25 Jan 2020 08:37:41
Is the latest CB linked to the club, Pablo MarÃ, any good or simply an affordable option?
{Ed047's Note - at an alleged £7.5 million affordable would be most likely, he’s Spanish and plays for Flamengo in Brazil, he was also linked with City a while back.
Played against Liverpool in the CWC but no idea if he’s any good but with some of our current defenders, could he be any worse? 🤷â€â™‚ï¸
25 Jan 2020 09:04:33
Fair points Ed. What interests me is why his team would agree to sell him for such a low fee, reported to be between £2m-7.5m.
So next season we will probably have 4 CB’s: Luiz, Mari, Holding and Saliba. I can’t see us keeping Mustafi and with a year to go we should cash in on Sokratis, while we can still get a fee. Chambers will spend part of next season recovering from injury.
I would CB like to see is sign a DM and wide attacking player. Lemar could be good, with Pepe on one side and him on the other we would be very rapid up top.
Next season perhaps:
Leno
Bellerin Luiz Marà Tierney
Torreira Xhaka
Pepe Ozil Lemar
Aubameyang
Although I can see Aubameyang being sold and a couple of players brought in, a DM and a creative midfield player. We will also have good cover.
{Ed047's Note - it’s like any rumour 911, no guarantee he’ll ever arrive but who knows. Much the same as Lemar.
With 6 days left in the window there’s still plenty of time to finalise ins and outs though so we shall see.
25 Jan 2020 10:32:28
Hi 911
Surely if we sign Saliba and Marà - Luiz drops out of the back 4.
Perhaps he drops into DM and plays the Xhaka role eg dropping into LB to play long range balls.
Agree about needing more width.
Hopefully with Holding, Mari, Medley and Saliba that we start seeing less and less of Luiz. He has a role to play as he’s one of a few that’s won stuff and brings leadership but his stupid tackles etc has to put his leadership skills into question - “do as I say not as I do! â€
Got really excited we were linked with a $ 40m only to find out that it was R$40m 😂😂😂
I’m happy to not sign a defender in the window to allow Mikel more time to get the right player. We’ve always reacted to a bargain or immediate need to the detriment to our long term vision / signings. We can get top 6 with what we’ve got. Let’s keep the powder dry unless it’s the right guy.
Have a great weekend all.
{Ed047's Note - and you SY, oh and agree too.
25 Jan 2020 16:13:03
Obviously Artetta knows Mari well from their years together at city, apparently Mari never actually played a single game for City but Mikel must have seen something he liked in him.
This signing is a real opportunity to see if Artetta can spot a bargain and has an eye for a players who are below others radar or he's strictly a coach type manager who gets the best out of players but needs to leave the buying to someone else.
{Ed047's Note - good to see in the video at Heathrow with Edu that he seems to speak pretty good English too.
25 Jan 2020 18:32:37
Really hope he does well Ed047 mate, the fee doesn't put me off at all because we've spent big on players who haven't improved us while none of Torreira Guendouzi Leno were break the bank signings and made our squad stronger.
{Ed047's Note - me too mate, fee is often irrelevant if you find a gem, Kante comes to mind
25 Jan 2020 22:18:08
Absolutely mate, Kante is the outstanding example of what good scouting can achieve and Vardy and Mahrez aren't exactly poor examples either:-)
{Ed047's Note - there’s certainly plenty out there mate
25 Jan 2020 23:06:04
I agree, I would wouldn’t necessarily cast doubt on a player because of a low transfer price. Maybe if he was 30+ yes but at 26 could be coming in to his own now.
He won the Brazilian league, the Copa Libertadores last season and kept Liverpool out for 90 mins in the CWC. He’s left footed so could likely pair up with Saliba if he’s solid enough or a decent back up. Only miss 2 games through injury in the last two seasons - touch wood.
{Ed047's Note - there’s definitely lots to like about him so far YG
26 Jan 2020 15:33:17
The promising thing is that Artetta has worked with him before, which points to it being his choice, which must get things off to the right start when he turns up.
Whoever was in charge of our recruitment before kept dropping the ball! Especially when you compare it to Leicester, but now they don't need to shop in the bargain bucket they don't sign many mahrez and kante priced players, the players that are doing well other than Evans were mainly quite substantial fees (still look like bargains afterwards though) in the same window we signed sokratis they signed soyuncu for only slightly more and Evans for way less, I remember us being linked to both at the time, who on earth thought go for sokratis.
{Ed047's Note - We we’re linked to Soyuncu for ever and I thought at one point we were going to sign him.
It was no different to Wenger declaring his interest in Kante before he went to Leicester! Maddening.
I’d love to get Kante now, he’s utterly wasted at Chelsea.
As for Arteta somehow I don’t think he’s going to accept anyone he himself doesn’t rubber stamp.
26 Jan 2020 18:05:15
My concern is City we’re happy to let him go for less than £2m and playing in a less competitive league than EPL. He also looks slow and slides in a lot as a result. Not exactly what I want to be fair. Not sure Mikel knows too much about him as he went straight out on loan and never had a sniff of first team football.