[quote=“KIB man”]curtis davies cost a nice whack too but i reckon he is worth it. o’neill pulled a bit of a stroke getting 3m for luke moore tho.
ive an awful feeling that o’neill is going to sign damien duff on the cheap. he just loves his bargains[/quote]
Rocko alluded to it in his post but he often limits his signings to the leagues he’s familiar with. At Celtic he inherited quality players like Larsson and Moravcik but there’s no way he would have signed a player like the latter himself. I don’t know why he doesn’t scour the continent for an attacking midfielder with pace and craft because they can seemingly afford to sign such a player. Instead, he’s signing the vast majority of his players from within the EPL.
whatever happened to the great Tony montana lookalike - juan roman Riquelme…is he still a villareal player rotting away lording it in the Argentianian league??..what a fookin talent…he must be a bad egg as nobody seems to want to sign him …
His options last year were Athletico Madrid, Villareal reserves or Boca Juniors. He’d have done well at Athletico but it’s not much of a step up from Boca. It’s a different pace and style of football - and most stars leave it for the money at some stage - but there’s an awful lot of top quality players playing in South America and the results between South American and European teams never suggest there’s much of a gulf in class, unsatisfactory though they are.
Aston Villa have agreed a fee with the Huns for Cuellar. It will be interesting to see if this deal goes through, and if it does, I wonder how much Smith will be given to spend. There’s no mention of what the fee actually is yet but I thought Villa would have been well set for centre backs with Laursen, Davis and Knight. Cuellar was pretty good for them last season but playing collectively deep with two holding midfielders shielding the centre backs offered him a lot of protection.
DETAILS were finalised this evening with Aston Villa Football Club for the transfer of Carlos Cuellar, subject to him passing a medical tomorrow.
On Sunday morning the player and his representatives informed the Club it was their desire to invoke an exit clause for 10 million Euros and today an offer for that amount was received from Aston Villa.
An offer to extend the player’s contract and to increase his salary substantially was declined as the player was adamant it was his desire to leave and play in the Premiership.
Carlos Cuellar wished to state the following: "I came to Rangers due to the professional manner of their officials and management and their promise of success. Everything I had been told about this fantastic Club has been true and last year’s UEFA Cup run is something I will never forget.
"My ambition has always been to play for my national team and I believe that playing in the biggest league in the world for Aston Villa will help me realise that.
"When I told Martin Bain on Sunday that I wanted to leave, I did so with sadness. The Rangers supporters have been fantastic to me, but I am young and want to play at the highest level and I hope they will always welcome me back. I want to thank them for everything.
Manager Walter Smith, expressed his disappointment. He said: "This has come as a surprise and I am disappointed. Carlos Cuellar has been a great player for the Football Club and inevitably there has been speculation about him playing in the Premiership.
“The Club has received a substantial uplift in fee and we will now reinvest in the team.”
A few Celtic supporters have pointed out how both the Huns and Villa would deal in Stg but the Huns’ site have reported the fee as Eur10m so it appears to be more substantial and to placate their supporters! Speaking of which, they’re going nuts given Smith publicly assured them he didn’t have to sell any players after they got dumped out of Europe. It looks like he was sold behind Smith’s back and they probably needed money to service their debt now their CL revenue stream will obviously be non-existent. He might be given a portion of it to sign Steven Davis but their defence will be exposed more now.
Doyle at Villa would be a good challenge for him and we’ll find out how good he is then. He had a disappointing year last season but playing in a better team will hopefully restore his confidence.
Don’t think Mendes is all that special so don’t mind him joining the huns - still want to see Celtic strengthen though.
Reports in Scotland state the huns are using more of the Cuellar money to sign some cunt from Toronto’s MLS team called Maurice Edu for 2.5m. I gather he’s a defender. Still being linked with Steve Davis from Fulham too. There’s nothing really to fear from any of these signings and losing Cuellar is still more of a blow to them than the boost from these lads coming in.
The Fiver is reporting that Keane’s made an 8m bid for Anton Ferdinand! Oh dear!
Mateja Kezman has joined PSG on a season-long loan with a view to a €4m transfer.