Who now then?...

[kun]

Pure speculation here, but if Barca offered a straight swap of Rakitic for Gundogan and Gundogan was happy to leave, what would you all think about that?

2 1/2 year age difference in Gundogan favour but I rate Rakitic higher and I think he would hit the ground running in the prem. Would be a difficult one for me.

A million times fuck no.

 

[Ajm1985]

If there are no top class established CM/DMs then it should either be a case of buying potential and making do with what we have while they develop.

 

[kun]

In order:

Mateo Kovačić
Tanguy Ndombele
Adrien Rabiot
Julian Weigl
Stanislav Lobotka
Frenkie de Jong
Giovani Lo Celso
Carlos Soler
Manu Trigueros
Lorenzo Pellegrini
Mario Lemina
Ruben Neves
Leandro Paredes
Morgan Sanson
Marcelo Brozović
Daniele Baselli

 

[BlueRebel7]

What has Kovacic done to be top of the pack? He played the equivalent of about 15 games across all competitions last season for Madrid.

 

[It could have been 10]

In order:

Mateo Kovačić
Tanguy Ndombele
Adrien Rabiot
Julian Weigl
Stanislav Lobotka
Frenkie de Jong
Giovani Lo Celso
Carlos Soler
Manu Trigueros
Lorenzo Pellegrini
Mario Lemina
Ruben Neves
Leandro Paredes
Morgan Sanson
Marcelo Brozović
Daniele Baselli

If you are ranking them in order of ability then I would not consider any out of the top three otherwise we are settling for 4th best in case of Weigl right down to 16th best option in case of Basselli.

 

[Fuzzy80]

Don’t watch any Italian football and only a couple of Croatia games, but noticed today how Croatia set up the midfield similar to ourselves.

Wondered how good Brozovic is for people who have watched more than a couple of games.

 

[Fuzzy80]

In relation to 2012 we learned the worse thing you can do is buy the wrong players.

So if there is no one out there who we feel is of the required standard than to buy no-one is the best we can do.

I don’t think the answer is moving KDB back or Kompany/ Stones forward etc.

It will be to try and get the best out of Delph or Gundogan. I think we have the best in the business in teaching a player that position to be played the way we require.

The signing of Mahrez does free up B Silva to be more DM as does keeping hold of Zinchenko allows Delph to play DM in the games we use the squad.

Mendy back will be a big boost, plus Laporte was really a Summer signing just brought early.

Be interesting to see the way the club goes but don’t feel there is a major need to panic and as others have alluded to not having this fully complete depth of the squad could well given Foden some opportunities.

 

[Delphinho]

In order:

Mateo Kovačić
Tanguy Ndombele
Adrien Rabiot
Julian Weigl
Stanislav Lobotka
Frenkie de Jong
Giovani Lo Celso
Carlos Soler
Manu Trigueros
Lorenzo Pellegrini
Mario Lemina
Ruben Neves
Leandro Paredes
Morgan Sanson
Marcelo Brozović
Daniele Baselli

My list:
Ndombele
Frenkie De Jong
Diawara (unlikely because he plays for Napoli)
Kovacic
Rabiot
Paredes (only seen highlights of him, so don't really know the level)
Ruben Neves
Lemina

 

[Homar]

Thiago Alcantara is the one. Knows what the manager expects and will require very little time to adjust. He would instantly strengthen the team, which is something that I don’t think Jorginho would have done. He was arguably the best midfielder in the world during Pep’s time at Bayern. There’s no reason why he couldn’t return to that form once again.

 

[Mezrah]

My list:
Ndombele
Frenkie De Jong
Diawara (unlikely because he plays for Napoli)
Kovacic
Rabiot
Paredes (only seen highlights of him, so don't really know the level)
Ruben Neves
Lemina

Lucas Tousart from Lyon looks like a good prospect!