Declan Rice

[Bluesince1979]

City are well known for doing deals swiftly and quietly. Nothing gets leaked. I remember grealish was still being touted for united 2 days before we signed him

 

[I'm With Stupid]

I can understand why. Quite a number of years back, they were ok.

Now there’s an over-saturation of them trying to make a quick buck as they say

That and the emphasis on going viral meaning that it pays to have ridiculously over-the-top reactions or opinions. It's not a surprise to see some of the biggest twats getting a gig with TalkSport. It's the same reason that every post match show is more interested in 'hilarious' banter rather than actual analysis these days, and every chat show is more interested in making celebrities play wacky games rather than actually interviewing them.

 

[SWPISHOME]

Really couldn't care less what Twitter has to say on this transfer.

If we sign Rice so be it.

No point flapping about it. If City wany Rice they'll do everything they can to sign him.

 

[LongsightM13]

I think the fact that Ornstein reported yesterday that City a preparing a bid, and West Ham were expecting it yesterday, to today the reports are, City unsure what the midfield will look like. If we were 100% serious, the bid would have been in first thing this morning, as it won’t be long until Arsenals 3rd bid is in.

Unless Arsenal are waiting to see what City bid, so they can match or outbid us (I highly doubt this is the case as they’re already so close to a deal)

If you believe anything Simon Bjakowski writes then more fool you,

 

[citymad]

Love this argument that he's good enough for Arsenal but not for City so he should sign for Arsenal.

I think thats basically what a lot of us are thinking.

 

[richards30]

City are well known for doing deals swiftly and quietly. Nothing gets leaked. I remember grealish was still being touted for united 2 days before we signed him

Yep! Its also laughable to think that we are just saying we are interested to bump the price for the arse to help west ham out? I imagine being a grown up organisation that we are just focusing on making sure we have a fantastic summer window and go for history again next season with fresh new players.

 

[SkyBlueFlux]

its hilarious that people believe we havent registered an interest and now being reported we dont yet know what we want our midfield to look like for next season??

Absolutely. It’s absurd.

This club isn’t run by jokers who make decisions by flipping coins and dicking around like nearly every other team in the league (maybe with the exception of Brighton). The media just make this standing assumption that this is how all clubs operate. Ours doesn’t.

Yes we have to be fluid and plan A doesn’t always work out, but you can be absolutely sure we have plans B through Z already laid and we’re just executing.

Any perceived indecision that the media is reporting on is by design. Khaldoon and Txiki don’t do indecision and freestyle shotgun transfer policy, they are serious people.

 

[Lord Blue]

I know we all are basically working of opinions, and yes maybe some have scraps of inside info, but i get the feeling that we're nothing more than interested and have no intention of making a bid. My understanding is that we usually put a valuation on a player and i suspect that arsenal have already bid more than we think he's worth which usually sees us walk away.

 

[Father Paul]

I’d like to think at this stage we are already clear what we want the midfield to look like.

Rest assured we do this is utter Bollox/

 

[tolmie's hairdoo]

Sure, "lied" is probably too strong a term tbf, it would be better to say that we've been told "yes" by plenty of people before who have then chosen to go elsewhere, so I'm not getting giddy.

Do you mean it would negatively impact the wages because they'd take the transfer money out of the wage packet? I'm not certain that follows necessarily because we see regularly see agents stoking bidding wars to play off clubs for wage offers.Why would they do this?

Happens all the time. The more they save on fee, the more they can afford on wages.

Usually applicable in any supposed bidding war.

To be clear, City pushing the button on Rice has come to me from West Ham.

It was City, however, where I was told months ago that he was the Bellingham fall back.

 

[GunnerGer]

Just asking for a friend, how the Martin ødegaard contract negotiation's going?

No issues as far as I'm aware, the priority was to get Martinelli, Saka and Saliba tied down and by all accounts that's done, as well as Gabriel and Ramsdale.

Odegaard has a contract to 2025 with a years option on top so I'd imagine more priority will be given to that over the coming months but he's captain, is apparently enjoying his time at the club so I've no concerns with that 1.

 

[richards30]

Happens all the time. The more they save on fee, the more they can afford on wages.

Usually applicable in any supposed bidding war.

To be clear, City pushing the button on Rice has come to me from West Ham.

It was City, however, where I was told months ago that he was the Bellingham fall back.

The silence is a good sign now though? I sense the club will want this done as soon as possible as its maybe a faster deal to complete that Gvardiol?

 

[Josh_D]

That and the emphasis on going viral meaning that it pays to have ridiculously over-the-top reactions or opinions. It's not a surprise to see some of the biggest twats getting a gig with TalkSport. It's the same reason that every post match show is more interested in 'hilarious' banter rather than actual analysis these days, and every chat show is more interested in making celebrities play wacky games rather than actually interviewing them.

I keep away from pre & post match shows and such. Never seen anything on talksport. Great for my sanity. The so called pundits for the most part don’t offer any proper analysis. Stopped watching them years ago.

 

[tolmie's hairdoo]

The silence is a good sign now though? I sense the club will want this done as soon as possible as its maybe a faster deal to complete that Gvardiol?

Read in to it what we want. City placed a marker down for Rice last week after our England lads got to also speak to him.

We asked Sullivan to update us when Arsenal improved their bid and we told them a bid was coming in before lunchtime yesterday.

Sullivan does not want to sell to Arsenal and West Ham are convinced City already know Rice's mind.

No reason not to be confident or feel City being played for suckers.

We wanted Sanchez, we got Sergio.

We wanted Kounde, we got Ruben.

We wanted Bellingham, we will get Rice or another top option.

 

[richards30]

Read in to it what we want. City placed a marker down for Rice last week after our England lads got to also speak to him.

We asked Sullivan to update us when Arsenal improved their bid and we told them a bid was coming in before lunchtime yesterday.

Sullivan does not want to sell to Arsenal and West Ham are convinced City already know Rice's mind.

No reason not to be confident or feel City being played for suckers.

We wanted Sanchez, we got Sergio.

We wanted Kounde, we got Ruben.

We wanted Bellingham, we will get Rice or another top option.

 

[foggy1974]

Seems you’re more ITK than me, you think we’ve secretly signed him and not told anyone, and waiting till he’s back from Benidorm to let the media know..

Just out of curiosity , who announced Haaland & when ???

It certainly wasn't Haalands camp

 

[HelloCity]

I think Rice may sit alongside Rodri if he comes in.

In terms of missing out on Bellingham to play alongside De Bruyne, I think we’ll see a better player than Bellingham playing that role instead - Phil Foden.

If Foden was at Dortmund then Real Madrid would have wanted him and he’d have been worth over £100m. If we’d had signed him we’d all be buzzing about this new midfielder who literally has everything to his game and who also happens to be by far the most technically gifted English player.

The future is bright for our midfield I believe.

 

[supercity88]

Read in to it what we want. City placed a marker down for Rice last week after our England lads got to also speak to him.

We asked Sullivan to update us when Arsenal improved their bid and we told them a bid was coming in before lunchtime yesterday.

Sullivan does not want to sell to Arsenal and West Ham are convinced City already know Rice's mind.

No reason not to be confident or feel City being played for suckers.

We wanted Sanchez, we got Sergio.

We wanted Kounde, we got Ruben.

We wanted Bellingham, we will get Rice or another top option.

I met up with a few long time friends last night, a couple of which are West Ham fans and they're desperate for him to come to City over Arsenal.

He has to decide whether he backs himself to play regularly for us at the top level, but fresh from tasting European success it's a no brainer to go and join the team that's just won the big ones, rather than a team making all the right noises but ultimately still failing.

With the desperation from Arsenal to sign him, the quieter it goes the more confident I'd be.

 

[Ric]

I think Rice may sit alongside Rodri if he comes in.

In terms of missing out on Bellingham to play alongside De Bruyne, I think we’ll see a better player than Bellingham playing that role instead - Phil Foden.

If Foden was at Dortmund then Real Madrid would have wanted him and he’d have been worth over £100m. If we’d had signed him we’d all be buzzing about this new midfielder who literally has everything to his game and who also happens to be by far the most technically gifted English player.

The future is bright for our midfield I believe.

I think Foden will establish himself as one of the very best players in the world once he starts playing centrally on a regular basis for us. This is his time.

 

[5 Hit Gibbon]

I wasn't sure about this one but I'm warming to it now.