Pep Guardiola - 2025/26
- Thread starter Blue_Lightsaber
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Yep. If it’s so easy as many say due to our spending then there is simply no excuses for these clubs not to win back-to back premier league titles, CL’s, pretty much break every record in the premier league. Show us how easy it is. Like Pep says, we are waiting.
sir baconface
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It doesn’t necessarily follow that he (or City) is in the same place as when he signed the extension. Like you, I’m not inside his head, nor in possession of privileged knowledge. Unlike you, I have a strong hunch that the additional year was “insurance” to give the flexibility for any of these possibilities:
1. The opportunity - if either or both parties wish - to call it a day in 2026 without the frantic speculation and diversion that’s often associated with a manager in his final year. Either way, it provides for a dignified exit, whether the primary reason is personal or football related.
2. The expectation of Pep still being in post when the 115 verdict is finally announced, or
3. The opportunity - if either or both parties wish - to actually carry on for an additional year. Obviously this would apply if Pep were still seriously invested in continuing the rebuild.
Barring some strange and unlikely twist, I don’t see him being sacked under any of these scenarios, nor would I wish it. Whether it’s 2026 or 2027, it will be by genuine mutual consent.
My money would be on #1 and with no pessimism at all about what the future will bring. I’ve been lucky enough to see us win titles under 4 different managers.
IrishBlueSince92
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Prediction
Simon Jordan, Jim White and Darren Bent don't see the playfullness of the dig, and fume at the mouth tomorrow.
IrishBlueSince92
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Agree
As I said to a rag friend after sending him the clip. He asked is Pep cracking up.
I said he's just stating some facts as the media like to portray these myths about City that football fans then take as gospel.
Luddite_Blue
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The standard of the middle and lower ranking teams in the PL has improved greatly over the last 5 years. 3/4 years ago such teams would come to the Etihad with a low block and just try and survive for 90 minutes. Now such teams as well as having the ability to defend compactly also have the pace, power and physicality to cause threats on the counter and they also have the belief to press high on the front foot if the situation requires.
For such teams their objective is to build a balanced team to establish themselves in the PL so its irrelevant if a fan of a top 4 team considers they only have ' one or two 'decent' players at best'. In fact, if they went out looking for 'star players' it's likely it would undermine the team effort to defend compactly and break quickly, mean large wage disparities in the dressing room and risk the whole thing collapsing if said 'star player' was sold.
The statement about 3/4 players at Chelsea, Liverpool and ourselves being nowhere near first choice 5 years ago is pure hyperbole as Chelsea have a young team, it's not clear where Liverpool are at atm and we've had several irreplaceable club legends depart so there was always going to be a dip.
If your contention is football in 2026 is mediocre at best it is bizarre that you seem to want to continuously hound the greatest manager we've ever had or are ever likely to have, as it's probable that football will still be mediocre at best under any replacement, rather than giving him the due respect he deserves. It does touch on an interesting point though about when posters say about terrible recruitment since the treble, yet even with hindsight they don't state which players should had been bought instead.
bluemoon32
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Good stuff Pep ha
Lavinda Past
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I can't agree with most of that. My eyes tell me that the standard of European football generally has declined over the last few years. It's slower and defensively more boring.
Addressing your final sentence. Firstly, it could be argued that our recruitment since 2023 happened 12 months too late. We had a relatively weak, ageing squad going into 23/24, yet quite bizarrely won the league. Evidence if any was needed that the PL was less challenging than before.
As for the question of which players should have been bought, you can only sign what's available at the time. That's what we tried to do, but failed hopelessly to get our top targets. We got what Txiki and Viana saw as next best options, most of whom demonstrate the lower standard of European football at present.
We've signed one truly elite player since 2023 - Donnarumma. The rest are a mix of 'good' to 'OK for now' Personally, I think that Manuel Pellegrini left a better squad when he left City than we have now.
Hahaha, well done Pep, bet that went down like a lead balloon with the media.
Best case scenario, for me, would be:
- We get a commitment from Pep that he‘ll do two full years, ideally three, after this one.
- Pep, his team, Viana, and any other relevant staff get together and do a bit of honest talking. Admit that the experiment of moving away from Pep‘s football to something different has been a fucking shit show. Stick that in the bin and commit to going back to Pep‘s principles - structured, positional, clear patterns of play, onus on technical ability and intelligence. Can be more controlled (as per the treble team) or quicker and more direct (2017/18). But founded on what Pep does so brilliantly.
- Make a couple of key signings in the summer - a defender who can go into midfield next to Rodri, and a proper 8 who can dictate the tempo of the game high up the pitch (and create and score). Maybe someone else to play from the left. Get rid of those who don‘t suit that style. If that means cutting our losses on a few recent signings, so be it.
- Give Lijnders the task of taking Pep‘s preferred set up and getting the players to press as well as possible from within that.
GOULDYBOBS
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Give him a second series
Luddite_Blue
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Premier League - Transfer balance and five-year comparison
In dieser Statistik werden die Transferbilanzen der letzten fünf bzw. zehn Jahre der Vereine der Premier League miteinander verglichen.
Serie A - Transfer balance and five-year comparison
In dieser Statistik werden die Transferbilanzen der letzten fünf bzw. zehn Jahre der Vereine der Serie A miteinander verglichen.
LaLiga - Transfer balance and five-year comparison
In dieser Statistik werden die Transferbilanzen der letzten fünf bzw. zehn Jahre der Vereine der LaLiga miteinander verglichen.
Bundesliga - Transfer balance and five-year comparison
In dieser Statistik werden die Transferbilanzen der letzten fünf bzw. zehn Jahre der Vereine der Bundesliga miteinander verglichen.
The standard of European football may very well have declined over the last 5 years but that is probably because many of the better players are now playing in the PL.
The total net spend figures for the last 5 years show for the PL it is 6.3 billion euros and for Serie A it is 513 million euros. La Liga and the Bundesliga have negative net spends over the last 5 years.
Brighton are the only current PL side to have a negative net spend over the last 5 years whereas there are 10 current Serie A teams, 14 current La Liga teams and 12 current Bundesliga teams with negative net spends over the last 5 years.
It's difficult to conceive how such spending power of the PL wouldn't lead to a general increase in the standards of the PL, particularly when transfers are more data driven than ever before.
A few of us have been saying this all season, but I think some City fans think this team are still at the level of 2017-2024 and their expectations are wildly out of sync with what this team can achieve at the moment.
We haven't got a great team anymore. And there’s no disgrace in that, there isn’t a great team anywhere in this sport at the moment.
I saw an Arsenal fan on X say Arsenal have overtaken City. But I don’t think Arsenal are that much better than they were two years ago (I don’t see them getting 89 points like they did in 2023-24); it’s us who’ve regressed to below the level Arsenal were, never mind regressing from the heights from where we were in 2017-2024, which Arsenal are also nowhere near.
City are now just a decent side with a mixed bag of some very good players, a lot of decent enough players and some players who we wouldn’t miss if they didn’t play again.
Who’s to say, that if we had a different manager than Pep, we’d currently be doing much worse with this current squad than we are and that Pep is the reason we’re remotely near a title race? (I personally think we are not really in a title race because we won’t be consistent enough to win the league.)
We could become a really good team again. We have an unusual number of young players and they will all get better as they reach their prime, add in the odd signings here and there and see an improvement and more consistent and Pep moulding them all into what he wants… and we could be true title challengers in the future.
But we aren’t there yet, this is very much a team in transition like we probably haven’t seen since 2009.
Carlos- the- jackal
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Spikey as fuck again today in his presser, showing his utter distain for the two bob merchants stealing a living and masquerading as journalists, get that extension signed Josep and lets fuckin break these cunts!
Lavinda Past
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Premier League - Transfer balance and five-year comparison
In dieser Statistik werden die Transferbilanzen der letzten fünf bzw. zehn Jahre der Vereine der Premier League miteinander verglichen.www.transfermarkt.co.uk
Serie A - Transfer balance and five-year comparison
In dieser Statistik werden die Transferbilanzen der letzten fünf bzw. zehn Jahre der Vereine der Serie A miteinander verglichen.
LaLiga - Transfer balance and five-year comparison
In dieser Statistik werden die Transferbilanzen der letzten fünf bzw. zehn Jahre der Vereine der LaLiga miteinander verglichen.
Bundesliga - Transfer balance and five-year comparison
In dieser Statistik werden die Transferbilanzen der letzten fünf bzw. zehn Jahre der Vereine der Bundesliga miteinander verglichen.
The standard of European football may very well have declined over the last 5 years but that is probably because many of the better players are now playing in the PL.
The total net spend figures for the last 5 years show for the PL it is 6.3 billion euros and for Serie A it is 513 million euros. La Liga and the Bundesliga have negative net spends over the last 5 years.
Brighton are the only current PL side to have a negative net spend over the last 5 years whereas there are 10 current Serie A teams, 14 current La Liga teams and 12 current Bundesliga teams with negative net spends over the last 5 years.
It's difficult to conceive how such spending power of the PL wouldn't lead to a general increase in the standards of the PL, particularly when transfers are more data driven than ever before.
Jack Grealish (a player I rate very highly) cost us £100m. In my opinion, he was never worth more than £30/40m even at today's ludicrous prices.
For that reason alone, I really can't take transfer fees (net or otherwise) seriously. They're meaningless in terms of how good a player actually is (Kalvin Phillips anyone?) and can't possibly be used to rate the standard of football being played across a particular league, or across Europe.
You can only trust your own opinion based on what you see. Not the opinion of fans, reporters, pundits, statistics, etc... just your own view.
You think it's better, I think it's a lot worse. Easy as that. Opinions.
St.Pauli support
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citytill1die84
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Doesn't look like a guy ready to leave imo.
citytill1die84
Well-Known Member
We'll see but I don't believe he'll leave before his contract ends.