After the love has gone.

I have never been a massive fan of Modric, yes - he is a good player, he can really stand out in games - but for a midfielder to only get 12 goals in 120 games is a shocking return

lets face it, he cannot shoot for toffee - a bit like Crouch really

he would be a loss but I think he can be replaced - maybe not by a better player, but one more suited to the team

Modric head has been turned by the tapping of doubling his wages, there is no other reason.

Would Marin come and play for us?

As I said earlier, Marin would be an excellent signing if we could get him, irrespective of whether Modric goes or not. He is a left side player with a terrific shot on him & tricky on the ball.

Silver linings, and all that...

We wouldn't miss Luka's goals and assists. We wouldn't miss his covering back, and we wouldn't miss his physical presence in the engine room. And given his comments (if reported correctly) and Danny's stark comments, we now wouldn't actually blame the Club if Luka did hand in a transfer request and was eventually sold. Nor would the other players (and this is important) feel that the club had let them down, instead they will blame the player himself for being a greedy, ungrateful and impatient b'stard.

And the final silver lining is that any player we approach as a replacement is going to be flattered that we believe they can fill Modric's boots, and confident that they are being bought as a nailed-on first team starter (at least that's hoe we would spin it).

Of course we would miss Luka's composure and control in the centre of the park. But even here I feel there are echoes of Palacios last season. We bought WP because we were the softest touch in the game, and he added something that we just didn't have, and it showed in his early days with us. But we seemed to grow as a team, to a point where we didn't need the hard side of Sarge's game if it meant taking the poor technical ability as well. Maybe it would be the same with Modric - maybe we can hope for a midfield where ALL the players have a decent level of composure and ball-playing ability, and don't have to rely on one player to make up for the faults of others. It might make us a better balanced side.

And, don't forget, we got 4th with Moddy out for a long time, but only 5th with him playing nearly every game.

Is he really "irreplaceable" on that evidence?

SN WUM - out for a long while AND playing LM for a fair bit of the time that he was available, as opposed to playing mostly at CM.

No one is irreplaceable. I'd rather he stayed for one more season, but if he goes it needs to be soon, so that we can get the best possible replacement.

comfortablynumb....

I agree.

I do so hope that Harry/Levy have good contingency plans on the move and that we don't end up playing out the same debacle we did over the Berbatov fiasco. It nearly destroyed us. Not Berbatov leaving, but the way that Levy handled it.

'xactly - I'd rather get £30M tomorrow and have a whole window to spend it in, than get £40M with 12 hours to go...

No point keeping a player when they don't want to be at the club. Selling him for as much as possible would be the priority. Once sold, spend the money on a replacement.

I know this might not be the best way forward and can be seen as a trait of a selling club. Personally I am not very fond of clubs which are throwing money into a bottomless pit and hoping for instant success.