It's Quiet the £250m return

Dribble said:
You can disagree all you like mate, as is your right to do, but when do several coincidences become more than that?

Something's not been right with Guardiola since last summer & in my personal opinion, there's more to all these little things that have occurred over the last 12 months.

In isolation, they mean little. But when I look at them in a timeline, something's going on at City behind closed doors. You think different which is fine, so I suppose we'll just have to wait & see what comes out in the wash.
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Yeah. I have tried to see such 'malice' (for lack of a better word) in it, I really have. But think we have all come to know Pep quite well to understand what he says.

And we know fine well that journalists Know that people crave for murkiness and behind the scenes power struggles in everything, so nothing posts like this with zero responsibility or credibility are great little innuendo hooks. That then reinforce the search for malice, and more such tweets, etc etc.

I'm not trying to convince you of anything btw. Just kindly sharing my take. With you, but also others here.
 
If you zoom out and look at the squad from a distance, I would say we are planning for life without Pep...with Pep. I sincerely hope there has been a conversation behind closed doors with his eventual successor to make sure he is on the page with some/all of the signings.

If not, then we are just throwing shit against a wall to see what sticks and we wonder why things are going sideways.
 
Dribble said:
This further confirms my suspicion that several aspects of the squad planning have been taken away from Pep. It would also explain Rodri's recent comments.

Added to Khaldoon's end of season statement, it could be that the club's hierarchy are privately fuming that we've allowed our advantage to slip.

This is all on Pep who resisted keeping clear Sky Blue water between us & the chasing pack. Within 12 months, it's now City doing the chasing, with Liverpool, Arsenal & Chelsea doing all they can to maintain their new found advantage over us.

It's like the old adage... You snooze, you lose.
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I think there’s a couple reasons for this:

A) Pep wants a small squad
B) Pep struggles to have difficult conversations with his former favourites

I’d be shocked if Pep wasn’t involved with Viana in outlining who exactly he would be happiest to lose, Viana is just doing his dirty work.
 
CΛL said:
I think there’s a couple reasons for this:

A) Pep wants a small squad
B) Pep struggles to have difficult conversations with his former favourites

I’d be shocked if Pep wasn’t involved with Viana in outlining who exactly he would be happiest to lose, Viana is just doing his dirty work.
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Tolmie said as much, Pep knew it needed to happen but didn’t want to appear as the bad guy
 
Dribble said:
This further confirms my suspicion that several aspects of the squad planning have been taken away from Pep. It would also explain Rodri's recent comments.

Added to Khaldoon's end of season statement, it could be that the club's hierarchy are privately fuming that we've allowed our advantage to slip.

This is all on Pep who resisted keeping clear Sky Blue water between us & the chasing pack. Within 12 months, it's now City doing the chasing, with Liverpool, Arsenal & Chelsea doing all they can to maintain their new found advantage over us.

It's like the old adage... You snooze, you lose.
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As if a MEN journalists knows this level of detail.
 
Dribble said:
I'd hazard a good guess that those final player acquisition calls would primarily fall on Txiki & Pep to make. What I've seen since the treble amounts to wilfull neglect. In the corporate world, this would be followed by final warnings & top level sackings unless the situation vastly improves.

If it was Txiki's call not to commence our succession planning, then he neglected the central tenant of a DoF, which is to ensure the continuity of a squad & it's playing ethos, regardless of who the coach is.

However, Pep admitted it was his decision to decline the commencement of our much needed squad rebuild, & it was VERY telling that Khaldoon also highlighted this in his end of season address.

It could all be coincidence, but let's look at our recent timeline:

Pep's backroom team being effectively sacked.

Rodri's comments about improving things on & OFF the pitch

Rodri, Bernardo & Foden publicly complaining about physical & mental burnout & the players preferring a bigger squad.

Lijnders disconnection to Pep & the team on matchdays.

Pep 'jokingly' threatening to quit if he was given a bigger squad to work with.

Pep selecting his ageing treble winners above our new signings at the CWC.

A tweet today claiming it was Viana alone who decided who came & went during the summer window.

With all the above, I could be forgiven for thinking Pep's perceived failings last season has seen him marginalised in comparison to previous years.

The above could be me putting 2+2 together & getting 115, but it could also easily be a case of there being no smoke without fire. Personally, something doesn't seem right behind the scenes at Manchester City & it leads me to wonder how many friends & allies Guardiola has left at the club.

All my humble, personal opinions of course...
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If you believe our board are cut throat enough to sack the coaching staff and make very difficult but necessary steps to offload legends of the club, why would they marginalise the manager? Pep would be gone, they'd have no issue making that call.

But Khaldoon isn't short sighted. Pep has so much credit in the bank. Yes he fucked up but he followed a strategy he had largely believed in for a number of years and that had been successful. The board clearly agreed and made no steps to go against him. So it's a group decision and a group mistake and one they've sought to address as a group.

I do believe Viana has taken a proactive role in offloading players so moving forwards we are in a much better position to sell and buy top talent. I don't believe Pep has had no say whatsoever. I would imagine he expressed a desire to keep certain players and I'm sure a grown up conversation was had as to why they needed to go and how that would help Pep rebuild.
 
Pep had no say in who the club bought?

Sure…

He is probably the most decisive vote in the room. That room will have khaldoon, Soriano, viana etc etc.

Come on, the team wins and loses together. This blame game won’t do any good.

If we have not bought well in the market we will not win. It’s that simple.

Wait and see.

It’s a high bar trying to get near city’s recent success. Not impossible but bloody hard.

I have accepted we ain’t very good atm. It can all change tho.

Pep should have been given better players imo. World class talent to get the best out of him and his system. That’s not to say we haven’t got good players but the jury is out on exactly how good.

That’s the only gripe I have.
 
I still think a midfield 3 of Rodri (at full fitness), Reijnders and Foden (if he returns to form) would arguably be the best midfield in the PL. A couple of ifs in there but I believe it can come together.

It would still leave us weak on the flanks and a with a massive hole at right back.
 
supercity88 said:
If you believe our board are cut throat enough to sack the coaching staff and make very difficult but necessary steps to offload legends of the club, why would they marginalise the manager? Pep would be gone, they'd have no issue making that call.

But Khaldoon isn't short sighted. Pep has so much credit in the bank. Yes he fucked up but he followed a strategy he had largely believed in for a number of years and that had been successful. The board clearly agreed and made no steps to go against him. So it's a group decision and a group mistake and one they've sought to address as a group.

I do believe Viana has taken a proactive role in offloading players so moving forwards we are in a much better position to sell and buy top talent. I don't believe Pep has had no say whatsoever. I would imagine he expressed a desire to keep certain players and I'm sure a grown up conversation was had as to why they needed to go and how that would help Pep rebuild.
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The one thing we know for certain Pep has to trust and be trusted those around him, the moment he feels that trust has gone and he is being marginalised he’d walk. Think Pep knew exactly who needed moving on ,his match day squads and substitutions made that clear, but he’d have been happy for Vianna to be the one to implement it as he is very close and grateful to those players, rightly.
 
wolviedinho said:
Once he came out slagging off the CWC, right or not about the competition and once he started making mistakes each game his time was up.

He played his part and that won’t be forgotten.
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Ake was slagging it as well from memory, surprised he hasn’t been in ejected too.

Sent from A Loose Anus Pad
 
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