So Alexis Sanchez is only worth 5 million more than Adam Lallana, and is the same value as Luke Shaw... Madness.

There's a few clubs like Porto and Southampton that are the exception, but most clubs clearly don't know what the hell they're doing when it comes to transfers.

I can see your point, but, to be fair, prices are pretty much irrelevant at the time they are paid - Its only 2 or 3 years down the line that you can judge their true worth and whether somebody is overpriced, or not.

Take Carrick and Ferdinand at Man Utd - Both 'overpriced' at the time of their transfers, yet looking at what the have achieved and contributed at United, it could be reasonable to suggest that £45 million for the pair actually looks decent.

If Shaw spends 10 years at United and wins 3 or 4 titles, and a few Cups, while Sanchez spends 3 or 4 years at Arsenal, winning a single League Cup (pretty realistic seeing Arsenal's recent record), then who is the better buy then??

You act like the Germans don't have star players, and you act like they haven't obsessed over the 'individual'. Only a week or so ago they looked very poor against Algeria. They lacked balance, their wide/attacking midfielders offered nothing and their midfield was pedestrian. Simply put, Germany shown what a decent coach can achieve if he understands his players and puts balance of star players. Rooney has been poor for England for years, but he's still accommodated in the side. Gotze is a £30m attacking midfielder, one of the Bundesliga's very best, but he's had a poor tournament and Low wasn't afraid to drop him for the sake of the team.

England could have a squad of bona fide superstars, but Roy Hodgson will never achieve results at this level, the man is mediocre and, like his time at Liverpool, he's there as a yes man to do as he's told and get on with it. We could have Messi, Ronaldo, Suarez and Ibrahimovic in the team, we'd still have t*ssers telling us how good Rooney is in the hole and we need to run everything through him, and Roy will keep doing as those t*ssers tell him. And to be fair to Roy, the fans and media seemingly love it. The results were a disgrace, but people are apparently happy because none of the players have come back and complained? The mood in the camp was 'better than South Africa'. Christ.

Another good laugh watching Brazil in the playoff for third place.
Loving every minute of it.
They have won the world cup five times, that's enough.
Who gives a toss about their demise outside of Brazil?
They think they know hurt?
They should try being English.
They know the hurt of a spoiled brat.

Wll, posted earlier about the price of Luke Shaw and Adam Lallana being madness. If that's madness then £50m for David Luiz is complete insanity! Can you imagine What a prime Ferdinand, Maldini or Campbell would cost in todays market, and if Paulinho is worth £17m how much would Gilberto Silva be worth considering he only cost Arsenal £4.5m!

Does Germany (74,90) or Argentina (78,86) get to keep the current version of The World Cup if they win it tonight?

Germany have never won it before. West Germany have.....

No team gets to keep the trophy now. Each winner gets a gold plated replica of the trophy. FIFA cheap skates!

Germany 1 Greaseballs 0
Top job.

Can't really argue with the eventual outcome, the best team overall winning. People have said a lot about this year not having any great teams, but I can't see many previous winners having much luck against that Germany side tonight. For me they are a top class triple A striker and a left back away from being great. Neuer is great, Lahm is great, Hummels and Boateng were great, Schweinsteiger, Muller and Kroos are all sensational players too.

Messi as player of the tournament anyone? Was that decided once they knew Argentina would lose? Would Neuer or Muller have won it had Argentina won? Or was it a serious decision?

Two sickening challenges tonight as well. The one on Kramer was horrible, could easily have killed him. I thought Neuer's was very irresponsible as well, reckless disregard for an opponent player's head. I'd love to see where exactly that punch happened, all they showed on the replays was the contact, not where it happened. Looked borderline whether it was in or out of the box and most certainly wasn't a free kick to Germany.

That decision really was a shock, Messi didn't turn up in the last 3 games. Its almost like the sponsors had decided that he'd win if Argentina made the final.

James Rodreiguez should have win it for me...followed by Tim Howard and Bastain S.

Order is restored in European football - Germany back on top and to dominate for many years to come.

Germany's footballing set up is the envy of the world.

They've sent out a message saying they are set to dominate for years. I believe them.

Chilling.

It's once again another reminder of how far out england are. Lightyears. It's funny as well, germany were trying to revamp things circa 2004.

They made the world cup final in 2002. Even when they did have to rebuild, they still did it from a position of strength.

If by some miracle england do get up to standard one day, they have too much history of failure and dissapointment to drag themselves out of it.

Is the Golden Ball sponsored by Adidas, per chance?

Just a thought, mind.

Although they are set fair, there is no guarantee Germany will dominate, football is a funny old game.

The next Euros will be interesting. Germany will be favourites but there's also Holland, and France who look strong, and Belgium and Swiss have potential, and I'm sure Spain, Italy, and Portugal will come back stronger.... and let's not forget England

I've never understood the mass reaction against Messi winning it. Most people are saying Rodriguez should have won it, and he possibly should, but he was KOd in the quarters by Neymar and co; as good as he was, you're looking for a player that's played in the final.

For me, Messi and Mascherano were Argentina's best players, with Messi carrying them through the groups, so they're your top two from that side. The Germans, as everybody reminds us, were a fantastic team with, for me, only one player that stood out head and shoulders above all others. For me, that player was Lahm and he should have won the Golden Ball, but after that, you could have span a bottle on Messi, Mascherano, Kroos, Schweinsteiger or Muller, and either would have been just as deserving as the other.

Messi clearly isn't the same player he was under Guardiola. I don't know if he's had a long term injury, if he's lacking commitment or if he simply can't be bothered any more, but he's just not the same and hasn't been for months. Suarez will help him pick back up, I believe Barca will win the CL next year if they get a few defenders and another midfielder, or simply play Mascherano in midfield who'll add the qualities they've missed for years.

So, this Markovic then? Liverpool have paid £20m+ for him and seem genuinely excited at the signing. A few LFC fans I know reckon it's a bigger deal than losing Suarez and that it's a better signing than United's of C. Ronaldo. Having not really heard of him outside of Football Manager, I did some research on him and there is a genuine buzz about him on the internet. A lot of people guaranteeing that he'll be 'the next Messi/Ronaldo' level player and that he's going to be the best player in the Premier League with a couple of seasons.

So, why then, were Liverpool the only side that seemed to be interested in him? I found transfer rumours linking him to LFC going back to this time last year and there were no real mentions of other clubs. It's being discussed that Chelsea had a first option deal on Markovic as part of a partnership deal they have with Benfica, but were happy to waive it to allow him to join Liverpool. Why would they do that if the boy was so special?

Either way, looking forward to seeing him in action. Is he one to pick in Fantasy Football while he'll be relatively cheap and unknown this season? Will he be starting for LFC this season?

The thing with foreign signings is, its hard to know if they will be a success or not. Even if they have pedigree, you dont know if they will settle or not.

Regards

King James

That's a fairly interesting and fair take on it actually, with some good points. Mascherano was ridiculously good, but obviously the argument there is that he didn't score 4 goals so his contribution to Argentina's run to the final isn't as 'telling' as Messi's, yet i think his PERFORMANCES were better than Messi's. Still think it's a sponsor thing, though.

Couldn't you say that about loads of signings, though? Didn't Liverpool have the chance to sign C. Ronaldo before United, but didn't. Did that make people think any less of him?

There are so many things to consider with a transfer, so let's start listing them off:

- Was the player actually after a move, or was he actually pretty settled?
- Does he have an agent that aggressively 'flogs' his players through the media?
- How many teams out there, looking for a winger, could afford £20m on 'potential'? Or would want to spend £20m on potential when they can probably buy something a little more certain for a bit more money.
- Did the player play in the world cup, putting himself in the window for potential suitors?
- His ownership status wasn't clear cut, it involved third parties and you throw in him being a Serb, it also means work permits/foreign quota spots for certain countries.
- How good was his last season? Benfica clearly had a good year, but did he convince enough people he's the real deal, or is a large chunk of it still potential?

I believe that most clubs know about near enough every talent that's out there, sometimes the clubs that have the greater success are those that take the big risk before others. If you look at pretty much every top player in Europe, they've usually had to work their way to a top club. Aguero was one of the great South American talents, but he ended up going to Atletico Madrid instead; why? Because they took the risk. I could give examples all day, but I don't think the 'well nobody else seemed interested so he can't be that good' argument really fits, especially when we're talking about really young players.

If I was to have a wild guess, I wouldn't go for him in the fantasy team yet. He's young and pretty raw, he'll have to adjust and I can't see him nailing a first team spot straight away. I doubt he'll be cheap either, £20m signing for the side that finished second generally hits me as a pretty expensive FF player. From all I've read, his biggest issue seems to be the end product part of his game, which doesn't bode well for FF.

Doesn't look good at Blackpool www.independent.co.uk/sport/foot ... 16677.html

Doesn't look good at Blackpool www.independent.co.uk/sport/foot ... 16677.html

Quote ="Cibaman"Doesn't look good at Blackpool www.independent.co.uk/sport/foot ... 16677.html'" I wonder if Paul Ince thinks that the fault is still with the transfer window, and not that idiotic club?

Quote ="Cibaman"Doesn't look good at Blackpool www.independent.co.uk/sport/foot ... 16677.html'" I wonder if Paul Ince thinks that the fault is still with the transfer window, and not that idiotic club?

What happened to all the toon fans that used to post on here? There used to be two/three of them IIRC.

Anyway, we're supposed to be close to signing Remy. Actually liked what I saw of him but can see him being for us a bit like what Ba was at Chelsea, an option who will never hold down a first team place. Will probably gone within a year or two, but relatively risk free as a signing. Still feel like we need a great centre mid, another forward and a full back on either side, but I can only see us getting a full back and maybe a midfielder if Lucas goes.