It's Quiet 18 - Wanna ring the bell?

[vincent]

Panic buying might help make it look like that. Sticking with their ongoing approach and making do with what we have till the summer, does not.

Yes, I agree with that but that was not the point a was making.

 

[blueparrot]

I’d say it has been. Apparently we were not going to bring in a midfielder last summer and Gundogan was just an opportunity that presented itself at the last minute. Madness. Furthermore, to sell Alvarez and not bring in a replacement was beyond ridiculous imo. Then we have players that have been bought that are clearly nowhere near good enough.

You don't know the reasons behind those decisions though. Neither do I but there would have been reasons and I could guess at a few myself.

 

[vincent]

You don't know the reasons behind those decisions though. Neither do I but there would have been reasons and I could guess at a few myself.

True. But clearly wrong decisions have been made and I’d be surprised if behind closed doors the powers do not accept that. Hence Pep saying in the last few days ‘on reflection we need a bigger squad’. They have got so much right over the years and have been brilliant but there has been some mis management in the last year or so imo.

 

[Gumzy97]

You don't know the reasons behind those decisions though. Neither do I but there would have been reasons and I could guess at a few myself.

Going to take a guess the club thought Pep was going to leave and that we had more than enough to get through this season. So then the money could be used on a new manager and director next summer. To build a team in that managers ideas

 

[Gaz (FMwkdsoul)]

Going to take a guess the club thought Pep was going to leave and that we had more than enough to get through this season. So then the money could be used on a new manager and director next summer. To build a team in that managers ideas

pretty much my thinking.

 

[Suffolk Blue]

My take on the Alvarez situation (and others have said similar) is that many thought this season would be Bobb's big breakout season in a similar playing position to Alvarez. Unfortunately no club can legislate for injuries

 

[bluemc]

Day 6 and we haven’t even got a verbal agreement for a player.

As far as we know.

And even if we haven't, we're on day 6 of THIRTY ONE.

 

[blueparrot]

True. But clearly wrong decisions have been made and I’d be surprised if behind closed doors the powers do not accept that. Hence Pep saying in the last few days ‘on reflection we need a bigger squad’. They have got so much right over the years and have been brilliant but there has been some mis management in the last year or so imo.

Is it clear, maybe this season not so great long term over the next few years we'll see the benefits of their strategy. When Pep says a bigger squad you do realise he only talking 1 maybe 2 more players ?

 

[RayCTID]

Hope your wrong mate as we are desperate for midfield and if no one cones then we are in for a real horror next few months .

Can't get the right quality this time around.Better to wait on that unless you want a repeat of the of Kalvin Phillips type.

 

[RayCTID]

What's Seth going to do?

Christian?

 

[Dribble]

I don't agree but that's just my opinion.

I think Pep's unique ability that led to his success was that he could instill a belief within a squad that if you made the team then he'd stick by you through thick or thin. That loyalty then lead to a team ethic and faith that no other team could match.

Add to that his innovative football coaching ability, his world changing tactics and everyone everywhere singing his praises as the best manager today and possibly ever.

But for whatever reason that faith has backfired last year (despite us still winning) and into this year. Keeping Walker, bringing back Gundogan, failing to figure out the Grealish dilemma, etc. All things that prove imo that he is not godlike. Maybe he is simply jaded. Or maybe his methods have a life expectancy for any one squad.

I just hope he can make us click like we did when we had prime KDB, Aguero, DSilva, Yaya, BSilva, Fernandinho, Kompany, Stones, Rodri, Sterling, Sané, Haaland etc....when he had players at their prime, playing football in style like no other, scoring amazing goals, defending like giants, basically being the history makers of football.

It's a lot to ask given where we are so I don't expect it but if he has us perfectly in tune by the end of this season then he will do even more to earn his amazing reputation.

(Just my opinion..in no way would i disrespect or not be utterly thankful for Pep's accomplishments and amazing efforts at City)

I think things are a bit more nuanced than that, albeit I agree with several of your points. I believe complacency more than faith in the squad has been our shortcoming, but not in the way it may seem.

Pep prefers a small elite squad. We'd repeated ManUre's historic treble & it's at that point where we should've gone big in the transfer market imo. Not a wholesale replacement of that squad, but in terms of succession planning.

Walker was still the best RB in the world imo. KDB was still in the top 3 midfielders in the world. Bernardo has always been criminally underrated. From the outside looking in, the quietly effective Rodri may not have been our best player, but most City fans recognised him as by far our most important. He's the glue that gells the rest together.

Stones had become probably the best footballing CB in the world at that point. Grealish began to make sense. He wasn't the Jack of Villa, but Pep had turned him into a wide central midfielder which allowed us to strangle teams to death with possession.

As a No 8, Gundog moved seemlessly between creating opportunities, supporting the attack & fortifying the defence when needed, & during that treble season he excelled. Add a young & increasingly influential Foden to the mix, with the Striking Viking & Alvarez, & that's some fuckin team!

HOWEVER, beyond those players (excluding Aké, Akanji, Dias & Ederson), there was a clear drop off in quality & most crucially, experience.

Now to the complacency. No one doubted the world class qualities of these players, but where we royally fucked up was not to consider the hand of ole Father Time. Only death escapes him. What was a delayed evolution, is now becoming a need for a desperate revolution, & that's on us!

As many of us feared, all it would take was a long-term injury to Rodri, & for age & injuries to creep up on the older members of our treble winning team, & the perfect storm was created. This is where I separate Pep's faith in his players from the complacency of thinking the perfect storm would never happen before our evolution commenced. Well it well & truly has, & we've been caught with our sky blue y-fronts down.

For whatever reason, we never legislated for playing 60+ games a season, with essentially a world class senior squad of 17 players, where half of them are either approaching 30, or in their early to mid-30s. It was a car crash waiting to happen imo!

Reports suggests that Pep now accepts he needs a bigger squad. WTF! \0/

HOWEVER, another thought crossed my mind regarding Txiki. We've learned he wanted to retire 5 years ago, but extended his stay until this summer. During that period, City monitored & identified his replacement, & by all accounts we've been in close contact with Viana & Sporting for nearly two years regarding our interest.

Now this is purely me speculating, but could our lack of major movement in the transfer market be down to not wanting to fill the squad with Txiki's preferred signings, leaving Viana with little to do for the next 3-4 seasons? It's like clubs knowing the manager is leaving, so being reluctant to saddle the new manager with new players from the previous regime on long contracts & big wages, in case they're not the types he wants?

Reading between the lines, it's not beyond the realms of possibility that this could've been the case. Unfortunately, the perfect storm of losing Rodri, crippling injuries, older players not having the physicality they did 2-3 years ago & us not having the experienced quality in reserve, has caught up with us overnight.

All it took was for a long-term injury to Rodri, for the dominoes to come tumbling down. This is all on City. I seriously hope major lessons have been learned.

 

[mosssideblue]

Day 6 and we haven’t even got a verbal agreement for a player.

and?

 

[mosssideblue]

We'll want to bring in players this window, if available. What we won't do is panic buy and end up in a situation where we've got more players who aren't at the required level. There's plenty of talent out there, it's whether we can bring it in this month or not. Whilst the CL place might be at stake without reinforcements, if the club can get it's top targets this month they will. If we can't then we'll wait to the summer. No one wants us to add more mediocrity, that's not going to resolve anything.

Whoah, you can't come on here and spout sense, the bedwetters will need another bed change

 

[Goater101]

Looking at the bigger picture, I think we have enough to get a top 4 place, Yes maybe a couple of new players will freshen up the squad and then get some players back from injuries, The title is gone long ago and the truth is it was going to happen one day and its happened this season.

But little signs at the weekend that we are getting some firepower back and the build-up to Haaland first goal was City of old, Also KDB has played a couple of 90 minutes and his game is slowly coming back.

But it's scary how open we are in midfield and when we press it only takes one pass and they are out and on the attack, Also the short corner is crazy when our defenders are in the box and we fuck it up

Look at the chances three poor teams in Leicester,West Ham and Everton had vs us. If we don’t sign anyone we won’t finish top 4.

 

[citytill1die84]

We'll end up with Douglas Luis and weirdly I'm all for it.

 

[ancoats]

Look at the chances three poor teams in Leicester,West Ham and Everton had vs us. If we don’t sign anyone we won’t finish top 4.

But every game has had little improvements and we are unbeaten, We had to stop the losing streak and that mental block we are going to lose again, The Better teams will get more respect in our midfield and Pep will play both Gundogan and Kovacic and one of the wide players will be dropped,

We get Dias and Stones back and maybe Grealish then the possibility of Bobb coming back you never know

 

[freshie]

The ghost of Michael Hutchence likes this post.


Too much?

Fucking hell! Very funny though

 

[blue61]

Day 6 and we haven’t even got a verbal agreement for a player.

How do you know we havent

 

[meeesh]

We'll end up with Douglas Luis and weirdly I'm all for it.

And to think he was once on our books, well I suppose he wasn’t with the work permit thing but I’d have him back proper terrier and knows how to tackle, a few could learn that if he comes

 

[ancoats]

We have no midfield, we have no press, we have no defense, we have no one who can find Haaland regularly outside of KDB, Nunes & Savinho and we have enough to get top 4??

Would you get that by trusting the same bunch that have 2 wins in 13 and allowed West Ham to almost get 5 goals vs us??

Need atleast 2 midfielders, a CB & a RB to be able to press and have legs in midfield.

Sometimes don't look back and instead look forward.

We are starting to pick up wins and players Like KDB and Ake and are getting fitter and match fitter
The Bad run was hard, But we are slowly getting some key players back and we are scoring goals