I'm not surprised.

[Twitter]

It always seemed an absurd rumour. Why would he choose United? It looks like they've been played by De Ligt's people to bend Barca to their will. United no doubt coming out to deny the rumour to calm down the fans that had started to get quite excited.

Sky sports news is not a very credible source although I hope they are right about this one.

Balague, for what it's worth, also says United were never in the running. He says it's between Barcelona, Juventus and Bayern. With the latter two offering more money.

Lille are looking to Dodi Lukebakio to replace Pepe, should we just nab Dodi instead for much less than what Pepe will go for.

Ricky1985 wrote:

[Twitter]

It always seemed an absurd rumour. Why would he choose United? It looks like they've been played by De Ligt's people to bend Barca to their will. United no doubt coming out to deny the rumour to calm down the fans that had started to get quite excited.

Banter club.

Ray wrote:

Lille are looking to Dodi Lukebakio to replace Pepe, should we just nab Dodi instead for much less than what Pepe will go for.

No. If we can get our hands on Pepe, let’s do that. Honestly, if we can get our hands on Pepeand then a Konate-level centre back, then this is a superb summer. We are free to promote some youngsters and look for some journeymen

Claudius wrote:

Ray wrote:

Lille are looking to Dodi Lukebakio to replace Pepe, should we just nab Dodi instead for much less than what Pepe will go for.

No. If we can get our hands on Pepe, let’s do that. Honestly, if we can get our hands on Pepeand then a Konate-level centre back, then this is a superb summer. We are free to promote some youngsters and look for some journeymen

Still comes back to IF we secure CL for next season or not.
If we do we can go after the likes of Pepe & Konate types, if not then we look to their replacements.

Ricky1985 wrote:

It always seemed an absurd rumour. Why would he choose United? It looks like they've been played by De Ligt's people to bend Barca to their will. United no doubt coming out to deny the rumour to calm down the fans that had started to get quite excited.

Either Man Utd have made a big offer but also know the player probably won't join them or they know the agent is using them to drive the players wages and his agent fees up.

raiola has fleeced man united on a few occasions. he knows how to use them to get the best fees for his players

Don’t want Fekir - he’s last seasons goods

Wouldn’t mind Fekir, in theory, he could cause havoc playing behind Aubameyang and Lacazette. He would actually shoot when presented with a chance.

The issue is, what formation are we going to play predominantly?

If 4-2-3-1 then fine. If it is 4-3-3 then no, especially as we lack wingers as it is.

Fekir is as much out of our price range as anyone if we don't secure CL for next season. Even then he's going to cost over 50m = this is Lyon and Aulas we are talking about.

@lorddulaarsenal wrote:

Don’t want Fekir - he’s last seasons goods

I've never been impressed by him either. Good numbers and underwhelming play just like a lot of Ligue 1 guys. You just know he's going to do a knee again within the next two years too.

I think Fekir is a quality player but I just don't see where he fits for us, at his price range seems like too much of a luxury for us this summer.

Qwiss! wrote:

I think Fekir is a quality player but I just don't see where he fits for us, at his price range seems like too much of a luxury for us this summer.

I think he works as a replacement for either / both Ozil & Mkhi as an AMC either in the lone #10 role in the 4231 or 5212/3412, or even as part of a 2 AMs in the 3421.  IIRC he also worked well with Lacazette, but he's not 'needed' if we don't shift at least one player from the attack, and even then we could probably sign Ziyech and another for what we'd be looking to pay for Fekir. 

Fekir is a good player. There are two big variables with him. That knee and Ozil. So wouldn't waste energy.

Gunner89 wrote:

Hazard obviously not as good as his immensely talented brother but a very capable winger at a cheaper reported price than Fraser.

I dunno, Hazard looks a bit Kolasinacy to me in terms of his level. Not sure he'd be up to much in the PL.

Weird comparison but agree Hazard is way too flaky. Disappears for months on end

None of our business, apart from the fact that Sane would be a dream Emery winger, but it's interesting to see bayern employ barca's tactic on city.
https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/matthaus-expects-leroy-sane-to-make-bayern-munich-switch/view/news/336801

Except Barca don't do it to other clubs' bench players.

Sané is too good to be wasting away on a bench because he doesn’t fit a specific vision of football. Imagine Sané on our team ahead of Mkhi or Iwobi. 3rd would never have been in question.

Absolutely. He's as good as Mane and with more potential.

Bold Tone wrote:

None of our business, apart from the fact that Sane would be a dream Emery winger, but it's interesting to see bayern employ barca's tactic on city.
https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/matthaus-expects-leroy-sane-to-make-bayern-munich-switch/view/news/336801

barca tactic? at least bayern has a plan for the players they're going after. no one can say sane wouldn't be better off at bayern vs wasting away on city's bench. they did it before with jerome boateng and he, the club and country were better off for that move. at the end of the day they aren't signing german players just to ruin them. at least it also helps the national team.

Qwiss! wrote:

Absolutely. He's as good as Mane and with more potential.

No way is he as good as Mane. People are in love with his pace but he has so many shit games where hes a complete passenger.

He's a lot younger than Mane though and his end product, which is pretty insane, is already better despite being in and out of the side. He's also technically a lot better. I'd take Sane every time.

His end product isn't better, Mane is the leagues top scorer this season ffs. He outscored him both this and last season despite playing in far weaker attacking teams

Sane: 14 goals and 14 assists in 2262 mins, that's a goal or assist every 81 mins
Mane: 26 goals and 2 assists in 4148 mins, that's a goal or assist every 148 mins

Quincy Abeyie wrote:

Sane is a beast. I’d be happy to see Pep make a mistake and lose him. Just not for 70m pounds

Neymar dembele swap. ..lol. That'd be something.

I think a powerful runner like Sane is the kind of player Barca should be chasing.
Their transfers have been shit since Xavi left and now they're totally dependent on Messi.
They've stockpiled midget technical players upon midget technical players which is okay for La Liga but not enough at the sharp end of the Champions League. No denying the MSN potency but the rest of the team was average. I also felt that Neymar's individualism would've been more suited to RM.