Pablo Maffeo

[ninjamonkey]

Is he better than Walker and/or Danilo? No absolutely not, so I don't get the outrage by some on here. Take away the romance of him coming from the academy and look at him purely as a player and you realise how insane it is to suggest we should weaken ourselves to accommodate somebody from the academy. It's like some want to give away our title already.

If there's a buyback clause as suggested there's nothing to worry about, we're eliminating any risk this way. if he progresses into a top quality player we simply bring him back as some body who can improve the squad. The fee seems low but a buyback clause would explain that, there has to be some incentive for the buying club if they are to agree to a buyback clause and it means the buyback fee likely won't be excessive too.

No issue with this whatsoever, this model is a great approach both on the business side and the footballing side. Numerous sides already do it and many more will follow, it's good that were establishing ourselves as one of the best at it early on to attract the best talent possible.

 

[OB1]

Lawdy, lawdy.

Here we go again, people moaning because we sold some kid who, promising as he may be, is not as good as the two more senior pro's in his way; two guys who have just made significant contributions to the greatest league season performance ever by a team in England.

The vast majority of kids going through our academy will not become first team regulars while we are competing to become the best team in the world. Eventually some will make it; hopefully Foden and Diaz will both be among the few. Maybe, just maybe one day we'll get a crop like Barca did when Pep was there or Fergie did with the class of '92 but those situations are exceptional and as much down to serendipity as having a great youth set-up (i.e. a great youth and scouting set-up won't guarantee such events).

 

[kevin horlocks wand]

The reality is to be in our first time you have to be a minimum £30m value player (or experienced) - these youngsters need to be excellent to get in our first team , its going to be tough for them to do that - we are not at the building lets take a long term view (we could do that if we were chelski or spuds) at the moment the priorty is retaining the league next season and maffeo, no matter how good he i,s is just not better than the players we have (or as experienced) .

Its a shame for them but its tough given the level we are now at (and expect) , hopefully foden can be nurtured more next season.

 

[BigOscar]

If he was leftback I'd have no issue keeping him and getting rid of Delph and Zinchenko as he could do that steady job just as well them, probably better. But at rightback we have two who are just a lot better than him and much more suited to our style of play. Unfortunately that's the reality for breaking through, you need to not only have ability but find a hole and fulfil a role for the team.

He could do a Dani Carvajal though and prove something in Germany, come back and be a mainstay. You never know

 

[AshLunn92]

Farce. He evidently didn't see his future here and I don't blame him. Should have got his chance in 16/17.

Club needs to pull their fingers out of their arse and react to losing these big talents in Maffeo and Sancho. Both should be playing in this team right now.

They keep on talking the talk about the academy, but nothing will change until they start playing. Token minutes isn't enough. These talented youngsters are starting to see the grass is greener elsewhere and it's going to get worse when they see success stories of those who left.

Calm down mate! You wouldn’t think supported a club that just broke the points record for the season, won two trophies and has one of the youngest premier league squads.

Our number 1 priority is to win silverware, not to bring youth through. Bringing youth through is important but not the be all and end all. Plus, as far as I’m concerned youth players will be looking at city and seeing all the great career prospects afterwards, borussia dortmund, Stuttgart, Monaco.

We have the best team in England and one of the best teams in Europe.

The grass is not greener elsewhere right now and I don’t know which team you’ve been following all year if you think there’s is

 

[Clubber]

Is he better than Walker and/or Danilo? No absolutely not

I'd agree, but the thing is, which young lad is going to come through and be performing to the same level as seasoned professionals, not many, if any, especially with our squad quality, depth and continued recruitment.

Don't get me wrong, we have to have a strong squad to compete, but some young lads do need to be blooded, to see if they WILL become top players with us, like we have done with Foden, Diaz and to some extent Nmecha. Maffeo appears to have shown he had the quality to perform against elite players, so there were high hopes for him, compared to some who still haven't even come up against a first team.

Shame he's gone and would have liked to have seen him given a chance, but again, if he did play and didn't come up to the fan expectation, the same who are complaining he's gone, would complain why hes playing.

 

[BlueisCity]

£8.8m Maffeo - 25 per cent sell on and buy back
£10m Sancho - likewise
£3.5m - Ntcham
£10m Enes Unal
£25m Kelechi
£3.25m - Emyr Hughes
£8m Ronny Lopes.
£1.8m Boyata

By my reckoning - that's around £70m and a third of the cost it took to build the CFA.

Seems to be paying for itself. Nice work.

Don't forget Denis Suarez! Can see Celina + Denayer on that list too.

Glad we have a buyback on Maffeo!

 

[vmsuhail]

He had one year left on his contract so it couldn’t.

I didn't know that. It's a surprise that we haven't extended earlier and left it late.

 

[Homar]

Even Rashford was introduced through necessity and is now having to take scraps from Mourinho.

What has Rashford got to do with us?

We're building careers for footballers, whether they are able to make it with us or not.

I fully appreciate that. I'm not saying that we are worse than other clubs in respect to this. However, the club consistently claim that the objective is to promote youth through the academy to the senior squad. So far only Iheanancho has made it.

 

[Jazzman]

However, the club consistently claim that the objective is to promote youth through the academy to the senior squad. So far only Iheanancho has made it.

Well probably it is, but don't forget they have to be extremely good to make it. We are a top 8 team in Europe, and by a distance the best team in England. Any talent must be good enough to break into such a team. When Iheanacho made it we weren't quite a good as we are today, by the way. And with all due respect, there is a difference playing for Girona or Stuttgart (both mid teams in their respective leagues) and to be playing for the Centurions. If Maffeo becomes good enough I am sure we will get him back. Until then maybe we should just accept that he is just not quite good enough for us.