John Stones

[BillyShears]

Got to say I agree with City_Sean, no flapping involved but I'm not keen on the idea we give a club the opportunity to get the replacement when we are going to be paying them £50million.

Everyone knows they are going to have the money, so it's not down to hoodwinking, and therefore we should be sorting this deal to OUR BEST BENEFIT, and that is for him to be joined up with the squad asap.

Fuck Everton.

Spot on. Our tactics this summer are baffling. Time to start closing these deals.

 

[Kompany is King]

Are City waiting to get to China before making announcements? Does this help raise our profile in that continent?

 

[richards30]

Are City waiting to get to China before making announcements? Does this help raise our profile in that continent?

might help the exposure more though if stones is there?

 

[The Light Was Yellow Sir]

Spot on. Our tactics this summer are baffling. Time to start closing these deals.

I must admit, I'm struggling to even understand most of these 'deals' and how they fit with the academy. I can see we would buy Gundogan and Nolito but cannot understand possibly spending millions on 'the future'. What does buying Sane, Stones and Jesus say to the current academy players and to anyone we might be looking at getting into the academy in the future? Last season we won at every level except the U-21's (due to other teams using it with 4 over age players in it!).
I had rather hoped, as the chairman alluded to in 2015, that we had finished buying 5,6 or 7 players every year and we would just add to the squad with a quality signing or two. Whilst it might be an interesting way to spend July, it doesn't smack of a sustainable way of doing business and a way that we can start to relate to the players playing for us. I got a real buzz watching a few of the academy lads playing in Munich and I like the fact that Roberts seems to be doing well at Celtic. I worry that we might not see any of these players in a city shirt, save for a heroic defeat in the COC quarter final. Probably just being a miserable old git, but everyone talks about the importance of bringing players through (chairman said it this year and Pep is supposed to be big on it) but I can't see how it can happen if we keep buying 19-22 year olds who are, by no means the finished article.

 

[TRUE BLUE NO1]

Are City waiting to get to China before making announcements? Does this help raise our profile in that continent?

Hi mate....I get the feeling, we now know Stones (and Sane) both want to come here and because of this, we holding back and trying to force their teams to drop the asking price.....

 

[moenchengladbach blau]

Spot on. Our tactics this summer are baffling. Time to start closing these deals.

The Ed Woodward method of buying players seems to have caught on.

 

[PSam1]

Couldn't care less about Stones, I trust our current 4 CBs ( Kompany, Otamendi, Mangala & Denayer) to do the job.

Same here. Just not that arsed about him at all.

 

[mosssideblue]

Understand these things can take a while but gets a little frustrating when Barca can jump in front of Real and in 24hours have agreed a price for Andre Gomez and after months we still havent made an offer for Stones!!.....Guess I was just little surprised to see Stones having pictures today in the Everton kit, instead of being on his way to China to join the rest of the team...

But we dont know how much ground work had been done by Barca. As many have said, once everyone is happy, a bid goes in and it's relatively quick from there on in

 

[schfc6]

I must admit, I'm struggling to even understand most of these 'deals' and how they fit with the academy. I can see we would buy Gundogan and Nolito but cannot understand possibly spending millions on 'the future'. What does buying Sane, Stones and Jesus say to the current academy players and to anyone we might be looking at getting into the academy in the future? Last season we won at every level except the U-21's (due to other teams using it with 4 over age players in it!).
I had rather hoped, as the chairman alluded to in 2015, that we had finished buying 5,6 or 7 players every year and we would just add to the squad with a quality signing or two. Whilst it might be an interesting way to spend July, it doesn't smack of a sustainable way of doing business and a way that we can start to relate to the players playing for us. I got a real buzz watching a few of the academy lads playing in Munich and I like the fact that Roberts seems to be doing well at Celtic. I worry that we might not see any of these players in a city shirt, save for a heroic defeat in the COC quarter final. Probably just being a miserable old git, but everyone talks about the importance of bringing players through (chairman said it this year and Pep is supposed to be big on it) but I can't see how it can happen if we keep buying 19-22 year olds who are, by no means the finished article.

Whilst I don't disagree with you, I think the signing of 19-22 year olds is more of a long term plan. We have a lot of players coming into their 30's. Very key players. Silva, Aguero, Vinny and Hart. Fernandinho is their already. The fullbacks are all quite old.
I see our plan to have a brilliant young squad, with the current crop of U18's/16 complimenting the young players we are buying.Diaz for Silva for example.
I personally believe there's been a gap of about 5 years where we've not had eds players of the required standard. The all conquering Young sides should be much different.

If rumours are to be believed, we could have the likes of Tosin & Diaz complimenting the likes of Stones, Sane, Gabriel & Iheanacho.

If we're still adding 5 or 6 players every season after Pep's tenure, I agree, we'll have failed in one of our primary objectives.

 

[TRUE BLUE NO1]

But we dont know how much ground work had been done by Barca. As many have said, once everyone is happy, a bid goes in and it's relatively quick from there on in

I agree mate, just trying to come at this from another angle as no one really knows whats going on.....think its fair to say, Schalke boss knew about our approach for the player at the start of Jan(over 6months ago!)...he even confirmed this in a presser .....and the same can be said for Stones. We've worked hard to "corner the market" for these 2 players and just as with Kev and Sterling last year, we use the "players interest in us" to start haggling over the price....which is why I feel "dragging our feet" at this point in negotiations, is part of the plan.....we have a pattern for the way we do our transfers and just believe we following it to the letter.....doesnt mean we cant get frustrated about it tho!;) cheers