Pep's rebuilding job. Pep's City Mk II

Marvin

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A tale of Yaya, Kompany, David Silva, Fernandinho and Aguero.

Part one concluded in Pep's first season when Clichy, Kolarov, Sagna and the war-horse Zabaleta were replaced. That season was disconcerting. Was Guardiola Fraudiola? Many believed he had been found out but replacements were found in Stones, Walker, Laporte, Mendy, Zinchenko and Delph. Injury struck down Mendy but City prospered. Yaya who had been marking time for some while finally departed, and Kevin de Bruyne blossomed.

Two glorious seasons were to follow, and here we are. Time has marched on. Last season Kompany retired. It didn't feel so bad at the time. Tears were shed but City fans were confident. Laporte and Stones had effectively replaced him. Kompany played at the end of the season to see us home but for much of the season we had coped well without him. Of course, sod's law struck, and Laporte was taken out through injury and City have been left exposed, and all this in what will be David Silva's last season and possibly Fernandinho's too. Aguero is 31. Collectively the final guard of Mancini's great side has reached the end of the line.

We see the problems every time City play a fast high tempo opponent. Chelsea and Man Utd overwhelmed City in midfield in the first half an hour. Rodri has come in. He is a fine footballer but he is slow. He may yet have a huge role in a City side if City can find young legs to compliment him.

I hear people clamouring for Foden to start. I am one, but I wonder why Pep resists? He sees him every day. Perhaps physically he is not quite ready? As it is we really do not know if at Premier League level he can handle a Chelsea or Man Utd.

We knew this was coming. It's always very difficult to transition from one great side to another, and injury to Laporte has made life much more difficult, but Pep did this once before in his first season at City. This time we are further down the line than before. We can see the replacements are close to coming through.

I hope that Laporte's return stabilises City's season and the season ends up back at Wembley as it has so many times before. That would be a fitting stage for another farewell, and a key date in the evolution of this City side.

We can see now that change is required. Clearly, Pep must see it too but deems that the young players are not quite ready to take their place. The preparatory work in developing Foden, and young defenders has been done. Rodri has been bought. It is only now a matter of time, and we mjst hope that Foden develops into the player we all believe he wiil be.
 
its a huge job considering we need

Two centre backs (one to replace Kompanya and one to replace stones - his head is gone!)

Two left backs - (how ong has that been said for!????!!!) BOth are absolute dogshite

A replacement for ferna (even with Rodri) - once he leaves thats a huge hole int he squad to fill

A replacement for David Silva - Foden clearly isnt ready if we are to trust our manager (which i do)

A replacememtn for GJ - id personally sell him to a european team - he would do well in the spannish or Italian leagues.

A replacement for Kun - an almost impossible task!

Thats a shit load of work...maybe we can delay the replacement for Ferna and Kun one more season after this but the rest are urgent especially the defensive ones - and to counter my own statement, Id say getting the replacement for ferna in now while he is still here is just as important.

Add to all that the very very strong almost certainty of losing Leroy Sane - how do you replace him..the option being floated about (if true) are truly uninspiring!)


the question is are the kids ready?

Foden, Garcia, Taylor HB - but there are still hugegaps even if they are ready and good enough and thats two very big IF's
we will get decent money for Jesus, Sane ( i dont want him to leave but its clear he wants out) and maybe some money bak on Mendy but nowhere near what we paid for him....we may reoup the money on Angelino.

We would get little to nothing for Otto as well so there are big financial implications as well to this.
 
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1 goalkeeper - let Bravo go, preferably replace with homegrown to free up spot
2 central defenders - sell both Stones and Nico
1 left back - sell Mendy and Angelino
2 midfielders - Dave leaves us and sell Gundogan
1 left winger - assuming Leroy is gone, I’d also contemplate selling Mahrez as well as I don’t think he will ever be what we need
1 striker - needs to be young, maybe Haaland, as we’ve got another season of Sergio before he officially needs replacing

Out of current squad the only ones worthy imo of being retained are:

Eddie, Kyle, Cancelo, Laporte, Zinchenko, Rodri, Dinho, Kev, Bernie, Phil, Raz, Sergio, Jesus - plus any of the other kids close to first team like Garcia etc.

It’s a BIG rebuild.
 
its a huge job considering we need

Two centre backs (one to replace Kompanya and one to replace stones - his head is gone!)

Two left backs - (how ong has that been said for!????!!!) BOth are absolute dogshite

A replacement for ferna (even with Rodri) - once he leaves thats a huge hole int he squad to fill

A replacement for David Silva - Foden clearly isnt ready if we are to trust our manager (which i do)

A replacememtn for GJ - id personally sell him to a european team - he would do well in the spannish or Italian leagues.

A replacement for Kun - an almost impossible task!

Thats a shit load of work...maybe we can delay the replacement for Ferna and Kun one more season after this but the rest are urgent especially the defensive ones - and to counter my own statement, Id say getting the replacement for ferna in now while he is still here is just as important.

Add to all that the very very strong almost certainty of losing Leroy Sane - how do you replace him..the option being floated about (if true) are truly uninspiring!)
That's far too pessimistic. Stones and Laporte were oustanding for much of last season. Why do you say Stones head has gone? His problem is that he is forever injured. He just can't get a run in the side. Laporte is a world class player. Garcia and Harwood Bellis are fine prospects. I don't see a problem there.

Losing Mendy who was a world class left back was hard but we survived it first through the form of Delph and then Zinchenko. Zinchenko is under-rated because he didn't cost £50m.

Why doesn't Rodri fill Fern's shoes. He's slow but so was Xabi Alonso.

Jesus is an oustanding young player. We'd be foolish to let such a talented young player go. He needs supply. At the moment we're struggling to do that because KDB is not quite at the level he was whilst David Silva's legs have gone.

We have the same problem that Pellegrini had when Yaya reached the end of his days. The team has become unbalanced but I don't think it will take much to put right.
 
That's far too pessimistic. Stones and Laporte were oustanding for much of last season. Why do you say Stones head has gone? His problem is that he is forever injured. He just can't get a run in the side. Laporte is a world class player. Garcia and Harwood Bellis are fine prospects. I don't see a problem there.

Losing Mendy who was a world class left back was hard but we survived it first through the form of Delph and then Zinchenko. Zinchenko is under-rated because he didn't cost £50m.

Why doesn't Rodri fill Fern's shoes. He's slow but so was Xabi Alonso.

Jesus is an oustanding young player. We'd be foolish to let such a talented young player go. He needs supply. At the moment we're struggling to do that because KDB is not quite at the level he was whilst David Silva's legs have gone.

We have the same problem that Pellegrini had when Yaya reached the end of his days. The team has become unbalanced but I don't think it will take much to put right.
Stones is shit, he’s done here.
 
The squad needs a serious overhaul.

We need a new backup goalkeeper, though for me it needs to be someone HG, it's such a waste of a spot having a foreign keeper.

A left back is an absolute priority.

Two CBs. Stones should be a squad player at best.

I'd wager we need to replace Silva. We need the options regardless of how good Foden is.

We need a new wide player if Leroy leaves, and I want us to sign a striker.
 
Should start trusting the youth players more. Garcia, THB, Foden, Doyle and Braaf could easily become 50m+ players in the future. Our U18s have some real talents as well
 
Will Pep be the man to do the rebuild? That's the 1st question.

If he does not sign an extension, I can't see the club allowing him to spend big money when he will be leaving a year later.

Players want to know who they are playing for, and won't sign if they think he will be off in 12 months.

He signs up long term in the next few weeks, or he goes in the summer, no other choice.
 

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