You clearly care a lot about the club and are passionate, but I think you are looking in the wrong places to apportion blame here.
The squad of 2009/10 HAS been rejuvenated. It's been rejuvenated to the tune of 250 million quid.
For the last few years we've been saying we're too reliant on Silva, we need another creative force. We brought in the most creative player in Europe for £50million.
We've been saying we need some youth, we need some width, some pace. We brought in Sterling who is the best young prospect in England, even in Europe according to UEFA, for £45million.
People complained Lescott wasn't good enough on the ball, we need a centre half who can defend and is good on the ball. We brought in DeMichelis who is superb on the ball. We brought in a centre half who all of the biggest clubs in Europe were chasing in Mangala for £30million plus, we brought in the most highly rated centre back in Spain for £25million plus.
In midfield, people said Barry was too slow, can't get box to box, we need someone as good on the ball as Barry, who can also cover the yards that Yaya can't anymore. We brought in Fernandinho for £30million plus, and for my money he's the best box to box midfielder in the league this season.
We tried all summer to get the most highly rated midfielder in the world in Pogba to come. By all accounts we are still trying to get him to come. But getting players of that quality isn't easy. It took Madrid 3 years to finally land Ronaldo, but I'm sure they will all say it was worth the wait.
We've seen from Garcia, Fernando, Rodwell etc that buying average players who are easily gettable is not a sensible strategy for a club in our position. It's better to buy big and buy once instead of buying average and constantly having to replace them because they aren't good enough. I'm sure we'll be back in for Pogba this summer and players of his ilk, and we'll have a much better chance of getting them than ever before.
Of course we need strengthening at full back, and we'll definitely be bringing in at least 2 centre midfielders in my opinion. But based on our activity last summer, we brought in two attacking midfielders for nearly £100million which was possibly our biggest need. We also brought in a very highly rated centre half, and tried to get the best centre midfielder in the world. That one didn't come off. But in addition to them you are suggesting we should have brought in 2 new starting full backs last season.
That would have been 6 new starters! That's more than half a team, and would have cost around £300million to bring them all in during one summer! It's just not realistic.
Of course teams need rejuvenating every few years, but the fact is, we have been rejuvenated! We've brought in some of the most highly coveted players in Europe!
People were calling for Txiki to be knighted in the summer when he brought in De Bruyne, Sterling and Otamendi. The best teams in the world were chasing these guys, and we brought them all in. They've not all been as good as we expected, and now people are blaming that on recruitment?!! I just don't understand it. Everyone wanted these guys in the summer, and now they are not of the required standard?! I'm not having it.
The issue is not the recruitment. The issue is the management, it's so blatantly obvious that I can't believe any right minded individual can't see it.
How many players have improved during Pellegrini's reign? Go through the whole team. Kolarov? Maybe, for 5 or 6 games this season. Yaya in the title winning season, but now he looks like the ghost of Yaya Toure, so it's probably levelled itself out. Other than that, every player has either stayed the same or regressed.
It's too easy to say "Oh it's because they're older now, so they are bound to drop a level". I don't buy it. Kompany's form fell off a cliff last season, which some people seem to be forgetting. This despite the fact as a centre half he should be approaching his peak years. He actually should have improved based on age. Also Sterling and De Bruyne who weren't in our squad in 2010 have been much worse this season than they were in the previous two. Despite playing with better players.
Mangala and Fernando must be playing worse than when we bought them, otherwise we'd have never been interested! Otamendi must be worse than last season. He won La Liga defender of the season last year, and this year he is diving in like a cub scout on Smarties.
This manager took the best defence in the league for three years running and turned it in to a comedy side show. He actually added £75million worth of centre halves and made us much, much worse. Did we get unlucky in that 2 of the most highly rated centre halves in Europe actually turned out to be shite? Was is it just bad fortune that Kompany went from the best centre half in the league to one who gets laughed at on MOTD over the last 2 seasons? The only time any of our centre halves have shown decent form since Pellegrini got here was Kompany at the start of this season.
Nastasic was outstanding in his season under Mancini, and looked woefully out of his depth under Pellegrini. DeMichelis has done ok in patches, Mangala has potential but looks like an accident waiting to happen, Otamendi is clearly a top player, but his constant diving in and lack of concentration is costing us regularly. Kompany, as I said has had a dip in the last two seasons compared to previously. So out of the 5 centre backs Pellegrini has used, 4 have been clearly worse than they were previously. The only one who possibly remained the same is DeMichelis.
The other 4, two were already here and playing very well previously, so no blame for Txiki or recruitment there. Two were bought and were extremely highly rated. It surely can't be a coincidence that all 4 have regressed under Pellegrini's "management"?
So in short, yes the squad needs "tweaking" every year. That is the same at all top clubs. But to say the 2010 team needs "rejuvenating" is incorrect in my view. It's already been rejuvenated with some of the top talent in Europe. It's silly to say anyone who played in 2010 is incapable of playing now. Hart, Clichy, Zabba, Kompany, Silva, Nasri, Aguero are all very capable still at this level and at a decent age. In fact only Zabba is over 30, it's hardly Dad's Army.
From the core squad that won the first title clearly Yaya needs to move on, and in my view so does Kolarov. Other than that I don't see any major issues.
I've heard very good things about Angelino, so I'm sure he can come in to replace Kolarov, and we possibly need a new young right back. We definitely need a couple of centre mids to replace Yaya and Fernando. Hopefully one is Pogba. Other than that, I don't see the need for wholesale changes. The talent is there. They just need to be managed better.
Mancini got far more out of our defenders than Pellegrini does. I'm sure Guardiola will too. The issue isn't that our player's aren't good enough. The issue is the manager isn't, and next season will prove that beyond any doubt whatsoever.
