It's Quiet 18 - Wanna ring the bell?

[Dax777]

It's refreshing that you're recognizing the difference between, good and top class /world class and the comparison i have seen from Twitter Twats between Rice and Busquets, Rodri, etc.

I see it like this. In a distant galaxy, take Real Madrid, Barcelona, and Ateltico. Imagine or remember their midfield.

Ask yourself this, when these were at the peak, would Rice be playing in any of the midfields. Considering that they have clamped European Championships for over a decade. And to top it all off, would any of the above teams, pay 120-130 million euros for him.

I like Rice. Think he is a potential top player. He is similar to Rodri when we wanted Rodri. So I'm not going to downplay how good he is.

1 don't think he is worth 100 million, but then again my bias towards attacking minded players means I don't think any defensive minded player, including Rodri or Peak Busquet is worth 100 million.

But my valuation matrix is different. Clearly City Management has a different valuation than I do. Because they clearly thought Rice was worth something around 90 million or more. That's about 50 million over my valuation.

But like they say, a player is worth what someone is willing to pay. Regardless of what my personal dumb opinion is on how valuation should be viewed.

But here is mine:

Established WC attacking player at top club : 100 million or above is okay.

Established WC attacking potential player at Midtable Club: 40 - 75 Mill is max

Established WC defensive players at Top clubs:
50 - 75 mil

Potential WC defensive players at Midtable or foreign club: 25 - 60 Million.

Good Role players: 10 - 40 mill

By my valuation system, you can see we are already overpaying for Gvardiol.

And that's why I don't take my view on valuation seriously. I have to simply accept that Clubs value players differently. And it isn't my place to judge that value. Just to be happy when my club agrees with my valuation and bow out when necessary.

 

[simon23]

Never really wanted Rice so jot too bothered at all about not getting him....rather keep Bernardo Silva.
If he goes then we need someone...possibly 2 aa you can't replace Bernardo with just one player as he is that good

Think pep has in mind that McAtee may make a step up

The only real concern is Kdb and his fitness and ability to compete through a whole season

If we're yo sign snyone it would Wirtz and Vega for me...both look like they would be automatically competing for places in our starting 11. The likes of Rice I don't think would

It's more exciting this way knowing that we now don't have a clue who we may go for....if anyone.....if we get another surprise level signing like Akanji, Dias after missing vouchers on the original targets before them then we will be sorted

 

[freshie]

For those saying we are weaker with Gundo gone thats true in some way we are weaker offensively due to the goals Gundo scored, but we've improved defensively again.

Kovacic is world class in press resistance , ball carrying , keeping possession. With Rodri those two can't be pressed. You add Gvardiol that defensive structure is the best defence the prem has seen I'd say. We had an incredible defensive structure last season which teams struggled to get passed. Which contributed massively to the treble as we could just control games easily.

Now you've added one of the best press resistant midfielders in Kovacic who's also very good defensively. Then trying to add Gvardiol who's the best young cb in the world.

Defence wins you titles.

Akanji Stones Dias Gvardiol. (Ake, Walker Phillips on the bench)
Rodri. Kovacic

That defence has no weakness press resistant, playmaking ability, best 1v1 defending in the world. Break lines, pace. Its complete control.

 

[Dax777]

I've been saying the same. I see lots of Gundogan in Kovacic. My only fear is his injury history. Seems to get niggles a bit.

Outside of that I think he is money

 

[johng]

I am rubbing my eyes in disbelief. There are genuinely people here who think winning 5 out of the last 6 titles, winning a treble, is "closer to fortunate than it is to good planning". Just absolute insanity, I don't know what to say.

"We don't have a left back, we have one senior right back" - not only are both of these false (Nathan Ake, Rico Lewis, Kyle Walker), we are also adding Gvardiol to it, and we also don't even PLAY with left backs.

"We have limited options out wide" - I would venture a guess almost any team in the world would kill to have Jack Grealish, Phil Foden, Bernardo Silva and Riyad Mahrez as their "options out wide".

"Our bench is topped up with players Pep does not trust to play meaningful minutes" - let's take the 11 that played the most minutes this season. They are, sorted by minutes played - Rodri, Ederson, Haaland, Gundogan, Akanji, KDB, Bernardo, Grealish, Dias, Mahrez, Ake.
That means that our "bench" is - Kyle Walker, John stones, Phil Foden, Julian Alvarez, Aymeric Laporte, Rico Lewis, Ortega, Palmer, Gomez, Phillips.
Yeah, full of untrusted players.

"If arsenal hadn't dropped stupid points, we wouldn't have won the league" - yeah, welcome to every season in every league in history! We won the league with 89 points, and that's because we let it go after winning it officially. We were on course for a 95 point season. This DOESNT HAPPEN BY ACCIDENT. It would be, what, the 4th or 5th highest point total in PL history? Yeah, so lucky to have won it.

"Every team around us is significantly strengthening" - and so are we. Kovacic, Gvardiol are magnificent additions. More will come through the door. The team is being refreshed. Countless times we've missed out on the first target and didn't regret it one bit. I am baffled some people think it's always due to luck and not because of our superior financial planning AND refusal to pay over the odds, leaving us with more money to invest in the organization.

Absolutely all this and more. We have just done the treble and the hunger and desire will still be there no doub as it is what Pep is about. Any team that wants our crown are going to have to be one of the best teams in history. We are streets ahead and by far the best football club in the world. Our dynasty has plenty of time to run.

 

[MafeotulBlue]

I like Rice. Think he is a potential top player. He is similar to Rodri when we wanted Rodri. So I'm not going to downplay how good he is.

1 don't think he is worth 100 million, but then again my bias towards attacking minded players means I don't think any defensive minded player, including Rodri or Peak Busquet is worth 100 million.

But my valuation matrix is different. Clearly City Management has a different valuation than I do. Because they clearly thought Rice was worth something around 90 million or more. That's about 50 million over my valuation.

But like they say, a player is worth what someone is willing to pay. Regardless of what my personal dumb opinion is on how valuation should be viewed.

But here is mine:

Established WC attacking player at top club : 100 million or above is okay.

Established WC attacking potential player at Midtable Club: 40 - 75 Mill is max

Established WC defensive players at Top clubs:
50 - 75 mil

Potential WC defensive players at Midtable or foreign club: 25 - 60 Million.

Good Role players: 10 - 40 mill

By my valuation system, you can see we are already overpaying for Gvardiol.

And that's why I don't take my view on valuation seriously. I have to simply accept that Clubs value players differently. And it isn't my place to judge that value. Just to be happy when my club agrees with my valuation and bow out when necessary.

Brilliant type of evaulation here.

But, again, we are sampling something here which as you have said, can be subjective.

All of Real Madrids young midfielders are players worth over 100 million. Age, potential, capability, league, honours for some already.

All of our own players, are probably worth more if we put the midfield in line with current market value, performances, and skill. Imagine selling KDB, Rodri, and Bernardo at actual value. We would rebuild the Rags's Shit Stadium just with that.

In our own defense, it appears, most of our top performers, and most of our incredible players have come from Bundesliga. ( KDB, Halaand, Akanji etc ) External league doesn't neccessarly mean the quality isn't there in the player.

However, i cannot, for the life of me, accept that Declan Rice is worth more than 55-60 with add-ons. And our 90 bid was clearly a muscle flex, and a bait bigger than Burj Dubai. We're masters at it.

And Gvardiol, he's another Dias. Just a different flavour.

 

[bluenova]

I've been saying the same. I see lots of Gundogan in Kovacic. My only fear is his injury history. Seems to get niggles a bit.

Outside of that I think he is money

Absolutely - It was daft with Rice to look at goals scored as he played for a team that scored 69 goals in 57 games. City are the highest scorers in England, and I think Europe, nearly every season, with well over double the number of goals. Chelsea were even poorer, 50 goals in 50 games.

I agree about the injuries - seen a few Chelsea fans suggest that his biggest issue - but if you move to City and Pep wants you to score, he'll put you in the positions to do so.

 

[Phoenix900000]

I've been saying the same. I see lots of Gundogan in Kovacic. My only fear is his injury history. Seems to get niggles a bit.

Outside of that I think he is money

I think his injury record has gotten a ton better as he got older

 

[Dukefan9]

Kim is joining them, so not really.

Forgot about that. Damn

 

[FatedBlue77]

The more I think about it, Pep prefers a small but versatile squad rather than having " 2 players for every position" that haters love to say about city. Rather, we have a group of 16-18 HIGH QUALITY players who can play multiple positions. This is good to avoid squad disharmony in terms of playing time and also we get a more tight-knit group.

If we assume we keep the players we want to keep/get only kovacic and gvardiol and players like laporte, cancelo etc leave then we can start the season with this: