Are we dining at the top table or not?

[Googoo]

I'll dispute that the squad has taken a backwards step because it's stronger in other departments even if we've lost Negredo. I do think though that this is the nub of it. A calculated risk has been taken. But in football, without being churlish, everything is a risk when it comes to player sales/acquisitions. Only the future can decide these decisions. Which is why I personally don't understand the excessive flapping. Not by you I might add, as I know you're one of the more level headed posters around. It's just that you cannot dispute the general tone of the forum since last night has been negative to the point of ridiculousness.

Whenever things descend to the point where posters dust down their grudges with the "Barca Boys" from 2013 you just know that all sense has been lost and the idiots have once again taken over the asylum and been given the morsel they need to chew to death whilst muttering grave passages in latin.

No doubt some of the reaction to yesterday's events will have been OTT but, as far as I am concerned, on deadline day a team like City should be getting rid of players who are surplus to requirements and, if absolutely necessary, strengthening the squad; it should not weaken its squad. However, that is what City did. Is anyone out there seriously going to hold their hand up and tell me that selling Negredo, without replacing him, improved the squad? Is anyone going to assure me that that is just what Txiki and Pellegrini had planned all along?

With respect mate, none of us know what Txiki and Pellegrini had planned. You are arguing something none of us can prove. Yes selling a player from the first 22, regardless of the player, without replacing him is on the face of it, weakening the squad. But again, we simply don't know the WHAT/WHY. If you're arguing "ah, but Falcao/Mendes had their pants down and they ended up having to sell Negredo without a back up" fine. I'll say what I said earlier. I believe that Negredo would've been sold regardless of the outcome of the Falcao transfer and I believe that City will have always viewed the Falcao transfer as a one off because of the potential cheap fee for such a high profile player due to his position at Monaco. If there really was a serious feeling that selling Negredo needed another player brought in, then rest assured that the scouts at City have a list of players for each position who is available and at what price. They could've pulled the trigger on any one of them at any point yesterday. They didn't, because IMO they didn't want to. As we said calculated gamble.

I think the issue for a lot of fans is the whole structure is suddenly under serious threat if we don't make CL next year and Negredo going coupled with Barry, Garcia, Rodwell have in fact weakened the squad in my view. Remember after the Sunderland home game last year many on here we're worried that we could even come 3rd or 4th with a couple more bad results. So why take any gamble at all with finishing in top 3? Easy to say we can buy in Jan but who?
Good example of daft gambling just now in that Fernando potentially out for next 3 big games. Garcia is a definite like for like which would allow that s

 

[George Hannah]

We are not dining at the top table at all.
We are sat next to it at the moment
Until we sign Messi, Ronaldo, Suarez, Bale we will remain sat by the scraps
Not that i give a fuck the best £35,000 we ever spent was on Neil Mcnab

I was so excited by McNab's signing that I cried off work and drove to Torquay for his first game for us in a milk cup tie.
0-0 and he was in his kit with a raincoat over it ready to come on but not required as I recall.

 

[BobKowalski]

I have no doubt that a calculated risk has been taken or that we would be unlucky not to cope with our squad. However, that does not change my view that a potentially avoidable risk has been taken and that the squad took a step backwards because something did not go to plan.

I'll dispute that the squad has taken a backwards step because it's stronger in other departments even if we've lost Negredo. I do think though that this is the nub of it. A calculated risk has been taken. But in football, without being churlish, everything is a risk when it comes to player sales/acquisitions. Only the future can decide these decisions. Which is why I personally don't understand the excessive flapping. Not by you I might add, as I know you're one of the more level headed posters around. It's just that you cannot dispute the general tone of the forum since last night has been negative to the point of ridiculousness.

Whenever things descend to the point where posters dust down their grudges with the "Barca Boys" from the summer of 2013 you just know that all sense has been lost and the idiots have once again taken over the asylum and been given the morsel they need to chew to death whilst muttering grave passages in latin.

Hardly grave dear boy. I was aiming more for whimsical. I had just made a fresh cup of camomile tea and I asked myself "What does the forum lack at times like this?". "Whimsy Bob" I replied. "The forum needs more whimsy".

Its a fucking laugh a minute at my gaff I can tell you.

 

[JoeMercer'sWay]

Well said Marvin. I do like it when you occasionally manage to shake off your lugubriousness.

In a day of very little excitement, you have at least ensured I have learned something new.

"lugubriousness"

Fuck knows how you pronounce the word but I like it. :-)

I take great pleasure in disseminating my vocabulary across cyberspace.

In case anyone is wondering if I use words like these in the real world in the course of everyday conversation: Yes. Yes I do.

you're morphing into Sweyn.

 

[Googoo]

No doubt some of the reaction to yesterday's events will have been OTT but, as far as I am concerned, on deadline day a team like City should be getting rid of players who are surplus to requirements and, if absolutely necessary, strengthening the squad; it should not weaken its squad. However, that is what City did. Is anyone out there seriously going to hold their hand up and tell me that selling Negredo, without replacing him, improved the squad? Is anyone going to assure me that that is just what Txiki and Pellegrini had planned all along?

With respect mate, none of us know what Txiki and Pellegrini had planned. You are arguing something none of us can prove. Yes selling a player from the first 22, regardless of the player, without replacing him is on the face of it, weakening the squad. But again, we simply don't know the WHAT/WHY. If you're arguing "ah, but Falcao/Mendes had their pants down and they ended up having to sell Negredo without a back up" fine. I'll say what I said earlier. I believe that Negredo would've been sold regardless of the outcome of the Falcao transfer and I believe that City will have always viewed the Falcao transfer as a one off because of the potential cheap fee for such a high profile player due to his position at Monaco. If there really was a serious feeling that selling Negredo needed another player brought in, then rest assured that the scouts at City have a list of players for each position who is available and at what price. They could've pulled the trigger on any one of them at any point yesterday. They didn't, because IMO they didn't want to. As we said calculated gamble.

I think the issue for a lot of fans is the whole structure is suddenly under serious threat if we don't make CL next year and Negredo going coupled with Barry, Garcia, Rodwell have in fact weakened the squad in my view. Remember after the Sunderland home game last year many on here we're worried that we could even come 3rd or 4th with a couple more bad results. So why take any gamble at all with finishing in top 3? Easy to say we can buy in Jan but who?
Good example of daft gambling just now in that Fernando potentially out for next 3 big games. Garcia is a definite like for like which would allow that s

Garcia for Fernando would let us play that solid 3 in midfield yet we sold him. We didn't need the money as we are easily within FFP and it's more insurance if YaYa goes to Africa

 

[George Hannah]

Well said Marvin. I do like it when you occasionally manage to shake off your lugubriousness.

In a day of very little excitement, you have at least ensured I have learned something new.

"lugubriousness"

Fuck knows how you pronounce the word but I like it. :-)

I take great pleasure in disseminating my vocabulary across cyberspace.

In case anyone is wondering if I use words like these in the real world in the course of everyday conversation: Yes. Yes I do.

It's per se this and per se that - I wonder if I will ever encounter your persiflage in the the flesh.

 

[nixmith2]

[I think the issue for a lot of fans is the whole structure is suddenly under serious threat if we don't make CL next year and Negredo going coupled with Barry, Garcia, Rodwell have in fact weakened the squad in my view. Remember after the Sunderland home game last year many on here we're worried that we could even come 3rd or 4th with a couple more bad results. So why take any gamble at all with finishing in top 3? Easy to say we can buy in Jan but who?
Good example of daft gambling just now in that Fernando potentially out for next 3 big games. Garcia is a definite like for like which would allow that s[/quote]

When I looked at this earlier today I saw it as an 'amusing' thread, maybe 'ironic' - unfortunately some people must have taken it as a serious one!

"If we don't make CL next year???!!!"

So that is to assume we don't a) finish top 4 or b) struggle in the current CL, drop to Europa League and win the bloody thing.

I personally would not fancy (b) much but I really think not finishing top 4 is very, very unlikely !

Hope I have not jinxed it - afterall a few hours after the Liverpool game a put money on us becoming the new 'invincibles' & then we played Stoke!

 

[bluechampion7891]

With respect mate, none of us know what Txiki and Pellegrini had planned. You are arguing something none of us can prove. Yes selling a player from the first 22, regardless of the player, without replacing him is on the face of it, weakening the squad. But again, we simply don't know the WHAT/WHY. If you're arguing "ah, but Falcao/Mendes had their pants down and they ended up having to sell Negredo without a back up" fine. I'll say what I said earlier. I believe that Negredo would've been sold regardless of the outcome of the Falcao transfer and I believe that City will have always viewed the Falcao transfer as a one off because of the potential cheap fee for such a high profile player due to his position at Monaco. If there really was a serious feeling that selling Negredo needed another player brought in, then rest assured that the scouts at City have a list of players for each position who is available and at what price. They could've pulled the trigger on any one of them at any point yesterday. They didn't, because IMO they didn't want to. As we said calculated gamble.

I think the issue for a lot of fans is the whole structure is suddenly under serious threat if we don't make CL next year and Negredo going coupled with Barry, Garcia, Rodwell have in fact weakened the squad in my view. Remember after the Sunderland home game last year many on here we're worried that we could even come 3rd or 4th with a couple more bad results. So why take any gamble at all with finishing in top 3? Easy to say we can buy in Jan but who?
Good example of daft gambling just now in that Fernando potentially out for next 3 big games. Garcia is a definite like for like which would allow that s

Garcia for Fernando would let us play that solid 3 in midfield yet we sold him. We didn't need the money as we are easily within FFP and it's more insurance if YaYa goes to Africa

lets not get overboard with the flapping. We didnt have Barry last year did we? And Rodwell, he was injured most of the time and the couple of games we trusted him with he fell short. Garcia? We've upgraded him and the reason we sold him - you guessed it, we couldn't have included him in the squad if we wanted to as we had 18 foreign players and the regulations required 17.

Sunderland home game? No one was worried, we were 3 points away from 1st.

Who in Jan? Schniderlin? Pogba?

Oh, and we will make CL next year, its the rags who should be worrying about it

 

[IH8MUFC]

No doubt some of the reaction to yesterday's events will have been OTT but, as far as I am concerned, on deadline day a team like City should be getting rid of players who are surplus to requirements and, if absolutely necessary, strengthening the squad; it should not weaken its squad. However, that is what City did. Is anyone out there seriously going to hold their hand up and tell me that selling Negredo, without replacing him, improved the squad? Is anyone going to assure me that that is just what Txiki and Pellegrini had planned all along?

With respect mate, none of us know what Txiki and Pellegrini had planned. You are arguing something none of us can prove. Yes selling a player from the first 22, regardless of the player, without replacing him is on the face of it, weakening the squad. But again, we simply don't know the WHAT/WHY. If you're arguing "ah, but Falcao/Mendes had their pants down and they ended up having to sell Negredo without a back up" fine. I'll say what I said earlier. I believe that Negredo would've been sold regardless of the outcome of the Falcao transfer and I believe that City will have always viewed the Falcao transfer as a one off because of the potential cheap fee for such a high profile player due to his position at Monaco. If there really was a serious feeling that selling Negredo needed another player brought in, then rest assured that the scouts at City have a list of players for each position who is available and at what price. They could've pulled the trigger on any one of them at any point yesterday. They didn't, because IMO they didn't want to. As we said calculated gamble.

I think the issue for a lot of fans is the whole structure is suddenly under serious threat if we don't make CL next year and Negredo going coupled with Barry, Garcia, Rodwell have in fact weakened the squad in my view. Remember after the Sunderland home game last year many on here we're worried that we could even come 3rd or 4th with a couple more bad results. So why take any gamble at all with finishing in top 3? Easy to say we can buy in Jan but who?
Good example of daft gambling just now in that Fernando potentially out for next 3 big games. Garcia is a definite like for like which would allow that s

Am I the person who actually likes the idea of promoting some academy players into the first team squad?

 

[MSP]

Of course we do.

It is true that the gap between us and few top PL clubs is less significant than 2-3 years ago but it is not due to us but other teams spending and strengthening their squads. That was always to be expected - neither we could continue to spend as we did on the beginning to keep that gap, even without FFP on our back, neither other top clubs could sit and wait for others taking the Champions League places they want.

One thing is sure - City is out there and it's appearance is pushing other clubs to their limits, there is no more free run for them, and it was always expected to be tough in Premier League. There is going to be periods when we won't win the titles and even fight for CL places. It's extremely competitive league and there is 4 more clubs that are among the biggest in the world so there won't be always easy to run them over.

But what happened so far was a miracle, we managed to come to top of most competitive league on the world despite being tackled on that way from all sides, we're still yet to establish ourselves as real European force but it will come, that's not easy job to do, competition is scary out there.