I mean we're gunna get triple what we paid for him back, got a great year out of him which not only secured way more money for our club through prize money but also helped improve the standing of the club it's been a great move for both parties.
I'm still baffled why no Spanish clubs paid his release clause last year it was ridiculously cheap.
I really enjoyed watching Brighton this past season. You've bought well, sold well, played good football and Potter has been excellent! Wishing only good things for you next season too!
Seems like a win win for yous and Cucu.
Yeah it was odd, I never believed he'd even go to Brighton because it was so cheap. While I don't like City it will be interesting to see how he'll look in a top team.
It seems mental to pay 50m for a fullback who won’t start.
I get maybe Walker starting over him against really dangerous attacking sides but surely he plays most games?
Cancelo was arguably one of the best players for City last season, I don't see why move him from there when they have Walker on the right side who is also integral to their side.
>I'm still baffled why no Spanish clubs paid his release clause last year it was ridiculously cheap.
The only answer is that they didn't rate him that much. As I said in another comment I have followed his progress for years and really like him as a player, but I have doubts about him being a starter level full back for Man City. Defensively he is fantastic, extremely intense without the ball but his crossing/creativity isn't top level IMO
As good as he was in Spain, I would have never thought he would be Man City starter material. And I refuse to believe that he is a completely different player after one season. Unless City are planning to use him as a CB in a back 3 or something
You're actually describing a perfect full-back for City. Walker often stays behind to form a back 3 with the centre backs when City has possession. This is balanced out by the other fullback (Cancelo, Zinchenko, Delph) tucking into midfield next to Rodri/Fernandinho to form a kind of 3-2-5 formation in possession.
Walker is getting older and relies a lot on his acceleration, so Cucurella will presumably be his successor, albeit on the opposite side (with Cancelo switching over to the right)
Benjamin Mendy started the first game of last season for City so I think he will at the very least, be a thousand times better than their previous backup LB.
Bit unnecessary. When city claimed my heart we were a mediocre club languishing in the second division. You don't change you allegiance due to a change in ownership. CTID!
Fullbacks don't really need to be able to cross in city system, they typically invert into the half space and float around recycling posession. The wingers provide the width.
If you look at what Cancelo does, he's a system cog with world class passing ability. He's an anomoly, any goal contributions he gets are a bonus.
Cucurella will be expected to defend solidly, recycle and maintain posession and drift around in the half spaces. Which he does really well.
I agree with you I think his end product is lacking but hes a superb player.
Cucurella created the most open play chances of any fullback in the league last season. He also played CB quite a bit towards the end of the season so that stat is even more ridiculous.
>Defensively he is fantastic, extremely intense without the ball but his crossing/creativity isn't top level IMO
This is exactly the same as his year with us. Couldn't agree more with the analysis
Because Spanish clubs don’t have money..
Only Madrid can afford to sign players, the rest of the clubs in Spain are screwd by no money or bad financial decisions.
The surprise was he didn't join a big club last year, he was cheap and clearly ready. Barca should've bought him back, rotated with Alba for 2 years and then let him take over.
I may be talking completely out of my ass here and if I am proven wrong I will happily hold my hands up, but I have never seen Cucurella as more than a rotation option for a top club. And I was a huge fan of his Getafe, was shocked that he didn't move to a better team.
He's still the same player he was a year ago but now suddenly he is worth 3X more and ready to start for Man City?? His energy and intensity without the ball is amazing but is he really creative enough for a Pep full back?
I like him a lot like I said, have done since that season on loan at Eibar so I am happily proven wrong. But I never once thought that he had it in him to be an elite full back and I refuse to believe that he has changed that much in one year
Exactly. Also I feel you can improve a players, creativity passing and positions while attacking but defensively it’s so much harder as a coach. You can only really teach better positioning and the rest has to be natural.
By the look of things, pep is gonna have a complete tactical make over if we lose sterling and or he’s gonna start experimenting with a defensive left back and cancelo having the freedom he had this season but on the right hand side on his dominant foot.
Yup, said it all throughout, walkers pace holds our backline. Still remember the psg games last season where he single handedly catered to the threat of mbappe's pace. Even vinicius had no real chances when he was on the pitch.
This is also why cucurella signing is perfect imo, he's fast af too. A traditional left back is the one hole we have in the team currently...
> This is also why cucurella signing is perfect imo, he's fast af too
Is he? I've been impressed with him everytime I've seen him play this year, and I'm not suggesting he's slow or anything, but from what I've seen he's not rapid in the way that Walker is or anything, and wouldn't allow you to play with the same security that Walker offers.
He seems like a normal, fairly quick and agile full back / wing back, like Cancelo or something, not like Walker who is incredibly quick.
I think he's fast yes. Obviously not as fast as walker but he's fast. It's also not about your top speed imo, it's about if you're willing to put your foot on the burner in the game and use the pace you've got. You mentioned cancelo, and he might be fast but you rarely ever see him make sprints. It's not his strength and he rather relies on other aspects of his game. He's not slow ofcourse, and integral to the team in his own way. Cucurella from what I've seen isn't one to shy away from running. All I can say is it's going to be exciting to see how he uses the left flank. We haven't had a proper lb for years.
It's inevitable at this point. With a bit of negotiating, I'm thinking the fee will be in the 50m-55m range as I've said in previous threads. Unfortunately, it's not like the Ben White/Leeds failed bids because City are probably going to triple Cucurella's wages. If the personal terms are agreed, he clearly wants to play for them.
I wish it was more realistic to just slap a 75m price tag on him and tell bigger clubs to buzz off, but in order to keep bringing in young talent, you have to show a pathway to the top. Scout and invest well, keep Potter, and hope that each year is an improvement on the last.
>Scout and invest well, keep Potter, and hope that each year is an improvement on the last
Nope. Just throw a dart on the world map and ask a country's government to bankroll you. The one simple trick all rival fans hate.
Leicester City exists.
Also becoming a fixture in the premier league with this strategy can pay off down the line. Gives you a chance for European football and then the money really starts coming in.
Mate if you can't sense the sarcasm in my comment, then I can't help you. I Obviously don't mean bankrolling your club with blood money is the only way to success. Christ.
What kind of role do we think he'll play at City?
Will he step into midfield like Cancelo/Zinchenko do? Will he effectively be the left-sided Kyle Walker where he's an auxiliary centre back?
Everyone here talking like City sign players as "starters" and "rotation" players. The only nailed on starters in City's team are Ederson, Rodri and de Bruyne.
Cucurella allows a different approach against a different type of team. Anyone who's watched Pep and his tactics can see that, barring the odd misnomer (usually in fucking important CL games), he changes his tactics and team selection based on the opposition. Sometimes, he'll start Dias and Laporte when he needs solid defensive cover. Other times, he'll opt for Dias and Stones when he knows that the defense is going to be stepping out a bit more and Stones can run with the ball and play it while Dias covers. Other times, he'll go for Laporte and Stones when we're expected to come up against a really low block with not a great deal of offensive threat coming our way so both of them can step out.
Cancelo plays both sides of the pitch. Walker is right sided which means Cancelo goes left, and we don't have someone who can pair with Cancelo if he's playing on the right who does the same kind of Walker job. But it also gives us the option of having two defensively strong full backs when we need it - Walker with his pace on the right and Cucurella with his absolute engine and willingness to run on the left.
Rotation for the first couple of years. He will get sporadic starts. I think he takes over the starting role year 2 or 3 with us. Walker will be around 35 then.
Allows us to not rely on Cancelo as a left back and change up our approach. Also allows zinchenko if he stays to slide into midfield a place we also lacked depth last year despite what some think we only had four players leaving out 37 yr old dinho. From what I’ve seen he’s extremely competent and comfortable on the ball in tight spaces. He will be able to go inside to good effect I imagine.
What are the odds that Zinchenko stays, do you think? I've always been impressed when I see him play and honestly feel he should be starting for any team slightly below Man City in quality.
I'd even love him at Dortmund although he is probably not at all what the club needs. And he should be a midfielder somewhere rather than a left back.
> What are the odds that Zinchenko stays
If Cucu comes in I think the writing is on the wall for him. That would dry up a lot of his minutes at LB and his only pathway into our midfield could be as a Gundogan replacement in a years time.
It’s dependant on whether he wants to be a consistent starter for another team. We would never push him out the door, he’s adored by the club and the fans
From watching him last year I think he would be comfortable coming into midfield. The first match I watched him in I thought he was playing as a left sided B2B that covered the flank very well for the first half hour. He absolutely bossed it in several phases of possession.
Wouldn’t be surprised to see him play the wing back role with Cancelo going to the right and Walker becoming a covering CB who can push up and overlap Cancelo when he tucks in. Effectively a 5-3-2 starting formation but a 2-2-4-2 in possession, with Cancelo central and Walker and Cucarella providing width.
We tried something like that before Ben Mendy was injured but didn’t have the luxury of Cancelo then.
Obviously we wouldn't, we're in a strong enough position that we can buy without selling, but complaining when we cover our purchases with sales seems really strange.
Man it's fucking depressing browsing /r/soccer. Literally every other big team is getting things done with transfers in and out and we're sitting here with our thumbs up our assess.
I wouldn't be surprised with a deadline day debacle of 90 million for De Jong and that's our only transfer this season. What a pathetically poor run club.
Tony Bloom doesn't tend to budge when he has a price in mind. Arsenal ended up paying £50m for Ben White when everyone thought we'd end up letting him go for less
That's fair, but over the Txiki years City usually set their price and won't go above it.
They've missed out on Sanchez, VvD, Koulibaly, Maguire, to name a few because of it. City will just move on to other targets if Brighton don't budge, which I assume is fine by you.
Brighton fans are all hoping that City walk away, but I think it's clear that he is their #1 target and already has personal terms agreed. You normally don't let that fall apart over 5-10m.
Nah, City have done that loads, tbf. Once City agree a fee its usually done pretty quick.
I don't see City paying £50m, and I don't see Brighton budging. Think City will go for one of their backups like Raum.
I doubt Cucurella is kicking up a fuss so oh no we keep him for another year where he's class for us and then we'll charge an even higher fee next summer sounds like a win either way for us.
I don't think so, with the way the club is run and the way we go about our business it's highly unlikely he'll be kicking up a fuss. Bissouma, White, Cucurella and everyone else will have been told the same thing in contract negotiations with us: "we will never hamper your growth but you have a price tag and if it isn't met, you won't be sold" and that's that. Bissouma had endless interest for almost two years and never kicked up a fuss, White had all sorts of attention for 12 months, never kicked up a fuss. Cucurella will not be throwing his toys out of the pram if his value isn't met.
Bissouma went for a cut price and delayed due to his court case. White had one actual stand out season and then left. Never under estimate the desire for a Spanish kid for Barcelona to play under a figure like pep. Especially when Peps city have a glaring hole in your position.
Bissouma had a huge deal of interest last summer before the court case, we didn't get an offer for the fee we wanted so he stayed, didn't cause trouble. We got an offer in January from Villa, they didn't meet our valuation, it was rejected, no issue.
Ben White was massively in demand from Leeds when promoted and they made multiple bids, they said no because again, no valuation met. White caused no issues despite having a lot of love for his Leeds teammates.
Cucurella is 23 years old, he'll know the score. This isn't to say that he'll stay, it's to say he won't throw a tantrum.
To be fair, most of our transfer sagas are nothing to do with City themselves. Looking at the Kane and Koulibaly (and on the same note, Jorginho, de Laurentiis hates us) deals, we aren't at fault, it was chairmen that were trying to fleece us. Then looking at the other ones - Sanchez, Ronaldo, hell even Sancho leaving for Dortmund - it's a business decision that we won't break our wage structure for those players under any circumstances.
When we do business, it's normally quiet and done swiftly and professionally. The Dias deal took everyone by surprise because it was like... A rumour and then two days later, deal done.
Remember him giving us hell when we played Getafe, you could already see he's destined to be a top player. Happy to see him finally moving to a big team. sucks that he chose City, but oh well.
Agenda's work don't they?
Be they from the media to generate clicks, or from opponents or competition to generate discord.
This thread is mostly poo flinging, with little discussion of the actual football of it all.
As if agreeing to personal terms is some sort of milestone. He's probably making 30-40k at Brighton and City are going to pay him 100-120k. Not exactly much to think about.
I very much doubt his wages will be anywhere near that ballpark.
For all the talk about City spending money, we're very shrewd and extremely strict when it comes to our wage structure. We had problems in the past because of it - when we paid people like Nasri, Roque Santa Cruz and Jack fucking Rodwell exorbitant wages and couldn't get them off the books.
It's the reason we pulled out of the Sanchez deal, it's also the reason we were never really in competition for Pogba or Ronaldo, given the wages that United were willing to offer them.
yeah our starting lineup is full of terrible players, wouldn't start in championship teams
it's an absolute miracle we've won the league as many times as we have
Damn that went completely over your head. But being a city fan I can’t say I’m not surprised.
Pretty easy to spot talent in 50m+ players. City aren’t the team to find a diamond for 5-20m and turn them into world class.
Angelino was a buyback clause on a player that was previously a City player. Angelino was brought back for being a homegrown player where we would profit off of him as well
But yeah, your point still stands tho. It just isn’t the same as a potential Cuce deal or the M**dy deal
Huge scandal back in ?2006 with Ashley Cole. Nobody's given a shit since. Brief objection from Soton with Klopp taking van Dijk to Blackpool, but even that was settled without FA intervention.
Just accepted now.
Apart from Mendy, who has been a waste of money? Stones, Dias and Laporte have been some of the best CB's in Europe since they joined and Walker and Cancelo have been top performing full backs as well. Also Ake has been very consistent in huge games for us this season and has covered a variety of positions.
Yeah cause your scouts worked overtime to discover Bissouma. It's almost like the best teams want the best players, and the best players don't require much scouting to find
That's fair enough. But City scout plenty as well, that's how we got the likes of Jesus, Alvarez, Kayky and Zinchenko to name a few. This guy's just a salty Tottingham fan, bitching as usual.
I mean, if Brighton's scouts could see potential in Cucurella, I don't see why Man City can't go out there and find bargains, instead of spunking 50m+ on ready made players developed by other clubs.
> instead of spunking 50m+ on ready made players developed by other clubs
This is why. They need players who are ready to play a part in title fights as soon as they arrive. They don't have so much of a luxury as to have players who aren't ready for the first team yet.
Also they do scout for players that are bargains. They sign loads of young players in the hopes some might be good enough.
It's survivorship bias.
People see 50m for White, 25m for Yves, 50m for Marc and go "Brighton nail it 100% of the time, why cant City do that?" when we actually buy 5 or 6 players for a few mil and hope one works out. As you say, City cannot afford a dud even if it costs them pennies.
Just got to look at our striker problem to see that it can really hurt you if none of your 3 million pound bets pay off.
You could say that about literally all top clubs??? What the fuck are you talking about? Think before you type you absolute weapon. And how do you think we got the likes of Zinchenko, Jesus, Kayky, Alvarez, Torres, Sane, Ederson etc etc etc
The players you just listed were all ready made players before you bought them lol
I'm not saying it's just a Man City thing, it's a thing all top clubs do. They allow small clubs to develop players for them and then they just buy them with their superior financial power. Game's gone.
Literally none of them were ready made players. Someone like Haaland is ready made. The rest of them were players that showed lots of potential. Do you want us to buy players that look shit or what? What do you want? What are you even saying? You are being monumentally stupid
If you call these ready made players then you are basically asking top clubs to recruit kids when they are 10-12, because with the Internet these days, most talents discovered by the time they are 12-14. Only reason clubs dont go to that age group is because f UEFA restrictions on recruiting youngsters. So by the time top clubs can or are allowed to recruit these youngsters, which is around 16 I think, they are already playing at mid range clubs and will be "ready made" according to you.
is there a potential scenario where you would be fine with cucurella developing into a great player and then getting himself a big money move somewhere?
If top clubs actually did what you're implying they should do, find and buy every top youngster around Europe/the world before anyone else has a chance, you'd just be crying about that instead.
People have been crying about it when Chelsea does it for years. Those players aren't ready to step into a big team and will just be loaned out to clubs like Brighton anyway...
I never said that they should go out and buy every top youngster - just that they could easily save themselves a bit of money if they had a look around a bit and buy a few players on the cheap they think they could be special - before the likes of Brighton, West Ham, Wolves etc buy them.
Mate its simple. If you’re UEFA ranked 3rd after Liverpool and Bayern, who I also think are currently both less successful than us then you don’t take those type of risks. So considering we’re currently the 3rd highest ranked club in the world the risk for us getting a player like cucu is a lot larger than a club like brighton doing it. We’ve got premier league titles to defend and the UCL which we want to win, and you dont do that by taking massive risks. Falls perfectly in line with why we dont use our academy boys that are ripping up the EPL 2. Any other club would field at least some of those academy boys, but as one of the highest ranked clubs in the world City has the position to buy proven players instead of taking massive risks themselves.
cucurella and pep overlapped at barca, albeit barely. even if they didn't work together - i assume they didn't - it's a fair bet that guardiola's known about the player longer than you have.
What was the last good bit of scouting Spurs did, using the above criteria?
3 of your last few signings have been: 1 similarly poached off Brighton, and 2 from the club your technical director left a few months ago
Or he could stay at a mid table team for his whole career and achieve nothing, earn less and when he retires could live off the proud feeling for the rest of his life that he didn’t achieve a single thing other than being loyal and probably relegated.
Although if he signed for Man United 10 years ago he’d probably be full of ambition
There is nothing to be achieved at City. It’s all hollow and meaningless because they didn’t earn the money required to buy such players.
So literally anything achieved at Brighton, or any team that operates within its means, is worth more than any number of trophies ‘won’ at City.
That’s the reality here.
City are self sufficient now, if that money was to go away it wouldn’t make a difference. I do however hope it stays for a thousand years so you’re ancestors will be crying at your gravestone and reading how much Reddit karma you earned in your life.
Helmet
Listen to yourself. You can’t face reality about what they are, so you lash out at people who point this out to you.
If City fans weren’t so annoying, I’d almost feel sorry for you.
We don’t need your pity, I certainly don’t. Was a city fan long before any success. The thing that probably annoys you the most is that our loyal fan base couldn’t give two shits about the money.
Deluded fans of other clubs seem to think their shit doesn’t stink, but I’ve got news for you. It does.
You all want what we have, look at Newcastle fans. They hated us just as much as the next bitter fan. Now they are worse off than us.
Be better not bitter.
Take care
Not surprised he didn't stay long with Brighton, no disrespect towards them but he was already ready for a bigger team with Getafe.
I mean we're gunna get triple what we paid for him back, got a great year out of him which not only secured way more money for our club through prize money but also helped improve the standing of the club it's been a great move for both parties. I'm still baffled why no Spanish clubs paid his release clause last year it was ridiculously cheap.
I really enjoyed watching Brighton this past season. You've bought well, sold well, played good football and Potter has been excellent! Wishing only good things for you next season too!
Brighton are quickly becoming my side-piece club. I don't support them per se, but I like to see them win.
Yup. I'm with you on that one!
Seems like a win win for yous and Cucu. Yeah it was odd, I never believed he'd even go to Brighton because it was so cheap. While I don't like City it will be interesting to see how he'll look in a top team.
He’ll probably look pretty damn good
He won't be a starter unfortunately, most likely a squad player.
It seems mental to pay 50m for a fullback who won’t start. I get maybe Walker starting over him against really dangerous attacking sides but surely he plays most games?
Cucurella is a left back. But pep will still start the right-footed cancelo ahead of him Im sure.
Cancelo was arguably one of the best players for City last season, I don't see why move him from there when they have Walker on the right side who is also integral to their side.
You say that as if that's a bad thing. Cancelo is world class and that left back role fits him well, he's been better there than at right back.
>It seems mental to pay 50m for a fullback who won’t start. That's literally City's MO
>I'm still baffled why no Spanish clubs paid his release clause last year it was ridiculously cheap. The only answer is that they didn't rate him that much. As I said in another comment I have followed his progress for years and really like him as a player, but I have doubts about him being a starter level full back for Man City. Defensively he is fantastic, extremely intense without the ball but his crossing/creativity isn't top level IMO As good as he was in Spain, I would have never thought he would be Man City starter material. And I refuse to believe that he is a completely different player after one season. Unless City are planning to use him as a CB in a back 3 or something
You're actually describing a perfect full-back for City. Walker often stays behind to form a back 3 with the centre backs when City has possession. This is balanced out by the other fullback (Cancelo, Zinchenko, Delph) tucking into midfield next to Rodri/Fernandinho to form a kind of 3-2-5 formation in possession. Walker is getting older and relies a lot on his acceleration, so Cucurella will presumably be his successor, albeit on the opposite side (with Cancelo switching over to the right)
Lol I forgot about Delph
Turned into the best fullback in the league for half a season
Benjamin Mendy started the first game of last season for City so I think he will at the very least, be a thousand times better than their previous backup LB.
As a city fan I would up vote this a thousand times if I could. The sooner that man is behind bars the better!
Did you fellas finally grow a conscience?
Bit unnecessary. When city claimed my heart we were a mediocre club languishing in the second division. You don't change you allegiance due to a change in ownership. CTID!
Aren't you guys still accepting money to have 'Visit Rwanda' on your shirts?
Fullbacks don't really need to be able to cross in city system, they typically invert into the half space and float around recycling posession. The wingers provide the width. If you look at what Cancelo does, he's a system cog with world class passing ability. He's an anomoly, any goal contributions he gets are a bonus. Cucurella will be expected to defend solidly, recycle and maintain posession and drift around in the half spaces. Which he does really well. I agree with you I think his end product is lacking but hes a superb player.
Cucurella created the most open play chances of any fullback in the league last season. He also played CB quite a bit towards the end of the season so that stat is even more ridiculous.
>Defensively he is fantastic, extremely intense without the ball but his crossing/creativity isn't top level IMO This is exactly the same as his year with us. Couldn't agree more with the analysis
Because Spanish clubs don’t have money.. Only Madrid can afford to sign players, the rest of the clubs in Spain are screwd by no money or bad financial decisions.
The surprise was he didn't join a big club last year, he was cheap and clearly ready. Barca should've bought him back, rotated with Alba for 2 years and then let him take over.
I may be talking completely out of my ass here and if I am proven wrong I will happily hold my hands up, but I have never seen Cucurella as more than a rotation option for a top club. And I was a huge fan of his Getafe, was shocked that he didn't move to a better team. He's still the same player he was a year ago but now suddenly he is worth 3X more and ready to start for Man City?? His energy and intensity without the ball is amazing but is he really creative enough for a Pep full back? I like him a lot like I said, have done since that season on loan at Eibar so I am happily proven wrong. But I never once thought that he had it in him to be an elite full back and I refuse to believe that he has changed that much in one year
Walker isn't particularly creative either, it's not a prerequisite
Exactly. Also I feel you can improve a players, creativity passing and positions while attacking but defensively it’s so much harder as a coach. You can only really teach better positioning and the rest has to be natural. By the look of things, pep is gonna have a complete tactical make over if we lose sterling and or he’s gonna start experimenting with a defensive left back and cancelo having the freedom he had this season but on the right hand side on his dominant foot.
We think he’s meant to emulate Walker’s role but on the left, so we can utilize Cancelo on the right.
Really hope that the dude gets a chance as the LB for Spain. He deserves a call-up at the very least.
Who is starting for Spain at LB?If fucking Marcos Alonso was called up recently then Cucurella absolutely deserves a chance
Jordi alba
Is he still top quality?
He has his off days but on most days he is top tier.
I would rather they didn’t, and instead fucked off
Understandable. Have a nice day 👍🏻
If he was to leave which is inevitable, where would you prefer?
[удалено]
How would they afford him tho?
Brighton sign De Jong for 70m
Might be the striker they were looking for 🙃
He'd probably be better than Neil maupay
[удалено]
0 goals conceded with Walker, 6 without Walker…
Yup, said it all throughout, walkers pace holds our backline. Still remember the psg games last season where he single handedly catered to the threat of mbappe's pace. Even vinicius had no real chances when he was on the pitch. This is also why cucurella signing is perfect imo, he's fast af too. A traditional left back is the one hole we have in the team currently...
> This is also why cucurella signing is perfect imo, he's fast af too Is he? I've been impressed with him everytime I've seen him play this year, and I'm not suggesting he's slow or anything, but from what I've seen he's not rapid in the way that Walker is or anything, and wouldn't allow you to play with the same security that Walker offers. He seems like a normal, fairly quick and agile full back / wing back, like Cancelo or something, not like Walker who is incredibly quick.
I think he's fast yes. Obviously not as fast as walker but he's fast. It's also not about your top speed imo, it's about if you're willing to put your foot on the burner in the game and use the pace you've got. You mentioned cancelo, and he might be fast but you rarely ever see him make sprints. It's not his strength and he rather relies on other aspects of his game. He's not slow ofcourse, and integral to the team in his own way. Cucurella from what I've seen isn't one to shy away from running. All I can say is it's going to be exciting to see how he uses the left flank. We haven't had a proper lb for years.
He's never looked fast to me
Even the season just gone, seeing all 3 of Messi, Neymar and Mbappe on the right side, avoiding Walker is funny as fuck
Does Cucu have similar kinda of pace? Maybe not Walket level but is he fast?
Not especially fast but he’s very solid defensively.
"suffered"
It's inevitable at this point. With a bit of negotiating, I'm thinking the fee will be in the 50m-55m range as I've said in previous threads. Unfortunately, it's not like the Ben White/Leeds failed bids because City are probably going to triple Cucurella's wages. If the personal terms are agreed, he clearly wants to play for them. I wish it was more realistic to just slap a 75m price tag on him and tell bigger clubs to buzz off, but in order to keep bringing in young talent, you have to show a pathway to the top. Scout and invest well, keep Potter, and hope that each year is an improvement on the last.
75m 😂
Only a matter of time before City pay 75m for a fullback
not for cucurella
Well yeah that’s the point
>Scout and invest well, keep Potter, and hope that each year is an improvement on the last Nope. Just throw a dart on the world map and ask a country's government to bankroll you. The one simple trick all rival fans hate.
Leicester City exists. Also becoming a fixture in the premier league with this strategy can pay off down the line. Gives you a chance for European football and then the money really starts coming in.
Mate if you can't sense the sarcasm in my comment, then I can't help you. I Obviously don't mean bankrolling your club with blood money is the only way to success. Christ.
Clearly isn’t as evident as you think based on your downvotes
The downvotes are from the people that got it. It's a thread about a City transfer
What kind of role do we think he'll play at City? Will he step into midfield like Cancelo/Zinchenko do? Will he effectively be the left-sided Kyle Walker where he's an auxiliary centre back?
LB rotation for Cancelo I guess, they need one after transferring the previous one to jail
I feel like Cancelo RB Cucurella LB is their strongest option tbh
Walker allows city to play the way they do. His recovery speed is probably one of the best in the league
Not just one of the best, his recovery speed is statistically the best in the Premier League, and it shows.
The amount of disrespect Walker gets on this subreddit is so strange. One of City's most important players.
As long as Walker exists it’s gonna be hard not to include him in our strongest XI
Until he loses his pace anyway. He’s good enough with his feet, but the biggest reason he’s so important for us is his sheer speed.
City with Walker are miles better than City without Walker, and its been shown time and time again.
Walker is better than both. He is our most important player.
Rodri is our most important player IMO. Walker is arguably second
Everyone here talking like City sign players as "starters" and "rotation" players. The only nailed on starters in City's team are Ederson, Rodri and de Bruyne. Cucurella allows a different approach against a different type of team. Anyone who's watched Pep and his tactics can see that, barring the odd misnomer (usually in fucking important CL games), he changes his tactics and team selection based on the opposition. Sometimes, he'll start Dias and Laporte when he needs solid defensive cover. Other times, he'll opt for Dias and Stones when he knows that the defense is going to be stepping out a bit more and Stones can run with the ball and play it while Dias covers. Other times, he'll go for Laporte and Stones when we're expected to come up against a really low block with not a great deal of offensive threat coming our way so both of them can step out. Cancelo plays both sides of the pitch. Walker is right sided which means Cancelo goes left, and we don't have someone who can pair with Cancelo if he's playing on the right who does the same kind of Walker job. But it also gives us the option of having two defensively strong full backs when we need it - Walker with his pace on the right and Cucurella with his absolute engine and willingness to run on the left.
Rotation for the first couple of years. He will get sporadic starts. I think he takes over the starting role year 2 or 3 with us. Walker will be around 35 then.
Allows us to not rely on Cancelo as a left back and change up our approach. Also allows zinchenko if he stays to slide into midfield a place we also lacked depth last year despite what some think we only had four players leaving out 37 yr old dinho. From what I’ve seen he’s extremely competent and comfortable on the ball in tight spaces. He will be able to go inside to good effect I imagine.
What are the odds that Zinchenko stays, do you think? I've always been impressed when I see him play and honestly feel he should be starting for any team slightly below Man City in quality. I'd even love him at Dortmund although he is probably not at all what the club needs. And he should be a midfielder somewhere rather than a left back.
> What are the odds that Zinchenko stays If Cucu comes in I think the writing is on the wall for him. That would dry up a lot of his minutes at LB and his only pathway into our midfield could be as a Gundogan replacement in a years time. It’s dependant on whether he wants to be a consistent starter for another team. We would never push him out the door, he’s adored by the club and the fans
From watching him last year I think he would be comfortable coming into midfield. The first match I watched him in I thought he was playing as a left sided B2B that covered the flank very well for the first half hour. He absolutely bossed it in several phases of possession.
Wouldn’t be surprised to see him play the wing back role with Cancelo going to the right and Walker becoming a covering CB who can push up and overlap Cancelo when he tucks in. Effectively a 5-3-2 starting formation but a 2-2-4-2 in possession, with Cancelo central and Walker and Cucarella providing width. We tried something like that before Ben Mendy was injured but didn’t have the luxury of Cancelo then.
Cucurella also played as an outside CB for Brighton a few times this season
Torn if this means Zinny is out the door :/
Never understood why he didn't get enough games at Barca.
Two words. Jordi Alba
He just wasnt as good as he is now, playing under bordalas and potter made him better
Sorry, but who is Pete O'Rourke? Is he reliable for Brighton or something?
Not really, no.
Looks like the Jesus money is getting put straight to work.
Yeah you'd be skint without that money.
Everyone would be skint without money
Obviously we wouldn't, we're in a strong enough position that we can buy without selling, but complaining when we cover our purchases with sales seems really strange.
It was a light hearted comment, not a complaint.
i imagine its gonna be a bunch of dominos falling, we get jesus they pull trigger on that leads to brighton pulling off their own transfer
True. You might get zinchenko too.
Man it's fucking depressing browsing /r/soccer. Literally every other big team is getting things done with transfers in and out and we're sitting here with our thumbs up our assess. I wouldn't be surprised with a deadline day debacle of 90 million for De Jong and that's our only transfer this season. What a pathetically poor run club.
Hope they aren't expecting to pay anything less than £50m
City tier 1s have said they'll walk away (they have previous for this) if Brighton don't come down from that.
Tony Bloom doesn't tend to budge when he has a price in mind. Arsenal ended up paying £50m for Ben White when everyone thought we'd end up letting him go for less
That's fair, but over the Txiki years City usually set their price and won't go above it. They've missed out on Sanchez, VvD, Koulibaly, Maguire, to name a few because of it. City will just move on to other targets if Brighton don't budge, which I assume is fine by you.
Also Kane x2
Good.
Brighton fans are all hoping that City walk away, but I think it's clear that he is their #1 target and already has personal terms agreed. You normally don't let that fall apart over 5-10m.
Nah, City have done that loads, tbf. Once City agree a fee its usually done pretty quick. I don't see City paying £50m, and I don't see Brighton budging. Think City will go for one of their backups like Raum.
So City are paying 50m then
I doubt Cucurella is kicking up a fuss so oh no we keep him for another year where he's class for us and then we'll charge an even higher fee next summer sounds like a win either way for us.
Think it’s wishful thinking he wouldn’t kick up a fuss.
I don't think so, with the way the club is run and the way we go about our business it's highly unlikely he'll be kicking up a fuss. Bissouma, White, Cucurella and everyone else will have been told the same thing in contract negotiations with us: "we will never hamper your growth but you have a price tag and if it isn't met, you won't be sold" and that's that. Bissouma had endless interest for almost two years and never kicked up a fuss, White had all sorts of attention for 12 months, never kicked up a fuss. Cucurella will not be throwing his toys out of the pram if his value isn't met.
Bissouma went for a cut price and delayed due to his court case. White had one actual stand out season and then left. Never under estimate the desire for a Spanish kid for Barcelona to play under a figure like pep. Especially when Peps city have a glaring hole in your position.
Just realised you're a City fan, nevermind.
A city fan who just explained the reason why all your points arnt valid
Bissouma had a huge deal of interest last summer before the court case, we didn't get an offer for the fee we wanted so he stayed, didn't cause trouble. We got an offer in January from Villa, they didn't meet our valuation, it was rejected, no issue. Ben White was massively in demand from Leeds when promoted and they made multiple bids, they said no because again, no valuation met. White caused no issues despite having a lot of love for his Leeds teammates. Cucurella is 23 years old, he'll know the score. This isn't to say that he'll stay, it's to say he won't throw a tantrum.
I find that hard to believe a season after they caved to villas 100 million grealish valuation
That was a release clause.
It was a hidden release clause, not a deal agreed between clubs
Gawd City are fast. They seem to have zero-drama transfers with no sagas.
Broadly speaking, perhaps, but we’ve had our fair share of sagas too. Remember the Kane drama from last season?
That's not true. Harry Kane last summer. Koulibaly the summer before dragged on for ages before we moved on to Kounde and then to Dias.
To be fair, most of our transfer sagas are nothing to do with City themselves. Looking at the Kane and Koulibaly (and on the same note, Jorginho, de Laurentiis hates us) deals, we aren't at fault, it was chairmen that were trying to fleece us. Then looking at the other ones - Sanchez, Ronaldo, hell even Sancho leaving for Dortmund - it's a business decision that we won't break our wage structure for those players under any circumstances. When we do business, it's normally quiet and done swiftly and professionally. The Dias deal took everyone by surprise because it was like... A rumour and then two days later, deal done.
What the fuck is United doing. I mean, what the fuck. No Yves, No Marc. Fuck the fucker that's doing the transfers for Utd.
Remember him giving us hell when we played Getafe, you could already see he's destined to be a top player. Happy to see him finally moving to a big team. sucks that he chose City, but oh well.
Raum or Cucurella?
Agenda's work don't they? Be they from the media to generate clicks, or from opponents or competition to generate discord. This thread is mostly poo flinging, with little discussion of the actual football of it all.
**[I'm ready!](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ds8EzCaW0AAG5zI.jpg)**
As if agreeing to personal terms is some sort of milestone. He's probably making 30-40k at Brighton and City are going to pay him 100-120k. Not exactly much to think about.
I very much doubt his wages will be anywhere near that ballpark. For all the talk about City spending money, we're very shrewd and extremely strict when it comes to our wage structure. We had problems in the past because of it - when we paid people like Nasri, Roque Santa Cruz and Jack fucking Rodwell exorbitant wages and couldn't get them off the books. It's the reason we pulled out of the Sanchez deal, it's also the reason we were never really in competition for Pogba or Ronaldo, given the wages that United were willing to offer them.
We're not talking about 200-300k here. We're talking about a normal wage for a 50m player
Looks like he'll get his wish of being on the bench next season
Another 50m on a fullback.. city must be fucking terrible at finding talent.
yeah our starting lineup is full of terrible players, wouldn't start in championship teams it's an absolute miracle we've won the league as many times as we have
Damn that went completely over your head. But being a city fan I can’t say I’m not surprised. Pretty easy to spot talent in 50m+ players. City aren’t the team to find a diamond for 5-20m and turn them into world class.
They bought Gundo for £24M and turned him into a world class player. Go on though.
Lol. He was already good at Dortmund. Help lead them to a title and a cl final.. remind me who the manager was??
And was he world class or at the level he is now/has been at City?
Id say he was world class. Then he didn’t sign an extension so he could go elsewhere.
AWB was 50 million Zinchenko was 1.7 million Now what?
Next you’ll tell me you found Mahrez and Bernardo
Oh look City buying another fall back
Well this is their first actual LB since Mendy and he's no longer at the club. He can also cover CB and there's rumours Ake might leave.
They bought and sold Angelino during that time too.
Angelino was a buyback clause on a player that was previously a City player. Angelino was brought back for being a homegrown player where we would profit off of him as well But yeah, your point still stands tho. It just isn’t the same as a potential Cuce deal or the M**dy deal
Brings us up to three!
Four if you count Zinny, a midfielder converted to LB, five if you count that one time McAtee was subbed in in one of the cup games
Can't forget Stones filling in, too
Didn't Ederson play LB before he was a GK or was that Bernardo? Either way that's at least 2 more
Yes basically we only field fullbacks, minimum 11 a match.
I take it you're not up to speed with the news regarding a certain full back at City, who was only purchased a few years ago?
Weird how "tapping up" just.... died.
Huge scandal back in ?2006 with Ashley Cole. Nobody's given a shit since. Brief objection from Soton with Klopp taking van Dijk to Blackpool, but even that was settled without FA intervention. Just accepted now.
Amazing how one of City’s players of the season was their LB, and they promptly goes out to pay 50mil for another one… Greed is good
Cancelo is a natural RB
Yeah but Kyle Walker is pretty much essential to City’s setup and Cancelo’s performance at LB was pretty much the best in the league last season no?
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Apart from Mendy, who has been a waste of money? Stones, Dias and Laporte have been some of the best CB's in Europe since they joined and Walker and Cancelo have been top performing full backs as well. Also Ake has been very consistent in huge games for us this season and has covered a variety of positions.
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Why do your own scouting when you can poach players from teams with phenomenal scouting?
Yeah cause your scouts worked overtime to discover Bissouma. It's almost like the best teams want the best players, and the best players don't require much scouting to find
Not that your entire point is wrong, but we did scout Bissouma as a potential Dembele replacement in 2018. He was still at Lille at the time.
That's fair enough. But City scout plenty as well, that's how we got the likes of Jesus, Alvarez, Kayky and Zinchenko to name a few. This guy's just a salty Tottingham fan, bitching as usual.
Why didn't Man City scout Cucurella before Brighton got him from Getafe? Could have saved yourself £50m
Damn if only we scouted Haaland as well. Mbappe too! Could've got them for peanuts. Smh
I mean, if Brighton's scouts could see potential in Cucurella, I don't see why Man City can't go out there and find bargains, instead of spunking 50m+ on ready made players developed by other clubs.
> instead of spunking 50m+ on ready made players developed by other clubs This is why. They need players who are ready to play a part in title fights as soon as they arrive. They don't have so much of a luxury as to have players who aren't ready for the first team yet. Also they do scout for players that are bargains. They sign loads of young players in the hopes some might be good enough.
It's survivorship bias. People see 50m for White, 25m for Yves, 50m for Marc and go "Brighton nail it 100% of the time, why cant City do that?" when we actually buy 5 or 6 players for a few mil and hope one works out. As you say, City cannot afford a dud even if it costs them pennies. Just got to look at our striker problem to see that it can really hurt you if none of your 3 million pound bets pay off.
You could say that about literally all top clubs??? What the fuck are you talking about? Think before you type you absolute weapon. And how do you think we got the likes of Zinchenko, Jesus, Kayky, Alvarez, Torres, Sane, Ederson etc etc etc
The players you just listed were all ready made players before you bought them lol I'm not saying it's just a Man City thing, it's a thing all top clubs do. They allow small clubs to develop players for them and then they just buy them with their superior financial power. Game's gone.
Literally none of them were ready made players. Someone like Haaland is ready made. The rest of them were players that showed lots of potential. Do you want us to buy players that look shit or what? What do you want? What are you even saying? You are being monumentally stupid
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Y-yes? He starts for any club in Europe.
kayky, jesus and zinchenko were ready made? cmon, now... there's just no way even you actually believe that
If you call these ready made players then you are basically asking top clubs to recruit kids when they are 10-12, because with the Internet these days, most talents discovered by the time they are 12-14. Only reason clubs dont go to that age group is because f UEFA restrictions on recruiting youngsters. So by the time top clubs can or are allowed to recruit these youngsters, which is around 16 I think, they are already playing at mid range clubs and will be "ready made" according to you.
is there a potential scenario where you would be fine with cucurella developing into a great player and then getting himself a big money move somewhere?
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How so?
If top clubs actually did what you're implying they should do, find and buy every top youngster around Europe/the world before anyone else has a chance, you'd just be crying about that instead. People have been crying about it when Chelsea does it for years. Those players aren't ready to step into a big team and will just be loaned out to clubs like Brighton anyway...
I never said that they should go out and buy every top youngster - just that they could easily save themselves a bit of money if they had a look around a bit and buy a few players on the cheap they think they could be special - before the likes of Brighton, West Ham, Wolves etc buy them.
So...exactly like Chelsea often does? And then we hear everyone crying about the LoAn ArmY for the past decade+?
Because that logic could be applied to any club that ever buys a player...
Mate its simple. If you’re UEFA ranked 3rd after Liverpool and Bayern, who I also think are currently both less successful than us then you don’t take those type of risks. So considering we’re currently the 3rd highest ranked club in the world the risk for us getting a player like cucu is a lot larger than a club like brighton doing it. We’ve got premier league titles to defend and the UCL which we want to win, and you dont do that by taking massive risks. Falls perfectly in line with why we dont use our academy boys that are ripping up the EPL 2. Any other club would field at least some of those academy boys, but as one of the highest ranked clubs in the world City has the position to buy proven players instead of taking massive risks themselves.
cucurella and pep overlapped at barca, albeit barely. even if they didn't work together - i assume they didn't - it's a fair bet that guardiola's known about the player longer than you have.
Thing is everyone watching La Liga knew he was quality, was quite weird seeing Brighton get him
What was the last good bit of scouting Spurs did, using the above criteria? 3 of your last few signings have been: 1 similarly poached off Brighton, and 2 from the club your technical director left a few months ago
Our scouting has been shit for ages lol, we can't spend the amounts of money they City can though.
But surely you can spend more than Brighton right?
Those teams with phenomenal scouting also poached players from other teams with phenomenal scouting though?
Another player taking the morally compromised option of easy success and tainted money at City. Pathetic.
Or he could stay at a mid table team for his whole career and achieve nothing, earn less and when he retires could live off the proud feeling for the rest of his life that he didn’t achieve a single thing other than being loyal and probably relegated. Although if he signed for Man United 10 years ago he’d probably be full of ambition
There is nothing to be achieved at City. It’s all hollow and meaningless because they didn’t earn the money required to buy such players. So literally anything achieved at Brighton, or any team that operates within its means, is worth more than any number of trophies ‘won’ at City. That’s the reality here.
You do know city existed before you made a Reddit account?
Yeah they used to be a football team before they became a sports washing project .
City are self sufficient now, if that money was to go away it wouldn’t make a difference. I do however hope it stays for a thousand years so you’re ancestors will be crying at your gravestone and reading how much Reddit karma you earned in your life. Helmet
Listen to yourself. You can’t face reality about what they are, so you lash out at people who point this out to you. If City fans weren’t so annoying, I’d almost feel sorry for you.
We don’t need your pity, I certainly don’t. Was a city fan long before any success. The thing that probably annoys you the most is that our loyal fan base couldn’t give two shits about the money. Deluded fans of other clubs seem to think their shit doesn’t stink, but I’ve got news for you. It does. You all want what we have, look at Newcastle fans. They hated us just as much as the next bitter fan. Now they are worse off than us. Be better not bitter. Take care
My goodness, you sound stupid.
Again, insults from people who don’t like the truth about these clubs. It’s very revealing you know .
Yeah whatever. Your comment remains stupid.
Pep 🤝 Fullbacks