It's Quiet 18 - Wanna ring the bell?

[chiswick blue]

I think the level of hatred towards us doesn’t stop at board room level. You can guarantee TAA can’t stand us. There’s absolutely no chance he’d sign for us, even though Liverpool can’t stop it.

Bruno G just doesn’t inspire me. Again, he’s an okay player playing in an upper mid table team. Our best midfields have had 3 world class players. First one of Fernandinho, David Silva and De Bruyne, then our second one of Rodri, Gundogan and De Bruyne.. both with help from Bernardo when one is injured.

Buying Bruno G is like the Kovacic signing, viewed as a good player to play alongside Rodri, then when Rodri isn’t available, the standard of our midfield crashes.

the pool of players abroad is larger and the common use of releases does make the club to club negotiation much easier but still shopping at CL rivals isn't easy. There are however some players that could be available and we could flex our considerable financial strength and the fact Pep is around for another 2 years (a huge draw for players) to get them. I wouldn't rule out Zubimendi, Wirtz, Ederson as midfield reinforcements or Williams, Rodrygo as wingers for our new world order.

I'd still be very happy with a couple of Newcastle players in Guimaraes and Livramento, we can get them if we really put out minds to it. TAA I'm not sure he really hates us, footballers like money and medals, we can offer both

 

[Otamendi's Beard]

Good player but not sure he steps in and moves the needle for us... Would play in an advanced LCM role most likely. Is this really what we need? If we were to sign Kudus it would be because Eze turned us down. They're quite similar, but Eze is home-grown and probably cheaper. Also, Paqueta is better for that role than Kudus.

Really cannot see this lad being our priority. We've clearly dropped a level, and to change that we need real running gamebreakers. Leao, Musiala, and to a lesser extent but still a big profile upgrade, Adeyemi.

For backup/2 striker system, Ferguson or Sesko would be nice.

For midfield, a lot of players would be an upgrade on what we've got. Bruno G the obvious one.

Think we've been watching a different player. I see him as a wide forward / RW rather than CM.

He's a goal threat rather than playmaker.

 

[brian the blue]

Chelsea, rags and Arsenal have non stop bought from "champions league", how's that working out for them?

It's not that simple. If it was, the rags and Chelsea would have won everything in the last two years with the billions they have spent.

It’s not worked out for any of them because we’ve been the best club side in existence bar Pep’s Barcelona. However our time is up.

United are just a shit show and they’ve had many a good player go there to be mis-managed so badly it’s destroyed their career.

Arsenal have in no doubt improved their team. Their star players are Saliba, Gabriel, Odegaard and Saka.. 3 from Europe, 1 home grown. They’re finding the same limitations that we are with players bought from mid table in this country (White, Rice and Trossard)

Chelsea’s recent improvement is almost entirely down to signing 2 players who have played for us - a champions league side (Palmer and Lavia) and to be honest, without Palmer, they’d be back in mid table. but Chelsea reinforce my point, they’ve spent a fortune on the likes of Caicedo, Neto, Cucurella, Fofana and Sanchez from this league and none of them have been a success.

 

[chiswick blue]

It’s not worked out for any of them because we’ve been the best club side in existence bar Pep’s Barcelona. However our time is up.

United are just a shit show and they’ve had many a good player go there to be mis-managed so badly it’s destroyed their career.

Arsenal have in no doubt improved their team. Their star players are Saliba, Gabriel, Odegaard and Saka.. 3 from Europe, 1 home grown. They’re finding the same limitations that we are with players bought from mid table in this country (White, Rice and Trossard)

Chelsea’s recent improvement is almost entirely down to signing 2 players who have played for us - a champions league side (Palmer and Lavia) and to be honest, without Palmer, they’d be back in mid table. but Chelsea reinforce my point, they’ve spent a fortune on the likes of Caicedo, Neto, Cucurella, Fofana and Sanchez from this league and none of them have been a success.

I would not be so sure that our time is up, we are in need of a rebuild similar to 2017/18 and we can debate it should not have got to this point just as it did back then. However now as back then we have the power and the attraction to get the very best players.

 

[brian the blue]

I would not be so sure that our time is up, we are in need of a rebuild similar to 2017/18 and we can debate it should not have got to this point just as it did back then. However now as back then we have the power and the attraction to get the very best players.

Yeah should have said that the core of players which brought us all this success time is up. It’s an important couple of transfer windows. We’re trying to replace all time great players like Ederson, walker, Gundogan, Bernardo and De Bruyne.

Buying from Newcastle, West Ham, Wolves and the like simply won’t cut it.

 

[John Wayne]

Yeah should have said that the core of players which brought us all this success time is up. It’s an important couple of transfer windows. We’re trying to replace all time great players like Ederson, walker, Gundogan, Bernardo and De Bruyne.

Buying from Newcastle, West Ham, Wolves and the like simply won’t cut it.

It's about buying the right players who fit into the system. Those five greats you listed came from Benfica, Spurs, Dortmund, Monaco and Wolfsburg.

 

[brian the blue]

It's about buying the right players who fit into the system. Those five greats you listed came from Benfica, Spurs, Dortmund, Monaco and Wolfsburg.

Yep, all of which were playing champions league football at the time.

Monaco were the French Champions when we bought Bernardo

Benfica Portuguese champions when we bought Ederson

Wolfsburg were runners up to Bayern, had won the cup and De Bruyne was player of the year when we bought him.

Dortmund had won the league in previous years with Gundogan and reached the champions league final before we bought him.

Only walker hadn’t won anything.

 

[ScottSinclair]

Yeah, Stones is the only success from buying from mid table in this league.

Mahrez was unique because it was Leicester, but ultimately he was bought from a title winning side after a player of the year performance. So no surprise we got a title winning standard winger.

To simplify my point, if you buy from champions league clubs, you get champions league standard players. If you buy from mid table clubs, you get mid table standard players. The champions league clubs won’t do business with us in the country any more. So go back to Europe and buy from there.

Liverpool built a CL and PL winning side consisting of Henderson signed from Sunderland, Van Dijk and Mane signed from Southampton, Robertson signed from Hull, Wijnaldum signed from Newcastle and outside of England Firmino signed from Europa League-chasing Hoffenheim.

It has nothing to do with where they play, it is about identifying their talent, what they are good at and how good they are at it. And which players that will take the necessary steps when provided with better teammates and coaching.

 

[chiswick blue]

Yeah should have said that the core of players which brought us all this success time is up. It’s an important couple of transfer windows. We’re trying to replace all time great players like Ederson, walker, Gundogan, Bernardo and De Bruyne.

Buying from Newcastle, West Ham, Wolves and the like simply won’t cut it.

yep, the time for some of our players is up and we should thanks them for their time at City (although bloody well paid for it). There is a couple of players at Newcastle I would think would improve where we are but compared to the old standard of players we are losing and want to get back to they are lacking. Replacing or getting close to prime Silva, KDB, Walker, Gundogan means buying some of the best players in the world right now.

Can we get Musiala, Valverde, Wirtz, TAA (yes he is really good), Zaire Emery, Pedri, Rodrygo or Gavi? Very tough but this is the standard

 

[brian the blue]

Liverpool built a CL and PL winning side consisting of Henderson signed from Sunderland, Van Dijk and Mane signed from Southampton, Robertson signed from Hull, Wijnaldum signed from Newcastle and outside of England Firmino signed from Europa League-chasing Hoffenheim.

It has nothing to do with where they play, it is about identifying their talent, what they are good at and how good they are at it. And which players that will take the necessary steps when provided with better teammates and coaching.

Yeah they do seem to having the highest hit rate of buying from below in the league. Van Dijk, Robertson and Mane being the huge exceptions to the rule.

However it was Salah that propelled them forward in 17/18 and the additions of Fabinho and Allison that finally brought them some trophy’s.