are we wasting this window?

[gunnerpr]

Dzeko, zarate, yaya toure, are three quality players who seem set to leave very soon if hughes was still manager i would expect city to be going for one of those.

edit chiellini and mexes are two good defenders who are good targets aswell i feel.

edit again, Pato and aguero are also two strikers who if city were prepared to pay the big bucks could come. Then theres david silva and villa of valencia. So basically yes i think city are wasting this transfer window.

 

[Rammy Blue]

Dzeko, zarate, yaya toure are three quality players who seem set to leave very soon if hughes was still manager i would expect city to be going for one of those.

funnily enough i had a damned good laugh when i saw Zarate's agent saying he was waiting for Arsenal to bid 40mil euros for Zarate, he'll be waiting a fucking long time.....

 

[Project]

Believe what you want mate but you haven't countered a single one of my points, except a vague and incoherent defence of what you call the "probation" period.

If we finish top 4 it's going to be difficult to do anything but keep him on, I accept that.

So you are basically agreeing with me in that it's a probation period. Great.

If you want clarity on my point, here you go:

It's only a stopgap if he is warming the seat regardless of what happens this season. A la Raniera to Mourinho.

If there was an element of truth in Mancinis 6 months + 3 years (and given he spoke openly during that presser, I believe him), then we can assume he will keep the job if he achieves top 4. Thus not a stopgap.

If Cook and the OS is telling the truth and Mancini has been given a 3.5 year contract, then that is not a stopgap.

Either way, if we trust this mans ability to get us to the top 4 (and why wouldn't we if we've given him the job) then it only makes sense to give him the funds should he need them. Anything otherwise means that we trust a man to take us to top 4 but dont trust him to make the transfers to do it. Which is ridiculous.

To summarise my view:
- Mancini feels the squad is better than he thought. Just strengthen a few gaps in this window
- Mancini realises he can get an extra 20% out of the squad purely from work on the training ground
- Mancini realises there aren't many players who can significantly improve what we have who want to move just now to a side not in the CL
- Mancini doesn't have a big history of signing ready made galacticos despite having a fortune to spend at Inter under Moratti.
- Mancini will thus wait until the summer to bring in the players he wants, with CL football as bait.
- People are interpreting all of this as "the owner doesn't trust Mancini to make good signings". The very same man the owner trusts to get us to the CL.

 

[Didsbury Dave]

I'm going to gracefully bow out of this one so as not to compromise anyone.

 

[alvinskitzo]

I don't think we need many signings, if any at all... Veira will help with the 'winning mentality' and hopefully a few big performances, but I believe our squad right now is strong enough to finish in the top 4. I hear a lot of people saying we should buy a left back, but we definitely shouldn't buy one without off-loading one of the (at least) three we already have (Bridge, Silvinho, Garrido and Barry has played there before too). It's alright to want to buy players, but there is another way as Martin O'Neill and Harry Rednapp has proved by getting the best out of the players you have, this is what I'd like to see Mancini achieve. We have cover in every position and some promising young talent coming through too that should get their chance should it arise. Maybe a signing to ease the injury crisis would be advisable, but I don't want City to turn into a club like Real Madrid, buying their way out of everything... We have a good enough squad to win the title this year, let's give it a real go!
CTID

 

[Wheelsy]

I know what stopgap means.

Stopgap means a 6 month get out clause.
Stopgap means an assistant manager from within the club
Stopgap mean no lengthy contracts for your own backroom staff
Stopgap means not relocating your family
Stopgap means not spending big in January
Stopgap means no lengthy contracts for expensive players with no future.

Top 4 is the target. Of that there is no doubt.

Do you think Roberto has twigged he's a stopgap?

Mate Roberto Mancini basically prostituted himself as an interim appointment when he met Khaldoon. He knows he is just keeping the seat warm.

 

[BobKowalski]

I'm going to gracefully bow out of this one so as not to compromise anyone.

Oh go on you are dying to 'spill the beans' :)

Personally I think we are all just dicking around over the same thing. Mancini has a 3.5 year contract which no doubt has a review point at the end of the season geared towards certain targets (top 4 whatever). Meet the targets and meet them well then Mancini is in unless ADUG think he should have done even better. Miss the targets then he is gone and replaced by someone who can meet the targets. You can dress it up as a '6 month contract in effect' or a probation period or whatever but in truth it doesn't matter one bit.

Unless Mancini brings tangible success to the club in a pretty short period then he will be sacked irrespective of whether he is on a 6 month contract, 3.5 year contract or a 100 year contract. The only difference will the number of zeros on his payoff cheque.

So no big mystery. We all pretty much get it and everyone is (I assume) fairly relaxed about it.

As I said before I don't think we need much in the way of new players. What we desperately needed was a managment team able to utilse the talent we have already got which with Mancini and co we seem to have (finally).

I hope Mancini does the business as I like the guy and I am impressed by him and what he has done so far. Equally if he doesn't get the success we want then he goes. Its a harsh world and all that.

 

[lionheart]

Do you think Roberto has twigged he's a stopgap?

Mate Roberto Mancini basically prostituted himself as an interim appointment when he met Khaldoon. He knows he is just keeping the seat warm.

Ignorant twat. Mancini is well known to ADUG and was always going to be our first choice manager if the special one could not be persuaded to come. If he makes the Top Six without having to spend the 100 million in the January transfer window (that Hughes wanted to spend), Mancini will be here for the long haul...unless of course he gets chased away by our fickle supporters.

 

[Bill]

so its a no then?

 

[BobKowalski]

so its a no then?

14 pages and 130 plus replies later. Its a 'no'.