Demba Ba

It's inevitable that he'll get plucked soon. We're not allowed nice things.

Don't worry. Soon enough, our 20 clubs will be owned by oil/steel rich billionaires, using football as a plaything, with virtual fans in the stadium and playing Barcelona and AC Milan every week.
 
I don't think Fergie would sign established African players full stop.

Why though?

If a player is good enough to play for United then I cannot envision him having to miss a month of football once every two years posing much of an obstacle to his signing for United. The African continent regularly produces excellent talents, I see no reason why Sir Alex would put any sort of blockade on such a resource of great potential due to such counter-productive policies.

Do you think SAF would have turned down the signing of Didier Drogba five years ago on account of him being African? Of course he wouldn't. Have Chelsea suffered over the years from the presence of a world class African player in their squad? Of course they haven't.

I'm not suggesting that the ACN doesn't enter into managers' thoughts when weighing up the potential signing of such a player, but to suggest that SAF will never sign an African player is absolutely ridiculous; I don't know what thought process has caused you to arrive at this bonkers theory, but it certainly wasn't one grounded with any notion of logic or evidence.
 
And on both accounts he was reminded at the last minute that they were African players, and respectfully withdrew the bid.
 
And on both accounts he was reminded at the last minute that they were African players, and respectfully withdrew the bid.

That's bollocks though isn't it? Chelsea outbid us for Essien and who knows with the weirdness around the Mikel transfer, but we got a decent payout, so not all bad.
 
I wouldn't be so sure, Hectic's account of events seems far more likely.

That SAF didnt know essien was an african footballer till the last moment? very unlikely to say the least. Chelsea outbid us or paid him much higher wages is my view of things.
 
That's bollocks though isn't it? Chelsea outbid us for Essien and who knows with the weirdness around the Mikel transfer, but we got a decent payout, so not all bad.

That SAF didnt know essien was an african footballer till the last moment? very unlikely to say the least. Chelsea outbid us or paid him much higher wages is my view of things.


:lol:
 
That Chelsea ended up with Essien and Mikel is besides the point; SAF obviously wanted to sign each of them (he did sign Mikel), so Bryan's random theory about SAF never signing African players is obviously nonsense. SAF has signed DjembaX2, Diouf, Manucho, Fortune, Mikel, plus he put a bid in for Essien. Bryan_Munich's evidently just talking shit.
 
Value!!!

Sullivan reveals Ba exit clause | Newcastle United, Fixtures, Results, Transfers | Sky Sports

West Ham co-owner David Sullivan believes Demba Ba is likely to exit Newcastle this summer, with a clause in his contract set to leave the Magpies short.

The Hammers sold the Senegalese striker to Newcastle last summer, with relegation out of the Premier League forcing their hand.
Ba has been a revelation on Tyneside, with his goals largely responsible for the Magpies' ongoing bid to secure a top-four finish.

His efforts have been welcomed by the St James' Park faithful, making him a firm fans' favourite, but his exploits have not gone unnoticed elsewhere.
Speculation regarding his future and an apparent release clause in his contract first surfaced ahead of the January transfer window, and is expected to return to the fore.

Get-out clause

Sullivan has now revealed that were a move to be pushed through, Newcastle would only pocket half of any fee involved.
The rest of the cash will go to Ba, meaning the Magpies could be left with just £3.5million were a rival club to match his £7m release fee.

"They keep denying it, but I think you'll see in the summer he will leave Newcastle or he'll get a monstrous rise to stay there," said Sullivan.
"I'm told he's got a £7m get-out clause and he gets half the money of that.
"If they get about £4m, half will go to him. So if they sell him for £7m, they'll only get about three because they paid his agent £2m to get him out of here."
 
I dont think its right that a chairman of another club openly talks about another clubs employee contract like that
 
I dont think its right that a chairman of another club openly talks about another clubs employee contract like that
I agree. However 7m for Bemba Ba would be the bargain of the year for any club.
 
I could see Spurs going for him, particularly as I don't think they would be able to afford Adebayor's wages.
 
Me too. Wouldn't know how we would line up with the amount of quality strikers, but I don't want any of the other big teams to get him either, he would be a great buy.
 
A bit cnutish to out the clause like that, I agree. Sounds like really sour grapes.

Anyhow, Harry should be all over Ba if/when he finds out.
 
The money could be better utilised elsewhere really. He may even prefer to choose the likes of Spurs/Arsenal/Chelsea over us as he'd face considerably less competition there.
 
Whilst we don't need I wouldn't be surprised if we got him. With Berbatov and Owen out of the door in the Summer that leaves us with 3 strikers. Everyone knows Fergie likes to have 4...

Tottenham would be a good fit. They're surely not going to keep Adebayor and Defoe isn't really suited to how they play.
 
Still question marks over his knee. After the fiasco with Hargreaves, I doubt we'd go anywhere near him.

For £7 million quid? We bought a player who lives in a box and eats grass for more, I wouldnt be supprised to see us take a punt.
 
If Ba joins us then i can see he'll be a injury-prone player again.

The new Saha?

A goal machine, when he's not croc. We already have one of those, he's called Michael Owen.

Surely the £7M release clause is a minimum fee? The bid must be at least £7M, doesn't mean they'd have to sell him for that though, does it?