Catastrophic transfers are killing us.

[Mancity1980]

For so long we got nearly everything right, smart acquisitions. Well-timed and lucrative departures.

But it's been a disaster recently, the last 3 seasons are bad. Not here to bash any players, and Savinho is "first season" and young, he needs time.

But we have to accept that Savinho, Nunes and Doku are very serious downgrades in terms of output to where we once were.

Doku and Savinho, are young and might have a chance, but cost about £110 between them. Their delivery in terms of goals, assists and big chances is way off.

Nunes, looks like a disaster.
Phillips, total disaster.
Gundogen, very definitely hasn't worked.

Hindsight is easy, but those 5 are all part of a real reduction in quality.

Gvardiol is quality, but having a hard time....so is not delivering.

When it comes to departures we've made quite a few missteps in letting home grown quality leave, think Palmer, Lavia, Porro, Rogers, Delap maybe even Harwood-Bellis, or go a bit further back to Frimpong. We made good money, but we spent even more replacing them with worse.

Can't always get it right, and hindsight is easy, we cashed in on loads of lads (whole bunch to Southampton) and Doyle, Hamilton etc who have not emerged. But Palmer looks like a huge error.

As regards sales, Pep's policy of "unhappy players out", is the right one, and served him well. But Bernardo wanted out for a while apparently and we clung onto him. Mahrez's time was up, his age, got a good fee, but he often delivered in a way the new guys haven't. Sterling, Jesus, and Zinchenko haven't prospered elsewhere, but they'd be very useful to us now. Laporte as well, and Sane. Cancelo also is a huge upgrade on what we now have. I get it that players are moved on for different reasons, Sane wanted out, Cancelo was a mardarse, Julian wanted more game time, but some of them are big losses.

The old guard also looks broken, KDB is shattered and out of contract, Bernardo well off it, Walker finished, Stones, Ake, Dias, Akanji, all good but fragile or constantly out injured.

Fells like the squad is in a pretty bad place. I still think back that 6 months ago we played Madrid off the park over 2 legs and got mugged on penalties, so maybe I'm overreacting, but it feels like we've wasted huge sums on inferior quality, and failed to manage the age profile.

Big job for the new Sporting Director.

The point about playing Madrid off the park 6 months ago is important, as is the fact we were clear favourites going into the season. We have lost Ballon DOr winner Rodri, he is worth 2 goals a game by stopping at least one from the opposition and being integral for at least one for us for EVERY game. The whole structure of our team has collapsed, he was the keystone. The knock on effect is the loss of confidence throughout the setup. All the other elements that made us dominant are still there including Pep. I think it is safe to say this season is a writeoff, a bit like 2020, however we ended that season strongly smashing the Covid champions. If next season continues like this one with Rodri back then it’s time for a revamp, maybe without Pep. Until then I trust in the great man.

 

[Bluemoonadam]

I think you can put grealish into the hasn't worked out category as well.

 

[melrose40yarder]

Time to start acting like a big club in the market again.

 

[ysmsa]

One things for sure, I didn’t realise how good Mahrez was until we brought in Doku and Savinho.

Makes me appreciate everything he did for us now!

Ffs!

 

[Greenandblue]

Doku £55m..Savinho £30m..£85 total..not £110m

Mixed up Savinho fee with Nunes... corrected

 

[pee dubya]

To be honest, I kind of understand how we've reached this point. Going into the season I thought the squad looked pretty strong, maybe just missing one midfielder for Rodri rotation/back-up.

Unfortunately it hasn't worked out that way. The old reliable heads are physically and maybe mentally shot.

The guys coming into their prime are not picking up the slack, whether it's form, injuries or just not being good enough.

You combine those two and the younger project players just don't have a stable team to develop in. None of them have stepped up to the challenge really either, despite their obvious efforts.

Hopefully short term we can make a transformative Ruben Dias type January transfer to salvage the season.

Big changes though needed in the next few windows.

 

[krisblue]

Indeed, get the fans to run the transfers and see what happens. You will find me hiding somewhere with no internet coverage.

Absolutely this. Most of the fans were screaming for a “direct” winger a couple of seasons ago. I bet they’re really happy we’ve got Doku now instead of Palmer.

 

[The Stockport Iniesta]

Apart from a back up for Rodri, and one for Haaland I thought the squad was in fairly decent shape, although getting a bit long in the tooth.

I don't think anyone foresaw the current situation arising at the start of the season, though decent back ups for those two might have helped.

 

[Prophet of Doom]

The point about playing Madrid off the park 6 months ago is important, as is the fact we were clear favourites going into the season. We have lost Ballon DOr winner Rodri, he is worth 2 goals a game by stopping at least one from the opposition and being integral for at least one for us for EVERY game. The whole structure of our team has collapsed, he was the keystone. The knock on effect is the loss of confidence throughout the setup. All the other elements that made us dominant are still there including Pep. I think it is safe to say this season is a writeoff, a bit like 2020, however we ended that season strongly smashing the Covid champions. If next season continues like this one with Rodri back then it’s time for a revamp, maybe without Pep. Until then I trust in the great man.

We had 5 x warnings last season that the team doesn’t function without Rodri, but we chose not to bother trying to fix it.

Who knows if Rodri will come back the same player next season?

We were the best recruiters in world football for a number of years - but Txiki has dropped bollock after bolllock since the treble. He should be nowhere near any rebuild recruitment.

 

[Brightwell Bros.]

I think it's really tough on the outgoings, but I really, truly don't think any of them except Palmer are obvious, clear as day disasters. Every single lad who gets through our academy will play for teams where they look like some of the best players on the pitch, and obviously this season it's painful as those teams are in and around us, but we need players who are the best player on the pitch in CL finals. None of them wanted to stick around for a rebuild or hoping that Rodri injured himself.

Phillips is the only unmitigated disaster. It's a disaster we are currently paying for, and will continue paying for for the rest of the season. Not replacing Alvarez was silly, everything else falls under club policy. We won't lose money on Doku, Savinho might come good, Gvardiol will emerge from this run as a better defender.

I do think the charges, Pep and Txiki's uncertainty, variations of FFP, and an all-round lukewarm transfer market, and too many games are all playing their part. And until this season if you were a youngish talent looking to develop if you joined us you'd have to hope to dislodge about 6 of the best players in the world in their positions.