I think there is something magical about a manager seeing a weakness in a team and employing a tweak to exploit it. think Rafa putting Arbeloa at LB to combat Messi trying to cut inside onto his left foot. Or Martinez putting Lukaku on the right side of the attack against brazil to get at a lazy/absent Marcelo. It produced only a small change in what they wanted their team to do and still allowed their players to play to their strengths. Pep just takes it to the nth degree, and in a way he shouldnt need to given he always goes out there with the collection of more expensive and supposedly better players than the team he’s playing against.
SSN reporting hes due to have his medical tomorrow. Really hope he has a last minute change of heart as Stevie did all those years ago. City would then panic buy, although this is already a panic buy at 100m.
Me thinks Fraudiola wants out Manchester but has probably promised to win the CL before he goes… Hence the throwing of the kitchen sink at it this season via the transfer market…!
Kane is protected by English refs; that won’t happen in European football.
Grealish is wank.
Neither will bring the owners their much-craved Champions League crown but if they want to waste their money (and, to be fair, they have a lot of it to waste), that’s up to them.
I agree… Jurgen will take all his frustrations of the past season out on the Premier and Champions League when the games start… Pressure is more on old Fraudiola than it is Jurgen to win the CL
Can’t wait to get drawn against them… :0)
I have to say, something has happened to Grealish this year that has completely passed me by. I remember being a pre-teen in the run up to Italia 90 and being fully on board with the “Robson HAS to pick Gazza” train. That friendly prior to the world cup where you could see Robson on the sidelines coming to the same conclusion (was it against the Czechs?) was golden. Grealish appeared to have developed the same reputation among a large section of the England fans and I have absolutely no idea why. He is a nice player who i’d categorize as far closer to “nice” than the sort that would make City go out and pay this sort of money or generate such furor among the england fans that he wasnt playing.
I agree, I just think Pep has this weird godcomplex that he always has to be the center of attention… You see clips where he’s harranging a player for an age over 1 tiny detail… it’s all just for show, it’s all a little pathetic.
If he literally set up his team, and then made tweaks to exploit a a few strong opponents weakness he’d win everything… His squad is that good.
It’s why he fails in Europe, and long may it continue.
Not saying he won’t get as much freedom for city but statistically he is excellent as an attacking force.
Buying Grealish and Kane the worst two divers in the league… Didn’t realise I could hate that plastic cheating cunt club further… But I guess there are new levels.
I think this is an example of the data being betrayed by the eye test. If Hudson Odoi is the next best on this graph then maybe it doesn’t indicate too much of importance.
Pretty sure £55m could buy them a player who would be a better improvement on what they have and more fitting to Peps style than Jacky Boy.
£100m for Grealish. That’s a new level of ‘overpaying for an overrated english player’
Has to be for homegrown quota and marketing (poster boy) reasons.
It’s funny because
hippy crack
has been seen drunk and smoking cigarettes a few times
said to be leaving the scene of where a Range Rover crashed into two stationary cars. Sources claim the crash was close to where a party had been going on until the early hours of the morning despite the current coronavirus lockdown
another COVID party with Ross Barkley during lockdown where Grealish also had a fight with another person
That’s what I was going to say - Grealish’s stats for ball carrying and passes were apparently higher than Messi’s this season. Then you look at that chart and it has Callum Hudson-Odoi - a solid but unspectacular winger - next to him and it makes you think there is a lot more context that needs to be added.
The price is ridiculous, but I’d have Grealish at Liverpool, regardless of his past transgressions, which I think are largely just him living his best life - so we are clear - the drink driving I do not condone or see as part of living a life to its best. But you’d like to hope lessons are learnt. I also don’t think it’s fair to label him a diver.
He doesn’t massively improve city either in my book, unless they’re about to shift on a player or two. It will be interesting to see if he can handle being dropped into a big pond with some whopping fish, or he’ll do a Zaha and end up back at his former club.
All the standing up for him done, hope he flops and city sack Pep as they won’t be able to punt him on as per his request along with requesting another 7 figure footballer.