17 Nov 2015 20:31:09
Ed001 I recall reading a thread about players who nearly signed and it got me wondering, what ones known or not do you feel would have made the biggest difference to us and what ones are you happiest we missed out on?
{Ed001's Note - David Silva was the one we missed out on most of all, I feel, he is a magician. Though Ronaldo is a better player, he would not have stayed long so would have made less of a difference overall.
Pretty much every player that Comolli tried to get and failed with are the ones I am happiest we missed out on. Toivonen, for instance, has shown how completely average he is.}
18 Nov 2015 06:17:38
Comolli still gives out "expert" advice and pops up in shows and highlights his "contribution" to clubs like Liverpool! Joker.
While a lot of Comolli's recommendations were poor, Payet was a player he put forward to Kenny but Kenny chose Downing.
{Ed001's Note - again this crap about Payet, it was not a case of him 'choosing' Downing. Payet had off field issues and the club was warned off moving for him. The whole reason he was available for West Ham to buy was because of his constant problems. Please stop regurgitating crap from Comolli's mouth about Payet, and how Comolli was one he desperately wanted rather than Downing. Comolli was the one who put forward Downing's name, due to his stats being excellent. No idea why this lie is being constantly perpetuated about how he didn't want him. Comolli is a slimy snake who should be ignored.}
18 Nov 2015 08:20:50
I don't get why Downing got such a harsh ride from our fans?
I thought he was bought originally to compliment Carrol, but often KK would sub on off for the other, I never thought he played too poorly when he did play, and in his first season, he had Enrique behind him, who was woeful which really didn't help.
2nd season under BR he was constantly changing position from left back (joke) to right wing, to left wing. Once again I never thought he had a particularly large bad patch, he just never really got on the score sheet, and let's be honest it took Suarez a LONG time to get firing at LFC too.
18 Nov 2015 07:52:36
Also, FSG were dead impressed by the video of downing kicking the balls into the bins!
18 Nov 2015 09:25:43
That's news to me Ed001. The Payet thing I remember from Ed002's comments but is been a while since that happened so it is quite probable that I am remembering what Ed002 has said wrong!
18 Nov 2015 08:17:23
Thanks for the response ed, just out of interest however, how close were we to actually getting silva over the line?
{Ed001's Note - we had a deal set up for both him and Villa which was just waiting on final details and signatures. So very close.}
18 Nov 2015 11:50:30
I seem to remember that, Carroll, Downing, Henderson and Adam were all bought as an attempt to 'Moneyball' the premier league. Downing, Henderson and Adam were the three players who had created the most chances the previous season and Carroll was the player most suited to scoring these chances.
I'm pretty sure Football can't be 'Moneyballed', Baseball can be broken down into statistically measurable and consistent moments, Football is a far more fluid affair with vastly greater variables.
{Ed001's Note - forget moneyball, it is irrelevant to football, just moronic journalists who keep talking about it to make themselves sound clever.}
18 Nov 2015 12:45:55
Oh my, never knew we were that close to signing both Villa and Silva! Why did the deal collapse at the last minute Ed001?
{Ed001's Note - it was a long time ago now, but if I remember correctly G&H pulled the plug as they had run out of money. I seem to remember it being the spark for the war Rafa got into with them.}
18 Nov 2015 14:35:06
Thanks again ed. Never realised it was that close! I seem to recall someone saying that we nearly had benzema signed before higuain got injured. I assume that we had that deal done until that point or was it never that far along?
{Ed001's Note - it wasn't done but it was being worked on.}
18 Nov 2015 17:27:46
Alexis Sanchez is also another one. I will add Ali Deli too. I thought yaya toure was on our radars too.
{Ed001's Note - Sanchez was not another one, he had no intention of joining us sadly.}
18 Nov 2015 23:04:21
I didn't know we were working on Benzema! that would have been interesting. Probably one for the Euro pages but personally though i do like Benz, Higuain was banging them in for RM! I knew about Silva and Villa would have been interesting! I also heard a long time ago similar time we looked at Villa and Silva, we'd also had a look at Alves but again GH didn't have the money, or rather didn't want to spend the money?
19 Nov 2015 08:04:44
You know Benzema is currently sitting in a French jail for trying to blackmail his teammate right?