Letting Aymeric Laporte go.

Mcfc1.9.8.0 said:
Gavardiol was in the pipeline as well
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Agreed, but we broke the all time transfer fee for a center back for Gavardiol and then have only ever played him at "left back" albeit inverted.

It is far to say we have never truly replaced Laporte with a left footed high IQ passing center back in now multiple transfer markets...and we miss that passing ability terribly vs all these teams that play the low block formation against us.
Aymeric ability to pick a pass was incredible, and right now other then stones (who played more for England in 2024 then City in PL) I think its fair to say we don't have a center back that is anywhere near that since we moved Gavardiol to left back full time.

In the clubs defense it does sound like they kicked the tires on Bastoni since Laporte left in 2023, but unfortunately could never make any traction on that, and have since pivoted to getting cheaper alternatives in Khusanov, Reis, and Bah.
Hopefully throwing numbers at the issue, and not just overspending on one possible world class player is the right strategy.
 
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Zenmanc said:
We got Akanji after Laporte had left and just on value for money alone up until late Akanji has been just a pivotal if not more to this team than Laporte ever was. For the 5 full seasons he was with us- Laporte was out well over half of 3 of those seasons.
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No we didn’t. We got Akanji in Sept 22 and Laporte left us in Aug 23. Akanji nowhere near the level of Laporte for me. Laporte desperately unlucky with injuries.
 
bluemc said:
I think there's a bit of re-writing history going on here.

Laporte was a very good player for us, and as others have mentioned playing through injury for us at a key time was commendable, as well as probably costly long term for the player.

But leading up to his departure errors, especially in big games, were becoming more frequent and he fell out of favour at a time we were firing on all cylinders. Gvardiol was also not far away. From what I recall, at the time most were sorry to see him go but also acknowledged it was probably the right time. I would disagree that he was in his prime when we sold him, with all due respect if he was then clubs across Europe would have been banging our doors down for him. They weren't, based on reports.
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Very good post. Perspective. Perspective is all.
I'd just add that there's some revisionism going on with Akanji. Akanji was downright good last season, and the season before. For the money we paid, he was ridiculously good, in fact. And the fact that he's having a fairly wank season shouldn't skew the perspective. Nearly everybody's having a wank season, incidentally.
 
HelloCity said:
I see our other defenders making a fair few mistakes tbh…
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Agreed, that's why I think if Pep could have his way this summer, Akanji, Stones, Ake, Walker and Lewis will all be out the door, and a complete refresh will be made.

Problem he has is 4 of them are home grown so only Walker(out of contract) and one other will leave I think.
 
Lovebitesandeveryfing said:
Very good post. Perspective. Perspective is all.
I'd just add that there's some revisionism going on with Akanji. Akanji was downright good last season, and the season before. For the money we paid, he was ridiculously good, in fact. And the fact that he's having a fairly wank season shouldn't skew the perspective. Nearly everybody's having a wank season, incidentally.
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He was a very good ‘value for money’ signing of that there is no doubt. However, he has always been prone to errors, not just this season. Sometimes his laid back demeanour has caused problems. Though this season, he’s not alone in that aspect.
 
bluemc said:
I think there's a bit of re-writing history going on here.

Laporte was a very good player for us, and as others have mentioned playing through injury for us at a key time was commendable, as well as probably costly long term for the player.

But leading up to his departure errors, especially in big games, were becoming more frequent and he fell out of favour at a time we were firing on all cylinders. Gvardiol was also not far away. From what I recall, at the time most were sorry to see him go but also acknowledged it was probably the right time. I would disagree that he was in his prime when we sold him, with all due respect if he was then clubs across Europe would have been banging our doors down for him. They weren't, based on reports.
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Yup agreed, a very good player for city.
 
Unfortunately he did himself in long term playing injured to win us the League. I don't think he deserved how his final season at City went (Treble aside he went from key man to bit part player) but football is a cutthroat business. He's still quality at a lower level but he would be no different to our other defenders and possibly worse in terms of availability. His body can't cope with top level football twice a week all season anymore.
 
levets said:
He was a very good ‘value for money’ signing of that there is no doubt. However, he has always been prone to errors, not just this season. Sometimes his laid back demeanour has caused problems. Though this season, he’s not alone in that aspect.
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That back pass in the champions league final :-o

But then again the “assist for the assist” for Rodri’s goal in the same game
 
Wouldn't make a difference to us mate. It's natural for people to go searching for what or who we're missing when form is down.
 
He was a much better defender than Gvardiol is or frankly might ever become judging off a big sample size of performances.

But if his body wasn’t up to it anymore we were probably right to let him go.
 
Axel Freed said:
He was a much better defender than Gvardiol is or frankly might ever become judging off a big sample size of performances.

But if his body wasn’t up to it anymore we were probably right to let him go.
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Disagree, very similar in terms of they are superb footballing defenders but neither great out and out defenders.
 
Keeper! said:
Even prime Laporte struggled when teams got in behind us, he has slow on the turn and had little pace, but still a class act and the way he played through the pain barrier to take us to the title was incredibly brave and has probably cost him his career at the highest level.
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Nailed it.
 
dennishasdoneit said:
Nailed it.
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I always thought despite been a great player and a top CB , Laporte was a bit "flakey", he did not like the rough stuff for sure but as said the title run in 2017 with all our defenders injured, Laporte was magnificent and played on despite a clearly serious knee injury.

For then he will always have my total respect and he was a huge part of our success in Pep's early years.
 
Axel Freed said:
He was a much better defender than Gvardiol is or frankly might ever become judging off a big sample size of performances.

But if his body wasn’t up to it anymore we were probably right to let him go.
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Gvardiol is an outstanding left-side defender who we have used at left back because we don't have a specialist left back. Laporte was a world class defender who lost some pace. If you had a quick defender alongside him he would be perfect. His quality on the ball is outstanding and we miss that. He wouldn't be any use to us at the moment because we don't have a reliable quick central defender unless Khusanov can play there. I have a slight doubt about Khusanov at centre back because I am not sure he has the height to play there or the ability on the ball to bring the ball out of defence.
 
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