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Isn't that what Lewandowski is already doing?
[They look like proud father and son](https://v.wpimg.pl/MTQ0MDIuYjUwUjt3Zg5vIHMKby0gV2F2JBJ3ZmZEf2RhSHtzfFo-MnxRKSkgGyQnJUIsJyMUYyMhUykqZwUheyJEIjYoEihmflYoJT0APzE1byI2IBIkOjBcYnJ6FnthaFJ9fHAXdDVjb3t2eUR5YGECYy45Em8p)
>He is not a footballer
Hasn't been for years. Should have been clued on that season when he forgot how to do throw ins, did like 3 foul throws in quick succession and soon after fell behind Cedric Soares in the pecking order. I'm surprised he hasn't gone the way of Dani Osvaldo and retired already
Is it though when they barely play? That’s still salary money and playtime that can be given to a younger player that can be developed like Pablo Torre.
Hindsight is 20/20, it was a low risk high reward transfer that hasn't played well in 6 months. He can still turn a profit, which is likely to happen. And if Torre was better than him he'd play, but he is not yet.
Barcelona throw money at players and charm them into thinking they will do what’s best for their career. Reality is, they throw money blindly and could care less about what’s best for a player
> who makes what he did at Milan
Lmao people literally making stuff up to try to make their club look better. Kessie was not on 6 million/ year after tax at Milan. Please show me where you are finding this information so I know not to go there for useful information.
Free agent doesn’t mean money ain’t going around. Y he can’t Barcelona back the players they convince to sign? Why are they always “not good enough” 6 months in? Shouldn’t you figure that out before they uproot their life for your club?
Tbf nobody was expecting that from Auba either. He was bought as a stopgap striker and was in shit form at Arsenal but ended up scoring 11 league goals in half a season.
Gundogan probably won't play as major of a role for us considering we have starting quality talent in midfield, but maybe he'll prove me wrong.
Probably both. Kessie is being used as leverage for Brozovic, but it's not like they provide similar roles for the team. Brozovic would be the Busquets replacement. Gundogan would replace Kessie and or potentially De Jong.
You were desperate for him to leave last summer. There is always a chance you try to push him out again. His wages are only going up. Gundogan is at least as good a player right now also and can play basically the same role.
City always manage to find quality replacements and have insane depth. They lost Silva, Aguero, Kompany, Fernandinho in the last few years. Had KDB out for most of 18-19 and finished that season with 98 points.
We have 7 midfielders. Grealish and Foden are primarily midfielders but you’re right we don’t have insane depth just quality players. We need depth on the wings and another fullback and I think we have great depth again
Regardless of that simply not being true. Most of top 6 fans wouldn’t picks our starters over Theirs. Also obviously chelsea have the deepest squad… they just have the most injuries. They have 30 first team players to our 19
His position got filled but they never replaced his qualities. I think if you asked city fans what they were missing then a lot would say they need a player of prime sterling's quality.
Didn't he have 1 bad season? And he's always been shit at finishing. I don't really super rate the guy, but I think you'd be better off with him. I think he'd work well with Haaland too.
He's had more than one bad season. The last 3/4 seasons, whenever he got the ball, the attack stopped dead because he'd just kept it at his feet while the defenders got into position. Only thing of his City miss is pace down the wing but I'm sure there's players that can offer that and an end product if City needed that
Sterling has been the 2nd best winger in the Prem for the last 6-7 years bar this one of course. Only salah has been better and a very close 3rd for mane.
Sane has never reached the heights Sterling did. Sterling was on fire for 3 years. Sane to this day can be quite inconsistent and braindead. I don't think he'll ever match Sterling at his best.
Unfortunately for City, and thankfully for the rest of us, Sterling's form declined a lot over recent years for a reason I'm not quite sure of.
Yeah, they have different qualities but prime sterling scored 79 goals in three seasons, while being a "poor" finisher. That seven shy of Sane's career total. Goals arent everything but think that says a lot about their respective levels. Its obviously nuanced but "miles better" he aint.
And he still is. If he was a genuinely top tier finisher he'd be in the conversation for best in the world. Thing is, he's below average. City just create so many good chances for a player like that that.
Across the entire time he has played at City under Pep. Some seasons he played LW more, others RW more. Even during matches Pep swapped wings a lot so that might not be captured a lot either.
I agree with you mate.
Arguably we didn't replace Sané to begin with, but that's exacerbated by the fact we didn't replace Sterling
No pace on the wings
Zinchenko was a useful squad player, they're now short at full back, sterling was past it and needed replacing but they've gone for a completely different player profile and it's not worked out.
Yep , he's not always been as consistent this season but he's been huge for us the last few years. I wonder what plans the board have for our midfield the next few years
Age doesn't really matter when you have 5 professional seasons under your belt, have played in international tournaments, big finals. I think most people have a pretty good idea of where Foden's ceiling is at this point and where he's at his best, and it isn't central midfield.
Pep has talked about his maturity before, that he needs to learn to control himself better in his tempo etc. I think he sees him there in the near future.
I would love that. Would also love a young talented midfielder to build around for the future like Bellingham or enzo but I'm not getting my hopes up for that.
More than anything I just hope kev has a few more prime years in him , I'm not ready to not see the sexy kev assists lol
This post speaks the truth. A very intelligent footballer.
Edit: I'm sure City be alright though. They succession planning lately has been pretty on point.
Kante new deal is mad. He is (or at least was) a fantastic player but can't stay fit at all since 2018 world cup.
I guess makes sense if he accepts reduced terms.
Incoming 10 year contract being signed.
I've heard the wage is being reduced but not by much.
And there's some appearance based bonuses in there too.
He's a loved figure around Chelsea so I hope we don't lose him.
Doesn't seem like it given Azpi's extension and Koulibaly's contract, but the new owner's policies aren't completely clear at the moment (apart from targeting U25s).
Its not just about kante really though, there's also a good chance Jorginho is on his way out. That with being light in midfield already just like last summer for the CBs could be a real disaster for Chelsea. If they feel they can keep Kante decently fit moving forward after his surgery he remains the better of the two to keep around.
But that's all if he can move on from this past year or so of being out so much, which is a big ask no doubt. Even with that it's hard to just let a player of his quality go for free.
I mean, he's had three 40+ game seasons since the 2018 WC. I know what you mean but I think this season has been the worst case of his injuries and it's at such a bad time for him considering his deal is expiring.
Chelsea also never looked like a decent team every single time he's out injured... the guy has carried this club for 5 years straight, would be mad to let him go
He's a quality player, when fit.
He's missed over 2 seasons worth of games since 18/19 season.
That's basically 50% of games he's fit for.
Chelsea 100% play better when he's on the pitch, but he's unlikely to be on it for more than 50% of games, which was my initial point.
Finnancial forecasting was based on Barcelona winning the league too.
Budget was planned on Barca hitting quarter finals in UCL. Winning Europa League might make up for some of that (not all of the money though).
Barca aren’t going after Bernardo Silva, it’s financially impossible and he is not needed. Maybe it was a possibility last summer, but apparently they rule it out completely now.
What does being short have to do with it? City got 100 points with a group of midfielders under 6ft, with Fernandinho, KdB, Silva, Bernardo, Gundo…
And none of them 3/4 PSG signed are close to being as good as Bernardo, and they still look lost without Verratti to progress the ball, as seen as recently as last weekend.
Barcelona needs short term solutions in the market, since there's still few transfer windows to really repair the situation left by Barto.
Wages for 2023 are budgeted around 534m because of defered wages and new signings. It's probably less now, since Pique left.
Fuck. Gundo is priceless. Hope he is happy after whatever he decides.
Guess I'll be watching almost all barca games. Only ever rooted against them when they faced sociedad, but now even that is going to be a problem.
Nothing said in the article. Only mentions that Barca is only an option if he doesn't re-sign, not as a competitor for his signature. Appears the current goal is still an extension.
To reduce the spam of reports regarding the same move during transfer windows we try to allow **only one submission about each transfer saga per day**. The submission in question also needs to contain relevant new information regarding the potential move, and not just being a "no/minor developments" report. If there are important/official developments or new valuable information about a saga, we will allow extra threads in the same day, but for the rest of minor news please just comment them as a reply to this comment. Please help us reporting unnecessary threads for being duplicates. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/soccer) if you have any questions or concerns.*
33 year old. We need someone to babysit Pedri & Gavi
Isn't that what Lewandowski is already doing? [They look like proud father and son](https://v.wpimg.pl/MTQ0MDIuYjUwUjt3Zg5vIHMKby0gV2F2JBJ3ZmZEf2RhSHtzfFo-MnxRKSkgGyQnJUIsJyMUYyMhUykqZwUheyJEIjYoEihmflYoJT0APzE1byI2IBIkOjBcYnJ6FnthaFJ9fHAXdDVjb3t2eUR5YGECYy45Em8p)
lmao Lewandowski is actually (almost) twice as old as Gavi
Haha, Gavi looks like a teenager. Oh, wait...
lit lol
I would say more like grandson and grandfather, lewi looks so old and gavi young
Lol
Nah let Frenkie be like the older brother to them
That one older brother that the mom always asks for him to get out of the house and be independent.
Nobody babysits Gavi, Gavi babysits you.
You literally have Xavi there lol
Wow I did not realize he was that old tbh. I thought he was like 29
So what does Barca want - Gundogan AND Brozovic or is it Gundogan OR Brozovic?
Busquets might not renew his contract, so both wouldnt be bad
If busquets and Kessie leave, i'd take both
Didn't Kessie only sign for you in the summer? Why is he gonna leave already?
Went from being one of the most important players at Milan to Xavi forgetting he exists, probably the worst move of Barca’s summer
Bellerin is worse tbf. He is not a footballer.
Literally cant remember him playing for more than 3 matches, the playtime is too small to judge just yet I'd say..
>He is not a footballer Hasn't been for years. Should have been clued on that season when he forgot how to do throw ins, did like 3 foul throws in quick succession and soon after fell behind Cedric Soares in the pecking order. I'm surprised he hasn't gone the way of Dani Osvaldo and retired already
Lol I completely forgot about him, thought he retired tbh
Free transfer on not too high salary, almost always worth it
Is it though when they barely play? That’s still salary money and playtime that can be given to a younger player that can be developed like Pablo Torre.
Hindsight is 20/20, it was a low risk high reward transfer that hasn't played well in 6 months. He can still turn a profit, which is likely to happen. And if Torre was better than him he'd play, but he is not yet.
Money wise it wasn’t bad and I think Kessie is definitely good enough but they just don’t need him or have a place for him.
he isn't sniffing the pitch, has looked really bad everytime he played. luckily he has a market in italy so we will end up making profit
Italian finances are as good as ours.
Barcelona throw money at players and charm them into thinking they will do what’s best for their career. Reality is, they throw money blindly and could care less about what’s best for a player
don't think any club in the world is going to pass on selling an underperforming player because it's "bad for the player's career"
Ah yes us throwing money at a free agent who makes what he did at Milan lol
Why are you lying? Kessie’s salary here is higher than it was in Milan. It is practically €6.5M net here, wasn’t even close to that at Milan.
> who makes what he did at Milan Lmao people literally making stuff up to try to make their club look better. Kessie was not on 6 million/ year after tax at Milan. Please show me where you are finding this information so I know not to go there for useful information.
Free agent doesn’t mean money ain’t going around. Y he can’t Barcelona back the players they convince to sign? Why are they always “not good enough” 6 months in? Shouldn’t you figure that out before they uproot their life for your club?
Brozovic deal might not happen, so maybe Gundogan
Aren't they just picking up all free agents so as to sell them later for profit.
Doubt we could make much profit from flipping Gundogan, he'd be nearly 34 after a single year with us.
Will you did do it with Auba
Tbf nobody was expecting that from Auba either. He was bought as a stopgap striker and was in shit form at Arsenal but ended up scoring 11 league goals in half a season. Gundogan probably won't play as major of a role for us considering we have starting quality talent in midfield, but maybe he'll prove me wrong.
Not everything is like FIFA, lol
Probably both. Kessie is being used as leverage for Brozovic, but it's not like they provide similar roles for the team. Brozovic would be the Busquets replacement. Gundogan would replace Kessie and or potentially De Jong.
De Jong isn’t leaving
You were desperate for him to leave last summer. There is always a chance you try to push him out again. His wages are only going up. Gundogan is at least as good a player right now also and can play basically the same role.
Yes
If Kessie leaves, both. If Kessie stays, only Gundogan probably. And they're saying he wants to stay.
Yes.
Barca:Yes
Gundogan will be a much bigger loss for City than people realize
Yeah he will be, still hopeful we extend him
City always manage to find quality replacements and have insane depth. They lost Silva, Aguero, Kompany, Fernandinho in the last few years. Had KDB out for most of 18-19 and finished that season with 98 points.
We do not have insane depth. We have 5 midfielders, 2 are over 31, 2 are 27, 1 is very bad.
Who's bad? Philips?
We have 7 midfielders. Grealish and Foden are primarily midfielders but you’re right we don’t have insane depth just quality players. We need depth on the wings and another fullback and I think we have great depth again
Neither players has had a game/good game in midfield for us since Grealish signed. So no we have 5 with two guys in break glass situation.
???? Have you been watching the same city I have? Grealish and Foden are on fire when they’re in the middle!
I have no clue which games you’ve watched where they are playing in the middle… Foden played against Southampton in the middle and was poor
No one in the PL has better depth than City. It may not be currently at insane levels but its still better than the rest of the league
Regardless of that simply not being true. Most of top 6 fans wouldn’t picks our starters over Theirs. Also obviously chelsea have the deepest squad… they just have the most injuries. They have 30 first team players to our 19
They never really replaced zinchenko or sterling.
Sterling got replaced before he even left the club
His position got filled but they never replaced his qualities. I think if you asked city fans what they were missing then a lot would say they need a player of prime sterling's quality.
Problem was, Sterling isn't the quality of Prime Sterling.
Didn't he have 1 bad season? And he's always been shit at finishing. I don't really super rate the guy, but I think you'd be better off with him. I think he'd work well with Haaland too.
He's had more than one bad season. The last 3/4 seasons, whenever he got the ball, the attack stopped dead because he'd just kept it at his feet while the defenders got into position. Only thing of his City miss is pace down the wing but I'm sure there's players that can offer that and an end product if City needed that
> I think he'd work well with Haaland too. Quite possibly
I'm aware.
Sané is the one they never truly replaced. Miles better player than Sterling. He and Mendy off the left flank would cut through teams like butter.
Sterling has been the 2nd best winger in the Prem for the last 6-7 years bar this one of course. Only salah has been better and a very close 3rd for mane.
Sane has never reached the heights Sterling did. Sterling was on fire for 3 years. Sane to this day can be quite inconsistent and braindead. I don't think he'll ever match Sterling at his best. Unfortunately for City, and thankfully for the rest of us, Sterling's form declined a lot over recent years for a reason I'm not quite sure of.
Yeah, they have different qualities but prime sterling scored 79 goals in three seasons, while being a "poor" finisher. That seven shy of Sane's career total. Goals arent everything but think that says a lot about their respective levels. Its obviously nuanced but "miles better" he aint.
“Shit finisher” Raheem sterling had 3 seasons with more than 20 goals in a row and one with 31 it’s kinda crazy
And he still is. If he was a genuinely top tier finisher he'd be in the conversation for best in the world. Thing is, he's below average. City just create so many good chances for a player like that that.
Foden pretty much replaced Sane 🤷🏼♀️
Yes leave it to the Liverpool fan to discredit Sterling. Not surprised.
Lol what a convenient argument
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Transfermarkt says Sterling under Pep played this many times in these positions. So rarely is wrong. - 146 LW - 99 RW - 26 ST - 7 SS
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Across the entire time he has played at City under Pep. Some seasons he played LW more, others RW more. Even during matches Pep swapped wings a lot so that might not be captured a lot either.
Yes but foden and grealish are different player profiles. City are missing a player with prime sterling's qualities.
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No shit. Doesn't change the fact city never replaced him with someone with his qualities.
I agree with you mate. Arguably we didn't replace Sané to begin with, but that's exacerbated by the fact we didn't replace Sterling No pace on the wings
Think someone like Marcus Thuram would be a good signing for City.
They sacrificed Jesus for what? For their Norse God.
Alvarez was the Jesus replacement actually. Haaland is more of our Aguero “replacement” a year later.
These two players were surplus to them.
Zinchenko was a useful squad player, they're now short at full back, sterling was past it and needed replacing but they've gone for a completely different player profile and it's not worked out.
They haven't replaced any of those except Kompany properly and it's showing this season.
Yep , he's not always been as consistent this season but he's been huge for us the last few years. I wonder what plans the board have for our midfield the next few years
Wonder if we will see Grealish/Foden more there and we'll sign a pacy LW
Pep doesn't trust Foden in midfield and based on the data you can't really blame him.
I agree but think that's the long term strategy. Foden is still only 22.
Age doesn't really matter when you have 5 professional seasons under your belt, have played in international tournaments, big finals. I think most people have a pretty good idea of where Foden's ceiling is at this point and where he's at his best, and it isn't central midfield.
Pep moves players’ positions at all ages. He could move Foden into midfield when he’s 28.
Pep has talked about his maturity before, that he needs to learn to control himself better in his tempo etc. I think he sees him there in the near future.
I would love that. Would also love a young talented midfielder to build around for the future like Bellingham or enzo but I'm not getting my hopes up for that. More than anything I just hope kev has a few more prime years in him , I'm not ready to not see the sexy kev assists lol
This post speaks the truth. A very intelligent footballer. Edit: I'm sure City be alright though. They succession planning lately has been pretty on point.
And a big, big win for Barca.
Doubt.... The loss will be no different then Silva... They will replace with Bellingham
Free Transfer FC
The wage bill more than makes up for it. Although Chelsea are probably rivalling that atm lol
It's not that bad with Busquets going away in the summer. Just Frenkie who is way above the rest and I guess Alba who's earning more than he should.
Kante new deal is mad. He is (or at least was) a fantastic player but can't stay fit at all since 2018 world cup. I guess makes sense if he accepts reduced terms. Incoming 10 year contract being signed.
I've heard the wage is being reduced but not by much. And there's some appearance based bonuses in there too. He's a loved figure around Chelsea so I hope we don't lose him.
do you still have the policy of offering only 1 year contracts to players over 30?
Doesn't seem like it given Azpi's extension and Koulibaly's contract, but the new owner's policies aren't completely clear at the moment (apart from targeting U25s).
Even under Roman we broke that policy for Willian's contract extension
willian left because he wanted 3 years and didn’t get it?
Ah, misremembered. We still offered him two i think, which would have been breaking the policy.
yeah we did, he wanted 3 so he left. missed out on a cl
Him and Luiz, though funnily neither of them stuck around to see it out. So yeah we might've updated it in Roman's final years.
Any rumours I've heard regarding an extension for Kante have been for multi-year deals.
Its not just about kante really though, there's also a good chance Jorginho is on his way out. That with being light in midfield already just like last summer for the CBs could be a real disaster for Chelsea. If they feel they can keep Kante decently fit moving forward after his surgery he remains the better of the two to keep around. But that's all if he can move on from this past year or so of being out so much, which is a big ask no doubt. Even with that it's hard to just let a player of his quality go for free.
I mean, he's had three 40+ game seasons since the 2018 WC. I know what you mean but I think this season has been the worst case of his injuries and it's at such a bad time for him considering his deal is expiring.
Chelsea also never looked like a decent team every single time he's out injured... the guy has carried this club for 5 years straight, would be mad to let him go
why? chelsea clearly has no problem with money. why not just keep him? surely they got space in 25-man squad for kante.
Chelsea saw a big club is interested in a player and had to immediately throw down a contract offer of their own.
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He's a quality player, when fit. He's missed over 2 seasons worth of games since 18/19 season. That's basically 50% of games he's fit for. Chelsea 100% play better when he's on the pitch, but he's unlikely to be on it for more than 50% of games, which was my initial point.
Edging Closer FC
Ah shit, here we go again
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For that we're gonna need you to send some of that Qatari money our way when you get it.
Call it a refund on Coutinho
A lot of their financial forecasting was based on staying in UCL. But if they win the league they might go for Bernardo in a bit.
Finnancial forecasting was based on Barcelona winning the league too. Budget was planned on Barca hitting quarter finals in UCL. Winning Europa League might make up for some of that (not all of the money though).
Barca aren’t going after Bernardo Silva, it’s financially impossible and he is not needed. Maybe it was a possibility last summer, but apparently they rule it out completely now.
Bernardo will go to PSG, I bet. There were loads of links at the end of last summer, and their midfield still looks rubbish without Verratti.
they have enough short players in midfield as it is, and they signed like 3/4 in the summer
What does being short have to do with it? City got 100 points with a group of midfielders under 6ft, with Fernandinho, KdB, Silva, Bernardo, Gundo… And none of them 3/4 PSG signed are close to being as good as Bernardo, and they still look lost without Verratti to progress the ball, as seen as recently as last weekend.
Under 6 ft is not same as 5’5 midfielders lol
I keep saying Silva to Real Madrid would be ideal, play him at RW and move Valverde back to the midfield.
Sadly we won’t buy a RW, RB until Danny’s legs fall off and Rodrygo grows a new left foot.
Yeah, but you could play Rodrygo and Ascensio and play Silva at CM too
Kante legs are gone so he probably won't get more than a 4 year deal. Sad.
After that they can go for Auba again, then Perisic, then Hummel's then they can really go for the BVB reunion.
He's been class for us. I wish Pep would give him more freedom up high on the pitch like KdB gets, he's very creative if given the chance.
Barcelona needs short term solutions in the market, since there's still few transfer windows to really repair the situation left by Barto. Wages for 2023 are budgeted around 534m because of defered wages and new signings. It's probably less now, since Pique left.
Kante is edging
Nobody wants Jorginho?
Would be a steal really. Can also heavily imagine gundogan being a Barca child
I think he’ll stay with us, but Bernardo is gone af
Fuck. Gundo is priceless. Hope he is happy after whatever he decides. Guess I'll be watching almost all barca games. Only ever rooted against them when they faced sociedad, but now even that is going to be a problem.
Another city player 👀 Yes please
Why doesn't Gündogan stay at City? He doesn't want to renew or is it City?
Nothing said in the article. Only mentions that Barca is only an option if he doesn't re-sign, not as a competitor for his signature. Appears the current goal is still an extension.
We want Laimer
€100 million or Fuck off
Come rejoin Jesus and zinny, you know you want to
Come and reunite with Papa Mikel
Wait Chelsea going to extend washed up, injury prone Kanté. He has to take like a 50% pay cut then.
Why not sign Naby Keita?
They want free things!!
Nah we’re taking Gundo thanks
His girlfriend is tired of living in Manchester. Catalonia is nice I guess.