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Manchester City are closing in on a £30million deal to sign Athletic Bilbao's Spain international striker Fernando Llorente.

Manager Roberto Mancini is ready to let Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund target Edin Dzeko leave the club, while the futures of fellow front men Carlos Tevez and Mario Balotelli hang in the balance.

As a result, Mancini is in the market for a striker and he has identified the 6ft 5in World Cup winner as his preferred choice. The Sun claim that the two clubs are deep into negotiations over a deal.

Despite a run to the Europa League semi-finals, which saw them knock out Manchester United, Bilbao are struggling in seventh place in La Liga and are looking to cash in on their prize assets.

Llorente - who has seven goals in 20 games for Spain and is likely to feature at Euro 2012 - is a long term target of Tottenham boss Harry Redknapp. But Spurs will not be able to compete with the £200,000-a-week salary that City are prepared to offer the 27-year-old.

Wooders wrote:if true that will be the 3rd lanky striker that doesn't fit into mancini's system in a row

Ted Hughes wrote:Lllorente is Bilbao's frontman & perfectly suited to our style of play as he plays, scores & assists in a more complicated system of it every single game.

He also plays for Spain.

Im_Spartacus wrote:

Ted Hughes wrote:Lllorente is Bilbao's frontman & perfectly suited to our style of play as he plays, scores & assists in a more complicated system of it every single game.

He also plays for Spain.

From the two games I have seen, he seems to be very mobile given his size and puts himself about. But, if Bilbao as a team played like they did against the munes week in week out, they would have walked la liga, so I am skeptical.

I have said it before, but a decent front man prepred to do the dirty work with (dare I say it) Tevez and Aguero buzzing around is, I think what Mancini is aiming for ultimately, with Yaya, Silva supporting, and a quarterback style player behind them.

gillie wrote:

Im_Spartacus wrote:

Ted Hughes wrote:Lllorente is Bilbao's frontman & perfectly suited to our style of play as he plays, scores & assists in a more complicated system of it every single game.

He also plays for Spain.

From the two games I have seen, he seems to be very mobile given his size and puts himself about. But, if Bilbao as a team played like they did against the munes week in week out, they would have walked la liga, so I am skeptical.

I have said it before, but a decent front man prepred to do the dirty work with (dare I say it) Tevez and Aguero buzzing around is, I think what Mancini is aiming for ultimately, with Yaya, Silva supporting, and a quarterback style player behind them.

The perfect quarterback style of player imo would be Javi Martinez who also plays for Bilbao.

Bianchi on Ice wrote:From what Ive seen of Llorente hes better than adebayor or Dzeko. Could he strike up a rapport with Silva, Aguero, and dare I say, Tevez?...unfortunately anyone we sign is going to cost a lot if its upgrades we are looking for.

Aguero
Tevez
Llorente
Balotelli

not bad.

Im_Spartacus wrote:

gillie wrote:

Im_Spartacus wrote:

Ted Hughes wrote:Lllorente is Bilbao's frontman & perfectly suited to our style of play as he plays, scores & assists in a more complicated system of it every single game.

He also plays for Spain.

From the two games I have seen, he seems to be very mobile given his size and puts himself about. But, if Bilbao as a team played like they did against the munes week in week out, they would have walked la liga, so I am skeptical.

I have said it before, but a decent front man prepred to do the dirty work with (dare I say it) Tevez and Aguero buzzing around is, I think what Mancini is aiming for ultimately, with Yaya, Silva supporting, and a quarterback style player behind them.

The perfect quarterback style of player imo would be Javi Martinez who also plays for Bilbao.

Maybe, and what would be funnier with that is that Rags I speak to seem convinced he would go to them. Even if Bilbao get £50m in their coffers, do they not have limitations on the nationality of the players they sign. Losing players of such quality with restrictions on signing replacements would surely be a devastating blow, especially if Munain goes too.

Maybe we could send them a couple of players on loan if their rules allowed it?

Mikhail Chigorin wrote:Irrespective of how skilful and, technically, how accomplished Llorente is with the ball at his feet, at 6' 5" there will always be a temptation for some of our players (Hart, Lescott ??), at various times, to play the long ball up to him as per Stoke and to cut out the midfield altogether, which would be the very antithesis of how we play and how we should play.

Given that scenario, I'd rather have our Aguero/Tevez/Silva collection of 'midgets' up front any day, as in the last couple of games.

Anyway, at 27 years of age, he doesn't quite fit our purchasing profile under Bobby Manc and, when all is said and done, it is a 'story' in the Sun, after all. End of..........

Ted Hughes wrote:

Mikhail Chigorin wrote:Irrespective of how skilful and, technically, how accomplished Llorente is with the ball at his feet, at 6' 5" there will always be a temptation for some of our players (Hart, Lescott ??), at various times, to play the long ball up to him as per Stoke and to cut out the midfield altogether, which would be the very antithesis of how we play and how we should play.

Given that scenario, I'd rather have our Aguero/Tevez/Silva collection of 'midgets' up front any day, as in the last couple of games.

Anyway, at 27 years of age, he doesn't quite fit our purchasing profile under Bobby Manc and, when all is said and done, it is a 'story' in the Sun, after all. End of..........

Bilbao play it long to him sometimes, that's the beauty of it. Rather than just setting up to stop the tippy tappy, teams have to worry about a big fucking hoof down the pitch because he can score from it or set off the tippy tappy right outside your penalty area or score from a cross. It makes stopping the pass and move so much harder if you have other things for them to worry about.

The side who becomes better than Barca will be the side who can do that as well.

Im_Spartacus wrote:

Ted Hughes wrote:

Mikhail Chigorin wrote:Irrespective of how skilful and, technically, how accomplished Llorente is with the ball at his feet, at 6' 5" there will always be a temptation for some of our players (Hart, Lescott ??), at various times, to play the long ball up to him as per Stoke and to cut out the midfield altogether, which would be the very antithesis of how we play and how we should play.

Given that scenario, I'd rather have our Aguero/Tevez/Silva collection of 'midgets' up front any day, as in the last couple of games.

Anyway, at 27 years of age, he doesn't quite fit our purchasing profile under Bobby Manc and, when all is said and done, it is a 'story' in the Sun, after all. End of..........

Bilbao play it long to him sometimes, that's the beauty of it. Rather than just setting up to stop the tippy tappy, teams have to worry about a big fucking hoof down the pitch because he can score from it or set off the tippy tappy right outside your penalty area or score from a cross. It makes stopping the pass and move so much harder if you have other things for them to worry about.

The side who becomes better than Barca will be the side who can do that as well.

Absolutely, there has to be the ability to vary things - and the strength in the team to not feel that it becomes the only option when backs are to the wall.

The story is being widely reported across the media today, not sure whom the original source was. At 27 I agree that he is at the outside of our parameters for recruiting players who will retain a sell on value, but if he comes and is shit, he will be 28, move back to spain and we recoup much of what we paid. Its when you are buying a Robin Van Persie at 29 for £40m, only get two decent years out of him and nothing at the end of it that I think the club baulk at

Ted Hughes wrote:

Mikhail Chigorin wrote:Irrespective of how skilful and, technically, how accomplished Llorente is with the ball at his feet, at 6' 5" there will always be a temptation for some of our players (Hart, Lescott ??), at various times, to play the long ball up to him as per Stoke and to cut out the midfield altogether, which would be the very antithesis of how we play and how we should play.

Given that scenario, I'd rather have our Aguero/Tevez/Silva collection of 'midgets' up front any day, as in the last couple of games.

Anyway, at 27 years of age, he doesn't quite fit our purchasing profile under Bobby Manc and, when all is said and done, it is a 'story' in the Sun, after all. End of..........

Bilbao play it long to him sometimes, that's the beauty of it. Rather than just setting up to stop the tippy tappy, teams have to worry about a big fucking hoof down the pitch because he can score from it or set off the tippy tappy right outside your penalty area or score from a cross. It makes stopping the pass and move so much harder if you have other things for them to worry about.

The side who becomes better than Barca will be the side who can do that as well.

Mikhail Chigorin wrote:

Ted Hughes wrote:

Mikhail Chigorin wrote:Irrespective of how skilful and, technically, how accomplished Llorente is with the ball at his feet, at 6' 5" there will always be a temptation for some of our players (Hart, Lescott ??), at various times, to play the long ball up to him as per Stoke and to cut out the midfield altogether, which would be the very antithesis of how we play and how we should play.

Given that scenario, I'd rather have our Aguero/Tevez/Silva collection of 'midgets' up front any day, as in the last couple of games.

Anyway, at 27 years of age, he doesn't quite fit our purchasing profile under Bobby Manc and, when all is said and done, it is a 'story' in the Sun, after all. End of..........

Bilbao play it long to him sometimes, that's the beauty of it. Rather than just setting up to stop the tippy tappy, teams have to worry about a big fucking hoof down the pitch because he can score from it or set off the tippy tappy right outside your penalty area or score from a cross. It makes stopping the pass and move so much harder if you have other things for them to worry about.

The side who becomes better than Barca will be the side who can do that as well.

Hi Ted,

It's all well and good in theory, but even thinking about it gives me nightmares of Niall Quinn....Uuugghhh.

Rather than the Stoke/Wimbledon/Watford heritage, give me the "tippy tappy" Barcelona style all day long. Mind you, last night against Chelsea, Barca weren't completely "tippy tappy" as I did like the way that, on occasions, Mascherano brought the ball out from the back and played some longish passes, on the ground and to the feet of players in wide positions.

When we sign him (please read this thread Bob), Neven Subotic will be good doing that kind of thing for us, from the back and we'll have no reason to ever even consider banging it long, in the air, for a lanky carthorse up front to 'fight for it'.