S-Clarke

Good post. If you think about it, we've kind of punched above our weight in every transfer window since Markus bought us. In our first window we pulled one out of the bag in Lambert, and also - who maybe didn't have the impact we expected - Papa Waigo was signed by a L1 club from a top flight Italian club, and he was clearly better than L1. Then we managed to lure Jose Fonte from the Championship to L1 in the January window. The following season we signed Guly, a regular in a promotion winning Cesena side who was about to embark on becoming a Serie A regular player, yet we got him here to L1 - we had no real right to do that either. In the championship we managed to secure Jack Cork, ahead of so many (bigger clubs) at the time. That again, in our position (just being promoted) was a signing that we weren't expected to pull off in any way, but we did. And obviously, last year - Gaston. Wanted by a host of top clubs, yet we jumped ahead of all to bring him in. A bit of a hit and miss season, but you have to say that we seriously punched above our weight to sign him. So all of that points to there being more of the same in this window, and maybe even bigger scale.

As we speak, he's tied him down on a chair force feeding him DVD's of our history.

If that's a fair figure, we could comfortable increase that. So could lots of other teams though...

To be fair, plenty of people (journos etc) said exactly the same regarding Gaston. We shouldn't have had a chance with him, but we did. Money speaks loudly. Not sure how much he's on at Valencia, but given their poor financial position I wouldn't imagine he's on massive money.

Primarily played as a DM, but can play a range of positions through the middle as he holds all the tools.

I think we hold a genuine interest in him, there were links back in January as well if I remember rightly. If Valencia accept that sort of bid is another thing though, seems very low for a player of his undoubted ability - and as others have said, if that is his going rate, we'd be competing with 20 other clubs for him. The fact that Valencia missed out on CL football could have a huge bearing on this though, they're skint as it is and were relying on a top 4 finish (which looked likely for a few weeks) in order to remain competitive. Wouldn't be surprised to see them do a Villarreal in the coming years.

£9m for a current Argentine and Champions League central midfielder. Or £20m for a relegated premier league central midfielder, current ROI international. ummm...let me think for a second..

He's finally lost his mind. Time to be put down Alpine.

I saw some of those threads, and I also saw the identical threads bounced from the last 4 years, where he was proven wrong, time and time again. Why does he want to do it? Has he got some sort of fetish for being made to look silly on an Internet forum?

Skills!

What a bizarre reaction. Lost for words to be honest.

I don't think anyone has ever said that what so ever. Stop trying to twist your way out of your ramblings. The general consensus is that signings can be made from when the window opens, up until the end of august. However, as we have seen in most seasons, the majority of business occurs at the back end of August. No one has ever said that deals MUST be done in late august.

Papa Waigo Gaston Guly Boruc - Fiorentina I can't think of a 5th!!!

Not sure where you watched it. Heard a few mentions of Yoshida, Southampton, and that he had a pretty good first debut season in the PL etc.

That's exactly what I thought...I swear he's never distributed the ball as well for us, as he has tonight! I think he's had a pretty good game to be honest. Looks very comfortable at that level

Here he is, taking the **** out of Barcelona's midfield.

And the Gaston story last year.

He's a champions league level player. We're not a champions league level club. (yet..)

Banega would be a simply stunning addition for a club like us.

Would be a shame to see Fonte go, but if he does i guess we can be assured we'll get another CB for sure.

Do you have any sort of opinion then?

Boruc

Yep, very much filed in the scrap heap.

Obviously you're far more up on french footie than most of us...! What sort of CB is he? better than what we have? or just one for the future?

lol @ the over-reactions as normal. Seriously, people, go and have a holiday or something.