LondonBristolian

Sorry if this has said elsewhere but it's quite refreshing to see a national paper describing Man City as "facing a tough trip to Bristol City" rather than any platitudes about the smaller team enjoying our big day. https://www.theguardian.com/football/live/2023/jan/30/fa-cup-fifth-round-draw-live-updates

An alternative may be that Sykes and/or Weimann are the attacking midfielders and that bringing in both Cornick and Mehmeti provides the options up-front to allow either to play in a number 8 or 10 role.

My two observations would be: 1) Whether we get O'Brien, Currie, Cornick and Mehmeti all over the line or not, it is nonetheless very clear that the club have clearly identified the players they want to target and gone for them as soon as soon as we are in a financial position to do so. They might come off or might not but I get the sense they are all players the club has put thought into and, if we don't get them, we may or may not have one or two alternative targets but we're not going to be making a scattershot approach for any half-decent player that will come to us, which felt like the case after Webster left in 2019. 2) Whatever happens with Dasilva, Kalas, O'Leary or Vyner over the summer, we will go into next season with just one player who Pearson did not either sign, bring through from the youth team or make an active decision to offer a new contract. Next season will very much be Pearson's team and everyone should theoretically be on the bus.

I did not realise that. That wasn’t such a good deal either then.

I know I said this on another post but I think big lesson here is that it's not worth signing a young player from abroad, even on a four year contract, unless they are ready to compete for a place immediately. If they are going to take a couple of years to get up to speed, and they've clearly moved to us as a stepping stone, then it's fairly predictable that we'll end up in a situation where they have two years to go on their contract and are eyeing up their next move before we've got value for money for them. It's a bit different with someone like Bajic or Ivan Lukic a few years ago, as both moved on a free and are low risk if it doesn't work. But the major issue with Massengo is the risk just wasn't that well calculated in the first place. You're right that it's easy for me, as someone who doesn't work in football, to sit and say this with the benefit of hindsight. But I do think it is the kind of thing that anyone who actually works in football recruitment should have seen from the very beginning.

As can Weimann. And of course we have Benarous in the long term. At the beginning of the window, I would have said defensive midfield was our priority. Naismith seems to be addressing that, plus Kadji and Taylor-Clarke seem to be being integrated so there may be a hope one or both will be ready to be more involved next season. We are admittedly likely to lose King, or have him playing a smaller role, but I imagine the club is trying to balance a slight gap at central midfield in the short term with maintaining the pathway in the longer term. One solution might be a loan but that obviously depends on who is available.

I’m sorry but it do find this sort of argument to be, for want of a better word, total horseshit. Football careers are short and plenty of players who do commit to a club - let’s say Taylor Moore, Chris Martin or James Morton to take a range of examples - find the club has no loyalty to them when their form drops off or we find better players. Any footballer would be a fool to think a club would be loyal to them so why would they show loyalty? We all know how the transfer market works and anyone signing an 18 year old on a four year contract has to expect that it may take two years to find their feet so the last two years at the club are when the interest will be highest. You can quite easily say the club screwed up by not taking the cash last January and it certainly unfortunate both club and player clearly expected offers that did not come. But Massengo has not refused to move to a club we have accepted an offer for and is utterly in his rights to not sign a contract. The error, so far as there is one, is the club failing to judge that he would not sign and move him on in time. I think criticism of the player for that is naive and absurd.

Bottom line is there is no reason for a respected French football journalist to make up a rumour about Bristol City so guessing there is probably something in this.

Is it likely to be safe to wait until Friday to buy or will they have sold out? I'm a bit cautious until I know for certain there are no train strikes that weekend...

I said this on another thread but reckon there are four-to-six positions we're actively looking to strengthen but some of those are dependent on players moving out, others won't happen to the summer and others might not happen at all if the right player is not available. But I agree that we don't need to urgently bring players in and it'll only happen when the club feel they've got the right player at the right moment. I'd not be surprised if one more player leaves and three more come in by Tuesday. But I'd also not be surprised if Cornick or another forward was the only move.

Tinnion is no fool and will be aware of a double meaning. I reckon it is both a message to Antoine and the fans.

Good luck to him. Very good footballer and ones across as grounded in interviews. Hope he succeeds there.

There is no evidence Bournemouth have found a problem though. I can’t even find a suggestion of it anywhere. All that appears to have happened is the deal has not been announced yet. That does not necessarily mean it has not been completed.

I think the only way that would happen would be if the deal was definitely off. If it is this close to being completed, Bournemouth won't let him play. It's been fifteen years so could easily be forgotten but we pulled the plug on a deal for Egyptian striker Emad Meteb deal for that exact reason of him playing when he was about to complete a move.

One relevant point could be how and when Bournemouth want to time their transfer announcements. They announced a transfer yesterday and were doing a holocaust memorial post this morning and promoting some community things at lunchtime. There could be a certain point of the day they think it is best to make transfer announcements to "maximise engagement" or whatever the term is.

I also question whether Kalas would want to take it. He's had a rough year of injuries but he's still an international footballer with Premier League and international tournament experience. He might back himself to get a good offer somewhere.

I've always assumed - perhaps wrongly - that it doesn't matter too much from an accounting perspective whether the money is all in one go or installments - as long as it is an agreed amount we know we will receive. From an accounting perspective, its income we know we have and whatever installments are due to us can be recorded as known income and money owed to us. It obviously makes a difference from a cashflow perspective - and that might matter in terms of who we buy and how we pay for them - but I'm not sure how important it is in terms of accounting.

I'm always pleasantly surprised when other teams' fans have that much of an opinion on us. I always worry that our lack of on the pitch success means we're a little bit of middling club who other clubs' fans aren't really arsed about either way. So I always find it quite pleasing to find out we're actually succeeding at something enough to make other fans dislike us!

Don’t forget we have Wilson to come back from injury. I think Tanner is doing okay and three right backs (along with two or three more that can play there if pushed) may be too many. For me, we need one more forward who can play both left and centre, a midfielder and we could potentially bring forward summer planning if we are not likely to keep Dasilva or Kalas and the right player is ready to move now.

A lot would surely depend on the add-ons. £10 million would not be a great offer. A hypothetical £10 million, 15% sell on and £3 million in potential add-ons would be a very different bid.

Even Bajic going on loan could make sense. If he does well and is happy to come back and compete next season, we'll go into next season with two goalkeepers who've had a period of first team football competing for a place and both believing they are in a reasonable shot of establishing themselves. I agree that I'm not convinced by Max but I would say he has taken his opportunity far better than I expected. In all honesty, I think someone - be it Bajic or someone not at the club - will depose him either next season or the one after but he is looking better than last season and we've seen how a player like Vyner can come on leaps and bounds so I wouldn't be shocked to be proven wrong.

The 4-0 win away at Fulham probably actually was my highlight of LJ's run. It was made funnier and more awkward by the fact that I'm mates with a season ticket holder who had treated me to lunch before we'd gone our separate ways at the ground, only for me to spot him slinking out at 3-0 down with 10 minutes left...

In a way, I do get the point about the ridiculousness of celebrating a one-off cup win years later but, on the other hand, surely memories of nights like those are the whole point of supporting a football team? Christ knows I've had more than enough joyless afternoons and evenings in the freezing cold watching us labour to terrible results. Ironically I couldn't make the Man Utd game but travelling to Manchester and standing at the Etihad with thousands of other City fans and watching us go toe to toe with one of the best teams in football in a cup semi final was one of the best memories of being a fan. Sure, I wish we'd get promoted and it is frustrating seeing other clubs overtake us but football is made of stories and memories and I have no problem with the club celebrating that. It might be petty and completely ludicrous from the outside. But if you take everything that's petty and ludicrous from the outside out of football, I'm not too sure what's then left.

I imagine Kompany also might be a huge draw in himself. A true Premier League legend who played in England from when Semenyo was 8 until he was 19. That’s got to have a certain hold on the imagination.

And this sums up why Semenyo should stay. Does he really think the AFC Bournemouth online forum will provide him with this high a level of public service content?