Transfer rumours

[Mase]

He played cos everyone else was on holiday. And Pep isn’t going to say he’s cack, is he?

Whatever, the next age group down won the league as well, so decks need to be cleaned and choices need to be made. You can’t keep every young player at the club, sadly.

Pep called him “incredible”. He scored 3/3 in pre-season and was chosen to train with the first team. Not sure what else would be classed as highly rated.

Maybe he didn't kick on the way the coaching staff had hoped?
Maybe the lad in his position in the age group below him is considered a better prospect?

He got injured and was out for most of the season.

[john68]

In recent years, our first team squad and academy has reached the level where City dominate both areas domestically.
We initially reached up to become a top four club in the Prem, seeing off challenges from the likes of Spurs and eventually overtaking Arsenal and Chelsea and for the main part keeping the Dippers at bay. The rags did their own imploding that helped us to become the dominant force in domestic football.

We need to understand that we are now reaching out to challenge and hopefully become dominant against the likes of Bayern, Madrid, Barca etc. It is a new challenge that has and will see us change our approach to buying and selling players.

We are now financially at the top, meaning we must, and can afford to only buy players that we believe can push us on through the this new phase.
The question being, "Can this player help us regularly win the CL?"

Our academy is without doubt the best in domestic football and is producing some great talent. But again, the judgement has to be, can they become world class in the job we need them to do at that very top level?

It's always sad when we see homegrown talented kids being let go but such is our current status, only the very best can be retained and with our current first team squad, we only need 2/3 players each season.

The great thing about our academy is that it is now a constant conveyor belt of talent over a number of age groups and produces far more than we need for our first team squad. It does however provide us with constant revenue that allows us now to challenge the market at the top level.

It is not that long ago we were ducking out of deals we felt were above our financial limits. Now we can afford to buy the best.

Sadly, we are going to have to see some of our top kids leave and we are going to have to get used to it.

[patrickblue]

Indeed we are John, and we're also going to get used to the fact that we're not going to be giving the great majority of youngsters a "chance" in the first team.

[Mase]

Indeed we are John, and we're also going to get used to the fact that we're not going to be giving the great majority of youngsters a "chance" in the first team.

I don’t think anyone is asking for the majority to be given a chance. However Pep did give a good number of them a chance against Wycombe last season, and with us having one of the smallest squads in the league if we want to keep first teamers fresh for the run in we need to think about giving kids a chance in the early rounds of the cups. Most likely why players like Walker were on their arse towards the end of the season

[john@staustell]

Indeed we are John, and we're also going to get used to the fact that we're not going to be giving the great majority of youngsters a "chance" in the first team.

If everyone here finally gets to realise that, it will be a great day

Twas ever the same really - when we were crap, so were the youngsters. Now we have good youngsters the first team is stellar!

The youngsters are an important part of the financial business. Not too many Fodens about though

[Outcast]

Indeed we are John, and we're also going to get used to the fact that we're not going to be giving the great majority of youngsters a "chance" in the first team.

If everyone here finally gets to realise that, it will be a great day

Twas ever the same really - when we were crap, so were the youngsters. Now we have good youngsters the first team is stellar!

The youngsters are an important part of the financial business. Not too many Fodens about though

Palmer?

[Mase]

Indeed we are John, and we're also going to get used to the fact that we're not going to be giving the great majority of youngsters a "chance" in the first team.

If everyone here finally gets to realise that, it will be a great day

Twas ever the same really - when we were crap, so were the youngsters. Now we have good youngsters the first team is stellar!

The youngsters are an important part of the financial business. Not too many Fodens about though

Palmer?

It’s weird. We’re a completely different set up with the best academy facilities in England and up there with the best in the world. We are setting standards. It’s not 2004 anymore and we have Palmer and McAtee coming through - not Lee Croft.

[hayling22]

Maybe it's just paper talk, and maybe Ake wants regular starts, but I don't see why we would consider selling him.
Most of the time at least one of our CB's is crocked (Usually Stones)
Last seson even Fern slotted in, so selling Ake would leave us vulnerable at CB, and I don't see anyone else ready to step up

[Mase]

Maybe it's just paper talk, and maybe Ake wants regular starts, but I don't see why we would consider selling him.
Most of the time at least one of our CB's is crocked (Usually Stones)
Last seson even Fern slotted in, so selling Ake would leave us vulnerable at CB, and I don't see anyone else ready to step up

Ake has said he’s looking forward to coming back and challenging for the first team more this season. Just paper talk with him.

[john@staustell]

Maybe it's just paper talk, and maybe Ake wants regular starts, but I don't see why we would consider selling him.
Most of the time at least one of our CB's is crocked (Usually Stones)
Last seson even Fern slotted in, so selling Ake would leave us vulnerable at CB, and I don't see anyone else ready to step up

Ake has said he’s looking forward to coming back and challenging for the first team more this season. Just paper talk with him.

Hopefully so. Good player, versatile. Also his recent injury needs time to heal and therefore not really a great time to buy him for big money, makes no sense.

[john68]

I keep reading that this player or that would be good as a squad player. Totallydisagree with that. At the level we are at and the level we are tryingto reach, there can be no such thing as a squad player.
If we need to rotate the first selkections for any reason, exhaustion, muscle fatigue or injury, the player stepping up has to be as good as the player he's called upon to replace.
In the last couple of seasons, we have been forced to prioritise competitions and risk weakened teams in cup semi finals. That is a weakness that has to be strengthened and a gap in our squad that needs to be plugged.

The danger is that some players of world class may play less games than they would want to but it is a danger we have to accept. Ideally, we need two first teams with the 'squad players' being the cherry picked kids we believe could make it in our 1st team.

We are now in the later stages of our project that promised football domination, like a boxer who has used previous rounds to soften up an opponent, we have to be equipped to knock them out.

[Dubciteh]

Talk of chelsea wanting zinchenko now too. Sell them a job lot at this rate!

[City64]

Talk of chelsea wanting zinchenko now too. Sell them a job lot at this rate!

Not a chance Zinchenko would even think of joining Chelsea with there pro Russian / Abramovich links . Utter crazy transfer speculation bullshit time is upon us .

[Mase]

Rags paying £56m for de Jong?!! Has the market taken a dip with player prices now?

[Nigels Tackle]

Rags paying £56m for de Jong?!! Has the market taken a dip with player prices now?

barca want / need to get rid of him to finance the lewandowski deal

[Mase]

Rags paying £56m for de Jong?!! Has the market taken a dip with player prices now?

barca want / need to get rid of him to finance the lewandowski deal

I don’t suppose it helps only having the Rags interested in your player. Says it all about de Jong’s level I guess.

[Dimples]

Rags paying £56m for de Jong?!! Has the market taken a dip with player prices now?

barca want / need to get rid of him to finance the lewandowski deal

I don’t suppose it helps only having the Rags interested in your player. Says it all about de Jong’s level I guess.

Looks that way.
No club seems to be desperate to sign De Jong, aside from the Rags.
De Jong does not seem to be desperate to join the Rags. Why would he, no CL football and not a chance of winning anything decent in the short term.

The Rags seem to be sixth or seventh choice for players on the move, behind City, Liverpool, Chelsea, Spurs, Arsenal and maybe Newcastle.
Newcastle are building slowly because they cannot attract top players yet, the Rags seem to be declining fast because they can no longer attract top players.
Could they clash in a battle for sixth and seventh place this season?

If the Rags do not pull something out of the hat soon, I think they are looking at sixth or seventh - VAR or no VAR.
Ronaldo is due a strop as well, he is only interested in the CL, Thursday night football is not for him and at his age he cannot afford to waste a season.

All good, I think.
Even better when I consider Liverpool to be weaker with Mane gone, despite all the hype around Nunez and Diaz.
Also, IMO, VVD and Salah are on the decline.

[Mase]

Rags paying £56m for de Jong?!! Has the market taken a dip with player prices now?

barca want / need to get rid of him to finance the lewandowski deal

I don’t suppose it helps only having the Rags interested in your player. Says it all about de Jong’s level I guess.

Looks that way.
No club seems to be desperate to sign De Jong, aside from the Rags.
De Jong does not seem to be desperate to join the Rags. Why would he, no CL football and not a chance of winning anything decent in the short term.

The Rags seem to be sixth or seventh choice for players on the move, behind City, Liverpool, Chelsea, Spurs, Arsenal and maybe Newcastle.
Newcastle are building slowly because they cannot attract top players yet, the Rags seem to be declining fast because they can no longer attract top players.
Could they clash in a battle for sixth and seventh place this season?

If the Rags do not pull something out of the hat soon, I think they are looking at sixth or seventh - VAR or no VAR.
Ronaldo is due a strop as well, he is only interested in the CL, Thursday night football is not for him and at his age he cannot afford to waste a season.

All good, I think.
Even better when I consider Liverpool to be weaker with Mane gone, despite all the hype around Nunez and Diaz.
Also, IMO, VVD and Salah are on the decline.

I’d love to know his thoughts on choosing Barca over City based on money. Love it when this happens to a player.

[Dubciteh]

Heard de jong is already on 375k/wk meaning wont be many in the queue for him, only really rags or psg.

[Dubciteh]

Look likes steffan is going to Middlesbrough on loan for a year and we sign the other steffen. Whod have thoight this time last year Bazanu would be playing at a higher level than Steffen.