Riyad Mahrez

[Gaylord du Bois]

Lol, player's union been in touch with City to demand 20% more if they're picked against 'certain' teams.

It was the promise of a new boot deal that did for him

 

[Len Rum]

Seriously excited by this - could be what we need to gallop over the line on several fronts. But £90m is a lot - if I were Txiki - £60m plus £5m each if we win the league and Carabao this year, £10m for FA Cup win and £20m for Champions League win. Or we make it up to £90m with any Champions League win while Mahrez is at City. Got to go - Pep on blower asking me to go to Leicester and get it done

Don't forget to log out of your rag cafe account before you go.

 

[bluemoon32]

Would be a huge surprise if we pushed this through today but at least it makes the final day a little more interesting

 

[Machiavelli]

We turned down over £30m in the summer, we wanted £50m then and the market has gone batshit crazy and Mahrez is absolutely ripping it up, so valuations change.

The agreement is, is we get an offer we deem suitable we won't stand in your way.

He’s only worth what another club are willing to pay.

 

[Le Havre Oswald]

just waiting for that Tolmie YouTube vid

 

[uwe rosler 28]

He’s only worth what another club are willing to pay.

And with the new rules coming in they will never get another offer like that

 

[geoff clipp]

A fair enough reply, I am sure Leicester have bought as many duffers as we have over the years, they certainly got lucky 3 times in their title year with Mahrez and Kante and add vardy and Drinkwater to that mix an they did alright, my point was really lashing out 70m or so on a player that though good is not KDB or indeed the potential of Sane, I know it is boring and I know the football manager style fans don’t like to discuss such things but injuries used to be the time a youth could make a name for himself by being given the minutes to fill in for a bit, I am not advocating putting them in for a champions league final (but then again that has happened successfully in the past for two players both keepers as well) but they do need to get more game time and buying Mahrez lessons that chance moving forward, also he is a renowned moody player and I can’t see him being that happy to play 20-30 games a season after being the big fish in the small pond.

It is all well and good but having 25 world class players can’t work as the way modern footballers view themselves means eventually a third of those will become unsettled at not being first choice, it will be interesting to see what happens at Centre half now with 4 very good players jostling for two places unless we are planning on moving back to 3-5-2 and add to that Tosin who got arsey when we signed otamendi and now has another young centre half to dislodge to get a game, I can see him leaving soon siting lack of game time chances but we will see.

I do agree with you on the point that I'd like to see some of the young players given a chance. I don't know the reason why that isn't happening at the moment (though Foden has been injured for a while now). It could be that they're deemed not quite ready or strong enough yet, but i think minutes could be found for them if we really want to regardless of whether Mahrez arrives or not.

Young players at elite clubs don't really tend to get loads of chances at 17 or 18 years old. Any examples you can give tend to be the exceptions that prove the rule. Woodburn and Brewster at Liverpool seem to be highly regarded but we accept players at "massive" clubs like that have to bide their time and often don't break into the first team til they're 20/21 (like Harry Kane). Being at City, training alongside world class players and under Pep is a great place to be at right now. People are always surprised when they see how old a lot of United academy graduates actually are e.g Lingard is 25 now. But it's because they have to wait for their chance and they seem willing to do so. Someone tweeted yesterday that United don't buy players when they have injuries and give youth a chance, citing Mourinho bringing McTominay into the squad when they had injuries. McTominay is 21. Foden is only 17.

We haven't really seen anyone leave our youth set up having not been given enough of a chance and lived to regret it so far. Sancho might turn out to be one that got away.

Regarding Mahrez's temperament, I don't really think he seems that moody. He gave them another year after they won the league and hasn't downed tools before even though it must be really frustrating he hasn't been able to move on to the next level. I think he would probably gladly accept fewer games if it means the chance to play in a team like ours and challenging for the biggest trophies. He wouldn't play week in week out at any elite club which is the sacrifice he will have to make to play at the very top. At the age of almost 27, he needs to make that leap now. He's a really good footballer, he might turn out to be unplayable in a team like ours.

 

[Neville Kneville]

Mark Ogden‏Verified account @MarkOgden_
And on Mahrez, City made Leicester pay over the odds to sign Iheanacho for £25m last summer, so that may be remembered today.

Didn't realise quite what a rag fucking twat Mark Ogden is.

Just seen his interview on ESPN and he opens with 'They couldn't afford 35 mil for Sanchez but..' Rag twat.

 

[The blue phantom]

Give them £10 Million for a 4 month loan :)

 

[Rammyblues]

Just a thought, with Pep saying we wont pay 80m or 100m on a single player and the fact that it seems we moved onto Mahrez after we pulled out of the Sanchez deal is it not possible that the fee has already been agreed but to enable Leicester to be seen as getting a "good" deal we have allowed the transfer to go to the last day. Reverse side is that this news has now broken and surely if we were to sign him he would be on his way to us now rather than 10,00pm tonight. One final thought have we ever signed a player on the day we have played a prem league game?