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2023-24 Performances


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MVP_88

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Considering James Trafford went for £19 million and never played in a league higher that League 1, it’s not great.
 

aeh1991

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this would be amazing. And it should be a decent fee (like 25-30m) and only active after at least 2 or 3 years, so Bayer is motivated enough to play him and develop him seriously.
 

Teja

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These pseudo loan deals we seem to be doing are interesting, let's see if they pay off. Do they remain valid as long as the player stays at the same club? (i.e., no expiry?)

I hope both Kovar and Iqbal become good enough to make it here.
 

Adnan

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Considering James Trafford went for £19 million and never played in a league higher that League 1, it’s not great.
James Trafford is a higher rated keeper whose actually done well during his loan moves in England whilst Kovar had a bad rough time before he went on loan abroad. Trafford is also the starting goalkeeper for the England u21s and they recently won the European championships.

So Trafford is easily a better prospect for a head coach who wants to build from the back. And Vincent Kompany is the manager at Burnley and his links to City are strong. The same applies to Southampton where Joe Shields and currently Jason Wilcox (DoF) are used or are using there work within the City academy to sign players.

Kovar for around €10m including add ons with a buy back/first refusal, is a good price imo. At 23 years of age, he needs regular game time.
 

Ace of Spades

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Excellent move for him. The writing was on the wall when we signed Onana.

Hopefully, we have put a sell on clause as well.
 

siw2007

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He’s got good potential, Leverkusen are getting a talented young keeper. Bit disappointed to see him go but it’s a good move for him if he can get the minutes. I would imagine United might come back in for him in a couple of years time.
 

Ace of Spades

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James Trafford is a higher rated keeper whose actually done well during his loan moves in England whilst Kovar had a bad rough time before he went on loan abroad. Trafford is also the starting goalkeeper for the England u21s and they recently won the European championships.

So Trafford is easily a better prospect for a head coach who wants to build from the back. And Vincent Kompany is the manager at Burnley and his links to City are strong. The same applies to Southampton where Joe Shields and currently Jason Wilcox (DoF) are used or are using there work within the City academy to sign players.

Kovar for around €10m including add ons with a buy back/first refusal, is a good price imo. At 23 years of age, he needs regular game time.
It is still a bit absurd to pay almost 20m for a keeper whose highest level experience is league one. Bazunu was another hyped up modern keeper and he looked shit, which can happen with young keepers.

Hence the premium for experience. Paying that kind of money for a very inexperienced keeper seems a very risky move.

The fee for Kovar is about right imo, if you are taking chances on young, relatively unproven keepers, this is what I expect.
 

Adnan

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It is still a bit absurd to pay almost 20m for a keeper whose highest level experience is league one. Bazunu was another hyped up modern keeper and he looked shit, which can happen with young keepers.

Hence the premium for experience. Paying that kind of money for a very inexperienced keeper seems a very risky move.

The fee for Kovar is about right imo, if you are taking chances on young, relatively unproven keepers, this is what I expect.
The actual fee is around £12m, depending on who is to be believed. And that's about right for a keeper like Trafford who at 20 years of age has done very well in the last few years, which culminated in him winning the Euros with England u21s.

And with ex Man City Captain Vincent Kompany being the Burnley manager, it made sense to sign Trafford due to him following a similar play style to Guardiola, and Trafford having been coached in the ways since he joined City at 12 years old.
 

izec

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Hopefully that clause exists, the lad is on the rise. Would not be surprised to see him being the number 1 keeper during the season and Bayern targeting him in 2 years to replace Neuer.
 

Sarni

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Considering James Trafford went for £19 million and never played in a league higher that League 1, it’s not great.
Remarkable how people will find literally any reason to criticize the club. Getting £8m or so with add ons for a goalkeeper with no top tier experience at 23 is a very good piece of business for us, regardless of what Trafford went for as the circumstances of that deal were completely different (he is younger, higher rated, and probably did not even cost £19m anyway while still being somewhat overpriced).
 

Varun1

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Remarkable how people will find literally any reason to criticize the club. Getting £8m or so with add ons for a goalkeeper with no top tier experience at 23 is a very good piece of business for us, regardless of what Trafford went for as the circumstances of that deal were completely different (he is younger, higher rated, and probably did not even cost £19m anyway while still being somewhat overpriced).
This deal seems a bit shite! I don't buy into the Trafford went for £xxm or we should be getting £xxm for Fred etc, but on this occasion we should be getting £9-10m guaranteed imo. This deal is up to £/€8m, so probably 5m + addons.
Matt Turner just went to Forest for £10m and he's shit, whereas Kovar just had a great season.

We can't force other clubs to pay up, at a risk for overplaying our hand (see Mct to West Ham), nonetheless feels a bit on the low side.
 

Sarni

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This deal seems a bit shite! I don't buy into the Trafford went for £xxm or we should be getting £xxm for Fred etc, but on this occasion we should be getting £9-10m guaranteed imo. This deal is up to £/€8m, so probably 5m + addons.
Matt Turner just went to Forest for £10m and he's shit, whereas Kovar just had a great season.

We can't force other clubs to pay up, at a risk for overplaying our hand (see Mct to West Ham), nonetheless feels a bit on the low side.
Turner went to a PL club though. We sold Kovar to a Bundesliga team, non-PL teams cannot randomly offer hefty fees for unknown players with little experience, they need to be super careful with the money or they will get in trouble pretty quickly. The highest ever fee Leverkusen paid for anybody was €32m, they have had less than 25 transfers where they paid more than £10m for anybody in their entire history.

Unless we were able to convince a Premier League team that Kovar is ready to be first choice keeper for them, or even backup, we were never getting £10m+ for him.
 
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bosnian_red

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Makes sense. Obama is the guy for 5 years here. After that, we'll see his level, we'll see what Kovar is at. Makes no sense to be #2.
 

Zehner

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How does the buyback clause work? We match the best other offer or we have some pre-agreed fee?
I read both.

Can somebody provide some insights what kind of keeper he is? I expect a modern one who is good with the ball at his feet?
 

Ace of Spades

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I read both.

Can somebody provide some insights what kind of keeper he is? I expect a modern one who is good with the ball at his feet?
He is confident with his feet, but don't expect elite tier like Onana. Although he may improve that aspect more in the right set up, he is a very well rounded keeper, can command his box very well.

Did very well in pre-season for us.
 

D-o-m-i-n-i-k

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I read both.

Can somebody provide some insights what kind of keeper he is? I expect a modern one who is good with the ball at his feet?
He is a like Onana but not so risky outside of the box.

I expect he will replace Hradecky very soon as your goalkeeper.
 

AltiUn

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I read both.

Can somebody provide some insights what kind of keeper he is? I expect a modern one who is good with the ball at his feet?
He was a great shot stopper at youth level, one of the few keepers I've seen with us that was a game changer. Seems like he's improved with the ball at his feet but it wasn't one of his strengths.
 

AltiUn

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I have seen Kovar last season (I think 10 matches) and in my opinion his game is similar to Onana.
Maybe he's changed since his academy days but he's been more similar to de Gea than Onana since he broke through.
 

D-o-m-i-n-i-k

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Maybe he's changed since his academy days but he's been more similar to de Gea than Onana since he broke through.
I haven't seen much of him in our academy.

But the game idea of Xabi Alonso is to have a goalkeeper like Onana and not like De Gea.

Anyway he was really fantastic for Sparta Prague last season and like said i think he will be their starting goalkeeper during the season.
 

AltiUn

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I haven't seen much of him in our academy.

But the game idea of Xabi Alonso is to have a goalkeeper like Onana and not like De Gea.

Anyway he was really fantastic for Sparta Prague last season and like said i think he will be their starting goalkeeper during the season.
Would be excellent for him if true, will keep my eye on his career, you always want to see academy graduates do well.
 

90 + 5min

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But how long would this loan be for?

We've only just signed Onana.

Just unfortunate timing for him.
One year to begin with. For me, he has more potential and talent than Henderson.

I know timing is bad but I’m one of those who isn’t convinced by Onana. And to be honest never was. I hope ofcourse that he does brilliant job in our shirt.
 

Marwood

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One year to begin with. For me, he has more potential and talent than Henderson.

I know timing is bad but I’m one of those who isn’t convinced by Onana. And to be honest never was. I hope ofcourse that he does brilliant job in our shirt.
But obviously ETH and the club do believe in Onana. Having just signed him.

So another years loan for Kovar is pointless.

I'd have beem tempted to give Kovar a chance as No.1 but once Onana was bought he has to be move on.
 
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