Jack Wills said:
Exeter Blue I am here said:
dubblue said:
If that's the team and Manuel stays we will struggle to make top 3 let alone challenge for the title. In fact we won't make top 3.
It's certainly a sight more realistic than some of the fantasists on here, who think Pogba, Isco, Reus, Bale & Co, are going to ignore the overtures - which they will most assuredly get - from Munich, Madrid, Barca and even the shitting rags,
in favour of signing for City
What can those clubs offer that we can't? If we want them, we have a fair chance of attracting some of them. If not, we may as well just fuck it off aiming to win the CL, or even the Title again, and settle for battling for 4th with the odd cup run.
Pretty sure our owner wants more than that.
Oh, without a shadow of a doubt. However, wanting and getting, are two different things.
1. Irrespective of whether sanctions are re-imposed, we will continue to operate under the auspices of FFP
2. By common consensus the squad needs a fairly sizeable amount of pruning, and the cost of any of those players is likely to dwarf that of any incoming funds we might generate. Either Bale or Pogba alone would cost significantly more than we'd get for selling Dzeko, Nasri and Toure. We will need to balance quantity with quality, so blowing the entire budget on say Bale and Pogba is just not going to happen.
3. Allied to 2., ragboy Dyke has already given us a taster of what he has planned, and I would expect our primary focus to be on overpriced English players as a consequence.
4. The only absolute top drawer signing we have ever managed to pull off under the noses of c*nts like Munich, Madrid and the rags, was Aguero. Silva, Toure and Tevez were all very good, but not, IMO, universally sought after in the manner than Pogba, Bale and Reus will be, albeit that ironically they were arguably all better players, and Toure and Tevez in particular needed hefty financial persuasion to get on board, persuasion of a type we will be less able to offer now than then.
5. The competition will be absolutely fierce. Munich, Madrid, Barca, the Swampites, Chelsea, PSG and Arsenal, will all be in the market for at least one of the 4 players mentioned, and even leaving the 'prestige' card, that our dear friends down the road love to have their media allies play, to one side, the first 3 clubs on that list will offer significantly greater Chimps League prospects.
I would be thrilled if we could land any one of those key players, but it will extremely tough for us to manage even that. If we wind up this summer with De Bruyne, Barkley and maybe Reus on our books, I would call that very good business
