Otamendi

[Gareth Barry Conlon]

If Stones is going to Chelsea, Denayer to Everton on loan would make perfect sense IMO.

I'd agree however if I was Everton I'd want an option to buy otherwise where's the incentive to bring him on / take the risk?

 

[Pam]

A classic from the caf. PMSL.

OMFG. That is RAWK scale delusion going on right there.

 

[domalino]

A classic from the caf. PMSL.

I'm actually not sure I disagree to be honest. United were linked long before us and before any of the ITK's had a sniff, it's entirely plausible the took a look before us.

Valencia were happy to let him go as long as the €50m was paid.

Otamendi is unlikely to care which side.

But who cares? He may not have been the right signing for them, but he is for us. He suits us down to the ground and will make us much better, while they continue to play Blind at CB until someone teflon head feels fits the "philosophy" appears.

The rags aren't our competition at the moment anyway. Barca, Bayern, Real are. They'll plod along in the league in 3rd or 4th after Chelsea wake up, overpaying to watch boring as shit games won by opposition own goals.

 

[Dave Ewing's Back 'eader]

Centre backs are like bicycles. Yer always short of the next one.

 

[Matty]

His agent has said they were told we'd be making no more CB signings of this calibre. They are clearly unhappy.

It has always been our policy to have 2 players for each position, which obviously equates to 4 centre halves. With Otamendi we'd have 5, however 1 of those is Demichelis, who is heading towards 35 years of age, and has actually been utilised as a substitute defensive midfielder in his 2 games this season. Denayer will get his chances, whether that be this season as 4th choice centre half (a role he may have to share for the time being with Demichelis) or next season as the out-and-out 4th choice (once Demicheslis moves on). If he wants more regular football straight away then there's the loan option, with the understanding he'll be back for next season with the first team. As I said, he's 20, and he's never played any first team football outside of Scotland (save for a couple of International appearances), maybe him, and his agent, are being a little unrealistic regarding his first team opportunities at such a young age, for one of Europe's top sides. I doubt City intended on signing Otamendi earlier in the window, however when the opportunity arrived to add someone of that calibre, and the financials worked out so well given the Negredo issues, did they really expect us to walk away from it because "we told Jason we wouldn't buy a decent centre half"? This is a business, he needs to realise circumstances change.

 

[Chevelle]

Any reason why tomorrow if medical this afternoon? surely formalities will be sorted and around 9/10 tonight as per Sterling and Delph?

The clothing store was out of grey jeans and hoodies.

 

[Goater=Legend]

Maybe Denayer agreed to sign the contract with the promise of being 3rd choice CB when MDM leaves next season.

Now we are signing another CB he will still be 4th choice next season as well.

 

[Dave Ewing's Back 'eader]

OMFG. That is RAWK scale delusion going on right there.

How long had David Silva played for us whilst still being slotted into Rag fantasy squads?

 

[kenzie115]

Is it possible that Denayer will keep his place in the pecking order as 4th choice? With Demichelis being either let go or used even more sparingly? If the plan is to have 3 senior pros and one good youth prospect as our CBs then perhaps it's Demichelis being pushed out rather than Denayer?

Otamendi for Demichelis is not a like for like replacement from a squad set-up point of view. Demichelis is an old pro who doesn’t expect to play every week and wouldn’t kick up a fuss if he’s on the bench or in the stands. Otamendi will be a £30m signing who expects to play the majority of games, especially big games.

If you assume we’ll have 60 games in the season, our current squad might share them 40, 40, 20, 20 for Kompany, Mangala, Demichelis and Denayer. If Otamendi replaces Demichelis, the only way I can see us keeping our captain and two £30m signings happy is if they each get 40 games. One of them (Mangala?) will probably still be a bit pissed off as he’ll likely be left out of all the big games. This means zero game time for Denayer.

The only option for us really is to send him out on loan for at least a couple of years until Kompany possibly starts to decline. However, it has been widely assumed, based mainly on his agent’s comments (which admittedly may need to be taken with a pinch of salt), that he signed his new deal based on guarantees of first team football, so I can’t imagine he’ll be best pleased right now, and if I was him, I’d be looking for a permanent move.

 

[Gundogan's Moustache]

I'd agree however if I was Everton I'd want an option to buy otherwise where's the incentive to bring him on / take the risk?

Have £35M probably in the bank with a free replacement for a year