Elm0

The Berbatov transfer involved Spurs who are flush with cash, and tbf his performances over the two seasons at spurs probably pushed his worth close to £30M. As for Valencia, IIRC that was some sort of agreement with Villarreal because he'd been there on loan for a while and they wanted rid.

Carrick - already spoken about him. Berbatov - proven premiership and international. champs league final as a kid with leverkusen. £30M is reasonable, and definitely not overpaying. Ferdinand - covered, definitely not overpaid for. Hargreaves - 7 seasons with Bayern, won numerous titles and a champs league. £17M - def not overpaid. Anderson - yeah ok ill give you that. Valencia - only 16M, not much for a winger. had numerous PL seasons experience and international caps at the time. All in all, that list that Utd have "overpaid" for is nothing close to Carroll and his half season of PL experience for £35M, nor near Henderson and his potential. A s*** load you say? He scored 17 goals in the promotion season, hardly a "s*** load". Do I need to go find players who have scored hatfuls at championship level and failed at higher levels or are you happy to accept that happens more often than not. Youre bonkers You really are. His size and physique might well make him unique (it doesnt actually, theres a lot of lumps like him in world football if you look around - Lukaku for example) but they dont make him a good player automatically. Its possible to judge him and say that his injuries have worried me because it hasnt given him enough time on the pitch to impress and when he has been hes been a combination of unfit and ineffective. Im also wondering what game he looked "world class" in Hilarious.

Name these players that Utd have overpaid for because they just had to have them.

they do for the likes of 35M and 20M. Carrick had 4 more seasons under his belt plus numerous england caps, yet we're paying more for henderson. doesnt make sense. 35M screams world class to me, not andy carroll.

its carroll at the minute for post signing, and its wickham, henderson and to a lesser extent jones for pre.

Im basing my opinion on Carroll on the basis that a) hes got limited experience, b) he didnt contribute much on the pitch in 6 months and c) he couldnt keep himself fit. b and c are intrinsically linked. Im basing my opinion on Henderson on the fact that most sunderland fans seem to think that henderson still only has the potential to become an important player for them. Note the turn of phrase, no mention of top player, which is telling given that in my opinion anyway £20M should be buying you a top player. You can bluff all you want on this, but the more we pay the more risky the accountancy becomes because there is a greater level of liabilty for the fee to decrease. Conversely the fee is never going to rise much because not many clubs can pay above those fees for players, never mind the fact that they probably wont ever hit actual levels of talent worth that. Yeah, but we paid market value for those players, not ridiculous inflated fees. Ferdinand thats nearly done, Giggs that has one more season, scholes that has gone, Carrick that people seemed to want to laugh at earlier, and fletcher whos a scotsman. Yeah, his next squad, if he hangs around for it, wont have the same english core that his previous teams did at all. sorry

Right, so we''re happy to say its down to opinion then. Youre basing yours on the feeling that you think theyll become top top players. Im basing mine on the fact that the contributions of these overpriced young english players, both pre and post signing, have offered me nothing to suggest that they are or ever will be top top players worth what we paid.

What point are you contesting then? That he hasnt been injured a lot (he has) or he hasnt contributed much since he arrived (hes hasnt) ?

how many of those are english at the minute though? Smalling? Thats about it, and hes probably not first choice for another season or two. Times change, and people arent appreciating that. Quoting that all the previous big winners and champions have had lots of homegrown players if a bit of a fallacy, because foreigners in the leagues at all only took off in the mid 90's, and that era was dominated by a team who just happened to have a good cluster of homegrown players coming through at that time to warp the history. Times change, modernization occurs and we dont need to rely on young english players who are overpriced.

My basic point is that we shouldnt be overpaying for english players. If we want them, find options and dont be overpaying for them just to have a vaunted english player on the books.

Because all the evidence points either to the contrary or it points firmly in the middle. Theres nothing thats happened yet to suggest that any young english player weve linked with will be of any value to the club because they havent proven their worth in any shape or form. Carroll did nothing to convince me in his first 6 months, and Henderson for £20M is a shocking buy. I think there are a lot of blinkers in action here because the players are english. People were up in arms when we signed aquilani, who although injured at the time, was an experienced italian international, and we got a good deal on him. But we're overpaying massively for unproven "potential", which has as much chance of failing than shining and too many people are happy for my liking. On another note, its not value because there are probably players of greater ilk out there for similar or cheaper fees if we look around. Struggle to believe we couldnt have had any young striker in europe for £35M. Also, the last point is a popularist quote made famous by richard keys. check your memes.

Sorry chaps. `Im just not inspired by the rumours im hearing, as you all well know.

So much rubbish in this its untrue. I didnt laugh when Fergie paid £30M for a player who had just played in a champions league semi final, at a time when making it that far was an incredible acheivement, and for a player that was first choice centre back at the 2002 world cup. I didnt laugh when Fergie paid that for Carrick either, a player with two great seasons at Spurs under his belt and numerous england appearances. Yet here we are looking at the majority of people try and justify signing unproven players like Carroll and Henderson for massive amounts of money and struggling to even invent reasons as to why its justifiable, never mind actual facts that make it seem normal. Its baffling. Why do we need english players eh? Why do we need to pay these ridiculous fees for players that may end up average? Why not just buy players that are value for the club? Also laughing hard at the "buy UK talent because it works" line Based on what? The academy of Utd churning out a handful of players 20 years ago? Do me a favour love. We'll thats just speculative nonsense isnt it? Carroll has about half a seasons experience behind him and hasnt shown anything yet to suggest that hes going to be an important part of the time for many years to come. You've just said that because its what you want to believe. The same goes for Henderson. Ask any sunderland fan and theyll tell you he could only "potentially" go on to be important for them, "potentially" being the key word here. And thats not even getting involved in the debate about whether beign important for a mid table team is good enough for us.

nonsense. pointing out the facts. i was expecting at least a glimpse of talent but ive seen nothing to convince me hes a £20M player, never mind what we paid.

boy oh boy. someones going to be disappointed this season.

what does that post even mean? Ive just showed pretty sensibly that talent is about for far far FAR less than we;re paying with a lot more experience.

Well thats just a load of "in XXX we trust" rubbish that a mindless drone churns out when theyre clueless and want to seem patriotic or something. I look at that list and I see fees that could top about £90M. And for what? Carroll - less than one years top flight experience. Henderson - a bit of promise but nothing more than average really? And wickham - a lower league player with probably potential, but whats he proved? Extortion is what we're seeing here, and the fact we're paying the fees for average players worries me about what the club is looking to acheive because the scouting must be shambolic if this is the best we can come up with. To compare and contrast to highlight the idiocy - Madrids signings last summer: Di Maria E25M, Ozil E15M, Khedeira E12M, Canales E4.5M, Pedro Leon E10M. That totals about 70M IN EURO!!!!! that talent there and in that last above is incomparable.

Yeah so people are seemingly swinging between buying actual superstars or buying average players at ridiculous prices and believing they are actually superstars. Theres definitely a middle ground in there of buying solid players for appropriate fees. We're heading down a slippery slope buying average players for overvalue and in a few seasons we're going to come unstuck.

Yes?

I think the reason most people are dissing him is because we paid £35M and hes contributed feck all but destroy the style of play and clog up our treatment table.

i wouldnt count it as "back in business" if we spunk £20M up the wall in the process. Abysmal. Absolutely abysmal.

Yet another post that leaves me baffled. You claim they need to spend big to get back into CL to get money in and gain income for the club. That same income is probably a massive factor in the worth of a club. Therefore less income means less worth. Yet apparently they paid well below market value. Not really.

This isnt the NBA with drafts and everything though is it? Football, or "soccer", is a completely different entity. Really, its just amazingly baffling that the expectations in here are for a team of superstars to come in. The reality is that the squad will be bulked with appropriate players, both in skillset and cost, and we'll build slowly. Aside from that, why bother with expectation of 11 superstar signings - you go with none then its all a plus when it happens *shrug*

common sense.

Haha some utter sputum in this thread but this takes the biscuit. Carroll hasnt been in trouble then? As far as I remember he was only let off jail because of the special circumstances and he had to live with another player Yeah, he's perfectly behaved. BLINKERS AHOY. Also to all these people quoting silly figures like £100M and expecting a massive influx of top notch players, it wont happen. A) No CL - say what you want but players will see this. B) no club does that aside from City and our owners are Scrooge McDuck and his money pits. Fully expect sensible buys, which will of course see all the sensationalists up in arms and calling for heads.