Mehdi Benatia

[TrueBlue1705]

Unfortunately our approach is agree a deal with the player first then attempt to try and chip away at the selling club pissing them off and attempting to drive the the transfer price down. - Chelsea on the other hand go in hard and fast - If they want Benatia they will most likely blow us out of the water, the only barrier would the player refusing to go to Chelsea.

I think one swift summer last year does not make a perfect transfer approach from City - There are clearly problems with our methods when we're trying to sign the best players and other big clubs are also in the equation the long game means the likes of Chelsea can come in later and get the headline 'Chelsea Hijack City Transfer'

 

[richards30]

Unfortunately our approach is agree a deal with the player first then attempt to try and chip away at the selling club pissing them off and attempting to drive the the transfer price down. - Chelsea on the other hand go in hard and fast 0 If they want Benatia they will most likely blow us out of the water, the only barrier would the player refusing to go to Chelsea.

I think one swift summer last year does not make a perfect transfer approach from City - There are clearly problems with our methods when we're trying to sign the best players and other big clubs are also in the equation the long game means the likes of Chelsea can come in later and get the headline 'Chelsea Hijack City Transfer'

our biggest problem this summer is making sure we get things right in the spending cap! first time in a certain aspect we are quite vunerable in the spending dept.

 

[oldius]

I guess it comes with supporting City for so long, that many of us believe that a player will automatically choose a club like Chelsea, or they will blow us out of the water with a huge transfer fee. I wonder how long it will be before we accept what other fans already know; we are a big fish, paying big wages and transfer fees and investing hugely in our academy. We are a big, big club with a huge future.

 

[LoveCity]

Someone show me a secondary source reporting the Benatia/Chelsea move. All I've seen it in is Roman newspaper Il Messaggero, then copied by the Daily Express. Not one mention of Chelsea from Di Marzio or in any of Gazzetta's reports.

 

[Mcfchamps]

@City_Watch: Despite reports last night that Roma won't negotiate, Gazzetta says they'd sell Benatia for £28m, but said 'no thanks' to City's £17m offer.

 

[uwe rosler 28]

@City_Watch: Despite reports last night that Roma won't negotiate, Gazzetta says they'd sell Benatia for £28m, but said 'no thanks' to City's £17m offer.

Can see this being done round the 23mil mark.

 

[Danamy]

Confuesed.com!

Arent you supposed to agree a fee with the selling club before being allowed to talk to the player and agree personal terms???

Let's just say that's the official way of doing things

Are those rules ever actually adhered to these days?

By some but not others.....

 

[cmdub]

Feel like this will get done eventually but sabbatini(sp) had a press conference tomorrow morning and he'll speak on this. Some roma fans have said that if he says they aren't selling than they aren't selling regardless of benatias comments

 

[MCFCUSA]

Playing devils advocate here, but if Benatia just bought a house in Rome last week, wouldn't that mean his intention was to stay at Roma? Why would you waste your money buying a house in Rome if you were "wanted" to leave the club for a bigger club? And maybe the reason that he said those things to the media was to get an improved contract? Just offering the other perspective of the story.

 

[bluechampion7891]

Assuming no player sales and no major player departures, we can spend up to 49 million:

Fernando, DM (12 million)
Sagna, RB (free)
Willy Caballero, GK (4-6 million)

That's 16-18 million on 3 players we need. That still means we can spend 31 million on a CB, so signing Benatia should not be a problem financially given that Roma want something close to 28.5 (according to rumors).

Then take into account what we will certainly get from player sales. Optimistically, we are looking at:
Richards 6-8 million
Guidetti 3-5 million
Sinclair 2-3 million
Garcia 8-10 million

which is roughly close to 20-25 million that can also be added to that budget.

So, I don't think we should be worried from a financial point of view of Chelsea blowing us out of the water.