Catastrophic transfers are killing us.

oldius said:
I think he is saying that we should have kept Palmer as having both Palmer and Bobb in the team would have been the best option of all. Given Palmer's current form, I am sure most would agree, but he has gone.
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Pep would never trust him like Chelsea have, he would be another McAtee, like being an apprentice brickie at a building company, your always ‘the kid’ till you move
 
There does seem to have been a change in our transfer strategy the past few windows, and I don't understand why. We built so much success upon signing players from teams just below us in the league (like Walker, Nasri, Barry, Sterling), from top teams that were unhappy for some reason (Yaya, Ballotelli, Tevez), from teams abroad that were just below the top and were ready to step up (Aguero, Silva x 2, Haaland, Dias) or talented young players in weaker leagues (Jesus, Alvarez). Now we seem to be increasingly signing or targeting players who are in the PL at much worse teams (Phillips, Nunes) or who we could have gone for before they moved here and would have been cheaper (Bruno G, Paquetta).

Also I think we did a really good jobs in moving on some top players and club legends before they fully declined. The way the departures of Kompany, Zabba, Fernandinho, Silva, Yaya, Aguero etc were handled was really good for the most part IMO. The way we have held on to players who are clearly on the decline or want(ed) out like Walker, Bernardo, KDB is in really stark contrast to what we used to do.
 
southamptonblue said:
Post #2056......6th Feb 2022 by me. (Im' crap on tech, and can't paste it)....discussing our EDS in 'transfer forum.

"the only one who looks like he could make it, is Palmer, as was Foden"

.....so no, not everyone is 'full of shit' some were of the opinion that he 'could' become as good as he is proving ;)
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Your exact quote implies that you thought he had a *chance* of breaking out. You weren't exactly locked on to him being a star. What I said was people didn't think he was going to break out as the best player in a top 6 team in his last year at City, as that's what he did for Chelsea.

If someone had told you to bet the house on him being 2nd in Prem scoring in 23/24 with 22 goals in 34 games back on 6th Feb 2022, would you have done it?

It's not a case of thinking he will be either great or shit, plenty of people thought he had potential. But I don't believe that anyone would have sworn down on how good he actually was last season while he was playing for City.
 
jamielowndes said:
Your exact quote implies that you thought he had a *chance* of breaking out. You weren't exactly locked on to him being a star. What I said was people didn't think he was going to break out as the best player in a top 6 team in his last year at City, as that's what he did for Chelsea.

If someone had told you to bet the house on him being 2nd in Prem scoring in 23/24 with 22 goals in 34 games back on 6th Feb 2022, would you have done it?

It's not a case of thinking he will be either great or shit, plenty of people thought he had potential. But I don't believe that anyone would have sworn down on how good he actually was last season while he was playing for City.
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100%.

Pep's decision making has worked in the past but perpetual perfection does'nt exist unlike hindsight, which is a speciality on here.

The good lads from the accademy, who've moved on in recent years, were unproven at the very highest level in world football.

The club couldnt just stockpile them for several seasons in anticipation of a perfect storm of injuries,loss of form or age.

The lads would stagnate and block the pipeline for other even younger CFA lads

Most of the leavers have gone on to have good careers mainly at sub elite clubs, whilst the next gen are now pushing to be in our first team squad.

There is no guarantee that any of them will make it at City & and i'll wager that most will eventually be sold to build good careers else where.

Some will be ready for 'mens' football immediately, others may be late developers who emerge more slowly.

Palmer. I would've kept him and was bemused by the "stay or go,but no loan" decision which appeared inconsistant with what had gone on afore.

I'm reasonably sure that no one,including himself, expected what has occured since.....we know the past but not the future !!

Fair play to him and the other lads,they've got the chance to play first team football and enjoy success elsewhere, but they all owe their start to the excellence of City & the CFA.
 
Dobsy said:
People are doing a lot of rewriting of history at the moment.

Palmer - was nowhere near Foden's level last two seasons and best position is the same position. Played plenty of games for us. Foden was PL player of the season last year and without him we didn't win the league. We had two potentially world class number 10s and we made our choice. Good luck to Cole. Suck it up.

Lavia - has taken years of playing for Southampton to get to the point that he's a backup player for Chelsea.

Rogers - nobody can seriously say they'd have him ahead Foden, Palmer, Alvarez, Doku, Savinho. Again, has taken years to get to this position.

What did we do without these amazing young players? Oh, the treble and four in a row.

Anyone saying it should have been done differently also needs to explain how they'd also have achieved these unparalleled levels at the same time.
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Fair points, well put.
It’s really only Palmer where we ballsed up but not for getting him out of the club when he wanted out. Instead for selling him for what’s turned out to be peanuts rather than for not loaning him for a season.
 
In commenting about the ability of players, remember that the team is systemic. It is much easier to play well in a functional team. Young players like Savinho, Doku and Rico would play better in a team that was performing well. The problem that City have is that we have an injury to 'the best player in the world', and that one of the best players in the world in Kevin de Bruyne is now at the end of his career. I am not sure that there is really much that you can do about that. You cannot sell KDB in his final season, you have to be grateful for what we won, and what we watched.

Selling off our academy players is depressing but we know why we do it. It's because of the way the laws of the game are written. We meet PSR rules by selling academy players. We over-do it, and Pep might have done better over the years in playing young players off the bench when we were hammering sides.

Why for example is Mcatee not getting gametime ahead of KDB who is quite clearly unable to play at the intensity required to play Premier League football. That will lead to the loss of a top quality young player in the Jan. or Summer window, and we will never know how good he is. See a host of similar stories.

I love Pep. I support City till I die but you can criticise Pep for his use of young players, and you can criticise City for monetising the academy.
 
Dobsy said:
People are doing a lot of rewriting of history at the moment.

Palmer - was nowhere near Foden's level last two seasons and best position is the same position. Played plenty of games for us. Foden was PL player of the season last year and without him we didn't win the league. We had two potentially world class number 10s and we made our choice. Good luck to Cole. Suck it up.

Lavia - has taken years of playing for Southampton to get to the point that he's a backup player for Chelsea.

Rogers - nobody can seriously say they'd have him ahead Foden, Palmer, Alvarez, Doku, Savinho. Again, has taken years to get to this position.

What did we do without these amazing young players? Oh, the treble and four in a row.

Anyone saying it should have been done differently also needs to explain how they'd also have achieved these unparalleled levels at the same time.
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Excellent post and I agree with every word. We can't look back and say that we should have kept all the players who left apart from the ones who don't appear to have done so well! Nor has our recruitment been entirely disastrous! Haaland in 2022 and Rodri in 2019 have been unqualified successes but we had to wait for both and they met a proven need. Rodri took time to settle in, believe it or not! For a whole season people considered him not good enough to succeed Fernandino! Savinho has an irritating habit of coming inside into the traffic even in games where the space is outside, as on Saturday - but it's his first season... Doku doesn't look fully fit, and this reminds us that City are in an ongoing injury crisis. Eight members of the squad unfit n Saturday, the club having to bring in the walking wounded because the sick and lame simply cannot play and so we turn out a significantly different eleven every game.

I don't expect us to enjoy a run like this but I think we should show a little understanding of players and a club which have achieved so much and might just have a temporary drop in relish for the combat as well as bodie which feel the strain of years of unrivalled success. Our lads are still good enough when the appetite and fitness return.
 
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