S-Clarke

Tweet on the previous page says we are interested in Lavia, Collwill and Hudson-Odoi. (Plus the City recruiter is joining us) Secret Scout is a decent source from my experience, certainly with the 'youth' side of things.

I get the concerns, but I still don't think age alone should be a pointer of experience. PEH, VVD were signed as young players but you wouldn't have ever said they were 'young' by the way they played. Not all young players will be like that, but I don't think it should be generalised that experience only comes when you're late 20's early 30's.

Good signing by Brentford, he's a talented young player. That's pretty much the going rate for young Champ players to be honest, we paid £15m for Armstrong so these fee's come as no real surprise.

I think it was more along the lines that they'd have been really limited in what they could have spent this summer had they not have sold Richarlison before the deadline. They have a bit more flex in the market now as this sale boosts last years FFP. It does make a mockery of FFP though, it really is a load of nonsense.

I wonder if he'll smile now? He always seems the most depressed footballer on the planet.

Hudson-Odoi is a strange one, like you said Bayern were after him (and Dortmund) and if he'd made that move he'd be on a similar trajectory as Bellingham and Sancho imo. But Chelsea priced him out of that move, then continued to leave him out of their own 11 - so he's really stagnated as a footballer, the kid has so much potential. He's got a big decision to make this summer, even if it's just a short-term decision. I don't think we'd ever sign him full time, but a year of regular football in the top flight would be good for him, us and Chelsea.

I think we need another full back, weirdly after strengthening it last season we find ourselves a bit short. Valery will prob leave, I think we'll struggle to see Tino much next season and Perraud is struggling with his injury. That leaves KWP, Vokins and Small. I thought we'd have looked for a loan cover though, but maybe this is part of the bigger picture and potentially preparing to cash in on KWP or Tino in a year or so. Who knows.

I don't think people are saying ''old heads' and experience as such, it's more about having players with genuine top level exposure. They can be 23, 24 and still have that exposure as Mane did for e.g. I don't think people are calling for a load of old blokes to look after the kids, just more match ready and match proven starters.

Good shout. Hopefully he has a better impact than Fleming, who followed a similar trajectory as Carl has.

I don't feel too at ease with the approach either, but by the same token I'm somewhat intrigued and excited by what could be achieved. I'd be a bit more comfortable with a tiny bit more proven quality in the side though, otherwise there is a fear that we could hang very talented young players out to dry. I remember when we bought Morgan in the Champ, that was considered at the time to be a 'massive' coup (and to be fair he turned out to be an excellent top level player), but he struggled to start with because of the lack of experience around him, and when the quality of the experience came in the mould of Paul Wotton. So I think think there are some similarities, but we're in a position of being able to aim for better quality because we're PL and not Champ. Either way though, if the young kids sink then we're heading one way rather quickly, the same as happened in the Champ.

If that's his role then just sign him up as a kitman or u18 coach or something.

I like the words 'significantly strengthening'. It's weird to be seeing all this happening, we've been crying out for it for years. Once we sign Lavia (We are going to get some unfortunate typos of that, I'm sure!) that's already £30m down on players without selling, and now there's talk of us then looking at the attack! (and attackers notoriously cost more)

No, not in height..But he's got a decent physique which makes him suited to that Wanyama type role. It'll be interesting to see how he develops into his 20's, as physically he will still change quite a bit I'd imagine. The raw attributes to work with are great.

Agreed, but you could argue that we need 2 10's and 2 Strikers (we need to replace both Long and Broja). I imagine the club will look for a striker in the Broja mold (an out and out number 9 as such) and another player like Amadou who can operate up front or out wide if required. We will need to shift one of Redmond or Moussa to get a complete number 10/wide player imo.

I get some of what you are saying, but what you have to remember regarding youth players is that they aren't signed to normal contracts as first team players - so we can't just stand our ground and rejeect bids, as it's not subject to a bid. Clubs can just approach youth players and then battle it out in tribunal. it's a flaw with the youth system and giving the club a little more power with their U16's etc would stop all this poaching. I think we were fairly active in bolstering our U23's and u18's last summer, Nico Lawrence came in and we also spent a fee on Will Armatige - they went into the U18 set up, so it's not fair to say we're not in the picture. I think ideally with us we prefer to get a player young and nurture them all the way through rather than concentrating on signing pre-made youth players from all over the country for our u18's. Some of our best players (Bale, Shaw, Chamberlain, Theo) were all at the club from a very, very young age.

This is a good appointment as he's highly rated with the growth of City's academy in recent years. Even if a lot don't make their first team, they make bucket loads on sales and said players go on to become a decent level in the main (Bazunu, Lavia, Sancho, Angelino, Denayer, Diaz, Luiz, Ihenacho to name a few) It's another somewhat ambitious move by us - attracting people already employed as per Selles, something we just didn't use to do.

He's more of a ball winning DM, tough tackling, powerful type. A decent passer but he's got the potential to be a Wanyama type (with better passing).

Worth reading too much into who isn't in the pics? Redmond, Moussa, Theo, Smallbone, Valery, Armstrong (A). They are the players I'd have expected to be there given they weren't involved in internationals, but equally they are apparently the players we've told can 'leave'. No Long there is potentially a sign that he's gone.

I know where you are coming from, but without massive sales I don't think our budget can stretch to established players coming into or in the prime of their careers. I'm not just on about transfer fee's, but wages on top of it. I'm fully accepting of our approach, even though it has a very high risk-high reward slant to it and I think we should just embrace it. A year ago we couldn't even dream of evolving the side like this, so even this feels incredibly refreshing. I think the club have been incredibly scared from the experience of signing more 'established' players over the last few years (Lemina, Hoedt, Vestergaard, Carillo, Boufal, Elyounoussi etc etc). They take on so much not just on transfer fee's but on wages and it then becomes tricky to do anything, in a financial sense what we are doing has less risk but in a football sense it arguably has a little more risk - but with risk comes reward so they say. It's not like we're signing young trash, these guys are rated across Europe as some of the best.

It's the contract situation which has seemingly driven the sale, so this was their last chance to get some sort of fee. This is how the big clubs work though isn't it, they prefer to buy the oven ready players as they can't be arsed to wait for 'potential'. If we had mega owners we could probably go and buy all the ready made players, but we don't, so this is the next best option for us. The most talented youth players, maturing together at similar ages could be a proper masterstroke. We do still need some experience though.

Probably $$$$. Even the big clubs aren't daft enough to offer mega sums to kids, I'd imagine Newcastle were prepared to go financially where no one else was. It is a strange one though. We're signing some of the best young players from other academies as we have a clear pathway, so it seems odd for one of our own best young players see a pathway elsewhere. I also can't see where that pathway is at Newcastle.

This guy is an enormous talent, City just don't have space for him and now they've gone and signed Phillips. By all accounts they didn't want to sell him, but it seems as if the player now feels he's ready to make his mark at a club. I thought this would only ever be a loan, but to be getting him permanently is very, very impressive.

Think it's just lighting, as there's light blue behind. Probably an eye trick!

I like it, but only concern is the Sponsor and how that looks, but you can't win it all. Most sponsors spoil decent shirts to be honest!

I guess the importance to fans knowing who is going to put the cones out is quite low on list I'd say. Let's just let the club do what they see fit in that area it's not really going to upset me either way, they did actually indicate in one of the athletic articles that the club may not replace like for like (watson/davis/fleming) and may not have as many coaches next season. The McCarthy and Stephens contracts are odd though, with no reference to this from the club. It 'may' be something as innocent in that the club activated clauses in their existing contracts to extend the years and they didn't actually sign new contracts in the fuller sense? God knows.