It's Quiet 18 - Wanna ring the bell?

[Cobra]

Let’s hope Conor Gallagher doesn’t play well on Saturday or Txiki will start having ideas!

 

[Gabriel]

One thing I will say about the result yesterday—and this in no way a criticism of the players, as my other posts about their performances will support—I sincerely hope, for the sake of the players’ legacy with City fans, none of them move to Real Madrid in the summer.

Can only imagine the state of Bluemoon and Twitter if Bernie, for instance, went to them in the coming transfer window.

Not sure there is any real possibility of that happening, as I don’t really pay attention to transfer rumours until late May at the earliest, but it is something I thought about last night.

If we had beaten them again, I think that might have been tempting for them. However, they’re cock-a-hoop having dumped us out of the big one and were strutting around the park telling us they’re number one again. You might sense my displeasure. We need to keep Bernardo and get midfielders (Paqueta/Guimaraes) that can take the weight off his and Rodri’s sizeable but laden shoulders.

Real Madrid should win the tournament from here and will strengthen again in the summer, so we need players that will give us the edge when we meet next season, not a half here and a half there against the domestic bottom feeders.

 

[Josh_D]

Good player but it's hard to know if he's coming good now or just having a purple patch in a much improved Bologna. He's been around a few clubs but maybe he's just settled down and taking his opportunity. He's really strong and mobile, more so than Stones, especially in the way he can drive forward, but he's also a left-footed player and I'm not sure we need another one; he can play across the back line, however.
Bologna are on track for Champions League so a year of that would help and test him

Good to see you take this one. Hardly ever comment in here but agree with everything you’ve said. Problem is, a lot of the potentially good players at the back seem to be left footed. Don’t need more of them. If he’s ambipedal like Cherki then sure.

 

[Alan Harper's Tash]

City scouts pretty much every major club and league in the world as part of the database updating. Doesn't really mean anything like it used to back in the day

Our scouts are implied by CFG, aren’t they, so they could be scouting for one of about 13 teams these days.

 

[Xhavenjoe]

One thing I will say about the result yesterday—and this in no way a criticism of the players, as my other posts about their performances will support—I sincerely hope, for the sake of the players’ legacy with City fans, none of them move to Real Madrid in the summer.

Can only imagine the state of Bluemoon and Twitter if Bernie, for instance, went to them in the coming transfer window.

Not sure there is any real possibility of that happening, as I don’t really pay attention to transfer rumours until late May at the earliest, but it is something I thought about last night

These days God only knows where a player will end up.
We have ex players at most of the quarter finalists in the champions league Athletico, Bayern, Arsenal Madrid, Barcelona Dortmund. Not sure about PSG.
If wages and opportunity are right, a player can end up anywhere.
Madrid is still a big club where top players want to go.

 

[SebastianBlue]

These days God only knows where a player will end up.
We have ex players at most of the quarter finalists in the champions league Athletico, Bayern, Arsenal Madrid, Barcelona Dortmund. Not sure about PSG.
If wages and opportunity are right, a player can end up anywhere.
Madrid is still a big club where top players want to go.

I know—I wasn’t commenting on the likelihood (or even the reasoning behind any such move), as I said in my post, I was saying I hope for the sake of the player’s legacy at City they don’t, because this forum and parts of Manchester would explode if it happened this summer.

 

[Gabriel]

Good to see you take this one. Hardly ever comment in here but agree with everything you’ve said. Problem is, a lot of the potentially good players at the back seem to be left footed. Don’t need more of them. If he’s ambipedal like Cherki then sure.

They were unicorns when we signed Laporte, yet now every time we're linked with a defender he's left-footed. Has their been a breeding programme?

Cherki is such a maverick, isn't he? If he ever gets his head screwed on properly, he'll be a joy to watch.

 

[SebastianBlue]

They were unicorns when we signed Laporte, yet now every time we're linked with a defender he's left-footed. Has their been a breeding programme?

Cherki is such a maverick, isn't he? If he ever gets his head screwed on properly, he'll be a joy to watch.

As far as the “breeding programme” questions, this is reflective of normal “market” shift.

Left-footed players were in high demand for some time because of a number of reasons—more on others below—but one of them was there were simply fewer decent ones available (as most people are naturally right-footed), which meant the ones that were got more chances to play/impress, in many cases preferential development and, if they were good enough, ultimately higher wages. So many parents, coaches, and agents began to prioritise developing their sons, players, and clients who are left-footed (and/or literally took right-footed players early on and turned them in the left-footed players; I actually know two players at the U18 level now whose dads did that when they were still in primary school).

Eventually you get a saturation, and the supply levels off.

That’s not to say there are actually enough left-footed players at every position for the top level of football right now, but there are definitely far more than there were even 10 years ago. The market is still fighting natural biological tendencies.

As far as why we look at a lot of left-footed players, there are tactical and mechanical benefits to having left-footed players, even beyond those specialised to left-sided positions.

This is a decent overview of them (just ignore the use of “soccer”).

Left Footed Soccer Players: Is There an Advantage?

Is there an advantage to being a left footed soccer player? Maybe. Learn the pros and cons of left footed soccer players!

soccernovo.com

 

[Gabriel]

As far as the “breeding programme” questions, this is reflective of normal “market” shift.

Left-footed players were in high demand for some time because of a number of reasons—more on others below—but one of them was there were simply fewer decent ones available (as most people are naturally right-footed), which meant the ones that were got more chances to play/impress, in many cases preferential development and, if they were good enough, ultimately higher wages. So many parents, coaches, and agents began to prioritise developing their sons, players, and clients who are left-footed (and/or literally took right-footed players early on and turned them in the left-footed players; I actually know two players at the U18 level now whose dads did that when they were still in primary school).

Eventually you get a saturation, and the supply levels off.

That’s not to say there are actually enough left-footed players at every position for the top level of football right now, but there are definitely far more than there were even 10 years ago. The market is still fighting natural biological tendencies.

As far as why we look at a lot of left-footed players, there are tactical and mechanical benefits to having left-footed players, even beyond those specialised to left-sided positions.

This is a decent overview of them (just ignore the use of “soccer”).

Left Footed Soccer Players: Is There an Advantage?

Is there an advantage to being a left footed soccer player? Maybe. Learn the pros and cons of left footed soccer players!

soccernovo.com

Very interesting.
It was more a tongue in cheek remark, especially in relation to central defenders. We were paying a premium a few years ago because there was a famine, now it's a glut.

 

[Skrastins]