Josko Gvardiol

[balotelli's back pocket]

What doesn’t make sense about this is:

- Leipzig have already made a ton of sales this window already, everyone knows they’re flush with cash.
- It’s an open secret the deal has been going through, Leipzig themselves briefed that it was going to be a world record fee for a defender
- relatively speaking, the transfer of Lukeba won’t even touch the sides of the Szobo money, let alone what they’re getting in for Gvardiol

Not saying it isn’t what happened, but there are a few things that don’t really add up.

I'm starting to think this is a game from Leipzig. They don't want to sell, but promised Gvardiol that they would for a certain price. That price has been met by City, and Gvardiol/his agents know it, so they tell Romano that it's happening.

Leipzig immediately get on the phone to City and cry foul, both sides deny. Leipzig use this 'leak' to either raise the price or tank the deal, and blame City.

 

[Nicholas van Whatsisface]

It's not disingenuous, you are the one being disingenuous. If you miss out on your top target and someone else replaces him as your top target, missing out on them qualifies as missing out on your top 2. We've bid 90m for him! That's the definition of missing out

I also feel like your reading comprehension is very poor. I clearly insinuated that IF the current rumours persist (walker gone & gvardiol not happening) then that's 5 players you missed out on. Simple facts. But you prefer cheap shots and semantics. Bluemoon special.

Please show me where the word ‘if’ features in your post.

Given you won’t be able to, any insinuation of ambiguity will do.

For reference - here it is:

Missing out on your 3 top targets (Bellingham, Rice, Gvardiol) while also failing to keep 2 players you offered new contracts to (Gundo, Walker) definitely qualifies as a masterclass of a window no doubt

That is clearly not written as a statement on what might happen, but as a statement of fact.

If you mean ‘if’ - I’d suggest you write that in future.

And to your second point, it is absolutely disingenuous to claim both Bellingham and Rive were two of our top three targets - when its pretty clear we saw them as filling the same position, therefore they were an either/or. We were never going to sign both, so by definition they can’t be two of our top three targets.

Bellingham was our top target, and we missed out on him. Rice was our second choice, who we moved onto having missed out on our top target.

You can’t have it both ways - unless of course you’re trying to make the situation sound as dramatic as possible.

In which case - crack on!

 

[samuelyeboah]

very weird how defensive some people here on simple facts like "it sucks that we miss out on good players" like it's some sort of attack on them

 

[balotelli's back pocket]

Finding it hard to care tbh. Centre half is the one position we’re absolutely teeming with talented options in. If Leipzig are intent on a spot of last minute gazumping, I wouldn’t be in the least bit bothered about telling them to fuck off. Sure they’ll work it out though, cos I can’t imagine either Gvardiol or Pep would be too happy if they don’t

We have 5 (6 if you count Walker) and we play with 4.

 

[houraisen]

OK.Make it a priority to sign Mahrez and Walker's replacements.

 

[Dave.]

Burnley game needs to hurry up as this is all very boring. Trust the club will find the correct solutions (as they usually do)

 

[Cobwebcat]

It’s always the money. Nothing to do with twitter.

I‘d like to think we are working on more than just this one transfer.

 

[Franknorgrovesnephew]

Okie dokie lol

So your saying a player in the middle of a 100 mill transfer is going to jeopardize a transfer by liking a tweet saying it's a done deal to the other club ..yep you believe what you want lol

 

[JustAnotherCityFan]

The only way this ends bad is if Gvardiol ends up at a competitor. Like Hazard at Chelsea or Van Persie at United. If he stays where he is this summer it's no big deal. We don't even need a 2nd choice cos we have Laporte.

If he doesn't end up at a competitor this year, he will end up at a competitor next year instead. He wants PL football.

 

[The Lightbowne Cowboy]

Lads. I'm not even blaming the club/txiki/whatever for what's happening so far this window. Things happen and you can't control what players final decisions end up being. I'm not even inferring how this will affect our season because my confidence in pep is that big.

All I'm saying is that objectively this has been a terrible transfer window so far, and I don't think any of you will disagree! I don't even think people at the club would disagree. I'm sure txiki and ferran are just as annoyed as missing out on top targets as we are. There's time to fix it, but let's not hide from that simple truth - we have not achieved what we set out to do so far this summer.

..YET!