Henrikh Mkhitaryan (Shakhtar Donetsk > Borussia Dortmund)

Nooo, they've done this too soon! I was relying on this being the Villa /  Silva / Mata / Aguero / Dempsey / Sigurdsson thread for the summer. Now we're going to have to find a new rumour to get our hopes up over!

Agree with this. We quickly need another rumour to salivate over.

The lad has not put anything forward of that nature, if that were the case obviously allowances would be made without reservation.
With the dickheads and wums trying their hand on the forum it's hard to differentiate between them and somebody who is indeed challenged.

Yeah, I would tend to agree with that which is why I have sent him a private message to ask him to explain his "predicament" to take the heat off himself from the moderators so let's see what happens in the next couple of days, eh?

The thinking "if the manager wants the player, just pay the price and get him in" is the same that brought us Carroll and Downing for £55M... there must be valuations and limits within we should/must work. I'm not saying it's the case here (reports are very confusing at this point) but I think it's unfair to ask the owners to follow that line of action. I'm not saying I don't want to see them investing more money in transfers but I completely reject the idea that if you want the player, just "be serious about it" and pay whatever they're asking. Then if we did buy the said player and he failed to live up to his potential, the transfer fee would be used against him, the manager and the very same owners blamed on other instances.

Not so definite after all mate. 

If it is a fallout and he was, as everybody was reporting, our main transfer target for the summer then hopefully it'll make our owners realise that without real investment, rather than sell to buy and wage cutting, is having a detrimental effect on how we progress.

Totally agree with you Debs.

Some people though need to get real.

Our main aims must be to qualify for the Champions League and Challenge for the Premier League.

The League & FA Cups are just distractions, pleasant ones, but distractions all the same.

Top players want to play in the Champions League and we will be hard pushed to attract them is we are not in it.

I agree with Carlos Q "We need to recognise how crucial our participation in the top level of competitions is to the future of the club."

http://www.transfermarkt.de/de/offiziell-bvb-nimmt-mkhitaryan-bis-2017-unter-vertrag-/news/anzeigen_128127.html 

Der BVB meldet Vollzug: Henrikh Mkhitaryan (Foto) wird von Shakhtar Donetsk zu Borussia Dortmund wechseln und einen bis 2017 datierten Vierjahres-Vertrag erhalten. Das gab die Borussia Dortmund GmbH & Co. KGaA am Montagnachmittag in einer Börsenmitteilung bekannt. Die Ablöse liegt bei rund 25 Millionen Euro und die Unterzeichnung des Arbeitspapiers soll in Kürze folgen.


He is off to Borussia Dortmund

http://www.transfermarkt.de/de/offiziell-bvb-nimmt-mkhitaryan-bis-2017-unter-vertrag-/news/anzeigen_128127.html 

Der BVB meldet Vollzug: Henrikh Mkhitaryan (Foto) wird von Shakhtar Donetsk zu Borussia Dortmund wechseln und einen bis 2017 datierten Vierjahres-Vertrag erhalten. Das gab die Borussia Dortmund GmbH & Co. KGaA am Montagnachmittag in einer Börsenmitteilung bekannt. Die Ablöse liegt bei rund 25 Millionen Euro und die Unterzeichnung des Arbeitspapiers soll in Kürze folgen.


He is off to Borussia Dortmund

Translated to English
BVB Announces Closing: Henrikh Mkhitaryan (photo) will move from Shakhtar Donetsk to Borussia Dortmund until 2017 and receive a dated four-year contract. That gave Borussia Dortmund GmbH & Co. KGaA on Monday afternoon in a stock exchange release today. The fee is around 25 million euros and the signing of the Working Paper should follow shortly.

Wasn't he off to us?

Believe nothing until it is on official sites.

But I suspect we have been played for a fool, hook line and sinker.

Yeah, I would tend to agree with that which is why I have sent him a private message to ask him to explain his "predicament" to take the heat off himself from the moderators so let's see what happens in the next couple of days, eh?

Why should he have to explain himself?

Hearing / seeing a lot of Reds now saying that he didn't look all that great anyway. Ok, he's yet to prove himself in a top league but if Dortmund were willing to pay £20m+, maybe he's far better than us amateur YouTube scouts appreciate?

I'm talking about the bloke in the thread title, by the way, not a semi-literate poster. Sorry to drag you on-topic.

I'm talking about the bloke in the thread title, by the way, not a semi-literate poster. Sorry to drag you on-topic.

Hearing / seeing a lot of Reds now saying that he didn't look all that great anyway. Ok, he's yet to prove himself in a top league but if Dortmund were willing to pay £20m+, maybe he's far better than us amateur YouTube scouts appreciate?

To be fair the whole debate on whether he's good enough is a bit meaningless given how little we've seen of him, generally speaking. I was really excited about this prospect signing cause I read great stuff about him from journalists whose opinions I respect but then again even though he's interested me for a while I only watched him a couple of times.

Why should he have to explain himself?

To see if he's a WUM like yourself!

Hearing / seeing a lot of Reds now saying that he didn't look all that great anyway. Ok, he's yet to prove himself in a top league but if Dortmund were willing to pay £20m+, maybe he's far better than us amateur YouTube scouts appreciate?

In response to you, I posted this a while ago (when it looked like we were going to sign him) and I still stand by it, but it's mostly down to the fact I've seen next to nothing of Micky:

I'd personally rather see us spend the 20M on Strootman than Micky.....  I think Strootman is going to become a phenomenal player, and he would take to the Prem like a pig in sh*t. 

Obviously I want the manager to get the players that he wants, but I have my doubts about this one....

Agree with Diego's thoughts (below) in that it is exciting being linked with players who are highly thought of by respected journos, yet relatively unknown to most casual fans.  This is also why I am excited about the signings of Aspas and Luis Alberto!!

To be fair the whole debate on whether he's good enough is a bit meaningless given how little we've seen of him, generally speaking. I was really excited about this prospect signing cause I read great stuff about him from journalists whose opinions I respect but then again even though he's interested me for a while I only watched him a couple of times.

Is'nt it time to lock this one up?

Absolutely nothing on the BVB website about a deal being agreed.

Is'nt it time to lock this one up?

Not until Dave Whelan says so.

And why are people so concerned with locking up threads? The moderators do a fine job here, are folks worried that there will be serious implications if a thread stays open a few hours too long?

To see if he's a WUM like yourself!

It's none of your business to ask him his personal circumstances. If you want to call me a WUM I don't really care because I know I am not.

The agent will only advise, if the lad wanted to come here, make no mistake we'd have held talks by now.

If that's the case, move on and try and get someone who wants to wear the red shirt! Simple really.

Least it shows we are finding players who other good teams want. Must confess I'd never heard of this lad, but if Dortmund want him then the indications are that he was/is a decent player. Time for plan B. 

Least it shows we are finding players who other good teams want. Must confess I'd never heard of this lad, but if Dortmund want him then the indications are that he was/is a decent player. Time for plan B. 

Exactly what I was thinking.

Absolutely nothing on the BVB website about a deal being agreed.

I wonder if there could be a turn in the tale, like with Sahin.

We were interested in him for so long, then Arsenal supposedly nabbed him, but then he came to us.

Ill be honest i didnt/dont know much (anything) about the lad so i cant get the least bit bothered we arent going to sign him.. There are people on here i respect alot telling me he is a good player so ill take that but it doesnt overly worry me.

The good thing though with a long time to go in the window if we have this type of money to spend on him then that can only be positive going forward in the window, as long as it isnt hot air... So far the window spend is roughly zero but that doesnt worry me, we have a better balanced squad than last year already and one more suited that the manager wants, so any dead wood he doesnt want are being moved on then great, the fact that means zero spend doesnt concern me.. All the players who have left needed to go as they werent rated by the manager or have people ahead of them in the pecking order.
Again if we genuinely have this money to spend which we must have then the window will still be positive for us and more ins will be on their way..

Relax people..

Why hasn't this one been locked already. He has gone to BVB so lets give it up and move on.

Why the obsession with locking threads, mods have done a fantastic job in my time enjoying this forum, think people should just leave them to it rather than volunteering their suggestions about locking threads.

Absolutely nothing on the BVB website about a deal being agreed.

Has been addressed only 4 hours ago. Actually quite irritating to read others try to do the mods job for them from my perspective.

Why the obsession with locking threads, mods have done a fantastic job in my time enjoying this forum, think people should just leave them to it rather than volunteering their suggestions about locking threads.

Indeed.

Not as if people are forced to click on a thread and read or post in it.