This blokes not a fan of Pep…
Succinct and accurate summary of Pep’s character - whiny narcissistic cunt; doper (allegedly of various sorts) and racist. Covers it really!
On second listen, I take umbrage with him being ‘a brilliant manager’ though.
£100m for a player Southgate left on the bench for a large portion of our incredible Euros?
For me its £100m and they dont even need him.
The Abu Dhabi ruler can spend 100m on 20m+ Astra Zeneca vaccines for the devastated almost-neighbour that he helped disembowel (Yemen)…or…Jack Grealish. Easy…Grealish of course! Priorities.
Meanwhile at blue moon…
May be slightly bias but Jack, Phil and Kevin may be even better than Iniesta, Xavi, Serg Biscuits.
In my head that same system is coming together but with bright young English stars (and one Belgian), rather than Spanish.
We obviously don’t have a Messi but Sterling and FFS are better than Pedro. Kane up top of that happens, better than David Villa.
Probably getting this all wrong and the generations / positions at Barca confused but what a fucking time to be alive and blue is my main point
A 30yo Belgian with massive injury issues is a bright young star. You heard it at the Loon first.
Xavi and Iniesta are probably the greatest #8 partnership in football history. Won CL, World Cup and EUROs etc etc.
Grealish and Fodens greatest accomplishments had something to do with hippy crack and girls in Iceland.
I agree they don’t really need him but from a sports-washing aspect they do. An English poster boy. City’s current team is a bit bland and not easily marketable. De Bruyne is dull, Foden anonymous and Sterling splits opinion. Even their manager lacks charisma. They need Kane more from a footballing point of view and he will also help on the image side as he’s got such a positive media profile. Sir Harry, England’s captain, etc.
This is all a bit depressing but it was inevitable once the UEFA case collapsed. Just emphasises what an amazing job JK has done to keep up with them for so long. Going to be a lot harder from now on.
I mean let’s strip everything else away from this and De Bruyne-Foden-Grealish is a disastrous midfield. Where’s the defensive cover? Surely the trio to compare would be Fernandinho-De Bruyne-Grealish
In brown envelopes on its way to Premier League HQ.
Eh, not sure I agree with the idea of them not needing him. He’s a big improvement on the likes of Torres, Silva and Jesus and I’d argue he’s a better player than Foden, Mahrez and Sterling (who was below his usual standards last season). They also lost Aguero. Even at that extortionate price I’d say it was a no brainer to sign him.
Mate of mine who is an old school city fan from the Lake and Brightwell days said he hopes they sign Kane, but for reasons I didnt expect. His main focus is the frustration with Pep of trying to be too clever with tactics, especially in big games. A lot of that, even going back to his latter years at Barca, was how to play without a recognizable striker (Villa, their “striker” played mostly off the left). At least with Kane it will limit his tendency to make such drastic changes to the side using such unusual shapes/approaches.
not sure I buy it, and from a lot of people (the “how can you not play 2 strikers when you’re at home” crowd) Id ignore such criticism of tactical innovation, but this lad is smart.
On my Football Manager save Guardiola is Tottenham manager and he is playing Harry Kane on the right wing…
I’d say it’s pretty likely Grealish will play in a front three, whilst Foden will spend a lot of time in the midfield. I don’t see why signing him means Foden suddenly becomes forgotten about, he won’t be.
Not much use out wide? His main role at Villa in the past two seasons has been playing from the left side, and occasionally they’d play him as a 10. Not sure where you’re getting the idea he’s an 8 from.
7 goals and 12 assists considered shit these days?
Should maybe buy some shit players ourselves.
This is probably the reason I don’t think Pep is better than Klopp as a manager.
Pep wants the world to believe he is some sort of footballing god, continually breaking new ground with insane but brilliant tactical approaches. Leading him to overthink important games.
Klopp just wants to win and enjoy himself. He is pragmatic and has simple core principles and his personality drives the team.
Klopp lives in side Peps head, if we get a head of steam up Pep will over think it all again and fuck up the most expensively assembled team in world football.