Kalidou Koulibaly

[domalino]

The Denayer new contract and being told he would play, only to sign it and be loaned out with Demichelis having his squad place still stings to do this day. Denayer should have been a perfect Guardiola centre back in every way. We fucked his progression up big time

The further we get from Pellegrini's spell in charge, the more damage he did IMO.

Sidelining and selling Dzeko, Bony over Dybala, Demichelis over Alderweireld. Playing Kun through a lot of injuries and rushing him back. I don't think he managed Yaya well at all on a personal level post 2014, the academy got neglected when there were kids and the team was weak enough that they could have help and that caused Sancho and probably Brahim to leave. Richards shouldn't have been let go for Sagna IMO although I know people won't all agree on that one.

 

[Neville Kneville]

The Denayer new contract and being told he would play, only to sign it and be loaned out with Demichelis having his squad place still stings to do this day. Denayer should have been a perfect Guardiola centre back in every way. We fucked his progression up big time

With Denayer, should have come Van Dijk. Nobody would have had better 3rd & 4th defenders.

That decision, on both, has had such a huge baring on City, years later.

 

[RayCTID]

The further we get from Pellegrini's spell in charge, the more damage he did IMO.

Sidelining and selling Dzeko, Bony over Dybala, playing Kun through a lot of injuries and rushing him back, I don't think he managed Yaya well, the academy got neglected when there were kids and the team was weak enough that they could have help and that caused Sancho and probably Brahim to leave.

We've wouldn't of signed either De Bryune or Sterling if that happened as we were still under ffp investigations. Asfor Pellegrini's spell he wasn't perfect but still done a good job under the circumstances and Mancini wasn't that great for introducing youth players either.

 

[Keeper!]

Big John's raking in a measly 100g's a week

Otamendi - 120
Walker - 110
Ake - 100
Mendy - 90
Cancelo -80
Zinchenko - 20 or 50

IF true, not surprised we are struggling to off load Otto, I think big bad John is on more, incredibly, another one difficult to shift.

 

[Neville Kneville]

IF true, not surprised we are struggling to off load Otto, I think big bad John is on more, incredibly, another one difficult to shift.

I don't think Stones will be difficult to shift if we really want to.

I'm not sure getting rid of two of your regular central defenders, going into a new season with no pre season, would be smart

 

[Neville Kneville]

We've wouldn't of signed either De Bryune or Sterling if that happened as we were still under ffp investigations. Asfor Pellegrini's spell he wasn't perfect but still done a good job under the circumstances and Mancini wasn't that great for introducing youth players either.

We would have saved a few quid by signing Van Dijk from Celtic.

 

[Keeper!]

I don't think Stones will be difficult to shift if we really want to.

I'm not sure getting rid of two of your regular central defenders, going into a new season with no pre season, would be smart

John Stones and Otto have not been regulars at any point this season, and considering our No1 CB has missed 3/4 season , that says everything about what Pep feels about them.

 

[RayCTID]

We would have saved a few quid by signing Van Dijk from Celtic.

Maybe. We opted for another player and with van Dijk we let him join a lower tier club. A gamble that didn't pay off

 

[domalino]

We've wouldn't of signed either De Bryune or Sterling if that happened as we were still under ffp investigations. Asfor Pellegrini's spell he wasn't perfect but still done a good job under the circumstances and Mancini wasn't that great for introducing youth players either.

Thats nonsense, we paid 2m less for Bony than we were going to for Dybala.

Maybe we wouldn't have felt the need for a top winger or a top midfielder because we had a very promising 21 year old striker, but i doubt it.

 

[Keeper!]

We would have saved a few quid by signing Van Dijk from Celtic.

And almost certainly another title

 

[Marvin]

They are desperate for money, I think we hold all the aces this time.

I can see Napoli thinking that this is the moment to sell him, but the problem could be interest from other clubs. Look at Chelsea, Man Utd, Real Madrid for a start. Man Utd seemingly are prepared to pay £80m for Sancho when their need for a Koulibaly is much greater. I'd be surprised if someone else doesn't come in for him particularly as a wily operator like Napoli are unlikely to do a deal quickly.

 

[RayCTID]

Thats nonsense, we paid 2m less for Bony than we were going to for Dybala.

Maybe we wouldn't have felt the need for a top winger or a top midfielder because we had a very promising 21 year old striker, but i doubt it.

Wages, fee for his agent overall transfer fee? As it happened, Dyabala didn't move until the summer during which we signed both Sterling and De Bryune. So not quite nonsense. Bony was an overpriced squad member

 

[Keeper!]

I can see Napoli thinking that this is the moment to sell him, but the problem could be interest from other clubs. Look at Chelsea, Man Utd, Real Madrid for a start. Man Utd seemingly are prepared to pay £80m for Sancho when their need for a Koulibaly is much greater. I'd be surprised if someone else doesn't come in for him particularly as a wily operator like Napoli are unlikely to do a deal quickly.

There is NO interest from other clubs, hence we hold the aces and the most important of all, the player wants to come here.

 

[domalino]

Wages, fee for his agent overall transfer fee, As it happens Dyabala didn't move until the summer where we signed both Sterling and De Bryune. So not quite nonsense.

Well it is nonsense. We had the option to sign Dybala for €30m in January 2015 and instead we bought Bony for £26m.

And last I checked Bony had an agent and was paid wages as well. Would there have been a slight difference? Maybe? Dybala joined Juventus on €3m a year net. A bit below £100k a week in our money and less than Bony was on.

The best argument you can make is that we might not have Jesus, but that's all just guessing. What we can say is that it was a bad decision at the time and subsequent seasons proved it.

 

[blueparrot]

I can see Napoli thinking that this is the moment to sell him, but the problem could be interest from other clubs. Look at Chelsea, Man Utd, Real Madrid for a start. Man Utd seemingly are prepared to pay £80m for Sancho when their need for a Koulibaly is much greater. I'd be surprised if someone else doesn't come in for him particularly as a wily operator like Napoli are unlikely to do a deal quickly.

Ideally for Napoli that's what they would do. The thing is we don't know how the player feels. If reports that personal details have been agreed then it's perfectly possible like Sane with Bayern he's making clear he only wants us. In which case other clubs won't bother getting involved.
It's impossible for us too know the stage we are at or know the players thinking.

 

[RayCTID]

Well it is nonsense. We had the option to sign Dybala for €30m in January 2015 and instead we bought Bony for £26m.

And last I checked Bony had an agent and was paid wages as well.

Its not nonsense and I see your post as an unwarranted attack on Pellegrini. We declined that option as we were planning on both signings during that summer. Pellegrini wanted an extra striker. Bony was deemed the cheaper stop gap.

 

[Blootoof]

The further we get from Pellegrini's spell in charge, the more damage he did IMO.

Sidelining and selling Dzeko, Bony over Dybala, Demichelis over Alderweireld. Playing Kun through a lot of injuries and rushing him back. I don't think he managed Yaya well at all on a personal level post 2014, the academy got neglected when there were kids and the team was weak enough that they could have help and that caused Sancho and probably Brahim to leave. Richards shouldn't have been let go for Sagna IMO although I know people won't all agree on that one.

To be fair to Bony, he'd just had a great calendar year. Plus we weren't to know that Swansea had speeded up all his Youtube clips.

 

[domalino]

Its not nonsense and its just an attack on Pellegrini.

A very well deserved attack on Pellegrini for making a shit decision.

 

[Nicholas van Whatsisface]

The Denayer new contract and being told he would play, only to sign it and be loaned out with Demichelis having his squad place still stings to do this day. Denayer should have been a perfect Guardiola centre back in every way. We fucked his progression up big time

That was a particularly damaging and error plagued moment of chronic player mismanagement from our recent history - one that not only almost ruined Denayer’s career, but also undermined a lot of the good work we had invested into our Academy to that point.

Academy players saw how we essentially lied to Denayer to get him to sign a new deal, and a lot of the trust in the word of our club was lost. We lost promising players because of it, and we’ve had to work hard to rebuild that trust since - which I’d say we’re just getting back now with Foden and the new Academy kids.

The player lost his way for a while too, seeing his career get swallowed up in a series of dispiriting loans when it once held so much promise - leading to behavioural issues which can’t have been helped by his overwhelming sense of frustration at a career apparently tanking before his eyes.

And all that to indulge Pellgrini’s yen for an ageing Demichelis who we could have signed for nothing just a few weeks earlier.

As wrong-headed an episode in our recent history as I care to remember. There is no positive way of spinning that one - a complete fuck up, pure and simple.

 

[ctid1894]

And he had a calming presence. I know I keep banging on about this but when you look at the goals we concede it is absurd how often they follow the front 3 missing huge chances and everyone starting to panic that it might be one of those days. You can literally see it in the players.

In the back end of 18/19, Vinny just kept everyone calm. We won loads of games with just 1 goal, and if you look at the times of the goals, loads of them are 50-70 minutes. Without Kompany it feels like the players panic if we're not up within 35 minutes, especially in these 100 point title races.

I love Vinny as much as anybody but I don't think it was entirely down to his leadership and reassuring presence, although that undoubtedly was a big factor. The biggest factor for me was the lack of options, even in the crowd we knew we were relying on a piece of individual brilliance to win us the games this season.

The two title winning seasons were different, we knew the passing and intensity, the speed and width (key elements missing without Sane) were always going to lead to opposition teams crumbling physically in the second half, so the games opened up naturally. Teams couldn't last 90 minutes against us, if they managed to get to the hour mark, you could see the fatigue creeping in and gaps opening up.

This season we haven't had the pace in behind or width, teams haven't had to shuffle one side then the other and back again, they've let us have the ball out wide because we haven't been a threat. They've been able to sit narrow and deep and all we've had is inverted wingers cutting in trying to shoot and fullbacks crossing from the halfway line, so opposition teams haven't had to do anywhere near as much running. I'd love to see the stats because it looks more clear and obvious from the stands than Silva's ignored VAR penalty at Bournemouth.

Combine that with the Spurs disallowed goal which everyone knew was a signal of what was to come from the corrupt bent twats in the VAR control room at Anfield and our confidence drained quicker than Rooney's bollocks in a residential care home.