De Bruyne?

Fuck me when has a £50m transfer ever been easy? Barcelona took 6 months to sign Neymar, you didn't hear their fans saying "he doesn't want to come! Call it off!". Give it time.
 
We did that before when we missed out on Hazard and Isco, we ended up with Garcia and Jovetic. It doesn't work
I hope I'm wrong and they do sign, but if it was me I would be giving positive vibes that I did want to join. How long do we let it drag out? If after another few weeks they don't sign are you happy with who we've got?
 
@MCFClnfo: City are set to increase their efforts to sign Wolfsburg’s Kevin De Bruyne this weekend. [M.E.N]
 
I hope I'm wrong and they do sign, but if it was me I would be giving positive vibes that I did want to join. How long do we let it drag out? If after another few weeks they don't sign are you happy with who we've got?

the team last year with yaya not at his best Aguero out for at least a month plus kompany injured most of the season we got second! we have Sterling which is a major plus for this season, so if we don't get anyone else we will challenge for the league
 
The impression I got, and I could well be wrong on this, is that De Bruyne is happy to come but doesn't want to request a move and forsake a loyalty payment (or possibly tarnish his reputation with their fans should it fall through).

Wolfsburg, for their part, reluctantly accept that they can't really turn down a bid of that magnitude (despite the backing of VW), but don't want to be seen to be forcing him out of the door. It would anger their fans, and force them to pay the aforementioned "loyalty" bonus.

Thus, it's a stalemate at the moment hence our reluctance to make a formal bid at present. One that I'm pretty sure will be resolved sooner rather than later though, as it's not insurmountable.
 
I hope I'm wrong and they do sign, but if it was me I would be giving positive vibes that I did want to join. How long do we let it drag out? If after another few weeks they don't sign are you happy with who we've got?

Going into the season adding just Delph and Sterling to the first team would be suicide.....still 2 short in midfield and also dont have a decent left back or back up right back ......and we rely on Bony and Nacho if Aguero is out ....
 
the team last year with yaya not at his best Aguero out for at least a month plus kompany injured most of the season we got second! we have Sterling which is a major plus for this season, so if we don't get anyone else we will challenge for the league
Exactly, Yaya was also away to Afcon. Where we stand now is we replaced one trick pony Navas(who I dont hate and I think is decent player) With Sterling who is obviously quite better in dribbling, passing, link up play, hell even scoring and who is 20 yo. And also added Delph. Some people on here are acting like if we dont sing Pogba or KDB, mostly Pogba, we are destined for years of mediocrity lol. That being said, come on Txiki get KDB
 
The impression I got, and I could well be wrong on this, is that De Bruyne is happy to come but doesn't want to request a move and forsake a loyalty payment (or possibly tarnish his reputation with their fans should it fall through).

Wolfsburg, for their part, reluctantly accept that they can't really turn down a bid of that magnitude (despite the backing of VW), but don't want to be seen to be forcing him out of the door. It would anger their fans, and force them to pay the aforementioned "loyalty" bonus.

Thus, it's a stalemate at the moment hence our reluctance to make a formal bid at present. One that I'm pretty sure will be resolved sooner rather than later though, as it's not insurmountable.

Thanks Ric!.....your comments got me thinking....Wouldnt a formal bid from City let Wolfsburg off the hook? If they had been offered a large fee, that they couldnt turn down, they would keep their fans on side and De Bruyne would keep his loyalty payment and also keep his reputation with the Wolfsburg fans because he hadnt needed to put in a transfer request....everybody wins and we get our player......think we need to force the issue somehow or this could drag on for the rest of the window.....thanks again for the update
 
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Going into the season adding just Delph and Sterling to the first team would be suicide.....still 2 short in midfield and also dont have a decent left back or back up right back ......and we rely on Bony and Nacho if Aguero is out ....

Rubbish we have a good enough squad now to win the league
 
If that's the case Ric then this thread will drag on for another 2 weeks at least - possibly 5 till the window shuts.
 
Going into the season adding just Delph and Sterling to the first team would be suicide.....still 2 short in midfield and also dont have a decent left back or back up right back ......and we rely on Bony and Nacho if Aguero is out ....
Got to agree. Delph looks a great acquisition but we need 2 quality players in to be realistic challengers.
 
why do you think that

At the risk of veering this thread further off topic, I don't think it's unreasonable to suggest we need to sign a high quality central midfielder. Our two best are on the wrong side of 30, and unless there was something else afoot last season it was pretty clear that we can't accommodate Yaya in a midfield 2 anymore. At the very least signing a quality CM who can grow into the team is prudent planning, if not immediately necessary. To say we're ok because we finished 2nd is a bit disingenuous. The season after winning our first title under Mancini we also finished 2nd (And an FA Cup final), yet management still recognized the need to sign 4 quality players, at least 3 of which were instrumental in us winning the league the season after.

Edit: Thought I was in the Pogba thread, but the point still stands with De Bruyne. I think both would be an excellent start, along with Sterling, to building a side to conquer Europe.
 
At the risk of veering this thread further off topic, I don't think it's unreasonable to suggest we need to sign a high quality central midfielder. Our two best are on the wrong side of 30, and unless there was something else afoot last season it was pretty clear that we can't accommodate Yaya in a midfield 2 anymore. At the very least signing a quality CM who can grow into the team is prudent planning, if not immediately necessary. To say we're ok because we finished 2nd is a bit disingenuous. The season after winning our first title under Mancini we also finished 2nd (And an FA Cup final), yet management still recognized the need to sign 4 quality players, at least 3 of which were instrumental in us winning the league the season after.

fair response and some good points, for me last year we very rarely played our best 11 plus yaya for what ever reason had a poor season, adding sterling and Delph has improved us Mangala with a season behind him kompany back to full fitness, says to me we have the team to compete for the league, oh it's a myth now that when your 33 you gone as a player, wasn't landed 37 and he was pretty good when on the pitch...
 
So who would you drop then to accommodate this midfield three?. If we base the team on my system of a 4-2-3-1 with the three being Nasri/De Bruyne, Silva, Sterling and Aguero up top which player would you drop. I fail to see how dropping any of those three for Fernando or Delph would help us retain the ball better. I can understand being more pragmatic in certain games but a typical game, particularly at the Etihad, is primarily based in the oppositions half. Removing a creative player to allow a midfield three to counter a non-existent attacking threat seems pretty pointless.

In your scenario i'd go with what you suggest. Like we've both said, we'll have more than the majority of the ball against most teams so we shouldn't need that extra man at the base. My post was mainly pointing towards a system to play against the bigger teams in the league and the champs league especially where we routinely get picked apart defensively. And I'd drop Nasri/De Bruyne without much hesitation. A midfield 3 from Yaya Delph Fernando Fernandinho and potentially Pogba with Silva Sterling and Aguero infront of them would be a far stronger side imo.
 
In your scenario i'd go with what you suggest. Like we've both said, we'll have more than the majority of the ball against most teams so we shouldn't need that extra man at the base. My post was mainly pointing towards a system to play against the bigger teams in the league and the champs league especially where we routinely get picked apart defensively. And I'd drop Nasri/De Bruyne without much hesitation. A midfield 3 from Yaya Delph Fernando Fernandinho and potentially Pogba with Silva Sterling and Aguero infront of them would be a far stronger side imo.

Fair enough mate. I am not sure De Bruyne would react so favourably to being dropped for the big premiership or Champs League matches or we would be pursuing him for the reported fee if that was our intention. If we did get Pogba the scenario is more likely but I cannot see it happening to accommodate Fernando or Delph
 
fair response and some good points, for me last year we very rarely played our best 11 plus yaya for what ever reason had a poor season, adding sterling and Delph has improved us Mangala with a season behind him kompany back to full fitness, says to me we have the team to compete for the league, oh it's a myth now that when your 33 you gone as a player, wasn't landed 37 and he was pretty good when on the pitch...

I'm not saying that Yaya and Fernandinho are gone as players because they're over 30, just that it's not the worst time to be planning for their departure. Yaya still has something to offer, but IMO we're drifting into the realms of changing the team to accommodate him, unless the plan is to always play with 3 midfielders.

If Jovetic and Dzeko both leave as planned, we absolutely must sign at least De Bruyne. I'm not so fussed about replacing Dzeko as I think our fascination with having 4 strikers has been one of the things really holding us back, but we'll definitely need another solid ACM. Remember that despite signing Delph and Sterling, we have lost Milner and Lampard already.

I agree that last season we had some rotten luck with injuries, but there was always a very large feeling that we'd be figured out just a few too many times. The best teams adapt, and usually the best way of doing that is new players bringing different skills. The thought of having to figure out what to do with Sterling on top of Aguero and Silva will already be giving coaches nightmares.
 

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