It's Quiet 17 - Glory Thread

Zin 'messiah' Zimmer said:
Don’t often disagree with you mate but you’ve definitely taken the bait on some of that; the PSG stuff was mediocre and barca can position themselves all they like, Pep was playing his fiddle in the press conference Friday!
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Likewise, but we'll have to agree to disagree here mate. That post-match US tour interview Bernardo gave changed it all for me.

As I said a week ago, I've largely ignored all the Bernardo speculation over the last couple of years, as several BM ITK's have claimed that he may have wanted to leave after the Mendy incident & because of a lack of playing time, & then again after becoming homesick during the pandemic, but this was all in the past & he was once again happy & settled in Manchester & looking forward to a future with City.

That US tour interview said anything but that to me, & evidently it's spooked a huge swathe of our fans & has sparked more speculation about his future, even leading to Martin Tyler mentioning it as Bernardo came on yesterday, where he suggested some City fans might be averse to seeing him play! :-|

We don't need this imo mate, we need the certainty that players wanna be here as much as we want them. Right now, even I've been forced to connect the dots & accept Bernardo wants out. If not this summer, definitely next as he'll be entering the final 2 years of his contract & his value will start to dwindle.

As for Pep's reaction? It was pretty straightforward to me. He essentially said he only wants players who want to be here, & if a player wants to leave & Barç.... (he stopped at that point realising he let Barça slip out), & a club meets our valuation, any player is free to leave. Putting it all together, I'd say it was pretty damning & at no point has Bernardo or his representatives moved to end the speculation... \0/
 
Newman Noggs said:
From Soriano's book;

"Guardiola always prefers working with smaller groups with stable hierarchies and not a lot of internal competition. In the years that he has been leading the Barcelona first team, the number of squad players has diminished and some of the new signings that have arrived at the club have known that they would be reserves and should not question the existing hierarchy. Guardiola chooses to work with 14 or15 players that have his total confidence. The end result is a very stable playing style and a changing room that doesn't harbour much conflict. The obvious risk is a potential lack of resources in case of injuries or fatigue during the long seasons"

Not sure if his attitude has changed since arriving in the PL but our leaders seem content with the risks.
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The big difference is the quality of players in Barcelona's academy at that particular time. A proper golden generation.
 
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FantasyIreland said:
Cheers,genuinely i missed that interview.

I wanted Bernardo sold a couple of seasons for no other reason than his talent was being wasted on our bench when i believed he was better than was on the pitch.
I'm getting that feeling again with the quality we have elsewhere,and he always seems to be the fall guy.

This is a player clubs build a team around,he'll never have that here....and i think he knows that,hence the constant speculation about his future.
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I agree, but over the last 2 seasons I've seen a change & he's become integral to the way we play. It always seems to be if KDB is fit, he plays & it's one from Gundog or Bernardo who'll partner him which will piss off one or the other.

However that interview changed it all. Words alone can't convey it. You'll have to see it along with the look on his face & his body language to get a proper feel like myself & those who saw the interview did.

I saw an honest decent bloke who wants to leave, but doesn't want to cause any problems whilst he remains & will continue to give his all. That's essentially what came across from the interview.

Based on that, & similarly to Zinchenko, Jesus & Sterling, I'd like us to get the best price we can for Bernardo & grant his wish to leave, as long as we have a replacement. He's given us his all & all good things come to an end & if it's Bernardo's wish to end this chapter of his footballing life, then so be it. )(
 
Cobwebcat said:
I’ve been singing his praises for 2 years on here.

The replies you will get on BM are…

Bang average
LOL
Not our standard
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He's a very good player but nowhere near Bernardo

I love his attitude and self confidence though. He certainly wouldn't be fazed joining our squad
 
chaddblue said:
He's a very good player but nowhere near Bernardo

I love his attitude and self confidence though. He certainly wouldn't be fazed joining our squad
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Bernardo is sort of unique so I don’t think we would get a like for like replacement were he to leave.
 
Newman Noggs said:
From Soriano's book;

"Guardiola always prefers working with smaller groups with stable hierarchies and not a lot of internal competition. In the years that he has been leading the Barcelona first team, the number of squad players has diminished and some of the new signings that have arrived at the club have known that they would be reserves and should not question the existing hierarchy. Guardiola chooses to work with 14 or15 players that have his total confidence. The end result is a very stable playing style and a changing room that doesn't harbour much conflict. The obvious risk is a potential lack of resources in case of injuries or fatigue during the long seasons"

Not sure if his attitude has changed since arriving in the PL but our leaders seem content with the risks.
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If you look at the number of players who started 10+ games when Pep was at Barcelona you get 18, 17, 16, 18 in his 4 seasons. If you look at the number who played 10+ games it's 21, 20, 20, 22.

So while Pep may have talked about working with 14 or 15 players, it was simply never the case in reality.

Remember that was at Barca, where he had 1 less competition to play in, and could bring in unlimited numbers of Barca B players who were playing professional football every week to cover in easy La Liga games, which he did all the time. He actually used 31, 27, 31, 31 players in each season - way more then he ever would here.

It's not a coincidence that we won 4 trophies in the season we had the biggest squad. Nor is it a coincidence that Liverpool got 180 minutes away from a quadruple last season when they had a huge squad.

If you want to win across 4 competitions you need at least 20 reliable, proven players.

I would suggest we have 18, I'm not countring Rico Lewis or JWE, but will count Palmer. So we are at least 2 short.

That's before we even get into worrying about the world cup and the fact we have 3x as many players expected to go as Liverpool...
 
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