Our midfield would be fucking awesome. Maybe, hopefully, for Thiago in the Summer.
DM : Thuram, Endo, Mac, Bajectic (and at RB)
RM : Szobo, Jones, Thuram, Elliott, Gravy
LM : Mac, Jones, Thuram, Gravy
Add a CB and we're golden for next season.
January Dealings
- Thread starter Brizzle
- Start date
- Latest activity Latest activity:
- Status
DM : Thuram, Endo, Mac, Bajectic (and at RB)
RM : Szobo, Jones, Thuram, Elliott, Gravy
LM : Mac, Jones, Thuram, Gravy
Add a CB and we're golden for next season.
You want to have a threesome with Linda & Froggy!!!!
Heads will probably blow.. but replace Thuram with Morton and add Clark to the mix for RM & LM and I think you’ve got our midfield for next season.
Also - Badger can play in all positions too.
8 mids competing for 3 spots?
I’m afraid the buy, buy, buy mentality will have to go completely unless there’s a significant change in the financial rules. That’s what sustainability means. All the top teams are operating a little or a lot over the 70% wages and fees to income level that the teams must meet by 2025/2026. So it will become very difficult to buy without selling, with all the big clubs needing to sell more than buy (or pay less).
The focus will shift form being “lazy” and buying in talent to having to develop talent in house. Presumably this is why Chelsea are trying to hover up all the young talent they identify.
The best clubs will be the ones that generate the greatness number of in house ‘stars’ and slightly lesser talent to sell on.
Last edited:
2M on Linda is fine for me. Gives me time to rest between bouts.
*grabs a handful of blue pills for tom*
So Gravenberch got pretty much the same deal we offered Caicedo (£150k/week, £7.8m/year for 5 years). Endo’s contract is much lighter at £50k/week, £2.6m/year for 4 years. Their combined fees were around €60m. So total commitment for the two is £39m + £10.4m + £51.5m = £100.9m. Caicedo would have cost £39m +£110m =£149m
So you could say we saved £48m. Enough to buy a player for say about £25m on £80k/week for 5 years.
However, that’s more my wife’s logic. Money isn’t saved, it’s just available spend for things we didn’t originaly need!
It's what we've got now and injuries mean we're still short at times !
With Thiago and Bajcetic, yes.
But that's way too many midfielders if everyone is fit. Yes, I'm using "if", because next season Trent might be used more in midfield and Morton might be back.
No, this changes nothing, we still need a defender, no point waiting for the summer, just get the guy in now while our current ones are fit, I almost started crying when Ibu went down yesterday thinking - "Oh well that's fucked it then", and then I almost cried again when Curtis went off. You can dress it any way you like but the quality levels need to be in place, I am not counting Bajcetic/Thiago as part of our squad this season such has been the length of their absences.
And some will be injured and some are youngsters. Not at all too much, in fact I'd go as far as to say 8 is de riquer for most teams and actually the minimum requirement for a club involved in 4 competitions.
2034/24 : City currently have 8+, Arsenal have at least 8 - some of their forwards also play midfield (ditto Spurs 8+, United 7+, Newcastle 9+,Villa 8+ and Chelsea 247 (oh OK it's 11+).
We’ve got 4 keepers!
I just had a look at City's squad on wiki. I don't see 8 DM/CM/AM.
I see six and one who can't get a game. There's a few who can play in midfield but also the wing. It's not the same as having 8 dedicated DM/CM's.
DM: Kalvin Phillips
DM: Rodri
CM: Mateo Kovačić
CM/AM: Kevin De Bruyne
Winger/AM: Bernardo Silva
AM: Matheus Nunes
Winger/AM: Phil Foden
Who else?
Five of them can be in the line up together. Which five of our midfielders can start together?
Across the board - there’s only one £50m spent in the whole of the EPL.
It’s almost as if FFP is starting to have an effect.
You could argue Gakpo too
Well about fucking time. Only been about 15 years.
What has " which 5 of our midfielders can start together" got to do with it? It's 8 for 3, we don't set up like City. Almost always there are at least 1 or 2 injured. That means 3 start, 2-3 come on as replacements (as is very often the case) and 1-2 gets a rest. You want less than that and, playing in 4 comps, we end up running them into the ground?
As it is Thiago and Bajectic have been injured forever. It'll be someone else next season. Add to that Elliott, Gravy and Bajectic are not usually starters unless resting senior players so we have 5 senior midfielders, one of whom has been perma-injured. 8 isn't too much as this season has proven.
Walker, Stones and Grealish can also play midfield in that City side. The way they play most of the team seem to be midfielders with only Haaland or Alvarez as strikers !
I'm absolutely certain we will - for the reasons given above.
I hope you’re sitting down.
We’re not signing a defender in the summer - we’ll use Van den Berg as our 5th defender (we’ll likely extend Matip on a reduced short term contract, though not register him, then make a call in January whether to re-integrate him or release.
You can’t keep signing more and more players on the basis of “someone might get injured”. Players needs to play consistently to build form - you can’t keep chopping and changing the team just to keep players happy - and if expensively signed players aren’t getting game time they get frustrated, they get called a failure because they’re not playing and then they often start causing disharmony - you can see the evidence of this everywhere.
Maybe a LB…. Probably a forward - we’re in a good spot.
All of this pointless speculation over how much we are (not) going to spend reminds me of another point that has always been true but now takes on greater significance; the cost of a player is not their transfer fee alone. In fact that is not always the major component. The cost is a composite of agents fees, transfer payments and salary.
In the case of Gravenberch his fee was £33m, with £4m of potential add-ons and a wage commitment of £39m over 5 years. So the club needed to budget nearly £80m to bring him in (assuming agents fees are less than £4m).
In the case of Gravenberch his fee was £33m, with £4m of potential add-ons and a wage commitment of £39m over 5 years. So the club needed to budget nearly £80m to bring him in (assuming agents fees are less than £4m).
Last edited:
Yeah well having versatile players is one thing, having players who can only play in the center of the park is something else.
Players will undoubtedly be unhappy. Gravy, Elliott, Bradley, Tsimikas, Quansah, Matip or whoever we buy to replace him, will all be outside of the squad.
Unless a player we have identified for the summer is approached by another team.
See Diaz and Spurs
In the summer we will definately get one new striker, two if Mo doesn’t extend contract and, hence, moves on. Then it’s up to Juergen whether he sticks or twists with Joel
Can't disagree with that.
I’ll defer to @Beamrider but my feeling is it’s not just about the transfer fee, it’s the wages - and we’ll be looking to offer Trent a bumper contract, Virgil reckons he can play atvtge highest level to his late 30’s, Curtis will be wanting a pay rise, then there’s Mo.
All that eats up ongoing income, so it needs to be managed - there’s limits as to how much we can pay in wages as a % of income.
You look at Arsenal - they’ve been able to do what they’ve done so far by developing youth fit long term success - but they’re in a bind now and the spending has to be stopped.
You’re right though - we need to… I mean… basically do what we’re doing - buy quality when we can, offer top wages for our best players to retain them and bring through kids that can either fill out the first team squad or drop straight profit onto the books when sold.
The headbangers struggle with nuance and reality - but we’re in a great position atvtge minute.
Err no. They'll all be an important part of the squad. But won't be starters and I'd say all of them will be OK with that for next season.
- Status
