Declan Rice

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domalino said:
It's also worth remembering that just because Bernardo was a good boy and buckled down after not getting his move the last 2 years, doesn't mean he will this year.

Prior peformance no indicator of future results etc.

I don't think it's in his character to do what Cancelo did, but the Mrs. wants away, new kid coming, easy to take your eye off the ball and let other things in life take priority.

Plus IIRC Cancelo, Gundogan, Sterling and Laporte were some of Bernardo's closest friends at the club, and they're all gone/going.
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Bernado needs someone to put an acceptable bid in for him first, something which hasn’t happened over the past two summers.

If such a bid were rejected by the club, then I agree he may well let his performances drop. But if no bid materialises, then he’s got no choice but to get on with it, as he has done for the past couple of years.
 
JewelZee said:
I wouldn't consider having a prime Bernardo stay for at least another year kicking the can down the road. Freshening up the squad is one thing but moving on from super players in their prime prematurely is another. If Bernardo stays that's better than just about any new addition we can make at the moment. There's plenty of time to address his potential departure down the line. Are we kicking the can on KDB, Walker, Mahrez? All much more in line with your position than the little wizard...
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Knowing when to move on players is key to evolving a team without going backwards. I personally think that winning a treble, finally getting the CL trophy, after trying to leave the club for 3 years, is going to motivate Bernardo even more to leave. And if he stays, there's a bigger chance he'll coast.

KDB and Mahrez have not consistently expressed a desire to leave City. Hence, I'm not overly worried about replacing them because their attitude remains correct.
 
BillyShears said:
There's an enormous downside to keeping him for 2 years. It is self evident. In 2 years he'll leave on a free the same year Pep's contract expires.

I appreciate that the club have managed the squad well, but a cornerstone of that success has been Pep. He has consistently worked small miracles by making players multifunctional and getting the best out of them in positions that aren't natural to them.

All I'm saying is that you have to prepare for life after Pep if you think he'll go in 2 years (which I think he will). You can't sleepwalk into that summer because the other side of that hill won't just be "a bit of upheaval" - it'll be one of the most difficult transitions in the history of the football club.

Again, none of this is a criticism of the club or of Pep. As I said earlier, if we keep Bernardo, I think we will be fine with Kovacic replacing Gundo. But I personally think selling Bernardo this summer is ripping off a plaster which needs ripping off and addressing the underlying issue.
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No stopping the decline when Pep does leave. It’s something we all have to accept. This is as good as it gets imo. His departure will be brutal.
 
City Raider said:
Are we walking away or are we playing the long game? Public knowledge West Ham don’t like Arsenal’s terms. We may have put Sullivan in a spot.
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Well Sullivan has certainly gone from sitting on his fat arse smugly rejecting bids waiting for both sides to keep offering him more money, to having one offer on the table, the terms of which he doesn't like.
 
If we wanted him, I'm convinced we'd have him.

Rodri and Phillips will do, Rodri's already one of the best in the world. Onto sorting out the backline
 
BlueRockape said:
I wonder what Rice wanted City or arsenal it seems as if he had no choice just go to the highest bidder .
If he had a choice surely it must have been arsenal a player now a days goes to the club he wants within reason.
Saying that it does look like we have been used to bump up the price
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Maybe he chose Arsenal over us for an English record transfer fee because he didn’t want to get booed at every away game for the rest of his career
 
As someone who dont rate Rice I'm happy City finally are pulling out of this ”race”. Not sure why we got involved at all, everyone in world football knew he would cost 100m+ minimum, especially since big spenders Arsenal had him as their number one target, except apparently City for some reason who did ourselves no favors being involved in this bidding. Just told the world we have at least 90m to spend on a midfielder and gave our league rivals a boost by letting them ”win” a race about player against us. We would have been in a far better position if we had just not entered at all.

With that said, we are treble winners and are obviously doing most things right. We will most likely be the favorites in every competition we enter next year, probably the year after that as well. But its hard to argue many things have gone right so far this transfer window after missing out on Bellingham, getting our extension offer rejected by our captain, replacing him with a player who is decent but a clear downgrade, and now this whole Rice saga.

I'm sure we will have a good transfer window in the end, we usually do, but the start of this summer window has been far from convincing. Signing Gvardiol would be a step in the right direction against a good window.
 
I’m not terribly concerned about missing out on Rice. Decent enough player but not worth 105m in my view.

Kovacic is I think a good player and a very good buy for the money.

However we really do need to buy another midfielder given Gundogan’s departure and KDB’s fitness issues. Phillips is nowhere near the required level and we can’t go into another season without a proper alternative to Rodri.
 
wolviedinho said:
No stopping the decline when Pep does leave. It’s something we all have to accept. This is as good as it gets imo. His departure will be brutal.
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I don't think City as an organisation will think like that, and I certainly don't think like that. The decline will happen if the club do stupid things like letting the squad age unnecessarily, and not refresh the squad in preparation for his exit.
 
I find it hard to read that one, its not like we were first in like for Cucu as well.
 
Blu1 said:
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.
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Agree with your first part.

Don't see the issue with him choosing Arsenal though. London lad and probably wants to stay in the area. Probably realises the likes of KDB and Rodri will start ahead of him and he might not even feature regularly. I imagine he'll start every game at the Arse. Prefer players that want to play every game and not just be part of a squad picking up medals and raking in the money. That should be applauded not derided for a lack of ambition.
 
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