Mate, our wage bill is huge.
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We have no idea yet what Guehi is getting, plus they might have decided that they will not prolong with Stones at the end of the season (who must be on important money) and Ake could be sold next summer with a year left on his deal.
In terms of our wage bill, of course itās high in world football, although such information is very difficult to attain, due to how we structure them. You get very dodgy sites about information on wages.
For years they thought Diaz was on poor money (of course he wouldnāt be on a massive one due to the CV he had before coming hereā¦), Pearce denied it last summer.
But itās possible that it did drop somewhat, in a period where weāve lost/sold some top earners and are building a new side.
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His reported 300k a week would have him as the third best paid player on an astronomically expensive squad. There is nothing normal about this sort of salary
I think there is an argument that with as little work as weāve done at CB over the years there was the case to bring in a CB of the stature whoād demand a 300k a week salary, but that clearly isnāt what we thought about guehi, which then just goes back to why we thought we could bolster our CB group with a kid and a āmarket opportunityā signing
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Yep, whatever Man City report is the āon the booksā sum.
They have lots of form for back channel payments.
Itās not up to me to name defenders. The club has decided that the package for Guehi isnāt worth it and itās a reasonable decision on its own. However, if a move for another defender doesnāt take place, and we are all left praying that no one else gets injured, there will be justifiable anger.
In any case, at the moment there is the lingering impression that within a matter of months we have turned from one of the best run clubs to one with no direction.
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The bigger problem for me is if we do not sign a central defender this window. The Guehi thing has been done to death. We all but had him, they reneged, and then he signed for Man City.
Perhaps Guehi had a change of heart on us?
Perhaps we cooled on him?
Perhaps the way the game is going, with all the long throws and set pieces, made us think again about the strengths of his aerial game?
Perhaps we decided the new terms for the player were more than we think heās worth?
So many things we donāt fully know, and while Guehi is a good player, and certainly would improve our group, it didnāt happen.
I can live with that. You canāt sign all the players.
However, if we fail to sign a first team ready central defender in January, that seems like an unreasonable gamble, as we are so threadbare.
We have the CL and FA Cup to play for, and the main goal must now surely be finishing as high as possible in the Prem to qualify for next seasonās CL. One more injury in central defence gives us a mountain to climb, and it just seems reckless to not strengthen there.
Even if we donāt sign a player who would be first or second choice, because the one we want isnāt available until summer, it should not be beyond us to sign someone in January who is fit and can comfortably hold their own as part of the group into the future.
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Yes but weāre not paying Kai Havertz and Gabriel Jesus a combined Ā£28.5m a year because weāre acting like itās still 2011 
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Wages can be more detrimental than transfer fees in the long run, butā¦
We paid Ā£204m for two strikers that weāre yet to see how they play together in a functional team, with other main moves weāve made.
So I think I wonāt laugh at others for a while.
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Was looking okay last time they played together, but then some knob decided to break a leg.
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Konate is only a year older and weāve been paying him a quarter of that for the last four years. We also wouldnāt be offering him anywhere near Ā£300k a week to sign a new deal as neither he nor Guehi are worth that.
Plenty of CBs in that 23-26 range who wouldnāt be in that wage bracket.
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I didnāt even include Gyokeres in that and heās their newest striker, probably the worst of the three and theyāre paying him another Ā£10.5m a year.
But I get your point, weāve not exactly nailed that area but give me our two over their three any day.
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Konate has been fucking shit in the last 3 months and will leave on free after 3 months, but we have fucking no one, then he still plays week in and week out - itās very disappointing. No CB this transfer window is very very terrible decision.
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Yeah I think Gyokeres might not cut it for them (they could still succeed this season though), I feel Jesusā progression stalled already back at a certain point at City. I do like Havertz though.
I like both of our strikers as individual players, but I think last summer we perhaps went too far with all the moves weāve made. Not good enough balance.
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