This weeks events have shown how a club can protect itself against being held to the brink by making sure players are tied to long term contracts. Imagine if the situation was reversed and Owen still had two years to run on his contract and Viera had 10 months left. There's no doubt we would have been in a stronger position to resist his sale and Viera would be brushing up on Spanish.
The Owen story only broke on Monday and by Friday he is gone while Viera has been humming and hawing since June. Granted the respective position of each club has to be taken into account ( Premier league champions vs 4th place-barely) but it goes to show that lessons weren't learnt from Mac
Manaman.
Where do we go from here....we obviously now need a new striker as well as CM, RM and CD....but do we have the budget for it.....I reckon we'll carry on with the strikeforce we have until January and see what position we are in then....also might we not get Morientes cheaper now that he is cup tied...think lomg term....not just the season ahead....."the road is long"