Outgoings & Strategy

[Axel Freed]

You think we’ve signed top class talent? You think we’ve replaced JA, CP?

We haven’t replaced Kyle…

Agree with your comments in this thread except re Palmer - we got top money for an unproven lad who was down the pecking order.

But yeah we’ve replaced elite players with mediocre ones who were available for middling fees. You get what you pay for.

Were the board stung by the criticism of the Grealish fee ? Are they fearful of the ramifications of potentially losing the legal case and are cutting their cloth accordingly ? Or are they thinking “mission complete, City are part of the establishment now, we can use that to boost the standing and reputation of the UAE without continuing to spend heavily” ?

Maybe it’s none of those reasons. Maybe they became complacent and expected that Pep and his genius could continue to bring us success on the cheap.

Whatever the reason, we either can’t or won’t spend big anymore and we’ll pay the price for that on the pitch

 

[NQCitizen]

Cole, Alvarez, Jack. Can’t tell me they wouldn’t elevate our squad.

My concern is that the hierarchy is now happy to compete, rather than win, if competing delivers greater financial return overall than winning does.

The strategy is get a load of talented players under 24 and build for the next cycle.

Gvardiol, Cherki, Doku, Savinho, Bobb, Lewis, Nico G, O'Reilly, Khusanov, Reis, Echeverri, Nypan, Trafford.

Some of them take stick now but they're all near the top of their age bracket.

I don’t expect to win the league this year, but this strategy probably makes us better for longer and I think we can all admit Palmer was a loss but who saw him being a Ballon D'Or candidate.

I think Viana is largely doing the right things so far.

 

[AndyP68]

Agree with your comments in this thread except re Palmer - we got top money for an unproven lad who was down the pecking order.

But yeah we’ve replaced elite players with mediocre ones who were available for middling fees. You get what you pay for.

Were the board stung by the criticism of the Grealish fee ? Are they fearful of the ramifications of potentially losing the legal case and are cutting their cloth accordingly ? Or are they thinking “mission complete, City are part of the establishment now, we can use that to boost the standing and reputation of the UAE without continuing to spend heavily” ?

Maybe it’s none of those reasons. Maybe they became complacent and expected that Pep and his genius could continue to bring us success on the cheap.

Whatever the reason, we either can’t or won’t spend big anymore and we’ll pay the price for that on the pitch

I was gutted we sold CP. He wasn’t established, but he wasn’t unproven and you could see he had talent.

I’m pretty sure titles are now a bonus.

 

[cleavers]

What the funk is this shite?

Same as all the other shit.

 

[AndyP68]

The strategy is get a load of talented players under 24 and build for the next cycle.

Gvardiol, Cherki, Doku, Savinho, Bobb, Lewis, Nico G, O'Reilly, Khusanov, Reis, Echeverri, Nypan, Trafford.

Some of them take stick now but they're all near the top of their age bracket.

I don’t expect to win the league this year, but this strategy probably makes us better for longer and I think we can all admit Palmer was a loss but who saw him being a Ballon D'Or candidate.

I think Viana is largely doing the right things so far.

All good players who can compete for Top 4 but not absolute beasts

 

[NQCitizen]

All good players who can compete for Top 4 but not absolute beasts

Not right now for sure, but I think right now we have the best Under 24 core of any club (except maybe Real and Barca) so give it a couple of years and quite a few of those might have become beasts. Not to mention Haaland and Foden are only 25.

We need to remember the likes of Silva, Aguero, Rodri, Kompany weren't the finished article when we signed them.

Liverpool might get one last title out of VVD and Salah but I think we're set up quite nicely for the future.

 

[NQCitizen]

Says it all when Spurs are after Sav - its about his level and nobody is after Doku so what does that say about him?

The 9th richest club on the planet wanting to make him their record signing and face of the club probably isn’t that damning tbf.

Weren't Real chasing Savio and Liverpool chasing Doku too when they signed?

Plus only English clubs can afford these players and we're not going to sell to direct rivals so Chelsea, Newcastle, Villa and Spurs are the most likely suitors for any player we sell.

 

[Earlyriser]

What I have found difficult to grasp is that we sold Palmer because we would not guarantee him playing time in Sept 23 yet we signed Doku a vastly inferior player a few weeks earlier. That tells me they did not handle the Palmer situation well as Doku went straight into the side

 

[Ysabel 123]

I bet not one person can provide a post on here saying that they were gutted that let Cole Palmer go for £42m at the time he left, 99% of us thought it was good business! No one was arsed! Just like were not with McAtee now!

Hindsight is a wonderful thing!

 

[Goater101]

We have to be brutally honest. The club have fucked around with recruitment. The replacements for players who left and the overall quality they’ve added to the team in the last 2 years simply isn’t good enough. The decision making has been bizarre. To top it all off they’ve messed around with the goalkeeper situation. Dropped Eddy integrated a new young goalkeeper who is now going to be dropped from the team to integrate another new goalkeeper when the season has already begun.

 

[citymad]

Cole, Alvarez, Jack. Can’t tell me they wouldn’t elevate our squad.

My concern is that the hierarchy is now happy to compete, rather than win, if competing delivers greater financial return overall than winning does.

How is competing or participating financially better than winning something?
You’re right though, all three would especially the team we have know but i suspect not under Pep.

 

[I'm With Stupid]

Agree with your comments in this thread except re Palmer - we got top money for an unproven lad who was down the pecking order.

But yeah we’ve replaced elite players with mediocre ones who were available for middling fees. You get what you pay for.

Were the board stung by the criticism of the Grealish fee ? Are they fearful of the ramifications of potentially losing the legal case and are cutting their cloth accordingly ? Or are they thinking “mission complete, City are part of the establishment now, we can use that to boost the standing and reputation of the UAE without continuing to spend heavily” ?

Maybe it’s none of those reasons. Maybe they became complacent and expected that Pep and his genius could continue to bring us success on the cheap.

Whatever the reason, we either can’t or won’t spend big anymore and we’ll pay the price for that on the pitch

Until last summer, we'd made a mega signing every one of the last 3 summer transfer windows.

23/24: Gvardiol for €90m
22/23: Haaland for around £50m but no doubt huge wages and signing-on fees
21/22: Grealish for £100m

I honestly think it's just that we've had too big a rebuild, and you can't spend that sort of money on every player. But yeah, perhaps they thought they could coast a bit. Perhaps they assumed that Rodri coming back would basically be like signing a new £100m player (which it is, to be fair) and that we were good enough in the second half of last season that we just needed a bit of tweaking. And the risk now is that they overreact to our awful start and buy yet more substandard players. The other risk is that they don't react to our awful start and the whole season is a write off.

But yeah, this will now be the second summer in a row where we haven't brought in a marquee signing (maybe we have, but we haven't paid the big money at least). Maybe they know Pep's leaving at the end of the season and so are tightening the purse strings to give a war chest to the next manager. One can hope.

 

[AndyP68]

How is competing or participating financially better than winning something?
You’re right though, all three would especially the team we have know but i suspect not under Pep.

To win you need to sign elite players who cost more

 

[TheGhost]

Had not seen enough of Palmer, but Alvarez we sold too easily IMO

£85m was more than enough. How we’ve reinvested that money has been a bit of an issue.

 

[RiversideBlue]

I think one of the biggest problems isnt talent. We seem to have lost our battle and desire. We roll over too easily and lack any sense of urgency at times. We need a warrior. Someone who can truly lead the team on the pitch and put a rocket up them when needed

 

[Citizen of Legoland]

To win you need to sign elite players who cost more

It’s not that simple. A winning squad will have various elements to it and some of those players will just be ordinary. The key is finding the right recipe and how to bring it all together. I think we have a lot of quality in the squad myself but we have also lost a lot of the experience that would have seen out that game. That’s our fault of course, but it’s not people like Cole Palmer or Julian Alvarez we needed yesterday, although Jack would have been useful if the right Jack had turned up.

We have to give them time to work it out. If Bobb learns how to finish better and Nunes to keep his hands by his side when defending we get 3 points, even when we weren’t particularly good.

 

[Craig]

Not right now for sure, but I think right now we have the best Under 24 core of any club (except maybe Real and Barca) so give it a couple of years and quite a few of those might have become beasts. Not to mention Haaland and Foden are only 25.

We need to remember the likes of Silva, Aguero, Rodri, Kompany weren't the finished article when we signed them.

Well, Aguero looked pretty close to being from his debut. Silva everyone knew about but he needed a bit of time to adapt, probably like Wirtz now. Kompany,yes went on to become a beast but was only not already at a top club a few years earlier because of terrible injuries. Rodri i grant you. However, Rodri was signed to replace a great player in Dinho when it was needed. Contrast that to the signings now. We had a great right back who should have been replaced after the treble. 2 years on we watched him predictably become a shadow of himself once his pace went. We’ve inexplicably gone from having the best right back in the league to not having a right back at the club.

Whoever is signing these players must just watch youtube highlights. You’ve got Marmoush, whose first touch is terrible. Doku, who has undoubted potential but seems to be getting worse after 2 years of coaching. Nico, brought into a midfield with no legs who is about as quick as Bernado. The list goes on and on. Not saying we’d have got him but 80m for Livramento was seen as too expensive for a 22 year old homegrown right back who’s actually very good. Whilst instead we’ve spent the likes of 50m on a Wolves midfielder who the manager thinks hasn’t got the brains to play in midfield so is stuck at right back where he can’t play either!

 

[Georgian Maestro]

Not right now for sure, but I think right now we have the best Under 24 core of any club (except maybe Real and Barca) so give it a couple of years and quite a few of those might have become beasts. Not to mention Haaland and Foden are only 25.

We need to remember the likes of Silva, Aguero, Rodri, Kompany weren't the finished article when we signed them.

Liverpool might get one last title out of VVD and Salah but I think we're set up quite nicely for the future.

Aguero was the best striker in the league as soon as he arrived. Silva took about half a season to establish himself as the best attacking midfielder in the league.

 

[Craig]

It’s not that simple. A winning squad will have various elements to it and some of those players will just be ordinary. The key is finding the right recipe and how to bring it all together. I think we have a lot of quality in the squad myself but we have also lost a lot of the experience that would have seen out that game. That’s our fault of course, but it’s not people like Cole Palmer or Julian Alvarez we needed yesterday, although Jack would have been useful if the right Jack had turned up.

We have to give them time to work it out. If Bobb learns how to finish better and Nunes to keep his hands by his side when defending we get 3 points, even when we weren’t particularly good.

It actually is that simple. Can talk tactics all we want but stop signing great players you eventually stop being a great team

 

[AndyP68]

Well, Aguero looked pretty close to being from his debut. Silva everyone knew about but he needed a bit of time to adapt, probably like Wirtz now. Kompany,yes went on to become a beast but was only not already at a top club a few years earlier because of terrible injuries. Rodri i grant you. However, Rodri was signed to replace a great player in Dinho when it was needed. Contrast that to the signings now. We had a great right back who should have been replaced after the treble. 2 years on we watched him predictably become a shadow of himself once his pace went. We’ve inexplicably gone from having the best right back in the league to not having a right back at the club.

Whoever is signing these players must just watch youtube highlights. You’ve got Marmoush, whose first touch is terrible. Doku, who has undoubted potential but seems to be getting worse after 2 years of coaching. Nico, brought into a midfield with no legs who is about as quick as Bernado. The list goes on and on. Not saying we’d have got him but 80m for Livramento was seen as too expensive for a 22 year old homegrown right back who’s actually very good. Whilst instead we’ve spent the likes of 50m on a Wolves midfielder who the manager thinks hasn’t got the brains to play in midfield so is stuck at right back where he can’t play either!

This is the point I’m making. Are we signing players good enough to get Top 4, hopefully, rather than 1st place