Catastrophic transfers are killing us.

I think everyone will agree that the one thing the club really did get wrong was not bringing in an adequate player to rotate with Rodri.

They saw the stats, the same as us, that the team fell apart without him.

Yet last summer they did nothing for that position.

I trust the club will never make the same mistake again.
 
I think everyone will agree that the one thing the club really did get wrong was not bringing in an adequate player to rotate with Rodri.

They saw the stats, the same as us, that the team fell apart without him.

Yet last summer they did nothing for that position.

I trust the club will never make the same mistake again.
I don't agree. Rodri and Kovacic are about as good a defensive midfield pair you will get in the Premier League. You want a 3rd player for 1 position? That's never going to happen. What we did wrong was selling our academy players, buying wide forwards who are inferior to what we had and buying Nunes who is a squad player at best.

Pep is going to have to rebuild City again.
 
This is a completely wrong and shortsighted view in my eyes.

players mentioned aren't the problem, they're young players who will develop. the problem is they've been elevated to senior status before their time because we've allowed ourselves to be reduced to a dangerously thin squad.

Nunes Doku and savinho would be excellent options to bring in and out of the side as and when, to make an impact from the bench and develop, that's the stage of their career they're at in reality but we've pushed them up to a level they're not ready for out of neccesity.

The recruitment of those players isn't the problem, the problem is they were the only recruitments.

Stick a prime mahrez or even prime sterling with a grealish who produces something and we'd have a formiddable looking set of wingers, we don't have a prime mahrez or sterling and grealish isn't producing so our young apprentices are forced to act as the main guys way before they've finished their apprenticeship.
 
This is a completely wrong and shortsighted view in my eyes.

players mentioned aren't the problem, they're young players who will develop. the problem is they've been elevated to senior status before their time because we've allowed ourselves to be reduced to a dangerously thin squad.

Nunes Doku and savinho would be excellent options to bring in and out of the side as and when, to make an impact from the bench and develop, that's the stage of their career they're at in reality but we've pushed them up to a level they're not ready for out of neccesity.

The recruitment of those players isn't the problem, the problem is they were the only recruitments.

Stick a prime mahrez or even prime sterling with a grealish who produces something and we'd have a formiddable looking set of wingers, we don't have a prime mahrez or sterling and grealish isn't producing so our young apprentices are forced to act as the main guys way before they've finished their apprenticeship.
They may develop but you cannot bring in expensive signings like Nunes, Doku and Savinho and world class players into the 1st team squad.
 
Personally I. Think Pep, the club have been hell bent on disproving the Big Spenders narrative. Either that or the right players just weren't available.

We've gone a level below what we used to get and relied on an ageing team.

They've made some mistakes. They've earned enough credit to get it right again.
 
Personally I. Think Pep, the club have been hell bent on disproving the Big Spenders narrative. Either that or the right players just weren't available.

We've gone a level below what we used to get and relied on an ageing team.

They've made some mistakes. They've earned enough credit to get it right again.
I think that City are owned by billionaires who like the idea of selling academy players for huge profit but this has been damaging. It looked good when we were winning. It looks stupid now.

Pep built a new City side when he arrived, and we have world class players in our squad. Rodri will be back, possibly this season so I think there's every chance we will recover somewhat.
 
I think that City are owned by billionaires who like the idea of selling academy players for huge profit but this has been damaging. It looked good when we were winning. It looks stupid now.

Pep built a new City side when he arrived, and we have world class players in our squad. Rodri will be back, possibly this season so I think there's every chance we will recover somewhat.
I think that City are owned by billionaires who like the idea of selling academy players for huge profit but this has been damaging. It looked good when we were winning. It looks stupid now.

Pep built a new City side when he arrived, and we have world class players in our squad. Rodri will be back, possibly this season so I think there's every chance we will recover somewhat.
If Rodri were to come back next game,do you really think it would all be rosy again?!It’s gone a fair bit beyond that now,..clearly.
 
This is a completely wrong and shortsighted view in my eyes.

players mentioned aren't the problem, they're young players who will develop. the problem is they've been elevated to senior status before their time because we've allowed ourselves to be reduced to a dangerously thin squad.

Nunes Doku and savinho would be excellent options to bring in and out of the side as and when, to make an impact from the bench and develop, that's the stage of their career they're at in reality but we've pushed them up to a level they're not ready for out of neccesity.

The recruitment of those players isn't the problem, the problem is they were the only recruitments.

Stick a prime mahrez or even prime sterling with a grealish who produces something and we'd have a formiddable looking set of wingers, we don't have a prime mahrez or sterling and grealish isn't producing so our young apprentices are forced to act as the main guys way before they've finished their apprenticeship.
Stopped reading at Nunes being "excellent", he's fucking shite, end of.
 
players mentioned aren't the problem, they're young players who will develop. the problem is they've been elevated to senior status before their time because we've allowed ourselves to be reduced to a dangerously thin squad.
Agreed. Rodri had 3 seasons alongside Fernandinho to learn the role. In theory, Savinho should be learning from Bernardo and Doku from Grealish (and to be fair, Doku was fantastic in spells last season). But injuries have thrust them into the spotlight.

I think though there has been a bit too much of a move towards having a punt on less well known players rather than buying those guaranteed (as much as they can be) current or future world stars. Gvardiol and Haaland would both fall into that bracket, but most of our recent signings have fallen into the punt territory imo.

One thing I noticed about Doku and Savinho is that they were both hyped up with obscure stats like 'most successful dribbles' rather than high numbers of goals, assists, chances created or key passes. And that's usually a sign that you're buying a raw talent rather than a finished, or close to finished, article.
 
I think you can put grealish into the hasn't worked out category as well.
Yes but v Forest in our ONLY recent win, he showed that central midfield is where he should have been playing. Never a wide player because he never beats a player or crosses successfully. He does keep the ball well by always cutting inside but rarely has an assist or score himself. Pep likes those who keep the ball and therefore Jack was usually preferred to more creative players such as Doku who, whilst beating players, he also loses the ball. Another reason why Jack always cuts inside, is because he knows central midfield is where he should be playing. It's his true home. Not stuck out on the wing. : o )
 
Would have been very interesting to have been a fly on the wall of the boards transfer meetings over the past 18 months.. Keeping hold of multiple players who were strongly considering leaving was clearly a considered strategy and I wonder why..
 
The frustration writ large in the OP's post is understandable. We are not winning, and that is crucial to the feelings expressed here and in the media. We are a target because of our success, and sudden relative failure.

With the exception of Palmer and possibly Lavia, none of the players mentioned would have been regulars in our team over the last decade. Frimpong left five years ago, at the heart of our success. Morgan Rogers had three loan spells and certainly was not listed as one who got away until now. Tommy Doyle is not a regular PL player, even though many of us yearned for his success.

In our current squad, with Rodri, Bobb, Stones, Walker, Grealish and Dias missing, there would be a chance for some of those players, at their current level (years after they left us) to get a game or two. This is because of injury. In addition to the names mentioned, we have also seen Foden injured and ill, KDB the same, Doku absent, Kovacic absent, and so on.

We are judging against that backdrop, with hindsight, and nearly all of the players mentioned in the OP's post would barely have got a look in at any point in the last decade. Now, one single good moment by one of those players (yesterday Tommy Doyle, for example) on their pitch is being used to castigate owners who have delivered unbroken success, until now.

We have made one clear mistake in the transfer market with the purchase of Kalvin, who proved not up to the job. Now, we are scapegoating others who have been part of arguably the greatest domestic team in history, and one of the world's best for ten years, even players from our own academy!

We can improve in our use of using academy players with gradually increasing minutes, of course, but we will ALWAYS lose some whose ambition lies beyond what we are willing to offer them - I don't hear anyone bemoaning the departure of Carlos Borges, for example.

Judging our team at this moment is difficult because we have a small squad that has been hit with the worst injury list (of ours) in a decade. The injuries have generally been in central midfield and central defence and that has made us porous and vulnerable to rapid counters. We all feel it, and we all know that some of our team have not been able to deal with that. We also know that they have delivered greatness in the past, and could well do so again. Our team has been under the threat of sanction for several years and that could have influenced our player purchasing power. We will see when the judgement is finally delivered. Stick with it, don't scapegoat players, and let's see what January (and beyond) brings.
 
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.
I can’t argue with any of that, particularly the Rodri warnings. The 74 games he played without defeat contrasted with losing most of the 5 games he was missing was stark. Begiristain had a great transfer record for 10 years and only has this January window to go before he leaves, let’s see how Viana gets on (I have a feeling he will have some secret influence over the next month).
 

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