2 hours ago, Oli said:

We are taking Citys fringe players and they will replace them with younger better players. Sterling was still a good buy, but they will use the ake money to buy a much better defender whilst getting rid of one they didnt even want for a huge sum. If we thought the gap was big as it was, its only going to get bigger.

It really depends on who we genuinely want to sign though. If we have no interest in Kounde at this point, then the potential bid for Ake is unrelated. I assume our first choice CB is De Ligt but not sure who our fall back is if we don't get him. At one time that seemed to be Kounde but our interest in him seems to have decreased in recent weeks.

Still dont get why we after him, if he's a starter, then we kind stuffed as he couldn't even make to City bench if they had a full team. If he's a squad player, you'd think we go someone either younger or cheaper. Sterling signing makes a lot of sense, Ake is still a confusing one. Maybe he's in the cover both central and left back, but again you rather sign a specialist than a jack of 2 trades.

1 hour ago, icecoolguy22 said:

Still dont get why we after him, if he's a starter, then we kind stuffed as he couldn't even make to City bench if they had a full team. If he's a squad player, you'd think we go someone either younger or cheaper. Sterling signing makes a lot of sense, Ake is still a confusing one. Maybe he's in the cover both central and left back, but again you rather sign a specialist than a jack of 2 trades.

Most of us seem to be of this same opinion. I guess we can draw comfort from the fact that Rudiger was one foot out the door with a return to Italy looming until TT came on. 

Back then you would be hard pressed to find anyone who rated the then 27 year old Toni ad a starter for the club nevermind top class CB. So maybe TT believe he can do for Ake what he did for Toni.

I mean we would all prefer if we could get him for a cheaper price and don't feel he is value for that money, but it appears the club and specifically TT does.

Who knows maybe he turns Ake in to a top class defensive midfielder so we don't end spending 150mill on Rice and Levi Colwill fulfills the promise a few of us have seen on believe him to be our next Reece James level player.

Kounde is not in the same conversation as Ake, as this is all about signing a LEFT centre back ... which Kounde isn't. 

For left centre back, the short list might be something along the lines of Ake, Koulibaly, Gvardiol, (Colwill).

For right centre back we clearly favour De Ligt. Kounde probably the Plan B, but I still think he is too short, especially if the other two at the back are going to be Silva and Ake, also both short.

I wonder if we are considering some other "stealth" options that haven't been speculated on yet ?

I'm more positive about Ake signing than a lot of others. When he did get game time for City he played well, he is 27 which is ballpark a peak age for a defender, he won't come up with the risk of being a player who isn't used to the English league and he is versatile. Not saying he is the love child of Baresi and Maldini but I would certainly say he is less of a gamble than Kounde.

I don't think we should have even sold him in the first place but I can understand it if he himself wanted to leave. He was clearly a very talented player when he was here and has shown that in his spells with Bournemouth and City. 

I'm would be delighted if we got him back personally but he can't be the only defender we sign this window. 

1 hour ago, loz said:

I'm more positive about Ake signing than a lot of others. When he did get game time for City he played well, he is 27 which is ballpark a peak age for a defender, he won't come up with the risk of being a player who isn't used to the English league and he is versatile. Not saying he is the love child of Baresi and Maldini but I would certainly say he is less of a gamble than Kounde.

This is pretty much how I feel as well. He's not the glamorous hollywood signing that everyone wants us to make but he is reliable and will more often than not give you a 7 out of 10 performance.

The way I view it is Ake will likely replace Christensen's place in the squad (Both dependable defenders who more often than not will play well, but never in that 'world class' bracket). And if we sign another centre back, that they will be replacing Rudi's place in the squad. 

10 minutes ago, drjonesy1994 said:

This is pretty much how I feel as well. He's not the glamorous hollywood signing that everyone wants us to make but he is reliable and will more often than not give you a 7 out of 10 performance.

The way I view it is Ake will likely replace Christensen's place in the squad (Both dependable defenders who more often than not will play well, but never in that 'world class' bracket). And if we sign another centre back, that they will be replacing Rudi's place in the squad. 

The issue that paints the Ake transfer in a certain way is imho that we pay top dollar for a 7/10 backup CB who isn't really needed at City while also eventually standing at the sideline watching them signing a top CB as replacement on top of that. Might not happen but that's the picture many imagine - myself included.

But I agree that Ake is a decent to good Christensen replacement and a huge upgrade over last season's Christensen who seemed totally unreliable. Nothing worse than having to improvise due long term injuries or suspensions just to lose out on your CB 1-2 hours before the match starts.

The transfer window looks kinda grim, started already very frustrating with the whole Lukaku debacle, but signing Sterling and Ake is good business after all. They should work from the get go one would think which is important and also fit into the squad with their personalities.

34 minutes ago, weetee said:

The issue that paints the Ake transfer in a certain way is imho that we pay top dollar for a 7/10 backup CB who isn't really needed at City while also eventually standing at the sideline watching them signing a top CB as replacement on top of that. Might not happen but that's the picture many imagine - myself included.

But I agree that Ake is a decent to good Christensen replacement and a huge upgrade over last season's Christensen who seemed totally unreliable. Nothing worse than having to improvise due long term injuries or suspensions just to lose out on your CB 1-2 hours before the match starts.

The transfer window looks kinda grim, started already very frustrating with the whole Lukaku debacle, but signing Sterling and Ake is good business after all. They should work from the get go one would think which is important and also fit into the squad with their personalities.

I think the issue is we will be paying over the top for any centre back this summer, because every club knows how desperate we are to sign good centre backs. I know plenty on here are keen for Colwill to be used instead of Ake but I think that is a risk in itself. Yes he was excellent for Huddersfield last season but the step up from Championship playoff contender to potential title contenders is huge. I know Mount and James managed but that was at a time where there was relatively little pressure on the squad to succeed due to the circumstances (Transfer Ban, Lamps taking over etc). Only takes Colwill making one or two key mistakes and people on here, on twitter would start moaning about him.

I think Colwill could do with a premier league loan for a year or two, and then step up into our squad. In my opinion Ake is not a bad alternative to have in the meantime. 

 

23 hours ago, Bob stark said:

I don't think our problem is the like of Ampadu. It is this

That is just crazy miss rate. 

The only one that I can say is pretty spot on is Chilwell and maybe kova (for 40 m). 

Kai is very good but not a 80m player, Jorgi has been our starting dm for years, but he is more like a 25 m player than a 50 m. Heck, Lamp benched him in his 2nd season. 

The rest are just a mess

 

 

Yeah and look what happened 

Aké is a good choice if we still buy 2 defenders 

17 hours ago, HazardousChoice said:

Half of the players you mentioned are right backs....

But i agree with the post you replied to, Chilwell is incredibly overated.  He's nothing special and wasn't even before his injury.

He's solid, decent and certainly not an issue.

But he's not an Ashley Cole level player and never will be and I don't see him as having the position locked down for the next decade like Reece James does.

Hakimi broke through the Dortmund ranks as a left back. He was even called the best leftback in the Bundesliga during his time there. The best fullbacks tend to be very versatile see Lahm/Bale/Azpi etc. 

If Chilwell was overrated, why was he sorely missed throughout last season? There isn't anyone outside of those I mentioned that brings the quality a fit Chilwell brings to the team. 

50 minutes ago, drjonesy1994 said:

I think the issue is we will be paying over the top for any centre back this summer, because every club knows how desperate we are to sign good centre backs. I know plenty on here are keen for Colwill to be used instead of Ake but I think that is a risk in itself. Yes he was excellent for Huddersfield last season but the step up from Championship playoff contender to potential title contenders is huge. I know Mount and James managed but that was at a time where there was relatively little pressure on the squad to succeed due to the circumstances (Transfer Ban, Lamps taking over etc). Only takes Colwill making one or two key mistakes and people on here, on twitter would start moaning about him.

I think Colwill could do with a premier league loan for a year or two, and then step up into our squad. In my opinion Ake is not a bad alternative to have in the meantime. 

 

Sure, us needing not one but realistically two top CB makes us pay top dollar. No question. If we keep the 343 while also losing Azpi and Alonso without signing proper replacements I'd argue we defo should keep Colwill as Ake will have to cover multiple positions. We also can't assume that Thiago can play as many games as he did last season. On top of that we still need a Rüdiger replacement (not regarding position but impact on the field) which Ake isn't in my eyes.

7 hours ago, icecoolguy22 said:

Still dont get why we after him, if he's a starter, then we kind stuffed as he couldn't even make to City bench if they had a full team. If he's a squad player, you'd think we go someone either younger or cheaper. Sterling signing makes a lot of sense, Ake is still a confusing one. Maybe he's in the cover both central and left back, but again you rather sign a specialist than a jack of 2 trades.

We've already got Chalobah, are (hopefully) going to commit to Colwill and probably won't give up on MDL until he's officially signed for Bayern. All of them are of young age.

Need a balance somewhere.

The issue with Ake is the price. 40 million quid for a bench warmer. 40 million quid to be given to Citeh. I think I'd rather take my chances with Ethan Ampadu [21] rather than that kind of money on Ake.  Ake at 10 million quid sure.  Yes, it is not our money, but there is something about FORTY million pounds for Ake, that is not wholesome for a lot of Chels fans.

£34m for K2.  Kalidou Koulibaly, 31.

 

8 minutes ago, TheCeleryKing said:

The issue with Ake is the price. 40 million quid for a bench warmer. 40 million quid to be given to Citeh. I think I'd rather take my chances with Ethan Ampadu [21] rather than that kind of money on Ake.  Ake at 10 million quid sure.  Yes, it is not our money, but there is something about FORTY million pounds for Ake, that is not wholesome for a lot of Chels fans.

£34m for K2.  Kalidou Koulibaly, 31.

 

City gives us their bench warmer for £40m and use it to buy a top notch defender. No doesn't make sense!

2 hours ago, weetee said:

The issue that paints the Ake transfer in a certain way is imho that we pay top dollar for a 7/10 backup CB who isn't really needed at City while also eventually standing at the sideline watching them signing a top CB as replacement on top of that. Might not happen but that's the picture many imagine - myself included.

But I agree that Ake is a decent to good Christensen replacement and a huge upgrade over last season's Christensen who seemed totally unreliable. Nothing worse than having to improvise due long term injuries or suspensions just to lose out on your CB 1-2 hours before the match starts.

The transfer window looks kinda grim, started already very frustrating with the whole Lukaku debacle, but signing Sterling and Ake is good business after all. They should work from the get go one would think which is important and also fit into the squad with their personalities.

I would wait & see how they performed first before calling either Sterling or Ake good business. What is certain is we can’t afford Sterling on potentially £350k/w or Ake on £150k/w to be busts. I feel there is a Pep & Klopp premium attached to their players and they won’t replicate their performance/output out of their system. An audio recently came out of Laporta calling both Pep & Tkixi bastards for selling Barca Ferran Torres & Eric Garcia who he feels are busts.

The transfer window only looks grim if you are after a FW or RW. There are loads of options available on the market if you are after other positions. I don’t think signing City’s 4th choice CB at the price City paid, increasing his wages & potentially paying him what City are paying their first choice CBs is smart business. We are better off signing a first choice CB from teams under the top 6 or looking in Europe. Bremer from Torino is better than Ake, available for a fraction of the fee, and earns around a 3rd of what Ake earns. Even if you treble his wages, he will be earning what Ake currently earns at City. Newcastle also signed Botman who is highly rated for a fraction of Ake’s fees, are paying him 600% his wages at Lille which will put him on par with Ake’s current £90k/w wages.

Ake would be a great signing if it was on top of a Kounde or de Ligt.  Still, even if we do get him I think that won't mean we won't pursue another defender.  Blind Freddy can see we need a defensive overhaul and Ake alone is quite clearly not going to fix that but Ake on top of a real world class defender suddenly gives us a decent amount of depth at the back.  We shouldn't enter panic mode just yet when our main targets are still on the table.

Edited July 11, 20224 yr by Michael

I'll give my (City fan) perspective.

 

I don't really get why we would do this deal - we always get injuries at the back, and have consistently needed to use our back-up defenders fairly heavily through most seasons. Ake played well for us last season, he's fast, OK on the ball, can cover both LCB and LB and counts as home grown I believe. If we sell him, we just need to go and find another equivocal player to fill that role with who knows what results, we already know what we have with Ake and he's a good player. My only real gripe with him is that he seemed injured just as much as our other defenders even whilst only playing half as many games.

 

As sad as it is to see Jesus/Sterling leave, their sales made sense as we were going to lose them for nothing next season. With Ake there is no rush to sell, and just causes us an unnecessary hunt for another back-up defender in a season where we are already making some big changes to our squad. So I for one am hoping we stay firm and keep him. 

34 minutes ago, ducavis said:

I would wait & see how they performed first before calling either Sterling or Ake good business. What is certain is we can’t afford Sterling on potentially £350k/w or Ake on £150k/w to be busts. I feel there is a Pep & Klopp premium attached to their players and they won’t replicate their performance/output out of their system. An audio recently came out of Laporta calling both Pep & Tkixi bastards for selling Barca Ferran Torres & Eric Garcia who he feels are busts.

The transfer window only looks grim if you are after a FW or RW. There are loads of options available on the market if you are after other positions. I don’t think signing City’s 4th choice CB at the price City paid, increasing his wages & potentially paying him what City are paying their first choice CBs is smart business. We are better off signing a first choice CB from teams under the top 6 or looking in Europe. Bremer from Torino is better than Ake, available for a fraction of the fee, and earns around a 3rd of what Ake earns. Even if you treble his wages, he will be earning what Ake currently earns at City. Newcastle also signed Botman who is highly rated for a fraction of Ake’s fees, are paying him 600% his wages at Lille which will put him on par with Ake’s current £90k/w wages.

Of course one has ultimately to wait and watch out for the real performances but Sterling is as PL proven as it gets. I'd argue you will hardly find an equivalent for significantly less money. My only issue / doubt with Sterling is that I see in him the (much much) better version of Pulisic..which struggles heavily to find a good spot in our tactical setup. Can Sterling do that due higher ceiling and more experience? If yes, it's a huge leap forward imho.

 

Laporta just makes himself look like a clown here. His very own scouting system should be able to tell him what and what not those players he's signing are capable of. And if that's too crazy a concept for him to understand he should ask himself why City wanted to sell those players. 😉  Ferran is a class player though.

 

 

There is also no guarantee that Koundé, Bremer, Koulibaly, Botman, De Ligt, Gvardiol et al do perform from the get go - and they cost a fortune as well. To bring in a versatile, experienced, PL proven player that is used to perform in a system with heavy ball possession (which clubs from under the top 6 play such a system?) at a time where everybody knows we're in dire need to sign not one but at least two top CBs isn't bad business in my book.

IMO whether we catch up to City a notch or not isn't really that much determined by Ake, who after all was their back-up last year, and by another CB that they might or might not bring in but whether Haaland works or not (or whether he is injured often or not), whether they also sell Bernardo or not and whether Grealish kicks in or not. Because from that perspective, if Haaland isn't really working out - at least in the first season - then selling Sterling who can almost guarantee you 15+ goals a season could be equally questioned. And it would have been good business by us as well.

 

But that's all very much conjecture anyway. Let's wait who still leaves our squad and who's brought in and then we got the whole picture. It's always been clear to me that this window will be incredibly hard because of the sanctions and then the late takeover with our higher ups all leaving the building. IMO, if this transfer window isn't a disaster and halfway decent it's almost a win for me within this context. As frustrating as it is.

Edited July 11, 20224 yr by weetee

3 hours ago, Stable said:

I'll give my (City fan) perspective.

 

I don't really get why we would do this deal - we always get injuries at the back, and have consistently needed to use our back-up defenders fairly heavily through most seasons. Ake played well for us last season, he's fast, OK on the ball, can cover both LCB and LB and counts as home grown I believe. If we sell him, we just need to go and find another equivocal player to fill that role with who knows what results, we already know what we have with Ake and he's a good player. My only real gripe with him is that he seemed injured just as much as our other defenders even whilst only playing half as many games.

 

As sad as it is to see Jesus/Sterling leave, their sales made sense as we were going to lose them for nothing next season. With Ake there is no rush to sell, and just causes us an unnecessary hunt for another back-up defender in a season where we are already making some big changes to our squad. So I for one am hoping we stay firm and keep him. 

There are some good defenders out there you could get to improve your first 11, and move Stones and Laporte to backups though.

Seems an Ideal opportunity for you to dump an injury prone back up for a good fee and either sign experience in Koulibaly, youthful yet experienced in De ligt or Kounde, potentially a big asset in Bremer or Gvardiol. Lots of good quality out there.

Edited July 11, 20224 yr by axman2526

If City are looking at players like Gvardiol to replace Ake. Why aren't we looking at him, instead of Ake?

5 minutes ago, Zeta said:

If City are looking at players like Gvardiol to replace Ake. Why aren't we looking at him, instead of Ake?

For the same reason Sterling will be a first choice here and is a backup and rotation option at City.

15 hours ago, Oli said:

We are taking Citys fringe players and they will replace them with younger better players. Sterling was still a good buy, but they will use the ake money to buy a much better defender whilst getting rid of one they didnt even want for a huge sum. If we thought the gap was big as it was, its only going to get bigger.

There's a reason why we haven't challenged for the league in half a decade whilst they have won 4 out of 5 titles and finished 2nd when they didn't. A decade of largely incoherent and wasteful transfer strategy won't transform in a few months.

1 minute ago, axman2526 said:

There are some good defenders out there you could get to improve your first 11, and move Stones and Laporte to backups though.

Seems an Ideal opportunity for you to dump an injury prone back up for a good fee and either sign experience in Koulibaly, youthful yet experienced in De ligt or Kounde, potentially a big asset in Bremer or Gvardiol. Lots of good quality out there.

This is the thing City supporters want to keep Ake because he's an ideal backup option.  He's a good player who's willing to sit on the bench, but not too good as to upset the first team.  Its not an easy position to fill, and he's perfect for the role.  We need a first team defender not a backup option that's why City supporters not wanting to lose Ake isn't necessarily an indication he's good enough to be starting for us.  I predict no Man City supporter would like Ake starting most games this season ahead of Dias and Laporte.  

If this does end up happening I just hope he will excel in a back 3.