Mehdi Benatia

[sgerlat]

The more you wait the less you pay, this is not the case guys trust me.

Roma, rightly, won't lower their request, this little is certain and I do believe Benatia is worth €40m, anything short of that pricetag won't be even considered by the club.

If City want him they can't wait no longer otherwise they'd better move on to the next target, we're (Roma) are not in a position that allows us to sell a Benatia calibre of player in August, I'd say the 15th of July is the maximum we could wait, Garcia can't play in the American tourneè against top clubs without his starting CB, he would be bent out of shape, plus our Champions' group stage will be tough, I guess no one will be happy to find Roma as 4th bracket team.

The replacement is the real problem here, City can conclude any deal in 3 days if they want to, plus are not desperate to get a CB immediately, they can wait they still have Nasty and other options, Roma can't and we need time, a lot of time to buy certain kind of player, money itself is no issue we can offer 20-30 millions for any player, the wage is.

Apart from the fact that I don't see any player as good as Benatia that can substitute him and that's why City are supposedly after him, we can't offer more than €2,2/2.5m bonus included, not yet, our revenue last year was €124m, should be 170-180 this year and more than 200 in a couple of years, around 250 when the stadium will be finished, it's an ongoing process, but we need to be consistently in Champions League in order to do that. I'm actually very surprised, coming from 2 years without european cups, we renewed Pjanic's deal and are able to keep them all and still have room for players like Yarmolenko, who is by the way a beast.
A good/excellent player with sustainable wage is nearly impossible to net, he has to be relatively unknown, like Strootman last year. I would accept Lovren or Howedes as replacaments but they will look for a €3m per year kind of deal and that kind of money I'd rather give them to Benatia, who has 4 years left in his contract and he is not in position to demand for more than what Roma is offering him, which is 2.2 ballpark, he could waters the plants if he likes.

Therefore, for the aforementioned reasons, they more you wait the less likely is for Benatia to leave and I would be very glad if he stays.

 

[dachoosen1]

I disagree man Benatia is not a popular figure at the at the minute and is apparently refusing to train with the team, Roma are the ones the need to sell him in order to fund a replace we dont need to buy him. If we refuse to met your fee we can move on to other targets but Roma is stuck with an unhappy player who cant be too popular with his team mates, manager or fans of the club if it is true that he isnt training with the team. We have a set budget this season and we have already spent money on two CM's, RB and seem close to signing a goalkeeper. We have no reason to exchange Nastasic as we are looking to sign a CB not sell one and im sure Roma will value him alot less then us. There are a number of targets we are link with Mangala and Astori for example and we will want a player in for pre season to get settled. If Roma dont lower the fee I can see us moving on and Roma cant afford that.

 

[I'm no cynic but...]

The more you wait the less you pay, this is not the case guys trust me.

Roma, rightly, won't lower their request, this little is certain and I do believe Benatia is worth €40m, anything short of that pricetag won't be even considered by the club.

If City want him they can't wait no longer otherwise they'd better move on to the next target, we're (Roma) are not in a position that allows us to sell a Benatia calibre of player in August, I'd say the 15th of July is the maximum we could wait, Garcia can't play in the American tourneè against top clubs without his starting CB, he would be bent out of shape, plus our Champions' group stage will be tough, I guess no one will be happy to find Roma as 4th bracket team.

The replacement is the real problem here, City can conclude any deal in 3 days if they want to, plus are not desperate to get a CB immediately, they can wait they still have Nasty and other options, Roma can't and we need time, a lot of time to buy certain kind of player, money itself is no issue we can offer 20-30 millions for any player, the wage is.

Apart from the fact that I don't see any player as good as Benatia that can substitute him and that's why City are supposedly after him, we can't offer more than €2,2/2.5m bonus included, not yet, our revenue last year was €124m, should be 170-180 this year and more than 200 in a couple of years, around 250 when the stadium will be finished, it's an ongoing process, but we need to be consistently in Champions League in order to do that. I'm actually very surprised, coming from 2 years without european cups, we renewed Pjanic's deal and are able to keep them all and still have room for players like Yarmolenko, who is by the way a beast.
A good/excellent player with sustainable wage is nearly impossible to net, he has to be relatively unknown, like Strootman last year. I would accept Lovren or Howedes as replacaments but they will look for a €3m per year kind of deal and that kind of money I'd rather give them to Benatia, who has 4 years left in his contract and he is not in position to demand for more than what Roma is offering him, which is 2.2 ballpark, he could waters the plants if he likes.

Therefore, for the aforementioned reasons, they more you wait the less likely is for Benatia to leave and I would be very glad if he stays.

You make the same kind of case that we do for our own players, but ultimately if a player doesn't get what he wants, he can be more trouble than he's worth. Its happened with us too, despite the riches our club has, and once his agent gets on the case, Benatia will get what he wants whether anyone likes it or not.

 

[Stoned Rose]

If you are suggesting Nastasic's "anticipation" as you call it isn't up to scratch, I can only assume you're either on heavy drugs, or have not watched him play. He's one of the best readers of the game in Europe, and outrageously gifted at it for his age.

He's not naturally an aggressive front foot defender so he didn't really suit our style of play last season, but he's a very talented player. I think he was our best player the season before last (possibly second after Zabba). If you don't rate him, watch the semi final against Chelsea, he was outstanding.

Not a heavy drug user but I am a season ticket holder. However, I do appreciate your kind comments. I will keep it more simple: if you disagree with me, I will just accept that you have a different opinion.

I will state again, I do not believe Nastasic is rubbish, terrible, chronic, useless etc.. My opinion is that he is not good enough for us. That may be partially be explained by the point raised by yourself and Thaksinsoldier, in that he doesn't quite suit the way we play. In my opinion, we get players who can do the best job within the system we play.

I wasn't making a comment about his ability to anticipate. I was simply trying to get the previous poster to discuss the issue sensibly by discussing Nastasic's skills and abilities. Maybe you should have read my post.

I'll be honest, I cannot even remember his performance in the semi against Chelsea as I only watched the game once, with the gods in Block 532, and I spent the last 30 or mins or so with my eyes closed thinking that we, including Milner, looked like we were shattered and were going to throw away the game. I had also had a 'few'.

His anticipation, in my eyes, appears to be good for a player his age. It was helped by our style iof play in 2012/13. We did not appear to attack in the same numbers as we had done for much of the previous season. It is easier to for defenders to anticipate correctly when the team are playing fairly cautiously. For me, anticipation is one element of decision-making. Nastasic's decision making is not one of his overall strengths. You only have to look at the needless fouls he committed in dangerous areas. On a number of occasions he has been lucky to not give a penalty away.

I would disagree that Nastasic is one of the best readers of the game in Europe. Lescott is a better reader of the game and Joleon is far from being one of the best readers of the game in Europe.

I was only kidding about the heavy drug use mate, I didn't mean to insult you, so apologies if you took it that way.

I agree that Nastasic is not suited to playing a high line like we did last season. In that system it is more suited to players who are fast, aggressive, strong, none of which are attributes of Nastasic. That is not to say he could not improve on his strength and aggression though as he develops. DeMichelis is not the quickest, but he can play in that system because he's aggressive and reads the game well.

I am absolutely shocked to say the least that you think Lescott is a better reader of the game than Nastasic. I rated Lescott in our title winning season. He was poor last season though, again I think because his style didn't suit the way we played. He obviously has a woeful lack of pace so gets exposed when playing high up. He is strong and aggressive though, but the reason DeMichelis looked so much better than him is because Lescott isn't a great reader of the game, he relies on his physicality to out muscle players.

Obviously football is about opinions, but I've honestly not seen a 20 year old who reads the games as well as Nastasic since Maldini. He's that intelligent as a footballer for me. Again decision making is about personal opinion, but Nastasic always tries to retain possession, doesn't just hoof the ball long / out for a throw in. He's absolutely superb at picking a sharp, incisive pass in to midfield. His decision making is superb for a possession based team, and I really struggle to see how you could think differently? Perhaps you prefer the old fashioned "Better out than nowt" "Get it in row Z" style of defending. That's not for me.

I agree he made some silly fouls last year, but again I think that's down to him struggling to adapt to the new system. He needs to get to grips with it, but I would certainly not be writing him off yet.

You say it's easier to look good in a team that plays deep, but I think it depends on the player. Different players are suited to different styles, but I agree Nastasic looks far more comfortable playing deep. That doesn't make him a bad player. I didn't see Nesta and Cannavaro pushing up to the half way line and flying in to challenges very often, they stayed deep and defended, and they are the two best centre halves I've ever seen.

Agree with most of this analysis but have to disagree with the passing comments. One of his biggest flaws is his insistence on the aimless floated pass into the general area of where a colleague might be stood. I also feel Nasty is a 'reactive' defender rather than the 'proactive' defender Manuel prefers. For these two reasons he doesn't really fit with what Manuel wants/likes in his defenders so, as sad as it may be, I think he may be a goner this summer.

 

[Stoned Rose]

Nastasic is still a kid . Judge him in 3 or 4 seasons from now although i believe he would've proved all you doubters wrong by then.

He also spent a huge amount of time injured last season. It took Demichelis - who played under Pellegrini numerous times in the past, who played at the top level in Europe for nine years - four months to start playing well for us and that was with playing game-in-game-out (for a time he was dreadful!). I don't think Nastasić got to play three games in a row once all season.

He was my POTS the year before last, better than the world's best centre back Vincent Kompany. The lad is class! Just needs proper settling in time to Pellegrini's systems.

His performance against RM in the bernabeu . Not a single mistake from him that day and he was just 19 at the time. Anyway lets stick to discussing Benatia.

No quite true mate. From memory Nasty was seriously at fault for Madrid's 2nd goal that night. Gave Benzema acres of space to turn and shoot.

 

[sgerlat]

I disagree man Benatia is not a popular figure at the at the minute and is apparently refusing to train with the team, Roma are the ones the need to sell him in order to fund a replace we dont need to buy him. If we refuse to met your fee we can move on to other targets but Roma is stuck with an unhappy player who cant be too popular with his team mates, manager or fans of the club if it is true that he isnt training with the team. We have a set budget this season and we have already spent money on two CM's, RB and seem close to signing a goalkeeper. We have no reason to exchange Nastasic as we are looking to sign a CB not sell one and im sure Roma will value him alot less then us. There are a number of targets we are link with Mangala and Astori for example and we will want a player in for pre season to get settled. If Roma dont lower the fee I can see us moving on and Roma cant afford that.

I didn't say you need a CB, actually I said the exact opposite if you read my words closely, I'd keep Nasty if I were you, I was simply implying that if City want him they need to get him now because for a team like Roma it takes a lot of time to find the right replacement and that's why I said 15th of July as deadline.

We don't know yet if he won't show up for training camp which starts the 15th, they're free to do what they like in the meantime, just small unverified talk for now, but he posted a few days ago on Twitter a picture of him training all alone by himself with 40 degrees in Morocco, I mean what's the point, no to mention it's unhealthy too, you're trying to make? Ok, we get it you want out but you signed, no one forced him, a contract with us last year for 5 years and there are certain rules to be respected, it's not a jungle even if it may look like it. If it wasn't for Roma signing him, I highly doubt any top club would be after him, at least show us some respect, act like a man and have a private conversation with the club, like I suppose Cuadrado did, no need to blurt out on national Tv because there is really nothing strange if you'd like to go and compete for the Champions League, who doesn't?
His agent, who Sabatini called publicly "wandering ministrel", such a bossy move, said "Roma should sell Benatia if they receive a €30m offer for him". Really??? Agents dictating the prices are simply inadmissible, the club should hold more power, like in Nba, you get shifted in and out depending on the team heart's content, unless your name is Lebron James. You can dictate when you are a FA, as simple as that.

So you're right, dealing with unhappy players is not a situation any team would like to be in and in most cases the player gets what he wants but sometimes it requires the iron hand to prevent similar cases to happen once again. We lose, money and competitivness, not playing him for sure, but our image would be streghten and a solid image in the eye of other teams and players is pivotal in negotiations.

Roma can afford to move on even though it wouldn't be ideal.

Benatia has 3 options right now: a) he and his agent can find a team willing to pay the money Roma wants; b) you apologize and try to mend your relationship with club and fans; b) you go fuck yourself and let's see if City are still chasing you after not playing for 4 years, he knows the answer is no.

 

[sam-caddick]

City Watch @City_Watch · 34s

Daily Star: Roma defender Mehdi Benatia is desperate to join City and is willing to waive a £3m bonus to help the deal go through.

If this is true then it's just another reason why I want him over Mangala.

 

[TrueBlue1705]

City Watch @City_Watch · 34s

Daily Star: Roma defender Mehdi Benatia is desperate to join City and is willing to waive a £3m bonus to help the deal go through.

If this is true then it's just another reason why I want him over Mangala.

100% agree and Benatia is a better player - It sounds like Mangala would prefer to go elsewhere - we are just setting ourselves up for a 'player snubs City' or 'Chelsea Hijack City deal' headline!!

 

[Wretched Vengeance]

Which agent will blink first, Benatia's or Mangala's?

 

[TrueBlue1705]

Which agent will blink first, Benatia's or Mangala's?

Mangala's agent is Mendes, also Mourinho's agent - this makes me very suspicious of any Mangala negotiations!!