If Rodwell's form holds up....

If Rodders stays injury free and as good as yesterday, how would you line up next season???

Hart
Zabba, Kompany, Nasty, Baines
Rodwell, Yaya, Silva
Aguero, Cavanni, Bale

Is Fellaini on the bench?

Well, I did think about Fellaini. Then I thought if Rodders stays fit and good, do we really need Fellaini? Granted Fellaini is currently better but that's another £25M to spend.

I'm still not sure about Cavanni myself, just on the simple fact we'd probably have to pay the £54 buy out clause to get him. Now if this price was let's say £25m lower, then i probably wouldn't have a problem with him coming, but we'd be gambling on someone who's no PL experience whatsoever.

I'd love Bale to be at City next season but i just can't see it, if the Spuds can ride out the next 6 games and still be 3rd/4th, they'll more than likely get a CL place......meaning he won't move.
Fellaini or Rodwell eh, i guess as stated we need to see how Rodwell goes for the remainder of the season, if he stays injury free then Fellaini imo isn't needed. However, another thing that concerns me about Rodwell is his lack of goals, he's only scored 9 goals in 132 games...not the best strike ratio for a CM i think you'll agree.

I personally think if Mancini's still here at the end of the season, we'll more than likely have an influx of foreign players joining, whether that proves to be a good move only time will tell.

I can't see Golum selling both Baines and Fellaini to a rival PL club, especially as we have already taken Rodwell and Lescott off them. Can you imagine what the 606 City page would be like if that happened? Bitter toffee fans would be all over it like they were after the Lescott deal.

I think we could get Cavanni for less than the buy-out clause i can't see them turning down a £40m + offer if we play hardball and make sure they know that we are not going to be an open cheque book.

£40m still seems ridiculous for me. I wouldn't rate Cavanni much higher than Aguero and we paid £34m for him.

I can see Lescott being used as a makeweight in a deal for Fellaini. Baines is a good player but i don't think left back is a position we are struggling to fill.

skyblueoz wrote:I can see Lescott being used as a makeweight in a deal for Fellaini. Baines is a good player but i don't think left back is a position we are struggling to fill.

I agree. Clichy is good enough and Kolarov, despite being useless, is a pretty decent backup option. And when Richards is back we can always shift Zaba over to left.

I rate Fellani, but will he be a starter? Or back-up for Yaya? If the latter, then he'll never get a game.

The Spuds have a well tough run in. Their next games are Arsenal, Milan home & away and Liverpool away. They also have to play us & Chelski

Can see them just missing out again LOL and Bale surely will be on his way.
Probably not to us tho. Real will pay the £50m+ to get him, we wont

As for Fellaini he is too much like Yaya so can't see the need to get him

Wilshere is the one I think we should be gunning for (scuse the pun)

I think with the number of games we are playing in a season now squad numbers are crucial and all players get enough game time bar Pantilimon. i think Fellaini would be a good option as a holding midfielder / attacking midfielder or even a makeshift striker. Versatility is the key with Fellaini.

ManCityMan wrote:I can't see Golum selling both Baines and Fellaini to a rival PL club

I can when he is our manager !!

Seriously if Bobby does go I really do think he is top of the list.

TMG wrote:As for Fellaini he is too much like Yaya so can't see the need to get him

No he isn't! They're nothing alike! Fellaini has more hair for a starter, and Yaya is much taller...

But to be a lot more serious, Fellaini is quicker in attack, he runs more and he's much less likely to be knackered after 70 minutes. Also, he has the big advantage of not buggering off to Africa every January. On the downside, he's prone to aggressive and dirty challenges, so we might find we lose him at other times instead. Oh, and he's got no CL experience, to my knowledge.

I think we can find room for him. Yaya works better against teams that play a technical game, whereas Fellaini will be more effective against teams that press harder. Of course, the key issue is whether we can get him or not.

TMG wrote:The Spuds have a well tough run in. Their next games are Arsenal, Milan home & away and Liverpool away. They also have to play us & Chelski

Can see them just missing out again LOL and Bale surely will be on his way.
Probably not to us tho. Real will pay the £50m+ to get him, we wont

As for Fellaini he is too much like Yaya so can't see the need to get him

Wilshere is the one I think we should be gunning for (scuse the pun)

Interesting.............I see someone quote Cavanni at £50m.
You've mentioned 2 players above - Bale and Wilshere.
Ask yourself....IF, we were going to spend £50m on a player, out of those 3, which would you spend £50m on to improve our team?
Only one answer IMO....Gareth Bale.
If we are even remotely looking at spending anything near £50m on one player...in the world right now, in the £50m bracket, there are only probably 3 players around that figure that may be an option:
Bale
Ronaldo
Ibrahimovich

Age wise.....for me, it's still Bale for that money and what we are missing, as Ronaldo wouldn't come to us and Ibra is a striker.
Obviously, some will quote Messi, Iniesta, Xavi etc etc....but you wouldn't get them players if Barca were to sell for anything less than £100m IMO in this market.
I'd love Bale....goals from MF, youth, energy, defensive qualities...and think about it, if we splashed £50m on him now....in 4 years time he could be worth double that in the future climate........at 28/29.....it's an absolute no brainer for me.....Bale at all costs.
If we can replace Mario, fair enough....but I would much rather having Bale in our team and keeping our current 3 strikers than spend stupid money on another striker - and in that, probably get rid of Dzeko as well.

I wouldn't worry about Fellaini's aggressiveness as I think he'd get more protection from refs playing for city. He does take a battering at times then dishes it out when he gets frustrated.

Levy @ Spurs would be a prize Tw*t for sure, he'd make it nigh on impossible for us to sign him and play stubborn, quoting us £60m or something stupid!!! he wouldn't want to sell to another Prem team, I'd rather try to deal with my 3 yearold having a strop in public than to deal with Levy, "that bloke a nutter!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmT2sJAWFSs

I think we'd have to offer Nasri plus something, or look overseas, the signing of Michu, Fellani etc.. proves you can still get good players without breaking the bank.
I'm sure our Spanish duo have been working hard behind the scenes already, and feel confident they can come up with a couple of gems in the summer

Sadly i agree with Bewar3. I can't see the Spuds selling Bale to us, unless they screw us big time.....although throwing um Nasri's a good shout.

Would Bale want to come anyway???

Has Mancini got him in his thoughts??.....probably not, as he'd prefer someone from overseas.

I also agree with Blueboy, get Bale at all costs......that's who we should be targeting, a tried and tested PL player that can win a game on his own.

http://www.express.co.uk/sport/football/380549/Real-Madrid-will-start-bidding-for-Tottenham-star-Gareth-Bale-at-70m

This might be a bit too much to fork out though

Although this may not :

http://www.dailystar.co.uk/posts/view/300955/Real-Madrid-plot-Gareth-Bale-bid/

Two papers that I wouldn't believe anyway.

The moment to strike may have passed us by. Bale was good last season and the summer may have been the time to get him for maybe £40M instead of the shite we did get (ok, not all of them were crap).

Now I reckon Madrid, Barca, Utd, City and Levy will push his price higher and higher especially if he keeps delivering until the end of the season.

£70M sounds a bit steep, but he is still young, Levy will play hardball and all the above clubs would benefit from having him in their squads.

Why are we fretting about breaching the FFP rules while RM and other top European clubs are throwing daft money about with impunity? Why are they not bothered about FFP? Surely their income does not cover the several players they buy every year at crazy, money is no object prices?

We're bothered by it because the rules seem specifically geared to pick on unique way in which we're funded. See, you can borrow money from the bank against the perceived value of the club, but you can't borrow from the owner. The owner can find someone they know personally who runs a sports chain, insurance company, airline or energy provider to sponsor the club, provided they aren't actually related. The club can even tap their local Government for money, or use another Government through a specialised organisation (such as the Qatar Foundation) as long as the head of state isn't the owner's dad. And now, with this improved TV deal, you can't use more than a percentage of it to pay player wages.

We know that the elite clubs from the G14, the ones that wanted the Super League and were given the CL as a sweetener, will always be handed loopholes they can slip through. But we're not in that elite and, until we are, we're always going to need to watch our backs.

Yes, granted, PSG aren't in that elite, but with Pratini at the helm, that won't be an issue. Anzhi Makhachkala aren't in that elite either, but seeing as Suleyman Kerimov is a major investor in Gazprom (the same one that sponsors the CL), I can't see they'd have much of a problem either.

I think, if we're going to dodge round these rules, we need our owners to find another wealthy cousin to sponsor the CL match balls or something, and then we'll be as immune as everyone else seems to be.

Surely if you have thought about how to dodge around the rules Leo - then the powers at City have also - so I guess we'll have to wait and see. By the way I was only teasing you about your scores the other day - but not about the sheep droppings.

Maybe Etihad will buy the Stade de France and push for the 2015 CL final to be played there?

I think that with the players who will be available in the summer,Bale is the one we could do with.He is a proven PL payer and has loads of potential,and as previously stated,if we are going to spend big money we should go for him.It seems that Real Madrid are in discussions for him at 40mill.We should also go for Suarez

I reckon the we can get two big name players with the money we have available including the income from departing players. It looks more unlikely that we'll get Bale with Arsenal and Chelsea's form probably menaing that Spuds get the champs league footy that will keep him at WHL.

I still want a top top striker (Cavanni or Falcao though Falcao looks unlikely) and a top top winger.