January Transfer Window 2012/2013 Season Rumours/Signings

Graham Carr obviously just sits next to a pool in the south of France watching Ligue 1 highlights and randomly picking players, then phoning Pardew every other weekend with basically a list of players who got man of the match at the weekend.
 
One More Solo said:
Not really, they both have one league goal this year while Welbeck has 3 assists to Balotelli's 0.

Last year Balotelli scored around 1 in 2, while Welbeck was 1 in 3 but that does include 3 penalties for Balotelli skewing it in his favour slightly (I know penalties are always a controversial subject when it comes to comparing goal scoring figures). The difference isn't as huge as their reputations would suggest and their shot to goal ratio (DM's favourite stat!) was similar.

Given City have spent close to £35m on Balotelli in transfer fee and wages by now, it's hard to say he's justified the outlay.
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I'm sorry, but Welbecks goal return is nothing like as good as Balotellis.

You dont even need to go into fine detail, Welbeck- 26 career goals Balotelli- 58.

Hes a far better striker than Welbeck, we shouldnt let the fact that hes a massive ****head skew the facts.
 
atpbx said:
I'm sorry, but Welbecks goal return is nothing like as good as Balotellis.

You dont even need to go into fine detail, Welbeck- 26 career goals Balotelli- 58.

Hes a far better striker than Welbeck, we shouldnt let the fact that hes a massive ****head skew the facts.
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Not really a fair comparison when as far back as 08/09 Balotelli was playing 30 games a season for Inter while Welbeck had Ronaldo, Tevez, Berbatov and Rooney in front of him followed by a season at a poor Sunderland team.

Once they started making similar numbers of appearances, things get closer.

Again, I'm not suggesting Welbeck is a better player, just that the hype around Balotelli is unjustified.
 
Mario is SO much a PITA , compared to the relative calmness of Welbeck - wouldnt want any team I supported to go for Mario

(however I cant see how anyone can compare their strike rates, as Mario is far better, but the grief he brings isnt worth it)
 
He is incredibly frustrating.

You know if he is going to have a good game within 10 mins. He will start some games and he will have fantastic close control, win headers, be strong in the air and on the floor and grab himself a nicely worked goal. Some games he will start and he will look like he has never played football before.
I don't know what it is because you watch any of his games for Wolfsburg and he was an animal, destroying teams by himself sometimes. I don't know if it is because now he has competition and he is mentally weak? so can't work when he is rotated etc.

I guess you could say it doesn't matter about anything else if he scores goals and wins us games but I would just rather have a striker who is more consistent.

I can't see us selling him though as he does get results and football is a results business.
 
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One More Solo said:
Or you could put it that in the league he scored four more goals (including 3 penalties) with 2 more shots than Welbeck rather than trying to massage the figures into something that sounds better. The fact that Welbeck picked up 3 more assists - or should I say 300% more?! - reflects that at times he played a deeper role than Balotelli too.

I don't disagree that Balotelli is a better player, but he's not that much better. Certainly not enough to justify the wages and transfer fees Balotelli is commanding, nor is he good enough to justify his attitude on and off the pitch.
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He also started 65% more games than Balotelli.... how much is Mancini constantly changing his mind, and how much of that was due to red/yellow card bans I can't say, I can't remember if he missed any significant portion due to injury.

As for dropping deeper, not really, without RVP he started more games upfront than he has this year, Balotelli was more often used out wide as part of a front three last year from what I saw, than the central striker, and this year he's being used more as a central striker.

Frequently last year we saw Aguero upfront with Balotelli and Tevez on the wings, which coupled pace and quality on the wings and made goals and for lots of chances.

This year when I've seen Balotelli its more often with Aguero injured and randomly dropping Tevez and refusing to start Dzeko from Mancini, which means its Balotelli on his own, with Silva/Nasri on the wings, neither have good pace, particularly Silva and well until the last game Silva has been pretty poor with following up into the box he's been pretty lazy, slow and pointless which completely isolated Balotelli upfront.

I think the thing is, while I don't think their is hype around him, there is potential, for Italy he played the role great, and it wasn't just finishing, he worked hard, closed down, forced mistakes, created chances for himself and others off all his own work. He put in pretty complete performances without most of the drama. The way he played for Italy is essentially the player who for potential, I can understand the fee/wages, if he can play that well consistently he's worth it, he certainly hasn't for City overall, but they've both changed his position constantly and won't give him a proper run of games.

City look ridiculously better when they played the Balotelli/Aguero/Tevez line up with Silva playing more central with Yaya, it suited Balo better, he played well scored a decent amount 13 in 14 starts isn't a bad stat, at all. For club and country, of 20 goals he scored, he got 3 off the bench and personally I can't really recall many great sub appearances from him, he's someone who tends to grow into the game(assuming he doesn't get sent off :p ).
 
Not sure if this has been discussed but Wesley Sneijder completes his move from Internazionale to Galatasaray.

Meanwhile at fraggle rock

Sir Alex Ferguson is confident of signing Wilfried Zaha for £12m from Crystal Palace by the end of the week, with the aim of loaning the winger back to the Championship club for the remainder of the season.
 
Welbeck is nowhere near the player Ballotelli is. He's got more energy in his play but doesn't have the touch, the skill or the finish that Ballotelli has.

Or the personality for that. Mario is pure entertainment :D
 
BaZ87 said:
Coutinho to Liverpool appears to be edging closer. This morning the Liverpool Echo reported that although a fee hasn't yet been agreed, we were very confident that a deal will be sorted in the next few days and similar stories are being reported tonight in the national press.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/fo...hillipe-Coutinho-ahead-of-Oldham-Cup-tie.html

As I said the other night, I'd be a bit excited about us signing him purely based on the bits and pieces I saw of him a couple of years back. That said, I read a couple of articles on him over the last day or so and one of the reasons put down as to why he's never really established himself at Inter was because he's struggled to adapt to the physical nature of Serie A. While defenders over here won't be as cynical as in Italy, they're likely to be just as, if not more physical which is a bit of a concern.


That used to be my view but it can't have been down to luck all this time. The more I've watched him over the years the better I've viewed him.
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If they manage to pull it off (I dout it tbh) it will be done in a few days, just like Borini was signed in like 2 days. I feel he won't come cheap though. Needs to be at least 10M.

I also have my doubts on how he will fit in the Liverpool formation. Liverpool mainly play 4-3-3 (if I'm not mistaken, correct me if I'm wrong) with one striker and 2 'wingers'. Now Coutinho is an AMC, so unless Rodgers wants 4 attacking minded players, I can't see how he can fit in (unless he plays on the wing)
Bigpig said:
Haidara having a medical at newcastle
Mbiwa having a medical at newcastle
Sissoko due tomorrow at newcastle

Well pigs might fly after all
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Add Gouffran to that for 1.5M.

Roma have signed (well, 99% close) Torosidis from Olympiakos for 500k. Yesterday, he was going to sign for Fulham, and he would join them in the summer as his contract expires then.
 
Newcastle have completed the signing of defender Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa from Montpellier on a five-and-a-half-year contract. ssn

woo hoo big money move big wages. Colo can only be heading home
 
The__Malteser said:
If they manage to pull it off (I dout it tbh) it will be done in a few days, just like Borini was signed in like 2 days. I feel he won't come cheap though. Needs to be at least 10M.

I also have my doubts on how he will fit in the Liverpool formation. Liverpool mainly play 4-3-3 (if I'm not mistaken, correct me if I'm wrong) with one striker and 2 'wingers'. Now Coutinho is an AMC, so unless Rodgers wants 4 attacking minded players, I can't see how he can fit in (unless he plays on the wing)
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It usually gets called a 4-3-3 but it's rarely a flat 4-3-3 with 3 midfielders, 2 wingers and a striker. Mostly it's been closer to a 4-2-3-1 and vs Norwich we played Suarez practically alongside Sturridge with Henderson very narrow on the left hand side (almost playing as an orthodox CM) and then Johnson pushed right on at LB. From what I've read Coutinho's just as capable playing on the left of a flat 4-3-3 or off the front in a 4-2-3-1.
 
Azza said:
Graham Carr obviously just sits next to a pool in the south of France watching Ligue 1 highlights and randomly picking players, then phoning Pardew every other weekend with basically a list of players who got man of the match at the weekend.
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More scouts should give it a go, worked well so far :p

Gouffran and Mbwia in 2 days :eek: the other defender almost done as well. We are the France (reserve) squad :p heard some rumours we are looking at Gourcouff (SPL?) as well, the Lyon/France CM.
 
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