Angel Di Maria

[bluesince76]

Do we know for definite we weren't in for Sanchez? All I've seen is that Liverpool missed out as he wanted to live in London. If that's the case, a quick conversation with his agent would have told us there was no point bidding.

I agree that an upgrade at centre half was required more than anything attacking wise, however, when a player like Sanchez becomes available, I think you have to reevaluate whether your priories should change. IF Sanchez would have come to us, I think we've made a mistake, but there's nothing to suggest he would have done

So you think we should have ripped up the transfer plan that we've had in place for arguably the last 6 months to sign one player who would just about get in our team and certainly wouldn't take us to the next level?

Fuck me someone has a decent world cup and all the fawners come out.

Were we after Sanchez previously? Was that before the world cup? I'm not suggesting the Mexican keeper, I'm talking about a player we spent a summer chasing and who has been playing for Barcelona - so were the club fawning back then or did they actually rate him? So wind your neck back in, you tosspot.

As for 'just about get in our team', I'll just leave that one hanging.

I suspect the plans we've had in place for the last year have been affected by the FFP restrictions, regardless of what was said, both in terms of money available and home grown rules. Either way, if our plans were so fixed that we couldn't deviate from them, I'd suggest someone needs sacking. What if Aguero had ruptured knee ligaments at the world cup? Would we have refused to sign a replacement as he wasn't in the plan? What if Barca had gone bump and put Messi up for sale for £20m? Again, sorry, we hadn't planned for him so not interested?

 

[Dax777]

I read up to "Mangala doesn't start for France" part and gave up, with good reason.

If you can't acknowledge and read the reasoning previously given for a CB to be a bigger priority than a winger then it's pointless; as you're simply going in circles.

The reason given previously, I have easily explained.

Yes! We needed a CB at the beginning of last season.
Yes we has 2 CBs down injured, and one sold off to Pool.
Yes we were down to 1 CB. Again that happenned, last offseason! Using that as a reason why we need a CB this season is poor reasoning.
This season we have 4 CBs, all healthy. 2 of whom are WC starters. One is considered the best in the league, the other help run the stingiest defense at the just concluded WC. Their backup was inCity's first 11 before his injury plagued season. We then acquired a mauler at DM for those games against top teams. We also acquired a capable backup goalie to push our sometimes unfocused WC starting goalie.

Add to that, our best attacking player has been injured on and off consistently since January. If such a team Han option to buy one of either one of the best attacking players in the world or a promising defender with athletic ability - common sense simply suggest you go with the star player. It's really that simple.

Does this mean we are screwed? No! It simply means we could have made a better decision.

 

[chris85mcfc]

Do we know for definite we weren't in for Sanchez? All I've seen is that Liverpool missed out as he wanted to live in London. If that's the case, a quick conversation with his agent would have told us there was no point bidding.

I agree that an upgrade at centre half was required more than anything attacking wise, however, when a player like Sanchez becomes available, I think you have to reevaluate whether your priories should change. IF Sanchez would have come to us, I think we've made a mistake, but there's nothing to suggest he would have done

So you think we should have ripped up the transfer plan that we've had in place for arguably the last 6 months to sign one player who would just about get in our team and certainly wouldn't take us to the next level?

Fuck me someone has a decent world cup and all the fawners come out.

Were we after Sanchez previously? Was that before the world cup? I'm not suggesting the Mexican keeper, I'm talking about a player we spent a summer chasing and who has been playing for Barcelona - so were the club fawning back then or did they actually rate him? So wind your neck back in, you tosspot.

As for 'just about get in our team', I'll just leave that one hanging.

I suspect the plans we've had in place for the last year have been affected by the FFP restrictions, regardless of what was said, both in terms of money available and home grown rules. Either way, if our plans were so fixed that we couldn't deviate from them, I'd suggest someone needs sacking. What if Aguero had ruptured knee ligaments at the world cup? Would we have refused to sign a replacement as he wasn't in the plan? What if Barca had gone bump and put Messi up for sale for £20m? Again, sorry, we hadn't planned for him so not interested?

And if my aunty had bollocks

You clearly don't have a clue how a football club is run, it certainly isn't on the basis of 'x player has suddenly become available so lets rip up our plans for the future'

We were after Sanchez three summers ago when we had just won our first trophy in 30 years, and surprise surprise he chose to go to arguably the best club in the world at the time. We are in a slightly different position now where were not just chasing a big name signing to satisfy the soft arses on here that want someone new on the back of their shirt

I'm not doubting his quality, he is a very good player. But given the restrictions we have on our spending we have to make sure we spend it wisely, and if that means spending £50m on Caballero, Sagna, Fernando and Mangala then id say thats good business and covers all the areas that need strengthening. Not I know you would probably do it differently, and would probably spend the £35m on Sanchez and perhaps have enough left to bring in Fernando, but then we would have a bang average 2nd keeper and a centre half partnership that is lacking in key areas especially at CL level.

I'll agree with the way Txiki and Manuel have done the business, and you can disagree and get upset about how if we'd signed Sanchez we would be champions of Europe next season :)

 

[Dax777]

Do we know for definite we weren't in for Sanchez? All I've seen is that Liverpool missed out as he wanted to live in London. If that's the case, a quick conversation with his agent would have told us there was no point bidding.

I agree that an upgrade at centre half was required more than anything attacking wise, however, when a player like Sanchez becomes available, I think you have to reevaluate whether your priories should change. IF Sanchez would have come to us, I think we've made a mistake, but there's nothing to suggest he would have done

So you think we should have ripped up the transfer plan that we've had in place for arguably the last 6 months to sign one player who would just about get in our team and certainly wouldn't take us to the next level?

Fuck me someone has a decent world cup and all the fawners come out.

Were we after Sanchez previously? Was that before the world cup? I'm not suggesting the Mexican keeper, I'm talking about a player we spent a summer chasing and who has been playing for Barcelona - so were the club fawning back then or did they actually rate him? So wind your neck back in, you tosspot.

As for 'just about get in our team', I'll just leave that one hanging.

I suspect the plans we've had in place for the last year have been affected by the FFP restrictions, regardless of what was said, both in terms of money available and home grown rules. Either way, if our plans were so fixed that we couldn't deviate from them, I'd suggest someone needs sacking. What if Aguero had ruptured knee ligaments at the world cup? Would we have refused to sign a replacement as he wasn't in the plan? What if Barca had gone bump and put Messi up for sale for £20m? Again, sorry, we hadn't planned for him so not interested?

I just made a similar claim. The only reason why Sanchez should not have been targeted over Mangala, is if we were sure he didn't want to come. Otherwise it's a no brainer. The claim that C B is a greater priority is a farce. It isn't.

But folks just want to believe the front office is making perfectly unquestionable decisions. I disagree. There decisions might be right based on factors I or most here don't know. But if everything was straight forward, Sanchez would have been the better use of 30+ millions we have left.

 

[Dax777]

So you think we should have ripped up the transfer plan that we've had in place for arguably the last 6 months to sign one player who would just about get in our team and certainly wouldn't take us to the next level?

Fuck me someone has a decent world cup and all the fawners come out.

Were we after Sanchez previously? Was that before the world cup? I'm not suggesting the Mexican keeper, I'm talking about a player we spent a summer chasing and who has been playing for Barcelona - so were the club fawning back then or did they actually rate him? So wind your neck back in, you tosspot.

As for 'just about get in our team', I'll just leave that one hanging.

I suspect the plans we've had in place for the last year have been affected by the FFP restrictions, regardless of what was said, both in terms of money available and home grown rules. Either way, if our plans were so fixed that we couldn't deviate from them, I'd suggest someone needs sacking. What if Aguero had ruptured knee ligaments at the world cup? Would we have refused to sign a replacement as he wasn't in the plan? What if Barca had gone bump and put Messi up for sale for £20m? Again, sorry, we hadn't planned for him so not interested?

And if my aunty had bollocks

You clearly don't have a clue how a football club is run, it certainly isn't on the basis of 'x player has suddenly become available so lets rip up our plans for the future'

We were after Sanchez three summers ago when we had just won our first trophy in 30 years, and surprise surprise he chose to go to arguably the best club in the world at the time. We are in a slightly different position now where were not just chasing a big name signing to satisfy the soft arses on here that want someone new on the back of their shirt

I'm not doubting his quality, he is a very good player. But given the restrictions we have on our spending we have to make sure we spend it wisely, and if that means spending £50m on Caballero, Sagna, Fernando and Mangala then id say thats good business and covers all the areas that need strengthening. Not I know you would probably do it differently, and would probably spend the £35m on Sanchez and perhaps have enough left to bring in Fernando, but then we would have a bang average 2nd keeper and a centre half partnership that is lacking in key areas especially at CL level.

I'll agree with the way Txiki and Manuel have done the business, and you can disagree and get upset about how if we'd signed Sanchez we would be champions of Europe next season :)

Getting Sanchez is not just chasing a big name. It's adding options to your arsenal. Sanchez brings that ability to ghost past 2 or 3 players and create the kind of confusion that disorganises well organized banks of 2 four men walls. Something we saw a lot of last year and will be seeing more of this year.
When we are healthy and have our full stable of talents, our movement and passing often can break this down. But once injuries hit, say to Silva or Aguero, suddenly we become labored and there often was no second option. That is what Sanchez would have brought.

I didn't pine for Cavani, Fabregas, Khadera, Kroos or schweinstieger or any of the other myriad of fantastic stars out there for good reason. We need a specific type of player at his peak. Robben, Reus, Di Maria, Sanchez, Depay fits that mold. One of them was available and on his way to this league. In my opinion it would have been a poor decision not to even entertain it.

Even with rumors of Isco germinates, I still feel no excitement as he is more like Nasri than a Robben.

 

[bluesince76]

So you think we should have ripped up the transfer plan that we've had in place for arguably the last 6 months to sign one player who would just about get in our team and certainly wouldn't take us to the next level?

Fuck me someone has a decent world cup and all the fawners come out.

Were we after Sanchez previously? Was that before the world cup? I'm not suggesting the Mexican keeper, I'm talking about a player we spent a summer chasing and who has been playing for Barcelona - so were the club fawning back then or did they actually rate him? So wind your neck back in, you tosspot.

As for 'just about get in our team', I'll just leave that one hanging.

I suspect the plans we've had in place for the last year have been affected by the FFP restrictions, regardless of what was said, both in terms of money available and home grown rules. Either way, if our plans were so fixed that we couldn't deviate from them, I'd suggest someone needs sacking. What if Aguero had ruptured knee ligaments at the world cup? Would we have refused to sign a replacement as he wasn't in the plan? What if Barca had gone bump and put Messi up for sale for £20m? Again, sorry, we hadn't planned for him so not interested?

And if my aunty had bollocks

You clearly don't have a clue how a football club is run, it certainly isn't on the basis of 'x player has suddenly become available so lets rip up our plans for the future'

We were after Sanchez three summers ago when we had just won our first trophy in 30 years, and surprise surprise he chose to go to arguably the best club in the world at the time. We are in a slightly different position now where were not just chasing a big name signing to satisfy the soft arses on here that want someone new on the back of their shirt

I'm not doubting his quality, he is a very good player. But given the restrictions we have on our spending we have to make sure we spend it wisely, and if that means spending £50m on Caballero, Sagna, Fernando and Mangala then id say thats good business and covers all the areas that need strengthening. Not I know you would probably do it differently, and would probably spend the £35m on Sanchez and perhaps have enough left to bring in Fernando, but then we would have a bang average 2nd keeper and a centre half partnership that is lacking in key areas especially at CL level.

I'll agree with the way Txiki and Manuel have done the business, and you can disagree and get upset about how if we'd signed Sanchez we would be champions of Europe next season :)

Sorry, I hadn't realised you were the expert on how to run football clubs.

I haven't said that Sanchez would have made us win the CL, however, he is an upgrade on what we have. Buying him probably would have required selling Navas and maybe one of the strikers which may have been too much to try and achieve in one summer without detailed planning for it. We certainly needed a keeper and whilst home grown would have been an advantage, I'm not sure we'd have got anything decent for the price we paid for Willy. Fernando will also be important, so those two would have come straight from the budget.

Whether we need a centre half depends on the club's view on Nastasic. I don't think he was the new Baresi from his first season, despite how some seem to remember him, but I also don't think he was so bad on the pitch before his injury to write off such a young player. If they didn't feel he would be good enough from what they see in training and they don't feel Rekik can step up yet, then we needed someone. Mangala is a high cost gamble (60% of our available budget) and I really hope he pays off, but I'm not so sure we couldn't have managed another season with what we had.

But as I initially said, we don't know whether the club did enquire and were told he wasn't interested or actually we weren't interested.

 

[chris85mcfc]

Were we after Sanchez previously? Was that before the world cup? I'm not suggesting the Mexican keeper, I'm talking about a player we spent a summer chasing and who has been playing for Barcelona - so were the club fawning back then or did they actually rate him? So wind your neck back in, you tosspot.

As for 'just about get in our team', I'll just leave that one hanging.

I suspect the plans we've had in place for the last year have been affected by the FFP restrictions, regardless of what was said, both in terms of money available and home grown rules. Either way, if our plans were so fixed that we couldn't deviate from them, I'd suggest someone needs sacking. What if Aguero had ruptured knee ligaments at the world cup? Would we have refused to sign a replacement as he wasn't in the plan? What if Barca had gone bump and put Messi up for sale for £20m? Again, sorry, we hadn't planned for him so not interested?

And if my aunty had bollocks

You clearly don't have a clue how a football club is run, it certainly isn't on the basis of 'x player has suddenly become available so lets rip up our plans for the future'

We were after Sanchez three summers ago when we had just won our first trophy in 30 years, and surprise surprise he chose to go to arguably the best club in the world at the time. We are in a slightly different position now where were not just chasing a big name signing to satisfy the soft arses on here that want someone new on the back of their shirt

I'm not doubting his quality, he is a very good player. But given the restrictions we have on our spending we have to make sure we spend it wisely, and if that means spending £50m on Caballero, Sagna, Fernando and Mangala then id say thats good business and covers all the areas that need strengthening. Not I know you would probably do it differently, and would probably spend the £35m on Sanchez and perhaps have enough left to bring in Fernando, but then we would have a bang average 2nd keeper and a centre half partnership that is lacking in key areas especially at CL level.

I'll agree with the way Txiki and Manuel have done the business, and you can disagree and get upset about how if we'd signed Sanchez we would be champions of Europe next season :)

Getting Sanchez is not just chasing a big name. It's adding options to your arsenal. Sanchez brings that ability to ghost past 2 or 3 players and create the kind of confusion that disorganises well organized banks of 2 four men walls. Something we saw a lot of last year and will be seeing more of this year.
When we are healthy and have our full stable of talents, our movement and passing often can break this down. But once injuries hit, say to Silva or Aguero, suddenly we become labored and there often was no second option. That is what Sanchez would have brought.

I didn't pine for Cavani, Fabregas, Khadera, Kroos or schweinstieger or any of the other myriad of fantastic stars out there for good reason. We need a specific type of player at his peak. Robben, Reus, Di Maria, Sanchez, Depay fits that mold. One of them was available and on his way to this league. In my opinion it would have been a poor decision not to even entertain it.

Even with rumors of Isco germinates, I still feel no excitement as he is more like Nasri than a Robben.

Like i said mate, if we didn't have restrictions im sure Pellegrini would have loved to have brought his countryman over to City, but they would have had a plan in place for the £50m. The only way we would have found any wiggle room is if we could have moved on the likes of Garcia, Nastasic and maybe Jovetic (tin hat at the ready) as losing 2 of those 3 wouldn't really have weakened the squad and we may have been able to recoup about £25m - £35m from the sale of 2 of them. Add that to the sale of some of the dregs like Richards and Rodwell and were then in a position to sign a Sanchez type player (no way Di Maria or Reus are going anywhere for less than £45m). If we had managed to do the above we would have had about £75m available which may have got us Sanchez as well as the players we had been planning to sign, but unfortunately we can't ship out the dead wood cause their wages are too high.

And again, as i said above, as a business you have a plan in place months ahead of a situation arising. The plan was clearly to sign Mangala in January which didn't go through, so they have gone back in this summer. Who knows if its the right thing to do? My argument is that the club have cleared had this transfer plan in place for some time and have improved the squad. Sanchez is a very good player but he certainly isn't a world beater or someone that you rip your current plans up for, theres about 10-15 Sanchez's knocking about and im sure once our restrictions have dropped we will look at signing one of them, hopefully Reus :)

p.s thanks for not calling me a tosspot

 

[aguero93:20]

Depay?! Really?! One halfway decent display off the the bench in a world cup.... Lopes is already at his level or higher.

 

[chris85mcfc]

Were we after Sanchez previously? Was that before the world cup? I'm not suggesting the Mexican keeper, I'm talking about a player we spent a summer chasing and who has been playing for Barcelona - so were the club fawning back then or did they actually rate him? So wind your neck back in, you tosspot.

As for 'just about get in our team', I'll just leave that one hanging.

I suspect the plans we've had in place for the last year have been affected by the FFP restrictions, regardless of what was said, both in terms of money available and home grown rules. Either way, if our plans were so fixed that we couldn't deviate from them, I'd suggest someone needs sacking. What if Aguero had ruptured knee ligaments at the world cup? Would we have refused to sign a replacement as he wasn't in the plan? What if Barca had gone bump and put Messi up for sale for £20m? Again, sorry, we hadn't planned for him so not interested?

And if my aunty had bollocks

You clearly don't have a clue how a football club is run, it certainly isn't on the basis of 'x player has suddenly become available so lets rip up our plans for the future'

We were after Sanchez three summers ago when we had just won our first trophy in 30 years, and surprise surprise he chose to go to arguably the best club in the world at the time. We are in a slightly different position now where were not just chasing a big name signing to satisfy the soft arses on here that want someone new on the back of their shirt

I'm not doubting his quality, he is a very good player. But given the restrictions we have on our spending we have to make sure we spend it wisely, and if that means spending £50m on Caballero, Sagna, Fernando and Mangala then id say thats good business and covers all the areas that need strengthening. Not I know you would probably do it differently, and would probably spend the £35m on Sanchez and perhaps have enough left to bring in Fernando, but then we would have a bang average 2nd keeper and a centre half partnership that is lacking in key areas especially at CL level.

I'll agree with the way Txiki and Manuel have done the business, and you can disagree and get upset about how if we'd signed Sanchez we would be champions of Europe next season :)

Sorry, I hadn't realised you were the expert on how to run football clubs.

I haven't said that Sanchez would have made us win the CL, however, he is an upgrade on what we have. Buying him probably would have required selling Navas and maybe one of the strikers which may have been too much to try and achieve in one summer without detailed planning for it. We certainly needed a keeper and whilst home grown would have been an advantage, I'm not sure we'd have got anything decent for the price we paid for Willy. Fernando will also be important, so those two would have come straight from the budget.

Whether we need a centre half depends on the club's view on Nastasic. I don't think he was the new Baresi from his first season, despite how some seem to remember him, but I also don't think he was so bad on the pitch before his injury to write off such a young player. If they didn't feel he would be good enough from what they see in training and they don't feel Rekik can step up yet, then we needed someone. Mangala is a high cost gamble (60% of our available budget) and I really hope he pays off, but I'm not so sure we couldn't have managed another season with what we had.

But as I initially said, we don't know whether the club did enquire and were told he wasn't interested or actually we weren't interested.

Mate im clearly not an expert, but if you can't trust Txiki to get it right as he did in his first summer here then who can you trust?

I agree with you on Nastasic, perhaps they think that given his age and the fact that they don't have to register him for the CL squad then its a no brainer to keep him for another season and see how he develops.

Mangala is a big risk, a bigger risk than signing Sanchez. But again like i said, we have been planning to sign him for the last year so my guess is we have ran a pretty good rule over him and we think he is the real deal, or will be the real deal.

Perhaps we enquired about Sanchez this summer, but were told a fee and the only way we could reach that fee is by selling 2 or 3 players ie Navas, Negredo, Garcia etc but its not as easy as it sounds what if these players are happy at the club? Do we risk upsetting morale by encouraging bids for them? My guess is that if we didn't have restrictions, then Sanchez would have been a City player cause £30+M for a player of his calibre is nothing.

But for me we had to stick to the plan we had in place as its all about the long term with City these days. Next summer should hopefully be a bit more interesting :)

 

[chris85mcfc]

Depay?! Really?! One halfway decent display off the the bench in a world cup.... Lopes is already at his level or higher.

Where the F have you been all summer?

Yes, Depay, basically anyone that can run fast :)