Excellent news. Frimpong and Kerkez look equally exciting for us fans and menacing for our opponents with their skills, pace and ability to move the ball upfield. And significantly the conversations have switched to excitement around incomings rather than disappointment about outgoings. Liverpool wasting no time this summer.
so that's five signings we probably still need a midfielder and potentially an attacker once Nunez goes. We do need a center back as well, but I'm not sure if there's anybody that we really like anymore now that the other dude went to Real
Agreed . If Kerkez gets done quickly and sounds like we're moving ahead on this one I expect things will get much more difficult when we target the rest ie striker ,cb and midf with plenty of competition from the usual clubs also seeking them.
I've read that we've been watching Araujo from Benfica , a cb who has been also playing at rb for them. Then we've been linked with young Hato the Dutch lad from Ajax cb/lb. Maybe we'll try for both because of Ibou. The Konate situation is threatening to throw a wrench into our plans methinks. Will we try to sell him or is he determined to walk away next year? I think Slot likes versatility in his players as Jurgen did too.
reports saying he did part of the medical yesterday and will finish it today. I get the official thing, not expecting that, but it seems pretty low-key reporting. maybe I'm just too anxious to see it confirmed.
I think it's sorted,Sam but what concerns me most is how the Kop will design a song that fits "Frimpong" into it?
🚨🔵 Manchester City have currently left the negotiations for Florian Wirtz.Talks were never advanced or at final stages, just initial approaches but City believe full package is too expensive, as @SamiMokbel_BBC reports.👀 Morgan Gibbs-White remains on Man City shortlist. pic.twitter.com/J90R5WPhOc— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) May 19, 2025
So City drop out of Wirtz race because it’s “too expensive” and “not worth it”. Are they framing it that way to save the embarrassment of losing out to Liverpool? Also, too expensive is bad news for Bayern who didn’t want to meet Leverkusen’s evaluation.
If nothing else, it rules out the worst case scenario which was Wirtz going to City. I’m getting very excited that Liverpool might actually pull it off.
I wonder if it’s not more Wirtz left City at the altar? City cannot guarantee that they’ll be in the PL next season. Sure, they’ll probably be, but anyone going to City these days will want to insert a clause that if City get sent to the naughty step, the contract becomes void and they owe the player eleventy billion. If I were an agent, that’s what I’d be doing. Suspect this will be the way of the world until there’s clarity.
I always make Bayern the favourites for any available German players but on the other hand Hughes and Edwards are pretty good at the transfer business so Liverpool cannot be discounted for Wirtz.
that old saying "once bitten, twice shy" comes to mind except in transfers it's more "like bitten 100 times, always shy" for me.
My guess is the Wirtz noise is a smokescreen for our real transfer targeting - its been our typical MO.
Maybe but I also think Liverpool look to be opportunistic when we can. I don't think we were in for a 10 at all but you know we're looking for a couple fb's, a cb , a def mid and a striker. Then perhaps in the Frimpong negotiations Wirtz's availability comes up and he's a super young talent so can we do something?We were willing to cough up huge money for the likes of Bellingham and Caicedo but they chose not to come so I think we are willing to ante up the cash for Wirtz but I have to think Bayern will have an edge over us.
I hope Wirtz doesn't ask Didi Hamann for advice about LFC. Hamann's had a hard-on for us ever since he left for some reason. I guess Can was our last German player?
Arne Slot on Dominik Szoboszlai starting as a deeper midfielder tonight: "He is playing as an eight, with Ryan as a six, with Harvey a bit more forward. I think Dominik sees his best position as an eight." Well he better like playing there because that’s where he will have to play when we sign Wirtz.
I suppose we could always go with the 7-8 year contract like Chelsea have been doing. That'd make it into a €80M 5-year, and an additional €70M 3-year contract... Still a bit out of our normal range of contracts. Even if we don't end up with him (which I still think is most likely) we could force Bayern to spend a lot more for him than they want to. From a strategic sense, that makes some sense as it potentially hobbles a peer-competitor team.
Harvey on his future: "It's about what's best for my career. It's about reflecting and seeing what I can do. I'm here at the moment and I'm focusing on the final game." I’ve been thinking that Leverkusen would be a great next club for Harvey. Smart club who develops players, they are in the Champions League, and will need a replacement for Wirtz. Harvey is the same age as Wirtz. Just saying.
This feels more like the club dragged their feet. After several so-so seasons of fitness, they weren't going to hand him a new contract with heavily increased wages. Had we offered him a 3 year extension last summer on 200k/wk I reckon he'd have taken it. But we were never going to do that given his fitness record.