Are we dining at the top table or not?

[BillyShears]

I think that Pellegrini is looking to change the system mostly to a 4-2-3-1 in which case 3 strikers should be enough.
The strongest line up for me is.

Hart

Zabaleta Kompany Mangala Kolarov

Fenandinho Fernando

Nasri Yaya Silva

Aguero

I doubt if selling Negrado signals a move to playing one striker. Pellers stated he needed 4 strikers and we played with two in pre season and in all three matches to date. To suddenly rip this up on transfer deadline day would be absurd. It's the sort of decision you make 2 months ago, shape your squad according and practise it in pre season.

The reason why we are trying to rationalise this sale after the event is because it is contrary to how we have done our recent business and we are endeavouring to make sense of it. My own view is that we allowed ourselves to be distracted by the possibility of getting Falcao and set in motion a deal for Negrado we deemed prudent to complete despite the Falcao deal going tits. Financially it is a good deal but one that would have been better made a month ago.

I do agree and also think there was a point in the last 48 hours where Falcao coming here was a real possibility and this kick started us into allowing Negredo to talk to Valencia. Something changed with the Falcao deal and I think we looked at Negredo's injury situation and thought it was one we could handle until the next window at least and the deal was too good to walk away from.

I think it's far too easy to be swayed into thinking that City have made a blunder in letting Negredo go and not signing Falcao. It is equally possible that the plan was always to sell Negredo because he had effectively told the club he had to go for personal reasons. In that circumstance City have two choices. Sell him in June/July for a knock down fee, or, as we have done let the world think that we wouldn't sell him unless we could finance another big deal thus ensuring we received maximum fee for Negredo, and also ensuring that someone somewhere paid top top dollar for a player we never wanted or coveted in the first place.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that Negredo was always going to be sold if his personal circumstances are as have been reported - the fact it was done right on the wire was probably to extricate maximum transfer value. The Falcao deal, even if it was going to happen, was probably only going to happen on the basis that Monaco were desperate to sell and thus we could've done a permanent deal relatively cheaply.

 

[Newman Noggs]

Not only are we dining at the top table, we're belching trophies !

 

[BlueAnorak]

Negrado is 29. 30 this season and he will be out injured till October.
By the terms of the deal Valencia are paying his wages and have to pay us £24m next summer for him.

Then we have the guy who was voted "Most Promising Talent of the Year" at the last CAF awards ceremony, one
Kelechi Iheanacho, I await to see what is happening with his work permit but I suspect a "Most Promising Talent of the Year" award gets you a long way down the secondary criteria route for a work permit..

In case you missed the hype:
<a class="postlink" href="http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2151150-10-things-you-need-to-know-about-manchester-city-prodigy-kelechi-iheanacho" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2151 ... -iheanacho</a>

 

[Deleted member 58678]

This isn't a rant at the club in any shape or form so please bare with me.
I sit at home tonight a little confused about the past 48hrs and our policy for the coming season.
Now don't get me wrong,I am happy with the signings we have made however I feel that we are risking losing a great chance of defending the title by letting Negredo go without a replacement.
Has Financial Fair play really stopped us this window. Not sure of the figures but haven't we still got 20-25 million from the 49 left??

We are supposed to be one of the big boys now but the last 48 hrs have left me a little confused,concerned and hoping we are not shooting ourselves in the foot and in reality just playing along to the fair play tune.

£24.2m in the clear of FFPR i think we were, so FFPR wasn't really a problem with regards to getting a replacement for Negredo.

 

[Lancet Fluke]

Negrado is 29. 30 this season and he will be out injured till October.
By the terms of the deal Valencia are paying his wages and have to pay us £24m next summer for him.

Then we have the guy who was voted "Most Promising Talent of the Year" at the last CAF awards ceremony, one
Kelechi Iheanacho, I await to see what is happening with his work permit but I suspect a "Most Promising Talent of the Year" award gets you a long way down the secondary criteria route for a work permit..

In case you missed the hype:
<a class="postlink" href="http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2151150-10-things-you-need-to-know-about-manchester-city-prodigy-kelechi-iheanacho" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2151 ... -iheanacho</a>

That's the only thing I can think of, that they have been given some kind of assurances off the record that the work permit is going to be sorted.

 

[Danamy]

I think that Pellegrini is looking to change the system mostly to a 4-2-3-1 in which case 3 strikers should be enough.
The strongest line up for me is.

Hart

Zabaleta Kompany Mangala Kolarov

Fenandinho Fernando

Nasri Yaya Silva

Aguero

I doubt if selling Negrado signals a move to playing one striker. Pellers stated he needed 4 strikers and we played with two in pre season and in all three matches to date. To suddenly rip this up on transfer deadline day would be absurd. It's the sort of decision you make 2 months ago, shape your squad according and practise it in pre season.

The reason why we are trying to rationalise this sale after the event is because it is contrary to how we have done our recent business and we are endeavouring to make sense of it. My own view is that we allowed ourselves to be distracted by the possibility of getting Falcao and set in motion a deal for Negrado we deemed prudent to complete despite the Falcao deal going tits. Financially it is a good deal but one that would have been better made a month ago.

I do agree and also think there was a point in the last 48 hours where Falcao coming here was a real possibility and this kick started us into allowing Negredo to talk to Valencia. Something changed with the Falcao deal and I think we looked at Negredo's injury situation and thought it was one we could handle until the next window at least and the deal was too good to walk away from.

I don't see the two connected to be honest

As i said in the transfer forum i still don't believe we were ever in for Falcao, he may have been offered to us with all the noise coming from Mendes but with them weekly prices you can see why City told him to do one.

The Negredo deal was always going to happen with him wanting the move and with the figures being right for both club and player, if it's the right move only time will tell.

 

[EalingBlue2]

No one in England dines at the top table yet, nearly all the big big signings with the possible exception of Costa and aguero have come with the players not wanted by the big two in Spain - top table is messi , bale , reus and I think next summer we will be able within FFP to blow 150m on two players or more and all whilst showing an FFP profit this is a long term game and I suspect by next may we will have won!

 

[wagonman]

Jeeeeeez...

Imagine being adrift at sea for weeks and eventually landing on an island in Paradise to find the only other person there is GaudinoMotors!

I might be inclined to turn around and head back out to sea.

If the only thing happening at City was the first team squad maybe we might have already arrived at our destination but can't you see all the other, massive changes taking place?

There is a long, long term plan in place.

Stoke score a freak breakaway goal and a crocked, overpriced, aging striker chooses to stick his snout in the Scum's pigs swill rather than join the Enlightened One at the Etihad and you sink into a depression!

Take deep breathes... look around at all the roses... and smell that freshly ground coffee.

We are City.

We are the Champions... and will be again.

JJ

 

[BillyShears]

Has there been anything happening on the pitch that has led you to believe that he is seeking a change from two up front? I'm not really interested in whether you would play one up front because Yaya leaves us a bit exposed (FWIW I agree with you) because that is just your opinion and we are discussing whether Pellegrini is looking to change the system which is what you suggested. I'd be amazed if Pellegrini is happy for Txiki to have let Negredo go and not replaced him. Something else that concerns me about yesterday that seems to have gone under the radar is that it looked to me like we were actively trying to get rid of Nastasic. Now Kompany doesn't have the greatest unjury record and it would have left us with just 3 senior centre backs if he'd gone. That for me would have been even worse than what happened with the strikers. Thank goodness Nastasic didn't want to go. But why were we trying to leave ourselves with 3 centre backs and 3 strikers when we play 2 of each in more or less every game?

As it stands the three forwards we have are fit. Even if we lose one, we can still play two up top. We have also had Silva and Yaya play as a forward or just off the forward when other forwards have been fit so it's clearly an option which on occasion Pellegrini has chosen to use. On top of that many of us really genuinely rate Kelechi very highly and if the plan is to have him replace Negredo then some of us think that is an even better situation than having Negredo.

With regards Nastasic. Forget him. His City career is over and the manager doesn't want him. Again your flapping is predicated on injuries. Well Kompany spent plenty of time sidelined last season and we won the title. This season we have added Mangala who is presumably somewhat of an upgrade on Lescott. We also have Fernando who can play at centre half if needs be. We also have Boyata, who despite being a figure of fun on Bluemoon has been given a new contract and kept in the first team squad whilst Denayer has been sent to Celtic. These calls have all been made by Pellegrini and Txiki, so they deserve to have their judgment trusted when last summer's dealings were such a huge success.

Overall it is a shame that we are basically back to where we were 12 months ago with the same people moaning like fuck about how Txiki, Ferran, etc don't know what they're doing. Constructive criticism I can deal with. But just blindly saying we're fucked and the club are stupid when you have zero clue what Pellegrini's wishes were, what Txiki's wishes were, and what Negredo's wishes were, is ignorant childish nonsense. No offence btw, I'm not levelling that specifically at you but more at the general tone of a lot of the posts i've read since last night. The forum's really been true to it's unofficial moniker of Bluemoan.

 

[JoeMercer'sWay]

Can I reiterate that we could not have signed a replacement of at least the calibre of Negredo and fit him into the CL squad, so we would have had to have signed either a mercenary happy to sit out (bad move), or someone not good enough who's English (bad move).

Negredo wanted to go and we got a brilliant fee for him, put that money in the pot for a £50/60m player next summer, at this rate we'll be able to afford 2.