Aymeric Laporte

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jrb said:
Ah! £16mill? WTF! Ain’t £16mill shit happening for Eric!
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If there is one thing this club does reliably consistently, it is consistency.

And accepting 16m would be bonkers. Even 30m which someone mentioned while not completely absurd, would be inconsistent.

Examples. They named a price for Sane, didnt sell him because the offer never came (before he got injured) and sold him the following summer for a new price reflective of the situation. Named a price for Garcia. Didn't sell him because they didn't get it. Let him go for free. Named a price for Torres. Held out till they got it. Had a very reasonable price for Bernardo, wouldn't accept any less. At least two seasons in a row. Wanted 30m for Mahrez. Held out till they got it. That's for an older player with less on his contract.

How do people think the next time they state a player has a value, or refuse to let a player go for a low offer plays out if they just go accepting the same fee of 30m (or less) for a Spain international in his prime with age on his side and years left on his contract. How does it make Bernardo feel, who knuckled down and was professional and respectful over our stance. How daft does it make Pep look when he says it publicly the next time. Or Khaldoon for that matter who says the same.

No chance the club are putting all that at risk to sell him for 16m, even if they gave zero fucks about the money itself. Which they also obviously care about as well, as we have well seen.
 
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FMwkdsoul said:
and now they know we'll take 16m for him.
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No way will Real pay money for him. It’ll be a 12 month loan with no obligation so can’t see him going there as it won’t benefit City. Maybe a loan fee and some saving on wages but fuck all else in it for us.
 
Something about him must be off? His preferences or something? Because NO club came about when it was 30 mil, when the likes of Maguire and co could've gone for that... I mean he could be very picky about club and salary... its still weird only getting 16 mil.
 
ninjamonkey said:
Phillips is the rodri alternative, or should be. He's not going to be playing the role stones is playing where he's moving into midfield from cb or Rico Lewis moving into midfield from fullback. Not going to say never because pep can do anything but he's yet to set us up with 3 defenders on the pitch and don't expect he will do unless injuries force it upon him. 4 defenders always start.

It's silly to include Phillips and rodri as defensive options, unless you're looking at the defensive unit as a 5. who plays in their positions if they're played out of position? If Laporte goes and assuming cancelo is following him and gomez isn't playing in defence then we've got 7 options for 4 spots.
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(Edited your message for size, just to show the bits I'm mentioning).

I'd say 2nd half of last season we more or less always used 3 defenders and 2 deep midfielders. Prior to that we had defenders invert into midfield, but in the 2023 formation the defenders used were actually playing midfield roles, only slotting into defence occasionally when needed (as did Rodri also).

I think looking at it as a defensive 5 is probably more accurate and reliable tbh. Rodri has obviously the size and positioning to allow him to slot in and has played centre back for a country as good as Spain are. When Phillips signed I remember people saying he could fill in there too as he'd played there for Leeds in the Championship (yes, I agree that sounds crazy).

However, regardless of this, I guess it doesn't mean we will play this way this season, or that it may change somewhat. If it doesn't I think we're fine. If Pep does want to do something different then that will be limited by the options we have available to us.

So we've got Stones, Gvardiol, Ake, Walker and Akanji as centrebacks who defend wide spaces, along with Dias who needs to play centrally ideally.

(Gomez and Lewis are additional options as fullbacks but not against anyone special. That role belongs to Walker only.)

Then there's the 2 deep lying midfielders. Rodri obviously, plus either Lewis, Kovacic (who could also play a midfield position further forward) or Stones.

That to me is 9 players for 5 positions, with a couple additionally who can cover a couple of options.

Then there's Gomez too. And Phillips, who I didn't bother with because I expect he'll get around 5 minutes v someone like Colchester in the Carabao.

That feels ok for me generally. Injuries can always bring problems, it looks like we could cope with 2 provided they aren't the ones who cover the same positions, but we'll just have to lucky with that.

I still say everything would look fine if Phillips was a player Pep was happy to pick instead of Rodri on the odd occasion.
 
DeBlueLou said:
Something about him must be off? His preferences or something? Because NO club came about when it was 30 mil, when the likes of Maguire and co could've gone for that... I mean he could be very picky about club and salary... its still weird only getting 16 mil.
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Ffs. It was never 30m. We never put him up for sale at a stupid price.

Nobody came in for him because they'd need to pay a fair fee, and the longer they wait the more that fee becomes up for discussion.
 
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