Nicholas van Whatsisface
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- 21 Dec 2007
- Messages
- 2,713
Whilst I'm really not a fan of the idea of ever seeing Grealish in a City shirt, you can kind of understand the Club's logic in looking at the player.
Allowing for the departures of Silva, Sane and Bravo, we currently have 14 players who qualify towards our 'non-homegrown' quota for the PL, out of a maximum of 17 - Ederson, Laporte, Otamendi, Cancelo, Mendy, Gundogan, Fernandinho, Rodri, Zinchenko, KDB, Bernardo, Mahrez, Jesus and Sergio.
That leaves three spots without moving anyone on. One of the positives in the signings of both Ake and Torres is they don't take up non-HG spots for next season (Ake because he qualifies as HG, and Torres because he's under 21).
Assuming we're using Steffen as back up GK, and we bring in Koulibaly and a foreign left back - that's our quota used up, with apparently a CM and potentially an attacking player still needed.
Now clearly the club is trying to shift Otamendi, which would free up a further spot - but this is by no means guaranteed. Either way, we're right up against the quota.
So if we're looking at, for example, either Aouar or Grealish for the CM spot - Grealish makes a lot more sense in terms of overall squad planning and strength, as he allows us to fill all the positions we feel need addressing this summer.
That said - I sincerely hope we don't sign him as I think he'd be shite in our team, but I can understand the logic if we're planning a major rebuild.
Allowing for the departures of Silva, Sane and Bravo, we currently have 14 players who qualify towards our 'non-homegrown' quota for the PL, out of a maximum of 17 - Ederson, Laporte, Otamendi, Cancelo, Mendy, Gundogan, Fernandinho, Rodri, Zinchenko, KDB, Bernardo, Mahrez, Jesus and Sergio.
That leaves three spots without moving anyone on. One of the positives in the signings of both Ake and Torres is they don't take up non-HG spots for next season (Ake because he qualifies as HG, and Torres because he's under 21).
Assuming we're using Steffen as back up GK, and we bring in Koulibaly and a foreign left back - that's our quota used up, with apparently a CM and potentially an attacking player still needed.
Now clearly the club is trying to shift Otamendi, which would free up a further spot - but this is by no means guaranteed. Either way, we're right up against the quota.
So if we're looking at, for example, either Aouar or Grealish for the CM spot - Grealish makes a lot more sense in terms of overall squad planning and strength, as he allows us to fill all the positions we feel need addressing this summer.
That said - I sincerely hope we don't sign him as I think he'd be shite in our team, but I can understand the logic if we're planning a major rebuild.