Pogba and Barca

http://www.express.co.uk/sport/football/587790/Barcelona-agree-fee-Chelsea-Manchester-City-target-Paul-Pogba

Sorry, but two things that don't sit right with this story:

1. Juventus have already stated they want the release clause of £71m, but would be willing to accept £57m and £7m in add-ons? Really?

2. Between now and Jan 2016, Pogba's value could potentially increase further, so why take £57m now, when we've been rumoured to have told Juventus we will pay £71m up front now?

Doesn't make sense.

Probably because it means they keep him for another year as part of the deal.   How much value is in that?

Exactly my thoughts. the other thing I don't get is if he stays at Juventus till January he will be cup tied so cant play for Barca in the latter stages of champs league, No way will he sign for them & sit around for 6 months, & there is also the possibility of him getting a serious injury whilst on loan back to Juve.

Exactly.

All we have to do is ask Pogbas agent direct (which i suspect we've done)...."what does your player want to do next season and would he like to come back to England and play for Manchester City"?

If he responded with, "I'm sorry, he wants to go to Barca"...then fine, move on. Anything else n we're still in with a chance.....irrespective off what the papers say.

It's that simple!!

I'm guessing that the question has already been asked....otherwise, we wouldn't be pursuing him further.

The thing is, whilst we're still being linked with Pogba, it may make it easier to sign other quality players.

We haven't signed any of the big names we are after and I'm concerned that we won't get anyone except Sterling and that'll be for an excessive fee near £50M.

Topdawg wrote:We haven't signed any of the big names we are after and I'm concerned that we won't get anyone except Sterling and that'll be for an excessive fee near £50M.

And if that happens, i for one will be extremely pissed off .

We've supposedly made a 100m Euro bid to negate the Barca offer?  This is starting to have echos of the chase for Kaka.   We are shit at this.   Even the dippers just get on with it and sign players.  I was optimistic after the chairman's video, but I bet you now we end up with Sterling, Delph and probably a Berahino.

I think we have to face it we are not the big time charlies we think we are.   Thank god Sergio and Silva are in a happy place.

Of course we're not the big time Charlies, why do you think UEFA are so keen to keep us at arms length?

We're still at the throwing money stage of luring big players, and will be until we either hit the CL semi finals or hire a big name boss.

Of course, the other option is to do a Southampton: Find some potential quality in the youth team and give them a shot.  Their hunger and drive to get into the first team should outweigh their shortcomings in the skills department.  Plus, there's no guarantee of a big name being any good on the field.

"Find some potential quality in the youth team and give them a shot".

That's been done a few times though......but then we've never seen um anywhere near the 1st team again

There is a reason why we don't bring a lot of the kids through , it is called instant success. The Southampton's of this world only get so far. The nearest I would say is Arsenal & over the past 10 years their levels of success have been minimal & their performances have been consistent not spectacular. I think this year will see a couple close to the 1st team with more opportunities given & couple such as Denayer & kelechi (never remember his surname) making their debuts. If we remain in the top 4 by the ends of our fingernails rather than pressing on then I think their is less likelihood of us seeing big names arrive unless we have a guardiola type figure at the Helm.

Iheanacho.

That's one thing that not pushing on when we won the league (both times, but especially the first time) that bugs me.

If we had a hattrick of PL wins behind us and maybe even a double (losing to Wigan!) that would elevate us so that better players would want to come and play for us. We'd probably have done better in Europe too and we'd probably have a team containing Hazard and maybe Fabregas or another couple of better players than we currently have.

We are back to the cycle of paying big transfer fees, big wages and then paying the deadwood to leave.

Hate to say it, but the lure of Manchester doesn't help.

If we were in London with this amount of money to spend, I'm guessing our chances would increase by 25% of getting the big, big names.

We are where we are. Some top players won't come for the Costa del Salford or our weather, but we can't do anything about that.

Bottom line is, if we are winning stuff, they will come.

Yeah, but that's the catch 22....when you can't get to a semi-final of the CL, go through a season trophy-less.

Problem is, we bought shit after we won our second PL title....so last season may turn out to be a bigger disaster than first feared.

Shit on big wages though, and don't even start about Dzeko's extension 

I'm disappointed already, we are being made to look chumps AGAIN.

All those extensions seem to be for FFP reasons.