₦airaland Forum

The coach that ignored this but instead considered the player in a more advanced role wasn't careless?

AirBere:
One day, I'll share how we basically stole him from Barca due to Xavi's carelessness.


That's where we disagree even though I quoted the wrong post to buttress my point.

Nico wasn't stolen, he had the potential but was simply not good enough at the time and was behind better players in Dejong, Pedri and even Gavi. He's still behind Pedri and Dejong so leaving was the best thing to happen...

Like many players before him, he went on loan, eventually sold outrightly and is about to achieve greatness elsewhere, this time at Citeh.

His situation is not a unique occurrence but a very normal thing in football and will continue to occur. That's the whole point!

So if a coach sold Yamal for not being ready to compete with Lewandowski and Ferran but then said Yamal becomes the best right winger in the world, the coach wasn't careless? Even though said coach clearly misprofiled the player?

This is not the same as letting E'too go to Mallorca because you preferred Morientes or Raul. Can you see the difference?

AirBere:
One day, I'll share how we basically stole him from Barca due to Xavi's carelessness.


That's where we disagree even though I quoted the wrong post to buttress my point.

Nico wasn't stolen, he had the potential but was simply not good enough at the time and was behind better players in Dejong, Pedri and even Gavi. He's still behind Pedri and Dejong so leaving was the best thing to happen...

Like many players before him, he went on loan, eventually sold outrightly and is about to achieve greatness elsewhere, this time at Citeh.

His situation is not a unique occurrence but a very normal thing in football and will continue to occur. That's the whole point!

I am not sure you understood my post.

AirBere:
The whole point is that what happened to Nico is a very normal occurrence in football. Very very normal. A player who had the potential to play but couldn't play, went on loan or was outrightly sold only to achieve greatness elsewhere. E dey happen and it's completely normal chief.

Nico Gonzalez, Saliba, Samuel Eto'o, Hakimi, Guehi, Palmer, Thiago, Cole Palmer, Gerrard Pique, KDB, Salah etc....

I'm still lost. What are you saying that is at odds with anything I have said?

Where do we disagree?

Even Saliba went on loan. Maybe if he was good, Tetanyahu should have immediately deployed him into Arsenal's defence.

Mtcheww.

AirBere:
Pique had Ferdinand and Vidic ahead of him and was never gonna play ahead of them, went to Osssuna on loan, joined Barca, rest is history.

Thiago had Xavi and Inietsa ahead of him, went to Bayern, rest is history.

Palmer had KDB and Foden in front, went to Chelsea, rest is history.

No matter how you wanna twist it. Aging Busquet was ahead of of Nico, Xavi had Nico yet was still crying for Zubimendi. Aside all these, Nico was in and out of the team at Valencia on loan and on his return, was never gonna start ahead of Dejong, Pedri and even Gavi. No chance at all. His departure from FCB was needed for his overall development as a player.

He's doing fine though lol...

Twist what exactly?

Do you think CR7 was the player he ended up being when Wenger wanted to steal him to Arsenal? Would it be easy to steal a player if their end product was already matching their potential?

Kilishihunter:
When it comes to defensive midfielders your body dey hot.
I wonder the number of innocent careers you for don scatter if you be maybe coach or sporting director, na so busquets for chop loan tired till he finally gets a resting place at las Palmas under you. Thank God say them give you caicedo to suit your self.

He thinks someone who rubbished Rodri has any opinion on City midfielders that I am going to take seriously?

LOL

Kilishihunter:
Yeah porto took advantage of our financial mishaps to cut the sell on clause from 40 to 20%, same thing Chelsea wanted to do with fermin till he decided to stay. Well you got your guy at the end and I hope he keeps on doing well for you guys as a possible rodri replacement cause at the end we'll still share in some of the credit as academy graduate

I was even throwing the shade at Xavi not Barca. Deco believed in his potential as Busquets replacement but Xavi wanted someone who was "ready". That's why you guys went for Romeu instead. Nico is growing into the potential but not many coaches are ready to wait.

Ibime:
They should have tried playing him themselves instead of Gundogan and co. You have the unmatched ability to turn the mundane into a grand master plan. Someone isn't getting minutes for his club at 23 years old, you are hiding him from National team that have many capable players in his position. If you even stopped hiding him from Spain, na 10, 10 minutes he go dey play with the likes of Zubimendi around.

Stick to what you know. Nobody appointed you to legislate or gatekeep opinions on issues you clearly don't know anything about. Your best player couldn't break into City. Morgan Rogers couldn't break into City. These are good players that will cost us more than £100m each to attract back. But City should have played Nico G to prove we wanted him from his La Masia days. Why aren't you running your own football club since you're better than those who pull the strings at City?

He is a prospective Girona probability that came good. City and Chelsea park many £10m players with prospects in Girona and Strasbourg on the percentage chance one in 10 or 20 will come good for the senior club. It is not a grand conspiracy or master plan.

So tomorrow, when Vitor Reis becomes one of the best CBs in the world it wouldn't have been a master plan to buy him from Brazil at 19 for a record fee only to loan him to Girona to develop? If he was that good, he would've displaced who, Josko or Dias or Ake or Stones? Stop having advice for City. Pep and the crew know more than the Twitter guys. Their winningnest nature proves they should be trusted. Give CFC this great advice they so desperately need. Thanks.

If there was such solid belief in him, he would have been bought when Barca were literally giving him away for free, same as Julio Alvarez, Echeveri and others who were bussed straight in without going through roundabout feeder clubs, much less paying £50m for something Barca was begging you to come and take for free and now claiming you "stole".

Even though we bought Alvarez earlier and left him in Argentina to keep developing? You mean like how we did same for Echeverri? So the Nico G of February 2025 is the very same one that Barca sold off in 2023? Always having strong takes on topics you're completely at sea at...always.

The guy is nearly 24 years old, which one be hiding him from NT while he was not getting minutes at club level. He simply didn't make NT because he wasn't performing to NT standard at club level, there is no grand conspiracy, he was given shirt at City then dropped for shaky performances, and now he is doing well in the last month. They should drop him again just to "hide" him from NT, problem solved.

How many of these false statements should I disprove? Who said he is being hidden from the NT? Where did Pep tell you Nico G was dropped for shaky performances?

Why do you always have to wade into conversations that don't even involve you?

The statement just means, City fans don't want Spain to call him up just yet. We don't want De La Fuentes to run him to the ground like they've done to Yamal and Rodri. They should call up other Spanish midfielders & leave our Nico G alone.

You have to actually be faster than someone to get at them.

Kilishihunter:
Girona probably wanted him on loan alongside some laliga clubs and abroad, laliga FFP rules also playing a part but it was Porto who showed the most interest and got him for cheap, even Barca had to still go back to buy some of the future sell on rights from them cause of the bad financial state, you guys have always had an interest in him from the academy but rodri's ACL injury fast tracked things like you indirectly stated meaning he'll still have been for the future if he was available and not been in consideration at that point that's where we converged till you shed more light

You're right. FFP rules meant Girona could only offer to loan him. Nico was already feeling like Valencia didn't use him well because he was on loan (Echeverri is facing the same issue at Leverkusen even though City advised him to go to Girona on loan). So he only wanted to consider clubs that wanted to buy him (apart from liking their set-up etc). That's why Porto came out on top. They offered to buy him permanently rather than loan him.

Even the sell-on rights, Porto outsmarted you guys. They bought the rights back from you before selling him to City. So the 20% was off the agreed upon price between Porto vs Barca. It wasn't 20% of what we paid Porto for him.

Kilishihunter:
Nico was loaned out cause of the overbooking in central midfield under Xavi and his lack of defensive awareness (especially positionally) at the time which Porto improved on, we had to sacrifice a few midfielders after busi left and it was unfortunately him but you're right on city trying to get him since when he was at la masia though, we got him to resist the offers to sign a new contract

Was this not my point? Did I ever claim he was the finished article? Even at City he has been developing. What's surprising all of us is how QUICKLY he is adapting. That was why I even hyped him. Nobody has ever argued he was ALL that before he left Barca.

The point was City believed he could develop into a replacement for Busquets and tried to use Girona to steal him earlier when he was cheaper. And then tried again at Porto but got desperate when we had that bad patch end of 2024. Even our Chairman on video admitted we had planned to sign everyone we got in January by the next summer. Our bad form just made us start early.

Palmer couldn't break it into City's team of 2023 but City were going to rush directly to buy Nico G then so he'll waste away on the bench. LOL

Barca fans didn't know him, ya know.

Treble winners City, should DIRECTLY rush to buy a developing talent that needs game time to develop when they can use a feeder club called Girona to do it?

What other advice do you have for the most successful club in the world in the last decade?

andrewbaba44:
Nico Gonzalez wey some barca fans no remember ,this one wan force agenda

Just admit it. You don't know your club as much as you claim. No need to be hiding behind "being a Barca fan". There are many threads on X by Barca fans sewn from 2023. Go and read the comments underneath it. You have access to many articles written by your seasoned journalists. These are examples of the data Google AI has access to.

For you to have an opinion to invalidate what can so easily be sourced online you have to submit your own evidence. Not appeal to being a Barca fan.

That's a clownish argument.

andrewbaba44:
When we Dey trenches Nico Dey start for us under Ronald koeman at times ,xavi no even rate am ,he wasn’t good enough to start for us ,he struggled at Valencia and developed at Porto

You Dey ask me for evidence for my team again ,you don’t follow my team yet you are capping

My pain ? Anyway Enjoy your imaginary battles ,lmao

So no evidence just meaningless word salad?

Next time, don't challenge me when you have no facts to back up the imaginary nonsense you just spewed.

Look at what Google AI could summarize from the multiplicity of data it could source. Learn something today.

Xavi misprofiled the player. Pep is developing him into his true potential.

andrewbaba44:
Where did I say city didn’t own girona ?

All these fake news ,there was no time Nico was supposed to join girona from Barca

Happy Nico is succeeding at city

We don’t need him at Barca ,it was best for him to move because there was no way he is better than gavi or even FDJ

No need to tell lies ,enjoy your Nico in peace without fabricating lies ,him type reach 2 million for la masia

Mr 5 years early

So I trained the Google AI to lie on my behalf.

I understand your pain.

Do you have any evidence Nico was sold to Porto because he wasn't better than Gavi & FDJ or should we just take your story lies?

popizaino:
FC Haaland unless,pep guardiola gets everyone scoring without depending on Haaland no one would be surprised about your season.

We've been accused of being KDB FC, Gundo FC, Foden FC, Rodri FC. Almost as if, Pep switches the system to maximize his best player per time.

Meanwhile, City's run to finish 3rd last season transpired at the moment of the season when Erling got injured. Funny how you did not check any data before having this opinion. The narrative was initially KdB leaving meant there was no one to create for Haaland, but now that Haaland isn't lacking chances, the team becomes Haaland FC. LOL

Soon it will be Cherki FC, Nico G FC - una no dey tire to come up with new rhetorics every season.

Which team do you think will be more consistent in scoring? The one that depends on setpieces or the one that depends on their striker? Have you seen any team score 53 setpiece goals in one season?

Leave City oh. We are not good. The 3 good teams are CFC, LFC and AFC. The end.

andrewbaba44:
How you stole him from Barca ke

So you used Porto to take him away from Barca

This one na season film o

Interesting

Who do you think owns Girona FC?

Or you think the players going to Strasbourg aren't CFC players in waiting?

You people are always 5 years late.

Godx:
Its refreshing playing again with a competent midfield. I actually wrote off Nico last season but damn he has been top class. I wish Pep would find a way to fit Nico and Rodri in the same line up.

That's part of the plan B for the season. Or most likely what the team will look like towards crunch time around Mar-May. I suspect it like you.

I always believed in Nico G. But just like us this season, I wanted him to go under the radar so that Spain will not overuse him in Rodri's absence. His potential is higher than Rodri's and Rodri is the most complete midfielder of his generation. I've never seen a player adapt to the Pep 6 role as quickly perhaps since Busquets. He still has some gaps obviously; for example, he doesn't have Rodri's passing & playmaking but he'll pick it up in time.

One day, I'll share how we basically stole him from Barca due to Xavi's carelessness. Busquets personally begged Pep to ensure he snuck him away from Barca. Initially, we wanted to use Girona to sign him but he preferred Porto. Then Conceicao started using him as a box to box midfielder & that was when City knew we had to rush quickly before the world knows who we have.

We hired the guy's father for years just to make sure we'd get Nico. This has been years in the making. See how Rodri is having time to recover. Let me stop here for now. People will be surprised what this season will be like for City. I've just been laughing.

Godx:
Cherki was bad today, Both Nicos were World class as usual and shout out to Bernardo. Nunez also shut down that leftwing. Ait nouri is already looking like a waste of funds thanks to O'Riley. Those that doubted city will eat the words and feets come May.

I haven't watched the full game yet but I am sure Cherki was nervous. Big game jitters. Same as his first game at the CwC. The team will still be building chemistry because we still have to integrate our BdO midfielder.

Bernardo wouldn't consistently be a starter. Reijnders will start depending on how much we want to play in transition.

The most important thing is, I want Cherki to understand he will need to learn to play within the team. Something Doku is now improving on as well.

NOR definitely should hold LB for now, but at the beginning of the season, Guillem Balague wrote an article about talking to Pep about the 2 players that excite him for this season. He said RAN was one of the names because he can even play 10. RAN will work on his physicality like Nuno Mendes needed to do but his own arc is incredibly high. This team still has some ways to go. The whole strategy was to stay competitive till March next year when the team, hopefully peaks.

AirBere:
Brother when you spend, you gads deliver. That's the whole point lol.

Yeah, I definitely agree with that. Just saying PSG was a different kettle of fish. Even Enrique needed another season & to sell off Mbappé. I usually get defensive of Poch's time at PSG and Chelsea because the circumstances focus on the finances of both clubs rather than the internal politics with upper management and egomaniacal superstar players.

teeshet:
Where is Android17

I watched only the 1st 30 mins. As soon as Erling scored I had to attend to other engagements. But I recorded it so I'll take my time to watch it with a relaxed mind later today.

AirBere:

Lol. When you spend, there's added pressure to win which in most case may look like witchcraft/witch-hunt.

Ask Pochetino when he was given unlimited money to spend at PSG then Chelsea

Pochetino was given which unlimited money and in which squad?

Poch joined PSG to correct Tuchel's mess up mid-way into the season. Same way he came to clean up your CFC team that were 12th before him.

I don't know why people here pretend or memory-holed the fact that Ancelotti lost a Ligue Un trophy to Montpellier when he was with PSG. He still gets no criticism but Poch does for finishing 2nd from the 3rd Tuchel left the team at.

Poch also won the league the very next season. Got to a UCL SF. See if it was easy to manage PSG that had divas like Mbappé and Neymar before bringing Poch up.

He is still the standard everywhere.
1000th game in management tomorrow. Still the highest winning percentage.

Last name: Ever.
First name: Greatest.

Josep "Pepper Dem" Guardiola.

I hate a goofy especially
They're always dying to mention me
They've got to go
They've got to go
They've got to die out eventually
I will not give them the recipe
Slowbinus is never a threat to me
If my enemies want to be friends with my other enemies?
I don't let it get to me

Leyqute:
Foden don score you don show face. Yeye Carragher

Sssssshhh

Silence, is the best answer not violence.
It's why I bring war on the violins
This is Armageddon dog, hear the sirens
And no, I'm not retiring...

teeshet:
People should stop hyping Osimhen. He scored two penalties

The arguments here are usually very IQ reducing. Always in poor taste & very brainless.

Jackson is the issue...Jackson...Jackson. He's now gone.
Pedro. Pedro. Pedro. Delap. Club World Champions.
We shall win everything. We are the best.

Now, they need Osimhen. Osimhen is the missing piece to the puzzle. Till he comes, then they'd find a new scapegoat. Rinse. Repeat.

And some people still stood behind the guy making such arguments. Chai.

2nd hand embarrassment.

teeshet:
they say he is not better than palmer

If you ask me....na who I go ask?
The matter wey you see so...e tay when e start
No be me go talk am....e heavy for mouth...
If you ask me...the matter for ground...ayy...na who I go aaaaaaaaaaaaaask?

Too many people deny
Oluwa don co-sign
Can't believe this his life
Everything come align
They looking at him so surprised
Shọmọde lo dun bayi
I know it's hurting your pride
Believe me we don't mind

Nemesis0147:
what people don’t understand sometimes is that some of these online stats are false….nothing beat watching the game live

And in the event they are not fake, the people deploying them usually don't know how they were curated or what they mean. I've encouraged people to watch games on mute so they won't be regurgitating the opinion of commentators - many of which are agenda-driven. There is a reason they are commentators not managers or coaches who can actually influence the game.

andrewbaba44:
Aside their signings sha , was tipping Liverpool to win the league because I don’t trust arsenal and city aren’t consistent as before

But as of now arsenal should be winning the epl easily

The mail wasn't for you per usual.

Nothing wrong with tipping Liverpool. I agree they will be there or thereabouts. Its the fact people were so quick to dismiss them because of their bad patch. To me, its too reactionary and greatly dilutes the quality of conversations people have here.

Same goes for the other team people hype. Nobody wins league titles in November. That this has to be said in big 2025 is troubling. Bayern beat PSG at the group stages last UCL season as well but PSG picked form when it mattered.

Per City, people should try to study trends a little bit. The consistency always - I repeat - always happens in the next year of the season. I won't say more than that for now. Only that "weak" City finished 3 pts behind 2nd last season. That was the weakest City in the last 8 years or so.