Otamendi

[Neville Kneville]

Whichever way you look at it our defence performed worse last year than in previous years. Kompany and Zabaleta were both out of form, Mangala found it difficult to adapt and Clichy and Kolarov only found form when getting extended runs. Much of this may be due to the constant chopping and changing of the defence early in the season.

Ultimately though the is the last year for MD and we have to plan ahead. The reason we are most likely going to overpay for Sterling is because of a lack of adequate forward planning. Clubs know we are desperate for HG players and so they will put higher price tags on such players. If we wait until we are desperate for a CB, clubs will charge us more for them. Better to look for a replacement for MD now, rather than wait until we desperately need one.

If we replace Demichelis now, the bloke who replaces him, may be worse than him this coming season, as we have seen so far with Savic, Nastasic, Mangala, & Demichelis himself, who was dogshit for the first half of his first season & could have cost us the title with points lost by stupid mistakes in that time.

The evidence points to most cbs, struggling to adapt when they first come in. Is that really what we are trying to achieve for this coming season, with another maybe 4 or 5 players also trying to bed in different positions ?

The whole idea seems utter madness to me. We may not even need to sign a replacement for Demichelis, ever. We may already have them at the club.

 

[PragueBlue]

If we replace Demichelis now, the bloke who replaces him, may be worse than him this coming season, as we have seen so far with Savic, Nastasic, Mangala, & Demichelis himself, who was dogshit for the first half of his first season & could have cost us the title with points lost by stupid mistakes in that time.

The evidence points to most cbs, struggling to adapt when they first come in. Is that really what we are trying to achieve for this coming season, with another maybe 4 or 5 players also trying to bed in different positions ?

The whole idea seems utter madness to me. We may not even need to sign a replacement for Demichelis, ever. We may already have them at the club.

And maybe he won't be worse than Demichelis/Denayer/Kompnay etc this season. In either case we would already have him for next season and he would already have a bit of prem experience. Better than waiting until next season to buy him when he'd still maybe need a year or so to adapt. (Not talking specifically about Otamendi here but any CB).

 

[PragueBlue]

Kompany, Mangala, Denayer, Demichelis and Rekik.

Why on earth would we sign another expensive CB?

I suspect Rekik will be sold this window. Demichelis is on his last legs and this will be his last season. Kompany is fairly injury prone and wasn't in the best form last season and still not sure if Mangala will kick on.

 

[Neville Kneville]

And maybe he won't be worse than Demichelis/Denayer/Kompnay etc this season. In either case we would already have him for next season and he would already have a bit of prem experience. Better than waiting until next season to buy him when he'd still maybe need a year or so to adapt. (Not talking specifically about Otamendi here but any CB).

But surely you see, the difference would be that we lose Demichelis, now ? So we have Kompany (often injured) Mangala (not yet proven) Denayer (not yet proven) & a new boy.

When we could have Demichelis instead, give Managala & Denayer a year to settle. Then, IF NECCESSARY sign a relacement for Demichelis next season, assuming Demichelis looks past it, & Denayer, Mangala & Kompany require us to buy a 4th cb at all.

We may not even need a replacement for Demichelis next season.

 

[Marvin]

having got Kompany and just settled Mangala in, I can't believe we'd be looking for a central defender. Not unless some outrageous talent came along

 

[Neville Kneville]

I suspect Rekik will be sold this window. Demichelis is on his last legs and this will be his last season. Kompany is fairly injury prone and wasn't in the best form last season and still not sure if Mangala will kick on.

There is also the possibility that if Rekik goes to a better league than Holland, & does well, we could buy him back to be the 4th cb in the future . Then we have Tosin, Cameron Humphries coming through & are rumoured to be in for a young French lad who everyone is after.

We may never need to spend big money on a cb ever again if we are lucky.

 

[ljones15]

Hmmmmmm

 

[BigOscar]

Screams of Jorge Mendes using us to try and get more money again, just as he did with Jackson Martinez about a week ago. It makes no sense at all for us to be after him.

 

[birchwoodgingerste]

Screams of Jorge Mendes using us to try and get more money again, just as he did with Jackson Martinez about a week ago. It makes no sense at all for us to be after him.

Just read an article on news now claiming pellegrin met ottamendi and held talks with him

 

[kenzie115]

Demichelis is on his last legs and this will be his last season.

He was our best defender last season, how exactly is he on his last legs?