Riyad Mahrez

[TRUE BLUE NO1]

Some terrific breaking news there.

Now that Jorginho looks done, I'd expect alot of these "ongoing" reports in the Mahrez thread over the next few weeks!;)

 

[Bill Walker]

Walk away City
lets see if they can fleece someone else for Mahrez (probably not)

 

[Bill Walker]

Where’s the Liverpool bollocks coming from?!?

Liverpool probably

 

[kun]

You would expect us to have some "talent spotters" in North Africa though.

I imagine we do. Riyad Mahrez however, never played in North Africa (other than for the national team). Your other example, Salah, did play in Egypt for a while but he was far from our level for a long time and 4 transfers and 2 loans before we got Liverpool Salah. Chelsea managed to spot him at Basel and look where it got them.

 

[Lovebitesandeveryfing]

The more I think about it, the more it seems to me that the Jorginho and Mahrez transfers are linked, strategically. The fact that we've bargained, and bargained very hard, with Napoli and De Laurentiis, and got him down to a very reasonable price for what seems like a genuinely class defensive midfielder, sends out a strong signal to Leicester (and whoever else we may be dealing with up the road). The days when His Highness had to shell out silly money to get name players to come to little old City are definitively in the past.

 

[doobyedoobye]

If the perceived stalling of negotiations prevent him from joining up on time for pre season then we can safely assume there is a problem with the deal..

 

[foxedup]

Laporte had a buy out clause which was increased by £20m after we initially tried to sign him two seasons ago.

City tax.

So you overpaid? Because all I keep hearing is that you won't overpay any more.

 

[FantasyIreland]

So you overpaid? Because all I keep hearing is that you won't overpay any more.

We paid what we thought the lad was worth.

 

[blue61]

So you overpaid? Because all I keep hearing is that you won't overpay any more.

No we paid the release clause, Mahrez doesn't have one

 

[foxedup]

The problem for Leicester is they last seasons market seems to have gone away. You can’t cite Sanchez, Pogba, Dembele or Coutinho imo when that kind of money isn’t being spent. Fekir was mid 50s, Lemar around 60. Lamar was rumored at 90 last season. I don’t think the market has cratered and you can debate Mahrez in relation to these and other players but their valuation being pegged to last transfer season is a mistake

So a man with two goals and eight assists in a poorer league is the same price as someone who gets more than that playing in a defensive premier league team. You pay a premium because it's not even a risk. He's proven and in his prime.

If this was the other way around and Mahrez played for Monaco and Lemar played for Leicester, I'm convinced nobody on here would give a hoot about paying £70m+ for him, whilst Lemar at Leicester you'd all say wasn't worth more than £25m.