"The Bonucci one totally baffled me. Why would Juve sell to a direct rival for comparative "pocket change" than sell for a reasonable price outside your own league?"

Because Bonucci's little boy was ill and he needed to stay in Italy.

who was valuing him at 40mill out of interest? harsh as it sounds the fact he's coming out of that league means he probably goes for about a third less than say if he was sold by a pl team abroad

500k - 20m +2.5m add ons in 24 months.

Good business, very sad that he's gone though, he's a monster that thrived in the big games.

Whats the news with the little Dembele kid you had in your youth?

I know he was playing years ahead of his age group and, although the club are rightfully protecting him and limiting his exposure, kid looked like he had real talent.

You dont skin people that much bigger than u without some insane ability be good to know hes coming along ok

The 40m comments were stupid in hindsight.

19.5m for him when he spends so long out injured with his dodgy hamstring is good business.

Karamoko Dembele is still in the youth team, dont know hows hes getting on tbh, fingers crossed that's he's not another Freddy Adu,

comment by Hector (U3606)
posted 3 minutes ago
Karamoko Dembele is still in the youth team, dont know hows hes getting on tbh, fingers crossed that's he's not another Freddy Adu,
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Yeah but he seemed dif tbh soon as I saw him.

Edu was playing against men at 14 or 15 in a poor american league, where as Dembele is tiny but has blistering acceleration against players much arger than him.

His vision is so good too and he plays way above his years. Still early days obviously but if he can come through injury free Ive no doubt he could play in the first 11.

I remember seeing that xavi kid for barca, who was voted best kid in europe 2 or 3 times, like WTF several times in their youth game. He stood out 100%

In fairness, Aiden McGeady stood out at youth level.

I hear you though, In Scotland we might finally moving away from having to be a 6ft knuckle-dragger before getting a sniff of a pro contract, hopefully the wee fella keeps plodding away and he gets a chance, we all love a tricky player.

He might screw us over like Islam Feruz though,

£40m for Dembele was always pie-in-the-sky. He exploded onto the scene in his first season and scored in pretty much all of our big games, the hype was over the top.

I still think we could've got more than we did but he had a few injuries and was in and out of the team because of them last season, so it is a fair price.

comment by Hector (U3606)
posted 55 minutes ago
In fairness, Aiden McGeady stood out at youth level.

I hear you though, In Scotland we might finally moving away from having to be a 6ft knuckle-dragger before getting a sniff of a pro contract, hopefully the wee fella keeps plodding away and he gets a chance, we all love a tricky player.

He might screw us over like Islam Feruz though,
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To be fair I heard Barca and others were onto him after seeing him play, but the kid has been loyal and didnt show any interest in moving.

You could see he had that 'something' and just struck me as weird that a kid who was s small for his age anyway, was playing years above his age.

If he makes it to 20 with his legs intact coming through that experience then I think its nailed on the boys a real baller!