Marvin said:
Dribble said:
We've been royally rinsed for £10m more than his actual value, but a player is worth what someone is willing to pay for them, and if its what we have to pay to get him and he's the difference between title success or none, then so be it.
Considering that Lukau cost close on £30m and given the cost of other strikers, £30m is cheap. What matters to a cash rich club is not the cost, but whether he improves us, and I think he will.
Bony and Aguero is a terrific front two on paper.
We've got to see the real thing, but on paper is there a better front two in football?
A lot of City fans say that it has been a few seasons since City went out and bought a top player. We're just about to do it
There are !evels if players. In the highest echelons you have Messi and Ronaldo. A shade below them you have Aguero, Xavi (of 2-3 years ago), Iniesta and Neymar and just a shade below them you have what I would call top players eg: Silva, Yaya, RVP, Falcao, Rooney, Sanchez, Hazard, Fabregas, Kompany, Tevez, Di Maria, Suarez, Bale, Robben, Ribery, Lahm, Ibrahimovic and Costa.
I've probably missed a few like Koke, Goetze, Reus, Draxler, Sterling, Isco, but these are players who I believe need a couple more years at the very top to be consistently considered as part of the highest level of footballer, although on present form they probably deserve to be there. Then comes the next level; world class potential and its here that I currently see Bony alongside Sturridge, Erikssen, Thiago etc.
I have high hope for Bony and believe he'll do well for us, but the proof of the pudding is in the eating. He's caused our defence more than a few problems, but so did the strikers at West Brom, Crystal Palace and QPR. All I'm saying is if this was 9 goals ago in the summer and Swansea insisted on £30m then, most of us would probably have wanted City to stick 2 fingers up and walk away, not because he's not a good player, but just based on the price quoted.
As it stands, we're a striker short, with the balance of our strike force just returning from injury, so right now signing Bony makes complete sense. Taking FFP in to consideration, I'd have preferred a fee closer to his previous £19m buy out clause than the £30m we're supposedly paying if reports are correct. But ultimately in Txiki, Ferran and Pellegrini I trust.