I agree. look at the players City signed before they were in the champions league! if we offer the right packages they'll still come.
Toni Kroos | Madridista
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Players like who? Sean Wright Phillips and Santa Cruz? From recollection, City didn't get the very best until they were in the CL, they just overpaid for the tier below.
Maybe Silva, I think he came early on.
B
Balotelli, Yaya Toure and bro, Dzecko, Adebayor, Silva, Tevez, Boateng all before champions league.
Kompany too, although they got him even before they were mega rich, Zabaleta etc...
Only because being in the Champions League established them as a "big club" and they are still several tiers below us in that regard.
We're still going to be a club that is hugely attractive to world class talents, Champions League next season or not.
Yea, my point exactly.
"@Sport_Witness: Bayern Munich have agreed a four year deal with Frankfurt's Sebastian Rode according to Bild. His contract ends in June."
Why do they need another midfielder, he is 23 yearsbold so he not very young.
Kroos?
Why do they need another midfielder, he is 23 yearsbold so he not very young.
Kroos?
I thought the deal was all but done since a few months ago. Nothing to do with Kroos, I'd imagine.
Rode and Kroos are nothing alike. It's like replacing Paul Scholes with Gareth Barry. If Kroos leaves you can be sure that Bayern Munich will try for Gündogan.
Sport are reporting that Barcelona are now 'entering the race' for Kroos.
Payback for stealing Thiago?
Why do they have to monopolise all the world class CMs between them? Can't we have just one?!
You've got to laugh, really. Kroos will probably leave afterall, but to Barca. Gundogan will go Bayern.
Take them two out of the equation and which midfielders are we left with that we've been linked with? Carvalho, Koke, Vidal....
Take them two out of the equation and which midfielders are we left with that we've been linked with? Carvalho, Koke, Vidal....
The Rode deal was known since start of this season, i believe. He is to be compared to Kirchhoff (now loaned out) - a reasonable shot in the dark at a player who might turn out to be decent some day.
I think that strategy has been given a re-thought after Kirchhoffs less than exciting time in munich. Honigbaum reported an unkown established Bayern-player was overheard asking his agent "what where they thinking when they hired him".
Any Bayern squad, as harmonic as it may seem, is a very exclusive circle and not everyone is allowed access. Used to be like this in the Beckenbauer era, and didn't change much. Young Rode will have to show a lot more than he does currently to have any hope of a pass.
We'll take some scraps that Barca aren't using then I guess.
Aye, probably.
In all seriousness, I'm not worried about this. I think we'll have some deals in place already, with Gundogan being one player that the papers reckon we've already agreed to sign. According to Kroos' brother, it was between us and Bayern about where he would be next season. At least we're in the race. Carvalho is one I think we'd have a good shot at and Koke looks good.
There's quite a few options out there. We should be able to bring in one or two really good CM's this summer.
Those aren't some bad replacements, I tell you.
A lot of the people on here would have Vidal as their top choice anyway, but he seems the most unlikely to obtain anyway.
Yea, I think we'll get at least one good midfielder. I'm also just as keen to see the dross leave personally.
No I agree, it was a genuine question as to what other options there are. Like you though, I don't think Vidal is attainable.
You make out that Vidal would be left over scraps for us...he's probably a more complete midfielder than Kroos is. Heck I'd say its more likely that we get Kroos over him.
Koke and Carvalho aren't too shabby either.
Edit: Nevermind just seen your post above.
In terms of quality comparable to Kroos and Gundogan, those players you listed are as close to, if not on a similar level (don't know about this Carvalho chap, seen nothing of him to judge but heard good things). Not really any others that come to mind that are "available" now.
Vidal is a two-hander sword, Kroos is a foil
I bet Madrid enter the race soon as well.
You're absolutely right. There can nothing other than optimism for our summer pursuits - there has to be. The money-men at the club have no choice now.
We can plunder Everton if we want. Rest assured that Barcelona or Real wont touch that 'talent' even with a barge pole.
Didn't Baines turn down Bayern at one stage?
Yeah once at Everton the only way is down I guess. At least we were lucky to lure Fellaini in. Great stuff.
Followed by the holy trinity of riches - City, Chelsea and PSG. Add in Arsenal for good measure and Spurs and Pool for a laugh, and ladies and gentlemen, we have ourselves a transfer story.
Unless we're ready to compete with the big guys in terms of salary/fees then we will never sign the best players. I am pretty sure that Moyes wasn't the only manager who has 'discovered' Kroos.
It's agent fees that will hold us back, not wages. Rooney's already on an astonishing amount.
Wait, Moyes didn't discover Kroos? Pah, next you'll tell me he wasn't the mastermind behind discovering Fabregas last summer.
Its time to pay. Else its pointless trying to sign these sort of players
Why is it a surprise that if a player like Kroos becomes available then the biggest clubs in the world are interested in him? Were people expecting that just because the club is on PR drive about the big summer plans, other clubs around Europe would just let us walk over them in the race for top talents?
They're interested. They aren't confident about replacing Alonso and they're nervous about Gundogan's back injury. They're just waiting to see which player gets displaced at Bayern - Kroos or Martinez. A topic of interest to Barca as well, whose need for a centre back may stop them spending big on another midfielder for their collection.
We're already working on his agent.
I think people (Fergie and Gill) forget that Agent's while working for their players also look after their own interests and that becomes half the battle of signing a player. I also think that Fergie and Gill hated the power agents have and as a result decide not to pay extortionate fees to them as it starts the relationship off in a bad way for the club. I also think it's why we used Mendes so much, I think he probably operates in quite a fair way compared to other agents and as such made it easy to deal with us again and again so both parties benefited in the long term.
I said it earlier, I start to worry when Barca and Real start to show interest
. That's a completely different story than United offering more money. There's no way we would sell Martinez though. Pretty sure, we give Badstuber the chance to recover and show if he gets back to his best, then Martinez as a different type of midfielder and a back up centerback is way too important. But if Barca finally realised that Kroos is a way better fit to replace Xavi than Gündogan, we're in trouble.I said it earlier, I start to worry when Barca and Real start to show interest
This post shows how much our reputation has fallen by our antics in the transfer market post Ronaldo and has finally started to show on the pitch as well this season. Really hope we get back to our rightful place in the football pyramid soon. We're now being looked at as another club looking to blow their owner's money, while we are the exact opposite of that.
TBH we didn't match the allure of Real Madrid even in the pre-Ronaldo or pre-Glazer days. They are a rule unto themselves.
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