January Transfer window 2012

[dirk grout]

I don't think we need anyone.

 

Or rather, I don't think we need to sign anyone that we could get without Champion's League football. The next stage of any further recruitment for us should only come when we can get a better quality of player, in my opinion. I wouldn't trade anyone we've currently got for Cahill or Tiote, put it that way.

 

I totally agree. I also think people are forgetting that we just spent £35m on our number 9 who just scored the winner in the derby. I have no idea why people think we're gonna go out and buy another striker. Madness.

[dirk grout]

It's a real shame that Agger can't stay fit. He's a very good player, especially after a run of games.

 

His fitness has improved this season though. A broken rib can't be put down to injury proneness. Lets see how long he lasts when he returns as he is clearly our best centre back.

[Dundalis]

I don't think we need anyone.

 

Or rather, I don't think we need to sign anyone that we could get without Champion's League football. The next stage of any further recruitment for us should only come when we can get a better quality of player, in my opinion. I wouldn't trade anyone we've currently got for Cahill or Tiote, put it that way.

Except for the fact that you probably need the quality of player you are talking about to get Champions League football in the first place.

 

I'd like to know what happens should Suarez pick up an injury and be out for a month or two? Do people think we could cope without him? I for one struggle to see where the goals will come from. Unless Gerrard returns to his absolute best, which is no guarantee especially when he can't stay on the field long enough to build up much form before getting injured again.

 

Hazard is the type of buy we need because we need insurance in case Suarez goes down, plus another player to take attention away from Suarez and provide another real creative threat.

[The Acolyte]

We need a centre half, central midfielder, a right sided forward and a centre forward. I'd like to see Cahill, Tiote and Hazard but I've no idea on the striker. Preferably someone like the Mancs' Hernandez: young, cheap and very, very good who can go straight into the team.

 

Outward bound could go Agger and Maxi for me.

 

Cahill over Hummels?

You'd get rid of a fit Agger and keep Martin?

I respected you highly Paul, now I just respect you!

[MikeC]

Except for the fact that you probably need the quality of player you are talking about to get Champions League football in the first place.

 

I'd like to know what happens should Suarez pick up an injury and be out for a month or two? Do people think we could cope without him? I for one struggle to see where the goals will come from. Unless Gerrard returns to his absolute best, which is no guarantee especially when he can't stay on the field long enough to build up much form before getting injured again.

 

Hazard is the type of buy we need because we need insurance in case Suarez goes down, plus another player to take attention away from Suarez and provide another real creative threat.

 

Yep, agreed. Whilst we have a much better squad now than 3 months ago, most of what we do that is good goes through Suarez.

 

Hazard would be awesome, and I genuinely believe we have a good chance with him. Would happily take Adam Johnson as well if City would let him go.

[MLB]

Except for the fact that you probably need the quality of player you are talking about to get Champions League football in the first place.

 

I'd like to know what happens should Suarez pick up an injury and be out for a month or two? Do people think we could cope without him? I for one struggle to see where the goals will come from. Unless Gerrard returns to his absolute best, which is no guarantee especially when he can't stay on the field long enough to build up much form before getting injured again.

 

Hazard is the type of buy we need because we need insurance in case Suarez goes down, plus another player to take attention away from Suarez and provide another real creative threat.

 

 

I can see what you are saying, but I think we are going to struggle to sign any of the "name" players that people want without Champion's League football. If we are in a strong position in January then it might be possible, but the likes of Hazard will almost certainly be staying where they are until next summer anyway (in my opinion).

 

As for Suarez, well, I'm not sure that we will be in the market for another striker in the short-term because even if Suarez and Carroll are injured we can still play Bellamy and Kuyt.

 

For me, the only real weakness in the squad currently - and given our resources/position in the market - is the lack of pace on the right. I don't think Henderson is suited to playing there, and Dirk's limitations are well known. Like I say though, I'd like us to be able to make future signings from a position of strength in terms of CL football, which means waiting at least until the summer. If the right player is available in January then maybe we will make a move, but it's not something I see happening.

[Evil_Ways]

I can see what you are saying, but I think we are going to struggle to sign any of the "name" players that people want without Champion's League football. If we are in a strong position in January then it might be possible, but the likes of Hazard will almost certainly be staying where they are until next summer anyway (in my opinion).

 

As for Suarez, well, I'm not sure that we will be in the market for another striker in the short-term because even if Suarez and Carroll are injured we can still play Bellamy and Kuyt.

 

For me, the only real weakness in the squad currently - and given our resources/position in the market - is the lack of pace on the right. I don't think Henderson is suited to playing there, and Dirk's limitations are well known. Like I say though, I'd like us to be able to make future signings from a position of strength in terms of CL football, which means waiting at least until the summer. If the right player is available in January then maybe we will make a move, but it's not something I see happening.

 

 

It's very difficult to say who's available and who's not in january.

I mean we landed Suarez last january, without CL football, him not being able to play for us in Europe and the likely prospect of us missing Europe all together this season. People might not have realised just how good he was at the time, but i'd say he was certainly as highly thought of as Hazard, and the type of player you wouldnt really expect to land in january, and especially not without CL football the following season.

 

Of course things were abit different last January, in the sense that we had new owners and they probably wanted to make a statement of their intentions right from the off, and our position in the league was not what it should have been and we needed to get quality in. But i'd say, if certain teams are out of the CL that have players of top quality who we might be interested in come the summer, we'd be stupid not to go for them in January.

[Xherdan]

Things could look very different at the end of December.

[Gym Beglin]

I'd love to think that we would pursue Adam Johnson and Mats Hummells, and maybe even Eden Hazard.

However, would City sell Johnson to a rival? I think he's very unlikely to be sold, even if he wants to go.

Mats Hummells will be chased by every top club under the sun. With Inter's ageing centre backs, I'm sure they'll offer top dollar. Also Bayern will have a go, and usually are quite good at buying off their rivals.

Same with Hazard, depends what sort of rodent his agent is.

 

I think we still have to buy smart, not buy big. We have money but we're not yet at the point where we can wrestle the top players away from the big spending, CL-shoe-ins.

 

I think Napoli are there for the taking, Hamsik, Cavani and Lavezzi should be examined more closely. However, Hamsik represents a problem whereby he has this sort of all-round attacking midfield role, which we currently do not utilise.

I'm sure Cavani will be targeted by the top clubs, but it's worth a go, but I think Lavezzi is the one who is gettable and capable of a similar impact as Suarez.

 

At the same time, it's not the CF department that we're in most need of strengthening.

I'd be tempted to cash in on Glen Johnson, his injuries are becoming more of a regular feature, and we've got cover there at the moment. This could go towards a fund to bring in two more centre backs and perhaps another multi-tasker like Arbeloa, who could do either full back slot.

 

I still think Gary Cahill's a top defender, despite Bolton's precarious position. He needs to get out of there.

 

We certainly still need more pace out wide in attack, and perhaps even a new centre mid.

 

I'd offer a lot of money for Canales. Iker Munain is also going to be a brilliant player, and is ready for the big time.

I think Davide Santon should still be monitored at Newcastle. I know he's not done anything, but the signs were good in the beginning, he could be a shrewd buy in a year's time.

But for me, I'd throw £30m at Arsenal for Jack Wilshire as well. He'd sort the centre of our midfield out for the next 10 years.

Also, Xherdan Shaqiri, he's a fucking genius. Scored a hat-trick for Switzerland last month, he's not even a striker and he's not even 20. I was blown away by him in the U21 World Cup.

 

In the meantime, I'd get offers in for Agger, Glen Johnson, Kuyt, Cole, and Skrtel. For various reasons, you can build quite a convincing case for moving all of them on now, and using that money to re-invest.

[El Rojo]

I'm not sure we'll be bringing anybody in.

 

We have a squad capable of attaining fourth place which should create the financial freedom to bring in another top class addition or two next summer.

 

We're already too dependent on Suarez so hopefully Gerrard's return can ease that pressure a bit. Bellamy's looked impressive in his cameos to date too. We need a player of similar qualiites to Suarez, but I don't see one arriving in January.

[Xherdan]

qualiites

 

 

I always suspected that you were Rafa but this confirms it.

[WaltonRed]

I reckon we sign that Ronaldo and Messi

[TheHitman]

I'm not sure we'll be bringing anybody in.

 

We have a squad capable of attaining fourth place which should create the financial freedom to bring in another top class addition or two next summer.

 

 

Sounds about right. We need to get the best of what we have bought in the summer firstly.

 

Also worth mentioning, one of the factors we got Suarez cheaper in the Jan window was a lot of clubs were put off by the biting incident.

 

Hummels was at Bayern to start with, they thought he would not make the grade. Monumental ballsup there, I read a good article on Dortmund and they were like us, nearly went close to going bankrupt.

 

They have an average attendance of 80K and they are playing in Europe and have one of the most exciting young squads in Europe. I doubt he will move for a few years yet.

[Evil_Ways]

Sounds about right. We need to get the best of what we have bought in the summer firstly.

 

Also worth mentioning, one of the factors we got Suarez cheaper in the Jan window was a lot of clubs were put off by the biting incident.

 

Hummels was at Bayern to start with, they thought he would not make the grade. Monumental ballsup there, I read a good article on Dortmund and they were like us, nearly went close to going bankrupt.

 

They have an average attendance of 80K and they are playing in Europe and have one of the most exciting young squads in Europe. I doubt he will move for a few years yet.

 

 

I kind of doubt that, havent read or heard anything of that ?

Think it was a case of us acting and declaring our interest early, and also that we had been interested in the past with Benitez.

 

Cheaper ?

Thought the deal seemed incredibly complicated and seemed to take forever.

 

I agree that it seems unlikely we could pull off one or two big signings in January, but you never know.

[TheHitman]

I kind of doubt that, havent read or heard anything of that ?

Think it was a case of us acting and declaring our interest early, and also that we had been interested in the past with Benitez.

 

Cheaper ?

Thought the deal seemed incredibly complicated and seemed to take forever.

 

I agree that it seems unlikely we could pull off one or two big signings in January, but you never know.

 

I was living in Rotterdam at the time and with my broken bits of dutch, this is what the dutch media were saying at the time.

 

As for cheap, probably the wrong word, when talking about our record signing at the time, but looking at the market and price of strikers, I doubt too many would say it was expensive.

[Evil_Ways]

I was living in Rotterdam at the time and with my broken bits of dutch, this is what the dutch media were saying at the time.

 

As for cheap, probably the wrong word, when talking about our record signing at the time, but looking at the market and price of strikers, I doubt too many would say it was expensive.

 

Oh ok, cause i dont remembe reading about it in the english press. Not that they know what the fuck they are talking about, but still...

 

And Yeah, or, well he was cheap, in hindsight. I wouldnt sell him for Torres money now.

[MLB]

I reckon that Christian Eriksson at Ajax could be exactly what we need, but he probably won't move for another year or two and has previously expressed a preference for playing in Spain. You never know though.

[Evil_Ways]

I reckon that Christian Eriksson at Ajax could be exactly what we need, but he probably won't move for another year or two and has previously expressed a preference for playing in Spain. You never know though.

 

He's only 19 right ?

Supposed to be the biggest talent to come out of Denmark since Michael Laudrup they say. He's surely got a load of potential, but is he what we need right now ?

 

I'd think if we went after someone for big money in January it'd be for a player to walk straight into our first 11 and make a big impact right away...

[Malarkey]

Have we signed Mata yet?

[Guest Numero Veinticinco]

His fitness has improved this season though.

 

To be honest, I don't think 5 games is a big enough sample to judge that.

[silverlining]

Why would Jack Wilshere join Liverpool?

What makes you thinkm they'd sell him? He's only 19 and hardly agitating for a move.

[Unrighteous]

Why would Jack Wilshere join Liverpool?

What makes you thinkm they'd sell him? He's only 19 and hardly agitating for a move.

 

If RVP leaves Arsenal, which it sounds like he will if they miss the CL next season, then anything is possible.

[coop]

I wouldn't sign Hazard incase Suarez gets injured i would sign Hazard because he is a good player.

 

I don't buy this 'we need another striker incase Suarez gets injured' because we already have Carroll, Bellamy and Kuyt as strikers plus Gerrard who can play the second striker role.

 

Who do the mancs have incase Rooney is injured ?

 

No-one, and don't try and tell me Nani, Valencia or Hernandez because they are not in the same quality catergory as Rooney.

 

Regardless of peoples feelings about Rooney he is Man United stand out player and without him for 2 games this season they dropped points in both games (Stoke and the Champions League match).

 

We have a strong squad now and no glaring weakness but if i was to be picky i would say we need a centre half who has pace.

[Megadrive Man]

Jack Wilshere will be at Arsenal for at least the next few years and possibly the rest of his career. He loves the club, and him being a Gerrard like player for them.

[Evil_Ways]

Jack Wilshere will be at Arsenal for at least the next few years and possibly the rest of his career. He loves the club, and him being a Gerrard like player for them.

 

I absolutely dont think we will sign him, but it wouldnt be the first time someone who 'loves the club' leaves to further his career or make more money.