Yeah, it's incredibly frustrating. Think Chelsea and Leicester have shown in recent seasons (& Spurs to an extent) that if you want to challenge and not lose tricky games you need a settled team, especially defence.
I said a few weeks ago we need to try and scrape through the opening weeks given the fixtures and problems we have, & almost regroup after international break, but it seems as if it will cost us again.
Let's see if we see movement over the next few days if this £70M offer is true, I see no real reason to hold off anymore if the intention in private is to accept it.
Alright, so I had a look at the international fixtures to work out when this can feasibly happen. To give some context, Chile's match vs Paraguay is on 31st August and right now they are involved in a dog fight with 4 other teams for 3 (guaranteed) spots. So this match is incredibly crucial for Chile. Based on media reports, all players are expected to report to training in Chile on 28th August (Monday) or 29th August (Tuesday) and it's fairly obvious that Sanchez is not the type to be running late where the national team is concerned. Arsenal's next match is on 27th August, so if Sanchez is in the squad for that match, then there's literally no time left to do last minute bargaining, contract signing, medical, media events, etc. So yeah based on that, if I were to make an educated guess, I would say that the Sanchez deal has to happen before Arsenal's next match (27th), otherwise both clubs would be in a very tight spot to make it work (considering he'll be leaving for Chile by 28th).
It's purely down to bad management and poor scouting.The problem stems from a few years back. We were losing players, and knew we had to start to pay well to attract & keep players. Problem is, guys like Debuchy & Gibbs are on good money, they don't really want to drop in wages.
Also the fact we have placed a value on some and are trying to get as close to that value as possible. I think we placed £15M on Gibbs, £20M on Chambers, close to £15M for Lucas for example. You'll likely see us becoming more flexible with that as the window closes.
They are far away the most likely title winners I've seen so far this season, barring us, but I've only seen us once. The others look nothing. Early days of course, so a lot can change, except Arsenal.
Rags' defence looked as bad as ours v Swansea though, which is encouraging. If that doesn't work, they are out. We might just get away with ours fucking up but they won't.
If we are intent on having a huge Achilles heel at cb, I hope we do get Sanchez as we will probably need the extra goals.
Seen enough of them yesterday where Swansea made them look average in parts of the game to say let's wait till after a dozen games to see if they are challengers.
Don't understand why Holding was dropped all together, not even bench...Least have Mert starting because that defence was all over the show when tested.
Think you need a CB after selling Gabriel, also Bellerin in LB just a waste, cutting back every time when you have the best LWB in Bundes last season playing CB, great work by Wenger to put players all over :D
It's purely down to bad management and poor scouting.
Agreed on all counts.
In part. But you guys must know out of all teams how hard it is to sell players you want rid of when they are on good money. You still have the likes of Mangala, Nasri & Bony in your squad.
Agreed on all counts.
In part. But you guys must know out of all teams how hard it is to sell players you want rid of when they are on good money. You still have the likes of Mangala, Nasri & Bony in your squad.
Wrong thread I know, but they only look strong IMO due to the quality of the opposition they have played which, being honest, has been pretty pathetic
So were we the start of last season and we finished third.. wahhhhhhhhhHave you not seen the sports media ? They're unstoppable ;-)
He's right mate. They have all of the same problems as last year with the exception that they now have a better finisher. They still look like a team that has no build up plan, are slow to transition into defensive shapes and very often get lost in the shuffle.
People are seeing a false dawn here and overreacting.
Which is why you cannot judge them. I saw MOTD last night and in one highlight they looked the same as last season when they dont have the ball. Pogba didnt know where to put himself and Swansea basically just cut through them. They will of course bully the lower teams and against the the likes of us and the rest of the so called top 5 they will revert to maureens park the bus, stagnate the game tactics.
That said the proper judgement will be when the rest of the other competition kick in, maureen will run his frst eleven into the ground before the end of the season. I haven't seen anything to be worried about to be honest. Even jenas on motd highlighted the fact they dont look that accomplished
We get Sanchez and that will just elevate our attack to another level
Sadly if they do beat the shit teams and just park the bus against the decent teams, they will have a great chance of challenging for the league.Which is why you cannot judge them. I saw MOTD last night and in one highlight they looked the same as last season when they dont have the ball. Pogba didnt know where to put himself and Swansea basically just cut through them. They will of course bully the lower teams and against the the likes of us and the rest of the so called top 5 they will revert to maureens park the bus, stagnate the game tactics.
That said the proper judgement will be when the rest of the other competition kick in, maureen will run his frst eleven into the ground before the end of the season. I haven't seen anything to be worried about to be honest. Even jenas on motd highlighted the fact they dont look that accomplished
We get Sanchez and that will just elevate our attack to another level
Highly doubt that. £50m-£60m should be enough. At least, that's what we should be targeting. Also, most reliable sources have indicated that he'll earn £300k a week (including bonuses), so it'll probably be £250K basic. Aguero is the highest earner at the club right now with a basic of £220k or something like that.
Sadly if they do beat the shit teams and just park the bus against the decent teams, they will have a great chance of challenging for the league.
True but their defence is shocking and is nowhere near mentally strong enough to hold out for 90mins. If they had the defence of Juve in its prime then yes I would agree. But not after seeing them get torn apart by Real, and then beat mediocre opposition and still look unconvincing without the ball.
Dont forget that they had a busy pre-season and are basically up to full speed straight away, that is what peg wanted all along. get fit and match ready asap so that they could bulldoze a load of early points.
Our last set of account showed our highest paid was on less than £200k pw. City now have a policy where we pay bonuses rather than huge wages. This is for two reasons, 1) it motivates the player, play well get a nice bonus. 2) in relation to FFP bonuses do not count! They can only assess us on wages earned not bonuses gained. It's a similar reasoning to business' paying CEO's etc a dividend. It was a loophole that's now abused by everyone.
Yaya was the highest paid until he took a pay cut last year & he was something like £180k if I remember correctly? All wages & fee's paid/received are in the official accounts for anyone to see.
When Mancini's team won the title, we were on another planet to the rags, but only won on goal difference.
They knew how to beat shit teams & had refs to help even it out on other occasions.
It doesn't matter if we are ten times as good, if they win every week, it means we have to do the same. The way they scord v us,pre season, just booting it forward, is the way about ten other teams (including Everton with Lukaku) scored v us.
We have done absolutely nothing in the market to fix that problem, just hope it goes away with practice.
Sanchez would indeed raise us even further away in quality, but it can't change their results. If they can beat enough shit teams, they will challenge.
I'm not buying that UEFA would let anyone get away with thatOur last set of account showed our highest paid was on less than £200k pw. City now have a policy where we pay bonuses rather than huge wages. This is for two reasons, 1) it motivates the player, play well get a nice bonus. 2) in relation to FFP bonuses do not count! They can only assess us on wages earned not bonuses gained. It's a similar reasoning to business' paying CEO's etc a dividend. It was a loophole that's now abused by everyone.
Yaya was the highest paid until he took a pay cut last year & he was something like £180k if I remember correctly? All wages & fee's paid/received are in the official accounts for anyone to see.