Rival watch

Villa want TV pundit Andy Townsend, who spent four years as a player at the club, to make a surprise return to Villa Park as director of football. (Sun)


They might just as well put a pigeon on the board!

 

Welcome to a day of cliched drivel about Klopp returning to Dortmund.

 

The two guys that City signed from Porto for big bucks have been absolute dross so far in England.

Mangala seems built to potentially be one of the best CB's around, he's quick, powerful, tall and a real good athlete yet his positional sense and reading of the game is awful, you can pick up CB's for a fraction of the price they paid to do a better job than him.

As for Fernando, what an earth is he meant to offer? My understanding is that he's a DM, yet City look no sterner with him in the side than they do without and his horrendous cock-up last night just summed up the disappointment he's been.

 

I personally think that Fernando isn't too bad. They paid 12m for him and he's been okay for that amount.

 

You signed Kante for £8m and we signed Dier for £4m. Using that scale of reference, Fernando is worth a free bus journey.

 

We paid 5.6m (8m euros) but I see your point.

However, we both did fantastically well to get these players on the cheap. I'd say that Fernando for 12m was about right. He was superb for Porto.

 

I think that's the problem right there, he was great for Porto but hasn't replicated that form at City. The £12m is looking like a steal for Porto right now, although £12m for City is peanuts so they won't care, they'll likely strengthen in the Summer with Pep in charge so I think his time may up soon, unfortunately for us lot .

 

To be fair to Mangala, none of City's centrebacks have had a good season. I think it's partly down to Pellegrini, the way they're set up puts a lot of pressure on the centre backs, they have to get things exactly right everytime the opposition attack every game. I don't think there are many centrebacks that would do a very good job in that defence.

There's no defending Fernando though, he's awful.

 

Surely once he made the pass he should have got back inside the width of his goal

 

Toby, Jan and Big Kev would

 

The contrast in technique and quality between those players and David Luiz, Otamendi and Mangala is so vast. How do those 3 players cost a collective £124m and the our 3 cost a collective £25m? Who is scouting for these clubs? They can afford to burn money and not care but for an investment of £1 Billion, you'd think that the owners would want people who can do the job they're employed for.

I reckon there'll be De Bruyne and Aguero left of last night's team to start the 2017/18 season and maybe Iheanacho off the bench, if he doesn't get lost in big money purchases. I wonder how much Messi will cost?

 

Wow I thought that was in pounds not euros - absolute bargain. Kante is the only DM in the league I rate higher than Dier, although I do feel that Dier will turn out the better player as he's only 21 and already very close to Kante's level at 25.

I don't know if it's just me, but the PL has rapidly morphed into a league where for some reason (absolutely not simply the weight of their price tags and subsequent levels of expectation), big money signings tend to be incredibly disappointing. We've moved from an era where a Veron would be the exception rather than the norm, to an era where De Bruyne is the exception rather than the norm. And this seems to apply across clubs...Hazard, Soldado, Sterling, Otamendi, Depay, Shaqiri, Benteke, Thauvin, Schneiderlin, Pedro, Rondon....the list is exhaustive and totals hundreds of millions down the drain. And these players could've been signed for half the price and still would've been disappointing.

I've said it a hundred times. Value to previous club is irrelevant. Buying smart is the new buying impressive.

 

You're aware that Kante isn't a defensive midfielder, aren't you?
He's *one of the best box-to-box midfielder in the world as far as I'm concerned. I don't think there is anyone that wouldn't take him (aside from Barcelona and Bayern as his passing is his only slight negative, but it's not bad by ay means).

We got Mahrez, Kante, Vardy, Schmeichel, Morgan, Fuchs, Albrighton and Drinkwater for 10m with change. Our scouting network is unprecedented. Steve Walsh is an utter genius.


*Edit.

 

Scary isn't it? I never understood PSG's deal for Luiz, he wasn't always regularly starting at CB for Chelsea and yet PSG forked out £50m for him, giving Chelsea a huge profit on what they spent (which was circa £20m I think!).

As for Otamendi and Mangala, you could say Otamendi is new to the league and so could do with a pre-season with City but I don't feel Mangala has too many excuses what with this being his second season now. The sheer fact they cost about £70m combined though makes a complete mockery of the game.

I'm someone of the belief that good/ very good CB's can be obtained for less than £15m if you look wisely. We proved that with Jan and Toby, while you could probably get guys like Shawcross, Dann, Huth plus others for £15m or less I'd say, all a lot better than City's two in my opinion. Chelsea got Zouma for £12m who I think has a great future in the game.

 

I agree. If Zouma's knee recovers he will be excellent. The others are very good players. Koscielny didn't cost that much. West Ham's are very decent. Van Dijk's got promise. Collectively all for less than Luiz, who really limits PSG.

I thought Rabiot looked good. I can't see him wanting to leave now as was rumoured earlier in the season. For all their expenditure PSG hardly impressed against a poor Chelsea and made City look good. Their team is ageing as well with Zlatan (34); Maxwell (34); Thiago Silva (31); Thiago Motta (31) and Cavani (29). The next lot @ 28 years old include Di Maria, Van der wiel and Luiz. That's an ageing team. Get ready for £500m+ of expenditure on limited players. The world's gone mad!

 

Is he really box-to-box though? For me a box-to-box is often one of the side's go-to men in terms of getting the ball forward from the back and also being a threat in the opposition's half, as bloody superb as Kante is at his defensive aspects, I don't think sides fear him for his ability going forward. I'd say Pogba right now is the best box-to-box player on the planet, with Yaya, Vidal, Schweinsteiger (Bayern days), Marchisio, Gundogan, Fernandinho as other stand outs, I don't see Kante being similar to those guys, better than all defensively but I don't think he offers enough in attack to be listed alongside them.

 

All of your midfielders are defensive. As are your strikers.

 

!!!

 

I can't imagine Lev's following suit with Yids 4 a quid

 

It's going to be the most expensive club stadium by some distance so that's unlikely to be an option. Thankfully the added TV money and Gridiron income are going to help pay it off or we'd be paying until the next century. Still,what a sight that 17,000 stand's going to be. I've been Spurs for just under 50 years and I can't wait!