Assessment of our business this summer | Poll Added

[Keeper!]

Very hit and miss. Our scouting network and transfer decision making needs a shake up.

You will be hanging from that crane in the morning

 

[Keeper!]

Nunes was our most baffling purchase of Guardiola's reign. He showed nothing at Sporting or Wolves to suggest he's at the level we need.

Yes, he can run around a bit, but so can a triathlete. It doesn't make triathletes great footballers.

We have the world's best midfield player, but for me a weak midfield unit, slow and very pedestrian, we need some youth and pace in there.

 

[Semper aggressus]

I rate our business bit worse after actually seeing the players for 6 months + now.
we did miss out on 3 big targets Bellingham, Rice, Paqueta, and all 3 would be a starter midfielder imo, to end up with Kovacic who is not a fixed starter and Nunes who is not even a regular sub, well this is something if it happens at the rags I laugh on them to be fair.
bit like liverpool missing out on Bellingham and Caicedo ending up with Wataru Endo. but at least got Mcallister through the door who is a crucial starter for them.

we should have done much better in the summer window after treble win. we had the money for it for sure.

Doku/Gvardiol both played relatively lot, both very young, talented, long term hopefully they will be great for us, albiet Gvardiol imo not a LB certainly not an offensive LB. I dont see any offensive skills about him in the shape of a Dani Alves, Cancelo, Maicon, TAA type of fullback of making sick crosses, getting goals from fullback, deliver lots of assists etc.
Doku has lot to improve fitness wise, tactically, off the ball if he does that he has a future at City.

but short term not one of these 4 players is an improvement on the player they are replacing from last season when they play. if we had just one player come in and blow away competition like Haaland last season. not a top star in the making like Haaland but someone who comes in, becomes a starter and the rest of the teams think fuck this is a magical transfer making them even stronger.
they dont say that so far of Gvardiol or Nunes for sure.

Rice does make Arsenal lot more solid than Xhaka did last year, also his leadership skills adds a bit more backbone to their team plus a few clutch goals already provided by him too. also he is never injured, able to start 36/37 PL games a season he did that for years at WHU too, he is a freak in that sense.
cost a shit load to Arse, but I would rather spend that much on someone like that than close to 60m on Nunes or 110m on Nunes+Phillips.

I agree 100% with all of this, sums up last summer’s transfers perfectly. It’s very disappointing that having won the treble we couldn’t attract better players that summer. Should have gone fucking huge, cemented our dominance. We were too complacent or not ambitious enough, especially as we must have known we were losing Gundogan who was a legend in my opinion. Then Mahrez going too left us very light but Kovacic and Nunes are average at best.

I still believe if we’d kept outbidding Arses for Rice we’d have got him. That one-off half-arsed £90m was strange. Hypothetical of course but I wonder how much weekly wage it would have taken for us to persuade Bellingham we weren’t “a plastic club” and snub Madrid for Pep’s all-conquering treble winners?

Hopefully the board have seen how others have caught us up this season and blow open the transfer market in summer.

 

[KennyG]

Many reasons as to why transfers don’t happen, but once Bellingham was off the table, Rice was non negotiable, should’ve paid £120m if that’s what it took. Didn’t need Nunes, full stop.

Palmer for Doku is a classic example of ffp gone wrong. Forcing clubs to sell academy products as it looks better on the books.

Looking forward, we should be all over Mbappe, even if it eventually means Erling goes to Madrid. He’s the ultimate Pep player.

Question is, how long is Pep staying. Could be a tricky summer if it is his last year.

 

[balotellishaircut]

Many reasons as to why transfers don’t happen, but once Bellingham was off the table, Rice was non negotiable, should’ve paid £120m if that’s what it took. Didn’t need Nunes, full stop.

Palmer for Doku is a classic example of ffp gone wrong. Forcing clubs to sell academy products as it looks better on the books.

Looking forward, we should be all over Mbappe, even if it eventually means Erling goes to Madrid. He’s the ultimate Pep player.

Question is, how long is Pep staying. Could be a tricky summer if it is his last year.

Maybe you need to give the new signings a season bedding in before throwing them under a bus, Palmer wanted to leave and Mbappe has wanted Madrid for years now, besides with our ffp structure we couldn’t afford him.

 

[Cobra]

We had an ideal Rodri backup in Lavia yet sold him and bought a far worse player for 3 times the price. We had an ideal Mahrez replacement in Palmer but sold him and now Foden is the only right winger we have. I actually think Harwood-Bellis is the only centre back who could properly do the Stones midfield role because he’s so comfortable on the ball, but it looks like he’ll be sold in the summer too. No doubt McAtee will be sold without getting any actual chances to impress and we’ll go out and sign someone who isn’t any better. And it wouldn’t surprise me if Bobb starts getting frustrated too with his lack of playing time either.

 

[Tricky_Trev]

We had an ideal Rodri backup in Lavia yet sold him and bought a far worse player for 3 times the price. We had an ideal Mahrez replacement in Palmer but sold him and now Foden is the only right winger we have. I actually think Harwood-Bellis is the only centre back who could actually do the Stones midfield role because he’s so comfortable on the ball, but it looks like he’ll be sold in the summer too. No doubt McAtee will be sold without getting any actual chances to impress and we’ll go out and sign someone who isn’t any better. And it wouldn’t surprise me if Bobb starts getting frustrated too with his lack of playing time either.

I’ve mentioned before I feel like Bobb will follow the same path as Palmer, purely because we will be actively looking to bring in a winger or two (Savio and maybe another winger in, with Savio out on loan again). His chances to play will be even less next season. As Pep has said, that’s fine for a year or two, then they get fed up. Same will happen again most likely.

 

[decmancity]

Many reasons as to why transfers don’t happen, but once Bellingham was off the table, Rice was non negotiable, should’ve paid £120m if that’s what it took. Didn’t need Nunes, full stop.

Palmer for Doku is a classic example of ffp gone wrong. Forcing clubs to sell academy products as it looks better on the books.

Looking forward, we should be all over Mbappe, even if it eventually means Erling goes to Madrid. He’s the ultimate Pep player.

Question is, how long is Pep staying. Could be a tricky summer if it is his last year.

I don't believe Rice was ever joining us once Arsenal put their deal on the table so its a moot point.

Palmer wanted time, Pep didn't think he was ready so he left to prove a point. We went and signed one of the best attacking u21 players in Europe, hardly a downgrade.

In what way is Mbappe a Pep player?

 

[Paul1970]

I agree 100% with all of this, sums up last summer’s transfers perfectly. It’s very disappointing that having won the treble we couldn’t attract better players that summer. Should have gone fucking huge, cemented our dominance. We were too complacent or not ambitious enough, especially as we must have known we were losing Gundogan who was a legend in my opinion. Then Mahrez going too left us very light but Kovacic and Nunes are average at best.

I still believe if we’d kept outbidding Arses for Rice we’d have got him. That one-off half-arsed £90m was strange. Hypothetical of course but I wonder how much weekly wage it would have taken for us to persuade Bellingham we weren’t “a plastic club” and snub Madrid for Pep’s all-conquering treble winners?

Hopefully the board have seen how others have caught us up this season and blow open the transfer market in summer.

Wouldn’t have mattered what we bid for rice he wanted arsenal and Bellingham wanted Real Madrid so there is nothing we could do about that . Kova for £25 million is a very good deal josko fod £75 million atm is not great but he is playing left back and it’s his first season so we can give him that . Doku is another who shows what he can do but he needs to get some direction as most of the time he is like an headless chicken . Nunes is the one did that should not have happened because once the paqueta deal was dead in the water we should have gone with what we had and kept mcatee .

 

[Dribble]

I agree 100% with all of this, sums up last summer’s transfers perfectly. It’s very disappointing that having won the treble we couldn’t attract better players that summer. Should have gone fucking huge, cemented our dominance. We were too complacent or not ambitious enough, especially as we must have known we were losing Gundogan who was a legend in my opinion. Then Mahrez going too left us very light but Kovacic and Nunes are average at best.

I still believe if we’d kept outbidding Arses for Rice we’d have got him. That one-off half-arsed £90m was strange. Hypothetical of course but I wonder how much weekly wage it would have taken for us to persuade Bellingham we weren’t “a plastic club” and snub Madrid for Pep’s all-conquering treble winners?

Hopefully the board have seen how others have caught us up this season and blow open the transfer market in summer.

To be fair, Gundog was always on the cards to leave & Pep saw Kovacic as his replacement (which hasn't developed that way), but losing Mahrez was something we hadn't legislated for, albeit we'd been monitoring Doku as an eventual Mahrez replacement for a while.

I've high hopes for Jeremy because I've seen improvements in his all round game in the short time he's been with us, & more recently the defensive & tackling side of his game.

It's the Nunes signing that baffles me. We panicked after the Paqueta betting investigation came to light & bought a player who's never shown the level we need at his previous clubs imho, & I've seen nothing since he's been here to change my mind.

As for going big after last season, I agree to a degree, but we should only be buying proven world class players who can hit the ground running, or youngsters with huge growth potential like Gvardiol & Doku.

Where we're at is easy to correct. Sell Philips & Nunes, & go balls deep for Wirtz (KDB), Paqueta (Gundog), Neto (Mahrez), & see if Alphonso Davies to Real is the done deal everyone thinks it is.

The important position we need to cover is that of Rodri. Rice was always nailed on to ArseAnal, & Rodri is without peers in world football. I'd love Camavinga, but we've three chances of Real selling him, slim, no & fat fucking, however what about Tchouameni?

I believe the reason we never went big is through the paranoia of being accused of ruining football, being FFP/PSR cheats & us having one eye on our current battle with the PL, & how spending £300m might be perceived. Bullshit, I know, but in the court of public opinion, these things matter.