Guardian Football's top 50 summer transfer targets

Those figures are ridiculous but all things being relative I'd take £10m worth of Drogba.

"Cahill became a patron of the Moses Gate Country Park after having saved a dog from being trapped in a car boot just off Whitecroft Road, Bolton.[citation needed]"

worth £20m easily.

Was gonna say Drogba looks the bargain here, so long as he doesn't die soon or enter a permanent sulk.

(should probably take wages and contract length into account too, but those figures'd be even more made up)

Those figures are ridiculous but all things being relative I'd take £15m worth of Mario Gotze. Actually if I could magic away the signing of Carroll I'd take £25m worth of Rossi or £22m of Benzema instead.

Is this the general feeling on Carroll? I'm forever trying to bury my own doubts. TS: Five years of £35m Carroll vs maybe two years of £10m Drogba. It's practically a 'defend the indefensible' if I'm in a certain mood.

15m for marko marin also sounds like a good deal. "the german messi" is such a scary concept somehow

It's ridiculous the number of players valued higher than Sneijder. He's only 26 ffs! If Ribery is 40m Sneijder should be 80m.

Sneijder.

Voted Berbatov

Dimi wd be useless to us but i wd love to have him anyway, the beautiful doe-eyed thoroughbred racehorse that he is

Nasri's making the big doe eyes at United; Guardian now reckons £10m will do it

^just got a little bit of sick in my mouth

also
http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2011/6/1/1306892893964/Benficas-Fabio-Coentrao-r-048.jpg

nice contract mismanagement by gazidis

Sanchez.

Si es chileno, es bueno.

no ganso no credibility

there is no way song is going, especially for just 15m and ricky alverez is coming to us on a free.

lol

just

alvarez is an amid/winger iirc?

Javier Pastore (£44m) - Terrific player who'll one day move for big bucks. Don't see it happening this summer though.
Cesc Fabregas (£50m) - Answer to this thread is p much 'PLZ STAY PLZ CESC PLZ' but he's off to Barca.
Neymar (£30m) - My #1 choice considering there are only a handful of centre halves on the list and none fit the bill. In an ideal world, Cesc would leave for 50m and we'd give Santos it straight away for Neymar&Ganso.
Falcao (£26m) - Think he's going to stay at Porto. Good player though.
Carlos Tevez (£40m) - Never gonna go for 40m, wouldn't be surprised to see him still at City.
Eden Hazard (£20m) - #2 on the list. Also most likely Wenger signing.
Mario Gotze (£15m) - Staying where he is.
Marko Marin (£15m) - Seems kinda like a Spurs signing post Modric or Bale.
Didier Drogba (£10m) - Dunno what is happening w/ this dude. Real I guess.
Wesley Sneijder (£30m) - Is he actually looking to move? Can see him at Chelsea or City more than Utd.
Kaka (£50m) - He's going to stay at Real imo.
Moussa Sow (£20m) - I think he's going to stay where he is for another season or go to OM or OL.
Fabio Coentrao (£26m) - Real or Barca written all over him.
Jack Rodwell (£15m) - Proper nu-Utd signing, be surprised if he actually left Everton this summer tho.
Giuseppe Rossi (£25m) - Barca bound.
Michel Bastos (£15m) - Whoever doesn't get Coentrao I guess.
Karim Benzema (£22m) - Too obvious to be an Arsenal signing, bet he ends up in Italy instead.
Marek Hamsik (£26m) - Heard amazing things about this guy though I've never really seen him. AC Milan maybe?
Franck Ribery (£40m) - 40m? LOL
Gervinho (£10m) - Seems more of an Arsenal signing in reality to Benzema hype.
Emmanuel Adebayor (£14m) - Would genuinely like to see him at a Spurs that kept Bale and Modric.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic (£20m) - Signing for Milan to be made official.
Christopher Samba (£12m) - Oh fucking hell please stop writing this story.
Raphael Varane (£10m) - ??? And to think Ganso and Lucas didn't make the list?
Leandro Damiao (£13m) - Heard good things about him but have never seen him play. Spurs will have to use a shit ton of their Modric or Bale money.
Ricky Alvarez (£12m) - Arsenal free signing, never seen him play or even heard of him until his agent come out and said it was 98% official.
Gareth Bale (£40m) - He's gonna stay imo.
Edison Cavani (£40m) - I guess Napoli have a fixed price for him, which is actually way less than 40m? If he goes elsewhere (Tevez replacement?) it'll be such a huge figure though.
Luka Modric (£40m) - I hope he doesn't leave Spurs. Utd can't really afford him unless Levy plays stupid and after that leaves... AC maybe? A non-Barca/Real large Spanish side?
Charlie Adam (£7m) - See this being more of a Scholes replacement than Modric tbh.
Connor Wickham (£15m) - LOL this still a thing? Has he scored yet after like two years of being a professional striker?
Charles N'Zogbia (£10m) - LOL they really couldn't find room for Brazil second and third most exciting prospects and yet Insomnia makes it?
Alexis Sanchez (£35m) - 35m seems ridic, think he'll go for 10m less. Barca i guess. Would love him as an Arshavin replacement.
Sergio Aguero (£35m) - Aguero/Torres is gonna make a few people jizz in their pants. Would love him but lol wenger.
Kevin Gameiro (£12m) - Heard a lot about this guy, seems like the type to move to an upper level French club first.
Dimitar Berbatov (£15m) - only 15m? ARSENE.
Scott Parker (£8m) - Spurs don't really need any more DMs now. Guess he'd do a job at Arsenal but I still can't help but find him hella overrated.
Shinji Kagawa (£15m) - Considering we'll be making 49.75m transfer profit on Cesc may make this look a much smaller achievement but wow Dortmund did some sweet work here. Not that he'll move this summer, his injury ended that. Next summer maybe.
Jose Enrique (£10m) - Too foreign for Liverpool, wouldn't be surprised to see him as a replacement for BAE or Zhirkov.
Samir Nasri (£28m) - 15m + Berbatov would be fine. I think he's going to wait and see how we spend the Cesc money/whether the team will be built around him before we know his future.
Romelu Lukaku (£20m) - Honestly, I expect this to end up being a transfer that costs as much as Carroll did once bidding starts.
Gregory van de Wiel (£15m) - Right backs aren't really high in demand, are they? Maybe as Alves replacement when he goes to City or Chelsea... wait a second, where the fuck is Alves on this list???
Alex Song (£15m) - Never leaving.
Eljero Elia (£17m) - The sort of guy who'll be bought with Sneijder/Aguero/Rossi etc. money. Depends on who moves etc.
Juan Mata (£25m) - See Elia.
Gary Cahill (£20m) - Liverpool and City got the ridiculously priced Englishmen market down, even if he is talented.
Alexandre Pato (£30m) - Not moving, this is just more filler.
Fernando Llorente (£30m) - See Pato.
Ashley Young (£15m) - Heard Utd, seems logical.
Pablo Osvaldo (£15m) - Don't think he's going anywhere tbh

alvarez is an amid/winger iirc?

― http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:WhiteAmericanFolks.jpg (nakhchivan), Monday, 6 June 2011 14:01 (28 minutes ago)

I believe so. Never seen him play so its not like I'm very knowledgable. His contract is up though and his agent is shouting his mouth off about a deal being made w/ Arsenal.

Thought Dani Alves re-upped his contract in January, which I know doesn't guarantee he'll stay but suggests it. Nasri will probably have his pick of 3 0r 4 clubs at £10m + £100 grand a week.

Connor Wickham (£15m) - LOL this still a thing? Has he scored yet after like two years of being a professional striker?

errrr yeah he scored like 8-10 this season? fucking gooner snob.

thought ganso was going milan anyway

seems allegri isn't that interested in ganso, not looking for a playmaker

since when does allegri or any other coach there make the decisions?

2009– Ipswich Town 65 (13)

oh yeah my bad he's become dixie dean

Fabio Coentrao (£26m) - Real or Barca written all over him.

Was thinking the other day which of Barca's first XI was likely to be replaced first. This would make sense, I suppose, as would Rossi - better fit than Sanchez or Kun imo. If Rossi forces anyone out of that starting front three it would be Villa rather than Pedro, would he be dealt in turn?

There is no way in hell Charlie Adam will go to Utd. At least i hope not. Please don't let that happen.

Utd and LFC both linked with Adam and Young. Have a horrible feeling which one of the two we'll end up with.

I love the idea of Charlie Adam going to Man Utd and forming a title-winning midfield with Darren Fletcher, then them having the entire weight of Scotland's expectations on their shoulders as a result while no-one notices that Caldwell and Berra are not exactly Rio and Vidic, etc.

(at the moment, I don't care how many awards he gets nominated for, I still can't think of Charlie Adam as anything other than basically Kirk Broadfoot or Andy Dorman or any other duffer that used to play for St Mirren. This is entirely wrong of me, and perhaps we should have a thread of false footballing preconceptions which you can't shake off)

Berra isn't even Vanessa del Rio tbf

lukaku, taking age, wage and drogba's likely sulking into account.

Can't in all fairness publicly wish for berba back ;_;

wouldnt have adebayor on a free

LOL this still a thing? Has he scored yet after like two years of being a professional striker?

he's 18 you pillock...

20m for henderson is steep

x-post i suppose he's no sanchez watt tho...

yeah 20m for henderson is a lot...i've not seen enough of him to know how good/bad he is but 20m for anyone fairly unproven is steep.

he's good but 15m was enough, then go for someone else

prices quoted for an 18 yr old who's fairly goalshy in the lower divisions are far too high.

wickham seems a bit redundant with 35m of english clodhopper there already

maybe dalglish is going for olsenian bigness across the forward line

Maybe he just wants a big crew to go go-karting with.

connor wickham s/d btw? can't decide if he's the future or actually just everything that's wrong with english youth football (ie 17 year old beast built like prop forward).

― r|t|c, Sunday, 19 September 2010 00:09 (8 months ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

con(n?)or wickham looks like jon parkin, plays like young kevin davies, possibly will emerge as low-rent vieri, otoh could be fat sheringham

― acoleuthic, Sunday, 19 September 2010 00:11 (8 months ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

oh who am i kidding. i admit it, i want a carroll-wickham-rooney boot stamping on a miniature spanish face forever. with steve howard on the bench.

― r|t|c, Sunday, 19 September 2010 00:12 (8 months ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

that would be genuinely delightful, is the thing

― acoleuthic, Sunday, 19 September 2010 00:12 (8 months ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

'Interesting' announcement imminent at Chelsea, Twitter assures me.

I'm scared.

abramovich installed as player-manager

ray wilkins back as tea lady

well at least it can't be Hughes

Doesn't it just mean Hiddink's on his way?

peter peter peter i've told you so many times, you have got to keep your spoon in the mug at this level

last I read this morning was Turkey saying Hiddink was perfectly happy to stay. so I'm assuming yes.

reckon it's just gonna be them saying they've made an offish approach to turkish fa, ramp up the negotiations

Hiddink is expected and wouldn't be particularly interesting surely.

Why can't it be Hughes? Please let it not be Hughes.

This could truly be a banner day for portly jovial Dutchmen in West London.

Warnock needs to Dutch up.

Hiddink for a year as the Russian can't be arsed to pay Maureen's buy-out clause.

Hughes can't go be seen to go near any club until 1st July cos he walked out on Fulham for "absolutely no reason"

Warnock out, Schteve McLaren in.

This could truly be a banner day for portly jovial Dutchmen in West London.

Well, the jovial bit rules out the possibility of Dick Advocaat replacing Warnock anytime soon

please be grant

Apparently we've spent £48m on managers under Roman. Can only see this as a good thing, as otherwise we'd probably have spent it on Michael Owen.

Michael Owen is an experienced professional athlete whose injury record is no worse than any other player of his age, and has a big goal coming at some point in the season.

You could say the same about Fernando Torres and it wouldn't make me feel any better.

Just be glad Allardyce is taken.

I'd just about take Allardyce over Grant or Hughes.

wrong on each count imo

Alan Curbishley has ruled himself out of the running.

Hughes is a pretty dece manager imo but clearly a tool of the first order. Grant is the Unlucky Alf of the EPL.

Is Incey due a return to the Prem I wonder?

No way. Well maybe for one of the shite teams.

Houllier's available.

Black managers never get a second chance if they fuck up, whereas people seem willing to carry on employing Iain Dowie against all reasonably logic.

"x-post i suppose he's no sanchez watt tho..."

hey guys remember me saying that sanchez watt was worth 15m? because i don't.

iain dowie is on a super injunctions borad is my guess

tbh would rather wait for dzeko to become the next city reject than any other name on this list

But you wouldn't take Adebayor for free?

citeh aren't selling to u tho

Dzeko might just turn out to be one of those strikers who never makes it in the Prem.

I fully expect Dzeko to click next season as a key player in City's title-winning side.

he's got pretty poor first-step speed which is a pretty big disadvantage in a league where lots of goals are scored in penalty box scrambles

adebayor is poisonous. Talent and physical ability unquestionable, but his final season at arsenal? Don't want that type of player leading the line, free or not, thanks

Dzeko has been playing in a stuttering attack, mancini overdue in sorting out some system beyond yayaing it up the centre and trolling it into the net. Silva and dzeko bemused spectators there so far, expect it to change tbh.

Silva had a pretty great second half of the season.

and yeah city will not only not sell to us, they'll buy our targets and loan them out just to spite us.

That's why holding on to our genuine talents is gonna be so much more important this next few years imo, more so than when berbatov for 30m to utd meant going out and bringing in a modric or w/e, because we won't have the option of doing that in this market

everyone admires silva's skill and technique, i don't know that i've seen him do all that much with it so far. i do need to see more city though.

Heard a whisper that Owen Coyle will be the next Villa manager. Can't really vouch for the credibility of my source though.

very soon after his move to bolton, which seems to be going well i'd have thought.

Zonal Marking guy recently did a good piece about Bolton's (un)attractive football under Owen Coyle.
http://www.zonalmarking.net/2011/05/24/bolton-owen-coyle-style-of-football/

Stats aside, I never really thought they were as hot as people made out.

Still trying to get a handle on who's been a hit and who's been a miss for City - of the last year's intake the only one who seems an unqualified success is Yaya Toure, although Silva's done well and should improve.

tevez, kompany unreservedly hits?

Consensus is that Kompany's been their best player?

'last year's intake' ah right. Can't remember who is or isn't tbh

Yeah Kompany's been around for ages. Talking about players who signed from last summer on.

Silva was fantastic for Spain against USA at the weekend in the center of a midfield with Busquets, Alonso and Cazorla. Of course the level of competition was pitiful but I think he's best played centrally and probably as good there as anyone not already at Barcelona.

think the past few days have put paid to the myth of this pricing

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

By my count four out of 50 have moved so far.

Varane, Lens-Madrid, ~10m EU (valued at £10m)
Wickham, Ipswich-Sunderland, £8m-£12m (valued at £15m)
Gameiro, Lorient-PSG, 11m+ EU (valued at £12m)
Young, Villa-Man Utd, ~£17m-£20m (valued at £15m)

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

fifty-option polls don't work so well on ILF

Gary Cahill (£20m) 1
Sergio Aguero (£35m) 0
Alexis Sanchez (£35m) 0