Is it time for a mini-rebuild?

Whether its called a rebuild or not some questions have to be asked about a few players and i also hope we dont have a season left in limbo if it is peps last one.

Also, some players, like nunez, wont be easily moved on at decent fees because of other clubs financial restraints.

KDB must be kept for one last season with pep , his legs have gone i know but he still has big games in him.

Walker needs to go. No questions really. He shouldve gone last summer. And his words after the final werent great

Johnny stones is the puzzle for me. Skill wise i call him world class, but his injuries make him too unreliable which i think is why in the back end of this season pep looked over his head.

Phillips, cancelo will obviously go but again with FFP who could take them at any reasonable fee? Gomez would be cheap enough for someone to snap up.

Kova hasnt really worked for me. I like the guy but was hoping he would replace gundo , which he is a million miles away.

Dont know whats gone on with grealish. Its like peps fell out with him. He was a guaranteed starter last season but with a few injuries this season its just not happened, similar to stones maybe. Got to keep him though and maybe move him more centrally.

Do we have another summer of bernardo and will he/wont he? Again, we need a sizeable fee if hes moving on.

So for me, yes a bit of a rebuild is on the cards.
If peps off i hope the new guy is already worded up and he will be putting his shopping list in asap, just like when we knew pep was coming and we bought his players for pellers last season
 
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mini?....Its time for a rebuild ,as we all see in the FA Cup final.....
 
We're a club that is constantly rebuilding and regenerating the squad. I think we have learnt from the time when we let the team under Pellegrini all grow old together. But let's not forget that this team has just amassed 91 points by regularly sticking four on teams in the last nine games. We have Lewis, Bobb and Doku who are all improving. This summer will not see wholesale changes and nor should it. Cancelo, Phillips and Gomez will move on, and so will a host of academy products. I fancy we may also see Walker depart. But that will likely be it. I'm increasingly confident that Bernardo will stay. Savio is already on the way in, and I can perhaps see three more joining him.

All of the above represents a good summer. We don't need to throw the baby out with the bath water just because we lost on Saturday.
 
GaudinoMotors said:
Wow - last week it was difficult to see how the team could improve -- this week everybody out!!
Some on here need to think more before adopting their shitting whippet stance.

A drop in intensity and an unexpected loss and wow. Obviously many are rags, but some should know better by now.
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In fairness more reflective commentary regarding this matter has been about for some time. As always who leaves dictates to a large extent who comes in. So if Bernardo, Stones and Walker all stay clearly less activity in the market takes place.
My own personal view is that our main issues next season involve understudies.
We really need a better backup for Rodri and it is evident to all that Kev is slowing down and cannot play the same amount of high intensity games as previously. Cover for Kev can perhaps be arranged from within current staff, a long term replacement is another issue entirely, but the evidence from last season is that nobody present can handle the Rodri role.
In conclusion, I suggest modest incremental change rather than anything radical is the preferred option.
 
Eric Hitchmough said:
What did he say?
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He said it was good for his mates and for all the hard work they put in over the season.

It was clumsy and has annoyed people. I personally think he's not that bright and didn't know how to articulate 'congratulations to them'.

I think Rodri would've called em out for throwing the manager under the bus all season and then delivering in a final!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
We don't rebuild. We don't need to. Christ, we just won the league! Look across the city for an example of needing a rebuild. Yes they won the fa cup, but the petulance, work-shy ethics of their highest earners is an embarrassment.

What City do is plan, and evolve. There won't be another walker or de bruyne. You don't just replace hat experience. Whatever comes next will be something new, but it will only be 2-3 moves at a time.

Integration with our demands and requirements, whilst honouring the players that served us well by helping them with the next move in their career.

Who ever thoughts we'd replace Yaya, David Silva, Company, Aguero? Yet we did, not the same but still successful year after year.

I don't see any real need to let anyone go. But if they do then the core of replacing it is already here, just with the addition of one or two more top talents. The right players, again look at the rag scruffs as an example of not what to do.
 
I do wonder all the talk of Pep potentially leaving next summer and how that will impact our ability to recruit. Pep is a huge pull to top players and knowing he is potentially leaving next summer will surely have some impact on their decisions.

I do think this team is at a crossroads. Kev, Walker, Bernardo, Ederson, Grealish, Stones have all been absolute cornerstones of our success, but over the next 2 years i think all could well be gone. What we can't do this summer is another transfer window of getting 2nd / 3rd choice signings in. We need absolute quality and as we know from experience, that's never an easy task. This summer and next will be critical to get the right players in to move on from that core group coming to an end.

We've done it before, i just hope we can do it again if Pep isn't staying longer than next summer.
 
Sibierskii said:
What restrictions?
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Basically from next summer, the 2025/26 season, you can only spend 70% of your income on purchases and wages it is currently set around 90%. It affects us more than most as we haven't much debt.
www.sportindustry.biz

Premier League clubs back plans for new spending cap - Sport Industry Group

16 Premier League teams vote in favour of new proposals, which would be brought in to replace PSR from the 2025/26 season.
www.sportindustry.biz www.sportindustry.biz
Basically this is the last summer window where we can spend 90% of revenue on the squad - next summer it is 70%
Basically, we can spend big this summer - but not next.
 
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The key question to all this is what happens with Pep's contract. If he doesn't want to carry on, it makes recruitment more difficult as players won't be as keen to sign for a club if they aren't sure who the new boss is.

My own personal feeling is that the team this season is weaker than it was last year and that it's cost us another treble.

Anyone who's not committed needs to go. If the rumours that Ederson is up for playing in Saudi, he needs to go and if Bernardo is still not wanting to stay we need to move him on too sadly. I'd be gutted if these 2 left as they've been magnificent for us.

We need to shift the ones who just aren't good enough (Nunes, Phillips, Gomez, Kovacic). We need to stop buying players who aren't good enough. Kovacic has been good at times but he can't be trusted to give Rodri a rest and he doesn't replace Gundogan either. He just doesn't influence games for me.

We need to look at players like Dias and Grealish who don't look like they are improving. These players just aren't essential players now - they've been overtaken and we're probably able to land a decent fee for them. I don't see Dias as being the player we bought and Grealish isn't a winger or midfielder - he's just not scoring enough, not creating enough or influencing games either.

Sadly, we need to look at players like Stones and KdB who are just injured too often. Stones is the best defender England have ever produced and KdB is the best midfielder to have played in England. But they aren't fit enough and, in KdB's case, past their best.

I honestly think if Pep stays, we could see quite a few players coming and going. If we don't, and our rivals improve, we could find it VERY difficult next season.
 
GoatersLeftShin said:
The key question to all this is what happens with Pep's contract. If he doesn't want to carry on, it makes recruitment more difficult as players won't be as keen to sign for a club if they aren't sure who the new boss is.

My own personal feeling is that the team this season is weaker than it was last year and that it's cost us another treble.

Anyone who's not committed needs to go. If the rumours that Ederson is up for playing in Saudi, he needs to go and if Bernardo is still not wanting to stay we need to move him on too sadly. I'd be gutted if these 2 left as they've been magnificent for us.

We need to shift the ones who just aren't good enough (Nunes, Phillips, Gomez, Kovacic). We need to stop buying players who aren't good enough. Kovacic has been good at times but he can't be trusted to give Rodri a rest and he doesn't replace Gundogan either. He just doesn't influence games for me.

We need to look at players like Dias and Grealish who don't look like they are improving. These players just aren't essential players now - they've been overtaken and we're probably able to land a decent fee for them. I don't see Dias as being the player we bought and Grealish isn't a winger or midfielder - he's just not scoring enough, not creating enough or influencing games either.

Sadly, we need to look at players like Stones and KdB who are just injured too often. Stones is the best defender England have ever produced and KdB is the best midfielder to have played in England. But they aren't fit enough and, in KdB's case, past their best.

I honestly think if Pep stays, we could see quite a few players coming and going. If we don't, and our rivals improve, we could find it VERY difficult next season.
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Is this a clarkie? You've just named half the squad.
 
adrianr said:
Is this a clarkie? You've just named half the squad.
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Nope.

Not all of them will go, but we need to look at some of the players this year that have either underperformed for various reasons, got too injury prone etc.

If we'd had the same quality of squad as last season, we would've won another Treble I'm sure of that.
 
The problem with a larger squad change is that you'd lose a bunch of players who know how we play and replace them with a bunch of guys that need at least half a season to get up to speed. Even if they were all the right signings, we might still underachieve due to them not settling immediately, and then we get another thread like this asking for a bigger change, with the usual suspects calling the new players duds

We've been very privileged to be a highly successful team for the last 7 years. And when you have that level of success, you only ever need to refresh and rebuild. Move on the older players and those who want to go, and replace them with high potential players and experienced bargains. The rest of the squad can carry them to the point where their talent will make up for them not being fully bedded in

Our focus should be on adding exceptional quality where we can find it, and suitably replacing any players who want to leave

I suspect none of our players will be considered too old to be of use this summer
 
For the first team playing squad it will continue to be evolution not revolution with 3 out and 3 in.

Several of the 'squaddies' will probably move on to create space for the best of the academy youth.

We have numerous players out on loan and releases from the academy who will be sold ie THB £20m to Soton.

It will be interesting to see the clubs reaction to huge offers being made by Vincent for Grealish,Walker,Stones,KDB,Ake for example.
 
Given that 8 players who featured just two years ago (Laporte Mahrez Gundogan Sterling Zinchenko Sterling Jesus Cancelo) are no longer at the club, I would suggest that the rebuild is ongoing

The bigger concern is whether it dilutes the performance levels, as happened at Liverpool in the 90s or United post 2013.

Sooner or later we might finish 2nd or 3rd, but it won't be a disaster, albeit some idiots will think otherwise.
 
GoatersLeftShin said:
The key question to all this is what happens with Pep's contract. If he doesn't want to carry on, it makes recruitment more difficult as players won't be as keen to sign for a club if they aren't sure who the new boss is.

My own personal feeling is that the team this season is weaker than it was last year and that it's cost us another treble.

Anyone who's not committed needs to go. If the rumours that Ederson is up for playing in Saudi, he needs to go and if Bernardo is still not wanting to stay we need to move him on too sadly. I'd be gutted if these 2 left as they've been magnificent for us.

We need to shift the ones who just aren't good enough (Nunes, Phillips, Gomez, Kovacic). We need to stop buying players who aren't good enough. Kovacic has been good at times but he can't be trusted to give Rodri a rest and he doesn't replace Gundogan either. He just doesn't influence games for me.

We need to look at players like Dias and Grealish who don't look like they are improving. These players just aren't essential players now - they've been overtaken and we're probably able to land a decent fee for them. I don't see Dias as being the player we bought and Grealish isn't a winger or midfielder - he's just not scoring enough, not creating enough or influencing games either.

Sadly, we need to look at players like Stones and KdB who are just injured too often. Stones is the best defender England have ever produced and KdB is the best midfielder to have played in England. But they aren't fit enough and, in KdB's case, past their best.

I honestly think if Pep stays, we could see quite a few players coming and going. If we don't, and our rivals improve, we could find it VERY difficult next season.
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So that’s just -
Ederson
Bernardo
Nunes
Phillips
Gomez
Kovacic
Dias
Grealish
KDB
Stones

We entering a 5 a side league? We just won the league for the fourth team in a row and you want to get rid of 10 from the smallest squad in the league? Absolute madness
 
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