Miralem Pjanic.

[kanovic]

Pjanic is a class player. We would def benefit. It’s a yes from me

 

[OB1]

I would personally love to have him here I think he’s incredibly effective and dominant. Chelsea would never sell to us in any case but I just think when we finally buy a top pivot as cover / replacement for Fernandinho the first qualities Pep will be looking for is a great first touch and passing range.

Agreed: you have to assume that Pep is looking for a different kind of DMC to Kante.

Pep's objective is to have the ball and keep the ball. When they do lose it, everyone is part of winning back quickly. He doesn't want there to be a need to have one guy who is constantly breaking up the oppositions play / attacks. Keeping possession rather than regaining possession is the key.

 

[Tez Tosterone]

Just read that Juve want that Savic geezer from Lazio - he would cost €90/100mil - so maybe that’s why they would be prepared to let Pjanic go?

I suspect the answer to that question is YES.

Pjanic would be sold for €90m and Malinkivic-Savic would set the Old Lady back €110m, despite his disappointing World Cup performance. To balance their books they will also need to sell either Sturaro, Alex Sandro and or Rugani. They are fending off bids from Abramovich for Rugani and Caldera and looking to offload Higuain.

In the meantime, they have just had a bid of €30m rejected for Portuguese defender Alex Telles* as a possible Alex Sandro replacement. Source: AS Bola

Possibly suggested by fellow Portuguese international Ronaldo.

 

[Dribble]

To sign these world class players as cover would cause an imbalance in the squad, they would want to play, part of the beauty of last season was the harmony amongst the players. We have brought one in and maybe one more would be enough.
Look at Madrid or Barca, their 2nd string players are not at the level of the starting eleven, bar one or two. That's all we need in my opinion

We do need world class options. This only seems to become apparent to some when through injury & suspensions, we're forced to field more of our second string with a midfield of Delph, Gundog & Bernardo, with Zinchenko as LB & Foden & Diaz as our wingers, with Jesus up front & Bravo in goal.

Does this sound like a team to frighten allcomers, or does it sound more like our Capital One Cup squad against Notts County at home?

We need strength in depth & to replace Yaya & there us no way I see us acquiring a eorkd class LW, CM & a CDM as being excessive.

 

[Dribble]

The mistake that season was the replacements for De Jong, Tevez, Balotelli were not good enough, we are not losing that calibre of players this season. Same in 2014 losing Negredo and Demichelis being 35, plus the shambles of our CB recruitment. We've a young hungry squad with good enough short term cover for injuries and fatigue. Mendy, Mahrez, older Foden plus full season of Laporte are addition

Cast your mind back to last February. To keep up our assault on all 4 cups, we were dead on our feet at times. Our squad has deficiencies. We have no replacement for Yaya & no cover/eventual replacement for Dinho. We have no adequate cover for Silva & have no cover for Sane.

How have we got around this? Luckily trying to force square pegs into round holes worked for us last season, but it didn't work for us under Pellegrini. Are you so certain we'll get away with this again next season? I'm not so sure & now is the time where we don't have to risk finding out.

 

[Neville Kneville]

Agreed: you have to assume that Pep is looking for a different kind of DMC to Kante.

Pep's objective is to have the ball and keep the ball. When they do lose it, everyone is part of winning back quickly. He doesn't want there to be a need to have one guy who is constantly breaking up the oppositions play / attacks. Keeping possession rather than regaining possession is the key.

I thought Kante & the rest of the French midfield looked like dogshit compared to Modric etc.
Really put me off him completely.

 

[nmc]

Just read that Juve want that Savic geezer from Lazio - he would cost €90/100mil - so maybe that’s why they would be prepared to let Pjanic go?

I wonder if we should bypass Juve and go straight for the younger guy at Lazio and let Pep mould him - rather than us fund Juve’s restructure.

 

[Dribble]

Fabregas would be a backward step

How so in the short term of 2-3 seasons?

 

[Dribble]

So who would you 'move on' then?

Who needs to be moved on is the question. If memory serves me right, our squad was under the permitted numbers allowed.

 

[Neville Kneville]

Cast your mind back to last February. To keep up our assault on all 4 cups, we were dead on our feet at times. Our squad has deficiencies. We have no replacement for Yaya & no cover/eventual replacement for Dinho. We have no adequate cover for Silva & have no cover for Sane.

How have we got around this? Luckily trying to force square pegs into round holes worked for us last season, but it didn't work for us under Pellegrini. Are you do certain we'll get away with this again next season? I'm not so sure & now is the time where we don't have to risk finding out.

This is not true.

We have cover for all those positions. It's not like for like exact cover but it's better than many teams' starters. We could improve on it with the right signings but what we have already is fucking incredible.

 

[citizen_maine]

Who needs to be moved on is the question. If memory serves me right, our squad was under the permitted numbers allowed.

As I understand it, the only spaces available are the 4 Club Trained spots.

 

[asaluttar]

I suspect the answer to that question is YES.

Pjanic would be sold for €90m and Malinkivic-Savic would set the Old Lady back €110m, despite his disappointing World Cup performance. To balance their books they will also need to sell either Sturaro, Alex Sandro and or Rugani. They are fending off bids from Abramovich for Rugani and Caldera and looking to offload Higuain.

In the meantime, they have just had a bid of €30m rejected for Portuguese defender Alex Telles* as a possible Alex Sandro replacement. Source: AS Bola

Possibly suggested by fellow Portuguese international Ronaldo.

Hilarious, haggle over a few million for our number 1 target we have been pursuing for months, in what is likely to our most problematic position, and then get quoted 20-30 million higher for the backup

 

[Dribble]

We don’t need a winger, we have 4 wide players already. Mahrez is cover or starter on both sides. Sane, Raz and Bernardo.

Edit....and you also seem to be paying no attention to squad size limits plus its not easy to find top players that are prepared to play second fiddle.

We need a midfielder and that’s it.

We do need a winger, because quite evidently it's not where Bernardo' future lies for us. We have 3 in Mahrez, Sane & Sterling. Just imagine another Willian/Peresic type added tp that lot?

We've not replaced Yaya & we need cover for Dinho. This is squad progress, not just settling for 'We were alright last season & don't need much more'.

What you're forgetting is that Spurs, ManUre, Dippers, Chavs & Arse will actually have some say in the league next year.

 

[ninjamonkey]

We do need world class options. This only seems to become apparent to some when through injury & suspensions, we're forced to field more of our second string with a midfield of Delph, Gundog & Bernardo, with Zinchenko as LB & Foden & Diaz as our wingers, with Jesus up front & Bravo in goal.

Does this sound like a team to frighten allcomers, or does it sound more like our Capital One Cup squad against Notts County at home?

We need strength in depth & to replace Yaya & there us no way I see us acquiring a eorkd class LW, CM & a CDM as being excessive.

For that team to lineup we would have to have 8 injuries simultaneously. You simply can't legislate for something as freak as that to occur, and even if you could, squad limitations prevent that.

I agree we needed proper cover for Sane but that isn't happening now, we've got Mahrez and between him Sane Sterling and Bernardo that's our 4 men for the two wide positions with KDB offering an additional alternative. We need a central midfielder desperately and thats about it. I'm not gundogans biggest fan but find me somebody better that will be willing to play understudy to silva and kdb

 

[Dribble]

Barring injuries we are in a better position than last season Yaya hardly contributed last season, We have Mahrez he can play on the left or right and cover Sane and Sterling, that releases Bernardo to cover Silva and KDB, Foden may play more if we can get a suitable deep midfielder fine if not we wait, I'm happy with Gundogan or Delph. We'll have Mendy making us more flexible so can use 3 at the back.
Our squad doesn't get much better we broke every record last year all we have to do in tinker a little not make wholesale changes.

It's about opinions & I get what you're saying. However just imagine your City squad over the course of a season with a world class LW, CDM & CM added.

I don't subscribe to the 'World class players won't want to sit on the bench'. Over the course of a 60 game season, they'd easily play 40 games. Who'd complain about that?

 

[Dribble]

Don't think Pep is his biggest fan anyway.

Why?

 

[citizen_maine]

It's about opinions & I get what you're saying. However just imagine your City squad over the course of a season with a world class LW, CDM & CM added.

I don't subscribe to the 'World class players won't want to sit on the bench'. Over the course of a 60 game season, they'd easily play 40 games. Who'd complain about that?

So, not so much 'need', as 'wouldn't it be fucking great' then

 

[prestonibbo_mcfc]

Are we a miralem miles away from this Pjanic buy ?

 

[Dribble]

This is not true.

We have cover for all those positions. It's not like for like exact cover but it's better than many teams' starters. We could improve on it with the right signings but what we have already is fucking incredible.

You've just repeated what I've said. The mend & make do approach got us a double last season, but I want us to do better & go for the treble or quadruple & more importantly to maintain the distance between us & the chasing pack.

We can't do this with the mindset of "We have cover for all those positions. It's not like for like exact cover but it's better than many teams' starters."

Our foot is on the necks of our PL competitors, we now need to stamp it down & break the fuckers' necks & then bury them using their amputated hands as shovels.

It's just differences of opinions & approaches to problems. I'm more of the mindset of forgetting last season & remembering this season our opposition will be stronger & we all start again from 0.

 

[Dribble]

As I understand it, the only spaces available are the 4 Club Trained spots.

I don't know. All I recall is all the lay statisticians arguing the toss with each other about what spaces we had available. On top of that, there's the differing requirements for the PL & CL.

The rest is for the club to work out.