Our owners - next move?

[uwe rosler 28]

A bit of a spending spree on top young players for the next 4/5 years players like reus, pogba, barkley, sterling, add a good up and coming left back and to get rid of the dead wood clichy, yaya, navas.

 

[meltonblue]

To me the answer is just simply ride it out. It is right to say we haven't bought a real game changer since Aguero. At the same time, we still had to fiddle the books a bit to even think we passed FFP so the money simply wasn't there. Could we have bought better? Absolutely, but the team and squad we bought has given us two league titles in the last three seasons as well as domestic cup success.

This season, a few things have transpired to lead to us being off the pace. The sanctions in the summer didn't help, particularly the sale of Negredo. Nor has the loss of form of key players or injuries exposing the fact we are still overly reliant on all of our first XI being fit.

We are in a vastly different position off the pitch though in that we no longer require significant injections of cash in order to refresh the squad, nor will we fall foul of FFP as a consequence. From the owners perspective, they have been foussing on exactly what they should have been doing and that is the long term sustainability of us as a club capable of competing at the top table. Khaldoon himself mentioned this as a temporary set back and that is exactly what it is.

In terms of Pellegrini, I don't know whether it is due to the way Mancini lost his job, but I find it slightly depressing that a manager nowadays isn't even allowed two months of relatively poor form (I say relative because if you compare us to the teams that strengthened significantly more than us, we have still had a better start) without some giving him an opportunity to turn it round. This requirement for instant success is something that, though a biproduct of where we are now as a club, just doesn't sit right with me.

We will invest and we will come good again. Pain for us now seems to be top four for a season and an early exit from the CL. I'll take that if the future is as rosy as the past few years have been. Patience is surely what our owners (and our manager) have earned for at least a little bit longer than this.

 

[Paul Lake's Left Knee]

I think he's bored and is going to walk away from billion pound investment.

 

[In the land of Barcodes]

Crikey - I've just read this thread and there are people on here who need to chillax - try a nice glass of red.........

We're third in the Premier League, having played 4 of the traditional "Big" teams. Southampton are second and they've played one - and lost.

FFS - get real - yes, the Champions League campaign has been poor - but then the Annual Fixing Process (allowing a team that had to go through a qualifier into Pot 1) will be fixed next season.

I am still in dreamland - but I ask you - change the manager, change the players yada yada yada

It could be worse - we could be in a position where Stockport County are in a higher division than us FFS

Some blues need to remember where we came from, where we've been and ultimately with players like Denayer, Cole, Lopez, Rekik - where we are going.....

BTW a month is a long time in politics, it's also a long time in football - up here Pardew was a dead man walking - now they can (almost) see his vision. It's been a bad month - that is all

 

[tonea2003]

worryingly neither can i,

hopefully in jan there might be some flexibility to improve the squad to at least guarantee a top 4 position(minimum requirement)
then in the summer when FFP restrictions have been lifted we can them seriously improve our squad via ins and out

We dont have to sign anyone in Jan to gaurantee top 4.

Do some one here honestly believe this team will finish outside of the top 4?

You would think we were rock bottom with no points,going off the reaction of some on here.

Yeah reading back it looks like that, :-)

I meant to freshen up the squad to give us fresh impetus

 

[big gaz]

Don't know what the answer is Tolm

But our transfer business over the last few seasons is leaving a lot to be desired

Fernandinho
Negredo
Navas
Demichelis
Jovetic
Mangala
Fernando
Garcia
Nastasic
Sinclair

I know we have had FFP restrictions, but the above is £150 million worth of players and not one of them has improved the first team

We are still living off the players we brought in 4 - 5 seasons ago

Hart
Zabba
Kompany
Yaya
Silva
Aguero

Those above are our first names on the teamsheet, that for me is the main concern

We have everything in place at the club, great facilities, decent directors, top chairman, top owner, great commercial deals, but how long do we have to wait before we have the management and playing staff to match the ambitions of the club

Add Barry and DE Jong and lescott, least conceeded as I remember.

 

[EalingBlue2]

I am a little tired of some of the hysterical nonsense about signings in the last few years:

Fernando and mangala written off after no real pre season less than 10 games in a very hard new league - it's pathetic - I have seen in both what they can add when they settle and are confident.


Garcia and Negredo who helped us win a league and we sold for a combined profit!

De michelis who I love watching and is real class - which he showed at the World Cup - a real bargain

Fernandinho one of the best players in the prem last year and had he not got injured when he did we would have won it earlier and maybe done better in Europe. Yes he's suffering this year but imagine fulfilling your life long dream and then seeing it turn to shit!

I rate Jesus far more than most and am more than happy with his signing just think he is sometimes held back by tactics and not used rightly

Jovetic hasn't taken off, Sinclair was a joke as was Rodwell (though we recouped a lot)

Nastasic who knows!!!


Also I am constantly bemused by those saying we fucked up by not signing hazard or van Persie or isco - reality is none of them were going to come, hazard was talking to chelsea the whole time he was talking to us and winning the champs league, moving to London were big factors as well as money and agents, van Persie was not interested and isco got offered a bomb to go to the worlds biggest club in his own country. Sometimes money and wanting someone isn't enough, sometimes other clubs can offer more etc etc

 

[Mico]

I think he's bored and is going to walk away from billion pound investment.

I keep getting told this by certain fans of another club.

 

[Gingers Dad]

Apologies, I originally posted the below in the Pellegrini thread but it's maybe more a wider question for our owners?

A perfect storm has been contrived, and we've simply not been able to wing it.

We've been doing it since the day that ball left Aguero's foot.

Due to the restrictions imposed on the club by UEFA, the owners thought we could get away with treading water, adding family staples to the small supply of fine foods we had previously bought.

Baked beans taste fine and dandy, every now and again. What they don't taste great with is being slopped on the same plate as caviar.

We have put together an ill-conceived menu for the last 24 months and much as I love our owner and chairman for everything they have done so far, I would now urge them to take stock of what they really want out of this association?

If it is to win friends and influence people, they are shit out of luck. They have enabled Manchester City, of previous ridicule, to bring out the very worst of British and European traits - envy and spite of someone else's success.

They have allowed their eye to be taken off the ball, trying to jump through hoops, in the hope of presenting a more acceptable, watered-down threat to the so-called establishment of the game.

Mancini, for all his faults, and he had many, knew that a team that had come from nowhere, still needed to spend on the very best, however vulgar it may be perceived by people who will never find City acceptable, regardless of what we do off the pitch.

Mancini managed his final season with one hand tied behind his back and cut his throat with the other one.

I could not believe the team when it was announced last night, although was relieved to see Pellegrini make the correct decisions at half time in replacing the appalling Jovetic and Navas, in terms of addressing an extra man in the middle and also trying to introduce Nasri's ball retention.

But to then undo that thought process by taking off Fernando pretty much summed up the manager's state of confusion this season. He is wasting substitutions because he is simply not setting the team up with the correct platform from the outset.

I stand by what I observed on Sunday, the removal of Milner against United was tactical naivety in the extreme.

Sadly, results dictate, but this current group of 'over-ripe' players won't allow me to be fooled for a second time, with or without David Silva, they should be good enough to beat the majority of cannon-fodder.

Pellegrini, if he can somehow make it through to January, needs a frank discussion with Khaldoon and Begirsitain. He should not be made the patsy for players such as Clichy, Fernandinho, Dzeko, Nasri and Jovetic.

Perhaps Pellegrini does deserve the absolute backing from Abu Dhabi to address the weaknesses in this squad, regardless of cost?

I'm on the fence if Manuel has it in him, but the solution remains the same, somebody needs to decide if they want City to wither on the vine, or go again, regardless of the consequences.

I think most blues would accept the trade-off being expelled from Champions League football for a year if the result is a couple of hundred million (and that's what it will take) to set a City team up for the next five-year cycle.

You can only be a nice guy for so long, or it starts to stink of weakness.


1) Should we spend without fear of UEFA to rebuild?

2) Should Pellegrini be given the chance to manage those players?

3) If City is supposedly a PR exercise for Abu Dhabi, is it in danger of going tits-up?

The owners now owe it to the fans to start buying big again. They have raised the expectations (and the prices). They have put City amongst the elite and it is their duty to keep the club there.

 

[Chris in London]

I think he's bored and is going to walk away from billion pound investment.

It's worse than that. He's already forgotten that he's bought City and invested a billion pounds. As soon as he remembers, he's going to sell us.

For a pound.

Then the rags will buy our club and burn it down.