WilliamPS

I do think this week will see a change in the club - moving from planning to acting By now they’ll have sounded out the players and clubs via agents and know which ones are runners and a rough price on fees and wages. A few of the deals already done we’re free transfers or release clauses - which are always going to happen faster as there are fewer bits to agree

Bad miss from Foden, but City starting to play like City (Nice play but he’s got to finish that in a CL final)

Came in sort of wanting City to win but flipping Inter working hard

I know the club want a RCB, I just think the hierarchy will rightly view it as one that can wait, too many other priorities

Lascelles leaving would mean another CB would have to be bought, and probably for a lot more than the fee Lascelles would command, so it would have a negative impact on the other moves i think it’s one for next year

the club will look to line up signings in each of the priority positions within a set budget, so we might hear nothing then 3 announcements at once. different players will get linked as the club test the valuations and salary demands to see if the jigsaw pieces fit. Names like maddison will come and go as the other positions get narrowed down, then when it’s settled I expect the deals to be done en masse

It’s clear none of the journos know which players the club want, but everyone knows what positions

Wonder how Ronaldo feels, stuck in the desert and hiker Messi is in Miami. Ronaldo has all the money he needs, and Messi might get a load of extra US endorsements to close the financial gap anyway

Edwards list might make sense if it was just Howe, who I think leans more toward PL experience - but not really believable given there will be a transfer committee. Also saying they want value but will only shop in UK, the most expensive market?

A change of ownership likely triggers all the debt being due, and would make more sense for the Qataris to pay it off than to borrow again and pay interest when they have cash But if the takeover and debt clearing lets them spray cash everywhere is yet another pisstake of the ‘fair’ in FFP

Yeah - can’t see why else he’d post that A shame Also don’t think it helps the club in the transfer market as he will need replacing

But then you have to replace ASM as well, probably at the same cost, so it doesn’t really create any extra funds If there are other reasons fair enough, but I don’t see the club being willing sellers of anyone who would actually attract a fee as they would just need replacing

The joy of selling to Real Madrid is they love overpaying I think they like overpaying so the President can go to the fans with how much they’ve spent

It will be the last chance given Kanes only got a year left on his contract, and even he won’t be daft enough to sign a new one

Yes, would have liked him. with Poch there’s a risk they may actually know what they are doing this time round

The treble bit is quite a domestic thing, and particularly big for Man Utd fans For City’s owners, Pep and the players they won’t give a stuff about 99 and Man Utd. The CL for them is the big one, dwarfing everything else as the whole project was about European dominance and they have never won a CL. The owners want that medal, the players do, and Pep wants to show he can win without Messi, Xavi, Iniesta et al Clearly City want to win the cup, like they’d want to win every cup, but I think the treble is more of a deal for the City (local) fan base and for Man Utd

Suspect LB is not the priority, midfield is, so the approach will be to get the midfielder deal(s) done and then have a look at what budget is left before making any LB moves Might be wrong, but at LB there’s no rush

Links that are based on scouts watching games are so tenuous- especially now the club has started to build a big scouting network. Newcastle scouts will probably be watching tens of games a week and hundreds of players. You could link whole leagues of players based on scouts watching their games Not like when it was just Graham Carr shopping in France…

Schar would be genuinely terrible in midfield, he is a CB and has nowhere near the mobility CM requires.

Ten Hag is worried about getting a pasting from Man City tomorrow and getting the excuses in early He knows Man Utd’s fan base lap up anything critical of the Glazers so he’s sticking any defeat at their door. He’s also trying to set expectations with any new owners that he wants another £200m+ to spend

I like Jose more and more now I never watch his teams, and only see his press clips. If he ever turns to international football he’ll win the World Cup with the worst team ever to win it.

Talk of Benzema to Saudi. Would Real go for Kane in that circumstance? Or would they look elsewhere? Spurs will be keen for Kane not to end up at Man Utd so I imagine they’d be happy sellers.

If people want 4+ players then that means bringing in players at different ability levels. Gallagher is a good player, comfortable in the PL. £40m is too much but for the right price (£25m) he would be a great addition. Also people need to move past thinking about 11 players what a starting line up is and think in terms of the 16-18 player squad who rotate through the season. If you look at City and Liverpool in previous seasons the team is never static, that doesn’t work with PL plus Europe. Arsenal tried it this season and burnt out by the end

It looked more like a boy band concert than a football match, with all the phones and lighters in the air - glad it didn’t happen at SJP, embarrassing!

£53m for Ugarte - worth a rival bid at that price?