Rate Our Transfer Window

[Marvin]

We kept players who are better on the whole than the ones our rivals signed for equivalent roles.

We have ended the window with a stronger squad than we finished last season with.

We spent a considerable amount on one player who should prove to be significant both from a playing and commercial perspective. Grealish already looks like he will settle into playing a Pep game quickly.

We've also quietly signed a young kid from Brasil who could be a star; not sure if he could still go on loan in Europe or will be able to play in England.

Keeping our immensely talented squad in tact is important because of how Pep plays and how significant it is to learn positional play game. Our team should improve just for having another year of Pep ball under their wings. And, I am sure, we will see further developments this season.

Sure it's disappointing to not have signed a world class forward but we have young players who can develop their goal scoring potential further this season and have several fantastic possible permutations for a front three.

Our relative inactivity, or failure to land the players in the positions we expected, might work in our favour. See Mbappe and Haaland. Can Real Madrid swallow them both? If they don't, then where else do they go?

However, I am pretty sure City started out with a budget of £200m and the intention to improve our squad in this window. Kane was ridiculously expensive and I am not all surprised that we did not pay £130m plus for him, but we knew what Levy was asking at the beginning of the window and I think we should have brought in an alternative or strengthened other areas.

It's always difficult as a fan to follow the transfer activity as so much of the news is rubbish, however I know what my expectations were at the start of the window, and I can see what we have now. We failed to strengthen the problem areas whilst Chelsea are now in pole position. That's a bad Summer in my book.

 

[Phil1]

Grealish will turn out to be one of our best ever signings.
That is all.

 

[EdersonsSmiley]

I am not sure if we are miles ahead of Chelsea's squad.
But regardless of that the question posed was about the transfer window not about the overall squad which is clearly strong.
If people are bemoaning the squad yes it probably is a bit over entitled if people are questioning the success of the transfer window in terms of resources used I think there is reason.
We have lost a starting young Spanish International centre back on a free.
We have paid a British record fee for a very good player in a position in which we are already strong.
We have failed to sign a striker where there is an apparent need for one and we were apparently trying to recruit.
It may all turn out well and we still have a strong squad but I find it hard to declare the transfer window successful in terms of resources employed and our squads need.
We may not have reasonably been able to recruit players we wanted but I don't think it it looks like a great window.

The two go hand in hand don't they, it's much harder to have a good window when you have the best squad.

It's easy for United or Spurs to have a good window as they can improve literally every single position in their starting XI with an affordable player. We can't do that.

 

[FromPollockToSilva]

I'm not sure I would agree with you there, Grealish might prove a good addition(however we aren't without depth there already), but we lost our only true forward, we lost one of our LBs(a position was aren't overwhelmingly deep in)and Fernandinho is a year older in another position we are kind of light in.

If you count Fernandinho being a year older as a negative, you have to also count our young players being a year more experienced as a positive. Another season of Zinchenko improving his defensive positioning, another year of Foden getting fully imbedded in the team, a year of Torres settling in to the club.

 

[Marvin]

I'm not sure I would agree with you there, Grealish might prove a good addition(however we aren't without depth there already), but we lost our only true forward, we lost one of our LBs(a position was aren't overwhelmingly deep in)and Fernandinho is a year older in another position we are kind of light in.

Aguero's departure was an open secret for an entire season. Not easy boots to fill but possible if you are the English Champions and you have £200m. I would have been happy with Ings or even Salomon Rondon as a bench player to come on and give us something different if we needed to go direct. Does every player have to be a world star? Liverpool's strikers are Firmino, Mane, Salah, Jiota. Not one was a world star when they were bought but they knew what they were doing. I expected more from City. Kane may have been a legitimate miss. You can't always bend people to your will but with a year to plan I would expect fall back options.

Perhaps it will be a blessing in disguise and Torres/Delap will blossom. Perhaps Rodri will stay fit. There should be no perhaps.

 

[DontLookBackInAnger]

If you count Fernandinho being a year older as a negative, you have to also count our young players being a year more experienced as a positive. Another season of Zinchenko improving his defensive positioning, another year of Foden getting fully imbedded in the team, a year of Torres settling in to the club.

That's a good point....

 

[Marvin]

The two go hand in hand don't they, it's much harder to have a good window when you have the best squad.

It's easy for United or Spurs to have a good window as they can improve literally every single position in their starting XI with an affordable player. We can't do that.

The world is your oyster when you have £200m and you are the leading side in the best league. You can sign who you want. We couldn't improve on Mendy/Zinchenko, Fernandinho/Rodri and Torres/Jesus up front? Beyond credibility.

What we don't know if whether City instead have lined players up e.g., Mbappe or Haaland. It sounds unlikely but from what's in the public domain we fell short of what most fans expected.

One or two injuries now to key players and we'll be in trouble.

 

[DontLookBackInAnger]

Aguero's departure was an open secret for an entire season. Not easy boots to fill but possible if you are the English Champions and you have £200m. I would have been happy with Ings or even Salomon Rondon as a bench player to come on and give us something different if we needed to go direct. Does every player have to be a world star? Liverpool's strikers are Firmino, Mane, Salah, Jiota. Not one was a world star when they were bought but they knew what they were doing. I expected more from City. Kane may have been a legitimate miss. You can't always bend people to your will but with a year to plan I would expect fall back options.

Perhaps it will be a blessing in disguise and Torres/Delap will blossom. Perhaps Rodri will stay fit. There should be no perhaps.

My point was, simply I don't think we are stronger than last season. It could work out, I lived in Boston when Drew Bledsoe was injured during a game and everyone was up in arms because the Patriots only had a nobody as a back up who had only a handful of snaps to his credit.... that was Tom Brady and the rest is history

 

[Marvin]

My point was, simply I don't think we are stronger than last season. It could work out, I lived in Boston when Drew Bledsoe was injured during a game and everyone was up in arms because the Patriots only had a nobody as a back up who had only a handful of snaps to his credit.... that was Tom Brady and the rest is history

Rascal made a very good point (possibly in another thread) where he said that maybe there was no major striker objective and that City had plans for Foden. I can see that. But then why not use the money on a LB and DM which most definitely are problem positions.

We may have a title winning squad but when you are in this position and you have amassed a fortune from your success, you must invest it back in the squad.

 

[blueparrot]

Rascal made a very good point (possibly in another thread) where he said that maybe there was no major striker objective and that City had plans for Foden. I can see that. But then why not use the money on a LB and DM which most definitely are problem positions.

We may have a title winning squad but when you are in this position and you have amassed a fortune from your success, you must invest it back in the squad.

If Pep has plans then I think Torres is more likely who he has in mind than Foden, but who knows.Maybe Haaland was always in the back of their minds as an option so held them back committing 100 % to one this summer, we’ll see.
As for the ‘problem’ positions, I don’t think Pep particularly sees them as a problem, so there was no urgency to bring players in those positions. Some fans might and it’s a reasonable opinion to have, I just don’t think Pep shares it.