Ruben Dias - Benfica confirm sale to City

[BigOscar]

Guardiola is on the record as saying he played 5 at the back because he needed to protect the (shit*) defence.

*He left this unsaid.

Or, he decided he had to protect the defence because he massively overthought it, as usual. That's a Pep problem, not a defensive problem.

Even then, we played shit, missed a bunch of chances including one of the all time sitters, then were robbed by a bent official allowing a goal that was both offside and a foul. Putting that purely on the defence is ridiculous

 

[SidJames]

Wont be a bad move for Otamendi at this stage of his career.

Who could resist all that Portuguese Sun.

lazy Sunny evenings chilling by the Pool, with a Glass of Wine.

I agree he was a peculiar signing given our style.

He wasn't the worst signing we ever made either .And he was an integral part of that TOTY.

Sadly some just remember his mistakes

Model professional.

Wish him,and his family all the best for the future.

 

[vincent]

I keep saying it but I really do find the tone of many of the posts here an embarrassment. How can we be such a failure at so many things but be the most successful English club of the decade, centurions and treble winners?

Exactly and that was the point I was trying to make to Dom but he replied in typical fashion by saying ‘that’s a stupid way to look at things’

 

[Eusebio]

Mad it's so evident he's admitting it openly, fair play. Absolute howler vs PAOK they had. Their fans are still fuming and wanting the president gone for good, doesn't help now they're selling their best player.

Yeah, the one leg system didn’t help us, we were far better than Paok but in one game everything can happen.
We have elections now in October but I’m not confident about the president leaving. The real supporters want him gone but he controls everything, almost a dictatorship in our club...

 

[balotelli's back pocket]

Dias had €66m release clause last summer

My bad. Still another 10 million quid though!

 

[blueormy]

Indeed. Winning 4 premier league titles in 8 years isn’t a bad return even if we have made some transfer mistakes.

And not forgetting 4 league cups and a fa cup.

 

[Stoned Rose]

That time came a few years ago for me. We probably have the worst defensive recruitment in the league. I had hoped we would bring in somebody that knows what they’re doing. Trusting the same people that have had one success in over ten years, having spent hundreds of millions of pounds, doesn’t seem very smart.

Lindelof, Rojo, Bailly, Shaw, Darmian and Dalot like this post.

 

[PhdWave]

I didn't specify whose head because none of us know who is making the final decision on getting player x over player y, or if player z is 5m too expensive so we'll get a second choice.

Main reason we missed out on VVD too...because of some extra 10-15m.

 

[domalino]

My bad. Still another 10 million quid though!

Dias had €66m release clause last summer

In 2016, we were very heavily linked with Ederson, who'd only been Benfica's number 1 for 6 months, but had shows how good he was especially in the CL vs Pep's Bayern. Unfortunately we got cold feet and signed Bravo instead.

In 2019 we were very heavily linked with Ruben Diaz when we desperately needed a CB, but were reportedly put off by they €66m buyout clause, and it seems like in 2020 we're going to buy him for €55m+Otamendi.

Hopefully Diaz will end up as good for us as Ederson has been, but it will be a frustrating purchase in the sense that it should have been made 12 months ago and we would have avoided the disaster that was last season.

 

[PhdWave]

Hopefully Diaz will end up as good for us as Ederson has been.

Benfica fans in reddit atleast are absolutely convinced of his quality..so that makes a bit confident.