interesting read from Sam Lee the City reporter for Goal in the other place, responding to his critics -
'Afternoon all.
For the avoidance of doubt, this is where I first gave an explanation of City’s complex transfer dealings, and how there are five priority targets, plus others who will be bought depending on several different factors.
http://www.goal.com/en/news/11/transfer ... move-couldIt was a couple of days later - on June 5 - when I first thought the easiest way to explain it would be to say there are two ‘lists’. Here’s the Facebook post. As you can see, it does not say ‘edited’ at the top, so it's been untouched for three weeks.
Sam Lee
about 3 weeks ago
Quick thoughts on the strong Van Dijk to Liverpool rumours.
As I wrote last week, City's transfer business is basically split into two lists.
The first list is Silva and Ederson (done), then Walker, Mendy and Alexis. City have identified these as key positions and have worked hard on these players for months.
The second list is made up of various positions and players and is far less clear cut than the first list.
Van Dijk was on the second list. If City decide to sign a centre-back (and as far as I know they might decide not to sign one this summer) then Van Dijk would be/would've been the first choice. If he goes to Liverpool, I believe they have two back-up options (if they choose to sign a centre-back).
Everything and every position on this second list can change, and is not set in stone. Kylian Mbappe is on this list - if he becomes available and City can sign him, they will, but Real Madrid and many other clubs want him. If they can't sign him, they may be more keen to sign a centre-back, or maybe a central midfielder.
I wrote about this situation on Friday but this a little reminder about how City's business is laid out this summer. I'm not one to protect the club if they make a mistake, so I can honestly say if Van Dijk goes to Liverpool it is not a huge blow to City's plans, even though he is a very good player.
If City do not sign Walker or Mendy that would be a much bigger blow, because they have been working on those deals for months and they are 100% priority targets. They do have back-ups but these are the main guys. We may have to wait until after the internationals for more updates on those two. Tottenham and Monaco are playing hardball, but City remain confident.
Since then I have continued saying City effectively have two lists. I don’t know if there are physically two lists pinned to Txiki’s notice board, but it is the best way I could think of to explain how their business is laid out this summer (according to my information, anyway).
In any case, I have no idea which media this information has been “plastered all over”. There are many good accounts of City’s transfer targets and plans this summer (either from journalists or people on here or Twitter), and some of them will be right and I will be wrong, or we will all be right, or all be wrong. People will beat me to City’s specific targets - regularly - but I don’t recall anybody talking about two lists, or City wanting four full-backs on the day it was claimed Bertrand was an alternative to Mendy.
Now after all that I must say it’s not the accusation of being a fraud that bothers me. It’s the reasoning behind it.
The relevant people know who they are and I wanted to come on here and put across the other side, so everybody knows what they need to.
For those few people who insist I am a blagger, you would have to ask yourself why I’ve not ripped off rumours about Carvalho, Bonucci, Laporte, Semedo, Grimaldo, Fabinho, Aurier, Bellerin, Rulli, Martinez etc etc etc. In fact, I have been confident in saying ALL of those players, and others, will not be signed - a very risky move, but I trust my sources.
I may turn out to be wrong, but they will be honest mistakes. I believe I was doing well enough in terms of popularity among City fans without writing too much about transfers, so I would not stake the following I have earned by guessing at transfer rumours which could blow up in my face within days. I write for one fan base, it makes no sense to alienate you. And as most of you know who I support, I don't need to be giving you any excuses.
Since I started this job in October 2015 I wanted to be open with people, because I realised that many fans felt they could not have conversations with journalists. This is why I reply to sensible tweets (and some mad ones) and pretty much all DMs, even when most of them are asking for updates on Mendy or Alexis. I also do unmoderated Facebook lives, and genuinely enjoy them.
I have talked extensively about how I obtain the bulk of my information on many occasions, including on lengthy 9320 Podcasts. It’s all there for public consumption.
I also vowed not to look on this very forum, not because I don't value the opinions or information that's on here, but because if the day came that I would ever be accused of taking stories from here, I could honestly say I don’t use it. Today is that day! Since my run-in with Stan Collymore at Villa Park (when I was told to check out BM by a colleague) until about two or three weeks ago, I did not pay a single visit. Recently people have been DMing me on Twitter trying to confirm transfer hints that they have seen on here, and there have also been other posts that have been brought to my attention, which I now want to confront.
I appreciate this may come across as unseemly, and I’ve been told most of you guys appreciate my efforts, so firstly apologies for this post but also thank you.
As many of you know, I sometimes say more than I should, and I probably should have let this lie but I wanted to get it off my chest. If you don't believe my stories that's fine, but do it for the right reasons.
If anybody has any issues with this post, or me, you know where you can find me on Twitter and Facebook, as I don't think I'll post too many times on here again - but you never know!
Cheers
by Peter Doherty (AGAIG) » Wed Jun 28, 2017 11:49 am 
