I think the point made above is partly correct in that it’s a business decision to let clubs like Brighton and Brentford try the players out in the PL first and then we pay them for taking the risk in the form of a large transfer fee.
However, we do sometimes follow their model of a sort. Akanji being the most recent example.
i’m very sorry for being such a failure. i have no ninja and/or special ops skills.
i drink and i know things though!
I'm not sure it was that much of an under the radar buy - True, he wasn't well know amongst fans, and in the Summer of 2021, he was being linked with some average clubs - but in the Autumn his form absolutely exploded.The most obvious example is Alvarez, many people in here didn't heard about him and questioning club decision to bring him over there assuming that he is just another CFG player.
Our club took the risk and it pay off with Alvarez.
Yes Dortmund. My point isn’t the stature of the club we buy from but more the player himself and the fee paid. I don’t think there was a queue of clubs that wanted Akanji, more that City identified he had the skills we needed and those that he lacked were trainable.but didn’t you buy akanji from dortmund? that’s really a typical example of buying a player from a bundesliga top club.
gvardiol had multiple offers with i think less than 10 games for senior dinamo zagreb team, bielsa really wanted him in leeds and it was the best offer when it comes to money so even dinamo pressured him. he decided to sign for leipzig because they offered to loan him back to dinamo immediately and let him play there until upamecano leaves, and presented him with a good strategy for his development.
i think signing too early for a top pl club is the best way to ruin your career imho.
I thought about him as an example but then I remembered he was S American player of the year when we bought him so changed it to Akanji!The most obvious example is Alvarez, many people in here didn't heard about him and questioning club decision to bring him over there assuming that he is just another CFG player.
Our club took the risk and it pay off with Alvarez.
It's the nature of the beast, we're top dog now so your Leipzig's and Dortmund's will buy promising but raw young players and develop and play them in the 1st team for 2, 3 or 4 years and if they make the grade then the big clubs come swooping in.Im always curious why teams never try and sign the replacement for the big name player, go who dortmund leipzig are after buying not who they are selling
I can remember when we classed Ged Keegan, Tony Henry and Kenny Clements in that bracket.It's the nature of the beast, we're top dog now so your Leipzig's and Dortmund's will buy promising but raw young players and develop and play them in the 1st team for 2, 3 or 4 years and if they make the grade then the big clubs come swooping in.
Pretty much the only way that young players will make it at City is if they're come through our academy and have been slowly drip fed in. I do sometimes miss the days of Caton, Ransom, White et al but the upsides are pretty damned impressive.
I thought about him as an example but then I remembered he was S American player of the year when we bought him so changed it to Akanji!