When I first saw the rumour, my first thought was that there are sales lined up. Can’t stop thinking Phil and another to Newcastle. But you are probably right they have a lot of bodies that can make way.
Wouldn’t surprise me if City were flexible on the terms…
Which is odd to me, because at least while fit he seemed to have adapted well to the not really a striker striker role, and established himself in the Spanish side as well. It seems odd Pep would be willing to let him go. They dont need to raise the money and they dont need to make room in their squad either, so even if they were looking to do something huge to bring in someone they have the room to do it without getting rid of a player who looks to have been a success.
Is there something going on there that I have missed?
He’s realised peps a cunt so wants out?
Homesick or picking up a youngster from Barca?
It is very fishy. Barcelona don’t have a pot to piss in, and Man City would love to spend, but need to be careful in how they are able to disguise it.
I suspect that what is going on to balance the books is far worse than Barcelona selling a few more players than we might have expected.
Back channels. Nation state stuff. Buying debt. It’s not difficult to imagine it being way more convoluted than simple player transactions.
All that previous FFP transgressions taught them was to be more careful.
If Man City come out of this with Haaland, either in January or summer, I’m gonna be ticked off. The way they play crushes teams and they create a lot of chances. They already score plenty of goals. With Ivan Drago as centre forward it will be that much tougher to compete. The cheats.
I thought the issue with Barca was ratio of wages to revenue rather than cold hard cash available. But they also recently took out a sizeable loan so maybe they have literally bought themselves some breathing room.
Obviously Messi going helps massively with the wages. Others went too. Aguero retiring frees up a bit more but also creates that need
And with Dembele certainly a goner come the summer plus Coutinho and Umtiti being joined by de Jong and rumours of the keeper being bombed out to they’ve made big changes.
Seems they’re really pushing for a more Latin/Spanish squad with homegrown kids at the heart of it all.
Still not sure the optics of losing Messi and pleasing poverty then buying Ferran Torres for a huge fee when he’s not really done much at City are good for the club.
It’s both. There is a fairly complex equation they use that rolls down from there to an unambiguous figure of what they are authorized to spend on new players. Presumably getting Kun off the wages will help both in terms of freeing up wages for someone else, but also affect that calculation that gives them more money to spend.
Yip, complete Barca logic. We borderline bankrupt, let’s take out a loan and buy someone, and then let’s try recoup some money on players that don’t want to leave!
Ha ha, It does have a whiff of the Sideshow Bob Chelsea-PSG-Chelsea about it. The so called win-win situation for both sides. A book balancing act.
But then again, it could just be Pep being Pep. Take Leroy Sane. Was absolutely surprised they sold him. But wasn’t he injured as well when sold? Maybe Pep knows something is not 100% with the player.
Apparently he’s homesick and has been pining to go back to Spain. Pep has said he’s fine lettig anyone go who doesnt want to be there. So that kind of explains it on City’s end just still struggling to see how Barca wing it without one or 2 unexpected outward moves first.
When I logged on this evening, I saw lots of mentions on twitter of Coutinho to either Everton or Arsenal. That might be the start of it.
Plus Pep wants another fullback
Won their last 10 league games. This was always clear with their easy fixture list in December and not having league cup games.
They went on runs like this in the past with more injuries and being active in all 4 competitions.
They make most fixtures more easier than other teams. They play the best football most of the time, the rest, or us, depend more on being stronger in moments and both boxes and being ready on possible weaker spells by City or problems exactly at both (or one) ends of the pitch.
It’s a remarkable era in the PL, two highly competitive teams, a changing bunch below and then the rest among which are some teams that are good on the eye and have variety in styles.
I’ve spent past few years bashing German and Italian leagues because of Bayern’s and Juventus’ respective dominance but I’m afraid that, to borrow the line from Twin Peaks, “it is in our house now”. There’s plenty to admire about the way the play football, about the technical quality and tactical adaptability of their players but I can’t and will never separate it from the fact that Guardiola, for all of his coaching qualities, has basically bought all these trophies after being bankrolled by a state with infinite wealth.
This is perhaps for a different thread but I’m genuinely worried that this Man City as a club and as a team is so rich and powerful that it will basically reduce what is perhaps the best Liverpool side since '84 to a rich man’s version of Borussia Dortmund - only without Liverpool players moving to Man City (though I wouldn’t put it past them to try to get someone from Liverpool, maybe Trent given Guardiola’s obsession with buying expensive fullbacks).