerous others I'm stuggling to recall. Spent about £100m on this lot who did next to fuck all. Only in the last 5 years have they been more sensible with their spending.

[Cardie]

Inter has never spent huge amounts on one player. They've always kept it 'sane'.

 

No fucking way they bid 40m pounds for Gareth Bale.

 

They've had their fair share of big transfers with Ronaldo, Ibrahimovic, Vieri but granted they aren't a team you look at to break the transfer record on a single player every year. They prefer, or used to, to spend just a level under spending million upon million on a number of players. in the 10+ bracket.....and then get rid of them not long later.

 

Still remember the mental days before Moratti grew up, they were desperate for defenders for a good few years and a succession of managers came and went with the same problems. Moratti ignored them and just kept buying strikers/Trequarista's to the point where one season the had 10-13 in the first team.

[RoboRiise]

Reminds me of a bygone era when we used to have the annual "Giggs to Inter/Roma" story around March.

 

In other news, see the avatar for the first comment on the Guardian site? I'd smash the arse off that.

 

/keys

[WaltonRed]

What a load of plums

[Magic Sponge]

I hate twitter rumours/announcements more than I hate the catholic priest who stole my childhood.

[Section_31]

Simple-faced Cities of Gold motherfucker.

[bobhorse]

I just cant see what the attraction is in this player £40m i would have your hand off he is suppose to be a LB yet he isnt the best defender in the world and it wasnt to long ago he had the record of never appearing in a winning Spurs side ok he looks good going forward and can score the odd wonder goal which sky will hype to fuck

he has scored 17 goals in 106 games for Spurs but if you remove this season from the records he would be 6 goals in 76 games

 

I believe his value is down to H Redknapp in the same way as he managed to increase the profile of G Johnson and the style of play Harry goes for with attacking fullbacks makes this type of player stand out when they bang in a few goals look at his hattrick in Europe this season everyone was jumping on the bandwaggon but he was a key player in a side that found itself 4-0 down at HT so did the Italians take the foot to far off the gas in the second half thinking it was job done ? he has been used this season in Midfield more by Harry and if you look at his goals this season you would be hard pressed to say that he is worth such a fee

 

Stoke 2 goals

FC Twenty 1 Goal

Switzerland 1 Goal

Inter 3 Goals

Blackburn 2 goals

Arsenal 1 Goal

Newcastle 1 goal

Fulham 1 goal

 

in all the games bar Newcastle and Fulham Spurs conceded at least 1 goal in the arsenal Blackburn and Inter games they conceded 2-2-4 its no use in him scoring a goal if that means you conceed them at the other end im not saying all the goals are down to him but that there is a pattern there and when you are talking a £40m player i dont want any negatives in anything he does if Inter think he's worth £40m then good on them and Spurs have done good business i wouldnt touch him with a shitty stick i want my defenders to avoid records like "never on the winning side in 24 appearences"

[bus24]

I just cant see what the attraction is in this player £40m i would have your hand off he is suppose to be a LB yet he isnt the best defender in the world and it wasnt to long ago he had the record of never appearing in a winning Spurs side ok he looks good going forward and can score the odd wonder goal which sky will hype to fuck

he has scored 17 goals in 106 games for Spurs but if you remove this season from the records he would be 6 goals in 76 games

 

I believe his value is down to H Redknapp in the same way as he managed to increase the profile of G Johnson and the style of play Harry goes for with attacking fullbacks makes this type of player stand out when they bang in a few goals look at his hattrick in Europe this season everyone was jumping on the bandwaggon but he was a key player in a side that found itself 4-0 down at HT so did the Italians take the foot to far off the gas in the second half thinking it was job done ? he has been used this season in Midfield more by Harry and if you look at his goals this season you would be hard pressed to say that he is worth such a fee

 

Stoke 2 goals

FC Twenty 1 Goal

Switzerland 1 Goal

Inter 3 Goals

Blackburn 2 goals

Arsenal 1 Goal

Newcastle 1 goal

Fulham 1 goal

 

in all the games bar Newcastle and Fulham Spurs conceded at least 1 goal in the arsenal Blackburn and Inter games they conceded 2-2-4 its no use in him scoring a goal if that means you conceed them at the other end im not saying all the goals are down to him but that there is a pattern there and when you are talking a £40m player i dont want any negatives in anything he does if Inter think he's worth £40m then good on them and Spurs have done good business i wouldnt touch him with a shitty stick i want my defenders to avoid records like "never on the winning side in 24 appearences"

 

I don't think he's worth 40m either, but to be fair he's an excellent player and he's generally played on the left of midfield this year, so it's a bit harsh to criticise him for his defending.

 

The more attacking role has suited him down to the ground, as he's not fantastic in a defensive sense and his best attributes are attacking ones.

 

It's a problem that the signing of Pienaar seems to have created. Before he got injured at the weekend he turned out at left-back, so they could fit Pienaar on the left of midfield, which seems totally counter-productive. Obvious solution is leaving Pienaar on the pine, but when you're paying someone 70k p/w (way more than what he's worth) I'm sure there's a hesitancy to do that.

 

The wheeler and dealer has wheeled and dealt himself a problem IMO. Bale's a great left midfielder, but a pretty poor defender, I can't possibly imagine why you'd move your best player out of position.

[goatboy59]

Tony Evans on Twitter

 

Transfer story in Times tomorrow that's worth reading. Not talking big, like. I'll leave claiming mega exclusives to others

 

[Jose Jones]

Hah! Goofy Chinese Owl!

[Rex Banner]

INTER TO BID 40MIL FOR BALE!....in the summer. Wow amazing news about something that might happen in 6 months what an exclusive. I don't know if I'll be able to sleep until this is sorted out, shit i'll be tired.

[goatboy59]

Half expecting the follow-up article about experimenting with the power of Twitter.

[Josef Svejk]

I almost didn't go to the pub in anticipation of that breaking story. Which would have been for the best, as it turns out...

 

* 630 comments on that story so far. That's a lot of pissed off punters.

Edited January 28, 2011 by Josef Svejk

[INTORRESTING]

They broke the world record for Ronaldo all those years ago. Seems like a lifetime away

 

recoba was on 150k a week about 15 years ago!

[looneylen2]

Well christmas is coming apparently thats the big news of the day.....I will wait until later then

[INTORRESTING]

Holloway walked yet?