It's Quiet the £250m return

I find the inference really disrespectful, and also dismissive of loyalty as a valuable character trait, and the achievements of the players in the squad.
No Gundogan, no Akanji, no Bernardo.
In fact, a host of new signings played - Marmoush, Cherki, Gonzalez, Reijnders, Ait-Nouri.
Really, you are annoyed because we lost and attribute the loss to pace. Or, you just value pace above other qualities.

We will win some games and we will lose some, and Pep probably has the highest win rate in the history of the PL.

As much as I love what you said and want to say I agree with it in whole.. last season is a lesson of what loyalty can also do in football.

Do I wish we still had Kun Aguero.. ofcourse.
Do I wish we still had David Silva.. ofcourse.
others? yes!

But that time is gone and we're not living in 2018-19, we're not even in 2023 anymore.

There's a very famous footy saying.. when you've won a lot.. to keep winning you change the players or change the manager. I don't want to change the manager.. so sadly it is what it is!
 
As much as I love what you said and want to say I agree with it in whole.. last season is a lesson of what loyalty can also do in football.

Do I wish we still had Kun Aguero.. ofcourse.
Do I wish we still had David Silva.. ofcourse.
others? yes!

But that time is gone and we're not living in 2018-19, we're not even in 2023 anymore.

There's a very famous footy saying.. when you've won a lot.. to keep winning you change the players or change the manager. I don't want to change the manager.. so sadly it is what it is!

This would be a reasonable point if we'd lined up with Walker, Gundo, Bernardo and KDB on Saturday. Alas!
 
Donnarumma is in the top three goalkeepers in the world, he's far superior to Ederson.

Bravo was also supposed to be elite with his feet.

It's a complete fallacy Donnarumma is poor with his feet, he's just not Ederson.

The best goalkeepers have an aura about them and Donnarumma has it in spades.

He will make mistakes just like every other keeper, but he will save us double digit points.

Can't wait to see him.
 
As much as I love what you said and want to say I agree with it in whole.. last season is a lesson of what loyalty can also do in football.

Do I wish we still had Kun Aguero.. ofcourse.
Do I wish we still had David Silva.. ofcourse.
others? yes!

But that time is gone and we're not living in 2018-19, we're not even in 2023 anymore.

There's a very famous footy saying.. when you've won a lot.. to keep winning you change the players or change the manager. I don't want to change the manager.. so sadly it is what it is!
Yes, but there is no evidence in this game to support your assertion of favourites.
The only possible exceptions are to play Khusanov and Nunes, but that would be to ignore all of the new players he played and to ignore the legends left on the bench or even out of the squad.
Whenever any team is picked there will be some who like it and others who don't. When we lose, loads don't like it anymore despite this being the most unanimously liked team I have seen in the pre-match thread.
 
I hope I'm wrong too, but I'll elaborate a further.

Since last November, I honestly can’t recall the last time I saw the dominant City of old. Many fans were ecstatic with the drubbling of Wolves & believed "City were back".

This forced me to watch the match back twice, because I couldn't see what everyone else saw. Wolves could've/should've scored three against us & my fear was that a team with better quality players would've put us to the sword. A week later, Spuds did just that.

I'm seeing few signs of us consistently getting back to our best anytime soon. If I & many others have noticed our performances & seen the same thing, our management can't failed to have noticed either.

My question is, if this season we continue to regress at the rate we did last season, how long will it be before our board feel they're forced to act? Also, what action will they take?

We've practically bought a new team, & changed the whole coaching staff, so what options for change are left?

All things considered, I honestly think this is the inflection point that we're at. As I've said repeatedly, I seriously hope I've got this all wrong.
Did we not have the best stats in the league last year from something like Jan onwards bar Liverpool ?
The club and Pep will get it right
There have been numerous factors in play
 
Eh? we're waiting for the best central midfielder in the world to get back, every team on the planet would miss him!
Players like that ain't easily replaced, as we have found out!
Every time I hear this, my mind flashes back to king Colin being subbed on after his injury…with the help of modern medicine and rehabilitation, I just hope that Rodri can be that player again that took us to European glory
 
Donnarumma is in the top three goalkeepers in the world, he's far superior to Ederson.

Bravo was also supposed to be elite with his feet.

It's a complete fallacy Donnarumma is poor with his feet, he's just not Ederson.

The best goalkeepers have an aura about them and Donnarumma has it in spades.

He will make mistakes just like every other keeper, but he will save us double digit points.

Can't wait to see him.

That TY Marshall from the MEN reckons that we have denied any agreement with Donnarumma?!
 
I do think Pep dropped the ball, simply because his plan was to leave this summer and didn't think he would have the responsibility to start the rebuild.

I'm not so sure it was. I genuinely always felt he would extend, and he wanted to, but did want to see how it would all look into the season after 4 in a row, an almost double, and treble the season before.

Even so, what can not be underestimated here with the 'pause' on the rebuild, is the 115 hanging over the club. And I think that summer, combined with the faith in players to go again, and perhaps waiting for pep to commit, txiki wanting to leave the next guy money etc, that 115 had a huge part to play in the club's decision to sit on it.

Imho.
 
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Most of the time, our academy plus the club going out and these teenagers is just about money. We buy them and then in 18 months sell them on for profit. Its the business model that us and other various clubs are using.
Every now and again we may get a gem that maks it into the first team but fans need to realise that the vast majority of the timeits just a way of making money.

How many of these young signings have ever made it to first team level and established themselves in the last decade. The standard is so high that 99% wont ever see first team action. I cant believe that there are fans out there that still dont get this. The same clamour everytime we buy some supposedy exciting young south american lad who is the "next big thing." Its actually just a money making machine for the clubs, as well as the media (especially social media), agents and players. Obviously the clubs and agents take the biggest piece of the pie by far
I don't know how much money we think we can make on Vitor Reis when we've paid £29.5m for him. If we think there's a big capital gain in that then he has to be in contention for our first team.
 
It’s got me flapping just slightly that this is all going down to the wire. AAAnnnnd it’s LIVE on SSN before the window SLAMS shut. I am sweating cold rivulets of anxiety juice . Please City get whatever are are doing done xx love you.
 
I hope I'm wrong too, but I'll elaborate a further.

Since last November, I honestly can’t recall the last time I saw the dominant City of old. Many fans were ecstatic with the drubbling of Wolves & believed "City were back".

This forced me to watch the match back twice, because I couldn't see what everyone else saw. Wolves could've/should've scored three against us & my fear was that a team with better quality players would've put us to the sword. A week later, Spuds did just that.

I'm seeing few signs of us consistently getting back to our best anytime soon. If I & many others have noticed our performances & seen the same thing, our management can't failed to have noticed either.

My question is, if this season we continue to regress at the rate we did last season, how long will it be before our board feel they're forced to act? Also, what action will they take?

We've practically bought a new team, & changed the whole coaching staff, so what options for change are left?

All things considered, I honestly think this is the inflection point that we're at. As I've said repeatedly, I seriously hope I've got this all wrong.

Yeah I was a bit worried that Wolves caused us problems but couldn't finish. That 4-0 papered over cracks.

We allowed too many easy transitions to both teams.

And that's down to team selection/ tactics.
 
Gut feeling is that for all the noise, both Savinho and Ederson are still City players after the window closes.

I'd be fine with that.

Be fine with them being replaced as well.

Don't think those two being replaced changes much now, with the heavy lifting already having been done early.
 
I'd be fine with that.

Be fine with them being replaced as well.

Don't think those two being replaced changes much now, with the heavy lifting already having been done early.

Yeah, I sort of feel the same. We've got enough new players to bed in. We've got quality and depth. Part of me thinks you could probably sell both and not replace either, but I think to be safe you just keep them.

I don't like the uncertainty that has arisen around Ederson tbh. We should've either sold him earlier in the window, or shut the door completely. I think it's bad that you've got all this speculation around him and he's on the bench at the weekend. Either start him or drop him from the squad until the transfer shit is resolved. The halfway house creates uncertainty IMO.
 
Gut feeling is that for all the noise, both Savinho and Ederson are still City players after the window closes.

I have no idea what the issue is with Ederson and Galatasay but it’s the most drawn out transfer I can remember. Donnarumma is the obvious replacement but I do wonder if PSG might be pricing that infection high.

Savinho is a different matter in that if the latest brief that we’re waiting for a replacement is true, then it’s very hard to see us get a deal over the line in the time left in the window.
 

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