If Tottenham don't need him then we certainly don't need him. We can buy better and on the evidence of last night we've probably got better in the youth/reserves!
Of course. Flanagan came in and made a very solid debut at right back, so by the laws of logic and reasoning it's clear for all to see, that we now have better options for the midfield in our ranks. Tell you what, that Damien Plessis kid had a brilliant debut too, let's not get too carried away just yet. I'm optimistic but not naive and short-sighted.
I'd probably pass unless it was part of a plan of some sorts. Now, if we sell Cole and replace his position in the squad with KranjÄar (which despite losing a HG player is still a good trade IMO) which would then allow us to bait someone like ModriÄ (look we've got a fellow countryman here for you mate) over from Spurs at a cut price because of their financial issues, then absolutely. I have a good feeling (by good feeling, I mean trying to read between the lines of Comolli doing some PR work over there and pretend I'm ITK) this has something to do with us trying to setup a link/first rights agreement of some sort with Croatian club Dinamo Zagreb or the purchase of one of their players though (fair bit of talk about it in the Croatian newspapers).
Nations like Croatia are just one of the places we should be looking to have feeder clubs (their league is 22nd in UEFA coefficient rankings but the national side is ranked 6th in Europe), tells us the players are good but don't hang around to play in the national league. Czech Republic/Sweden are some other similar examples.
It's similar to the Portuguese league in the sense that if a promising youngster comes through a club that isn't Sporting/Porto/Benfica, they'll just snap them up and that's the end of it. No teams can compete with the big two in Croatia but recently Dinamo just keeps pulling further and further ahead. 90% of Croatians plying their trade elsewhere come through Dinamo and not a single player (apart from ModriÄ) has left for over Ā£8m, although quite often it will be less than that.
Similarly to Liverpool it's the new generation of stars coming through that has everyone* excited (KovaÄiÄ, Vrsaljko, Badelj**, TomeÄak and KramariÄ being the pick of the bunch).
* By everyone, I mean fans of Dinamo Zagreb or the Croatian national team.
** Badelj is hardly a youngster, he's recently turned 22. According to a reports in reputable newspapers over there: Chelsea and Man Utd have positively been tracking him, their scouts have been seen watching him.
« Last Edit: Apr 13, 2011 12:01:53 am by vitez »
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