Read that Edson Alvarez and Le Fee are on our radar. Alvarez as a more defensive-minded CM and Le Fee as the Bellingham replacement. Would love both here with the Bellingham money. Snap up Gundogan on a free and it would be one hell of a midfield we will have. Along with Jude we would probably have to offload Ozcan as well, but it won't be that big of a loss.
Hummels signs a 1-year extension. OFFICIAL: Mats Hummels signs a new 1-year-deal.#BVB pic.twitter.com/F1OHJRbByQ— BVB Newsblog (@bvbnewsblog) May 24, 2023
I wish we could go for Ngolo Kante. I'm sure he'll be wanted by many clubs but we can offer him the chance to be the player that takes us over the line, instead of him joining a club that's already winning without him. That would be part of my pitch to him, at least. We need this kind of experienced players in the midfield and defense.
Well the reason why is because Al-Ittihad just signed him for $100M/year until 2025 which is just absolutely mental!!
I sincerely hope Watzke steps down next year when his contract expires and is replaced by a more ambitious CEO.
The fee for Bellingham seems pretty low, although still better than the Haaland fee I guess. According to reports Birmingham get a 5% cut as well. Apparently there will be up to 30% extra in add-ons, so potentially another 30m or so.
103 million + 34 in possible add ons seems in the area of those 120+million that was regularly speculated about. No idea where the 150 came from but it's not that far away. The club also said they'll only able to reinvest two thirds of the transfer fees they get this summer. It would be nice if the youth teams could produce an outstanding talent for the first team. 3 of them just won the U17 Euro. Anyways, we need a good replacement and ideally a difference maker. I also don't think that Bellingham is ready for Madrid yet. Similarly to Pulisic, he should have waited at least another season to make this transfer. He still needs to mature and improve his decision making skills. He'll have even less time to think playing Madrid's style and they'll likely also be less patient, particularly if he thinks he'll get away with similar antics he showed for us, being disrespectful towards their seasoned club legends. I don't think it has been mentioned but Bensebaini transfer was made official earlier this week while Guerreiro is gone. Meh.
Agree with @hava about Bellingham. Ramy brings that toughness and edginess we need. Guerreiro.. sad he's leaving and I'll be very disappointed if he joins Bayern. @podrinje we can't compete with rich clubs. We can only present what we offer to these players. I am just hoping we get a talented AND experienced player, esp in the midfield. Gundogan would be perfect if he wants to come back of course. In terms of additions, I think the most important now is the Bellingham replacement midfielder and a RB. Sancho would be a much appreciated bonus IMO. For departures, I think Hazard, Meunier and Schultz must leave. I would also sell Gio and if Sancho happens and a veeeery good offer comes I would consider selling Malen. I'm really hoping next season is Jamie's breakout season.
Rumors I've heard going around about Gündogan: - Coach likes him, players like De Bruyne came out in support of an extension, Gündogan wants a 2 year contract but he's only offered a 1 year deal. His wages aren't that outrageous for PL standards. - He'd like to go to Barcelona but that seems in doubt due to their financial problems - Because of that, there seems to be a small window that he could join us. Personally, I think he'll stay in Manchester. Considering where ManCity is right now and the respect he has in the team, it would seem stupid for him to leave and it's stupid to not give him that one additional year. Unfortunately, Schulz will likely take another season with no playing time because of how much he makes just showing up to training. So much money wasted for someone who lost any ambition to play.
I'd imagine the club would love to terminate the contract but what's the incentive for Schulz? Depending on the source, Schulz makes 6-8 million and he might not even find a BL1 team that wants him.
Raphael Guerreiro looks set to go to Bayern. We are losing all our technical players who could have stepped up to a much higher level. Hummels and Reus don't have much left. Dahoud and Guerreiro gone. Moukoko having his career wasted. Kobel, Brandt, Suele, Schlotterbeck and Adeyemi are the only players over 18 who are good enough for a top 8 team in Europe. Looks like Raphael is off to Bayern, but can't blame him.
It is a giant Fuk U to the management of Dortmund that only offered him a 2 year contract. 7 years of loyalty down the drain. I hope they get Gundogan, but I have my reservations of him leaving Manchester City after the way he's been playing. Alvarez, not bad. Fresneda? Okay, don't know much about him. But to lose Dahoud and Guerreiro doesn't look good.
Another window in which we will get 100M for that standout player and we will ''reinvest'' in either young and inexperienced talents that we will look to sell in 3-4 years for around 100M, try to find average players for free and negotiate some almost established player like Alvarez. In other words - nothing new.
It's not like there's any other choice. All we can do is try to gradually improve the team and we have to make sure to not let Leipzig and Leverkusen overtake us. We are in a better position than most clubs but we are not one of the very few, maybe 5 destination clubs in the world with some of them being able to invest billions with barely any regard for having to act in a financially responsible manner. There's not much else to it.
If the choice is to reinvest into youngsters or "established" players like Meunier, hazard, and Schulz then I will take the former every day of the week. Meunier is on $10M wages, Hazard in $7M, and Schulz on $6M....clear those first.
Regarding the veterans, I think club management should start going after squad players from big clubs, as in guys who have a decent amount of minutes playing without being fundamental pieces of the team, but can still be useful to us, being familiar with the environment and mentality of big clubs being an obvious bonus. It's certainly better than signing mid-table veterans.
There's also the Italian club approach. Go for players who are past their prime but can still give a little and provide experience. The Italian clubs have in the past gone for some big names once they fell off the top from the biggest clubs. We don't have to do that, but I'm sure there's a middle ground. Also, we did get some good veterans like Hummels and Sule.
Can and Malen on the chopping block. Man, this club I really don't have a clue what the fuk they are doing!! Can was a stallwart in midfield. Current midfield selection for Dortmund... Brandt, Ozcan, and Can. Ozcan meh... Hmmm... let's see, I know. Let's sell our best defensive midfielder after we just let go of a Moe Dahoud!!! Have you seen some of the players that Brighton have picked up over the past few years. That Japanese guy, Caicedo, Kukarella, Macallister. Brighton actually have the best scouting team in all of European football. There is no contest. Care to guess where Mo Dahoud just went to... ??? Hey, while we're at it. Let's just sell a guy that scored 9 goals and 7 assists in 26 games!!! Maybe Sancho on the cards, but does he even have it after all this time?? Genius I tell u. these b!tches from Harvard !!!
Can had a good last part of the season but it's not that he was outstanding overall and given that they want to sign two younger midfielders, it's not that outrageous to not plan long term with Can.
Well, so follow my thinking. 3 midfielders, Can, Ozcan, Brandt. You want to sign 2, and sell 1, so now you have 4? Even if you switch to a 4-2-3-1, that only leaves you with Ozcan and Can, because Brandt can not play there. And then you add 2, now you have 3 for a full season with Bundesliga. It's crazy. I have a theory with Can entering his golden years, in the sense that a lot of Can's earlier career has been characterized by lapses of judgement based on untempered impulsivities. It's my theory that as he gets into the later years of his career, that this becomes less of a problem, and we see an individual who perhaps isn't so rash, or driven by aggressive waywards. And that is a Can that can be very useful. It's nuts what they are doing! Let's see who they bring in with that Bellingham money, but I'm not holding my breath.