It's Quiet 18 - Wanna ring the bell?

[Alan Harper's Tash]

I believe I answered your question, but you do you

Even if it’s not true, Pep is never going to say that we need to buy someone whatever the cost.

It’s nonsensical.

 

[Damanino]

Start of the window I would have thought selling Steffen, Harwood Bellis, Cancelo, Laporte quartet would bring in best part of 100m. 30-35 for Cancelo due to his antics, 35-40 for Laporte, fiver for Steffen, and 15m for Harwood Bellis.

Now I am not sure we get a combined fee of of 35m for them total.
Steffen must have had a shit loan period if no ones is asking about him. at least an MLS club should take him home.
many clubs were interested in Harwood Bellis but are we pricing him out of a move? why? he has a contract until next summer. played a crucial part in Burnley's promotion.
Cancelo looking to leave to Barca who might not even have an offer covering his full salary and some optional fee they will happily opt against only to loan him again August next year if still interested. a loan fee may help us to cover his partial salary.
dont even get me started on Laporte going to cash rich Saudis for what seems to be the biggest undersold deal of the summer.

compared to this Pool getting 50m for Fabinho after his worst season and half dead Henderson is very strange.

 

[samuelyeboah]

Not really. We replaced Gundogan with Kovacic.

We wanted to buy Bellingham as a long term project. He turned us down. It happens.

We didn’t really want Rice, but might have taken him had he wanted to come here. He didn’t. It happens.

KDB then gets injured for 4 months and things then take a more intense turn.

Paqueta was next. Negotiations on a fee were underway. West Ham stalled a bit and in the meantime, we find out Paqueta is a spot fixer, potentially, and walk away.

We weren’t ready for that bombshell.

We’ll still have names on our list. There’s time left and Txiki and Pep don’t tend to panic.

Trust the process.

No, I am sorry, I don't agree with what you're saying here.
a. We didn't "replace gundo with kovacic" (certainly didn't intend to) - In fact, kovacic signed before we knew Gundo was leaving. We fully intended to sign kovacic AND renew gundo.
b. What does it mean "We wanted to buy bellingham as a long term project"? We wanted to buy him for him to be a part of the squad, and he is a midfielder. We wanted a midfielder. He turned us down, it happens, I agreed with that.
c. What do you mean we didn't really want Rice? We bid 90m on him. We CLEARLY did want him, how can you not want something and bid so much of your budget on him?
d. The Paqueta news broke BEFORE KDB's injury, this is incorrect. We clearly wanted paqueta regardless of the status of KDB's injury.

I am not saying "We made errors and it's our fault", I am saying we clearly DID want a midfielder ALL summer. we've chased a LOT of them, regardless of the status of kovacic, and none of them worked out, which is fine.
All I am saying is that if we don't end up signing one (Which again, totally fine) - I just don't want to hear that we are "satisfied with the squad", because whoever was in charge of this summer's transfer window could not have possibly been satisfied with the midfield, and the evidence is the abundant number of midfielders we tried to sign and didn't.

 

[JewelZee]

We lack a risk taker , Gundo & Kev made those passes/crosses which our current squad don’t see imo and was quite evedant on Wednesday, as much as I like Phil & Bernardo they don’t possess that skill and are more ball controllers and don’t lose possession.
Do I know the answer no but we need that person who needs a 1 second glance and puts the ball into a dangerous area.
Being this late into the window I think we will struggle to attain the player we need due to lack of them on the market.

Inquiries + money create markets...

 

[NQCitizen]

Worth bearing in mind if Pep keeps the 4-2-4/4-2-3-1 he's started the season with the KDB replacement is arguably already foden/Alvarez and we'll likely be looking for a more all-round midfielder in a Paqueta/Bellingham/Barella mould

Which would explain the lack of interest in Wirtz/Felix/Kudus type players.

For me I'd roll up a money van for Frenkie De Jong, all day every day until he was in sky blue

 

[chesterbells]

No, I am sorry, I don't agree with what you're saying here.
a. We didn't "replace gundo with kovacic" (certainly didn't intend to) - In fact, kovacic signed before we knew Gundo was leaving. We fully intended to sign kovacic AND renew gundo.
b. What does it mean "We wanted to buy bellingham as a long term project"? We wanted to buy him for him to be a part of the squad, and he is a midfielder. We wanted a midfielder. He turned us down, it happens, I agreed with that.
c. What do you mean we didn't really want Rice? We bid 90m on him. We CLEARLY did want him, how can you not want something and bid so much of your budget on him?
d. The Paqueta news broke BEFORE KDB's injury, this is incorrect. We clearly wanted paqueta regardless of the status of KDB's injury.

I am not saying "We made errors and it's our fault", I am saying we clearly DID want a midfielder ALL summer. we've chased a LOT of them, regardless of the status of kovacic, and none of them worked out, which is fine.
All I am saying is that if we don't end up signing one (Which again, totally fine) - I just don't want to hear that we are "satisfied with the squad", because whoever was in charge of this summer's transfer window could not have possibly been satisfied with the midfield, and the evidence is the abundant number of midfielders we tried to sign and didn't.

How many mangers do you ever hear come out at the start of the season and say ‘I’m really dissatisfied with this squad’?

 

[Alan Harper's Tash]

No, I am sorry, I don't agree with what you're saying here.
a. We didn't "replace gundo with kovacic" (certainly didn't intend to) - In fact, kovacic signed before we knew Gundo was leaving. We fully intended to sign kovacic AND renew gundo.
b. What does it mean "We wanted to buy bellingham as a long term project"? We wanted to buy him for him to be a part of the squad, and he is a midfielder. We wanted a midfielder. He turned us down, it happens, I agreed with that.
c. What do you mean we didn't really want Rice? We bid 90m on him. We CLEARLY did want him, how can you not want something and bid so much of your budget on him?
d. The Paqueta news broke BEFORE KDB's injury, this is incorrect. We clearly wanted paqueta regardless of the status of KDB's injury.

I am not saying "We made errors and it's our fault", I am saying we clearly DID want a midfielder ALL summer. we've chased a LOT of them, regardless of the status of kovacic, and none of them worked out, which is fine.
All I am saying is that if we don't end up signing one (Which again, totally fine) - I just don't want to hear that we are "satisfied with the squad", because whoever was in charge of this summer's transfer window could not have possibly been satisfied with the midfield, and the evidence is the abundant number of midfielders we tried to sign and didn't.

Ugh, I apologise for making you write that.

Sometimes shit happens in the market.

It doesn‘t make me question our current set up as it’s the best we’ve ever had and have faith that we’ll be fine whatever.

 

[wolviedinho]

I expect the club to not bullshit. The reason we don't have replacements is because we failed at finding them. Don't try to sell it to me that actually the squad is good and we have a ton of great options. If we did you wouldn't be frantically searching for a replacement.

Why can’t it be that once we identify a target and the club then sets a fair fee? Few weeks of negotiations and then we either close or walk away if said player becomes too expensive.

It’s important for the club that we don’t get fleeced in the market. If Kev wasn’t injured we would not need to frantically search as you put it.

The squad is good enough all be it a tad light. We struggled to find replacements for 2 good players. I don’t think it’s anything more than that.

Gvardiol fair fee - paid
Kova fair fee - paid

I still think we will get at least 1 more in.

 

[samuelyeboah]

How many mangers do you ever hear come out at the start of the season and say ‘I’m really dissatisfied with this squad’?

I am mostly just referring to the briefs they always make when they fail to land a target. the whole "X can play there", "city are satisfied with the squad", just don't like that! but that's just me lol

 

[Alan Harper's Tash]

I am mostly just referring to the briefs they always make when they fail to land a target. the whole "X can play there", "city are satisfied with the squad", just don't like that! but that's just me lol

Have you not noticed that Pep bullshits in press conferences when he’s not happy?

He’s just praised the Premier League for them scheduling the Newcastle game on Saturday. (I have my doubts that he was being sincere)