De Bruyne?

[mosssideblue]

People (not specifically you) make these comments on Txiki's performance - yet they do not know the brief he has been given by Soriano and Khaldoon. Yes it will certainly have aspects of securing top players, but I guess that it will also include securing a professional reputation and this being demonstrated in how we do business. Why should the Sheik, Khaldoon - or any one at the club - and this includes fans - want to be sneered at as some thick lottery winner that can be mugged off because they know no better. The club is becoming increasingly professional in all areas - and it is time that we made transfer dealings the same.

And who actually can evidence poor performance by Txiki in this KDB affair - the comments made on here are so banal. He has likely spent months preparing the ground through the agent and thereby getting the player onside, then choosing the right time to approach the club - he is perhaps better qualified than anyone on here to determine when that should be.

Of course the selling club were always going to play hard-ball. What would have happened if we had gone in straight away with £50m - they would have accepted?? I doubt it - more like they would have thought "lets milk the chavs for £75m" - and there would have been some crass negotiation settling on £60mish.

I think that Ric is right and we are likely to end up with a settlement between that offered and that requested - has anyone actually thought to give Txiki credit for therefore getting the starting point of expectation lower so that the eventual settling point is lower?

Great post mate.

 

[VOOMER]

Just for clarity, is this fact or your opinion?

I would say that the EPL as a whole is much stronger than the Bundesliga, for his state of mind, pure opinion, why do you know him?

 

[SPIDERBOY]

I would say that the EPL as a whole is much stronger than the Bundesliga, for his state of mind, pure opinion, why do you know him?

Are you his psychologist?

 

[mosssideblue]

I would say that the EPL as a whole is much stronger than the Bundesliga, for his state of mind, pure opinion, why do you know him?

No I don't but you seem to quote it as fact, so I thought you might of

 

[Rhapsody in Blue]

KDB is coming. No ifs.

Stephenhakin just wrote this, that together with Ric's positive posts is good enough for me. Scary to think that the team that played so fantastic football against WBA can become even better :)

 

[TiaMaria7]

Aguero

Sterling - Silva - De Bruyne
​

That's scary, City should be doing what they can to make it happen.

Add Otamendi at the back and that's favorites for the league and a good CL run IMO.

 

[GeorgeHeslop'sTackle.]

I've posted this before elsewhere but I'll post it again. I think some blues understandably proud and passionate about our club tend to forget that the outside world and players in general just don't see our club as we do. We are in the north of England which in itself is nothing like as attractive to the average foreign player as London is, let alone Madrid or Barcelona. We have had recent success yes, but our successes are limited compared to the top clubs we are looking to overtake on the world stage. Our CL performances have been underwhelming. Our manager doesn't have any particular gravitas or special appeal.

The net net is that if a top player becomes available and other top clubs are interested (Bayern, Chelsea, Real, Barca, United...) then unless we bid MORE than those clubs and offer to pay MORE then 9 times out of 10 we will lose out.

This isn't us being mugged or treated like chumps - it's the plain unavoidable reality. Of course in time, things will change, but for now if we want to sign the top talent we are going to have to pay over the odds and trying to save a few million here and there is just going to mean us missing out again and again.

Look at the Sterling situation - yes we got him, but look at what we had to pay to make it happen, and that was with a player pretty desperate to leave. If Chelsea or United had come in with the same bid at the last moment, doubtless he would have gone there instead. We only got him because we paid over the odds.

The alternative is to buy b-list players and hope they become a-list. We can pull that off occasionally but again 9 times out of 10 they will stay b-list and we don't need backup players, we need to add top talent if we are to progress from where we are.

Bottom line, pay Wolfsburg what is needed and get it done.

Still can't understand why he hasn't publicly asked for a transfer if he genuinely wants to join us

It would certainly make life easièr

 

[supercity88]

Good post.

I also think that people seem to view transfers in isolation and think "well who cares if we pay 5/10 million more". The problem is when you want to buy 3/4 players that quickly becomes 30 million plus extra you've paid for the players. That's the cost of one extra player so I can understand why the club are doing their best to get the best deals possible. Simply blaming Txiki or saying he doesn't know what he's doing is frankly just stupid. Txiki doesn't decide the budget for a player, Khaldoon and Soriano do.

I think a lot of people are taking this "shackles off" idea too far.
What Khaldoon said was all PR. It was a season review and a statement of intent.
It was our intention this summer to improve the playing squad and have a side capable of challenging on all fronts.
It's not a limitless budget by any means. FFP still looms and is something we'll still be wary of.
Though we've again offloaded players on high wages, we've had to loan Dzeko and Jovetic and haven't got much cash in the pocket to play with other than the added funds from getting those two, Milner, Richards, Lampard and Sinclair off the wage bill.
We've identified players and we will have been sensible about how much they will likely cost. We'll have set a limit to what we'll spend and we'll have come up with a strategy for signing those players.

With Sterling it was well known he'd cost £50m. We played the long game and managed to work the fee down to £44m for this summer. It may rise to £49m but we've effectively saved £6m to what Liverpool wanted as a lump sum.

With De Bruyne we're probably working a similar strategy. The only difference is he hasn't spoken out about wanting to leave and Wolfsburg have been quiet publicly and just regurgitated the fact he's not for sale. He will be or we'd have never been in discussions for the player. I'm sure there have been several other players we've sounded out (Godin for instance) where we've known early it's not a likely transfer so moved on. That's not the case here so I'm confident we'll get him.

If we can argue £50m down to £49.5 million then that's a job well done even if it's take two weeks. We've still got a good enough team to beat Chelsea regardless.

 

[domalino]

I think a lot of people are taking this "shackles off" idea too far.
What Khaldoon said was all PR. It was a season review and a statement of intent.
It was our intention this summer to improve the playing squad and have a side capable of challenging on all fronts.
It's not a limitless budget by any means. FFP still looms and is something we'll still be wary of.
Though we've again offloaded players on high wages, we've had to loan Dzeko and Jovetic and haven't got much cash in the pocket to play with other than the added funds from getting those two, Milner, Richards, Lampard and Sinclair off the wage bill.
We've identified players and we will have been sensible about how much they will likely cost. We'll have set a limit to what we'll spend and we'll have come up with a strategy for signing those players.

With Sterling it was well known he'd cost £50m. We played the long game and managed to work the fee down to £44m for this summer. It may rise to £49m but we've effectively saved £6m to what Liverpool wanted as a lump sum.

With De Bruyne we're probably working a similar strategy. The only difference is he hasn't spoken out about wanting to leave and Wolfsburg have been quiet publicly and just regurgitated the fact he's not for sale. He will be or we'd have never been in discussions for the player. I'm sure there have been several other players we've sounded out (Godin for instance) where we've known early it's not a likely transfer so moved on. That's not the case here so I'm confident we'll get him.

If we can argue £50m down to £49.5 million then that's a job well done even if it's take two weeks. We've still got a good enough team to beat Chelsea regardless.

There was no chance KDB was going to start against Chelsea unless he signed 2+ weeks ago anyway. Some of the posters on here were living in a dreamworld trying to work out if he'd have started if we got it done yesterday, ridiculous.

 

[Ray78]

We have already broken our transfer record in signing Raheem Sterling. Correct me if I am wrong but is that not a sign of the shackles being off?