Should we go in for Zebina and Melo?...

[Tktd]

And a few other players from Shakthar and Roma and Juventus?...

Having beaten all those teams must've earnt quite a bit of respect from those players plus with the racist chants from Juve fans to Juve players there must be an urge to move on to a more respectful and solid scene like that at Fulham?...

Zebina seems disillusioned with life there and under Roy's tutelage he must be considered a decent aquisition to help squad strength at least. Roy's got a great reputation in Italy too.

Melo is also a good player whilst I would be over the moon if we went for three other players in Rat and Fernandinho from Shakthar and Per Cilian Skjelbred

Does anyone else think that we could make the most of our growing reputation in Europe and are there any relatively big players you'd like to see come to Fulham in a realistic manner?

The reason I think these players are realistic is because, no offence meant, but they're playing in lesser leagues and a shot at the big time at a team they know are good and are on the up whilst based in london could be a big insentive to move, if the price is right...

All that included in the fact that next season if we don't play in Europe we'll have an even stronger squad to move up in the league and compete for honors such as the carling cup and F.A cup - they'd definately have the quality to add to give us a much more potent attempt on the cups and a europa league place...

potentially this could be the start of a winning era at Fulham?..... If we make the right sensible steps and investments, then why not? We have the manager in place and the foundation....

[os5889]

If we were mad!

Dont get me wrong, it'd be great, However, to "get" these players we would have to decimate our wage structure and well, we are comparable in size and fan base to Portsmouth. Need I go on.

I also personally get more of a buzz out of seeing the unknowns come in and succeed. Melo will join Arsenal, Fernandinho will probably go to the world cup and I believe he has an eye on Spain

[Rupert]

This is a very interesting idea.

Gut feeling is that many of those you mention are likely to be sought by teams who can pay more than us, both in fee and wages (and as I have been typing this point has been made by os5889), however I would not rule out the odd raid on our conquests in the close season. The other big problem is that Roy has a system and he may not be convinced that these players would, or could, play to that system.
Shakhtar are likely to be involved in the (non-)Champion's League again next term, so none of theirs are likely to want to come to us and the first qualifying round of the Europa (assuming we get in via Fair Play).
Juventus may miss out on Chump's League, this weekend apparantly is a must win game or they are more likely to finish fifth rather than fourth, and if Italy lose their fourth CL spot to Germany then a few Juve players may be willing to move to a lesser Premiership team (that's "lesser" as in "smaller" and "qualify for Europe less frequently, but are not afraid to whallop you boys 4-1").
I'm sure Roy has his own ideas, but, yes, this next transfer window could be very interesting, for all the right reasons.

[Tktd]

Ok with the Shakthar players it may be one step too far but with the Juve players i'm not sure it would be - they're in the middle of a diabolical season by their standards and having had melo and Zebina recieve racist taunts whilst also seeing the players swear at the fans, they may cut their losses and just accept a lower deal. The players themselves may be willing , in order to get out of Juve, take a pay cut, like Duff did etc.

Also I don't think we can under estimate the value of being a premiership team based in london, that in itself is worth quite a bit, they get to put themseleves in the shop window of the biggest league in the world and test themselves against the Utd's and Chelseas of this world on a weekly basis whilst also having a realistic chance of winning cups like the FA Cup and Carling Cup, whilst having a realisitc chance of getting back into Europe through the league.

Also players like Per Cilian Skjelbred is apparently worth £5/£6 mill at the moment, I think we were rumoured to be in for him in January and with Hodgsons connections in Scandanavia it's a real possibility signing him... he also could very well be good friends with Hangeland and also could be another humble player who accepts just playing the game he loves at a nice club who're on their way up, like Hangeland and Dempsey seem to like.