Iliman Ndiaye (Interest from City, home reno progress unclear)

[The Doc]

Leave it lads, its painful watching.

[CorkyOnTour]

Why are you repeating that back to me when you have already said as much in this thread. Are you just incapable of writing a proper reply or something?

Andy; relax.

Go back and read your post and then read mine.

You replying just with "eh" was completely nonsensical in terms of the flow of the two posts.

[Indiantoffee75]

This acceptance of selling one of best players instead of building around him to take the club forwards is quite staggering.

We sold Lukaku and Barkley in the same window, didnt replace them and the wheels came off.

Clubs build around their best players.

If you want to be like Brighton, that is entirely up to you...
But we are not Brighton...we are not Bournemouth...

We are not even at there levels....according to our current manager. Might take a few years to compete with them.

[Trowel]

I feel like the missing factor in these discussions is time - there's no way for us to transform our squad in the same one year window that Ndiaye will remain an £80m player, as he loses value alongside his contract.

We sell Ndiaye now and make the squad better now and in January, building around other players.

Next season we do the same again with e.g. Branthwaite, and get better again.

All depends on the quality of our recruitment team and our coaching of course.

And I realise 95% of people understand this.

[wepull]

I love Ndiaye, been a rare blip of pure joy to watch in almost a decade of misery. I wish we could see him play for us more but he deserves to play at a top level club which we aren't currently. Plus we need the money to strengthen other areas. So probably the right time to sell him when his stock is high.

But I rather would like him to go to Arsenal than city, as I have no trust in Maresca and can see him out of the door before this season ends.

[Big Nevs Vaz]

I love Ndiaye, been a rare blip of pure joy to watch in almost a decade of misery. I wish we could see him play for us more but he deserves to play at a top level club which we aren't currently. Plus we need the money to strengthen other areas. So probably the right time to sell him when his stock is high.

But I rather would like him to go to Arsenal than city, as I have no trust in Maresca and can see him out of the door before this season ends.

I can see him spending a lot of time bench warming in either scenario. He's a game changer for us and I would love him to stay (while acknowledging this is exactly the correct time to cash in) but is he really going to move the dial for Arsenal or City? He played a bit part for Senegal at the World Cup.

[Matt1878]

We're not in Europe, players want Europe. In 1986 we were arguably the best team in the country and sold Lineker arguably the best striker in Europe... because we were not in Europe.

Selling Ndiaye at the right price, is just inevitable. The club havent matched his ambition, he's attracted the attention of CL clubs at the right time in his career to kick on. Like every other club on the planet the next step is to secure the best price for him and let him move on.

[wepull]

I can see him spending a lot of time bench warming in either scenario. He's a game changer for us and I would love him to stay (while acknowledging this is exactly the correct time to cash in) but is he really going to move the dial for Arsenal or City? He played a bit part for Senegal at the World Cup.

Considering Trossard n Martinelli got sold, they have only Tzolis on the left side which is Ndiaye's preferred position. City don't have much wide players currently, they even got Grealish in last game.

Both teams would play about 60 games in a season, I would definitely say that he'll get in a lot of game time in both the teams.

[kramer]

Grealish and a boatload of cash makes a lot sense for us.

I’m not entirely sold on it, you lose Ndiaye’s versatility (he comes short to get on the ball and runs in behind the defense without it, you won’t find Grealish doing much of the latter). But you do get a top class creator and possession retainer in turn, a bunch of money to invest in other areas of need, and it doesn’t hurt the long-term outlook even though you’re adding the older player because you have two major young talents coming up behind him and one more peak age player vying for minutes.

A sale to Arsenal probably yields a bunch of money. We’ve been rumored to be interested in Gabriel Jesus but to me, he’s a prettt useless option, especially since we already brought in Brennan Johnson who is worse technically but offers a lot of what we’d get there.

[brap2]

Rodri is 30 years old
Ndiaye is 26 years old.

The players on your list were there for a long period of time and helped their clubs to success and/or to grow into European contenders year in and year out before leaving.

You've accidentally proven my point.

But like…what is your point?

Champions league clubs with long established revenue streams behave differently to challenging clubs further down the table?

Obviously they do yeah? Surely you understand why?

[brap2]

Sorry just seen the last few pages please ignore

[74Blue]

Do Man Utd, Man City, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea, Spurs etc sell their best players to buy more?

Torres, Coutinho, Suarez, Diaz...

...would certainly suggest that Liverpool do when the right offer comes along.

[74Blue]

We're not in Europe, players want Europe. In 1986 we were arguably the best team in the country and sold Lineker arguably the best striker in Europe... because we were not in Europe.

Selling Ndiaye at the right price, is just inevitable. The club havent matched his ambition, he's attracted the attention of CL clubs at the right time in his career to kick on. Like every other club on the planet the next step is to secure the best price for him and let him move on.

Lineker was prolific and this might be an unpopular opinion, but I don't think that we were as good a side to watch with Lineker in the team.

Because Lineker was so rapid, there was a real temptation to just lump a long ball over the top for him to latch on to and bag. The previous season, we were all about playing through the midfield, getting the ball out wide and putting in some beautiful crosses for Sharp and Gray to attack. We lost some of that sexy football with Lineker.

Plus Barcelona allowed us to more than treble our initial outlay on him after just one season. Absolute no brainer. Where else can you turn £800k into £2.8m in twelve months?

[The Doc]

Grealish and a boatload of cash makes a lot sense for us.

I’m not entirely sold on it, you lose Ndiaye’s versatility (he comes short to get on the ball and runs in behind the defense without it, you won’t find Grealish doing much of the latter). But you do get a top class creator and possession retainer in turn, a bunch of money to invest in other areas of need, and it doesn’t hurt the long-term outlook even though you’re adding the older player because you have two major young talents coming up behind him and one more peak age player vying for minutes.

A sale to Arsenal probably yields a bunch of money. We’ve been rumored to be interested in Gabriel Jesus but to me, he’s a prettt useless option, especially since we already brought in Brennan Johnson who is worse technically but offers a lot of what we’d get there.

I think George can bring a good level of that versatility, in his own way. Hes got a lot in his locker. Not at Ndiaye levels yet but selling our stars for big profit, investing in young talent and backing the next up is the way forward in our current state.

[AjaxAndy]

I think George can bring a good level of that versatility, in his own way. Hes got a lot in his locker. Not at Ndiaye levels yet but selling our stars for big profit, investing in young talent and backing the next up is the way forward in our current state.

Who won't probably be playing if we get Grealish. It's a reason why selling Ndaiye and replacing with Grealish doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

Not that I wouldn't sell Ndaiye for the right money, it's the sensible thing to do. Just wouldn't want Grealish taking minutes away from George given how promising he looks, which would be the big issue with selling our starting RW and replacing with a starting LW.