why not just sign Mata, I think Valencia will accept a 25m ish offer for him and he is much better than Downing, seriously 18m for Downing while you can get Mata for just a little more
lol. It's not as easy as just "sign Mata" - Valencia are in financial fuckery, but they still want to keep their best players. As has been explained, his release-clause is put in by Spanish law rather than them saying "Yeah, he's probably worth about £25m". We'd probably have to make an offer closer to £30m to sign him. He won't push for a transfer because he's loyal to Valencia. And then there's other interest - sure, we have CL football but if Chelsea/City get involved? We can't compete with those sort of wages even if we had a bid accepted.
Unlikely we'll be able to sign him, and it's not an area that needs desperate strengthening.
7m is more than just 'a little more', but I'd certainly rather Mata than Downing by a long way.
This. Especially when you consider that Gazidis said that the cash pot (estimated to be about £50m by Swiss Ramble) funds not only transfers, but wages (1st year only), agent fees, bonuses, etc. so even if we had a £25m bid accepted and he accepted our contract offer, the deal would be worth more like £30-5m, + Gervinho (almost £15m+ in total I expect) and we have hardly any money left for other targets, like a CB for example. Gazidis also said it's not wise to spend the whole lot in one summer anyway, but it's why it's so important to get rid of overpaid dead-wood like Almunia, Bendtner and Denilson.
This is why Wenger is so "stubborn" and why it takes us so long to sign a lot of players - we have to be careful, and we have to make sure they're right for us. Of course that doesn't eliminate errors in the market but Wenger usually gets it right. We can't afford to pay £30m for a striker who has a great reputation but is on high wages and will just be used to sit on the bench.
as i said not when you compare what Mata can offer you compared to Downing.... its not really about the fee when Mata>>>>Downing and I would readily pay that 7-10m extra to get Mata... do you lot even think that Downing is worth 18m?
As I said, 10m is a lot when you factor in wages, etc.
And no - Downing isn't worth £18m. Is/was Torres worth £50m? Is Andy Carroll worth £35m? Berbatov £30m? At the end of the day, players are going for more than they're worth all the time so not much point saying "Mata > Downing, Downing costs £18m so Mata would only cost £25m"
