It's Quiet the £250m return

Dribble said:
There are members on this forum who're like post forensics. We all see & sense things differently, so if there are any post forensics out there who'd like to check, they'll see my posts from a year ago where after never saying a negative word about Guardiola (CL final against Chelsea apart), my patience began to wear thin with him.

1. His failure to see our squad needed to evolve which he declined to do (his admission)

2. The annual "will he, won't he" extend his contract for another two years.

Everything I've highlighted today in isolation is barely worth mentioning. However, when strung together in a timeline, I'd be kidding myself not to think there's more going on behind the scenes than most people think.

There's not one thing I mentioned that's made up. Only one could be cast as speculation (today's tweet about Viana & summer transfer decisions), but when considered in the context of what else is going on at my club, I'm not going to stick my fingers in my ears, scrunch up my eyes & refuse to acknowledge the picture that's emerging once I've connected the dots.

I'm not one for CONspiracy theories or hyperbole, but I am a person who takes keen notice of patterns & frequencies, & in that respect my Spidey senses are tingling. I repeat, I get a deep deep sense that all isn't well behind the scenes at Manchester City regarding Pep Guardiola.

I can't recall a manager sacking his whole backroom team himself. If anyone else can, please tell me.

We all know Pep loves a small elite squad. He "jokingly" threatened to quit 6 months ago, unless his squad was drastically cut by the end of the summer window.

However, over the last 2 years, FOUR senior players have publicly stated their personal, & the players' preference for a large squad, the direct opposite of what Pep desires. As of the close of this window, we have that large squad. Whether by design or because we failed to move players on, it amounts to the same. This larger squad doesn't include Philips or Ortega.

Pep admitted it was his fault that we didn't start the rebuilding process last summer, after turning down the offer. Khaldoon could barely contain his annoyance that this contributed to last season's collapse. Now reconsider the tweet about Viana & our increased squad size.

I've outlined several other instances where like I said, in isolation, they probably don't mean a lot, but when added together in a timeline, it makes me sit up & take notice.

I hope for my sake I've got this all wrong, but rarely do I see so many separate instances, which when linked start to form a picture & this doesn't turn out to be wholly or partly the case.

I'm happy to wait & see. If Guardiola adapts his tactics & formations, & everything returns to what we've come to expect, or we can clearly see a transitional pathway toward that goal, I'll be more than happy to hold my hands up & say I got it all wrong.

The thing is, I had similar feelings about the following too:

Pellegrini

Kompany leaving & us not replacing him

Pep's line-up for the Chelsea CL final

The 115 being utter bullshit & at worst us being fined for non-compliance

More recently:

Grealish & his end of season 2022-23 drinking

Rodri fearing for his health

Rodri, Foden, Akanji & Bernardo saying they were physically & mentally drained & the players wanted a bigger squad

Pep pulling his "will he, won't he" extend 12 months ago, becoming draining

Pep admitting he declined to rebuild last summer

Khaldoon's rebuild comments

Pep's coaching staff being sacked

City ending the window with a fully stacked squad, albeit Pep wants a small one

Pep Lijnders demeanour since the CWC

Rodri's "kids" comments

Rodri's comments about sorting things on & off the field

Reports today that Viana was solely responsible for all transfers this summer (could be speculation)

My mind works logically & I can't help making connections. After connecting the dots & seeing the picture that emerged, I had exactly the same feelings for all the above.

We all want the same thing, & I'm absolutely desperate for Manchester City to turn things around. I've defended Pep to the hilt when he was called the "Bald Fraud" "Fraudiola" & other disparaging things on this very forum. However, last summer's "will he, won't he" extend his contract was the first time I began to doubt him during his ten year tenure.

I swear, I hope I've got all the above very very wrong. If I have, I'll be the first to say so come the end of the season.
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Can’t disagree with most of that, but I am interested in your reference to Pep Ljinders’ demeanour - do you mean poor body language?
 
coolcity said:
Great post, far too level headed for this forum that's for sure. I agree with just about every word but to be honest I can't be bothered with this forum that much now, fed up to the hind teeth at all these armchair experts dissecting every move, every decision, every team selection, every bad pass and turning it into a crisis the likes of which make it sound like we're desperately fighting relegation.

Virtually nobody seems to get, even now, that last season we're weren't the club everybody else was chasing because of injuries. That's all it was. It's inevitable that there's going to be a drop off when you lose two key players for the ENTIRE SEASON, and I've always included Oscar Bobb as a player that was going to be a key figure in our season last term. You're probably going to drop a place or two, and that's exactly what happened. We finished third and reached the cup final. Totally understandable, totally acceptable under the circumstances and not a bad season by any stretch of the imagination. In fact under the circumstances it was a pretty decent finish, and we only lost 3 matches from March to the start of this season.

I think we've signed som every exciting players who are going to take a little time to get to know how each other play but when they do I can see this club exploding into life. Just give them time, sit back and watch and most of all stop bloody moaning. We've never had it so good and may never do so again, even if you dont realise it yet.
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What comes with winning, inevitably, is entitlement. When you’ve been at the top for as long as we have, it’s easy to slip into the mindset that every season has to be flawless, that anything less than perfection is somehow failure. But football, like all sport doesn’t work like that. It goes in cycles. Nobody stays at the summit forever. The Chicago Bulls ruled basketball in the 90s, but when Jordan, Rodman and Pippen left they weren't the same force and that golden era ended, the cycle moved on. AC Milan were kings of Europe for decades before they slipped away and had to rebuild. That’s sport. That’s reality.

You've got to have a little perspective sometimes. Take Crystal Palace for example – one trophy in their entire history. I actually know a Palace fan who feels blessed beyond words just to be able to follow them on a European tour. For him, that’s once in a lifetime stuff. Meanwhile, we’ve won the lot. Every trophy, every honour - the full set, whilst creating history that will still be talked about in 100 years time. Some fans of other clubs can only dream of what we’ve lived through.

Even last season, written off by many, we finished third and reached a cup final, despite losing key players for the entire campaign. That’s not exactly failure. That’s a squad holding its own in adversity.

So instead of fans dissecting every misstep, every selection, every bad pass as if it’s the beginning of the end, maybe just stop and appreciate what we’re living through. Because this era won’t last forever. Nothing does. And when it passes, we’ll look back and realise we’ve never had it so good.

If someone had told you at the start of the summer that we’d be bringing in Cherki, Reijnders, Donnarumma, Ait-Nouri, Marmoush, Khusanov, Trafford, Reis (one of the most coveted young defenders in Europe), plus Echeverri, Nypan, Jumah Bah, and Nico González, you’d have snapped their hand off. That’s a mix of proven quality, elite potential, and serious investment in the future. Yet somehow, because it didn’t tick every single box for every single fan, people are calling it a failure. Really?

Even if we’d added Livramento on top of all that, there’d still be voices moaning, because some supporters have reached a stage where success isn’t enough. And if this is what success brings, endless nitpicking, crisis talk after every bump in the road then I almost wonder if some people would be happier moaning their way through relegation scraps every season.

The truth is, we’ve never had it so good. The manager and players built this golden era. They’re the reason we’ve lifted everything there is to win. They’ve earned our trust, and they deserve our backing through the rough patches as much as the good ones.

Because when these new signings settle, when the chemistry clicks, this team is going to take off again. And when it does, people will look back at this summer window and realise just how strong it really was.

This manager has brought us everything we ever dreamed of. Trophies, glory, respect on the world stage. He’s taken us places we never thought we’d reach. Year after year he’s rebuilt, losing key players and still finding a way to deliver titles. That takes genius, resilience, and vision of the highest order.

He’s achieved things even Sir Alex Ferguson never did. Think about that for a second. We are watching one of the greatest managers in the history of the game, and he’s ours, he's been ours, he's one of us now.

So when I see our own fans tearing him down, it honestly saddens me and I feel embarrassed. Other clubs look on in envy. They’d give anything to have a manager like him, and here we are wasting energy moaning about the very man who built this golden era. Without him, this doesn't happen.

We should be standing tall, proud, united behind him. Because this manager hasn’t just given us success - he’s defined our identity. He’s raised our expectations, rewritten our history, and taken this club to levels we once thought impossible.

He deserves nothing less than our full support. Through every dip, every challenge, every change, he has earned our trust a hundred times over. He's got enough credit in the bank to be backed, even if we finish 15th like United did. Just take a trip back to the City v Inter CL final thread on this forum and just look at what he brought to our fans on here. The best night of our lives.

One day this era will be history, and we’ll look back and realise just how lucky we were to live it, and when he's gone we will know how good we had it with Pep.
 
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Berti No Show said:
What comes with winning, inevitably, is entitlement. When you’ve been at the top for as long as we have, it’s easy to slip into the mindset that every season has to be flawless, that anything less than perfection is somehow failure. But football, like all sport doesn’t work like that. It goes in cycles. Nobody stays at the summit forever. The Chicago Bulls ruled basketball in the 90s, but when Jordan, Rodman and Pippen left they weren't the same force and that golden era ended, the cycle moved on. AC Milan were kings of Europe for decades before they slipped away and had to rebuild. That’s sport. That’s reality.

You've got to have a little perspective sometimes. Take Crystal Palace for example – one trophy in their entire history. I actually know a Palace fan who feels blessed beyond words just to be able to follow them on a European tour. For him, that’s once in a lifetime stuff. Meanwhile, we’ve won the lot. Every trophy, every honour - the full set, whilst creating history that will still be talked about in 100 years time. Some fans of other clubs can only dream of what we’ve lived through.

Even last season, written off by many, we finished third and reached a cup final, despite losing key players for the entire campaign. That’s not exactly failure. That’s a squad holding its own in adversity.

So instead of fans dissecting every misstep, every selection, every bad pass as if it’s the beginning of the end, maybe just stop and appreciate what we’re living through. Because this era won’t last forever. Nothing does. And when it passes, we’ll look back and realise we’ve never had it so good.

If someone had told you at the start of the summer that we’d be bringing in Cherki, Reijnders, Donnarumma, Ait-Nouri, Marmoush, Khusanov, Trafford, Reis (one of the most coveted young defenders in Europe), plus Echeverri, Nypan, Jumah Bah, and Nico González, you’d have snapped their hand off. That’s a mix of proven quality, elite potential, and serious investment in the future. Yet somehow, because it didn’t tick every single box for every single fan, people are calling it a failure. Really?

Even if we’d added Livramento on top of all that, there’d still be voices moaning, because some supporters have reached a stage where success isn’t enough. And if this is what success brings, endless nitpicking, crisis talk after every bump in the road then I almost wonder if some people would be happier moaning their way through relegation scraps every season.

The truth is, we’ve never had it so good. The manager and players built this golden era. They’re the reason we’ve lifted everything there is to win. They’ve earned our trust, and they deserve our backing through the rough patches as much as the good ones.

Because when these new signings settle, when the chemistry clicks, this team is going to take off again. And when it does, people will look back at this summer window and realise just how strong it really was.

This manager has brought us everything we ever dreamed of. Trophies, glory, respect on the world stage. He’s taken us places we never thought we’d reach. Year after year he’s rebuilt, losing key players and still finding a way to deliver titles. That takes genius, resilience, and vision of the highest order.

He’s achieved things even Sir Alex Ferguson never did. Think about that for a second. We are watching one of the greatest managers in the history of the game, and he’s ours, he's been ours, he's one of us now.

So when I see our own fans tearing him down, it honestly saddens me and I feel embarrassed. Other clubs look on in envy. They’d give anything to have a manager like him, and here we are wasting energy moaning about the very man who built this golden era. Without him, this doesn't happen.

We should be standing tall, proud, united behind him. Because this manager hasn’t just given us success - he’s defined our identity. He’s raised our expectations, rewritten our history, and taken this club to levels we once thought impossible.

He deserves nothing less than our full support. Through every dip, every challenge, every change, he has earned our trust a hundred times over. He's got enough credit in the bank to be backed, even if we finish 15th like United did.

One day this era will be history, and we’ll look back and realise just how lucky we were to live it, and when he's gone we will know how good we had it with Pep.
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Absolutely this!
 
Berti No Show said:
What comes with winning, inevitably, is entitlement. When you’ve been at the top for as long as we have, it’s easy to slip into the mindset that every season has to be flawless, that anything less than perfection is somehow failure. But football, like all sport doesn’t work like that. It goes in cycles. Nobody stays at the summit forever. The Chicago Bulls ruled basketball in the 90s, but when Jordan, Rodman and Pippen left they weren't the same force and that golden era ended, the cycle moved on. AC Milan were kings of Europe for decades before they slipped away and had to rebuild. That’s sport. That’s reality.

You've got to have a little perspective sometimes. Take Crystal Palace for example – one trophy in their entire history. I actually know a Palace fan who feels blessed beyond words just to be able to follow them on a European tour. For him, that’s once in a lifetime stuff. Meanwhile, we’ve won the lot. Every trophy, every honour - the full set, whilst creating history that will still be talked about in 100 years time. Some fans of other clubs can only dream of what we’ve lived through.

Even last season, written off by many, we finished third and reached a cup final, despite losing key players for the entire campaign. That’s not exactly failure. That’s a squad holding its own in adversity.

So instead of fans dissecting every misstep, every selection, every bad pass as if it’s the beginning of the end, maybe just stop and appreciate what we’re living through. Because this era won’t last forever. Nothing does. And when it passes, we’ll look back and realise we’ve never had it so good.

If someone had told you at the start of the summer that we’d be bringing in Cherki, Reijnders, Donnarumma, Ait-Nouri, Marmoush, Khusanov, Trafford, Reis (one of the most coveted young defenders in Europe), plus Echeverri, Nypan, Jumah Bah, and Nico González, you’d have snapped their hand off. That’s a mix of proven quality, elite potential, and serious investment in the future. Yet somehow, because it didn’t tick every single box for every single fan, people are calling it a failure. Really?

Even if we’d added Livramento on top of all that, there’d still be voices moaning, because some supporters have reached a stage where success isn’t enough. And if this is what success brings, endless nitpicking, crisis talk after every bump in the road then I almost wonder if some people would be happier moaning their way through relegation scraps every season.

The truth is, we’ve never had it so good. The manager and players built this golden era. They’re the reason we’ve lifted everything there is to win. They’ve earned our trust, and they deserve our backing through the rough patches as much as the good ones.

Because when these new signings settle, when the chemistry clicks, this team is going to take off again. And when it does, people will look back at this summer window and realise just how strong it really was.

This manager has brought us everything we ever dreamed of. Trophies, glory, respect on the world stage. He’s taken us places we never thought we’d reach. Year after year he’s rebuilt, losing key players and still finding a way to deliver titles. That takes genius, resilience, and vision of the highest order.

He’s achieved things even Sir Alex Ferguson never did. Think about that for a second. We are watching one of the greatest managers in the history of the game, and he’s ours, he's been ours, he's one of us now.

So when I see our own fans tearing him down, it honestly saddens me and I feel embarrassed. Other clubs look on in envy. They’d give anything to have a manager like him, and here we are wasting energy moaning about the very man who built this golden era. Without him, this doesn't happen.

We should be standing tall, proud, united behind him. Because this manager hasn’t just given us success - he’s defined our identity. He’s raised our expectations, rewritten our history, and taken this club to levels we once thought impossible.

He deserves nothing less than our full support. Through every dip, every challenge, every change, he has earned our trust a hundred times over. He's got enough credit in the bank to be backed, even if we finish 15th like United did. Just take a trip back to the City v Inter CL final thread on this forum and just look at what he brought to our fans on here. The best night of our lives.

One day this era will be history, and we’ll look back and realise just how lucky we were to live it, and when he's gone we will know how good we had it with Pep.
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Good post, and even longer than a Dribble epic too :)
 
alexmcity said:
What would make you think you got the above very wrong? Be as precise as possible.

Markedly improved performances in the 2nd half of the season, cup finals, CL semi?
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A turnaround in performance levels. We're in a transitional season, so as long as I see significant performance progress, I wouldn't be arsed about winning the odd pot along the way.
 
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Eric Hitchmough said:
Can’t disagree with most of that, but I am interested in your reference to Pep Ljinders’ demeanour - do you mean poor body language?
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Yes. My eyes were drawn to Kolo bouncing around behind Pep trying to gee the lads on against Spuds. Kolo looked concerned & frustrated, but Lijnders was sat passively looking completely disconnected from what was happening on the pitch. The same happened against Brighton.

During the CWC, every time we scored, the whole bench jumped up & were back slapping each other. We were playing with much more pace & power, with over/underlapping FB's supporting our wingers & both Doku & Savinho excelled.

Then inexplicably against Al Hilal we reverted to last season's tactics & promptly lost. We've been setup the same as last season ever since, so if Lijnders appointment was supposed to bring a change to our style of play & we've not changed, what was the point of sacking our previous coaches & bringing in new ones?

People's body language & faces don't lie. Could this be what Rodri meant about solving things on & off the pitch?
 
Dribble said:
A turnaround in performance levels. We're in a transitional season, so as long as I see significant performance progress, I wouldn't be arsed about not winning the odd pot along the way.
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I agree with that, but let us specify a little bit the criteria of improving performances. I think we can agree that we need to see improvement in two respects: PPG and GD. If we win 2,3 ppg in the 2nd half of the season (87 pts over an entire season) and our gd is +1,5 per game (+57 over 38 games), would that be enough?

Or perhaps 2-3 brilliant games vs our rivals and in the CL, showing the team can potentially compete for the biggest trophies?
 
Skrastins said:
Luis Enrique comes to City just to sell Donnarumma againa :D

i doubt we would go after Luis Enrique

i think we will go after a fairly young coach and back him up long term

Fabregas, Kompany, Arteta, Nagelsmann, Andoni Iraola, Michel is the shortlist imho
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I hope kompany is nowhere near the list
 
alexmcity said:
I agree with that, but let us specify a little bit the criteria of improving performances. I think we can agree that we need to see improvement in two respects: PPG and GD. If we win 2,3 ppg in the 2nd half of the season (87 pts over an entire season) and our gd is +1,5 per game (+57 over 38 games), would that be enough?

Or perhaps 2-3 brilliant games vs our rivals and in the CL, showing the team can potentially compete for the biggest trophies?
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After last season & waiting until the transfer window closed before I voiced my assessment, the only target I'm interested in is CL qualification.

I want to see better performances all round, but I also want to see us push Arsenal & Liverpool closer when we meet them. Last season Arsenal battered us & Liverpool looked like they were wearing their slippers & smoking tobacco pipes, so comfortable were they. We barely laid a glove on either.

This season I want to see the bastards sweat! If we fail to beat them, but push them close, that to me is the progress I'm looking for in comparison to last season where we were woeful.

If we manage to beat them, albeit the three points would be welcome, it's the manner of the victory that matters most to me.

Before the takeover, we had sporadic victories against ManUre. They looked the better quality & more dominant team over all, but we took our chances & beat them. However, come the end of the season, consider our relative league positions.

It would be great, but we can't win every game. No team can. Beating the top teams would be brill, but it's the manner of victory that matters to me more than a fortuitous, on the day win.
 
Dribble said:
After last season & waiting until the transfer window closed before I voiced my assessment, the only target I'm interested in is CL qualification.

I want to see better performances all round, but I also want to see us push Arsenal & Liverpool closer when we meet them. Last season Arsenal battered us & Liverpool looked like they were wearing their slippers & smoking tobacco pipes, so comfortable were they. We barely laid a glove on either.

This season I want to see the bastards sweat! If we fail to beat them, but push them close, that to me is the progress I'm looking for in comparison to last season where we were woeful.

If we manage to beat them, albeit the three points would be welcome, it's the manner of the victory that matters most to me.

Before the takeover, we had sporadic victories against ManUre. They looked the better quality more dominant team over all, but we took our chances & beat them. However, come the end of the season, consider our relative league positions.

It would be great, but we can't win every game. No team can. Beating the top teams would be brill, but it's the manner of victory that matters to me more than a fortuitous, on the day win.
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I hope the club’s ambition is greater than ‘beating the top teams’, otherwise it may as well be the fucking 90s again!

Our ambition should be to win every bloody trophy we’re involved in! We might not but that should be the aim and see how close we get.

A series of poor transfer windows and reluctance to actually shop at the very top coupled with key players ageing or frequently injured has set us back to 2007 levels. Hopefully the board will see this and address it properly once we finally defeat the spurious financial charges. We also need to seriously go after all the cartel wankers who instigated it. Hundreds of millions in compensation from all the cunts who signed that shit letter crying to the PL.
 
Dribble said:
After last season & waiting until the transfer window closed before I voiced my assessment, the only target I'm interested in is CL qualification.

I want to see better performances all round, but I also want to see us push Arsenal & Liverpool closer when we meet them. Last season Arsenal battered us & Liverpool looked like they were wearing their slippers & smoking tobacco pipes, so comfortable were they. We barely laid a glove on either.

This season I want to see the bastards sweat! If we fail to beat them, but push them close, that to me is the progress I'm looking for in comparison to last season where we were woeful.

If we manage to beat them, albeit the three points would be welcome, it's the manner of the victory that matters most to me.

Before the takeover, we had sporadic victories against ManUre. They looked the better quality & more dominant team over all, but we took our chances & beat them. However, come the end of the season, consider our relative league positions.

It would be great, but we can't win every game. No team can. Beating the top teams would be brill, but it's the manner of victory that matters to me more than a fortuitous, on the day win.
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So, if we look as good as Arsenal and Liverpool in the games against them, especially in the 2nd half of the season when the results of the rebuild should be clearer, then you are wrong?

I think certain numbers should be included, otherwise the notion of improvement is quite vague. For me: 43 pts in the 2nd half of the season, GD of +30, and a decent showing in the CL would be great. To question then the direction of the team would be unserious, as such form would have us very close to the top over a whole season.
 
Semper aggressus said:
I hope the club’s ambition is greater than ‘beating the top teams’, otherwise it may as well be the fucking 90s again!

Our ambition should be to win every bloody trophy we’re involved in! We might not but that should be the aim and see how close we get.

A series of poor transfer windows and reluctance to actually shop at the very top coupled with key players ageing or frequently injured has set us back to 2007 levels. Hopefully the board will see this and address it properly once we finally defeat the spurious financial charges. We also need to seriously go after all the cartel wankers who instigated it. Hundreds of millions in compensation from all the cunts who signed that shit letter crying to the PL.
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I get the frustration, we are all frustrated. We’ve been spoiled with success, so it’s natural to expect that every season we go out and win the lot. That’s the bar this manager and this team have set. But let’s not kid ourselves - the off-field situation has had a massive impact on the club. Those charges might be baseless, but they’ve slowed down deals, complicated negotiations, put potential transfer targets off and put the club under a microscope no one else has to deal with.

And the hypocrisy is off the scale. Arsenal can take zero interest shareholder loans to bulk up their squad. United were handed COVID payments to help them through. Chelsea have spent like it’s going out of fashion. Liverpool can break the transfer record twice without any criticism. Yet when City invest in growth, suddenly it’s corruption and cheating. It’s a witch hunt, pure and simple, and the so-called "cartel" pushed it because they can’t stand that we’ve broken up their cosy little club.

Here’s the thing though, despite all of that, we’re still going to win things. We’re still competing at the very top. We’re still signing some of the best young talents in Europe. This isn’t the 90s, and it’s sure as hell isn't 2007. This is a club still at the peak of its powers, carrying extra baggage off the pitch but will still deliver where it counts.

And when those charges are finally thrown out, and they will be I expect the club to come out swinging. Not just in the transfer market, but in the courts, against every single one of those who tried to drag our name through the dirt. They wanted us finished because they couldn’t beat us on the pitch, so they tried to do it in the boardroom and the back pages.

Look at the difference in coverage. When it’s City, the headlines scream "cheating", "financial doping", "killing football". It’s plastered everywhere, YouTube channels, The Overlap, Sky Sports, BBC, national newspapers - all hammering the same drum.

Whole front pages dedicated to painting us as villains before a single shred of evidence has been tested. Yet Liverpool go and break the transfer record twice in the same window - something no club has ever done and what do we get from the likes of Miguel Delaney and Ian Herbert? Glowing pieces about "ambition" and "backing the manager." "Liverpool seeing off the Gulf Juggernauts." Spare me.

The hypocrisy couldn’t be clearer. City’s success is always framed as illegitimate, while the traditional cartel clubs get a free pass to spend, spin, and rewrite the narrative. That’s why, when this is all finally behind us, the club needs to go after them with everything. Because it’s not just about defending City anymore, it’s about exposing the whole rotten system that tried to bring us down, the same system that is preventing Newcastle and Aston Villa from strengthening, or keeping hold of their best players. They fear change, competition, and they fear what clubs like City and Newcastle represent. The house of cards won't stand forever, believe me.

So yes, demand high standards, that’s who we are. But don’t fall into the trap of buying the narrative that we’re slipping backwards. This is still the greatest era this club has ever had.
Don’t let them shame us, they only win if we turn on our own. That’s what they want - City fans doubting City.

We can’t give them that. Stick together. Back the manager, back the players, back the club. They can’t stop us on the pitch, so they’re trying to break us off it. Fuck them all.
 
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117 M34 said:
I hope kompany is nowhere near the list
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he did good in his first season with a big club tho

two losses in Bundesliga, high scoring games, very good GA

in UCL was smacked by Barca and Feyenoord, but was very decent first outing in UCL

very interesting howhe will build on that, Jackson signing is a head scratcher tho
 
Berti No Show said:
What comes with winning, inevitably, is entitlement. When you’ve been at the top for as long as we have, it’s easy to slip into the mindset that every season has to be flawless, that anything less than perfection is somehow failure. But football, like all sport doesn’t work like that. It goes in cycles. Nobody stays at the summit forever. The Chicago Bulls ruled basketball in the 90s, but when Jordan, Rodman and Pippen left they weren't the same force and that golden era ended, the cycle moved on. AC Milan were kings of Europe for decades before they slipped away and had to rebuild. That’s sport. That’s reality.

You've got to have a little perspective sometimes. Take Crystal Palace for example – one trophy in their entire history. I actually know a Palace fan who feels blessed beyond words just to be able to follow them on a European tour. For him, that’s once in a lifetime stuff. Meanwhile, we’ve won the lot. Every trophy, every honour - the full set, whilst creating history that will still be talked about in 100 years time. Some fans of other clubs can only dream of what we’ve lived through.

Even last season, written off by many, we finished third and reached a cup final, despite losing key players for the entire campaign. That’s not exactly failure. That’s a squad holding its own in adversity.

So instead of fans dissecting every misstep, every selection, every bad pass as if it’s the beginning of the end, maybe just stop and appreciate what we’re living through. Because this era won’t last forever. Nothing does. And when it passes, we’ll look back and realise we’ve never had it so good.

If someone had told you at the start of the summer that we’d be bringing in Cherki, Reijnders, Donnarumma, Ait-Nouri, Marmoush, Khusanov, Trafford, Reis (one of the most coveted young defenders in Europe), plus Echeverri, Nypan, Jumah Bah, and Nico González, you’d have snapped their hand off. That’s a mix of proven quality, elite potential, and serious investment in the future. Yet somehow, because it didn’t tick every single box for every single fan, people are calling it a failure. Really?

Even if we’d added Livramento on top of all that, there’d still be voices moaning, because some supporters have reached a stage where success isn’t enough. And if this is what success brings, endless nitpicking, crisis talk after every bump in the road then I almost wonder if some people would be happier moaning their way through relegation scraps every season.

The truth is, we’ve never had it so good. The manager and players built this golden era. They’re the reason we’ve lifted everything there is to win. They’ve earned our trust, and they deserve our backing through the rough patches as much as the good ones.

Because when these new signings settle, when the chemistry clicks, this team is going to take off again. And when it does, people will look back at this summer window and realise just how strong it really was.

This manager has brought us everything we ever dreamed of. Trophies, glory, respect on the world stage. He’s taken us places we never thought we’d reach. Year after year he’s rebuilt, losing key players and still finding a way to deliver titles. That takes genius, resilience, and vision of the highest order.

He’s achieved things even Sir Alex Ferguson never did. Think about that for a second. We are watching one of the greatest managers in the history of the game, and he’s ours, he's been ours, he's one of us now.

So when I see our own fans tearing him down, it honestly saddens me and I feel embarrassed. Other clubs look on in envy. They’d give anything to have a manager like him, and here we are wasting energy moaning about the very man who built this golden era. Without him, this doesn't happen.

We should be standing tall, proud, united behind him. Because this manager hasn’t just given us success - he’s defined our identity. He’s raised our expectations, rewritten our history, and taken this club to levels we once thought impossible.

He deserves nothing less than our full support. Through every dip, every challenge, every change, he has earned our trust a hundred times over. He's got enough credit in the bank to be backed, even if we finish 15th like United did. Just take a trip back to the City v Inter CL final thread on this forum and just look at what he brought to our fans on here. The best night of our lives.

One day this era will be history, and we’ll look back and realise just how lucky we were to live it, and when he's gone we will know how good we had it with Pep.
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The jury is out on all the players mentioned.

The era is already over, some can’t see it.

On the whole, last season was awful, this season so far is awful. Not point focusing too far back. Yes we had it great, but I don’t want to wait another 10/20/30 seasons before we compete again which is a real possibility. With the money and structure we will always be about like the rags/chavs.

Overall we are ok. 50/50 how things proceed at this point.

The club demands success. That includes pep. So we need to be demanding that success also.

Iv said it few times, pep needs certain specialists in certain positions for the team to thrive. We have a good squad, imbalanced but still good. What we don’t have is an enough world class match winners.

I don’t believe pep will leave unless a repeat of last season happens. I would rather now focus on buying 2/3 world class players. We have too many supporting cast members.

Anyway, good post.
 
wolviedinho said:
The jury is out on all the players mentioned.

The era is already over, some can’t see it.

On the whole, last season was awful, this season so far is awful. Not point focusing too far back. Yes we had it great, but I don’t want to wait another 10/20/30 seasons before we compete again which is a real possibility. With the money and structure we will always be about like the rags/chavs.

Overall we are ok. 50/50 how things proceed at this point.

The club demands success. That includes pep. So we need to be demanding that success also.

Iv said it few times, pep needs certain specialists in certain positions for the team to thrive. We have a good squad, imbalanced but still good. What we don’t have is an enough world class match winners.

I don’t believe pep will leave unless a repeat of last season happens. I would rather now focus on buying 2/3 world class players. We have too many supporting cast members.

Anyway, good post.
Click to expand...

Spot on about needing world class players, but truth is there just aren’t many around these days. When we signed Aguero, Silva and Yaya, genuine top class talents were more available and affordable. Now the market’s thin, and the few who are at that level either cost insane money or are locked down at clubs who won’t sell. That’s why it feels like we’ve ended up with more supporting cast types. The true difference makers are harder to come by than they used to be. Look at Rodrygo, is he really world class or another supporting cast member? Nobody knows. He looks like an expensive supporting cast member at Madrid.

Look at PSG too, they didn’t exactly go out and buy ready made world class players to build this Championship winning team. They bought project players and developed them into stars. That’s the reality now, clubs either produce their own or gamble on potential, because buying prime world class players off the shelf is almost impossible. If we put Haaland up for sale, who can really afford him?

Is Florian Wirtz world class? Not so sure. He's probably not as good as Cole Palmer who we sold for 40 million from our academy. Hence, project players need time to develop.

For example, you sell Savinho for 65 million, who can you buy with the same potential and profile at his age? Rodrygo would cost you 300k a week in wages and there's no guarantee he would be a success for us.

In an ideal world, I’d love City to go out and sign players like Yamal, Pedri, or Musiala - the kind of generational talents that can define an era. But realistically, it’s never going to happen. With PSR/FFP restrictions and the insane contracts these lads are already tied down to, deals of that scale are basically impossible in the modern game. Like Barcelona have done, I think it would be better to use and develop what we have Infront of us. The Cole Palmer sale is the very important example.
 
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