It’s Quiet 20 - What is the Wirtz that could happen?

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bugsyblue said:
Think it's more a consequence of the first time in the Pep era our squad is thin on world class talent. Even in his first season we were stacked with world class players. With KDB going, Bernardo likely too, Walker at the end of his career etc it's the first time we probably only have 2 or 3 world class players in our squad. We need a couple more to get back to the top and Wirtz is one of the few available this summer. And he seems, on paper, the perfect KDB replacement.
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Maybe we need to create these world class talents ourselves? Maybe someone like Echeverri can take that are? Look how good O’Reilly has been in a position he barely played. There‘s good talent we just don’t use them. Apparently we need legs so it’s not hard to plärr the younger guys. PSG does it , Leverkusen does it. Inter did with Bastoni and Bisseck now. Why cant we? We will see Bernardo and Gundogan against next season and will prolong our rebuild because Pep doesn’t wanna accept younger players until he has to. Rather have Echeverri/ Reilly and Nico Gonzalez as backups than Kovacic/Bernardo and Gundo who did their part.
 
rice10 said:
Football moves in cycles and maybe we are at the end of this particular cycle where we dominated England for a decade and Liverpool will take over.

Unfortunately all signs point to us being off the pace next season. If you compare the last two seasons under Pep that we didn’t win the league there were shoots, signs that things were going in the right direction. The season before the centurions we won the last 8 league games (I think) and we were starting to see what ideas pep had. The year Liverpool ran away with it if you looked at the underlying numbers, XG, etc. we actually had the better numbers we just kept making mistake each game and conceding to the first shot etc.

This season, there are no positive signs, no consistent “we’re playing well just been unlucky”. We are signing players Pep doesn’t rate over the guys on their last legs because he doesn’t play them and half of them don’t even make the bench.

We are going into a new season where we need to challenge Arsenal, Newcastle, Liverpool and to be honest I can’t think of many of our players that would get into their starting XIs.

The charges, whatever happens has not helped as definitely players at the very top don’t need to take the risk when more stable clubs are interested. The big one for me now is if Rodri will extend his contract. They’ve had all season to sort that out as he’s been injured but nothing has been announced and we are now entering Real Madrid come knocking season.

We want to win every season but it isn’t possible. The club have unfortunately made too many mistakes in the transfer market over the last 3 years and now we are left with a squad that do not suit the manager. Do you think Pep actually wanted us to sign Khusanov, Reiss, Nico, Savinho, Nunes, keep McAtee etc. my guess is no otherwise he would actually play them. I’d go one step further and say even Doku, Halland, despite playing are players that if Pep had a choice he would not have signed cos neither can be relied upon to keep the ball.

We might need to get used to the type of season we have just had for a few years before we get back to what we were.
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We're top of the league since we won away at Leicester
 
dhruvblue said:
Those stellar young guys are just numbers for pure profit and bottom line, will be sold like Palmer and we will be spending another 100m just to make up HG numbers
Manager just doesn’t fancy playing them
The manager even refused to play January signings
The manager has blind loyalty towards the old guard while other teams are moving ahead with new young signings playing exciting footbal
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Marmoush says 'Hi' from the January signings.
KDB has been told to go - is that the blind loyalty you speak of?
Who has exciting young signings? I've not seen any signings announced by anyone yet
 
King Jay said:
Maybe we need to create these world class talents ourselves? Maybe someone like Echeverri can take that are? Look how good O’Reilly has been in a position he barely played. There‘s good talent we just don’t use them. Apparently we need legs so it’s not hard to plärr the younger guys. PSG does it , Leverkusen does it. Inter did with Bastoni and Bisseck now. Why cant we? We will see Bernardo and Gundogan against next season and will prolong our rebuild because Pep doesn’t wanna accept younger players until he has to. Rather have Echeverri/ Reilly and Nico Gonzalez as backups than Kovacic/Bernardo and Gundo who did their part.
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We've been creating world class players for years. Pep has played many younger players over the years if he feels they are good enough.
 
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ojeme said:
I like the positivity but let’s be honest here. When Yaya left we already had KDB, when Fern left we soon got Rodri, when David left we had Bernardo, when Mahrez and Sane were to leave they were mostly coming from the bench and when Kompany left we soon went for Dias.

The reason why we’ve had a poor season is because we have spent loads of money buying players that are not quite up to that level of quality that people would normally associate with City.
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I don't agree, but that's the nature of forums.
How do you think the season would have been if Rodri, Bobb, Stones, Ake, Akanji and Kev hadn't been out for so long, not to mention the absences of Erling, Foden, Jack, Doku etc?
 
ojeme said:
I like the positivity but let’s be honest here. When Yaya left we already had KDB, when Fern left we soon got Rodri, when David left we had Bernardo, when Mahrez and Sane were to leave they were mostly coming from the bench and when Kompany left we soon went for Dias.

The reason why we’ve had a poor season is because we have spent loads of money buying players that are not quite up to that level of quality that people would normally associate with City.
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And, with hindsight, it has worked out very nicely. Perhaps we just need some patience because everyone said that Rodri would never be as good as Fern, just as one example.
 
King Jay said:
Which ones? Did we create ?
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Foden, for one.
Rodri, absolutely world class now and massively improved.
KDB became a great player with us.
David Silva became a great.
Kompany became a great.

If you spend your life seeking negativity, you will find it. It is not realism. Look at how these players are judged on here compared to when they arrived.

None of these players had legendary status when they arrived.
 
oldius said:
Foden, for one.
Rodri, absolutely world class now and massively improved.
KDB became a great player with us.
David Silva became a great.
Kompany became a great.

If you spend your life seeking negativity, you will find it. It is not realism. Look at how these players are judged on here compared to when they arrived.

None of these players had legendary status when they arrived.
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David Silva was already a starter for Spain he was considered world class when carrying Valencia with Villa. KDB was basically world class too..

The others sure.
 
oldius said:
Marmoush says 'Hi' from the January signings.
KDB has been told to go - is that the blind loyalty you speak of?
Who has exciting young signings? I've not seen any signings announced by anyone yet
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Only one has been able to say hi remotely

Nico couldn’t say hi
Neither Could Khusanov
Neither could Reis
Claudio couldn’t say that either
Even Bah won’t say hi
 
dhruvblue said:
Only one has been able to say hi remotely

Nico couldn’t say hi
Neither Could Khusanov
Neither could Reis
Claudio couldn’t say that either
Even Bah won’t say hi
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Do you actually know anything about these players?

Khusanov and Bah had the best defensive stats for U21 players in Europe at the time of signing.
Reis is the Brazil captain at U18 level.
Echeverri arrived on February 27th 2025.
Bah is currently on loan.

You will probably be someone who will trot out 'we failed to plan for the future' lines too.
I hope, and realistically imagine, that come the time when Stones and Ake have to leave us, that these talented young players are ready to step in. And, just for clarity:

Khusanov - 9 appearances
Marmoush - 21 appearances
Gonzalez - 15 appearances
 
oldius said:
If I was entering a new season with a front line of Haaland, Marmoush, Doku, Savinho, Phil Foden, Claudio Echeverri and Oscar Bobb, I would not really be too bothered about anyone else in world football and what they are going to do. That forward line has pace, power, dribbling, vision, control and creativity.

I just read another poster saying that none of our XI would get into Liverpool or Arsenal's XI. It is simply utter rubbish, and it seems that many posters are incapable of dealing with competition. We seem to have an inferiority complex as soon as we are challenged: everyone is better than us; every signing that others make is better than ours; and every XI has no gaps while ours is sieve-like.

We have had one poor season in 10 (and still have a chance to qualify for the CL), a season decimated by injury and illness. We are losing one of our greats and others are aging and will need to be replaced or augmented. We have been here before. We have lost Yaya, Sergio, Fern, David Silva, Mahrez, Sané, Kompany, and many others, and all were 'irreplaceable'. NOBODY IS IRREPLACEABLE.

Football is cyclical: one team bows out, another emerges. This is the nature of sport. Looking at our squad, there is no need to assume that we will be anything other than one of the best teams in world football for several years.

The exciting part, for me, is seeing who comes, not who doesn't, and watching the emergence of stellar young talent like Khusanov, Reis, Lewis, McFarlane, O'Reilly, Mfuni, Mukasa, Gorman, and McAidoo. I want to bear witness to the difference that having Rodri alongside Gonzalez makes, and seeing a second season for players like Marmoush and Savinho. I want to see if Oscar Bobb can kill it as a number 10, just as he did in the academy. There's so much to embrace and look forward to.
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Well said. I think we (mainly) as Blues were hell bent on wirtz being king Kevs replacement. Well he isn't. Oh well we move on with the unbelievable squad we will have in place for next season regardless.

Big one is our next wave of kids. Led by Phil, Nico and Rico the next batch will determine our success over the coming years. By sounds of it there are some exceptional prospects. Better play them not sell them!
 
Rammy Blue said:
I agree, a playmaker isn’t essential if we can get the above. Hopefully Phil gets back to form too.

The playmaker can be the person we target next summer.
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I wholeheartedly agree with this, Iv been saying this since writz was off the table.

Why go throw money at a player that isn’t “that” good just cause we shiny new toy?

For me, fix the midfield with MGW and reindjers, get the full backs to give us the width we need and we will be much stronger than this season.

Then wait till next season and see what’s on the market for this number ten role, who knows how it might play out. Foden could come good, bobb might become the best young player in the world or even musiala could become available.

Sometimes you just have to play the long game.
 
King Jay said:
Which ones? Did we create ?
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Nearly all the signing that have come in after the takeover haven't been world class, apart from Haaland who was already world class. The like of Stones, Bernie, Sane, Walker, Ederson, even Aguero weren't thought of as being world class until City got hold of them. Remember KDB was a sixty million pound flop when we signed him.
 
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