Soriano is doing his job well, the club is posting record revenues and functioning well on the business side. I'm not sure he can be faulted unless he involves himself in football matters which I don't think he does much.
Now Txiki... I think it's slightly unfair to label him a failure but he is losing a lot of goodwill. His signings in summer 2013 completed a squad that won a domestic double and made progress in Europe, despite still falling well short. Last summer's signings are looking worse and worse by the day, although I still believe Mangala is a good long-term investment (just an overpriced one). So I think he's had one good window and one bad window.
But I think the club may have misjudged something and that is the the spine they have built the squad around. They had so much faith in the spine that they didn't feel marquee signings were needed... and for one season that was true. We were great last season and won two trophies with everyone playing well, from Aguero to Garcia, from Yaya to Kolarov. But they may not have foreseen the poor performances of players like Kompany, Zabaleta and Hart this season and if your spine falters, the supporting cast probably will too. Yaya is still one of our better players but he too is not as good as last season. Then you have the likes of Fernandinho and Navas who were excellent last season but their levels have dropped.
So by complimenting that spine rather than adding to or tinkering with it, they're now in a position where only three of them (Aguero, Silva and Yaya) seem to be playing close to the highest level. That's 3 players out of 21 or so you could say are playing at an elite standard for what portrays itself as an elite club.
Txiki should be given at least one more summer to try and reconstruct the squad again and not make the same mistakes as last summer. He is one of the most revered directors of football around and deserves the chance to prove last summer was just a mistake and we can recruit genuine talent next summer to start the next cycle of City.
But please stop signing strikers! It'd ridiculous how many we've signed since the takeover and still get linked to Ings and Icardi. This obsession has to stop, most top clubs focus more on midfield while we keep splashing out fortunes on strikers. Enough! If a world class one comes along fair enough but these players we're linked to probably wouldn't outscore Dzeko most seasons.
