I think the quality of our squad's gene pool has been diminished since last season. Others are catching us up & it's my fear that if we don't put clear Sky Blue water between us & the chasing pack, they'll close the gap even further to the point where in a season or two we could be sweating on a CL place.
After 12 years of the Sky Four, I bet the Rags, Dippers, Chavs & ArseAnal never thought they'd all spend extended periods outside of the CL. It's not beyond the realms of possibility this could happen to us too. This season's been more than a bit to close for the comfort we've previously created for ourselves.
Just like Foden, we need to capacity build Bobb, Doku, Lewis & the other promising youngsters we have. The truth is we can't rely on any of them consistently at the highest level right now, but they're great to have in the squad as we build them up.
KDB summed it up best the other day when he said Phil isn't a kid any longer, & he was competition for his place. We could only really say that about Foden over the last two seasons, & I reckon we'll have to handle the younger squad members in much the same way.
In the meantime, we desperately need competition & cover for Rodders, a replacement for Gundog & Mahrez, a proper LB, & to start the succession planning for Kev & Kyle, not to mention addressing the annual Bernardo will he/won't he circus.
If there was ever a time City needed to go big, it's this summer imho...