[betterthanbaird]

Mail reporting Shlupp destined for Palace for £12 mil.  Didn't we have a £12 mil bid knocked back n the last window.

I am a little unsure why we constantly look for "names" rather than players (probably a bit of fan appeasement).  Most of the "names" we look at are unable to get into their current teams starting line up, so obviously their respective managers do not think they are good enough to start.  There is an exception to this, which is the "past it names" and while the player may be past it for their current team, (i.e. Fletcher and Evans) they are still good enough to improve our team, but only for a season or two, so no longer term plan.

What has happened to the amazing scouting network we established, apart from the driving force behind it being poached by the F.A., which plucked unknowns from their relative leagues around the world, who did not have a name here, but soon did after their arrival.  Instead our current policy of buying up players at the end of their career is no good in the long term.

We will of course get the occasional "potential" bargain such as Chadli (flash in the pan or real talent?) or Phillips but they will always be the exception.

Bottom line from my prospective is, we can not afford the top level players, not that they would come to us at the moment, even if we could.  The calibre of player we can afford from this country is not good enough for a proper top 6 league place challenge, so if we want to have a shot at a European place we need to bring in unknowns with a lot of potential and to a certain extent cross our fingers that the balance is right.

Jonny Evans was more the Chadli category of not good enough for his team at the time, than being past it, he was only 26/27 when we bought him and never looked good enough for united even though he was there for ages and played a lot, (almost always cos they had injury prone defenders).

Don't really understand people comparing schneiderlin and Schlupp, they play in completely different positions.