Nathan Ake (Close to signing for Man City, £40m fee)

Very glad this is the level City is bringing in. He isn’t very good imo and the price is very high. Superb sale for Bournemouth. 41 million in should be vital for them restructuring in the Championship.
 
City journos have basically been saying that they want 2 profile of players. Aké is their backup/rotation/may make it profile, koulibaly is the elite profile player. Independent deals.

I watched Napoli the other day against Inter and I am far from convinced Koulibaly will come to this league and have a big impact. If Ake and Koulibaly is the ones they are bringing in they will be on the lookout for new central defenders next summer also.
 
They’ve always paid crazy transfer fees, it’s just that they don’t have to bother hiding it anymore.
 
Any country with an abundance of attacking talent fancy a trade for some centre halves? We can field an entire team of em if this keeps up in The Netherlands. Meanwhile we're still stuck with Ryan fecking Babel up front.
 
I watched Napoli the other day against Inter and I am far from convinced Koulibaly will come to this league and have a big impact. If Ake and Koulibaly is the ones they are bringing in they will be on the lookout for new central defenders next summer also.
Koulibaly's overrated plus he's 29 already so you'd expect him to start declining two years from now.
 
Ake for 40m!

The "time-adjusted" value of Chelsea rejects this decade is worth more than the "monetary" value of Newcastle F.C.

Mo Salah, Nathan Ake, Kevin De Bruyne, Filipe Luis, Lukaku, Robben etc. All these players were sold for absolute peanuts.

I don't know what is wrong with the club - a combination of impatience, failure to identify future prospects on time, overambition, cash surplus, and "bad" managers?
 
City doesn't seem to take their defence seriously. If there's one weakness about Pep, he seems to splurge crazy money on average to mediocre defenders.
£41 million for Nathan Ake? Christ.
 
40m for Ake is a good deal, as compared to the 80m Maguire and 30m Lindelof. He is solid at the back, good on the ball and quick on his feet. Together with his home grown status, I think he suits City very well.
 
City doesn't seem to take their defence seriously. If there's one weakness about Pep, he seems to splurge crazy money on average to mediocre defenders.
£41 million for Nathan Ake? Christ.
Ake is one of the best defenders in the PL. He was just playing for a shit team.
 
I watched Napoli the other day against Inter and I am far from convinced Koulibaly will come to this league and have a big impact. If Ake and Koulibaly is the ones they are bringing in they will be on the lookout for new central defenders next summer also.
I think Koulibaly's peak was 2015-2018. Since then his level has dropped.
 
40m for Ake is a good deal, as compared to the 80m Maguire and 30m Lindelof. He is solid at the back, good on the ball and quick on his feet. Together with his home grown status, I think he suits City very well.
Lindlelof is twice the player Ake is, getting him for £30m was a steal.
Maguire is now our captain and didn't miss a minute of the league campaign, I'd say it's looking good for £80m so far...
 
I can't believe how many comments are on here talking about how Ake wouldn't be good enough and point to Bournemouths record as proof. I can only imagine the same people saying VVD wasn't good enough while he was at Southampton because their defensive record wasn't great...
 
Imagine Villa looking at the amount Bournemouth sold Ake

I think generally buying from the EPL should be reserved only for very special players or as last resort, because the fees have gone through the roof and the risk is too high.

I like Maguire, but there was no club outside the EPL that would ever pay 80m for him. Similarly, Villa would likely ask something in the 50-60m range for Grealish, and again there's no club from Spain, Italy, Germany that would even consider spending that much on him. He'd probably go for half that money (25m-30m) if the same player was in the Continent. I'd certainly avoid unless our scouting team can really not come up with anything better, at smaller cost.
 
Ake for 40m!

The "time-adjusted" value of Chelsea rejects this decade is worth more than the "monetary" value of Newcastle F.C.

Mo Salah, Nathan Ake, Kevin De Bruyne, Filipe Luis, Lukaku, Robben etc. All these players were sold for absolute peanuts.

I don't know what is wrong with the club - a combination of impatience, failure to identify future prospects on time, overambition, cash surplus, and "bad" managers?
Mourinho
 
So much money for a player who's never really caught my eye. To be honest, short of world class elite players like peak company or Van Dijk, there are very few defenders who'd make a difference in our defense in my opinion. It's an issue with the team set up rather than the individuals.
 
I don't think I see Ake enough, but quite impressed by him every time I saw him. Remind me of Puyol.

Not exactly dominant physically, but giving good fight, and cleaning up most 50/50, even disadvantaged situation. Not majestic on ball nor superb vision, but solid passer of the ball making good passing choice, with good range, and comfortable stepping up out of defense to play. Aggressive but not kneejerk compared to Otamendi, Rojo (you know what I meant).
 
So much money for a player who's never really caught my eye. To be honest, short of world class elite players like peak company or Van Dijk, there are very few defenders who'd make a difference in our defense in my opinion. It's an issue with the team set up rather than the individuals.

This is a point that so many refuse to grasp.

Although you do need a body to replace Kompany moving on, your defensive issues start in midfield. I would be surprised if your midfield looked as porous next season, and the defense will benefit, regardless of who starts at CB.
 
Lindlelof is twice the player Ake is, getting him for £30m was a steal.
Maguire is now our captain and didn't miss a minute of the league campaign, I'd say it's looking good for £80m so far...
You on the wind up mate? :lol:
 
This is a point that so many refuse to grasp.

Although you do need a body to replace Kompany moving on, your defensive issues start in midfield. I would be surprised if your midfield looked as porous next season, and the defense will benefit, regardless of who starts at CB.

Even world class defenders don't win every one and one, and those are the chances our system mostly gives up. I love watchingCity when the attacks flowing and the goals are coming,but even in the most one sided games we give up one golden chance where it's 3v3 or 2 2v2 at the back.
 
Peps spent over £300m on defenders at City now, and rumours are he wants an elite one this year yet. £350-£380m spent in just defenders!

As a player, he'll be good for them. He'll stop them getting hit on the counter as easily.
 
Even world class defenders don't win every one and one, and those are the chances our system mostly gives up. I love watchingCity when the attacks flowing and the goals are coming,but even in the most one sided games we give up one golden chance where it's 3v3 or 2 2v2 at the back.

Exactly. And they're so high quality that it left your defense/keeper with little chance of preventing the goal. I for one think y'all would have been better off leaving Fernandinho in midfield while rotating Stones/Otamendi/Garcia at CB, but that's just my theory
 
You on the wind up mate? :lol:
No,
VVD was claimed to be the best defender this season, yet his defense let in three goals less than Maguire's.
Three goals....not an excessive amount.
So pray, tell me, are Lindlelof and Maguire not all that??
I know it doesn't sit well with some of our fans, but our defence have actually been decent this season, despite issues with full backs.
So tell me please, what part of my post was supposed to be on the wind up?
 
And 2 workhorses in Henderson and Wijnaldum that make up for that.

So? I thought we're just comparing CBs? or maybe we can just judge by watching the game, instead of using shipped in goals?
 
So? I thought we're just comparing CBs? or maybe we can just judge by watching the game, instead of using shipped in goals?
Your point seemed to be that their CBs are more exposed because the fullbacks are horrible defensively. But they aren't really that much more exposed when their CMs cover for the space left by their fullbacks.
 
Good signing. I've always liked him, think he'll suit 'Guardiolas way'.
 
Still think he’s average. Certainly not a £40 million defender.

Guardiola’s spending on defenders is ridiculous. Most of them have caused as many problems as they’ve solved imo.
 
Seems like they're just taking a punt to me. I suppose he'll at least fill the dreadlocks void left by Sane.
 
No,
VVD was claimed to be the best defender this season, yet his defense let in three goals less than Maguire's.
Three goals....not an excessive amount.
So pray, tell me, are Lindlelof and Maguire not all that??
I know it doesn't sit well with some of our fans, but our defence have actually been decent this season, despite issues with full backs.
So tell me please, what part of my post was supposed to be on the wind up?
You can't take teams apart and consider parts of players individually like that. Liverpool had only three fewer goals against, sure, but also scored 19 more and played less defensively overall. That means they ask different things from their defense compared to United.
 
No,
VVD was claimed to be the best defender this season, yet his defense let in three goals less than Maguire's.
Three goals....not an excessive amount.
So pray, tell me, are Lindlelof and Maguire not all that??
I know it doesn't sit well with some of our fans, but our defence have actually been decent this season, despite issues with full backs.
So tell me please, what part of my post was supposed to be on the wind up?

Liverpools defence feel off a cliff when the title was in the bag. They conceded 33 goals all season and over 1/3rd of those came in July from the City game on when the league was won. Its an unfair comparison.
City who were savaged for their defending all season conceded only 2 more goals than Liverpool all season and 1 less than United. These things have to be put in perspective.

Back on topic, think we overpaid for Ake a little. In this day and age he's probably a £30m player at best.