I don't think we will go with the youth option you suggest.
I'm sure City has a list of experienced, fourth-choice back ups, who are able to just do a job for a small amount of game time.
Johnny Evans time!
I don't think we will go with the youth option you suggest.
I'm sure City has a list of experienced, fourth-choice back ups, who are able to just do a job for a small amount of game time.
I think our problem is that the club is so quiet about their transfers that we don’t really know what they’re planning.
Since the rumour I’ve always held the view that if you can get £50M+ for a 4th choice CB who has played 1700 PL minutes in 2 years, half of those at Left Back, then we would be silly not to take that deal.That's fair enough. Sterling has been degrading in a City shirt and Ake is a fourth-choice centre-back.
Irrespective of their ages, perceived physical prime, my own (subjective) context is those players I did cite were key components and we still kept on winning.
Sterling and Ake are not, and they are replaceable.
Both Sterling and Ake can be improved upon in terms of replacements, football and successful clubs never stand still and admire.Chelsea doing us a favour as far as I can see.
Nobody else has come forward this summer wanting to take Sterling off our hands, solving an issue we were previously resigned to.
Ake, while a popular member of the squad, is still only a fourth-choice back up, nothing which marks him out as being able to dislodge Laporte or Dias.
Getting £50m plus for him would be excellent business and we have to accept he will be feeling the pressure in a World Cup year and has an affinity for Chelsea.
Understandably, many Blues fear losing decent players eventually means the trophy train will hit the buffers, but we are long past that stage, as a club.
That's what happens when the culture is changed by people like Mancini, Pellegrini and certainly, Pep.
We have seen Vinny, Zabba, Dave, Sergio, Toure and Fern, all degrade and eventually leave us.
We keep on winning. There are new players to be made heroes of.
Selling Sterling and Ake should not be accompanied with a careful what we wish for, but another opportunity for Pep and City to take the team forward again.
Chelsea's mouth man of the moment reminds me so much of the type of USA based industrial machinery buyers I used to see at large auctions over 30 years ago. They try to intimidate other bidders into accepting their financial superiority but it's mostly tactical. They know what they want but use scatter gun approach to disguise their intentions. Sometimes they get bargains by others not bidding.Many people say Boehly is not the money man, he's just the front for this deal, something is not right about the whole deal, crazy valuation for me, Roman was bank rolling Chelsea from day one, he ran the club very successfully but with a very different business model to our owner.
Anyway if Reece James is part of any deal with Ake/Sterling this summer gets better by the day!
Or they just don't have a pot to piss in ala Graziers, Chelsea will struggle for me, as said whatever you thought of Roman, he was a wonderful owner and a very generous one, he made Chelsea what they are today and without him they will struggle to maintain that status.Chelsea's mouth man of the moment reminds me so much of the type of USA based industrial machinery buyers I used to see at large auctions over 30 years ago. They try to intimidate other bidders into accepting their financial superiority but it's mostly tactical. They know what they want but use scatter gun approach to disguise their intentions. Sometimes they get bargains by others not bidding.
Welcome to Manchester, Jonny Evans.I don't think we will go with the youth option you suggest.
I'm sure City has a list of experienced, fourth-choice back ups, who are able to just do a job for a small amount of game time.
If Ake goes I hope we bring in a very good RB rather than a CB.
Preferably a RB who can also be 4th choice CB along with Phillips, Walker, Rodri and the kids.
I know we struggled for CB last year but I'm afraid that at RB we could struggle even more if Walker gets injured (and he's getting old now... for a sports person that is).