lets be honest after Bellingham and the strange bid for Rice, and losing Gundo I doubt Pep is content with what we have in midfield. its a big IF if Kovacic will be anywhere near good to Gundo and if Phillips will be anywhere close to offer rotation to Rodri. Wht if Kovacic needs his 12 months to be bed in like many others and Phillips aint stepping up. then our midfield is Rodri played 65 games unti he gets a bad injury and Stones...
de Jong or Kimmich should be targeted imo. both better players than the overpriced Rice.
I honestly think you will be surprised how good Kovacic is and doubt he will take too long to adjust.
Gundogan is big boots to fill and I think it would be unfair to compare, but I would expect Pep to be very happy with Kovacic and at the price I doubt he was dependent on Gundogan leaving based on the number of games this season and relatively small squad we have (I think on the whole last season, our injuries where not as bad as previous years).
On to the matter of Kimmich, obviously he will be an expensive signing for a 28 y.o (one of the reasons Silva struggled for a buyer is not many want to pay big with no sell on value).
Bellingham and Rice fee probably represent more value than Kimmich on around 70-80 million. We would be amortising 14-16 million per year, plus 12 million in wages, making him expensive. I assume both Real and Arsenal will potentially extend contracts after 2-3 to bring down the cost of Bellingham and Rice.
However, I love this player and believe he would be top quality for those 5 years. I would say we are on the cusp of greatness, but the truth is we have already achieved it and it is now the case how far can we go.
First PL team to retain CL (at Wembley of all places)
First PL team to win 4 in a row
Plus these smaller trophies that teams love to win (world club etc, Super Cup, don’t do much for me personally).
Plus the first FIFA World Club Cup winner, how good would it be for City to be first.
If he is available for me we should do it, we have made so many shrewd moves in the transfer market that we should be allowed one just for footballing reasons.
United did it last year despite Casemiro being 2 years older then Kimmich is now.
Bayern are also doing it themselves with Kane.
