Sorry guys but seems like this conversation should be in the General Football thread. Please don't bump these without a link.

4 days later

Will be interesting to see who and where we
scout this summer. Personally, I think players like Jovetic will end up being out of our grasp, but it's a nice thought.

Because we won't be in the champs league, because others will be in for him or because we don't have the resources?

Just because I think it's difficult to sign players of this caliber when you're not in the CL. Not impossible, but it's tough, and you sometimes gave to pay a premium. Can't see us doing it.

this Jovetic link is just like that Kagawa link which was just like that Hazard link. Not gonna happen.

Agreed. Sorry to all the Serie A fans and the Daimler family, but we never, ever honestly go after the marquee name that's heavily rumoured in the closing months of the season.

At best he will be used as a "decoy" ie we'll bid but get gazumped. Very hard to believe that if we'd bid £20m for him another club with equally good prospects and higher wages wouldn't just bid £21m.

The only glimmer of hope for this happening is us dropping out of the CL and some kind of token compensatory response.

i don't see why we can't get him. two things could drive this
1) Jovetic is good, but he's not the marquee player some make him out to be. Is he better than, say, Cazorla? I'd put him in the same band.
2) A drop from Champions League might actually be good for us. It will wake us up from the rot of the last few seasons. It will be clear that we cannot keep selling our best players and not replacing them. What it will probably do is drive player wages up as compensation for their reduced exposure; but it could stimulate Dick Law into action

Are you saying it might arouse Lex Genitalium?

We've been over whether failing to win "the prize" would give us a much needed kick up the arse so many times now. I'm hoping it doesn't happen.

I'd be watching with interest to see how our overlords responded but I wouldn't expect too much. I'm sure it'd lead to a signing or two, but it might also lead to a fire sale to make up for a slice of the lost revenue.

Apologies for the non-Jovetic related bump.

Jovetic is not a marquee player, and he is not as hyped up as Hazard was or Götze is. Defo a player we could sign, but he won't come cheap.

I'm not 100% sold on Jovetic yet. He's certainly very talented, but Serie A is markedly different, and it's not like he's killing it over there. He could become a top player, but right now I'm not sure he'll give us that much more in terms of tangibles than Giroud does.

He's quite better than Giroud already.

Either we spunk £35m on a Cavani who is already 'there' in terms of quality, or we spend £20-£25m on someone who is not very far from 'there', like Jovetic.

There has to be someone out there who is slightly under the radar that we can get. Really unimpressed my most of the 'names' this generation.

In no way is Cavani available for 35M even? Napoli paid more than our record fee to land him themselves. Cavani is a pipe dream.

It was an example. Of course I do not have the knowledge of which would be the exact sum where Napoli would be prepared to let Cavani go.

Captain wrote:

There has to be someone out there who is slightly under the radar that we can get. Really unimpressed my most of the 'names' this generation.

Ananidze