If he goes to them, he goes to them. Nothing is for certain until he's holding up their shirt. We will find someone else and yes it is frustrating, but he is not the only midfielder in Europe
You're right, he isn't - I'm hopeful he will still sign for us anyway, we'll see Monday perhaps - but out of all the midfielders in Europe there are only a fraction of them who would fit into the profile we are searching for and even less who we can afford/would be attracted to play for us. I don't like feeding the fume, but it has to be acknowledged that other clubs are signing players that would have made a good impact on our team.
I hope that this is because we are eating up all the cack the media pushes out in regards to spurious transfer news and getting worked up over nothing, when in fact we have very clear targets that we are waiting to move on. I hope it is not because we are trying to tie up deals late and subsequently missing out on players who Martinez in fact wants/needs. I hope the alternatives are just as good/better, in that case, if we must be 'cheap'.
Stoke had similar debt to us last year, similar (but higher) wage bill as a percentage of income (which was less than us) and a much smaller pre-tax profit. If they are spending more than us then I correlate that pretty much directly to their 'ambition'.
