Jonny Evans

[domalino]

.

Clyne & Milner we miles better than Clichy and Zabaleta/Clichy/Navas, and it's not even debatable.

Clichy cost us about 5 goals single handedly, and we actually had to resort to Jeusus fucking navas at RB - who was our 6th choice!

 

[domalino]

Not sure if Pep had any input into Bony purchase but he will for sure have in this case..

Why would Pep have had an input in buying Bony 2 years before Pep arrived?

 

[pbueno16]

Why would Pep have had an input in buying Bony 2 years before Pep arrived?

I think many are under the impression that Txiki went after players who seemed to have the ability to play in Pep's system. That's only holding the assumption that we were preparing for Pep's inevitable signing for us.

 

[DontLookBackInAnger]

I don't see how we had the strongest squad last season.

GK's? God no. Spurs, Chelsea, United, Arsenal, Liverpool all better. I'd rank us 6th.

CB's? No. Chelsea & Spurs definitely better. United probably too, 4th at best for us.

Fullbacks? No. Chelsea, Spurs, United, Liverpool better. 6th for us.

Midfield? Maybe. Not definitively though. I'll give us 1st though.

Forwards? Nah - not with Jesus not playing. 3rd.

Depth? Not good.

This season.

GK should be at least on a par with Chelsea, Spurs and better than pool and Arsenal.

CB's won't be as good as Spurs or Chelsea unless Kompany is fit, but if he is there'll be parity.

Fullbacks will be as good as anyone's, if not better. 1st

Midfield is probably still the best. 1st

Forwards are definitely the best. x2 if Sanchez arrives. 1st

Depth? The best by a distance with the likes of Sané, Sterling, Silva, Danilo all likely to see a lot of the bench.

Now we can claim the best squad, last year, no way.

GK Can't believe that you think 14 teams had worse goalkeeping than we had last season and that's one hell of a jump considering the weaker of the two goalkeepers is still here this year and the guy who is the replacement has only one full season of football under his belt.

CB basically we are in the same position with Kompany a year older, Konpamy plays 25-30 games we should be OK, if he doesn't Stones will have to step up big time.

FB would pretty much agree

Midfield don't see a huge improvement there might be treading water due to Siva and Yaya being a year older Gundogan getting his 3rd long term injury and KDB's drop off in form last year

Fowards stronger but really shallow

Depth without significant additions in key areas pretty much a wash, but hopefully have at least one shot stopper and fullbacks which might be enough to win us something.

 

[nijinsky69]

Whether or not we had the best squad last season is a moot point to me. What is indisputable is that we massively underperformed and if it was anyone other than Guardiola they'd be looking for a new job. There can be no excuses this time around.

I'll admit that I was seriously unwhelmed at first but on reflection JE feels like a sound buy to me. I don't get the fixation with transfer fees. Unless it screws us for FFP, who cares really? It's not like we can't afford him.
The market is mental and the world and his dog knows that we need extra defensive cover. We were always going to pay over the odds.

Couldn't care less about him being an ex Rag. He's a professional footballer and will give it 100%. He'll be desperate to play for us to prove the doubters wrong. If he does end up with us, he goes up in my estimation - much easier gigs out there for him. Who knows, he might go on to be our very own David May in reverse.....

 

[DontLookBackInAnger]

couldn't care less who Evans has played for in the past, I just think he isn't very good and at 29 for the kind of money talked about insanely over-priced

Put it this way how many of us would be happy with a straight swap(at best) Evans for Kelechi Iheanacho? because the bottomline money-wise thats what it looks like it will be

 

[johnmc]

couldn't care less who Evans has played for in the past, I just think he isn't very good and at 29 for the kind of money talked about insanely over-priced

Put it this way how many of us would be happy with a straight swap(at best) Evans for Kelechi Iheanacho? because the bottomline money-wise thats what it looks like it will be

Not quite but I get where you are coming from. There are future benefits if Kelechi does well. He wasn't going to play much here.

 

[Marvin]

Irrespective of individual areas, we had the strongest squad. The fact we finished so far behind Chelsea IMO was not to do with the squads capability, it was simply there didn't perform to that which I believe was Pep's message

So we wasted our money this Summer then? Guardiola has already explained several times that lion share of the spending this Summer was to bring down the average age of the squad and to replace full backs who were at the end of their careers.

In some areas our squad was OK but the goalkeeping situation was a farce, the fullbacks were finished, we still had Yaya trotting around and up until January we only had one experienced striker. We finished where we deserved to - not because players underperfomed but because the squad was deficient

It's still not complete eg short in central defence and up front, but I think much stronger than last season

 

[domalino]

GK Can't believe that you think 14 teams had worse goalkeeping than we had last season and that's one hell of a jump considering the weaker of the two goalkeepers is still here this year and the guy who is the replacement has only one full season of football under his belt.

CB basically we are in the same position with Kompany a year older, Konpamy plays 25-30 games we should be OK, if he doesn't Stones will have to step up big time.

FB would pretty much agree

Midfield don't see a huge improvement there might be treading water due to Siva and Yaya being a year older Gundogan getting his 3rd long term injury and KDB's drop off in form last year

Fowards stronger but really shallow

Depth without significant additions in key areas pretty much a wash, but hopefully have at least one shot stopper and fullbacks which might be enough to win us something.

I was just rating us out of the top 6!

 

[Marvin]

couldn't care less who Evans has played for in the past, I just think he isn't very good and at 29 for the kind of money talked about insanely over-priced

Put it this way how many of us would be happy with a straight swap(at best) Evans for Kelechi Iheanacho? because the bottomline money-wise thats what it looks like it will be

Pragmatic move because we have some cover upfront, but are very exposed in central defence.

 

[BlueAnorak]

So you would rather they conduct no checks? Come on, we all want to go there feeling safe dont we

Seriously, it would probably be safer. A nail bomb going off between two queues would probably get hundreds. Any queue checks have to be quick. Being tied to one entrance does not allow queues to reduce quickly.

 

[Peaky Blinders]

I think Evans would be decent back up to Stones or Kompany should they pick up any injuries. He's a solid defender. Knows the league, European football too. It depends on him if he wants to be a big fish at West Brom, or a squad player. He probably thinks he would prove himself as worthy, which is a win win for City. I doubt the fee would go as high as touted in the press.

 

[DontLookBackInAnger]

Not quite but I get where you are coming from. There are future benefits if Kelechi does well. He wasn't going to play much here.

Pragmatic move because we have some cover upfront, but are very exposed in central defence.

Well the bottom-line football is all about opinion and looking back Barry was around the same kind of age (maybe a year younger) when he signed and I had never been overly impressed with him before signing and he turned out to be simply outstanding and a loss when he left

 

[Tevez City]

How my much West Brom will gain from his selling in terms of wage saving ?


3-5 Million a year ?

 

[I'm no cynic but...]

As the days and hours slip by the fee becomes less important indeed we may end up paying 30m for him unless an alternative turns up at the last minute which may have to be homegrown. I agree he would be a valuable squad player and I would be interested to see if he has improved since his days at the swamp. WBA seem to rate him highly.

I don't think that WBA's valuation of Evans has any relevance to us. Let me explain. We have a team of frightening attacking potential and is commonly expected to wipe the floor with opponents, whereas WBA are limited up front and will have no ambition other than PL survival. We ourselves can concede a goal or two but can still win from such a position. WBA will need a tight defence or they will face relegation. If they sell Evans for £30m, they will have to spend that, and more, just to survive. Neither Evans nor Tosin are our own answers but at least our survival in this league is not in doubt whereas Evans' presence is crucial to WBA.

 

[Dave S]

I think Evans would be decent back up to Stones or Kompany should they pick up any injuries. He's a solid defender. Knows the league, European football too. It depends on him if he wants to be a big fish at West Brom, or a squad player. He probably thinks he would prove himself as worthy, which is a win win for City. I doubt the fee would go as high as touted in the press.

Agree with this.

 

[TonyM]

I think he's a decent defender. And I don't mind that he's a rag and played for them too. It's his ever present scowl that annoys me.

 

[bondsman]

Evans is the wrong buy for a number of reasons but his lack of pace is a huge issue. Last night our back 3 lacked pace so badly that when we pushed up the field Everton just lofted balls into wide areas and their only striker (forget his name) just outpaced stones and ottamendi causing us to look vulnerable. If we sign a cb let's at least sign someone who is quick.

 

[bondsman]

Pragmatic move because we have some cover upfront, but are very exposed in central defence.

We currently have 2 strikers in the squad and 6 cbs.

 

[onceabluealways]

No wonder our defense is still shit, we haven't learnt anything from previous signings of bang average players for to much money.

Love to know who the hell is scouting defenders