John Stones

[chippy1722]

The truth is people don't know whether he was trying to play out of defence too much because RM may have told him so, Martinez was all about posession and keeping it at all costs, which was why we went from attack back to Robles so much. At the end when he was mixing playing it out and wellying it into row Z, I dont know whether him wellying it into row Z was two fingers to us supporters for getting on his back or two fingers for Martinez for making him the scapegoat.

 

[chazzle_dazzle]

Fortunately the one parting gift of Roberto is we do have a number of talented younger players. Barkley, Lukaku, Deulofeu, Besic, Galloway and thanks to Unsworth, Davies, Walsh, Ledson, Kenny, Pennington. We don't really need to add many more, we need some winners.

This is a key point for me, we haven't bought enough "winners" who are ready for the team to drag them up the league. We have bought experienced players sure, but the average age of the squad is low, we need to bring in some players who are established names - players the young lads can look at and want to do better then.

 

[RossBarkley20]

Im pretty sure he said playerS. couldn't be bothered checking.

I reckon they were all culpable for lost points. I think it's overly harsh to judge young players when they are trying to stay afloat in a team where the manager is struggling and the senior players are all regularly playing crap aswell.

Very few young players will come out on top in those circumstances.

I think we should sell the fans in the Park End to China and use the money to bump up his contract.

fans are the only reason hes getting money

 

[Joey66]

Stones wanted to leave last season so nothing's changed IMO he is a centre half who can not win a header in a defensive situation other than that he is a class act in a correct defensive partnership, it's a case of the new manager deciding to cash in if he feels stones may be surplus to requirements as our defence needs strengthening!

 

[bicycleheader]

fans are the only reason hes getting money

Well they definitely would be if we sold them to pay him, no?

 

[SimonB]

http://www.skysports.com/football/n...o-bonucci-turned-down-by-juventus-sky-sources

City have £38m Bonucci bid rejected, apparently.

 

[stony]

If they up the bid and sign Bonucci you can bet they wont be signing Stones.

Bonucci, Kompany ,Ottamendi ,Mangala & Di Michellis cant see Pep wanting any more .

We wanted Laporte and Stones. So if we are in for Bonucci it's likely that it's in place of Laporte and wouldn't affect the interest in Stones.

 

[bicycleheader]

http://www.skysports.com/football/n...o-bonucci-turned-down-by-juventus-sky-sources

City have £38m Bonucci bid rejected, apparently.

damn

 

[dublinbluenose]

City having a bid of £38m turned down for Bonnuuci apparently.

going back in again with improved offer

https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...us-defender-leonardo-bonucci?CMP=share_btn_tw

 

[Stutheblue]

Stones wanted to leave last season so nothing's changed IMO he is a centre half who can not win a header in a defensive situation other than that he is a class act in a correct defensive partnership, it's a case of the new manager deciding to cash in if hee feels stones may be surplus to requirements as our defence needs strengthening!

Whether Stones go or not, I agree in that our defence needs strengthening regardless. With the right partner alongside him he'd flourish. A dominant centre back who can win headers and tackle consistently would suit.

 

[Joey66]

Whether Stones go or not, I agree in that our defence needs strengthening regardless. With the right partner alongside him he'd flourish. A dominant centre back who can win headers and tackle consistently would suit.

Yes that's what I more or less said we have no experienced ball winning centre half in the air unless the younger players we have can come through or a natural all round centre half great in the air to partner Stones, or will Koeman cash in on a 50 million sale on Stones???

 

[Stutheblue]

Yes that's what I more or less said we have no experienced ball winning centre half in the air unless the younger players we have can come through or a natural all round centre half great in the air to partner Stones, or will Koeman cash in on a 50 million sale on Stones???

He may well cash in on Stones (or equally have no option but to). I like Stones as he is a quality player in the making. But as you allude to, he's not dominant enough in the air, and in the Premiere league thats so important. Jags is still a good all round centre back but he can't go on much longer, and Funes Mori is ok I'd say. In my opinion, ideally we buy a top centre back to go with Stones. If he goes, we may need two to come in, but in that scenario (Stones going) he may use Galloway, Browning and Pennington, to supplement the 'new' CB, Jags and Funes Mori.

 

[Joey66]

He may well cash in on Stones (or equally have no option but to). I like Stones as he is a quality player in the making. But as you allude to, he's not dominant enough in the air, and in the Premiere league thats so important. Jags is still a good all round centre back but he can't go on much longer, and Funes Mori is ok I'd say. In my opinion, ideally we buy a top centre back to go with Stones. If he goes, we may need two to come in, but in that scenario (Stones going) he may use Galloway, Browning and Pennington, to supplement the 'new' CB, Jags and Funes Mori.

Yes I agree with all that also under Koeman he may improve, it depends on Jags replacement IMO!

 

[Nymzee]

Yes that's what I more or less said we have no experienced ball winning centre half in the air unless the younger players we have can come through or a natural all round centre half great in the air to partner Stones, or will Koeman cash in on a 50 million sale on Stones???

Only "ball winning" defenders in the youth teams are probably Pennington and Feeney (17) so we definitely need one IMO.

 

[dan7787]

The problem i this lies in the figures mate though

Mata and Witsel - wages have been estimated at 140k pw each (14.56m combined)
Dowell and Davies signing contracts and Stekelenberg joining the three prob come in about 50k pw (2.6m)
Extension for Lukaku 75k going to 140k pw (3.38m)
Extension for Barkley 60k going to 110k pw (2.6m)
and if he sin't sold we'd need to extend Stones as well or risk losing him for nothing 30k going to 110k pw (4.68m)

27.82m increase in the wage bill from just those activities alone, going off your suggestions (7.5m available from the currently releasd players +7m annual allowed increase to wages by prem rules + 7m freed up from the sale of Cleverley (if we managed to get a buyer for that price) would see us allowed by the rules to increase it by 21m

we'd be in breach of the wages limitation rules by 6.82m already at that juncture...

Even assuming none of the academy lads receive contracts (highly unlikely to be the case) and that no other existing players will be pushing for improved contracts (Mori, Deulofeu, Coleman etc) - also highly unlikely we would need to find 6.82m reduction in wages further than what we already had managed at that point, and thats without even factoring in that at that point we would still need to bring in a starting keeper and a second striker at a bare minimum - for purpose of the example say Begovic arrives (currently on 80k pw at Chelsea and say Pelle - let's say 70k pw) thatd be another 7.8m wages on top of the 6.8m we are already over - meaning we'd now have to reduce the wage bill by another 14.8m in total or roughly 285k pw we'd need to shed in wages from the already trimmed down squad...


It just isn't a feasible thing for us to do mate, honestly we will need to sell Stones, the fact we are trying to get both Witsel and Mata in has already shown that we are selling him IMO.

It would be a real shame to sell stones, but sounds like we will have to. If he has put in a transfer request, let him go. 50 million is a huge price to turn down.

I don't think we need Mata, there must be someone better?

And it's a joke that we are giving LuKAKu a pay rise when he's had a poor season, terrible euros and tried to leave us. What can he do if we keep him on the same salary? he's in a contract. we need a new striker anyway.