Mancheater City: 115

[Taneruit]

Anyway, City are so plastic that I can't even really dislike them, and no other factor seems to change that. But this season they also play the best football, it has to be said. The thought of other English rivals, other than City, winning anything at all makes me sick. So let them get the quadruple, as long as we get 3rd and our other rivals are miserable.

While true, I fear that we may just be grooming the most annoying football fans of the future. So, be careful what you wish for.

 

[BaZZe]

Someone please explain this monstrosity

 

[Hjalmaar]

Someone please explain this monstrosity

The replies tell you all you need to know

 

[A_G]

Sane leaving City would be interesting

 

[al-Ustaadh]

Sane leaving City would be interesting

Would take him here in a heart beat.

 

[Dennis_Bergkamp_10]

Would take him here in a heart beat.

As would Bayern, Real etc..

 

[A_G]

Would take him here in a heart beat.

Nailed on for Bayern, I would think.

 

[Toby]

Nailed on for Bayern, I would think.

If Sané ends up on the market Bayern will be all over him. Young German international, one of the brightest talents of the country. They're going to be thirsty af for that.

I though could see Sané taking the Khedira route and opting for a more varied career in Europe instead of lazily bagging Bundesliga titles. Could see clubs like Real, Atletico, Juve and Saint-Germain with Tuchel interested.

 

[Malky]

Sane would be an incredible signing, we should at least make a big offer if he's available as he may want to stay in England.

Sane and Nelson as our wide options next season would improve us drastically.

 

[al-Ustaadh]

As would Bayern, Real etc..

Nailed on for Bayern, I would think.

If Sané ends up on the market Bayern will be all over him. Young German international, one of the brightest talents of the country. They're going to be thirsty af for that.

I though could see Sané taking the Khedira route and opting for a more varied career in Europe instead of lazily bagging Bundesliga titles. Could see clubs like Real, Atletico, Juve and Saint-Germain with Tuchel interested.

Would free up Pepe then.

 

[Toby]

Would free up Pepe then.

For whom Lille are asking around 70m. Which I think despite his output this season is definitely too much. 40 to 50m maybe, but I think 70 or even 80m is a bit steep for him. I'd pay that for Sané, but not him.

 

[al-Ustaadh]

For whom Lille are asking around 70m. Which I think despite his output this season is definitely too much. 40 to 50m maybe, but I think 70 or even 80m is a bit steep for him. I'd pay that for Sané, but not him.

I don't think Pepe will go for that much. I think 50m is about right for him (and that would be including installments and reaching certain achievements). But yes, I agree in paying 70 to 80m for Sane.

 

[A_G]

Interesting article in the Times speculating whether Guardiola has lost faith in Sane. Some rumours today that he's growing frustrated and could leave in the summer with Juve and Atleti interested...

In big games, games where Manchester City faced a measure of jeopardy, Leroy Sane has been given 90 minutes just once this year. That was on January 3, against Liverpool, where he starred and scored in City’s most pivotal match of the season.

Since then? Full matches merely versus Cardiff, Schalke and Newport. And, despite just one minor injury, a mere 10 starts — only one of those against a top-10 Premier League team — and none away in a European game.

Why does Pep Guardiola not trust someone who, from the outside, appears a truly exceptional player? City supporters were asking that when Sane had to wait until the 89th minute before coming on in last Tuesday’s Champions League defeat at Tottenham. Guardiola says he trusts him but selection is a telltale, a way in which a manager’s actions speak louder than words.

This observer has had a nagging question about whether Guardiola and Sane are on the same page since interviewing Raheem Sterling 18 months ago. Sterling is fond of Sane and chuckled about his colleague’s laid-back nature. “He can sleep anywhere,” Sterling said. Sane was even known to catnap on the team bus as it approached a hostile stadium.

The question was: how does that fit in with Guardiola’s utter intensity? This is a man who, as we know from the City documentary All or Nothing, gives team talks that are masterpieces of oratory and method acting where he embodies the very thing that seems the common theme in all his speeches — energy. Restless, coiled-spring energy — and the need for City to always unleash it on the pitch.

Does laid-back work under such a manager? In September Toni Kroos questioned Sane’s body language when with the national team, suggesting he gave the impression of indifference to whether Germany were winning or losing. Guardiola’s response at the next City press conference was to defend his player, before then seeming to creep towards Kroos’ position by suggesting it was up to Sane, “a nice guy”, to whom he had not yet given a start in 2018-19, to demonstrate the hunger required to get back in the starting line-up.

All this came after Sane was left out of Germany’s World Cup squad, in part a consequence of him skipping the previous year’s Confederations Cup to have nose surgery — something, it is fair to say, that did not endear him to Joachim Low, the national coach, or the DFB (German FA). Given Low was set on starting with his senior 2014 world champions generation in Russia, there were doubts whether Sane was the right type to embrace a supporting-cast role.

Yet personality can explain only so much. Guardiola is the most successful, most intellectual coach of his era, after all, and does not make irrational decisions. So it remains baffling how a player who has provided a goal or assist every 77.23 minutes in the Premier League and Champions League this season is on the bench in so many games. It’s not as if he is one who thrives as a sub: 27 starts have brought a total of 27 goals/assists in 2018-19, compared to just two goals/assists in 13 appearances when sent on as a replacement.

Guardiola could throw a very different stat at you: that Sane started in all four of the Premier League matches City have lost so far. Furthermore, Sterling and Bernardo Silva are — with Aymeric Laporte — City’s standout performers this season, the two who have mostly kept Sane out of the team.

Yet at Tottenham, with Bernardo injured, Guardiola preferred Riyad Mahrez, alluding to tactical reasons. These seemed to involve a perception Mahrez would be more measured in his use of the ball and more reliable defensively. The way City left themselves open when demolished at Anfield in last season’s Champions League quarter-final nags at their coach.

Sane gave an error-laden performance in the game, one that contrasted with his excellence when the sides met in the league, and his consistency appears a significant question in Guardiola’s mind. When Sane dazzled against Bournemouth in December Guardiola said “when he is going to complain in future why he doesn’t play I will send a video of today, because if he plays this way he is going to play.

“He was incredible, offensively, defensively. He created chances, positive in the mind, reactions good, but sometimes it’s not there.”

Guardiola added, then, something he has said a few times — that Sane is young and still in development. Yet Sane is 23, just a year younger than Sterling, Bernardo and Laporte, who Guardiola trusts absolutely. It will be interesting what his selection articulates when Guardiola fills in the team sheet for Wednesday’s second leg with Sp**s.

Sane may well get the opportunity to impress today at Crystal Palace. “I said many times, in the good and the bad moments, how important Leroy is for us so when he didn’t play lately, he knows the reason why,” said Guardiola on Friday. “We spoke quite often with him, myself, my people, on and off the pitch. We want the best.

“Of course we have competition from the other players. In some instances I prefer another type of player to have more control. But my admiration and trust in him is intact so he’s there. But always I want more . . . I am sorry.”

In the past 18 months, City have extended the contracts of 10 key players but Sane has not yet committed himself to a new deal despite talks beginning last year. Guardiola rebuffed speculation that this is a factor. If it was, he said, “Gundo would not play. One year’s left [on his] contract, [Ilkay] Gundogan doesn’t want to extend the contract, he would not play. And he plays. Before that, KDB [Kevin De Bruyne]. So I take a decision on the pitch.”

Irked by Gundogan’s suggestion City were nervous at White Hart Lane, Guardiola promised on Wednesday to “make it incredibly tough for the Tottenham players. We are going to be so aggressive at the beginning and see what happens. That is my idea.”

 

[SomGooner]

I guess you choke in big European games when you haven’t got the GOAT to bail you out.

He can deny all he wants, but City brought him in to deliver big ears. Why would they pay him as much as they are for only winning the domestic titles? Mancini and Pellegrini did that and they still got fired....

I think Sp*ds will advance tonight...YUCK

 

[SomGooner]

 

[A_G]

Taking Pep's book off my Amazon wish list after that. Disgraceful performance.

 

[Sniper Mik]

F*ck em all. F*ck em right in the ass. Bald ****

 

[al-Ustaadh]

Pep the bald fraud does it again.

 

[Camron]

Pep the bald fraud does it again.

Megabid on Messi incoming, only way for him to win CL. Exposed

 

[Notorious Big]

Would like to lose EPL title now.Useless wankers.