Demichelis signs contract extension

[Damocles]

Bad decision. Will definitely cost us Rekik, potentially cost us Denayer.

Youth system in action here. 20 year old homegrown defender gone, 35 year old Argentinian defender in.

But I bet the gym is lovely.

Or we could sack off Boyata, put Denayer/Rekik in that spot, and give him a bigger % of games than Boyata is getting. Not saying it'll happen but it could do. Demichelis will be one year older so it'd be reasonable for him to play fewer games if we had a #4 they trust.

Denayer and Rekik are both first teamers at Champions League clubs who dominate their leagues. Telling them that they are coming back to be number 4 and 5 will result in Rekik definitely leaving, and Denayer requiring many more games than we give our number 4. I don't know why people think that we have some God given right to watch great players sit on our bench when we aren't offering them comparative compensation

Celtic would take Denayer tomorrow, make him a first teamer and give him a better deal than he's on here. I imagine they aren't the only ones and he could move to bigger clubs who would offer similar without telling him he's the fourth choice centre back who might get 10-15 games next year. Rekik has almost definitely gone after this signing, no way he's coming back. He didn't want to go out on loan last year if talk was correct and with his contract situation I can only see one solution there.

Basically this is yet another indication to our young players that our increased youth policy is smoke, mirrors and splashing money rather than any firm commitment. We would much rather buy/keep people in their mid thirties than play somebody in their late teens/early twenties.

I'll remind everybody again that the last player to successfully graduate from the City Academy to regular first team squad member was Daniel Sturridge in 2008. That's 7 years ago. The "they aren't ready yet" excuse should be gone after 7 years you would have thought.

 

[IWasHere]

Bad decision. Will definitely cost us Rekik, potentially cost us Denayer.

Youth system in action here. 20 year old homegrown defender gone, 35 year old Argentinian defender in.

But I bet the gym is lovely.

Or we could sack off Boyata, put Denayer/Rekik in that spot, and give him a bigger % of games than Boyata is getting. Not saying it'll happen but it could do. Demichelis will be one year older so it'd be reasonable for him to play fewer games if we had a #4 they trust.

Denayer and Rekik are both first teamers at Champions League clubs who dominate their leagues. Telling them that they are coming back to be number 4 and 5 will result in Rekik definitely leaving, and Denayer requiring many more games than we give our number 4. I don't know why people think that we have some God given right to watch great players sit on our bench when we aren't offering them comparative compensation

Celtic would take Denayer tomorrow, make him a first teamer and give him a better deal than he's on here. I imagine they aren't the only ones and he could move to bigger clubs who would offer similar without telling him he's the fourth choice centre back who might get 10-15 games next year. Rekik has almost definitely gone after this signing, no way he's coming back. He didn't want to go out on loan last year if talk was correct and with his contract situation I can only see one solution there.

Basically this is yet another indication to our young players that our increased youth policy is smoke, mirrors and splashing money rather than any firm commitment. We would much rather buy/keep people in their mid thirties than play somebody in their late teens/early twenties.

I'll remind everybody again that the last player to successfully graduate from the City Academy to regular first team squad member was Daniel Sturridge in 2008. That's 7 years ago. The "they aren't ready yet" excuse should be gone after 7 years you would have thought.

 

[Jack Wills]

Bad decision. Will definitely cost us Rekik, potentially cost us Denayer.

Youth system in action here. 20 year old homegrown defender gone, 35 year old Argentinian defender in.

But I bet the gym is lovely.

Or we could sack off Boyata, put Denayer/Rekik in that spot, and give him a bigger % of games than Boyata is getting. Not saying it'll happen but it could do. Demichelis will be one year older so it'd be reasonable for him to play fewer games if we had a #4 they trust.

Denayer and Rekik are both first teamers at Champions League clubs who dominate their leagues. Telling them that they are coming back to be number 4 and 5 will result in Rekik definitely leaving, and Denayer requiring many more games than we give our number 4. I don't know why people think that we have some God given right to watch great players sit on our bench when we aren't offering them comparative compensation

Celtic would take Denayer tomorrow, make him a first teamer and give him a better deal than he's on here. I imagine they aren't the only ones and he could move to bigger clubs who would offer similar without telling him he's the fourth choice centre back who might get 10-15 games next year. Rekik has almost definitely gone after this signing, no way he's coming back. He didn't want to go out on loan last year if talk was correct and with his contract situation I can only see one solution there.

Basically this is yet another indication to our young players that our increased youth policy is smoke, mirrors and splashing money rather than any firm commitment. We would much rather buy/keep people in their mid thirties than play somebody in their late teens/early twenties.

I'll remind everybody again that the last player to successfully graduate from the City Academy to regular first team squad member was Daniel Sturridge in 2008. That's 7 years ago. The "they aren't ready yet" excuse should be gone after 7 years you would have thought.

But Demichelis is a better player than Rekik and Denayer. They're decent but doing ok in the Scottish and Dutch leagues is no guarantee that they're good enough to shine at a top Prem team.

We'll get a youth player come through one day I'm sure, but right now we can't afford to slip further behind as Chelsea will no doubt strengthen again in summer, as will Arse and rags.

 

[Ray78]

Demichelis signing a new one deal doesn't make the slight bit of difference regarding the youth policy. Although both Denayer and Rekik impressing at their loan clubs neither of those players you can confidently say can challenge our current crop of centre backs, even with Kompany being way off form and Mangala initially having trouble finding his feet at the club. As I keep repeating it will take time before we can see any of our EDS players fitting in and not compromise the quality within the squad,

 

[jauganaut]

Haha, great buisness. Those fucking comedians must be patting themselves on the back for getting this guy signed for an extra year. Chelski and Manu must be terrified. I am a firm supporter of Demi, by the way.

 

[HelloCity]

I always feel like Damocles is on the edge of mental breakdown.

 

[BlueAnorak]

Well - he is our best defender this season.
So a good move in my book.
Those younger players now on loan in Scotland/Europe need to play next season in the Premier League so show if they can cut it.

 

[Damocles]

I always feel like Damocles is on the edge of mental breakdown.

People are really bad at reading tones on the internet or I'm bad at making my words sound how I intend them. I think during my entire time on Bluemoon I've lost my temper once. Mostly I've got several tabs open, come in to a thread, read the replies, give my opinion then go back to what other work I'm doing.

Well - he is our best defender this season.
So a good move in my book.
Those now on loan in Europe need to play next season in the Premier League so show if they can cut it.

Why would they? They are already playing first team football at clubs who will qualify for the Champions League and have a decent chance of winning/retaining the league title. The idea that they are going to piss about at Stoke for 6 months because we can't decide whether to shit or get off the pot with them is somewhat ludicrous and a good example of what I mean when I said earlier that fans really undervalue how good these players are or the loyalty expected from them.

5 years ago we started a program where we went out and bought some of the most promising youth players in the world. Now these players are coming of age and we're loaning 36 year old midfielders, spending £25m in January on strikers and re-signing 35 year old centre backs. They couldn't care less whether it is City they get their football at or somebody else, as long as they are successful and playing games. You would think that people would recall that no less a figure than Vincent Kompany himself turned down Manchester United and Chelsea to join us as he knew he wanted the game time before leaving.

This whole idea that a young player must be better (and by better people generally mean better rated rather than a better footballer who nobody has any chance of knowing for half of them) than a squad member that we can buy is the exact reason why Chelsea has no youth graduates as regulars since John Terry about 20 years ago.

For all of our dismissals of Chelsea after the takeover and how our owner/Chairman/board declared how we wouldn't be anything like them we sure seem to making the exact same mistakes as they did. If most of our fans had it their way we'd also sack our manager the year after winning the league again just like we used to mock Chelsea for.

 

[carlos tevez is a blue]

I think brother Damo is wanting us to be the next Arsenal with all these youngsters he craves.





Edit: that sounded Yewtreeish.

 

[Damocles]

I'd like the club with a 10 year plan that featured youth development/graduates as one of its core philosophies to have graduated at least a single youth player 7 years into that plan, yes.