Why don’t we just scout clubs like Ajax, schalke, RB,Monaco,Dortmund? Once they try to buy a player for a small fee that is unknown go in and gazump them. Loan the player back to them and once he is developed, take him back. Sorted! You are welcome Txiki.
But isn’t that what we are doing right now at the Academy level ? Buying young talent from across Europe & South America, accepting of course only a small % ever make it to the top level
Just need to follow the dips plan & hack away.Why don’t we just scout clubs like Ajax, schalke, RB,Monaco,Dortmund? Once they try to buy a player for a small fee that is unknown go in and gazump them. Loan the player back to them and once he is developed, take him back. Sorted! You are welcome Txiki.
Yes that’s part of it at a young level and we are good at finding them though not great at keeping them sometimes. I don’t know how we can stop the likes of Sancho moving on for a pittance and Dortmund love raiding our academy. The CFG will also be useful for the changes Brexit brings to signing non established players.
But I’m not really talking about youth level more the age range 20-25 which is where we concentrate when paying money for a new signing.
Why don’t we just scout clubs like Ajax, schalke, RB,Monaco,Dortmund? Once they try to buy a player for a small fee that is unknown go in and gazump them. Loan the player back to them and once he is developed, take him back. Sorted! You are welcome Txiki.
Another option is when we are linked with players at the likes of Atletico and Ajax etc... we should jump in for whomever they have lined us as the replacement and effectively miss out the middle man. There are clubs that just seem to have a conveyer belt of talent and we are sometimes the mugs paying top dollar 12 months after they were signed for peanuts.
Is this not a by-product of the level we're at?Or just scout their scouts.
I'm wondering when we first seriously thought of Kounde, for example. I have a feeling it was just like many of us on here, who didn't realise quite how good he was until seeing him play against certain players we are used to seeing.
We pick up one or two great ones early, Like Jesus & Torres, Ederson but a lot of our targets seem like the obvious & even quite a few of the kids we signed from abroad fall into that bracket. From Barca, etc.
Recently, Mbappe, Bernardo, Mendy, Maguire, Pogba, Fred, Sanchez, Mahrez, Koulibaly, Auoar.
Stones, Sterling, Walker.
Most of them our fans could have scouted without leaving their seats. KDB was hardly under the radar.
Kounde would be a change from our typical targets.
You know that’s not as crazy as it might sound. Maybe a bit simplistic!
I’ll give you an example. Brentford are owned by Mathew Benham who also owns Smartodds. This company makes millions by taking money off bookies on the Asian markets because their algorithm is slightly better than the bookie’s algorithm. Brentford use the same data to find undervalued players which they then sell on for much more than they bought them for.
It’s got to the stage where if Brentford come in for a player their rivals take note and the club that owns the player they are after starts to think about keeping him.
The dream ticket is to have lots of money AND find gems. We don’t do badly but there is always room for improvement. City were due to expand their analytics department about a year ago but it didn’t happen for some reason. I think the idea was to follow the Liverpool system ironically as they seem to be quite interested in what we do!
Liverpool’s owners of course were part of the whole Moneyball story. They got it wrong to start off with and signed several duff players as a result but they refined their systems and brought in some of the worlds top mathematicians. They are reaping the rewards now.
Their advantage will only vanish when their systems are replicated or improved on and there is no reason why that can’t be us. We can still learn from other clubs such as the ones you refer too.
Where it’s harder for us to sign gems is getting around the work permit situation which is why we lost a player to Villa. Villa qualified because Luiz was paid wages that put him near their top bracket whereas he would have been too low down in our wage structure so wasn’t deemed “special” enough for us to get a permit.
Thats what I'm saying mate, we won't do Nico as part of the deal it will be City simply buying Kounde then if Sevilla want Nico City will get something out of the deal & Nico sorts a signing on fee with Sevilla & probably less wages but longer deal maybe 3 yearsI think no matter where Otamendi goes we will have to pay part of his wages.
Is this not a by-product of the level we're at?
I imagine the scouting team identify those players at the stage we're talking about. e.g. they'd been looking at Mbappe before he broke through. But it's like the Sancho problem, how do we convince them to come and sign for City and be 4th choice for a while and probably get on the bench most games, when they could be going to e.g. Dortmund or Sevilla or Leipzig and playing every week and developing for a couple of years?
I can't think of the name but there's definitely been at least one example of a player saying "City are a great club but at this point in my career I need to be playing every week". And closer to home I imagine Patrick Roberts is a salutory lesson both for players and for the club, we took him too early and stifled him. Footballers, mostly, want to play football.
Is this a serious post?Why don’t we just scout clubs like Ajax, schalke, RB,Monaco,Dortmund? Once they try to buy a player for a small fee that is unknown go in and gazump them. Loan the player back to them and once he is developed, take him back. Sorted! You are welcome Txiki.
Good example mate and an interesting take on things. I will load up football manager and send Txiki over a list of promising players. Call it erm...(BMSN)Blue Moon Sporting Agency using advanced and sophisticated analytical software- Endorsed by Ole and Red Edd.
Good example mate and an interesting take on things. I will load up football manager and send Txiki over a list of promising players. Call it erm...(BMSN)Blue Moon Sporting Agency using advanced and sophisticated analytical software- Endorsed by Ole and Red Edd.
We definitely need to do what everyone else is doing as they are all so much more successful in every area than us.
I strongly suspect not.Is this a serious post?
So you want to beat the likes of Ajax and Dortmund to a player (which does happen, quite a lot) and then loan the player back to which club exactly? if its their original club then thats pointless because they wont become the player they can be there, if you are saying loan them to Ajax or Dortmund then why the fuck would they want to develop players for us?
You understand that most of these talented kids become the players they are because of the training and experience gained at the likes of Ajax and Dortmund that then makes them attractive to bigger clubs.
Is this a serious post?
So you want to beat the likes of Ajax and Dortmund to a player (which does happen, quite a lot) and then loan the player back to which club exactly? if its their original club then thats pointless because they wont become the player they can be there, if you are saying loan them to Ajax or Dortmund then why the fuck would they want to develop players for us?
You understand that most of these talented kids become the players they are because of the training and experience gained at the likes of Ajax and Dortmund that then makes them attractive to bigger clubs.
We need Tonto,he will get his man.Little bit tongue in cheek. Our scouting could do with a bit of help :)
All we need is for them to WhatsApp their intentions to Txiki in advance and the job’s a good un.Why don’t we just scout clubs like Ajax, schalke, RB,Monaco,Dortmund? Once they try to buy a player for a small fee that is unknown go in and gazump them. Loan the player back to them and once he is developed, take him back. Sorted! You are welcome Txiki.