brite blu sky wrote:Blue Since 76 wrote:None of the leaks about who we are meeting have come from City, hence why the ITKs are full of bull. It's Valencia who announced this and, according to the Guardian report, Wolfsburg who leaked that we'd been discussing Dzeko.
It's in the interest of the selling club to make sure that others know they need to make a move. If we're serious about someone, there's no point in letting anyone know what we're up to.
I'm not convinced that Silva would come to England, let alone to us and there are reports that Mourinho wants him, so this could be Valencia pushing the price up and hurrying Madrid, since Valencia are desperate for cash. The mystery is why we'd arrange to meet Valencia and then put it off? Complete guess, but maybe we're not really interested in Silva, as we don't believe he'd come. However, if Madrid and Valencia think we're interested, it's going to push the price up as we both bid for him. If we agreed to stay away from Silva, maybe Madrid would be more willing to listen to reason on Gago etc and not want the stupid prices they've been quoting. If they stick with the £10m over the top on Gago, we just push Silva's price up by £10m, so they're no better off and they strengthen a direct competitor more than they have to.
Could be conspiracy theory, but I think with all the meetings going on since last summer, we've learned a lot of lessons about how the top transfers happen. We can't compete with Madrid or Barca, as they are the few clubs who most players would want to go to - even the rags couldn't resist over tranny. What we can do is force them to pay really silly prices if they don't play ball. Let them have their top target, as long as they let us have the next one e.g. a Dzeko or one of their players e.g. Gago or Yaya. That drops us into a bracket of competition with the likes of Bayern or AC, and in that company, our financial muscle can really pay off, as they don't have the romantic lure or Real and Barca.
reading between the lines on all the shenanegins, i think since76 has some good points here.
The fact is that while certainly not exclusive, City are one of the key players in the transfer market.. partly becuase like a mortgage chain, we are more akin to buyer who are currently renting and can therefore move straight away without waiting on their own sale.. that together with the level of cash we are talking about makes us one of the clubs who start the whole merry-go-round in motion. In addition you have this pecking order thing, which as since76 points out is likely to be headed up by Madrid ( this season ). So it makes a lot of sense that Cook goes to Madrid first and finds out first hand what their thinking is, and relates ours.. then to the next important buyers and shakers Barca and so on. The whole thing is a kind of complicated game from City's point of view.. but one where other big players who need to sell to buy, need City to spark it all off. Our play i imagine is to get what we want out of that whilst being the catalyst for all the action to happen.
Madrid and what they want may be one plan to pursue. Barca and what they want may be another separate plan we identified to follow.
I can imagine some serious fun and games yet to develop though, but when it all starts it will be fairly hectic i rekon.
i'm going with us following the Madrid thread.. but that is mainly cos i dont want city to go anywhere near Ibra or Yaya.
BBS we may be going to see Barca regarding someone else not Ibra or Yaya.Possibly AI?.