Declan Rice

[nmc]

If Stones and Dias could stay fit, and Bernie stayed, I would probably agree.

Stones can play midfield with his eyes closed.

This is true but Rodri has been overplayed this season so he will need less games next season and Stones does pick up injuries - so we will maybe need something more in the engine room. After the season we’ve just had and having played every game since March with almost no margin for error the players will be mentally and physically exhausted and some will get circa 3 weeks off.

 

[Bluemart]

Would have been happy with him and I am happy without him.

 

[LesBleuMiserable]

The money doesn't bother me, we could afford it. It's more telling that we don't want to cough up. That would suggest there are other irons in the fire, because if we thought Rice was the primary target, of such importance to our plans and his club is selling, we'd have no issue meeting the price tag

Either that or we've been directly told Rice wants Arsenal not us, either way we'll have our own cunning plans and these usually turn out pretty well.

At least they can’t say we’ve paid the most for an English player now. Although I noted the bbc saying it’s the same as Grealish although a paragraph late added there was £5million add ons.

 

[nmc]

Hard to shake the media driven narrative, after taking a very impressive 30K fans to Istanbul they said yes ‘City took a lot of fans but they barely celebrated the goal or the win’. United and Liverpool apart I would stand our support against any other fan base in England

And we didn’t cause a riot, delay the match or kill anyone!

 

[SebastianBlue]

I do wonder if the club can afford to be this nonchalant about transfers when pep does leave. I think peps genius allows us to be very selective in the market

Of course, but that goes without saying, as the board will operate very differently when Pep does eventually leave.

So it’s really a moot point and fans feeling “Pep will make it work” is perfectly justified whilst he is here.

And it’s not as if all the players we bring in now are going to be lower quality for the future, anyway.

Txiki and co aren’t going to be employing Boehlyball—we are still bringing in excellent players, all the while developing arguably the best talent in the world in our Academy.

In fact, I think there is an argument that signings like Kovacic (older, role players) are now needed more than signings like Haaland (young phenoms), because we have some very talented youth coming through and there needs to be a real path to the first team that doesn’t take 4-5 years to realise for a 21 year-old player.

We very likely have our own Bellinghams coming through now.

And that was always the long term strategy to ensure sustainability and high achievement.

 

[hendo]

Got a feeling this ain't over

likewise

 

[ManCityGR!]

Is it real that we legally, and because of the treble money, have around 1 billion to spend?
That seems a LOT and we can do wonders.

About Rice, I'm too pleased we retracted on him, he is good but no way 100 million. This stupidity with the over-overpriced players has to stop and it's good we don't follow it.

We can do much better with 100 million.

 

[SebastianBlue]

"He filled a role and did his part in us winning a treble."

What role did he fill? An extra body to help in training? I mean he may have not been a huge problem, but he wasn't much of a value-add either.

He played when needed (and was nowhere near as poor as many make out), trained well by all accounts, and I am sure contributed to team chemistry and hunger to achieve greatness, which we did.

Can’t really fault him or his signing, especially not in retrospect.

 

[lee_wsm]

Will laugh if arsenal bid gets rejected and they pull out

 

[vicblueman]

A game, like the dippers, they shouldn't be playing in anyway.

Just like when we won our last treble, the community shield should be City vs City reserves.

Or if I'm being kind, this year's really should be City vs united as they won the Coca Cola cup.

Arsenal won jack shit.

Send the City womens team to play them