I don't see why we can't get him, especially as he appears to want to stay in London, he will take exactly the same route to work as he does with a very slight change at the very end! Sign him up, he will come!!!
Some huge delusions going on around here. And that's not as simple as whether we could get this player or not. Yknow when people go on other club's forums and come back to report how deluded the fans are...
Flamini is out of contract ... that would give us quite a bit of scope with wages and tbh he's never been a huge earner. However I'm sure others will be very interested and as the Pozzos really don't like bidding wars it is doubtful we'll get him. But not delusional.
Really? I've been impressed how sensible & realistic most of the post have been on this board recently. People could easily have gone overboard with promotion but they haven't. Having the Pozzos in charge makes many things possible that otherwise wouldn't be, so I don't think it's deluded to think there will be some quality footballers coming our way. In fact IMHO you are deluded if you think there won't be. Flamini probably won't happen but there's a possibility. Everyone knows it's no more than that.
I asked on a thread yesterday what the home grown rules were in the PL, and if the information I was given is correct, I doubt we will be bringing in any or very few home grown or British based players. As apparently we only need to have 8 in our 25 man squad, but they don't have to be in the MATCH DAY squad, meaning we can get away with just 1 HG player in the matchday squad as we need 18 players for that. The Pozzo's will not pay out British prices for players unless they are truly exceptional, but even then there are equally exceptional players outside Britain, so we won't be getting many already based in four fair isles IMO; which probably would rule out Flamanni.
Paying big (ish) wages is OK (ish) if you have potential to recoup with a sale later on; much though I like Flamini, it's either a short contract so no resale, or a long one at the end of which he retires.
The more homegrown players we have, the larger our squad can be. Sure, we don't technically need any homegrown players in the Premier League, but if we don't we're limited to a squad of 17 players for the whole season. We've got a few homegrown players at the moment, so it won't be as extreme, but if we don't sign any homegrown players at all I'd start to worry about our squad depth. Also, filling the squad with 17 international players would mean that, come next season, we'd have to sell one before we could buy another. Selling out of necessity rather than because it's the best deal for them isn't how the Pozzos build their footballing empire. The Pozzos are shrewd but they're not stupid - they'd be much better off spending a little on giving us a huge amount of extra flexibility than relying almost solely on our current homegrown players, over whom opinions are somewhat divided with regards to their suitability to the Premier League (Bond, Hoban, Murray in particular, if you're ignoring potential and only considering their current suitability).
I think the home grown rule is the reason why Doyley and Gilmartin are likely to be retained for next year. Especially if the rules for the u21 team allow you to play several older players in the team. It also explains why Watson could be given a long contract last January. The squad will be interesting come the 4 August, and i expect considerable change and a few surprises. for example did anyone predict last years additions like Parades, Layun and Igalo?
Why what's happening on this Tue night? Season starts on 8th Aug (unless we're moved for live TV..............) Is it next season or 16/17 Sky have the rights to show Friday night football?
