What’s this about Pep delaying picking a Captain? Media trying to stir up some nonsense over nothing, I assume?
Perhaps because they are (like us) lacking in any decent options to wear the armband? Certainly I feel they are better off giving it to whatever top quality CB signing the club need to make rather than give it to the likes of D.Silva (who is not a long-term option), KDB, Fernandinho (again not a long-term option) or Otamendi.
We were, of course, linked with Bruno a while ago but not too much lately. He seems to have crazy stats but if we have left the field clear for United to maybe take him then there must be a flaw in his game. Do you agree?
Personally I feel it is a combination of Pep still underestimating what kind of squad they need dominate both the PL & CL and the fact the club have been acting very stingy (one would say almost Arsenal/Spurs/United like) over transfers in recent years for no apparent reason, rather than themselves deeming him to be a flawed player that Pep would be unable to improve upon.
He would be too expensive for us now unless we unloaded a top priced player in a similar role such as Sane or Gabriel Jesus.
Personally I feel that the Qataris bad relations with the UAE would be a bigger reason to why they would not sell him to City rather thank City being "unable" to afford him.
The idea now is to find the next Aguero or Mbappe. He's out there somewhere.
The problem is though, if that player does emerge within the Top 5 Leagues of Europe, he would end up costing almost as much as a Mbappe/Kane signing anyway. So there is no real way of getting out spending big money on a Aguero replacement.
They couldn't afford Laporte last January. Mansour stepped in with a £60 Mill cash injection enabling them to fund the transfer a report a small profit. City business
The current investigations may be forcing them to reign in their spending. Any irregularities from this point would constitute a new investigation. They would be in very hot water if the current investigation goes against them & then another investigation is started straight after.
The thing is though, they really need to accept that short of adopting the ambitions of a Mid-Table club. UEFA is clearly not going stop hounding them over FFP no matter how much they do/don't spend every season, which they only do in the first place to protect the owners of the big clubs (especially the likes of the Glazers) and their apparently god given right to remain at the top.
In other words they should not even bother trying to please UEFA, spend what they need to spend to improve they squad and take UEFA to court if they bring about charges of FFP violations against them in response to bring down the whole stupid scheme.
As for why (as a United fan) I would support such a move, it is so that the owners of the established big clubs (especially the likes of United & Arsenal) end up getting a kick up their arses and thus are forced to invest into their teams (be it on transfers and/or their youth) to properly compete with them in their Domestic Leagues/CL.
The league is so poor at the moment that their defence is rarely pressurized.
They almost lost the league to a side that featured Mignolet, Lovern, Moreno & Matip among their ranks. All the while getting knocked out the CL by a team didn't spend a penny thoughout last season and didn't even have their best player on the ptich most of that leg.
So losing their best CB (when fit) and their only decent choice for captain is not going help address that issue for the upcoming season.
They will get away with playing Stones/Otamendi/Fernandinho next to Laporte for the majority of games.
Stones is not yet good enough to be a first choice CB, Otamendi is basically a slightly better option than Chris Smalling (who is not good enought to play for United under any capacity) and Fernandinho is still needed at DM until Rodri is up to speed with the PL. Heck if it wasn't for Kompany playing for the team during the 2nd half of season, they might have actually lost the league. So I don't see how they could get away with it this season.
The lack of a decent CB to partner Laporte could hurt them in the CL though as teams will test them.
Especially when last season, there was a clear lack of quality/competition for the CB places in their lineup (as was shown by the fact that Laporte felt he could get away with a absolutely terrible peformance against Spurs in the CL last season, knowing that Pep would never drop him for someone like Otamendi).