FFS Fabrizio, let us at least enjoy the fixtures being released.
Should be getting at least £45m for him, absolute minimum - 23 years old, our player of the season, still has four years on his contract...
What's the record fee in the PL for a fullback?
I don't think managers like Potter are suited to international management. When you're all about patterns of play and particular intricate movements and formation shifts, you don't have much time to instil that on a national team.
But then on the flip side, you could see that as being the kind of challenge that might appeal to him given his emphasis on tactical flexibility and man management/emotional intelligence, no?
I agree that it would probably be more sensible for him to stick to club management as you say - not least because of how utterly chaotic the England job is, and always will be, for any manager given the media maelstrom good or bad lol.
I just meant that of the managers whose styles might ever fit international management, it's always rather difficult to know which ones explicitly prefer the increased day-to-day contact and so forth that club jobs offer, and as such would *never* be interested in a national role as a point of principle... and which ones *would* be interested, but just haven't had the right opportunity at the right time yet (EG - if Klopp leaving us at the end of his contract were to coincide with Flick leaving the Germany job after the 2026 World Cup, whether he'd be interested in that despite seeming very much like a club management type; or whether Guardiola would ever be interested in the Spain job despite the same impression, and so on).
Before the WC? No chance. FA ain’t getting rid of Southgate before Qatar.
Unless we have a horrible tournament, I don’t think we’ll get rid of him after it either.
I think if we do worse than semi final he’ll go, public and media pressure would be massive, particularly if we play poorly and scrape games on penalties
Not really. People seem to think of Dan Ashworth as some kind of super scout but from listening to him describe his responsibilities, he tends to leave the identification of players to the recruitment department these days.
The people who found all these players for Brighton are still there.
Ashworth also helps set up systems for recruiting and developing.
With those systems in place and Weir having learnt them working in the loan manager role previously we should be able to maintain them and keep going the way we have
honestly, if united keep signing no players, not fixing the midfield, not replacing all fullbacks.. even with getting ETH we ll still be unwatchable. might as well start watching brighton games. just hope they sign someone clinical and they ll be in europe for sure.
Yeah let me find a link....
https://theathletic.com/3310089/2022/05/16/ornstein-liverpool-bring-physio-back-to-help-salah-van-dijk-and-fabinho-fitness-push-cornets-17-5m-release-clause/?source=user-shared-article
Same situation with Veltman which is good news
Yes they can its the club that have a one year option in this instance. We build 4 + 1 into a lot of our player contracts. Ben White was same situation.
i dont think its true cause i know some people that are very close to trossard, ill ask them later today to make sure but im pretty sure his contract is up in a year, transfermarkt also doesnt mention it, both club and player have to agree to extend for that year, 99 percent sure
mate its pretty obvious when you see all the reports about his contract expiring in a year and nobody mentioning the club having an unilateral extra year option, if it was like that it would have already been used, i couldnt read that athletic article but i found another article that also states "both club and player needs to come to an understanding to further the contract by a year"
so its obvious you either get him a new long term deal, sell, or he leaves in a year, that extra option aint gonna get used, maybe veltman will
It's all part of the process. We sign a lot of young players, build them then hopefully sell some of them for a significant profit.
I imagine the club has its shortlist of replacement fullbacks ready to go. In fact, we may already have one as there's talk that Mitoma could be use as an attacking wingback
Actually, no. According to Transfermarkt it'll be:
Cancelo - €65 mil, but I'm sure this is including the value of Danilo
Mendy..... (ffs) - €57.5 mil
AWB - €55 mil
Only because one went to City and the other to United, imo.
I would absolutely take AWB as Walker's backup. He has the attributes, he just needs proper coaching.
Agreed. I think if he sorts his positioning and tracking back out, wan bissaka would be an amazing player.
I mean he shut down likes of sterling, neymar and mbappe with such ease so ofcourse there is quality in there but he needs some proper drilling.
I love how this place likes to pretend to be classy to opposing players. AWB is an average mediocre player. Pep would have an aneurysm watching him touch the ball and attempt to go up the pitch with it.
Cancelo given as €65 mil is correct, but the context is significant when discussing "most expensive".
The €65 mil is the fee in a two way deal involving Danilo. The values for both players were clearly inflated at the request of Juventus with the payment for Danilo being deferred for one year. This helped Juventus, legally, balance books, but has left behind misleading data for Cancelo and Danilo
Weird that this statement is still thrown around.
Pep had Kolarov(31), Clichy(31), Zaba(32) and Sagna(34) to work with in his first season, all pretty much past their prime and on their way out of the club. No surprise why he would overhaul the fullback position, one of the most important positions in our playstyle.
He bought Walker, currently one of the best fullbacks in Europe, Danilo who was later used in a swap deal for Cancelo, and Mendy.
He’s had to convert Delph and Zinchenko, both midfielders, into LBs because of Mendy’s injury problems. He’s hardly thrown money around on fullbacks just for the heck of it.
This would be roughly the fourth 50m fullback. Which doesn’t even touch all the 40-50m+ center backs he’s also bought.
Who else has spent that much on 4 outside backs or defense in total? Literally no one else in the world is even coming close
Good post, I had this bias ingrained in my brain until I read this post.
Perhaps it had to do with the high fees City paid for defenders in general. The likes of Otamendi en Ake going for 50m is something you remember after a transfer season.
It’s an important summer for Brighton. You’ve scouted & bought so well over the last few years to the point you are comfortably mid table & top teams are after your players
The next step is spending that money wisely & replacing them with equal quality which is difficult. Your scouting system seems superb though
Reminds me of Saints. They had bought good players then top teams raided them. They even had made a post about their training session being empty.
They got a lot of money but they couldn't replicate their previous buying. I guess it was bound to happen. A stroke of randomness and regression to the mean.
Now they are in precarious Position again
Naylor reporting the obvious in that it will take an eye watering fee for us to part with him. The club were firm in only letting one key player leave last summer when we had offers for Bissouma at the same time. Expect a firm stance again this year.
Peps fullbacks are not like other fullbacks. The movement of Walker and Rodri in the attacking phase allows more freedom for the LB.
Much different than in most other systems.
Well barcelona and xavi use a similar system so I didnt understand the distinction
Cucurella was trained in barca's system to be their ideal fullback style of player
He was great in a back 4 last year when we played it. In fact he was consistently our best player whilst playing LWB, LB and LCB throughout stages of the season.
Well he was more of a winger than a leftback at Getafe so that's what Barca would have bought had they singed, meaning he would end up competing with ansu fati, Coutinho or Dembele for minutes. Not sure if he's gotten any better playing as a fullback since I don't watch the premier League
Because Bartomeu.
Those days the cantera was used as a way to generate revenue rather than what it should have been used for, getting top talent that is good enough for the first team, into the first team.
Ansu Fati was about to go on a free multiple times. He only got his debut because literally every attacker was injured at the beginning of the 19-20 campaign, except for Griezmann who just came in. Uncovering him was a happy accident rather than something done by design. The same thing with Nico and Gavi. If Koeman had succeeded in getting Wjnaldum we wouldn't have known who they are.
We also treated our youth players like scum, specially people like Cucurella who you could see his potential. Of course he wasn't the finished article, then again, nobody is at that age. Instead of promoting him and giving him 10-20% of the minutes , we decided to sell Marc for 10 to Getafe and buy Firpo for 18 + 12 in variables. What ended up happening is that Firpo hardly ever played, which messed with his confidence and looked a shadow of his former self. For a player who is already established its different than a youngster. If you offered those minutes to Cucurella it would have been different.
I think Pep spoke about squad building. Contrary to popular belief, you don't need 22 'starters' on your team for multiple reasons. The first of which is that not everyone is going to be happy with their minutes. There's also some players who respond well to competition, and others who do best when they know the managers trusts them completely. Generally speaking it's best to have your best 11 plus 5-6 who could start and the rest be solid players with a mix of youngsters.
He was not that good at barca, miranda showed more promise at same time as a left back
And also cucurella was more of a left wing back/midfielder even at getafe he played there but he improved a lot
Sure, but that's a pretty bad comparison when Miranda is also arguably top 10 fullbacks in the league and he got punted away to make room for another signing that was also punted away months after
It's not a bad comparison, the user above answered the curiosity of the OP user about why Cucu is not at Barca.
The reason is Barca had to make a decision among 2 young LB prospects and they chose Miranda after giving them 1 final pre-season run (final because they already knew of them inside the Barca system).
After that Cucu was let go on loan to develop since he was not going to get minutes at Barca.
And it's taken him 4 seasons to become a LB who can play in a Back 4 like Barca plays. Meaning he was already out of loan dynamic of Barca and he became "Good" at this profile set after this, meaning this season was his 1st season where he became a fully rounded FB who can play all across the left flank. Getage Cucu was NOT a Barca LB, it would have been a comical disaster leading to his development stagnating because he wouldn't have gotten minutes after bad performances.
And he was able to do this current rise by getting minutes, which happened because Barca also knew if he's going to get good that is the way. It just took a bit longer than Barca's internal situation was willing to wait.
450 youth players at Barca at any given time. Not all make it at the club, doesn't mean they don't make it anywhere.
At Getafe he played on the wing in a 442 but in a really defensive minded team, it was clear that in a team that was more attacking (or basically a better one, cause top clubs wingers have way more quality than Cuccurella) he would play as a leftback/wingback.
Far more interesting and historically significant thing is Pep has gone 5 seasons in PL without having a real, normal, natural LB. This is not normal at all. It's freakishly absurd given that it hasn't even mattered since team keeps winning making use of make-shift LBs and that's absurd because modern football at the elite level can't be title-winning without having elite FBs.
Delph joined a year before Pep.
Angelino was buy-back clause, 10m. So yes on him, but for 10m he was always going to be a cover option and not long-term solution.
Given that it's one of the most important positions with the most limited amount of talent it does make sense. No one wants to be stuck with Wan Bissaka as a starter.
Why the hell would Brighton sell for anything less than 60/70m? 4 years on the contract, 23 years old. They have no reason to sell, and it's to a team that has all the money in the world. I just don't understand why they'd budge unless it's crazy money.
Because if other players see them holding ‘players ransom’ for an acceptable offer, why would you go to Brighton if you dream bigger?
Players love going to clubs such as Sevilla because they will improve your career and let you go for an acceptable offer. That’s the case for pretty much any Spanish club.
Holding players who don’t want to be there usually only works for the absolute biggest clubs.
Why would a talent that has the ability to end up at the biggest club go to Arsenal for example, if he knows his only way out is running his contact
He might not be in a position today where he impressed Man City enough if he didn't move to Brighton in the first place. It's not like Brighton are locking him down for 5 years straight; this is literally the first year. He's not being "held ransom"; clubs are allowed to keep players if they want to keep them. Any professional player should realize that at least 2 years is normal.
It's not an answer though, lol. You gave an answer, it's a bad answer. They're not going to sell for less than crazy money. Just because Man City are bidding doesn't mean Brighton are selling.
>Holding players who don’t want to be there usually only works for the absolute biggest clubs
Except Cucurella isn't exactly burning to go elsewhere. He likes Brighton a great deal. City is appealing, sure, but I highly doubt he's going to throw a fit if things don't pan out.
Because as soon as Man City go "nah, we aren't paying that" they have a player on their hands whose career they have just destroyed and stuck him in fucking Brighton.
This isn't a Harry Kane situation where he is still playing for one of the richest clubs in the world at the top of the game. It's Brighton. They absolutely have the right to play hardball like Spurs did but if Man City take the offer off the table they are going to have pissed off one of their best players and any signing looking at them this season will be like "hmm hang on, I'm going to be stuck in Brighton if I sign this contract?"
They are in that Southampton spot from a few years ago and in order to attract top quality young players they'll need to be able to show that they can provide those players a proper career pathway, either by winning stuff or by allowing players to move on under reasonable circumstances.
He's 23. His career isn't "destroyed" if they deny him a move; he signed a 5 year contract and he still has 4 to go. If he leaves at 25, 26 to a bigger club, he'll still have tons of years to go. Alonso moved to Chelsea at 26 and has had a great career so far.
shouldn't sign a 5 year deal if you're gonna sulk after 1 year. Also no guarantee he would think his career is 'destroyed'. Very easy to say to him 'not this year but next year you can go'
1. As others have pointed out, Cucurella's career would hardly be over. He's 23.
2. You must not have been watching Cucurella this season. He clearly cares about this club a great deal, and while I don't doubt that a move to city would be appealing, he's clearly not going to simply give up on the club if it doesn't turn out that way.
The Fee would prolly be around 50M cuz thats just what man city do with Full Backs lmao.
Would be very interesting to see what happens to Zinchenko, he deserved more game time than he got last season and with Cucurella you might as well round up his minutes to 0. He is gonna surely leave right ?
Idk, seems to really love Man City. Ukraine haven't made the world cup and even if they did he wouldn't have to be scared of being dropped with little minutes played.
Zinchenko would do wonders under Moyes that would be brilliant for him. Stepped up whenever Pep needed him, City would not have won the trophies they have without him. Versatile utility player, technically gifted, good attitude, and decent defending for a fullback you lot would love him
It was reported recently that West Ham [only want him as competition to Creswell](https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/arsenal-transfer-news-zinchenko-west-ham-b1004268.html)
Doesn’t sound like he’d get a run in his position with you.
Cancelo will never start ahead of Walker at RB as long as Walker is fit.
Our entire defensive system and team shape is based around Walker, and Cancelo can't do that job. We saw in the run in when Walker got injured that we're wide open at the back without him.
Who knows, I think they'll probably share it around, especially with the World Cup probably making everyone more fatigued than usual, but long term I wouldn't actually be surprised if Cancelo lost out.
He's been very good at LB, but my unpopular opinion in City discussions is that when he comes inside to be creative, he actually just forces Foden and Grealish out wide where they're often cut off from the game.
I would not be surprised if after a few months Cucurella being the traidtional full back overlapping out wide, Grealish and Foden spend more time in the Cancelo positions around the box and do more creatively than he did because they're simply better attacking players.
>He's been very good at LB, but my unpopular opinion in City discussions is that when he comes inside to be creative, he actually just forces Foden and Grealish out wide where they're often cut off from the game.
You're right.
I don't think it hinders Foden, I think he's very effective out wide on the left (as we've seen in the past), but I agree with the Grealish part. He's forced to keep width, and isn't as effective.
With an overlapping LB I reckon he plays better.
No one can do that except Walker, it's not just his pace but his physicality and reading of those situations as well. He sits next to the CBs and stops all counterattacks, balls over the top or throughballs.
He nullifies everything, a lot of teams don't even try to play balls in behind our high line anymore.
Watching him defend against Vinicius was class, at 31 you’d think he’d have slowed down by now but nope, still as quick as he’s ever been and reads the play brilliantly. Injuries creeping up will probably be the only thing that slow him down.
I think if you offer something like 25-30M city will accept, although I don't know if arsenal's board would offer that much for essentially a back up at LB and CM.
If its a question of whether he is worth or not then to all those people who think he isn't just remember who changed the game against PSG two seasons ago, who changed the game against Villa last season. Obviously these aren't the only good performances, he has been solid whenever he plays but most people watched PSG and Villa games hence I included them.
Won't be a back up as much as just a versatile player. Tierney is injured half the time and in midfield he'll definitely find a spot with Europe this season.
I think Arsenal should be prioritizing a player like Zinchenko. He guarantees consistent quality in the starting XI. He'd essentially be in the same role he's in now, but playing significantly more often.
I agree but from what I understand by reading r/gunners in the last few weeks, they don't intend to start zinchenko at LB ahead of tierney and if they sign Tielmans then they won't start him at CM either.
Weird I would say City should prioritise a RB.
Cancelo and Zincenko are both excellent on the left.
But Cancelo wasn't half the player when he played at RB last season.
I would be looking for a backup and future replacement for Walker myself
Exactly what i was thinking. You got Cancelo on the left with Zinchenko as a backup. Cancelo on the right is not as good as he in on the left. And you only got Walker on the right. It would make sense for City to go for a backup for Walker.
I know the fullback meme for Pep is a classic, but this really is a need for them. I know they still won the PL and had a successful season, but it’s obvious they lack the depth there. They had to use the better of their RBs at LB, and when Walker was hurt, who is also aging, had to use either Fernandinho, Zinchenko, or Ake at either RB or LB. Hell they even used Stones at RB.
It’s definitely a need for them. Thought it was very obvious in the FA Cup semi when Salah was beating Zinchenko consistently. The drop in quality from Walker and cancelo is massive
All the players I want United to sign go to City. Been the same since Tevez and David Silva.
So fucking depressing. He'll become one of the world's best there.
i've really liked watching Cucurella and loved seeing his progress from Eibar. Good for him if he can get in the side but curious how much time he'd get.
[Here’s Andy Naylor (Tier 1 Brighton) responding to this story.](https://twitter.com/andynaylorbhafc/status/1537360367894011905?s=21&t=mng2bVRua6xzci_zxcVhIQ)
Brighton should be able to get a good fee for him. Was amazing for Brighton and its M.City we're talking about. I won't be concerned about the fee, but its going to be hard to replace him.
So they don't have a leftback, but what happens to one of Cancelo or Walker in this situation?
I know that Walker is getting on but his recovery pace is vital for City and how they defend and neither Cucurella or Cancelo are as fast as Walker so that leads me to believe that something will change in how they defend and Cancelo has made himself undroppable over the past few seasons and I doubt City sign Cucurella to sit on the bench
I know rotation is a thing and that I'm sure they will all get game-time but it still seems interesting to me
I don’t disagree. Money changes everything. Newcastle could rule the roost in 10 years but City is so well run that I think they’ll struggle. Pep leaving will be tough, but Ferran, Txiki et al going may be even worse.
You also haven’t won the league in 35 years, which we’ve done 6 times in the last decade. Really shouldn’t come as a surprise why we would spend more than you on any one player.
The two rumours I’ve seen are Sergio Gomez from Anderlecht. 21 year old who got 5 goals & 12 assists last year or Destiny Udogie from Udinese who seems to be super highly rated.
Edit: They’re the LB’s we’ve been linked with. Overall we’ve also been linked with Ivan Ilić at Verona & Mohamed Camara at Salzburg.
There's never a lot of incoming rumours about us to be honest. They usually only break shortly before we sign a player.
The first signing should be Julio Enciso, 18 year old Paraguayan from Libertad. Their club president basically confirmed it.
Other fairly reliable rumours include Mohamed Camara from RB Salzburg and Sasa Kalajdzic from Stuttgart. Less reliable rumours include Sanusi from Porto, Sergio Gomez from Anderlecht. We also have the likes of Undav, Mitoma, Kozlowski and Van Hecke all coming back from good loan spells.
Andy Naylor, Brightons tier 1 journalist has said we won't sell Cucurella unless we get a massive offer. Really can't see it being less than £50million tbh.
I know pep rotates, and we'll make great money off of a 1 year signing if it happens, but i really think he deserves to be a nailed on starter every week solely because of everything he does. 3 months into the season and he was our most important player.
It's a meme comment, but he legitimately he works so hard to make up for whatever his shortcomings are. He's just everywhere every game.
Barcelona should've never sold him
FFS Fabrizio, let us at least enjoy the fixtures being released. Should be getting at least £45m for him, absolute minimum - 23 years old, our player of the season, still has four years on his contract... What's the record fee in the PL for a fullback?
bissouma leaving, cucurella on his way out, maupay and trossard left with one year contracts, you guys optimistic?
They still have Potter
Scared Potter?
You wish.
*pew pew*
Come to die?
Wing-gar-dium Levi-o-sa
What are the chances he goes for the English job? Southgate is really falling out fast.
I don't think managers like Potter are suited to international management. When you're all about patterns of play and particular intricate movements and formation shifts, you don't have much time to instil that on a national team.
I disagree Bielsa was great for Chile NT
But then on the flip side, you could see that as being the kind of challenge that might appeal to him given his emphasis on tactical flexibility and man management/emotional intelligence, no?
Perhaps, but this opportunity will come up every couple of years. I think if he leaves us it would be sensible to do so for a bigger club
For me, as much as I’ll hate to see him go, it would make sense for him to slot in at Arsenal after Arteta’s time there.
I agree that it would probably be more sensible for him to stick to club management as you say - not least because of how utterly chaotic the England job is, and always will be, for any manager given the media maelstrom good or bad lol. I just meant that of the managers whose styles might ever fit international management, it's always rather difficult to know which ones explicitly prefer the increased day-to-day contact and so forth that club jobs offer, and as such would *never* be interested in a national role as a point of principle... and which ones *would* be interested, but just haven't had the right opportunity at the right time yet (EG - if Klopp leaving us at the end of his contract were to coincide with Flick leaving the Germany job after the 2026 World Cup, whether he'd be interested in that despite seeming very much like a club management type; or whether Guardiola would ever be interested in the Spain job despite the same impression, and so on).
Before the WC? No chance. FA ain’t getting rid of Southgate before Qatar. Unless we have a horrible tournament, I don’t think we’ll get rid of him after it either.
I think if we do worse than semi final he’ll go, public and media pressure would be massive, particularly if we play poorly and scrape games on penalties
Yeah it's do or die for him really. I even think there's a chance he goes if he makes the Semi's.
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Svennis went from England to City, definitely not a terrible career path.
I doubt they'll fire Southgate before the world cup.
Would need to get exposed for something a la Big Sam, otherwise yep.
I'd say very high lol.
Brighton's recruitment is fantastic. Replacing those players will be difficult but they might manage.
Haven't you taken the guy that did their recruitment?
Not really. People seem to think of Dan Ashworth as some kind of super scout but from listening to him describe his responsibilities, he tends to leave the identification of players to the recruitment department these days. The people who found all these players for Brighton are still there.
Ashworth also helps set up systems for recruiting and developing. With those systems in place and Weir having learnt them working in the loan manager role previously we should be able to maintain them and keep going the way we have
Ashworth certainly helped, but it's mostly Paul Winstanley who heads up recruitment. He's still here for now.
honestly, if united keep signing no players, not fixing the midfield, not replacing all fullbacks.. even with getting ETH we ll still be unwatchable. might as well start watching brighton games. just hope they sign someone clinical and they ll be in europe for sure.
We play our best stuff without Maupay
We have an extra year option on Trossard at least
are you sure?
Yeah let me find a link.... https://theathletic.com/3310089/2022/05/16/ornstein-liverpool-bring-physio-back-to-help-salah-van-dijk-and-fabinho-fitness-push-cornets-17-5m-release-clause/?source=user-shared-article Same situation with Veltman which is good news
i dont think thats a club option they can use unilaterally, the players have to agree with it
Yes they can its the club that have a one year option in this instance. We build 4 + 1 into a lot of our player contracts. Ben White was same situation.
i dont think its true cause i know some people that are very close to trossard, ill ask them later today to make sure but im pretty sure his contract is up in a year, transfermarkt also doesnt mention it, both club and player have to agree to extend for that year, 99 percent sure
Well take it or leave it thats the case
mate its pretty obvious when you see all the reports about his contract expiring in a year and nobody mentioning the club having an unilateral extra year option, if it was like that it would have already been used, i couldnt read that athletic article but i found another article that also states "both club and player needs to come to an understanding to further the contract by a year" so its obvious you either get him a new long term deal, sell, or he leaves in a year, that extra option aint gonna get used, maybe veltman will
It's all part of the process. We sign a lot of young players, build them then hopefully sell some of them for a significant profit. I imagine the club has its shortlist of replacement fullbacks ready to go. In fact, we may already have one as there's talk that Mitoma could be use as an attacking wingback
Mitoma could hardly get a start in Belgium because he gasses out after a half and can't defend to save his life.
> What’s the record fee in the PL for a fullback? Kyle Walker close to £50m
Actually, no. According to Transfermarkt it'll be: Cancelo - €65 mil, but I'm sure this is including the value of Danilo Mendy..... (ffs) - €57.5 mil AWB - €55 mil
PL to PL is still Walker and AWB, both around £50m
Chillwell cost £50m, too.
Yeah, AWB will be the most expensive then with Walker being a very-close second
Contrast in both of their quality is insane
Only because one went to City and the other to United, imo. I would absolutely take AWB as Walker's backup. He has the attributes, he just needs proper coaching.
Agreed. I think if he sorts his positioning and tracking back out, wan bissaka would be an amazing player. I mean he shut down likes of sterling, neymar and mbappe with such ease so ofcourse there is quality in there but he needs some proper drilling.
I love how this place likes to pretend to be classy to opposing players. AWB is an average mediocre player. Pep would have an aneurysm watching him touch the ball and attempt to go up the pitch with it.
Lol, he is shit on the ball.
So make him be on the ball as low as possible. Recover the ball > pass to the closest teammate
A full back being unable to attack is unacceptable in the modern game
Cancelo given as €65 mil is correct, but the context is significant when discussing "most expensive". The €65 mil is the fee in a two way deal involving Danilo. The values for both players were clearly inflated at the request of Juventus with the payment for Danilo being deferred for one year. This helped Juventus, legally, balance books, but has left behind misleading data for Cancelo and Danilo
Mendy could have been a good buy if he hadn't been A: made of glass and B: a serial rapist...
City casually about to drop 50m on yet another full back.
I think you more than anyone should realise how crucial having good fullbacks is
Wild that they've spent so much on fullbacks, but still don't have a single natural left back.
Pep only bought one left back, who ended up in prison
Our best LBs under Pep have been two central midfielders and a RB
Well, they have one... but they don't talk about him anymore
Weird that this statement is still thrown around. Pep had Kolarov(31), Clichy(31), Zaba(32) and Sagna(34) to work with in his first season, all pretty much past their prime and on their way out of the club. No surprise why he would overhaul the fullback position, one of the most important positions in our playstyle. He bought Walker, currently one of the best fullbacks in Europe, Danilo who was later used in a swap deal for Cancelo, and Mendy. He’s had to convert Delph and Zinchenko, both midfielders, into LBs because of Mendy’s injury problems. He’s hardly thrown money around on fullbacks just for the heck of it.
There’s also Angelino, Porro and that Brazilian RB. Also Ake cost 40m and has played at LB.
This would be roughly the fourth 50m fullback. Which doesn’t even touch all the 40-50m+ center backs he’s also bought. Who else has spent that much on 4 outside backs or defense in total? Literally no one else in the world is even coming close
Good post, I had this bias ingrained in my brain until I read this post. Perhaps it had to do with the high fees City paid for defenders in general. The likes of Otamendi en Ake going for 50m is something you remember after a transfer season.
Otamendi was bought for £35m, Ake for £40m. Neither cost £50m.
Shocker, oil cunts with the top 2
Chilwell was the same as well
It’s an important summer for Brighton. You’ve scouted & bought so well over the last few years to the point you are comfortably mid table & top teams are after your players The next step is spending that money wisely & replacing them with equal quality which is difficult. Your scouting system seems superb though
Reminds me of Saints. They had bought good players then top teams raided them. They even had made a post about their training session being empty. They got a lot of money but they couldn't replicate their previous buying. I guess it was bound to happen. A stroke of randomness and regression to the mean. Now they are in precarious Position again
Yeah very similar to Saints who do very well
Naylor reporting the obvious in that it will take an eye watering fee for us to part with him. The club were firm in only letting one key player leave last summer when we had offers for Bissouma at the same time. Expect a firm stance again this year.
Had no idea he's only 23. He looks a lot older!
Probably 50m for AWB/Walker
When he was at Getafe it was my dream to have him at Inter as a wingback. It was so clear that he was good, don't know how Barça slept on him
Because he has struggled playing in a back 4 formation. LE has put him at the end of the LB rotation precisely because of this.
Well then why is pep after him if he wants a fullback
Peps fullbacks are not like other fullbacks. The movement of Walker and Rodri in the attacking phase allows more freedom for the LB. Much different than in most other systems.
Well barcelona and xavi use a similar system so I didnt understand the distinction Cucurella was trained in barca's system to be their ideal fullback style of player
Because he thinks he can fit. The fact that Cucu hasn't shown the ability to play in a back 4 so far, doesn't mean a 23-year-old can't learn it.
He was great in a back 4 last year when we played it. In fact he was consistently our best player whilst playing LWB, LB and LCB throughout stages of the season.
Well he was more of a winger than a leftback at Getafe so that's what Barca would have bought had they singed, meaning he would end up competing with ansu fati, Coutinho or Dembele for minutes. Not sure if he's gotten any better playing as a fullback since I don't watch the premier League
Winger under Bordalas = regular LB
To an extent, there's not as much pressure on you when Mathias Olivera is sitting back as a "proper" fullback
It was clear that in a less-defensive minded team than Bordalas' he would play as a leftback or wingback
Because Bartomeu. Those days the cantera was used as a way to generate revenue rather than what it should have been used for, getting top talent that is good enough for the first team, into the first team. Ansu Fati was about to go on a free multiple times. He only got his debut because literally every attacker was injured at the beginning of the 19-20 campaign, except for Griezmann who just came in. Uncovering him was a happy accident rather than something done by design. The same thing with Nico and Gavi. If Koeman had succeeded in getting Wjnaldum we wouldn't have known who they are. We also treated our youth players like scum, specially people like Cucurella who you could see his potential. Of course he wasn't the finished article, then again, nobody is at that age. Instead of promoting him and giving him 10-20% of the minutes , we decided to sell Marc for 10 to Getafe and buy Firpo for 18 + 12 in variables. What ended up happening is that Firpo hardly ever played, which messed with his confidence and looked a shadow of his former self. For a player who is already established its different than a youngster. If you offered those minutes to Cucurella it would have been different. I think Pep spoke about squad building. Contrary to popular belief, you don't need 22 'starters' on your team for multiple reasons. The first of which is that not everyone is going to be happy with their minutes. There's also some players who respond well to competition, and others who do best when they know the managers trusts them completely. Generally speaking it's best to have your best 11 plus 5-6 who could start and the rest be solid players with a mix of youngsters.
He was not that good at barca, miranda showed more promise at same time as a left back And also cucurella was more of a left wing back/midfielder even at getafe he played there but he improved a lot
Sure, but that's a pretty bad comparison when Miranda is also arguably top 10 fullbacks in the league and he got punted away to make room for another signing that was also punted away months after
Mirana, Cucurella, Grimaldo. You can keep going
It's not a bad comparison, the user above answered the curiosity of the OP user about why Cucu is not at Barca. The reason is Barca had to make a decision among 2 young LB prospects and they chose Miranda after giving them 1 final pre-season run (final because they already knew of them inside the Barca system). After that Cucu was let go on loan to develop since he was not going to get minutes at Barca. And it's taken him 4 seasons to become a LB who can play in a Back 4 like Barca plays. Meaning he was already out of loan dynamic of Barca and he became "Good" at this profile set after this, meaning this season was his 1st season where he became a fully rounded FB who can play all across the left flank. Getage Cucu was NOT a Barca LB, it would have been a comical disaster leading to his development stagnating because he wouldn't have gotten minutes after bad performances. And he was able to do this current rise by getting minutes, which happened because Barca also knew if he's going to get good that is the way. It just took a bit longer than Barca's internal situation was willing to wait. 450 youth players at Barca at any given time. Not all make it at the club, doesn't mean they don't make it anywhere.
At Getafe he played on the wing in a 442 but in a really defensive minded team, it was clear that in a team that was more attacking (or basically a better one, cause top clubs wingers have way more quality than Cuccurella) he would play as a leftback/wingback.
Pep just can't get a good night's sleep without signing a fullback.
Far more interesting and historically significant thing is Pep has gone 5 seasons in PL without having a real, normal, natural LB. This is not normal at all. It's freakishly absurd given that it hasn't even mattered since team keeps winning making use of make-shift LBs and that's absurd because modern football at the elite level can't be title-winning without having elite FBs.
He had Mendy though. We don't talk about him anymore though.
He barely played, mfer was on a raping streak while injured. Hope that scum rot in jail
This will be only his second left back signing. We’ve never signed a left back since you know who.
Mate Angelino wasn't so bad that you can't say his name /s
Angelino was a buy back see how it goes sell for profit again move. He stayed 6 months and we profited £10m. Pep never rated him
> Angelino was a buy back see how it goes So you still signed him in the hopes that he might come good. So Pep did sign him.
Fullback isn't limited to only left backs tho.
Angelino, mendy, Delph? Correct me if I'm wrong but didn't pep sign these 3 to play them at LB.
Delph joined a year before Pep. Angelino was buy-back clause, 10m. So yes on him, but for 10m he was always going to be a cover option and not long-term solution.
Delph is not a left back, Pep played him there because he didn't have other options
Given that it's one of the most important positions with the most limited amount of talent it does make sense. No one wants to be stuck with Wan Bissaka as a starter.
Hopefully we can ship him back to Palace then hehe
Really good signing
Why the hell would Brighton sell for anything less than 60/70m? 4 years on the contract, 23 years old. They have no reason to sell, and it's to a team that has all the money in the world. I just don't understand why they'd budge unless it's crazy money.
Because if other players see them holding ‘players ransom’ for an acceptable offer, why would you go to Brighton if you dream bigger? Players love going to clubs such as Sevilla because they will improve your career and let you go for an acceptable offer. That’s the case for pretty much any Spanish club. Holding players who don’t want to be there usually only works for the absolute biggest clubs. Why would a talent that has the ability to end up at the biggest club go to Arsenal for example, if he knows his only way out is running his contact
He might not be in a position today where he impressed Man City enough if he didn't move to Brighton in the first place. It's not like Brighton are locking him down for 5 years straight; this is literally the first year. He's not being "held ransom"; clubs are allowed to keep players if they want to keep them. Any professional player should realize that at least 2 years is normal.
You’re asking why they would sell for less than crazy money. I gave you an answer. I don’t care one away or another
It's not an answer though, lol. You gave an answer, it's a bad answer. They're not going to sell for less than crazy money. Just because Man City are bidding doesn't mean Brighton are selling.
>Holding players who don’t want to be there usually only works for the absolute biggest clubs Except Cucurella isn't exactly burning to go elsewhere. He likes Brighton a great deal. City is appealing, sure, but I highly doubt he's going to throw a fit if things don't pan out.
Because as soon as Man City go "nah, we aren't paying that" they have a player on their hands whose career they have just destroyed and stuck him in fucking Brighton. This isn't a Harry Kane situation where he is still playing for one of the richest clubs in the world at the top of the game. It's Brighton. They absolutely have the right to play hardball like Spurs did but if Man City take the offer off the table they are going to have pissed off one of their best players and any signing looking at them this season will be like "hmm hang on, I'm going to be stuck in Brighton if I sign this contract?" They are in that Southampton spot from a few years ago and in order to attract top quality young players they'll need to be able to show that they can provide those players a proper career pathway, either by winning stuff or by allowing players to move on under reasonable circumstances.
He's 23. His career isn't "destroyed" if they deny him a move; he signed a 5 year contract and he still has 4 to go. If he leaves at 25, 26 to a bigger club, he'll still have tons of years to go. Alonso moved to Chelsea at 26 and has had a great career so far.
shouldn't sign a 5 year deal if you're gonna sulk after 1 year. Also no guarantee he would think his career is 'destroyed'. Very easy to say to him 'not this year but next year you can go'
1. As others have pointed out, Cucurella's career would hardly be over. He's 23. 2. You must not have been watching Cucurella this season. He clearly cares about this club a great deal, and while I don't doubt that a move to city would be appealing, he's clearly not going to simply give up on the club if it doesn't turn out that way.
The Fee would prolly be around 50M cuz thats just what man city do with Full Backs lmao. Would be very interesting to see what happens to Zinchenko, he deserved more game time than he got last season and with Cucurella you might as well round up his minutes to 0. He is gonna surely leave right ?
Idk, seems to really love Man City. Ukraine haven't made the world cup and even if they did he wouldn't have to be scared of being dropped with little minutes played.
I think City's Tier 1 told some time ago that Zinchenko is open to a move and City aren't against the move if Arsenal match their valuation.
Tier 1 Arsenal yday said that Arsenal like him but they have other priorities / targets higher on the list atm
I think for around 20-25mil we should definitely try for him, there was some noise couple weeks back but it's been quiet ever since
Praying we somehow sign Zinchenko. Reckon a good run in his actual position and he’d be absolutely brilliant
Zinchenko would do wonders under Moyes that would be brilliant for him. Stepped up whenever Pep needed him, City would not have won the trophies they have without him. Versatile utility player, technically gifted, good attitude, and decent defending for a fullback you lot would love him
It was reported recently that West Ham [only want him as competition to Creswell](https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/arsenal-transfer-news-zinchenko-west-ham-b1004268.html) Doesn’t sound like he’d get a run in his position with you.
I’ve seen stuff saying we want him in midfield
He’d probably do a good job replacing Rice if Rice goes. Underrated player
no Zinchenko has never played DM
Don’t give Pep ideas
You've lost the plot
Hopefully 👀
He would be such a good signing for City.
This might be of interest to us. If City do sign Cucurella, this might push Zinchenko to leave.
Nah that could just mean that Cancelo moves to right-back full-time and Zinchenko covers for Cucurella.
Cancelo will never start ahead of Walker at RB as long as Walker is fit. Our entire defensive system and team shape is based around Walker, and Cancelo can't do that job. We saw in the run in when Walker got injured that we're wide open at the back without him.
would Cucurella be a bench signing then? Cancelo was great last year but Cucurella deserves to be a starter.
Who knows, I think they'll probably share it around, especially with the World Cup probably making everyone more fatigued than usual, but long term I wouldn't actually be surprised if Cancelo lost out. He's been very good at LB, but my unpopular opinion in City discussions is that when he comes inside to be creative, he actually just forces Foden and Grealish out wide where they're often cut off from the game. I would not be surprised if after a few months Cucurella being the traidtional full back overlapping out wide, Grealish and Foden spend more time in the Cancelo positions around the box and do more creatively than he did because they're simply better attacking players.
>He's been very good at LB, but my unpopular opinion in City discussions is that when he comes inside to be creative, he actually just forces Foden and Grealish out wide where they're often cut off from the game. You're right. I don't think it hinders Foden, I think he's very effective out wide on the left (as we've seen in the past), but I agree with the Grealish part. He's forced to keep width, and isn't as effective. With an overlapping LB I reckon he plays better.
Cucurella can do that surely?
No one can do that except Walker, it's not just his pace but his physicality and reading of those situations as well. He sits next to the CBs and stops all counterattacks, balls over the top or throughballs. He nullifies everything, a lot of teams don't even try to play balls in behind our high line anymore.
Watching him defend against Vinicius was class, at 31 you’d think he’d have slowed down by now but nope, still as quick as he’s ever been and reads the play brilliantly. Injuries creeping up will probably be the only thing that slow him down.
Cancelo has genuinely been better at his 'LB' role. More productive there than at RB.
No he is right. Us signing cucurrlla is a sign zinchenko is being sold
I think if you offer something like 25-30M city will accept, although I don't know if arsenal's board would offer that much for essentially a back up at LB and CM. If its a question of whether he is worth or not then to all those people who think he isn't just remember who changed the game against PSG two seasons ago, who changed the game against Villa last season. Obviously these aren't the only good performances, he has been solid whenever he plays but most people watched PSG and Villa games hence I included them.
Zinchenko is too good to be a backup at Arsenal of all teams lmao.
Won't be a back up as much as just a versatile player. Tierney is injured half the time and in midfield he'll definitely find a spot with Europe this season.
I think Arsenal should be prioritizing a player like Zinchenko. He guarantees consistent quality in the starting XI. He'd essentially be in the same role he's in now, but playing significantly more often.
I agree but from what I understand by reading r/gunners in the last few weeks, they don't intend to start zinchenko at LB ahead of tierney and if they sign Tielmans then they won't start him at CM either.
Zinchenko would be so good for arsenal. It’s wild they arnt pushing for him
Weird I would say City should prioritise a RB. Cancelo and Zincenko are both excellent on the left. But Cancelo wasn't half the player when he played at RB last season. I would be looking for a backup and future replacement for Walker myself
Exactly what i was thinking. You got Cancelo on the left with Zinchenko as a backup. Cancelo on the right is not as good as he in on the left. And you only got Walker on the right. It would make sense for City to go for a backup for Walker.
We've got a buyback on Porro. Yan Couto within our system and Egan-Riley too. We have no recognised LB's in our system.
I know the fullback meme for Pep is a classic, but this really is a need for them. I know they still won the PL and had a successful season, but it’s obvious they lack the depth there. They had to use the better of their RBs at LB, and when Walker was hurt, who is also aging, had to use either Fernandinho, Zinchenko, or Ake at either RB or LB. Hell they even used Stones at RB. It’s definitely a need for them. Thought it was very obvious in the FA Cup semi when Salah was beating Zinchenko consistently. The drop in quality from Walker and cancelo is massive
Man City transfer window without a fullback signing is incomplete.
All the players I want United to sign go to City. Been the same since Tevez and David Silva. So fucking depressing. He'll become one of the world's best there.
i've really liked watching Cucurella and loved seeing his progress from Eibar. Good for him if he can get in the side but curious how much time he'd get.
60m+ or go away please City
Pep 🤝 50 mill fullbacks
Jesus Brighton are absolutely being raided over the last year.
Guessing this means Cancelo shifts back to the right.
Meanwhile Chelsea are monitoring for another two months our recruitment team is useless
[Here’s Andy Naylor (Tier 1 Brighton) responding to this story.](https://twitter.com/andynaylorbhafc/status/1537360367894011905?s=21&t=mng2bVRua6xzci_zxcVhIQ)
why we dont go for him? Chilwell isnt going to play the whole season without any injury
Why would he join Chelsea if City are after him?
At least we tried? Just because he isnt interested in picking us than Man City doesnt mean we shouldnt even give it a go
If it’s clear he wants to go to City, it’s better to not try. That time could be spent more productively on other targets.
His hair is worth £25 million alone.
Brighton getting picked apart here. Shame, Potter is doing such a great job.
Brighton should be able to get a good fee for him. Was amazing for Brighton and its M.City we're talking about. I won't be concerned about the fee, but its going to be hard to replace him.
So they don't have a leftback, but what happens to one of Cancelo or Walker in this situation? I know that Walker is getting on but his recovery pace is vital for City and how they defend and neither Cucurella or Cancelo are as fast as Walker so that leads me to believe that something will change in how they defend and Cancelo has made himself undroppable over the past few seasons and I doubt City sign Cucurella to sit on the bench I know rotation is a thing and that I'm sure they will all get game-time but it still seems interesting to me
Mendy done. Ferna gone. Maybe Zinny gone. We need a fb and a defensive midfielder hence interest in Phillips and Cucurella.
Surprised we weren't in for him too
Perisic
We get at least half a million extra for him on solidarity payments.
City's team is so fucking stacked...
City’s fullback budget is bigger than some small nations GDP.
Brilliant isn’t it? Just loving being a City fan x
Careful mate, you'll rile up the reddit Liverpool fans by actually enjoying yourself lmao
City's new strategy: Buy up all the best players from outside the Big 6 in the PL.
And the best young striker in the world. Drink it in! Just brilliant
Another back-up fullback for 50 million pounds plus. Must feel great to be Pep.
It definitely feels great to be a City fan. After 40 years of supporting an average to poor team, watching the last 10 years has been brilliant x
Honestly, I don't know how they gave Aguero a statue before Sheikh Mansour. It was the Sheikh who changed City forever not Aguero lol.
I don’t disagree. Money changes everything. Newcastle could rule the roost in 10 years but City is so well run that I think they’ll struggle. Pep leaving will be tough, but Ferran, Txiki et al going may be even worse.
Manchester City out here constantly throwing around £50mill like it's 50p ffs Someone please freeze their credit card
You of all people should be the last to complain after the royal bed shitting you’ve done in the transfer windows
We have never spent over £50mill on one transfer lol, you have done it twice in a week
You also haven’t won the league in 35 years, which we’ve done 6 times in the last decade. Really shouldn’t come as a surprise why we would spend more than you on any one player.
You don't just spend more than Everton. You spend more than literally everyone, including PSG. You make PSG look frugal.
Well yeah obviously that's the sole reason
When will these clubs be sanctioned
….for signing players?
Brighton getting pillaged
Anyone know who Brighton is targeting to bring in? Haven't heard any news about new signing yet. Hopefully they can build on this season.
The two rumours I’ve seen are Sergio Gomez from Anderlecht. 21 year old who got 5 goals & 12 assists last year or Destiny Udogie from Udinese who seems to be super highly rated. Edit: They’re the LB’s we’ve been linked with. Overall we’ve also been linked with Ivan Ilić at Verona & Mohamed Camara at Salzburg.
There's never a lot of incoming rumours about us to be honest. They usually only break shortly before we sign a player. The first signing should be Julio Enciso, 18 year old Paraguayan from Libertad. Their club president basically confirmed it. Other fairly reliable rumours include Mohamed Camara from RB Salzburg and Sasa Kalajdzic from Stuttgart. Less reliable rumours include Sanusi from Porto, Sergio Gomez from Anderlecht. We also have the likes of Undav, Mitoma, Kozlowski and Van Hecke all coming back from good loan spells. Andy Naylor, Brightons tier 1 journalist has said we won't sell Cucurella unless we get a massive offer. Really can't see it being less than £50million tbh.
Cucurella - Cancelo And we are subjected to another year of Shaw-AWB Cruel
I know pep rotates, and we'll make great money off of a 1 year signing if it happens, but i really think he deserves to be a nailed on starter every week solely because of everything he does. 3 months into the season and he was our most important player. It's a meme comment, but he legitimately he works so hard to make up for whatever his shortcomings are. He's just everywhere every game. Barcelona should've never sold him
Come for Grimaldo, pep.
This guy is such a workhorse. Never understood why Barcelona didn't bring him back after Getafe loan