Kalidou Koulibaly

[MarsLlama]

Imagine some of these guys running the club.

We'd have activated Iheanacho's buyback clause after his winner vs Everton last winter and sold Jesus to Arsenal.

 

[Dr Jacoby]

This has been ‘imminent’ for weeks now. Hopefully we’ll sign Holgate soon so this saga can finally end.

 

[ctid1894]

Not every signing needs to be able to start for us for 10+ years. Koulibaly probably has five seasons in his legs which is the same length of time Otamendi, Sterling and De Bruyne have played for us- look what they've achieved in that time!

We bought all those players at a considerably younger age, Otamendi being the oldest at 27 when he signed. He's only 32 now and isn't even the same player he was two seasons ago as other posters have alluded to, even though he's never had any pace to rely on.

 

[MarsLlama]

We bought all those players at a considerably younger age, Otamendi being the oldest at 27 when he signed. He's only 32 now and isn't even the same player he was two seasons ago as other posters have alluded to, even though he's never had any pace to rely on.

There's plenty of examples of centre-backs continuing to excel well into their mid-thirties.

 

[mccity]

To shift the perspective just a little bit I'd like to remind
that our "mess" of a defence just conceded 2 more goals
compared to the world's best defence of the PL w*nner over 38 matches and less than any.other.PL team.

I hope Koulibaly signs for us but the dramatical consequences if or if not is a bit much for me.
A deal won't ruin the club, too. I'm relaxed.

We can sign the whole world but it's meaningless before we grow a pair in big matches.

We mainly lack in terms of consistent attitude and desire like - it hurts to say but it's sooo true - current teams like Liverpool and Bayern.
As Klopp said in his warning to the PL - focus on attitude and desire.

THAT is where City should concentrate on for future transfers and it seems they do.

I do largely agree with the mentality aspect. I think that was one of our two biggest failings this season.

But the other for me is in defence. What I think is underrated is how well we've defended as a team in many games this season, much like the previous two seasons. That's part of why we kept so many clean sheets and conceded so few relative to the rest of the league. But this season when ever our defence has been required to stand up tall on its own it's often struggled. As a literal last line of defence it could have done better.

Last season, if you ignore that weird 9 game rut in mid-season (from Chelsea loss to Newcastle loss), we conceded 11 goals from 28 games. That's incredible. Even if you don't it's 23 goals from 38 games, which is still great. There were other factors that helped but consistently having at least 2 top class CBs active gave us a certain solidity that wouldn't otherwise have been available. When that defence got challenged it stood up tall, importantly even in games where we weren't fully on it in our heads. This season there have been games where I felt we were really there mentally but still screwed up in defence and paid for it.

Koulibaly might not be the right answer, or he might be one of about 15 possible answers that would suffice. My point being whether it's Koulibaly or someone else we desperately need top quality CBs, on top of developing a pair of balls throughout the team.

 

[Ajm1985]

Would you prefer the first news coming out on a transfer is the photo of the player signing his contract with Txiki next to him? ;)

Haha well yeah, but my point isn't that having daily news is boring, just that it's the same cycle daily

 

[kaz7]

From my understanding, Tolmie here has a contact at City? Please clarify why Tolmie would know!

He is a journo with lots of contacts at city

 

[cjn]

You don't make an offer until you know its going to be done, this isn't eBay. Probably Napoli and Lille now fighting it out over the replacement defender coming in.

I don't understand why this is difficult for some people, including journalists sometimes. Transfers aren't done by faxing official offers back and forth anymore. Koulibaly's agent seems to be the intermediary on this one, so Txiki is probably on a WhatApp with him and we go back and forth with Napoli through that guy, at least until its close then maybe you hammer it out directly. The only official "offer" that's ever made is when we agree a fee and draw up the paperwork.

 

[kaz7]

I assume he sent a link to the music video for the Michael Camilo hit "Not Yet".

Nah he said it in words

 

[kaz7]

Why are city dragging this deal out,

We are not,napoli have form for this

 

[Phil1]

His age doesn't bother me one bit and I don't understand why it would anybody else. 29 is a great age for a CB.
Wherever he's the right player is another story and I won't pretend to know the answer because I've seen him maybe a dozen times. He's one of those who looks perfect on paper but as we all know the game isn't played on paper.
The only thing I'm sure of is we are in desperate need for a replacement for Garcia and hopefully Otemendi.

 

[ctid1894]

Potentially better signings than Koulibaly most probably exist but Koulibaly is right now the most proven among the options and given that Pep is running out of time here we go for the most proven in order to have a good chance to win the league and the CL. Every transfer is risky to some extent. Money shouldn't be a big factor, especially with expected sales of Stones, Ota, Zinch, some loaned out players, youngsters and Sane's departure. It's very difficult to identify the next great CB and be sure he will hit the ground running. Even a talent like de Ligt had problems last season. So, we pay for someone already proven.

We will win the Champions League whether it's next season or in 5-10 years who cares, this desperation to win it now is all a bit deluded for me. You certainly don't buy a player because you're scared a manager might only be here for a couple more years. We were successful before Pep (Mancini and Pellegrini), during Pep and I'm sure we will be long after Pep has disappeared into the wilderness.

Yes I want to win it now too, who doesn't but you don't change a strategy which has been very successful to this point over the last 7-8 years. The first 2-3 years were spent forcing our way into the Champions League group before UEFA tried shutting the door and throwing away the key with FFP, we had no choice but to spend big and fast to facilitate the long term plans.

 

[Akpowell]

We are not,napoli have form for this

Are Napoli doing it in the hope that another club will jump in and offer the asking price

 

[RayCTID]

Koulibaly has won the Coppa Italia and made the Serie A ToTY four times in a row, I'd argue that's a more impressive CV than most of our players had before joining.

Still not as sparkling as the players mentioned.

 

[blueparrot]

We are not,napoli have form for this

Well if Tolmie is right and we haven't bid, can hardly blame Napoli. Though think it's unlikely we still haven't made any offer.

 

[ctid1894]

This has been ‘imminent’ for weeks now. Hopefully we’ll sign Holgate soon so this saga can finally end.

I don't think that's as far fetched as you believe, he's been watched a lot by every club in the top 8 excluding Liverpool for obvious reasons and Wolves. Quite a few from Europe too.

 

[Del_Bosque]

Laporte had achieved absolutely fuck all before we signed him. Lots of us thought he was a risk and we'd never seen him play. He's turning out pretty well. De Bruyne had no real impressive trophies before joining either, or countless others. Players come here to win their trophies, so what matters before they sign is their own quality.

yea teams who win trophies regularly don’t sell their best players

We aren’t going to stroll up and sign Madrid, Bayerns Barca’s over Juves first choice defenders

 

[MarsLlama]

Koulibaly has won the Coppa Italia and made the Serie A ToTY four times in a row, I'd argue that's a more impressive CV than most of our players had before joining.

No but it says more about how good he is than almost any other member of our squad had before they joined.

 

[M12Blue]

To quote Theresa May "I'd rather have no deal than a bad deal", oh hang on you may have a point.

No to be honest it's right player and the right price or walk away for me, I'll always put long term plans in front of short term stop gaps and that's all Koulibaly is for me. Good, very good player and if he's available at a good price, then why not, but at the current quoted asking price, he's not worth the gamble.

Time will tell if we get him or a younger version. As long as successful I’m sure we’ll both be happy

 

[kaz7]

Are Napoli doing it in the hope that another club will jump in and offer the asking price

Probably,we got burned with jorginho,i expect we are being careful,they would love us to steam in with a 90 m bid then sell to someone who bid a pound more