OK, let's be realistic

oakiecokie said:
Top players will want to play in the CL not the Thursday Night Trophy.
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So they miss one season that’s very short sighted of them, if you have a great manager they must be able to see that, I’m sick to death of this obsession with it, Christ ot would just be like City to go and win the club World Cup and be the best team for the next 4 years, that’s how stupid these competitions are. The premier league is the measure of a team not some shite knockout competition, let’s say Real Madrid don’t make the next round or fail to qualify next season would players seriously not go there? In fact the Madrid qualify every year cause their league is shit it’s guaranteed, if only players could see this.
 
citysince88 said:
You can finish in the top four and still sign duds, you can finish outside the top four and still sign players that improve the team.
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I think our recent record eg 4 in a row will ensure that top players will still come, but not if it takes us too long to get back near the top.
 
M23 Citizen said:
I’m still happy. This is just a natural, very overdue, dip.

By rights we didn’t have the squad to win the league in 2022-23. I thought we were lacking in depth in midfield, but almost every single player stayed fit and were all bang in form from February onwards. Until De Bruyne went off in the CL final, Rodri, Gundo and De Bruyne didn’t miss a beat for months and performed at a level I’ve not seen from many other midfields ever before in the sport. If Rodri and De Bruyne had been out like they have in the last 18 months between them, we probably wouldn’t have won a thing that season, such was the lack of midfield depth. Yet they stayed fit and we did something special and won the PL, FA Cup and CL.

By rights we didn’t have the squad to break the record fourth league title in a row last season. We had a small squad still, smaller than 2022-23, yet we won the Super Cup, Club World Cup and did break that record and won the PL.

We’ve done better than our depth in quality should have in the last two seasons. David Silva and then Fernandinho leaving left our midfield very thin on the ground, especially last season n’all losing Gündoğan. If we’d won the PL in 2020-21 and 2021-22 and then not again for the last two seasons, I wouldn’t have been surprised. But we did win the PL and have actually won two trebles, or six trophies over the two seasons.

Now the drop off has come and it’s been very long in the pipeline and completely expected for me. It’s come as no surprise at all. However, I’m happy as Larry still because we will learn a lot from this season as a club and will hopefully rectify things on what we’ve learnt.
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It’s true. The weaknesses have been visible for a while. The world was saying we were invincible, we knew we weren’t. One weakness is that Pep is so used to being right he’s slow to fix when he’s wrong. We are open in midfield, off target at the top and slow in defence. But if anyone can sort it, he can.
 
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Blue Maverick said:
So they miss one season that’s very short sighted of them, if you have a great manager they must be able to see that, I’m sick to death of this obsession with it, Christ ot would just be like City to go and win the club World Cup and be the best team for the next 4 years, that’s how stupid these competitions are. The premier league is the measure of a team not some shite knockout competition, let’s say Real Madrid don’t make the next round or fail to qualify next season would players seriously not go there? In fact the Madrid qualify every year cause their league is shit it’s guaranteed, if only players could see this.
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Can they be certain only one season ? Of course not and as we know footballers can be very fickle and at times not too bright upstairs.
 
salfordbluetrue said:
So what happens if our owner decides he does not agree with you, and ditches City instead? there is nothing to say our sister clubs should be feeder clubs, that is just something we want, with UEFA and FIFA trying to stop.
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You’d expect our business model to now be sustainable the risk of being dumped as you put it is more on the motives ambition etc of the new owners
I didn’t say associated clubs were feeder clubs if anything they have more value as development options for maturing academy players
My point on feeding us was that that opportunity hasn’t occurred
 
M23 Citizen said:
I’m still happy. This is just a natural, very overdue, dip.

By rights we didn’t have the squad to win the league in 2022-23. I thought we were lacking in depth in midfield, but almost every single player stayed fit and were all bang in form from February onwards. Until De Bruyne went off in the CL final, Rodri, Gundo and De Bruyne didn’t miss a beat for months and performed at a level I’ve not seen from many other midfields ever before in the sport. If Rodri and De Bruyne had been out like they have in the last 18 months between them, we probably wouldn’t have won a thing that season, such was the lack of midfield depth. Yet they stayed fit and we did something special and won the PL, FA Cup and CL.

By rights we didn’t have the squad to break the record fourth league title in a row last season. We had a small squad still, smaller than 2022-23, yet we won the Super Cup, Club World Cup and did break that record and won the PL.

We’ve done better than our depth in quality should have in the last two seasons. David Silva and then Fernandinho leaving left our midfield very thin on the ground, especially last season n’all losing Gündoğan. If we’d won the PL in 2020-21 and 2021-22 and then not again for the last two seasons, I wouldn’t have been surprised. But we did win the PL and have actually won two trebles, or six trophies over the two seasons.

Now the drop off has come and it’s been very long in the pipeline and completely expected for me. It’s come as no surprise at all. However, I’m happy as Larry still because we will learn a lot from this season as a club and will hopefully rectify things on what we’ve learnt.
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Great post.

Life moves so fast that people forget about the scale of our achievements in the past 4/5 years. We've literally reached the pinnacle of football and you can't be that good every season.

Pep has also stopped a fantastic Liverpool side from winning more trophies. They've always had a spine of world class players in Allison, Van Dijk and Salah who are still driving their team.

Our spine has been ripped out this season and we need to recruit extremely well this summer and beyond. Which I'm sure we will and Pep will steer us back to the top.
 
Think we're at the point where we just embrace it tbfh, get the inflatables out and sing 'City's going down with a billion in the bank' every game. Will take some of the anxiety away from he crowd and in turn eventually filter to the players - or we will go down with a billion in the bank :D We've been shit before, but we've also had the best 8-9 seasons of probably any English team in Prem League era. Just go with the flow.
 
Despite only taking 4 points from the last 8 Premier League games we are still only 4 points off the Top 4 and 1 Point off 5th, which might be enough to qualify for the Champions League next Season.

The January window is going to be crucial and I think with 2 or 3 top quality signings the season can be salvaged.
 
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blue44 said:
Always have ,haven't we ?
summert the deluge of plastics will know nowt about over the last 10 years or so.
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My kids saw us in the nineties but still became ardent City fans their children have seen us win all the trophies had their pictures taken with the cups.
Even birthday treats City have done special days on the pitch walking out with the team it remains to be seen if they stay faithful even the little six year old. :)
The Pep and the players are entitled to a year off motivation wise and so many injuries to deal with. We will be back next year
 
cmcm0808 said:
Despite only taking 4 points from the last 8 Premier League games we are still only 4 points off the Top 4 and 1 Point off 5th, which might be enough to qualify for the Champions League next Season.

The January window is going to be crucial and I think with 2 or 3 top quality signings the season can be salvaged.
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Wont be signing anyone
 
cmcm0808 said:
Despite only taking 4 points from the last 8 Premier League games we are still only 4 points off the Top 4 and 1 Point off 5th, which might be enough to qualify for the Champions League next Season.

The January window is going to be crucial and I think with 2 or 3 top quality signings the season can be salvaged.
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Yep, the only trouble being that clubs don't releasing players in January, and that's even if they're willing to join a club that's in total disarray like we are ..... Zubimendi didnt even appear to want to know Liverpool.
 
As an ownership team Sheikh Mansour, Khaldoon et al are new to all of this. I bet they cant believe the succes we have had in such a short space of time and this has caught them out.

I just hope the club learn from their mistakes of lack of quality signings and realise you cannot have sustained success without refreshing the personnel.
 
Blue Maverick said:
So they miss one season that’s very short sighted of them, if you have a great manager they must be able to see that, I’m sick to death of this obsession with it, Christ ot would just be like City to go and win the club World Cup and be the best team for the next 4 years, that’s how stupid these competitions are. The premier league is the measure of a team not some shite knockout competition, let’s say Real Madrid don’t make the next round or fail to qualify next season would players seriously not go there? In fact the Madrid qualify every year cause their league is shit it’s guaranteed, if only players could see this.
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Everything you say is completely logical and correct, but unfortunately players do seem to be attracted to playing in the Champions League, you often hear them mention it in interviews. It would probably mean potential signings would be slightly less keen if we weren't playing in it.
 
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