Wild that we enquired about a player from city. Would love to know how that conversation went internally for both teams.
Ait-Nouri: deadline day 11th hour desperation
- Thread starter IrishRedDevil
- Start date
-
Hello, Guest! We have a new competition (with tagline and award as prizes) starting.
A new Odds or Evens competition is starting now. Click here to enter to submit your predictions. Submissions will be open for the next 3 days, 10 hours, 12 minutes, 9 seconds, and will close on Sep 12, 2026 at 15:00.
- Status
Embarassing is putting it mildly
Fecking disgrace from the club this if there is any truth to it. They had all summer to scout for left backs and waited until deadline day to beg our bitter rival for one of their players on loan?
Yeah we deserve all the banter coming our way
Criticizing the club for having an agent offer a player to us makes a lot of sense
What if I think Shaw is a good player who just isn't as quick as he used to be and I have concerns over playing him too much? I'm ok with Shaw being a starter still. He just needs rotating. Ait Nouri would've been good IMO but never really seemed a real option
Lock the thread.
Jimmy used to bargain at his neighbor garage sale very hard, asking for a discount as much as 85%. People gave him the eye roll and he still came back the next day.
The criticism is not about that. Had we just said no there would be nothing to criticize. But saying no first and then on deadline day suddenly changing our minds is pretty embarrassing.
Let's also enquire about whoever Liverpool are trying to get rid of, while we are at it.
What happened to him though? He was very good before he went to City
Younger fans don’t seem to understand that deals between the two clubs happened often.
So much drama in here.
Embarrassing. Disgrace. Deserve the banter.
Yes we do, because we have of those fans who can’t control their emotions from their mums basement.
Shame!
I kind of feel Ait-Nouri might be a missed opportunity even if this was a loan with obligation to buy. We need 2 fullbacks next season anyway. Depending on the price of course, but I believe the deal could be done here.
The only embarrassing thing is we didn't get a LB in the end, nothing against Nouri individually.
The only embarrassing thing is we didn't get a LB in the end, nothing against Nouri individually.
How has this thread got 5 pages? 
Can you explain where this happened?
Yeah, he would have been a good buy to be honest - wages may have been a bit high though. Going for just a loan doesn't benefit City in the slightest, so I'm surprised any one would ever suggest it.
Can we get even more pathetic than asking blue nose for their bench warming fullback?
How has this thread got 5 pages?
Because it actually happened?
Yes its not exactly a disgace, but it doesnt really scream well planned transferactivity either does it?
Other than coming from City, this lad is a good footballer and would have walked into our starting 11. Massively underused at City but was immense for Wolves - we should have got him then.
It’s more worrying than we didn’t follow up had there been some encouragement from the player as him and say Hall next season would be a very good situation to be in at LB.
It’s more worrying than we didn’t follow up had there been some encouragement from the player as him and say Hall next season would be a very good situation to be in at LB.
The issue is not that we tried to get a city player, it’s that we left it till the last minute and have ended up with no left back signing. The fact that the club wanted to proceed with it shows that they know they needed one. And of course, why on earth would city ever loan us a player now. Times have changed and they are financially stable enough to let the player sit in the reserves rather than help strengthen a rival.
Yes and no. One of the issues with the market, is that a lot of business gets done at the end. We can’t say every transfer in the last three days has been a panic by clubs. Opportunities can sometimes only come available at the end.
We should have sorted it earlier. Of course. But not always possible.
It's impossible to really offer a stance on this without knowing how much City wanted as an obligation. If it was a reasonable price then you wonder how much we considered it, he's a good player.
City don’t care about selling or loaning to a rival. They were prepared to do business (obligation at the end of the season), that didn’t suit us and so no deal was done.
It would appear we were therefore looking at something short term rather than longer term.
We should have signed him for 25 to 30 million.
Even if he didnt work out could have sold him or let shaw go next summer and got another lb.
He is only 25, and is still a good player. Dont see why we didnt do it.
Even if he didnt work out could have sold him or let shaw go next summer and got another lb.
He is only 25, and is still a good player. Dont see why we didnt do it.
Exactly this.
Pretty obvious we have a long term target (probably Hall) that we want, pointless signing a stopgap permanently.
Fascinating the things fans conjure up in their minds.
I actually wanted us to sign him from Wolves when City did. Looked good back then.
Yeah, odd reaction from some…but a large percentage of members on here love to bring out the “embarrassing” tag at any opportunity.
Not a fan of this at all.
Derbies and rivalries are an important part of what makes football competitive and great.
I’m not in favor of the PL turning into Serie A where players historically moved freely between the big 3.
The Enzo transfer is gross as well, Chelsea and City isn’t a derby but they’re the two most successful clubs in England since the turn of the millennium.
I don’t mind the Arsenal Chelsea stuff as it was never a proper derby, as much as they’ve tried making it one, and even if it was in some distant time in the past, its not anymore.
Spurs vs Arsenal and West Ham vs Millwall are proper London Derbies.
I would be sort of okay with it if Alt Nouri was a Roberto Carlos or Ashley Cole regen, but he isn’t.
Just another wee step in sucking the life out of everything that’s good about football and that was ever right in the world.
We are no longer all together as one but separate mental patients, that yearn to be ejected out of this poisoned atmosphere into a bed and a friendly therapist. Reality is on her way. Where am I? What have I done? Huh... Was it worth it? By the way, what the feck happened here?
Derbies and rivalries are an important part of what makes football competitive and great.
I’m not in favor of the PL turning into Serie A where players historically moved freely between the big 3.
The Enzo transfer is gross as well, Chelsea and City isn’t a derby but they’re the two most successful clubs in England since the turn of the millennium.
I don’t mind the Arsenal Chelsea stuff as it was never a proper derby, as much as they’ve tried making it one, and even if it was in some distant time in the past, its not anymore.
Spurs vs Arsenal and West Ham vs Millwall are proper London Derbies.
I would be sort of okay with it if Alt Nouri was a Roberto Carlos or Ashley Cole regen, but he isn’t.
Just another wee step in sucking the life out of everything that’s good about football and that was ever right in the world.
We are no longer all together as one but separate mental patients, that yearn to be ejected out of this poisoned atmosphere into a bed and a friendly therapist. Reality is on her way. Where am I? What have I done? Huh... Was it worth it? By the way, what the feck happened here?
Surely you know by now that if a transfer doesn’t work out for us we can’t just sell him, it literally never happens, we’ll get stuck with him.
I didn’t say anything about city not wanting to sell to a rival. I said about loaning. It’s not worth it for them to strengthen us without receiving a fee.
I don’t have any issue with us looking short term if we’re going after Hall. But we left it to the last minute and now we’re short. We had the whole summer to line up a loan.
Has any reputable journalist actually given a figure for the obligation? Assuming it was between 25-30m then I fully agree with you.
There's no guarantee we sign Hall next summer and if this summer is any indication I'd say it's more likely we don't, I have doubts as to whether United are capable of competing at the top end of the market with the Glazer debt. If Kerkez doesn't perform this season Liverpool will be looking for a left back next summer, Spurs brought in Andy Robertson as a stop gap and will surely look here next summer as well. Chelsea have a number of players for this position but none of them are close to Hall in my opinion and he's from their academy. They're also the least predictable team in the transfer market so it wouldn't surprise me if Alonso wanted him next summer.
Ait Nouri was one of the best LB's in the league at Wolves which is why City went for him but he had numerous injuries that kept him out of the team. While he was out Nico took his place and performed consistently at a level that made it hard for him to get back into the team, if Ait Nouri played at even close to the same level he did at Wolves then he'd easily be our #1 left back.
There's similarities between him and Balde who got injured and replaced at LB by Joao Cancelo and has struggled to get back into the team.
I see posters talking down Ait Nouri because he "can't get into the City team" but then fully supporting signing Balde.
Yeah royally fecked up on this one as he's in that INEOS prime age at 25. Could have still turned a profit on him if it didn't work out but no the recruitment clowns thought they knew better. Probably the one guy who could have replaced Shaw straight away as well which makes it worse.
Definitely will prove to be missed opportunity, staggering to think we are in a position to turn our noses up at loan with obligation for him.
Well it all depends on how much they were asking. They may have been demanding an obligation of £60m, in which case we were right to swerve it.
Yeah don't understand why we didn't take up initial offer
Surely in that case City would have wanted a profit on him.
So if they asked for £60m, who is buying him for £70m after he’s failed at two big clubs?
I highly doubt it would have been that high, mind you if it's a reasonable one then will be even more annoyed
Maybe we should have accepted the fudged sale and got in with the Spurs, City, Chelsea, Villa cooking the books cartel that seems to be going on where you get to fudge the books by selling to and buying from each other at inflated prices
- Status