Aymeric Laporte

[pml79]

Never knowingly seen him play but Pep wanted him so that was good enough for me.

Tricky has not done well again tho. This seemed tied up but he's at the very least badly misread the situation and not got the deal fully signed off.

Don't think the club knew either think the player changed last min without telling city

 

[geoff clipp]

You clearly don't think City are one of the biggest clubs in Europe. Fair enough. But if people question his ambition for staying at Bilbao in his comfort zone when Pep came calling they're entitled to ask the question. Perfectly natural. All this "what a great loyal guy" is proper naive.

Look, I get we're a big club and we have a lot of resource in place to go a long way. It makes us a very attractive proposition to some very good players. But to someone in Laporte's position, I can understand that we probably don't even come close to the likes of Barcelona and if he believes that move is possible for him, I don't think it makes him unambitious.

I agree with you on the point that it's probably naive to go all misty eyed and call him loyal etc for staying with Bilbao as it's quite possible his real reasons for staying were to hold out for another move.

 

[blue b4 the moon]

Don't think the club knew either think the player changed last min without telling city

I appreciate that but if the deals done get pen to paper rather than give him 2/3 weeks to 'bottle it'/ use us for a better deal/allow Bilbao to pressurise him etc.

 

[01cravend]

What is Plan B ?

Should go for one of Samuel Umtiti or Andreas Christensen

 

[Chom]

Don't think the club knew either think the player changed last min without telling city

Does anyone know whether he ever told City he would move? As far I am aware, he was told that City would be willing to activate his buy-out clause and was given a few days to decide. He listened to Athletic's counter offer and decided to stay.

 

[Lkzerinho]

Should go for one of Samuel Umtiti or Andreas Christensen

I actually really rate him, and would probably cost less than Laporte

 

[M18CTID]

Hi mate.....I've had time to calm down this morning after the news!;) but got to admit, some of the rumours/comments the club leaked to the press, after the news came out just didnt help the situation.....all this "not first option" and "too expensive for a young player" reports seemed a bad move and we would haven been better off just keeping silent...we laugh at the rags for doing this and these rumoured press leaks just seemed to be a bad PR move to hide our disappointment at missing out on the player...

I agree, I respect Laporte for staying, he must really love his club to turn down an extra 3mil a year salary and dont have any issue with him staying, he made the move that was right for him! Good luck to the lad!...Txiki now just needs to move quicker than he has done in past summers, if we want the squad anywhere near being set by the time Pep arrives..

While I don't expect the club to come out and say they were gutted at not getting him, this is spot on IMO. We'd have been better off saying nothing. United fans have no room to highlight it though, considering their club has loads of previous form for it and those statements from Ferguson about "no value in the market", only to then go and sign Bebe for £7 million. No issue with them taking the piss out of the deal not going through because that's what rival fans do.

 

[Busmo Funbag]

Maybe he looked at how things worked out for Savic, Nastasic, Mangala and Ottamendi and decided there may be a better career path for him than to come to England and join a club that in recent years mainly has a habit of not helping central defenders kick on in their careers?

 

[IanBishopsHaircut]

I can't but help feel that we have been used here to negotiate a better deal with the club he obviously loves

My contact advises that both him and his representatives gave firm assurances that he would be coming only to pull this at the last minute with City completely in the dark about it

I think we've been mugged off

 

[City_Sean]

Maybe he looked at how things worked out for Savic, Nastasic, Mangala and Ottamendi and decided there may be a better career path for him than to come to England and join a club that in recent years mainly has a habit of not helping central defenders kick on in their careers?

Or maybe he doesn't have the Stones to move to a big club and is willing to settle for mediocrity?