Pep's contract situation

[Shazza458]

We've been lucky Rodri is not only the best DM in the world in terms of passing/reading of the game but he is quite athletic. Another athletic midfielder next to him and we would be pretty much unstoppable.

It honestly is that simple.
Only one of Kova, Gundo and Bernie should be in the midfield at one time. Great players individually but should mainly be rotation options.

 

[Gone for a Burton]

They were incredible bargains, agreed. Those kind of deals are few and far between though mate.

Ready made replacements for Walker, Gundogan, KDB along with the addition of a striker won’t come cheap.

Don’t get me wrong, I hope we find 4 more bargains!!

If anyone can cheeky can.

If not, the club won't prejudice our success by failure to invest in the best young talent available.

We probably need four elite, or potentially elite, players who can come straight into the team/squad and hit the ground running.

Claudio Escheveri will be here in January as another squaddie.

Cheeky, and his running mate, have got a busy and very important 9 months ahead.

Keep the faith, the PL trophy, European Club Trophy & World Club Champions Trophy are all in our cabinet.

 

[Keeper!]

I disagree.

People are overreacting. Because we lost our first game. In what feels like 20 years in the league.

Nothing has changes.

We still have Haaland Foden Doku Savinho, Gvardiol and other young players. We still need to find repalcements for senior players going past their peak. But still better than most at their peak.

One year more or less changes absolutely nothing. Nobody is doing a wholesale overhaul, Pep or another, one two or no years. It will happen naturally one way or another.

I disagree in terms of the squad that needs a major refresh.

Walker, Gundo, Bernardo, KDB all gone, Rodri is not going to be anywhere near his best for 18 months.

You have ageing , injury prone players in Stones and Ake and I fear Ederson could leave.

That's a huge overhaul and needs Pep's commitment for at least a couple more seasons in my opinion.

 

[bobbyowenquiff]

It honestly is that simple.
Only one of Kova, Gundo and Bernie should be in the midfield at one time. Great players individually but should mainly be rotation options.

This is true. Gundo has never been a defensive midfielder. He needs to play less and in a more advanced position. He can still play a big part in the biggest matches because of his game experience. But he can’t run for 90 minutes any more. Neither can Kev if we are honest.

 

[Tricky_Trev]

It honestly is that simple.
Only one of Kova, Gundo and Bernie should be in the midfield at one time. Great players individually but should mainly be rotation options.

It feels like every other team in the league has left us behind when it comes to athleticism. Even the likes of Wolves, Bournemouth, Fulham etc, they all have more athleticism and physicality than us and they all tore us to shreds. The club does have to take the majority of the responsibility for that. The decisions made in the last two transfer windows have not been those of a team that is serious about remaining top dog. That’s just the truth. And it will be exacerbated once we don’t have Pep to bail us out. The change to Viana is welcome tbh.

 

[bobbyowenquiff]

I would argue that a high quality, athletic central midfielder would fix basically all our problems (injury crisis notwithstanding).

I don't know exactly who (I liked the idea of Rice and Guimareas but neither happened) but if we can bring in some of that age the team for next year could be:

Ederson

Lewis, Akanji, Dias, Gvardiol

Rodri, new CM, Foden

Savio, Haaland, Doku

Say the new CM is 24 or 25, that's an average outfield age of 25.5 and we can start looking to phase out Bernardo, Stones and Kovacic as squad players, for the next generation.

The reasons we're struggling right now are i) no Rodri, best in the world ii) injury crisis and iii) severe lack of athleticism in midfield.

We've been pretty shite for the last month but the situation is far from irretrievable.

You are thinking of Florian Wirtz!

 

[Keeper!]

It honestly is that simple.
Only one of Kova, Gundo and Bernie should be in the midfield at one time. Great players individually but should mainly be rotation options.

In our prime Kovacic would have been a squad player only, coming off the bench and occasional game.

He is a great pro and top player but having him as a first choice player shows how weak we have become in MF.

Even with peak Rodri , midfield was our weakest area for a couple of seasons, everyone has grown old together.

 

[Gone for a Burton]

Everyone knows better than Pep apparently.

Kyle Walker trained for 60 minutes on Friday for the first time in 16 days.

He knew he was fully fit or in match condition.

He volunteered to play because the medics were concerned about over stressing Rico Lewis.

Kyle MAY be past his peak, and it'll take 5 games to get back to full condition, but he's still got a role to play this season as a valuable member of the squad and club captain.

Be respectful of a player who was the best right back in the world for the past 5 seasons.

 

[Shazza458]

I disagree in terms of the squad that needs a major refresh.

Walker, Gundo, Bernardo, KDB all gone, Rodri is not going to be anywhere near his best for 18 months.

You have ageing , injury prone players in Stones and Ake and I fear Ederson could leave.

That's a huge overhaul and needs Pep's commitment for at least a couple more seasons in my opinion.

Club HAVE to get the next windows right, personally think the next two summer windows will define the next 10 years for City.

I can’t fathom why we didn’t do anything last summer though? Should’ve got that duel winning midfielder

 

[Keeper!]

This is true. Gundo has never been a defensive midfielder. He needs to play less and in a more advanced position. He can still play a big part in the biggest matches because of his game experience. But he can’t run for 90 minutes any more. Neither can Kev if we are honest.

Sadly I think the decision to bring him back will be shown to be a mistake, he looks a very old, leggy player, still willing and still classy but simply unable to compete physically, the game is passing him by.