It's Quiet Thread 15 - Txiki Blinders

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tolmie's hairdoo said:
If his attributes are to be more attacking, then I don't think we really need him?

We need someone behind the ball and not caught regularly ahead of it in the present midfield.

Especially so, if we do complete on Grealish.

If you are saying he can be a midfield destroyer in the Fern fashion, then I would be all for it, but still not at expense of Bernie.

I'd be willingly offering Rodri back to Atletico for Saul first.

I don't rate Rodri and I know it puts me at odds with both Pep and the majority of Blues, no doubt, but he lacks the two ingredients that I personally want from any defensive midfield screen, which is energy and a willingness to get hurt.

If Castles is floating this idea, it tells me it is nothing more than a staging post from Mendes, a suggestion at best.

He knows the market is suppressed and the £80m Bernie is worth isn't out there in cold hard cash on the continent.
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With you with regards to Rodri.
 
Keeper! said:
If we let Bernardo leave and to Atletico, it will be for Felix, they want him out and to me he is the perfect Pep player, and we have history in trying to get him before.

Any Rumours on Sterling and his contract?
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Haven't you heard. We are selling everyone!

BOGOF - that's what we need to be saying to some of this shit.
 
domalino said:
I honestly can't tell if this is sarcasm.
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Ha - no mate - very interesting.

I'd assumed Mendes was Saul's agent?

He usually loves getting paid both ends.

If Barnett is Saul's guy, I think it's a fair bet to say Felix can't be involved in a Bernie makeweight equation.

Mendes owns Felix and that would be the easiest deal to broker as a result.
 
Damien10 said:
Not good enough to play ahead of KDB is that by name or by merit. Bernardo at times deserved to play ahead of Kevin this season.

Citys best form this season come when Kevin was out, Bernardo and Gundo was unbelievable during that period.

Pep would constantly sub Bernardo when others was playing alot worse, was it just easy for Pep to make them moves because Bernardo is a nice guy?
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this
 
Don Corleone said:
Wonder if we'll do some dodgy dealings like with the Pjanic and Arthur deal last summer. Each club buys each player for an extortionate fee to balance the books or some shit like that
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That is the only way swap deals work btw. Both transfers are treated independently
 
tolmie's hairdoo said:
If his attributes are to be more attacking, then I don't think we really need him?

We need someone behind the ball and not caught regularly ahead of it in the present midfield.

Especially so, if we do complete on Grealish.

If you are saying he can be a midfield destroyer in the Fern fashion, then I would be all for it, but still not at expense of Bernie.

I'd be willingly offering Rodri back to Atletico for Saul first.

I don't rate Rodri and I know it puts me at odds with both Pep and the majority of Blues, no doubt, but he lacks the two ingredients that I personally want from any defensive midfield screen, which is energy and a willingness to get hurt.

If Castles is floating this idea, it tells me it is nothing more than a staging post from Mendes, a suggestion at best.

He knows the market is suppressed and the £80m Bernie is worth isn't out there in cold hard cash on the continent.
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I think Saúl has a lot of things going for him.

He can play CB, 6, 8 and even LB so as a squad player he'd be very useful to fill any holes as they pop up.

At his best, he's world class and has shown it on the biggest stage.

I think we miss a box-to-box midfielder in our squad, and we end up making KDB do too much running to compensate for Gundogan and Rodri being relatively stationary (Gundogan isn't stationary but he occupies a small area of the pitch), and that's one of the reasons Bernardo and Foden's constant running makes such a big difference in the side.

Against Chelsea in the last 2 games, and more widely against 3/5 at the back formations over the last 2 years we have really missed a runner getting forward and making late runs into the box to help out the forwards and stop the 3 CB's having a numbers advantage, so whether it's Saúl or someone else, we need one - our record against these teams is awful over 2+ seasons.

I think our best chance of replacing Fernandinho is to get a technical, mobile box-to-box midfielder who can be converted into a 6 because that's what Fernandinho was, and Saúl fits that mould with a few seasons of defensive play under his belt already.

I know he plays well next to Rodri in a 2, and with Lillo as assistant we're gonna play that sometimes. So he potentially solves the Rodri problem as well.

He's had a couple of down seasons, he's spoken quite openly about being a bit down and out because of Simeone forcing him back deeper (much deeper than a 6 plays for us), the team not playing attacking football and not being able to leave when he asked 2 years ago probably didn't help. So there's a clear and obvious reason I can point to as to his form dropping off, and it goes away overnight when he moves club.

I certainly think if Bernardo had to go, replacing him with Grealish + Saúl (and we'd obviously have to pay some money on top) would make the squad more rounded, better over a season.

And just as a short term thing, he's getting the summer off. So he'll get a full Pep preseason and he'll be rested and ready to go, and there's not many better players on the market who are in that position.
 
Don Corleone said:
Wonder if we'll do some dodgy dealings like with the Pjanic and Arthur deal last summer. Each club buys each player for an extortionate fee to balance the books or some shit like that
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Need an FFP expert in here but say each player was “sold” at £70m, I think we can show the incoming money as a lump sum this year, while the outgoing fee is spread annually across the player’s contract.

Given we haven’t shown Sane’s incoming fee in our accounts yet, would that plus the above give us £120m or so to balance our spend against, in FFP terms?
 
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