Are we dining at the top table or not?

[james_pearl1]

On those CL nights when we get humbled by, for example, Munich at home last year, or Dortmund both legs before that, I always think that what we missed was a settled established squad. At the time I think we had more players considered to be "world class" than Dortmund, but their team performance was better than ours. I would much rather be that sort of team than an underachieving collective of so-called "galacticos"

On Negredo - Txiki and co seem like the best in the business at planning for these transfer windows, but everyone can be blind-sided by things. Maybe they hadn't planned on Negredo genuinely wanting to move back to Spain, or for such a good offer for him. They reacted as best they could to the situation. As deadline day shocks go, it could have been much worse

 

[OB1]

Whether something can be proved or not does not mean that we cannot debate it or have an opinion. However, I would suggest that the idea that selling a 20 goal a season striker at the last minute weakens the team is about as incontrovertible as opinions get.

Based on today’s piece by M Samuel it seems a fair bet that Txiki & Co’s strategy coming into this transfer window did not include the objective of exiting the window with only three strikers in the squad.

Sure we can debate it and sure you can have an opinion. I'm not sure how you've decided that I'm trying to censor you or your opinion. If you took offence to my comments on flapping, I can only apologise. Don't know how many times I need to say they weren't aimed at you.

I've not seen Samuel's piece, however everything I've read points to City having made the call to sell Negredo at the start of the window. The waiting game was about extricating every last penny of value from the deal, but the offers were always there. Based on that, I don't think it's difficult to opine that they had more than just Falcao as potential incomings if they really were certain 4 strikers were needed.

Maybe I'm placing too much faith in the people who deal with these things, but I find it impossible to imagine a scenario where the eventuality wasn't planned for that the Falcao deal would fall at the last hurdle. That's the kind of incompetence I'd associate with previous regimes, not with Txiki, Pellegrini, and Soriano.

Hence I'm comfortable thinking that they planned to sell him and were pretty sanguine about sourcing a replacement or not sourcing one.

We will have to agree to disagree: I think City got caught out here although I concede that it may be the conclusion of the Negredo situation came too late for them to do much other than let him go; shit happens but at least they didn't get a shit fee for him. However, it leaves the question open of whether they could have been better prepared?

 

[BobKowalski]

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.

Whether something can be proved or not does not mean that we cannot debate it or have an opinion. However, I would suggest that the idea that selling a 20 goal a season striker at the last minute weakens the team is about as incontrovertible as opinions get.
Based on today’s piece by M Samuel it seems a fair bet that Txiki & Co’s strategy coming into this transfer window did not include the objective of exiting the window with only three strikers in the squad.

Agreed.

 

[Rammyblues]

We are on the top table but just not in the centre, more towards the ends. Time should change that. :-)

 

[Exeter Blue I am here]

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.

Whether something can be proved or not does not mean that we cannot debate it or have an opinion. However, I would suggest that the idea that selling a 20 goal a season striker at the last minute weakens the team is about as incontrovertible as opinions get.
Based on today’s piece by M Samuel it seems a fair bet that Txiki & Co’s strategy coming into this transfer window did not include the objective of exiting the window with only three strikers in the squad.

Agreed.

Can everyone stop saying we have 3 strikers in the squad, purleeeease?! We don't. We have just 2, because Jovetic is no more a striker than Jennifer Aniston is blowing me as I type this

 

[Sir peace frog]

maybe we were after another forward and couldn't get the deal done,
i personally think we will be ok with 3 forwards,people keep going on about how do we replace negrados 20 goasl,well jevotic is like a new forward,imo he wont get 20 goals but again imo Sergio wont suffer as many injuries as he did last season(fingers crossed) and between edin jov and Sergio we will score more than enough goals to cover the loss of negrado.

as for the rest of the transfers I think we did a great job considering all the constraints placed on us,we needed positions strengthening and we got that,the loss of negrado wont affect us imo

 

[BobKowalski]

Whether something can be proved or not does not mean that we cannot debate it or have an opinion. However, I would suggest that the idea that selling a 20 goal a season striker at the last minute weakens the team is about as incontrovertible as opinions get.
Based on today’s piece by M Samuel it seems a fair bet that Txiki & Co’s strategy coming into this transfer window did not include the objective of exiting the window with only three strikers in the squad.

Agreed.

Can everyone stop saying we have 3 strikers in the squad, purleeeease?! We don't. We have just 2, because Jovetic is no more a striker than Jennifer Aniston is blowing me as I type this

No and is she any good?

 

[BillyShears]

Whether something can be proved or not does not mean that we cannot debate it or have an opinion. However, I would suggest that the idea that selling a 20 goal a season striker at the last minute weakens the team is about as incontrovertible as opinions get.

Based on today’s piece by M Samuel it seems a fair bet that Txiki & Co’s strategy coming into this transfer window did not include the objective of exiting the window with only three strikers in the squad.

Sure we can debate it and sure you can have an opinion. I'm not sure how you've decided that I'm trying to censor you or your opinion. If you took offence to my comments on flapping, I can only apologise. Don't know how many times I need to say they weren't aimed at you.

I've not seen Samuel's piece, however everything I've read points to City having made the call to sell Negredo at the start of the window. The waiting game was about extricating every last penny of value from the deal, but the offers were always there. Based on that, I don't think it's difficult to opine that they had more than just Falcao as potential incomings if they really were certain 4 strikers were needed.

Maybe I'm placing too much faith in the people who deal with these things, but I find it impossible to imagine a scenario where the eventuality wasn't planned for that the Falcao deal would fall at the last hurdle. That's the kind of incompetence I'd associate with previous regimes, not with Txiki, Pellegrini, and Soriano.

Hence I'm comfortable thinking that they planned to sell him and were pretty sanguine about sourcing a replacement or not sourcing one.

We will have to agree to disagree: I think City got caught out here although I concede that it may be the conclusion of the Negredo situation came too late for them to do much other than let him go; shit happens but at least they didn't get a shit fee for him. However, it leaves the question open of whether they could have been better prepared?

One thing i'm delighted about - they didn't decide to panic buy fucking Bony or someone of that ilk.

I suppose that's one of the major reasons it doesn't bother me. I'm happy to let it slide, even if as you say they just weren't prepared for the Falcao snub, because the money in the bank means they can pretty much covet who they want next summer. We've seen how Txiki and Co work in the main. Today's links to Pogba/Barkley/Reus have got me very excited. Two from those three would be a proper smack to our rivals.

 

[OB1]

Whether something can be proved or not does not mean that we cannot debate it or have an opinion. However, I would suggest that the idea that selling a 20 goal a season striker at the last minute weakens the team is about as incontrovertible as opinions get.
Based on today’s piece by M Samuel it seems a fair bet that Txiki & Co’s strategy coming into this transfer window did not include the objective of exiting the window with only three strikers in the squad.

Agreed.

Can everyone stop saying we have 3 strikers in the squad, purleeeease?! We don't. We have just 2, because Jovetic is no more a striker than Jennifer Aniston is blowing me as I type this

So what do you think Jovetic is?

 

[Exeter Blue I am here]

Agreed.

Can everyone stop saying we have 3 strikers in the squad, purleeeease?! We don't. We have just 2, because Jovetic is no more a striker than Jennifer Aniston is blowing me as I type this

No and is she any good?

Alas Jo Jo is a midfield player, so I've only got my imagination to go by. In that though, she's absolute filth