There is a press conference. I presume with a player at Bilbao this morning and the managers press conference is tomorrow. Will be interesting to hear their take on this. I am going to the hairdressers so won't be able to follow todays.
Aymeric Laporte | Txiki doesn't forgive (except for when he does)
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik @Rood and Imran @Annihilate Now! start with the good news by celebrating Manchester United Women's emphatic FA Cup win over Spurs at Wembley and the future of manager Marc Skinner.
Then it's the bad news and the ever worsening form of our Men with losses to Arsenal and Palace.
Finally the main debate - ETH Out now or keep him until the end of the season - if not longer. Are you Team Nik or Team Imran?
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He did play this way, several times and with Alexis as it happens. It is definitely the fullest expression of Cruyff's 3-4-3 but he never was able to get a LB to allow Barcelona to play that way regularly before he left. It's absolutely on the horizon for City
To be fair, he played 33 league matches last season and has played 19 league matches this season. That means largely one and half year of being more or less injury free. I get your point about Deschamps though, completely forgot about him being the France coach, that might explain the exclusion.
Pep has certainly changed his ethos a bit. He immediately promoted Busquets and Pedro in his first reign as Barcelona coach. Now at City, he's become an obscene chequebook manager, it's a bit sad to see.Jose has a reputation of being a chequebook manager whilst Pep is seen as some sort of managerial genius that builds from the bottom and creates greatness. Yet this transfer will highlight that Fraudiola is an even bigger chequebook manager. Concedes 4 goals and decides to get another > £50 million CB. Yeah that's right, you conceded 4 because of your shit defence; the way you set up against one of the best counter attacking team had nothing to do with it.
Not that the media will bat an eyelid to it though. Their media-gasm will continue.
Not wanting to commit high wages on a 29 year old is a bollocks excuse given by City and their apologists journos for losing out on Sanchez, nothing more nothing less.
The fact he was being offered basically the same wages by City 6 months ago pulls the rug out from under that logic completely.
He's made 33, 33, 25, 33 appearances in the league in the past 4 seasons and appeared in all but one league game this season. Far far more than the likes of Zouma and a high end total by any measure. If he is at a similar level to Zouma and they want to spend £57m on him, then good luck to them.
Wouldn't this bring Pep's spending at City to well over 400m while Mourinho has spent less than 300m?
Both obscene amount's of money, but yet Pep outspending Mourinho by over 30% is a genius while Mourinho is a chequbook manager. Mental.
All this, while Pep inherited a stronger squad than Jose.
Both obscene amount's of money, but yet Pep outspending Mourinho by over 30% is a genius while Mourinho is a chequbook manager. Mental.
All this, while Pep inherited a stronger squad than Jose.
Unless he wins the CL, Pep’s a failure.
Great signing for them.
What will it be Laporte? Pep or Money? As all City players apparently play for free.
David Conn in the Guardian exposed that the real figure was £40m.
I still can't see it. Fernandinho, De Bruyne, Silva are the perfect midfield combo with Sane, Aguero, Sterling a quality front three. Can't see Pep wanting to mess with that (even with their 12 point lead in the league). Stones has been struggling a bit since his return from injury so can see Laporte partnering Otamendi in the short term.
If he does shift to 3-4-3 what would you expect the team to look like?
Think if Laporte gets bedded in, Stones won't get back in. Another thing, Laporte I think led La Liga in interceptions before his leg break. If he can settle to the pace of the PL he is a great signing.
His interceptions look to have declined significantly since his leg break but he has been back for one and a half seasons playing a lot of games it seems?
Has he lost a step or have they changed the way they play?
So what are City paying in agent fees to sign Laporte? City's taking a big moral stand against agent fees now so I expect it'll be a low figure. 
Also why are we not hearing how much Laporte's signing on fee is, his basic wage, his bonuses, his image rights, his pet care, his metrolink fare...
Also why are we not hearing how much Laporte's signing on fee is, his basic wage, his bonuses, his image rights, his pet care, his metrolink fare...
Think you could always lose a bit of pace after a break. He is still quick though. Bilbao also make a lot of headed clearances so he will get plenty of work there.
that's fair enough, but even with say Laporte and Fred taking spending to £500m that's 17 players purchased at an average of £29.5 million, with probably more importantly an average age of 23, I'd argue those 17 players are worth substantially far more than that now, 2 of the players have left Nolito for £5m less than we paid for him but Mooy for £8m more.
Cheque book manager yeah but there is plenty of value in there even with a few duff buys.
Feck off with the average price per player!
You'll be fielding a defence and keeper that cost over a quarter of a billion, lets not pretend he's refining unpolished gems here.
You'll be fielding a defence and keeper that cost over a quarter of a billion, lets not pretend he's refining unpolished gems here.
Guardiola may not acknowledge it perhaps but the league is over so a tactical shift is more about the CL. I'd still contend that ultimately, the 3-4-3 is what Pep envisions for all of his squads as they morph even within a match back & forth between tactical setups. The 3 areas apart from injuries etc. that pose issues for City are sides that (1) are well organized, sit deep & close down relentlessly or those like (2) Klopp who press high intensely & flood the midfield & (3) their lack of central penetration when there are two banks of 4. The 3-4-3 will give City the ability to stretch the back line of the defense and force them to make split second decisions on which runner to track as the midfielders, forwards etc will be changing positions constantly while maintaining great width because the fullbacks will really look like wingers allowing the wide forwards to come inside which Raheem & Leroy can do very well
Bear in mind it won't be one set formation but it will change into many over 90 minutes
I agree that your decision making regarding purchasing players has been great. Some of our buys have not been great and at the wrong end of the age scale. Falcao was always going to be a risk and we likely had the wrong manager at the time to work with him. Di Maria might have worked with Jose. Zlatan gave us a good season, then unfortunately he got a bad injury and this could be it for him. BFS I think was just the thrill of buying him. Actually you wonder who we would have got if Jose had come in straight after SAF? We really made two disastrous decision regarding managers.
Some of our purchases have not been great. Yes, they are the media's favourite team and they are hypocritcal at times, but hopefully we are now starting to make sensible purchases. The bad decisions of employing Dithering Dave and Stuck in his Way Louis have set us back years. City have not had that to cope with.
I think you're thinking of Mangala.
He would be a fantastic signing, tbh. Stones has looked very shaky since returning from injury and City really need a dominating CB.
@DomesticTadpole
Oh I understand that. What annoyed me is claiming City are some form of shrewd operators after spending 500m in under two years that inflates the market, then claim they're making a financial profit on said players that can only be possible due to the inflation bubble they helped create.
Its madness.
Oh I understand that. What annoyed me is claiming City are some form of shrewd operators after spending 500m in under two years that inflates the market, then claim they're making a financial profit on said players that can only be possible due to the inflation bubble they helped create.
Its madness.
Sheesh, Guardiola is a player buying machine...
I am furious that they have dropped Bilbao, who are my second team, right in the shit. Just before they play on Friday they have lost their best CB and have now no time and limited options to get a replacement in. It is a panic buy because it has dawned on them that Kompany is done and that Stones is terrible. They have got the PL tied up, so to me it is that the PL is not the top priority, it is the CL and they know there is no chance they will win it with those CB's.
Laughable considering some of the young cheap punts won't be playing for City but they help to bring the average price down and the age down.
I would be wondering why they have brought in 17 players, yet supposedly have a fantastic academy producing players. It is more like a puppy farm.
This will be City's record signing and will still 'just' be the 15th most expensive ever overtaking the De Bruyne deal, so I'd say that regardless of City being on the transfer market, the prices would be the same.
What I'd absolutely admit is that wage inflation once the Sheikh came in changed the PL and it wasn't exactly dictated by some sensible market...
Think it is the Neymar transfer that has changed transfer fees. Transfer fees are always going to rise over time, but they have taken it to a stupid level and I think Real will probably join them in the summer.
That is some fantastic mental gymnastics right there.
No idea why City fans need to justify their spending though. Pep is a cheque book manager and has always been so. After winning a treble at Barca, he went and signed Ibrahimovic whose transfer was almost Ronaldo-money transfer. And now, he has spent more than any manager has ever spent in a club. Let's call a spade, a spade.
Oh, Mourinho is a cheque book manager too, if that was going to be your response. And to be fair, there is nothing wrong with cheque book managers. If you are managing a big rich club, there isn't a better way.
To be fair, we are guilty at it too. We are the first club to spend 100m+ euro in a single player. And let's be fair, Pogba was overpriced and has underachieved if you judge that by the price-tag.
Obviously, Paris sent the transfer market in an another level, and now every decent player costs 50-70m (VVD for example), with very good ones around 150m. Pogba would cost around 200m now despite that he isn't any better than he was 18 months ago.
yeah he's not refining unpolished gems or anything but I'd certainly say he's improving the players he gets
Think most PL clubs are chequebook managers now. It is just how big your chequebook is. The big clubs want to win things, so buy players and only rarely blood their own kids. The lower clubs are desperate to stay in the PL so spend to do so, not always wisely, so they don't trust kids.
@SqualorVictoria
You could spend 500m in under two years and your squad will become the most expensive in history.
Stop with the nonsense.
This reminds me of the time when a few Liverpool fans claimed VVD was a bargain because they could partner Matip with him and have a defensive partnership that was bought for a combined 75m. .
Which isn't much more than other sides you know..
You could spend 500m in under two years and your squad will become the most expensive in history.
Stop with the nonsense.
This reminds me of the time when a few Liverpool fans claimed VVD was a bargain because they could partner Matip with him and have a defensive partnership that was bought for a combined 75m. .
Which isn't much more than other sides you know..
It's frightening that a £50m player might be thought of as a bargain. It is no wonder the clubs that get promoted are likely to go straight back down. They buy in the £20m bracket and nowadays that doesn't always get you much and yes Pogba was overpriced at the time. Bet if we were going for him this summer he would cost even more.
Or those players are reaching their peak (like De Bruyne for example).
Oh, and if we give him credit for players he has been improving, then it is fair to also call him about players which have been regressing under him, like Bernardo Silva who looked one of the best talents in the world last season, but has been nowhere as good on this season.
If it is a player doing a press conference at Bilbao today they will be dreading it. Last season every player got asked about Valverde, week after week. Then it has been Kepa, that has been sorted. Now it will be Laporte. I bet they wish someone would ask them about a football match. Unless the couple of journalist who turn up, might be more as Basque derby, get briefed not to ask about it.
Yeah, I already said that for Pogba. As did Mourinho, and it is true. But when we signed him, Pogba should have gone for 50-60m pounds, not 90m or so.
Now, everything has doubled/tripled in transfer fees, and squad players nowadays can cost 50m+ which is batshit crazy.
You just wonder if it will collapse sometime. Surely it cannot be sustainable? Yes TV deals might rise, but the customers wages are rising at the same rate and they might just say enough is enough.
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