Originally Posted by
Niall_Quinn
Or it could be a lot more sinister and contrived. There's a pattern developing. All the under-bids, the "we spotted him first" stories. Maybe the lateness of the bids was a hedge against them ever being accepted. Which top club wants to lose a key player late in the window with no chance to sign a replacement? And yet the board can tell the fans, we bid this, we are ambitious but it just didn't work this time. What about the £10mill Jagialka bid? Our apparent desire to insult the other team rather than genuinely negotiate. £6mill for Cahill, was that deal dead the minute we made that bid? Speculation in my part. The only thing we know for sure is they managed to bank the Cesc and Na$ri cash.