so... on reflection the smalling deal was a handy piece of business...

[LRCN]

... as long as the 12 million will be invested back into the squad. to be honest with arsenal and united sniffing around smalling would never extend his contract beyond 2011, and then we'd get a pittance from the tribunals. 12 million is alot of money and although I don't like him staying here until june he's still a good player. best of luck to him, until july anyway.

[PokerMatt]

A few days ago I really wanted to keep hold of him, as from what we've seen of him (which, to be fair, is very very little) he looks a brilliant prospect. But £12m for just a prospect who could go either way? We can't turn that down - almost as much as we squeezed from them for Saha, only he was the finished article!

£8m I thought was a good deal for both sides, now I think we've broken the law it's such a good deal

[HatterDon]

Wow!  :D A thread about the Smalling transfer!  :o  I wondered when we were finally going to see one on here.   ::)