Football Media

[johnny crossan]

We hold the record as second tier champions - 7 times!! (jointly with which other club?)

Leicester I think?

top of the class!

[johnny crossan]

My free subscription to this US owned stream of anti City/Arab effluent continues to astonish

Daily Football Briefing: Which club has had the worst transfer window in the Premier League era?

31 Aug 2021


It's the final day in one of the most remarkable transfer windows in history, which has seen Lionel Messi leave Barcelona for free, Harry Kane decide to remain at Tottenham following speculation he would move to Manchester City, Cristiano Ronaldo go back to Manchester United and Romelu Lukaku rejoin Chelsea for a cool £95m.But sometimes the top talent is not available — and clubs have to make do with what they can get.

Sometimes it can go badly wrong.Let The Athletic take you through some of the worst transfer windows we have seen in a — by no means exhaustive — list that will remind you of some shocking sales...(Surprise Surprise - who is the only manager they put in the pic!)


Manchester City will be fine without a new striker, but not signing one should still be deemed a failure


For those Manchester City supporters who lived through the bad times, of all that misery and all those relegations, there will be something laughable about the handwringing of recent days.

Missing out on England captain Harry Kane and five-times Ballon d’Or winner Cristiano Ronaldo? Talk about first-world problems. Imagine proposing such a “crisis” to those supporters back in 1998-99, when they lost to Lincoln City, Wycombe Wanderers and York City in the third tier before making it through the play-offs in nerve-shredding fashion, or even in 2006-07, when their last Premier League goal at the Etihad Stadium came on New Year’s Day.

They have scored ten times in their first two Premier League home games of this season. That’s as many as they scored at home in the whole of that miserable 2006-07 campaign (Georgios Samaras four, Joey Barton three, Bernardo Corradi two, Richard Dunne one). They have broken the British transfer record to sign Jack Grealish for £100 million, they are the bookmakers’ favourites to win what would be their fourth Premier League title in five seasons and second-favourites to win the Champions League. So, no centre-forward incoming? First-world problem.

But it is a problem nonetheless. If it wasn’t, Manchester City would not even have entertained the idea of signing a 36-year-old Ronaldo. The case for signing him, which was discussed extensively by Pep Guardiola and those above him, was based on a degree of desperation after accepting defeat in their efforts to wrench Kane from Tottenham Hotspur. And whether the truth is that they walked away from Ronaldo out of resignation once Manchester United showed up (“Never fancied him anyway”) or out of a sensible, cold-headed analysis of the pros and cons of such a deal, or somewhere in-between, the factors behind that desperation are still there. But it is a problem nonetheless. If it wasn’t, Manchester City would not even have entertained the idea of signing a 36-year-old Ronaldo.

“We can’t replace him. We cannot,” Guardiola said, fighting back the tears when he spoke to Sky Sports on the pitch among the ticker-tape and the celebrations at the end of last season. He was talking about Sergio Aguero, who was saying his goodbyes after a glorious decade in Manchester. Aguero’s father Leonel later accused Guardiola of lacking sincerity, but the emotions appeared genuine.

Guardiola was talking about the loss of Aguero the personality, Aguero the icon, Aguero the club’s all-time record goalscorer. But in purely technical terms, the Aguero of last season (559 minutes and four goals in the Premier League, increasingly troubled by injury as he approached his 33rd birthday in June) appeared entirely replaceable.

City have had years to prepare for the Aguero succession. This is a club where, behind the scenes at the City Football Academy, there is a constant, established, clear emphasis on long-term strategy. They had been planning for years in the expectation that Aguero would depart — or at very least would need to be replaced — when his contract expired in the summer of 2021. And yet, for a variety of reasons, they appear to be on the verge of drawing a blank.

Make no mistake. There are very few centre-forwards in world football who would measure up to the standards that Guardiola demands — not just in terms of goalscoring but in terms of linking play and, significantly, commitment to the type of pressing game that didn’t come naturally to Aguero. Guardiola felt Kane was the stand-out candidate. That he found himself opening up to the idea of signing Ronaldo, whose presses far less than Kane, Lionel Messi, Aguero and just about any centre-forward you could think of, speaks volumes.

The feeling persists that Ronaldo would not have been the right player for City. Yes, he would have guaranteed goals, as well as bringing Champions League-winning experience, but the trade-off would have been far greater than across Manchester at United, where the playing identity is less defined. (And again, imagine writing those words in previous decades.)

Then there was the wages issue.

Sources at the Etihad flagged concerns about that even while optimism about a deal for Ronaldo was growing on Wednesday and Thursday of last week. Like any club, City have a wage hierarchy, with Kevin De Bruyne at the top of it, but there are good reasons why they have tended to steer away from signing established, A-list stars since the early days of Sheikh Mansour’s ownership more than a decade ago. Kane would have represented a move away from that principle too, but he was a long-established target. Ronaldo would have represented a panic deal, a shotgun marriage of convenience. For both parties equally, it might be said.

Whatever the consequences of his return to Old Trafford (a first title challenge since Sir Alex Ferguson retired in the summer of 2013, perhaps, or a first trophy since the 2016-17 Europa League?), City and their supporters cannot allow themselves to be dragged into the convenient narrative that will seek to portray Ronaldo as the one that got away.

That was Kane, who was desperate to join them, only to be frustrated by the man Guardiola sneeringly referred to as “the big master of negotiation, Daniel Levy. He knows everything, and we couldn’t do it”. If there was a price, somewhere north of £140 million, at which Levy might have been tempted to do business on Kane, City didn’t get close to it.

It is certainly tempting to feel they should have prioritised Kane ahead of Grealish, but by now that is a moot point. And it’s amazing how many people, including some of those who are usually most critical of City’s spending, have criticised the club for not offering whatever it might have taken to get Levy to the negotiating table.

Alternatively, perhaps the one that got away was Romelu Lukaku.

The Belgium forward might not appear the most natural fit for a Guardiola team either, but the idea of incorporating his talent and goalscoring threat was discussed extensively within City’s recruitment department as they planned for this summer. They were content to leave Chelsea to tie up a £97.5 million deal with Inter Milan on August 13. With the benefit of two weeks’ hindsight, perhaps they would have pursued that option even if, again, the player’s preference was to reunite with a former club.

Or perhaps the one that really got away this summer was Messi.

It is easy to forget that this time last year, ahead of the delayed start to the new season, Messi was City’s obsession. Whether he was ever truly serious about leaving Barcelona back then is unclear, but he and his entourage gave the impression he was ready to swap blaugrana for sky blue. And when he didn’t follow that through, members of the City hierarchy were left feeling used, which is certainly one significant reason why they showed no interest in revisiting the Messi situation this summer.


As much as Ronaldo and Kane, will City regret letting Messi slip through their fingers? (Photo: Getty Images)
Might that — more than not offering Spurs another £50 million-plus for Kane, much more failing to beat United to Ronaldo — have been a misjudgement? Last summer, they largely dropped their interest in Kane to pursue the tantalising option of a deal for Messi, only to encounter frustration. This summer they went after Kane, which proved impossible, and passed up what really was perhaps a once-in-a-lifetime to sign Messi, who instead left Barcelona at the end of his contract to join Paris Saint-Germain. Again, with hindsight, that looks questionable.

Once more, there is a danger in falling into the trap of suggesting City could or, worse, should do these things at the drop of a hat. But if they were willing to consider paying what it took to sign a Ronaldo who turns 37 at mid-season from Juventus — as well as the initial €15 million transfer fee and the possibility of another €8 million further down the line, United are reported to have agreed to a contract worth up to £480,000 a week — then surely they would at least have considered trying to negotiate with Messi, who was on a free transfer, is two years younger than Ronaldo and was a far more obvious fit from a technical/tactical perspective.

Director of football Txiki Begiristain was, like Guardiola, convinced Messi would stay at Barcelona, as was just about everyone at the Nou Camp. When that situation unravelled due to the Catalan club’s struggle to meet La Liga’s financial regulations, City were putting the final touches to that record-breaking deal to sign Grealish from Aston Villa and continuing to play the waiting game with Kane. PSG reacted quickly, showing money-no-object urgency and paying whatever it took to get Messi.

At the time, City were comfortable with that outcome. Again, the wage issue is an important one. But if Messi was worth chasing a year ago, it is hard to avoid the feeling that this summer’s non-approach came down to either a) a misreading of the situation or b) a sense of wounded pride after last summer. Either conclusion would be surprising, given how expertly Begiristain and his team usually navigate the market.

(20 years as a Times football writer before selling his soul to The Athletic - Oliver Kay is another tragic example of the demise of integrity in journalism)

525 Market St, Suite 3000, San Francisco, CA 94105
© 2021 The Athletic Media Company. All Rights Reserved.

[salford city]

I don't know why you put yourself through it JC. US owned should tell you all you need to know. Stick with young Alex from the MUEN, he's my son's best mate - comes from a family of blues in prestwich and is a season ticket holder. Good lad and also a decent keeper

[johnny crossan]

I don't know why you put yourself through it JC. US owned should tell you all you need to know. Stick with young Alex from the MUEN, he's my son's best mate - comes from a family of blues in prestwich and is a season ticket holder. Good lad and also a decent keeper

I console myself every game day by listening to this

[PeterParker]

I don't know why you put yourself through it JC. US owned should tell you all you need to know. Stick with young Alex from the MUEN, he's my son's best mate - comes from a family of blues in prestwich and is a season ticket holder. Good lad and also a decent keeper

I console myself every game day by listening to this

Who is cutting onions?

[dave watson's perm]

I loved the phrasing used in that article of Chelsea buying Lukaku for a "cool £95 million" like it's mere chicken feed compared to the disgusting £100 million City spent on Grealish

[Mase]

I loved the phrasing used in that article of Chelsea buying Lukaku for a "cool £95 million" like it's mere chicken feed compared to the disgusting £100 million City spent on Grealish

They’ve already started to reduce it from £98m as well. No doubt in a few months Grealish will have cost us £120m according to the media.

[johnny crossan]

Your daily ordure courtesy of my free BT subscription to The Pathetic - why should I suffer alone?

Bernardo, Jesus and Laporte’s reaction to staying the big unknown in Manchester City’s window


By Sam Lee 4h ago 17

It’s fair to say that Manchester City fans aren’t unanimously in favour of their club’s overall summer transfer business, but there is a feeling — relief, perhaps even happiness — that some of the club’s best players have not left.

Bernardo Silva, Aymeric Laporte and Gabriel Jesus, in particular, have already shown their quality again this season and it would be difficult to argue at this point that the reigning Premier League champions are worse off with them than they’d be without them.

Especially because City have not strengthened as anticipated. They did not get the No 9 that they wanted (or any alternative), so it is surely a good thing that they have kept so many good players?

To highlight his satisfaction with their window, Pep Guardiola keeps making the point that his squad is the same as it was last season, just with one change.

“Absolutely. More than happy,” he said. “It’s the same team, except Sergio (Aguero) for Jack Grealish, that we had last season.”

The thing is, that’s not what he, or City, wanted at all.

“You have to shake,” the Catalan said towards the end of last season, explaining how managers keep their teams at the top. They need to move unhappy players out and bring new faces in.

By that measure, City have not shaken at all, so is it a good thing that they have retained so many top-class players who, nevertheless, wanted or needed to go?

“You will see during the season, when we are not able to score a goal, how many people are going to say that we need a striker,” Guardiola said after his team’s third successive 5-0 Premier League home win on Saturday, anticipating the narrative.

Indeed, City’s failure to sign Harry Kane, or anybody else to spearhead their attack, will most likely be cited as the chief cause whenever they don’t win a match this season — and there will be times when to do so is completely justified.

But if there comes a time, like in 2019-20, when City cannot string a run of wins together and things just aren’t clicking, another big factor could be that they have kept the squad more or less as it was last season.

It must be said that things are looking good so far.

The Tottenham defeat on the opening weekend could be put down to an evident lack of fitness and a fairly makeshift team, and since then City have clicked very quickly, with some of those players who could have left playing key roles.

There was an outpouring of emotion, on all sides, on Saturday afternoon when Bernardo looked upset after being substituted against Arsenal. It’s been well established since the end of last season that the player was available for sale, and while the initial news came as a shock to supporters, it was only over the weekend that it was made clear just how popular the 27-year-old Portugal international is and just how much they want him to stay.

He is showing his value yet again; City need to be careful with Kevin De Bruyne’s ankle in case the issue is aggravated and he needs surgery, and already this season Bernardo has helped cover for the Belgian’s absence.


Bernardo and Gabriel Jesus could have left this summer (Photo: Tom Flathers/Manchester City FC via Getty Images)
And Laporte is on track to win back his place in the team. The opposition in the last two games may have been meagre in Norwich and Arsenal but he has been at his imperious best so far, and with Guardiola picking his team on merit, the Spain international is back in the starting XI.

Jesus looks like a revelation on the right wing, too, with three assists and a goal to his name from those two 5-0 home wins. He has always preferred playing from the wing and while he never really convinced for City on the left, he could be a real threat on the opposite flank.

So what’s not to like? It may look like a fairly downbeat take to suggest that these players may, even indirectly, hamper City’s chances of success this season but that was precisely the club’s logic a few months ago. They wanted to shake things up and move on players who were not happy with their situations to give the team a better chance of winning more silverware.

Now, maybe those same situations change and things go well. That is definitely possible.

If De Bruyne were to need surgery, Bernardo would play every week. If Laporte becomes a first-choice centre-back again, he will be much happier. If Jesus keeps playing well, he will stay in the team, his confidence will be high and he could cement his City future — he has two years left on his contract.

Just last year, John Stones could have left, with his stock very low, but he had such a successful reversal of fortunes that he ended up in the Premier League’s team of the year. Although one difference is that the England defender never wanted to leave in the first place.

If things don’t go as smoothly as they have done in the last two games, the perception of this summer’s transfer window could change quite quickly. Maybe De Bruyne avoids surgery, Ferran Torres nails down the No 9 role and suddenly Bernardo’s first-team opportunities are harder to come by, especially with Grealish now around.

Stones has a lot of credit in the bank after the way he bounced back from his issues and if he returns to the team it would not improve Laporte’s situation. If there’s one thing Jesus has struggled with during his time at City it’s consistency, so that’s a potential problem too.

Raheem Sterling and Riyad Mahrez might be good examples to highlight that things can’t always be ideal, at a time when Bernardo, Laporte and Jesus are flying. Sterling wasn’t happy at the end of last season either and could have left had an offer come in, partly due to having two years left on his deal too. Mahrez is another with that long remaining on his contract, and City would have listened to offers had he wanted to go, which they suspected.

No such bids for Sterling or Mahrez arrived (contract talks will take place) and they have both been on the bench for the last two games. Phil Foden will be back in contention after injury soon, too, which increases the competition for places for Sterling, and of course, Grealish is in the mix this season. There will be players in this squad who don’t play as much as they want to in the coming months, and that was also the issue last season.

The obvious point here, though, is that issue didn’t stop City winning a third Premier League title in four seasons and reaching their first Champions League final. In all of those scenarios above — De Bruyne avoiding surgery, Torres nailing down the No 9 spot, Foden coming back — things are still pretty rosy.

City have so many good players, and the other important business they did this summer was to tie most of them down on long-term deals. De Bruyne signed one in May, Stones and centre-back partner Ruben Dias followed in August.

Ederson will be next. Foden, most likely, won’t be long after and there could be others to come.

So, when Guardiola says that the squad is the same, even though that’s not what he was planning, he’s right to have cause for optimism.

While playing time was the root of most players’ unhappiness last season, the spirit among the players themselves is generally very, very good and they have shown they can put everything to one side and win trophies, even with some grumpy faces in the dressing room. They could do that again.

It is well known, though, that it’s usually harder to stay at the top than it is to get there, and with Liverpool, Chelsea and Manchester United in good positions to challenge for the title, it’s fair to say that City’s fight to retain the championship will be incredibly tough.

They did not want to be doing it without a proven No 9 and the truth is that they did want to move on some players who are still there.

So did City have a good transfer window? We simply don’t know yet.


Let's be honest: This City squad is loaded.
Ryan D.

De Bruyne and surgery seemed to pop up more than I would have liked. Does it look likely?
Devadatta P.
3h ago
In big matches city will need someone in the box. Not filling the void might cost us later. A good season will be fighting for all the cups till the very end. And keep the players happy.

Someone needs to convince Bernado and Laporte to stay.
John M.

We can’t win the league every single year. We were right to wait for a striker at the right price and to not accept too little for BS and AL. We need to keep a mid term view and accept there will be peaks and slight troughs. I desperately wanted to sign Kane and I think all 3 parties will rue that not happening but I’m glad we didn’t do it at any cost. We are in a good place!
Andy W.
17m ago
I agree. I can imagine how the conversation between Pep and the Board went. He saying Kane and Grealish are priorities and accepting certain 'unhappy' players may go to facilitate both captures. But I dare say the conversation drew on the financial consequences that 18 months of lockdown had upon clubs such as Real Madrid and Barcelona who may otherwise come fishing for Jesus, Laporte and/or Bernardo.

I believe that these circumstances led City to push for just those two players only. The Ronaldo business was just part of a media circus in which we never really entered the ring. No, when it came to not getting Kane the next option on Pep's transfer list was to leave things exactly as they where.
Parimal A.
2h ago
Players will surely become grumpy again. There are far too many players for the wide positions to get regular game time. And with Mendy in custody, the left back problem has grown considerably.
Philaiporn C.
2h ago
1 like
With it looking like we need to consider Mendy not available (good), an unconvincing right footed Cancelo, and reliable Zinchenko, why oh why have we not got a LB in. I know Ake and Laporte could also play there but we really need a top LB. In left midfield the choice will probably be Gundogan or Grealish, upfront the choice will be Grealish, Sterling and Foden, an non of those players offer a LB decent defensive cover. Needs sorting City!
Robert M.
1h ago
I agree. I’m surprised there wasn’t more activity to find a left back, especially now that Mendy will be out all season.
Lutho N.
1h ago

Obvious problems aside. When Sterling is in the side missing opportunities, does that weaken the squad?
Like when you watching the game objectively, he makes such good runs and is always going to be in a good position because of his speed but when he inevitably misses that chance does that make City weaker because he will get another chance simply because he has that ability?
Is the problem that we don't have a striker or is the problem that we have players that consistently miss good opportunities?
Are the two synonymous and does this affect the squads ability to create goal scoring opportunities?
I have questions clearly but I'm hoping to arrive at an answer when football continues.

With all due respect, I think we still have the most complete squad by far among big 4, even without a proper no.9. I still consider Liverpool to be our biggest contenders for the title, with our chances slightly above them.
Florian D.48m ago Hi Sam, I heard that Ajax Left Back Tagliafico had been offered to some clubs over the last few days. Would he not have been a good (and affordable) addition to City as a attacking left back? Especially considering the current predicament in that position…

I think we are all also forgetting an extremely underlying issue with the no of options we've got as fullbacks especially the LB role, we don't have a back up LB and losing mendes to PSG hurts, cancelo as a makeshift LB works only for a time period so we needed cover for that position and I'm really dissappointed we didn't grab the opportunity to sign Mendes not to mention zinnys a bit injury prone as well
There is something deeply revealing about modern football in this story. There are players - presumably Bernardo, Laporte, Sterling and others - who are miserable and don’t want to be there. But nobody else, who might be able to afford to buy them and pay them, wants them. The solution: a new contract. The result: players sign to stay longer at clubs they don’t want to be at after only receiving offers from a club that wants to move them on. The unhappy marriage continues

Good point. I dare say that the extended contracts are to protect the selling club. Come next summer Jesus and Mahrez for example have just 12 months remaining and their sale value will plummet. Financial management of a EPL club It's a difficult beast to tame and a job I wouldn't go anywhere near
Moses O. 34m ago City has one of the best squads in the EPL rivalled only by Chelsea. They will be good again bar disaster wrought by injuries.
Aug 27 Ferran Torres cut a Vardy-like figure against Arsenal which offers an interesting alternative to Ronaldo or Kane

Kane was meant to galvanise City’s team – now he’s not coming, where does it leave them?
Sam Lee

[johnny crossan]

10:41 BBC Radio5 Live Daniel Geey twitter star Sports Lawyer at Sheridans - author of "Done Deal" - take a listen to his observations 45min 46secs about Qatar owned PSG and "other clubs like them owned by sovereign states" . Now who might they may be I wonder? Do City's lawyers even listen to what the national broadcaster says about them?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000z6lr

[CTID Hants]

Mahrez calls out the Sun for quoting him on things he didn't say......

The Sun story goes on to claim that Mahrez said: "certain stars dislike the game and only play for the money" and goes on to state that his ex-wife labelled him "big-headed" after his move to City.

[Mase]

Mahrez calls out the Sun for quoting him on things he didn't say......

The Sun story goes on to claim that Mahrez said: "certain stars dislike the game and only play for the money" and goes on to state that his ex-wife labelled him "big-headed" after his move to City.

I read that story last night and the headline was so far away from his actual quotes I just laughed.

[PeterParker]

Mahrez calls out the Sun for quoting him on things he didn't say......

The Sun story goes on to claim that Mahrez said: "certain stars dislike the game and only play for the money" and goes on to state that his ex-wife labelled him "big-headed" after his move to City.

I read that story last night and the headline was so far away from his actual quotes I just laughed.

To be honest, I would love to hear a City player call the other teams shite.

[zuricity]

Has Spit Carragher , elbowed his way into a sacking having put his foot in it again ?

[Dubciteh]

Mahrez calls out the Sun for quoting him on things he didn't say......

The Sun story goes on to claim that Mahrez said: "certain stars dislike the game and only play for the money" and goes on to state that his ex-wife labelled him "big-headed" after his move to City.

Grealish did something similar over the weekend but was in relation to villa. Didnt see the original article myself.

[Two's Kompany]

Mahrez calls out the Sun for quoting him on things he didn't say......

The Sun story goes on to claim that Mahrez said: "certain stars dislike the game and only play for the money" and goes on to state that his ex-wife labelled him "big-headed" after his move to City.

Grealish did something similar over the weekend but was in relation to villa. Didnt see the original article myself.

Basically a reporter from a Birmingham paper said he was 'arrogant', 'classless' and 'smug'.
Grealish called him out.

[zuricity]

bump

[zuricity]

bump to 401

[zuricity]

Way over the top number of articles about Tranny this weekend. I really hope the rags lose today .

[Harry Dowd scored]

Way over the top number of articles about Tranny this weekend. I really hope the rags lose today .

Apparently there is to be a demo by some feminist group outside the swamp, they are claiming ladyboy allegedly raped a woman in Las Vegas in 2009, she settled out of court, something like £250,000 but a NDA was signed so no further action by the law.
But woman now claiming NDA signed under duress.
Bet this is kept quite by rag media

[Beefymcfc]

Way over the top number of articles about Tranny this weekend. I really hope the rags lose today .

Apparently there is to be a demo by some feminist group outside the swamp, they are claiming ladyboy allegedly raped a woman in Las Vegas in 2009, she settled out of court, something like £250,000 but a NDA was signed so no further action by the law.
But woman now claiming NDA signed under duress.
Bet this is kept quite by rag media

Didn’t that come out in the Der Spiegel leaks? I think it went to court but the case was kicked out.