It's Quiet the £250m return

Hold on, we already have two more midfielders than we had at the start of last season and we're oversubscribed on non-HG places.

At least two non-HG players need to go and Gundo should be one of them.
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The new players still need the time to fully bed in and Kovacic is injured. If we felt he couldn't have provided cover for next season along with the new signings we would have let him go for nothing. Not being part of the leadership group only means we aren't fully reliant on him. If he was to depart he would have been announced sooner as per his first departure. If anything either Doku or Savinho's places are more under threat but they cannot be moved on lightly either,
 
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Gabriel said:
As I said, until we see the make up of our final squad, I would be far more cautious. The mistakes of the previous two summers cannot be rectified in one, and we might still find ourselves stuck with players we'd rather replace but we simply cannot until next summer.

Liverpool coasted to the title last season and have had their shorts and flipflops on for months. They had the luxury of easing to their title win, knowing that it's all energy saved, both physical and mental, for the next campaign. It's not necessarily the actual game time of the CWC that's our problem, it's the fact that there's no mental respite, and some of our guys have been playing almost without a serious break for far too long.
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We may be left with players, but we have already replaced them, Reijnders replaces Gundogan, Gonazalez replaces Kovacic. Whether we can get Gundogan and Kovacic to move is the potential problem not replacing them.
Possibly the right back may not be fully rectified but wait and see for that.
 
RayCTID said:
I don't know why I am banned from the Ilkay Gundogan thread in the transfer thread but I put it here. He should be kept for one more season. We don't want a repeat of last season where we had little depth. We were overly reliant on him last season but he does provide cover. It was telling where we triggered his renewal clause that he is still going to be still part of the set up.
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Problem is, who stays and goes? You can't keep them all. We currently 2 players over the Non HG requirement. If Gundogan doesn't go, who does?
 
blueparrot said:
We may be left with players, but we have already replaced them, Reijnders replaces Gundogan, Gonazalez replaces Kovacic. Whether we can get Gundogan and Kovacic to move is the potential problem not replacing them.
Possibly the right back may not be fully rectified but wait and see for that.
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In the ideal world, I think we'd like to have a proper right-back and another central midfielder, but one with different attributes. However, I think we now need to see what Guardiola can do with the players at his disposal and identify the missing pieces for January/next summer, or, if we know who they are and have the capacity, buy them now and leave them at their clubs.
 
Gabriel said:
In the ideal world, I think we'd like to have a proper right-back and another central midfielder, but one with different attributes. However, I think we now need to see what Guardiola can do with the players at his disposal and identify the missing pieces for January/next summer, or, if we know who they are and have the capacity, buy them now and leave them at their clubs.
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Sell Gundogan and Kovacic (to Saudi if any offers) and bring in Gibbs White with the money we have saved on the Cherki deal. That way we have got 2 non HG players off the bill at the wrong age and brought a younger HG midfielder (on much lower wages) to replace their position in the squad. Then go for Livramento.

Sell Mubama for 10-20m, McAtee for 25-40m, Kovacic for 30m, Grealish for 30-50m. Pays for both Gibbs White and Livramento already with the additions we've already got.
 
Berti No Show said:
Problem is, who stays and goes? You can't keep them all. We currently 2 players over the Non HG requirement. If Gundogan doesn't go, who does?
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I have mentioned either Doku or Savinho or one of Ake or Akanji. Any one of them would get a good transfer fee too. But squad depth is key.
 
Berti No Show said:
Sell Gundogan and Kovacic (to Saudi if any offers) and bring in Gibbs White with the money we have saved on the Cherki deal. That way we have got 2 non HG players off the bill at the wrong age and brought a younger HG midfielder to replace their position in the squad. Then go for Livramento.
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Perhaps. I'm just not sure that we'll be able to prise Livramento away from Newcastle United and I'm not sure if Gibbs-White is the solution. Find myself asking if we would be buying these players because they're the missing pieces of the jigsaw, or buying them because we need to meet the homegrown requirements.
 
Gabriel said:
Perhaps. I'm just not sure that we'll be able to prise Livramento away from Newcastle United and I'm not sure if Gibbs-White is the solution. Find myself asking if we would be buying these players because they're the missing pieces of the jigsaw, or buying them because we need to meet the homegrown requirements.
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Livramento is quality, and we definitely need a proper right back.

Gibbs-White, not so much. Our think our midfield is good as it is now.
 
Berti No Show said:
Problem is, who stays and goes? You can't keep them all. We currently 2 players over the Non HG requirement. If Gundogan doesn't go, who does?
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I did this like 2-3 days ago.. not counting Walker and Phillips:

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4 Foreign players have to go and Grealish and McAtee were looking for exits.
 
simon23 said:
Cant blame them...they are doing what we should have done after we won the treble...strengthening from a position of strength....yes we won the league after that but everyone could see the decline was already serious.
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Yeah a fair amount of our fans can't understand the players are now 2 years older and slower.. and consequently more injury prone.

The obvious was there to be seen last season but still many want to just hold onto them. Just look at the KDB thread. Think it was 70/30 keep.

Pep has his favorites and I don't think Bernardo is going anywhere.. but it's beyond time we looked to get younger in other areas.
 
Blue_Lightsaber said:
Yeah a fair amount of our fans can't understand the players are now 2 years older and slower.. and consequently more injury prone.

The obvious was there to be seen last season but still many want to just hold onto them. Just look at the KDB thread. Think it was 70/30 keep.

Pep has his favorites and I don't think Bernardo is going anywhere.. but it's beyond time we looked to get younger in other areas.
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We already have done.
 
alexmcity said:
I very much doubt that. Some of our problems come from letting the wingers do a lot of work instead of finding them in free spaces. We want from Doku to beat several defenders and then deliver precise crosses. That's hard as in order to do the first he has to be very quick which makes the 2nd very difficult. Let him and Savinho play more often 1 vs 1 and they'll be a lot more productive.
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I agree with this. Do we ensure our wingers can succeed ? Are they in the best environment ? I don’t think so. What is the gameplan when it comes to breaking down a low block ? Give the ball to Doku and hope for the best. Is there anyone overlapping him or underlapping him ? No. Pep puts him on the left where he has it cross with his weaker foot. Which is obviously not good. Same goes with Savio. Now I’m not saying they’re completely blameless. Savio should have scored way more goals and improve his composure. Doku should have way more assists to Haaland and improve his crossing. But I just think even tho they’re young and developing we could make their lives easier. Like when we saw Sterling couldn’t be effective at LW anymore we played him RW so he wouldn’t have to think too much. Or Jesus on the wing cuz of how bad at finishing he was.
 
Gabriel said:
We can't have it both ways, though. Rodri's return is a boost, true, but if he's not going to be at 100% for 5-6 months, then it's rather dangerous to overly rely on him, which is what got us in a pickle in the first place. I think we'll have to see how Rodri and Gonzalez look during the CWC, but I still think we're short on midfield energy/pace, especially heading back the way, and a right-back. However, until players start departing, it's difficult to see another arriving.
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hate to copy other teams but the team who just won’t a treble have a midfields of box to box players. We could replicate that. OR/Nico G, Reinjders and Rodri. The technicality isn’t that high but they make up for it in physicality. Everyone there is 6 ft+ long legs and strong. Would love to see it
 
BluestBlue said:
hate to copy other teams but the team who just won’t a treble have a midfields of box to box players. We could replicate that. OR/Nico G, Reinjders and Rodri. The technicality isn’t that high but they make up for it in physicality. Everyone there is 6 ft+ long legs and strong. Would love to see it
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Other way round imo. the technicality level of those three is better than their agility/physicality level.
 
simon23 said:
Cant blame them...they are doing what we should have done after we won the treble...strengthening from a position of strength....yes we won the league after that but everyone could see the decline was already serious.
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And guehi + Isak are on their minds too. They might sell 5-6 players though
 
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