I think this rebuild is so important it deserves its own thread. I know there are some, though I expect few who will say we will be fine once we get over the injuires, but I think those fans are getting fewer.
There are some questions that are important for the rebuild.
1 - Should Pep be in charge of the rebuild?
2 - Which players should be moved on in 2025?
3 - Which players should be offered new contracts?
3b - What players should we be targetting?
4 - Who is making the decisions for the rebuild, i.e. Txiki or Hugo Viana
5 - How will the 115 PL charges decision and other outside influences reflect on the rebuild. Do we wait until after the decision of the independent commission?
6 - what sort of figures do we realistically have to spend on a rebuild?
7 - With the bad form we are in, how as fans can we help the club?
1. Of course he should! He's the best manager in the world and nothing that's going on at the moment should question that.
2. Ederson, Walker, Gundogan, De Bruyne need to be moved on. We can't be too drastic with how many players leave, but the likes of Grealish/Nunes/Bernardo/Stones are all in need of replacing over the next 12-18months
3. We still have some excellent players, Rodri, Dias, Haaland, Foden just need to trust that form is temporary.
3b. Priorities are a RB, CB, DM, CM, AM and then there's also a requirement for an additional striker/AM to share the load with Haaland and push him to be better. For a while we didn't know our best 11, but it's become too easy a ride for many and City have never settled, we've always signed new talent to ensure existing players don't get complacent. Branthwaite, Baena, Musiala, Wirtz, Ederson, Duran, Frimpong, Zubimendi, Rodrygo, Vitinha are all players we should be looking at and testing the waters with.
4. It should be a collective group as before, with Txiki leading as he's still in position then Viana taking over. Depends who is available in January and what the strategy is. Ideally things are in position and there's already some communication in place so everything is coordinated.
5. If the club have been so sure of their position as they claim it shouldn't make any difference. If they do see a risk and have been treading water because of it then we need a verdict fucking quick
6. Whatever it takes. We've won the net spend trophy enough times now. We've got an ageing squad that's won the lot. Where's the fresh impetus or young hungry players driving us forwards? We need to be signing real quality. Chelsea have got a bunch of young players who have barely won anything right up there competing. The dippers signed a crock yet are still delivering results through having a strong core of players. We're not miles off but we need to sign quality across the pitch to drive us forwards.
7. Don't panic as a fan base. This could have been a lot worse. The rags are shite, spurs are shite, Newcastle and Villa are inconsistent. Forest are 4th at the moment. Had we held on to win we'd have been on the same points as Arsenal and 6 off the top, which is ridiculous considering our form. In most seasons top 4 could have been looking miles off with the dip we've had, but it's still doable so we shouldn't get too down about things.
