Man City Transfer Rumours: Gerard Pique & Marco Reus Updates
By Mike Hemmins
If you just can’t force yourself to read any more comments from Paul Scholes, how about today’s update on the latest Man City transfer rumours, featuring Barcelona’s Gerard Pique and Dortmund’s Marco Reus?
Jun 8, 2013; Miami Gardens, FL, USA; Spain defender Gerard Pique (3) plays the ball as Haiti forward Peguero Jean Phillipe defends during the second half of a friendly at Sun Life Stadium. Spain won 2-1. Mandatory Credit: Robert Mayer-USA TODAY Sports
So both rumours have been doing the rounds for quite a while now, with more and more clubs being drawn into the mix following so-called ‘reports’ suggesting top Premier League clubs have tabled massive bids for both players and will be fighting it out over the coming weeks, desperate to land either, or both players.
Honestly? Until City, United and/or Chelsea actually confirm a deal has been officially placed, it’s all nonsense, but in the interests of clarity, let’s take a deeper look at each rumour and check the plausibility (or not).
Gerard Pique: I do like Pique, but look…would you really want to leave sunny Spain and La Liga? Not sure I would, but the Guardian’s Ian McCort lays it out much better than I can here: http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/oct/29/football-transfer-rumours-barcelonas-gerard-pique-to-chelsea
Of course Barca’s new head coach Luis Enrique doesn’t seem to have a great deal of confidence in the former Manchester United player, but at the end of the day, he hasn’t got much option. The Catalan side face a long transfer embargo this winter, so even if they wanted to shift Gerard Pique, why would they if they don’t have enough centre-backs right now?
Don’t forget, Barcelona were scrambling right to the end of the summer window to sign Thomas Vermaelen, who in my opinion is no better than Pique, but in bringing the former Gunner to the Camp Nou, highlights just how short Barca are in defence.
In wrapping up the Pique issue, let’s also be clear where the rumour started from, which is by all accounts from Francois Gallardo, who claims to be a respected FIFA qualified agent, but is apparently neither respected or indeed an agent, but he is the person responsible for perpetuating the rumour that Lionel Messi had signed for Paris Saint-Germaine. Hmm…
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Marco Reus: So it’s getting plainer day by day that Marco Reus is feeling a little left out at Dortmund. His best mate Mario Gotze and former team mate Robert Lewandowski have both orchestrated sky-high deals to join the Guardiola revolution at Bayern Munich, and it looks like Marco wants to join the party too.
Of course the guy has a lot of talent, but by all accounts he has an agent with an imagination greater than William Shakespeare, if you believe the wages being demanded for his clients’ signature. With reports estimated at EURO12 million per year, Reus is valuing himself at 150% that of Toni Kroos who only left Bayern because they refused to pay him EURO8 million.
Now as good as Marco Reus is, he is not in my opinion better than Toni Kroos, so if Bayern are not going to pay Kroos, I can’t see them paying out for Reus, can you? Which leaves him having to ‘offer himself’ to the Premier League.
So what are the chances that this story from today’s Man City transfer rumours update, will come to fruition and see Herr Reus playing in sky-blue next year?
My personal thoughts, no… hopes are, that City pass on this and any other high price players that hit the radar screens over the next few months and even years. Don’t forget Michel Platini and UEFA have already wealded their hammer over FFP and I have no doubt that they would thoroughly enjoy doing so again.
Splashing crazy amounts of money on players untried in the Premier League (cough…Mangala) has to stop and the club have to accept that players need to be sold before new players can be brought in. City’s squad is ageing as both Jose Mourinho and Paul Scholes have kindly pointed out and the board need to release whatever value is left in some of the players already here, to generate the funds to bring new players in.
But then again, what do I know