The Daily ITK Discussion Thread - The Knee Trembler Edition 9th July 2013

[Francis Gibbs]

the problem we have is that there seems suddenly shortage of strikers on the market. With Arsenal, Chelsea, and City all scrabbling around for a front man, and Liverpool possibly joining that list if Suarez goes to RM then whoever is considered half decent and available could end up being part of a bidding war which we would probably come last in.

I worry about us spending silly money on Benteke, as we have all seen one season wonders.

God knows what the answer is..................

therein lies the answer to our position, a real dearth of quality strikers and because of this all only available at huge cost premiums.
Us having no oligarch or CL football to offer we have to buy potential for me Benteke ticks that box and a little bit more at the
top end of our budget. Personally I am a little worried about his ability to play the link up role which is pivotal for us, not sure how good his touch and passing is but what he gives us that we have been missing for a long time is that physical presence in the box and a regular (hopefully) supply of goals.
A calculated risk I would term it

 

[Archibald&Crooks]

Ade when on song fits the system to a reasonable degree and so would Torres. I wonder if he is worth the risk ?

When you say risk, do you mean risk of signing Torres, or risk of taking the whole thread off topic with posts about how he is, isn't good enough when there's been no actual ITK on him?

 

[Riandor]

If he does go to Chelsea though, I would love us to get Torres from them (too bad we don't have a good relationship with them).

Well we did ok out of their previous expensive reject!

EDIT: ahem, cough, keeping on topic... Do we really think Chelsea are really in for him? Benteke that is?! And i am firmly in the camp that for under 20m ok, but over that price and i hope we at let tried for soldado or Higuain before smacking down that much cash on Benteke, who i think shows promise but am not sold fully on.

 

[Lilbaz]

Is benteke probably the best we can get at the moment? I think he probably is. If he can improve and get even more goals for us than he did at villa he'd be a steal.

Get him in.

 

[worcestersauce]

I agree. IF Villa was a target, and IF Benteke is a target now, they are like chalk and cheese. I can't see Benteke being an AVB style player at all.

It could be a case of sign someone, ANYONE.

Perhaps but not at any price!!

 

[Sandro30]

So why won't we pay 6m Euros for David Villa then?

This is all starting to go a certain way again. Not happy.

We agreed a fee but the player chose Atletico. What more can we do?

 

[Scarlet57]

So why won't we pay 6m Euros for David Villa then?

This is all starting to go a certain way again. Not happy.

These are posts from LLM yesterday.

There is no problem with Villa. He simply chose to stay in
Spain. It was the media who had everyone believe he was coming. Media
are so far off of the mark always.

Well We did make an offer to loan villa in January.
That very nearly happened then Barca decided they wanted to keep him
but would let him go at the end of the season...

Us, Arsenal and Athletico all had bids accepted and Villa had the
choice of all three clubs. In fairness to Villa he has a family member
at Athletico and made it clear he wished to join them. It was the
English media and Villas advisors (who wanted to drum up more
interest) who dragged it out till 5 weeks later.

If anyone is interested our bid was 5 million pounds rising to 7
million dependent on various factors.

There is no issue with missing out on Villa. We were officially
informed last night but it has been on the wall and we were already
looking at different targets. Nothing to do with Levy we had agreed a
fee and everything but Villa simply chose Athletico. If anybody cares
to check my history elsewhere I said Villa had agreed with athletico
as far as 5 weeks ago. It was well known just not to the media who lag

typically 3-4 days behind transfers.

 

[Riandor]

So why won't we pay 6m Euros for David Villa then?

This is all starting to go a certain way again. Not happy.

Uhh... You did read the reasons right? No? Hmm clearly not as otherwise you would have read it had nothing to do with us and paying the fee!!

 

[Paolo10]

We agreed a fee but the player chose Atletico. What more can we do?

We've chased him for a fucking month, what more can we do? Obviously more.

 

[codspur]

LLM mentioning how poor out medical staff are yesterday, hopefully we'll get new people in if its the case.

I think Fabrice Muamba may disagree

 

[Breezer]

So according to some Benteke is likely to join Chelsea because they'll pay the money and he's a Mourinho type striker. Yet half of SC think he's not good enough for us and not worth more than £15m MAX! What the f*** does Mourinho know!?!?

 

[danielneeds]

As long as ADE and Defoe are fit DL won't rush into buying a striker. He will use that as his bargaining tool to make out we're not desperate for a striker.

Tbh, I don't think he can play the long one with Benteke. Too many other clubs and scenarios. If Pool sell Suarez, will they go straight in? Will Chelsea concentrate on Suarez first? Arsenal and Higuain. We'll need to move fast.

 

[Paolo10]

Uhh... You did read the reasons right? No? Hmm clearly not as otherwise you would have read it had nothing to do with us and paying the fee!!

LLM isn't in the read only so calm your jets, I'm pissed off we're back to square 1 again with no new forward, after that apparently being all but done.

 

[Breezer]

I think Fabrice Muamba may disagree

I think he's more thankful to the specialist who come running out from the crowd.

 

[Scutch]

POTL re: Villa

Gutted that this didn't come off. Don't blame Levy or Franco this isn't their fault and along with Andre have all put a lot of effort in making this deal happen, we thought we had done enough and had put a very good deal on the table to both the player and the club and believed we had done everything we could to make it happen, confidence was high. Effectively the player has chosen to stay in Spain for his last few years, you could say he has bottled coming to the Prem for not stepping out of his comfort zone or label it with something else. It is disappointing the manager hasn't been able to get his number one target in the striking position. This however isn't the first or will be the last time this has happened. Work has now begun on option two, wheels are in motion- however this doesn't mean you will see someone holding up a shirt in the next 24 hours- be patient we will get a striker this window.

POTL

 

[Riandor]

We've chased him for a fucking month, what more can we do? Obviously more.

Im sorry but no...
Player chose to stay in spain where he is a big fish, doesn't have to uproot family and has family connections even to the club he is joining. We could have offered him an A&C reach-around and he still wouldn't have joined.

But whats say we keep the arguments of David Villa to the player thread from here on in eh... But seriously Paolo10 i just cannot fathom how you can in any way see this as the club not making effort.

 

[norsk2]

LLM mentioning how poor out medical staff are yesterday, hopefully we'll get new people in if its the case.

Where can one find all of LLM's ITK? It is not in the RO, right?

 

[danielneeds]

We've chased him for a fucking month, what more can we do? Obviously more.

We don't have CL, we aren't in Spain. Those are things we can't change... Make him an an offer, sell a project, but in the end he went for familiar over the unknown.

 

[Lilbaz]

We've chased him for a fucking month, what more can we do? Obviously more.

Yes we could move to spain, be in the cl, won the el a couple of times recently, changed our kit to red and white and employed half his family.

I don't think we even try.

 

[Francis Gibbs]

POTL re: Villa

got that deadline day feel to me whoever it is