If we went out at the group stage.

[nobody can eat fifty eggs]

I'm not using the term glory to say we will win something every year. What I am saying is Abu dhabi have not invested all this money for us to be also rans. If we don't challenge all the way for the title this year we have failed. If we finish a close second we dust ourselves down and have another go. But if we end up 10 points off the pace, fighting arsenal and Liverpool for 3rd and 4th then big questions have to be asked. I know a section of fans like to see us as the upstarts, some kind of over-achieving club like Swansea but we aren't . We've spent more than everyone. I wouldn't dream of swapping our squad for Anybody's .

This "let's establish ourselves in the top four" attitude is hugely naive. Look at what happened to Hughes, look at what happened to cook. These guys are not here to fuck around. They want a return on their investment. That return won't necessarily be financial , it will be in terms of world profile. The odd domestic trophy will not cut the
Mustard , they want the title and the champions league. And they arent going to wait 10 years, or even 5, to get it.

This shit is serious . This squad is serious . The time is now.

I like your speak DD, you cut through a lot of the fannying that goes on here.

 

[Balti]

I'm not using the term glory to say we will win something every year. What I am saying is Abu dhabi have not invested all this money for us to be also rans. If we don't challenge all the way for the title this year we have failed. If we finish a close second we dust ourselves down and have another go. But if we end up 10 points off the pace, fighting arsenal and Liverpool for 3rd and 4th then big questions have to be asked. I know a section of fans like to see us as the upstarts, some kind of over-achieving club like Swansea but we aren't . We've spent more than everyone. I wouldn't dream of swapping our squad for Anybody's .

This "let's establish ourselves in the top four" attitude is hugely naive. Look at what happened to Hughes, look at what happened to cook. These guys are not here to fuck around. They want a return on their investment. That return won't necessarily be financial , it will be in terms of world profile. The odd domestic trophy will not cut the
Mustard , they want the title and the champions league. And they arent going to wait 10 years, or even 5, to get it.

This shit is serious . This squad is serious . The time is now.

I like your speak DD, you cut through a lot of the fannying that goes on here.

he also does alot of the 'fannying' that goes on here

lucky boy

 

[bluetoo]

DD...being even more reactive than the redtops...whats fkn new?

 

[S04]

I'm not using the term glory to say we will win something every year. What I am saying is Abu dhabi have not invested all this money for us to be also rans. If we don't challenge all the way for the title this year we have failed. If we finish a close second we dust ourselves down and have another go. But if we end up 10 points off the pace, fighting arsenal and Liverpool for 3rd and 4th then big questions have to be asked. I know a section of fans like to see us as the upstarts, some kind of over-achieving club like Swansea but we aren't . We've spent more than everyone. I wouldn't dream of swapping our squad for Anybody's .

This "let's establish ourselves in the top four" attitude is hugely naive. Look at what happened to Hughes, look at what happened to cook. These guys are not here to fuck around. They want a return on their investment. That return won't necessarily be financial , it will be in terms of world profile. The odd domestic trophy will not cut the
Mustard , they want the title and the champions league. And they arent going to wait 10 years, or even 5, to get it.

This shit is serious . This squad is serious . The time is now.

Just a point, Mancini and Lombardo was kept waiting in the wings for almost a year while Hughes was in charge so I guess Mancini is the choosen one in Abu Dhabi..so far at least.

As opposed to Cook and Hughes that they inherited I mean.

point taken.
I think there is a loyalty and ethical approach in adug. In the case of both those two they showed them too much I believe. But I also believe there's a desire for the very best and I think they will be tough if they have to be. This would certainly include people they hired as well as inherited. Look at ad's other investments-they do what it takes.

They aren't in this to play second fiddle to man united. We've already got a better squad.

I`ll just add that the typical arab management structure is very much based on putting your trust in one guy that basically have to swim or sink..Owners are not expected to be "hands on" unless things turn bad.
That might be interpreted as showing some people to much loyalty I guess, or simply a desire to stay in the background of course.

But when they act it goes fast..really fast

 

[kunaguero10]

No, our priority is to qualify for the champs league again, not to have a long champions league run that ruins our domestic season and puts us back a year, ala tottenham

 

[St Helens Blue (Exiled)]

No, our priority is to qualify for the champs league again, not to have a long champions league run that ruins our domestic season and puts us back a year, ala tottenham

Exactly-I haven't ever heard Sheikh Mansour demand we win the champs league so qualification again would be fine for me..I still think we will win more away from home than at home in this competition. Less pressure from over expectant fans...

 

[Lucky13]

I've stated on here and with fellow Blues that it would be an achievement , if on our first CL campaign we got past the group stage.

Of course we all want to do better and given time we will.

 

[Didsbury Dave]

No, our priority is to qualify for the champs league again, not to have a long champions league run that ruins our domestic season and puts us back a year, ala tottenham

This is an example of the niaivity, the lack of perpective of an element of our support these days .

We are not on the same footballing planet, same footballing universe as bloody spurs . Our targets , our expectations are strotospherically different. Have you not seen redknapps quotes about this, about our quality, our depth and our resources? We have invested in a squad which is big enough and good enough to have a run in the champions league AND battle for the title.

For us to fall away like spurs last year to 4th or 5th because of the champs league would represent huge undetachievement and managerial failure, not some plucky upstarts with stretched resources .

Spurs are not our peers or rivals any more, man united and Chelsea are. The targets are both the big competitions .

 

[Comrade Buka]

To be the devil's advocate:

How long has Roman been in charge? By the same reasoning, should Abramovich not pack up his toys and go back to Russia? He is surely aware that he will never be able to compete with our owners?

While I do agree that we are expected to deliver now given the transfer investments, it also looks to me as if the investments in the local area and youth development is an investment for the future.

Would it not be business etiquette to see how the transfers pay off before you start investing heavily in infrastructure? If return on investment glory is what they are about?

 

[Deleted member 14625]

How long has Roman been in charge?

Since 2003. But Chelsea got to the quarters of the CL and finished second in the Prem in 1998. A lot of people don't realise/forget this.

-- Sat Sep 17, 2011 8:07 am --

No, our priority is to qualify for the champs league again, not to have a long champions league run that ruins our domestic season and puts us back a year, ala tottenham

This is an example of the niaivity, the lack of perpective of an element of our support these days .

We are not on the same footballing planet, same footballing universe as bloody spurs . Our targets , our expectations are strotospherically different. Have you not seen redknapps quotes about this, about our quality, our depth and our resources? We have invested in a squad which is big enough and good enough to have a run in the champions league AND battle for the title.

For us to fall away like spurs last year to 4th or 5th because of the champs league would represent huge undetachievement and managerial failure, not some plucky upstarts with stretched resources .

Spurs are not our peers or rivals any more, man united and Chelsea are. The targets are both the big competitions .

I do fully agree with this. But in our very first season in the CL I'm not putting any expectations on them because even though we are way ahead of Spurs were last season, we do not know how it will affect our Prem season and the Prem season is more important. We wont finish 4th or 5th but we don't know how it will affect our title challenge. We have CL experience in our squad and management team but as Manchester City, even with them ingredients involved, we are completely new and - as Wednesday showed - naive in this competition (Kompany and Barry, two of our best, looked like 17 year olds on their debuts at times on Weds!).

Then to say we should be expecting to win the competition next season is a bit of a stretch. We could and might do it, but to expect to do it, it's a little but much to expect. For me, whatever we do in it this season we must aim to improve on that next season but this time as an established CL team.

Let's not think that things are all going to happen in just a few years. People expected fourth two years ago and it didn't happen. I understood why it didn't. I will understand why we won't achieve glory this or even next season too. We're still very fresh and naive. We must aim for number one, but to expect it to happen by dismissing other teams who are as good as and better than us (and I disagree with a previous post of yours where you said we have a better squad than United, because I think it's even) is unrealistic.