Chances of anything being breaking news on here are very very slim nowadays.
Agreed, hence why I never claimed my post was breaking news... \0/
If I had time to elaborate (I'm now on my lunch break), I'd have pointed out a couple of posts I made late last week...
1. Something seemed off with this transfer, as all the noises were coming from WHU & Arsenal with zip from City, so this seemed to have echoes of Bellingham about it.
2. I can't recall City being involved in any public auctions. We have our valuations & the players we tend to acquire ONLY want City, hence why we get the calibre of player we get, who are certain what they want, & back it up with a principled attitude toward coming to the Etihad.
3. I also floated the possibility that City might have an interest in Rice at our valuation, but our interest could possibly be about driving up the purchase price for Arsenal. Their initial £70m bid now stands at £105m because of City's ONE matching bid. Mission accomplished by Txiki?
4. Our initial bid matching Arsenal's offer was a bit weird. Unless we knew Rice only wanted City, why bid the same as Arsenal when we knew their £90m offer had just been rejected?
5. If we'd bid again topping Arsenal's £105m offer, we could possibly have had our bluff called & ended up paying £20m more than our valuation for Rice.
6. The only people who TRULY know what's happening with Rice are WHU, Rice, Arsenal & City. It's why I always take ITK info with a pinch of salt.
7. My initial "Well well well" post reflected all the above, not because I'm ITK, but because this transfer never seemed right, albeit I'm a big fan of Rice (the player, not Pilau or Uncle Ben's, but I must admit I'm partial to a plate of Basmati).
8. Several posters reported it was ALWAYS Rice to Arsenal & there was little real interest from City? Are they ITK? Lucky? Or did they just connect the dots & make an informed, & ultimately correct calculation based on the evidence in front of them? \0/
Many of those who were resolute in their claims that Rice wasn't coming here were run down & cursed off with derisory comments about their info. Are they now due apologies from those who dismissed their info as total shite?
Rice's transfer/non-transfer is just part of the annual Summer Transfer Window merry-go-round, & personally I take little notice of the speculation & only see it as a bit of fun to fill in the days until the new season commences.
Until I see the player sat next to Txiki with a biro in one hand & City shirt in the other, I pay little more than cursory interest. I learned my lesson with the Isco Disco! :-)
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