Declan Rice

[oakiecokie]

Mate - I feel your frustration, but in these situations it’s sometimes helpful to take a breath and remember a decent proportion of the people posting in here during the day are teenagers, obsessed by a need not to have their mates take the piss out of them on social media.

Their hormones are all over the shop, and the sum of their experience of ‘complex negotiation’ is buying shit on ebay.

Would you care what some random 16 year old kid thought about the price you negotiated for your house, or the deal you got on your mortgage?

I know I wouldn’t!

To some extent NvW I agree with you but by fuck we know that there are many many Blue Mooners who don`t fall under this age group and are long standing Mooners. ;)

 

[wolviedinho]

Wonder how Pep feels?

Can’t say he would be too bothered. The club is not a cash machine. We have prices and a structure in place. Rice unobtainable and tbh I don’t understand why we waited to the last min. It not like us. If we want a player we normally do the groundwork in advance.


How invested were we really? I understand respecting Gundo’s decision and if we left it too late then so be it. Stones will just have to continue and I have no problem with that. He won us a champions league in that role.

Come on people relax. Playmaker required txiki. The club is doing its best to give pep the players he wants. That’s good enough for me.

 

[pavelsrnicek]

Fuck it..We have Kovacic and Rodders in the middle.Phillips has to step up this season and get into the groove.
I think we'll have a sniff at a winger next.

I keep hearing Phillips will step next season but I think it’s utter nonsense, if he stays I hope he proves me wrong but Pep played Gundogan, who was overplayed, ahead of him as a 6. He started 4 games (2 cup including our defeat at Southampton and 2 dead rubber league matches including defeat at Brentford).

On the scant evidence so far he simply doesn’t fit for us. Not good enough defensively and not a good enough passer. He’s also one of the very few players Pep has publicly criticised.

If Rodri gets injured I’d say we’ll play Kovacic ahead of him.

The fact that we bid £90m for Rice should tell Phillips how he’s rated by City.

 

[BobKowalski]

Must admit that it's a bit weird that we didn't improve our one and only bid to at least what Arsenal offered

Because we put a valuation on a player and don’t budge. We valued Rice at around £90m, anything above that and we walk. Did it with Cucurella, Kane, Maguire etc. It‘s how we roll.

 

[jimharri]

Arsenal fans stroking themselves into a frenzy on twitter. I don't think they'll finish in the top 2 next season. They won't repeat the opening half of this season; 50 points from 19 games. Using the Eni Aluko applied maths system, that's a point a game.

 

[Eoiyflem]

Dias had to start straight away the defence was a fucking mess. He'll be eased in especially if he is playing the Hybrid LB/LCB/DM role Aké currently fills superbly.

Disagree, we aren't dropping 80+m on a centre back who isn't coming to start. He'll be straight in

 

[tolmie's hairdoo]

@tolmie's hairdoo IF Bernardo stays, City sign Gvardiol and then we’re done? Can’t see is buying an extra player for the sake of it.

Wouldn't be so sure. In saying that, if Bernie stays, I will consider it the best business we do!

 

[wolviedinho]

City come out of this looking very prudent imo. Financial limits like everyone else or so we want them to believe. We play by the rules…

 

[Gingers Dad]

I'd be shocked if we had more than a dozen teenagers posting here. Everything else is true about the 55 year olds who post here, though, including the hormones.

I thought we had minimum age of 50?

 

[CC1]

Na im being honest. It's been widely reported that gundo wanted 2+1 and city were offering 1+1. Pep really wanted gundo to sign which obviously didn't happen due to the clubs policy of not offering longer deals to older players. Sam lee in his article said that declan rice was part of the players requested by pep along with kovacic and gvardiol.

But it doesn’t matter. Gundy has been great but he’s 32/3 & we need to constantly refresh the team. We’ve already brought in Kovacic & we need to find places for our brilliant academy. We’re not done yet.
We improved after Yaya; Silva’s; Vinny; Kun etc. we know what we’re doing & only the desperate need to overpay for a player. We certainly don’t. We’ll have a plan
Stop the negativity- did you honestly think Rice was worth over £110 million??

 

[mancityscot]

The only reason to be concerned is that a rival is considerably improving themselves in a crucial area.

However, I've got faith that Kalvin will be like a new signing next season. Add Kovacic/Perrone into the mix with McAtee, Foden playing more centrally as well as Stones/Rico supporting the midfield, and we weren't in need of Rice.

Even Shea Charles has excellent potential as a holding mid / CB.

these are complete 'ifs' but yeah it could happen

 

[burning blue soul]

So..... Aluko was right???

 

[tolmie's hairdoo]

The way we sometimes bid for players that have a pretty fixed valuation from the seller, with no intention of actually meeting that valuation… it’s almost like it’s intentional so that we can walk away and Khaldoon can say “look, we don’t spend more than the others”.

You do have to wonder. Or we do it to give another target or club a push?

 

[Nicholas van Whatsisface]

I'd be shocked if we had more than a dozen teenagers posting here. Everything else is true about the 55 year olds who post here, though, including the hormones.

Hahaha - you’re probably right mate!

 

[tolmie's hairdoo]

City come out of this looking very prudent imo. Financial limits like everyone else or so we want them to believe. We play by the rules…

I'm not sure prudent is the word. We've telegraphed we have £90m burning a hole for someone.

 

[Sky Blue]

So..... Aluko was right???

No.

 

[Blue and true]

I keep hearing Phillips will step next season but I think it’s utter nonsense, if he stays I hope he proves me wrong but Pep played Gundogan, who was overplayed, ahead of him as a 6. He started 4 games (2 cup including our defeat at Southampton and 2 dead rubber league matches including defeat at Brentford).

On the scant evidence so far he simply doesn’t fit for us. Not good enough defensively and not a good enough passer. He’s also one of the very few players Pep has publicly criticised.

If Rodri gets injured I’d say we’ll play Kovacic ahead of him.

The fact that we bid £90m for Rice should tell Phillips how he’s rated by City.

That last sentence nails it. He's dogshit, the club have realised it and want to get rid; and stake everything I own on that being the case.

 

[FantasyIreland]

Disappointing but we place a value on a player and if that is reached history tells us we walk away.

 

[Blu1]

Glad we have walked away as he’s not worth more than £75 million & that’s down to being English. Good player but he’s not world class.

The fact he selects Arsenal over City tells you everything. Let’s see what he wins over the next few years.

 

[Jokithedruid]

You do have to wonder. Or we do it to give another target or club a push?

Aluko was right all along, all hail the new transfer guru!