Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang

[richards30]

Maybe we could do a £50m deal plus goals and trophies bonuses? Taking it up to £65m?

 

[FanchesterCity]

And it's totally irrelevant for the reasons that I've stated to you and BBS.

You haven't got a clue what the budget is.

Talking about which player (that we are in for) is better as that is ALL that matters to the fans. Or it should be.

Which player would best strengthen the side. Not "value for money" as it's an irrelevance to all but the staff and management. They are the only ones that know what the budget is and how many players we are in for.

Saying "I'd buy him for £45m but not £55m" is fucking pointless. If the next best is cheaper but not as good then come May, we'll have an extra £2m in cash and possibly not the title we were after. Still, at least you'll feel good about the cash saved, that you'll never see.

None of us know what the budget is, and City will do what they do - regardless of any of us, but it's a forum where we speculate and share thoughts. Some would be happy to pay any price and others wouldn't. That's what we're debating right?

I sympathise with your argument that if we miss out on a title, then we can all look back and say 'if only we'd spent that extra few million' - but your argument is flawed:

1) If we miss out on a title, there's no guarantee that having bought a different player we'd have won it.
2) Just paying an extra 5m to win a title we otherwise lose out on sounds wonderful - we'd probably all be in favour of paying it, but what if it's 10m? or 20m? where are we drawing a line? It's not just one player either, you can apply this extra 'City tax' to almost every player we buy - which ends up being many more millions as well as setting a precedent for all future transfers too.
3) If we're going to operate as business and not a 'sugar daddy' club, then budgets are important. Whilst we might not know what they are (thus we speculate), we must accept that there ARE limits on player spending - right?
4) Every extra penny we spend on the playing staff has a knock on effect elsewhere in the business. That might mean the loss of a job, or the failure to improve some infrastructure, or an increased ticket price. - if you're going to say 'let's just pay the price' (and that's your right) - at least accept that there's repercussions.

I don't think you're right in saying 'ALL that should matter to the fans is which players come and go' - I think many fans have a genuine interest in the business side of things too, along with our PR, our stadium, our ticket prices etc. You need only look at the forum here to see that. Price is most certainly not an irrelevance - the price of my season ticket is influenced by it!

 

[SWP's back]

None of us know what the budget is, and City will do what they do - regardless of any of us, but it's a forum where we speculate and share thoughts. Some would be happy to pay any price and others wouldn't. That's what we're debating right?

I sympathise with your argument that if we miss out on a title, then we can all look back and say 'if only we'd spent that extra few million' - but your argument is flawed:

1) If we miss out on a title, there's no guarantee that having bought a different player we'd have won it.
2) Just paying an extra 5m to win a title we otherwise lose out on sounds wonderful - we'd probably all be in favour of paying it, but what if it's 10m? or 20m? where are we drawing a line? It's not just one player either, you can apply this extra 'City tax' to almost every player we buy - which ends up being many more millions as well as setting a precedent for all future transfers too.
3) If we're going to operate as business and not a 'sugar daddy' club, then budgets are important. Whilst we might not know what they are (thus we speculate), we must accept that there ARE limits on player spending - right?
4) Every extra penny we spend on the playing staff has a knock on effect elsewhere in the business. That might mean the loss of a job, or the failure to improve some infrastructure, or an increased ticket price. - if you're going to say 'let's just pay the price' (and that's your right) - at least accept that there's repercussions.

I don't think you're right in saying 'ALL that should matter to the fans is which players come and go' - I think many fans have a genuine interest in the business side of things too, along with our PR, our stadium, our ticket prices etc. You need only look at the forum here to see that. Price is most certainly not an irrelevance - the price of my season ticket is influenced by it!

All of your points are defeated when I say the management know the budget.

All the fans should care about are whether a player improves the squad.

The price of your season ticket makes no fucking difference. Season tickets make up less than 10% of revenue.

If all season tickets rise by 10% then that would have increased our revenue by £3m (0.75% revenue increase).

And yes, no player guarantees anything, but improving the squad is far better than weakening it or leaving it at the same level.

Seeing as commercial income, CL and TV money make up 85% of our income, do you think the team suffers more spending an extra £2m per year (on a £10m 'overspend on a player according to some on here) and allowing the manager to finish top or by buying the likes of Bony and nearly missing out on CL income of £40m?

 

[Jazzman]

65 million sounds about right for a player like him at this point in time. Only Lewandowski is better in the Bundesliga and you wount get him for 65 million.

 

[SWP's back]

65 million sounds about right for a player like him at this point in time. Only Lewandowski is better in the Bundesliga and you wount get him for 65 million.

What about if you find some on Champs Manager you can buy for 30m with similar stats?

 

[Kompany is King]

It's all negotiations.

I think he will be a City player this summer.

A very exciting prospect.

 

[Lkzerinho]

It's all negotiations.

I think he will be a City player this summer.

A very exciting prospect.

a guess or you heard something?

 

[birchwoodgingerste]

a guess or you heard something?

Another itk

 

[ballinio]

Other teams lose out on players too. He's ONLY a player, and we have to set boundaries / budgets.
If there's a car you really like and the salesman is asking way too much money, do you still buy it even though it's massively overpriced? it's very rare that someone would do that.

Otherwise, where's the end to it all? how much will the next reserve goalkeeper cost? 100m - just because we 'need' one? We must be seen to walk away from deals.

If I thought the car was too dear I wouldn't buy it , if I won the lottery then i would . For years lots of us were like accountants, if we sell this player we could buy that player etc etc. we have no need to do that now.I'm only interested in one thing & that's Manchester City having the best players in the world, if we have to pay a 'City tax' then we have to. The footballing world & many of our fans said ya ya was too dear at the time, paid too much for Milner, ripped off for Lescott...we paid it & the rest is history, we need to buy big again now.

 

[Blue Hefner]

Re the cost - let's put it into perspective, each win in the CL is worth about £1million, then add gate receipts for progression, prize money per round and also 2mil per place in the PL.

Now considering he(or most signings) will be on 5 year deals, I'm pretty sure the bean counters will pay anything within reason/budget to get thier men

Re the transfer - we need a top striker, Aguero will be injured for 6 weeks by October. Who will cover?