At the end of the day, whether you like him, loathe him, think he let us down or not, the fact is that he was a great player for City. His signing was probably the one that elevated us right into the top bracket. There were times in 2009-10, 10-11 and even 12-13 that he was clearly the stand-out player in our team.
The biggest thing is that (on the pitch), he led by example. It wasn't just hiis tremendous ability, but by working his socks off in the way that he did, it inspired other players to do the same.
His tempo and aggressive play is exactly what we need at this moment in his time.
Do we miss him? Well, we won two titles without him really, so it's probably not true.
Do we need a player like him now? Totally and absolutely. There's no way this team would be caving in like it is if we had somebody with his workrate and endeavour, running back from the front into the midfield and going back and taking it to defenders.