Recruitment issues

mancity1 said:
Our transfer business has by and large been below what it should be for a number of windows now.

Hopefully Dias will be Kompany mark two but the fact that we still rely heavily on Kun in his 9th season now says alot.

Haven't found a gem under the radar for many a year IMO ,we basically wait for others to show their wears in other lesser teams and pay what they ask for.

That is not a strategy destined for long term success.
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You say we should buy gems under the radar but this Summer we really need a proven central defender and not a player who will be good in 18 months time. In other positions we have bought players like Jesus and Sane. KDB came with a Chelsea question mark too.
 
alexmcity said:
No, that's wrong. Fernandinho got injured in February 2019, Gundogan replaced him and we continued to be rock solid at the back, even with Zinchenko at LB! Why? Mostly because we had Kompany and Laporte at CB.

Also Fernandinho was crap in Pep's first season to the extent that Pep had to play Toure at DM. This myth that our defensive stability was all down to Fernandinho has to die. It's silly and it is also a big reason why both Rodri and Gundogan are heavily criticised for the mistakes of the defenders.

Our defence suffered badly from several simple things: Kompany retired, Laporte got injured, Stones had personal problems and permanent injuries, Otamendi declined. Suddenly, all our CBs from 17/19 were unavailable for one or another reason and we played almost the entire 19/20 season with a makeshift defence. Yet, many on here still think it's mostly about not having Fernandinho at DM. Utterly simplistic.
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In the formidables season Fernandinho was magnificent , he was injured towards the end of the season and Gunogan came in and was equally magnificent.

Fernandinho at his peak was the most underrated footballer in world football, he was an incredible footballer, leader, inspiration and a physical freak in terms of strength and stamina.

To say this guy is a myth is one of the greatest insults you could give any city player in the history of this club.

Utterly and totally insulting.
 
Ribchester said:
The only “strategy” I’ve seen was to get Pep, and it worked, the same attitude should have been more visible to us all in replacing key players aligned to their ages and contracts without even considering form or injury.
Zabba, Vinnie, YaYa, David, Kun should have had the targets all ready to sign at any cost regarding fee and contract if we had evolved we would have at least 2 more PL titles in the bag and would not be where we are today. General view being we need a transition period. Hate to say this but that is not how GPC operated he’d have replacements lined up and smoothly reengineered the rags in flight. Classic example of a “strategy” was getting Van Nistleroy 1 year before he needed him even allowed for a serious pre contract injury.
The other thing we’re evidently not doing is quick fixes the minute Piss Can lost the league to us he extends his contract for a year and quick fix Van Persie is bought and they win the league.
Where is our strategic target for Aguero... ain’t got one otherwise he’d be here...where’s our quick fix target ...ain’t got one.,
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Utd dominated transfer markets. If they wanted the best young forward in English football they could get him in Wayne Rooney. Or if they wanted Rio from Leeds they got him. Then along came Blackburn, Chelsea and then Manchester City and football changed. Once we had a monopoly, or duopoly, now there are 4-5 clubs vying for top players.

City for a brief period bought what was required but Utd and Arsenal regulated against us and now we can't buy as we used to. I don't think we ever wanted to anyway. Our owners want a financial return just like any other big boss
 
Keeper! said:
In the formidables season Fernandinho was magnificent , he was injured towards the end of the season and Gunogan came in and was equally magnificent.

Fernandinho at his peak was the most underrated footballer in world football, he was an incredible footballer, leader, inspiration and a physical freak in terms of strength and stamina.

To say this guy is a myth is one of the greatest insults you could give any city player in the history of this club.

Utterly and totally insulting.
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It's a myth that our defensive stability was mostly down to Fernandinho, not that he was the best DM around. You are conflating two different things.

If last season we had both Kompany and Laporte in the form they showed in 2019, we would have been a completely different team. Posts like yours underestimate the CB crisis we had and overestimate the defensive protection Fernandinho provided. It will become clear already this season once Dias and Laporte form a partnership (fingers crossed!). We can be solid in defence even without Fernandinho in midfield (which doesn't imply that he wasn't the best DM in the world August 2017/February 2019).
 
Keeper! said:
In the formidables season Fernandinho was magnificent , he was injured towards the end of the season and Gunogan came in and was equally magnificent.

Fernandinho at his peak was the most underrated footballer in world football, he was an incredible footballer, leader, inspiration and a physical freak in terms of strength and stamina.

To say this guy is a myth is one of the greatest insults you could give any city player in the history of this club.

Utterly and totally insulting.
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1601370950200.jpeg1601370950200.jpeg
 
alexmcity said:
It's a myth that our defensive stability was mostly down to Fernandinho, not that he was the best DM around. You are conflating two different things.

If last season we had both Kompany and Laporte in the form they showed in 2019, we would have been a completely different team. Posts like yours underestimate the CB crisis we had and overestimate the defensive protection Fernandinho provided. It will become clear already this season once Dias and Laporte form a partnership (fingers crossed!). We can be solid in defence even without Fernandinho in midfield (which doesn't imply that he wasn't the best DM in the world August 2017/February 2019).
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Believe what you want, what Fernandinho brought to that side was incredible, he did the dirty work, the work that allowed the footballers to shine and do their thing, and the thing we no longer have at this football club.
 
Marvin said:
Utd dominated transfer markets. If they wanted the best young forward in English football they could get him in Wayne Rooney. Or if they wanted Rio from Leeds they got him. Then along came Blackburn, Chelsea and then Manchester City and football changed. Once we had a monopoly, or duopoly, now there are 4-5 clubs vying for top players.

City for a brief period bought what was required but Utd and Arsenal regulated against us and now we can't buy as we used to. I don't think we ever wanted to anyway. Our owners want a financial return just like any other big boss
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Well said, liverpool did the same in the 80s, always bought the best players of the best young up and coming talent.

It what all the clubs that dominate do, Real, and Barca in Spain, Bayern in Germany.

It's a myth that the best teams are not the ones that spend the most money.

If our owners want to to continue winning titles and to win the Champions League they will have to pay the top transfer fees and pay the highest wages.
 
Keeper! said:
Believe what you want, what Fernandinho brought to that side was incredible, he did the dirty work, the work that allowed the footballers to shine and do their thing, and the thing we no longer have at this football club.
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Well, we saw in 2019 that Gundogan was doing perfectly fine at DM and we were rock solid without Fernandinho in decisive for the title and the treble games. So, it wasn't all about Fernandinho. It's a myth that needs to die. Kompany plus Laporte at CB was the more important factor in the run in. It's easy to see why the myth is stubborn though. People love simplistic explanations and many pundits feed them with such.
 
Keeper! said:
Well said, liverpool did the same in the 80s, always bought the best players of the best young up and coming talent.

It what all the clubs that dominate do, Real, and Barca in Spain, Bayern in Germany.

It's a myth that the best teams are not the ones that spend the most money.

If our owners want to to continue winning titles and to win the Champions League they will have to pay the top transfer fees and pay the highest wages.
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I agree although I think when we had a title winning side all we had to do was buy one or two top players a season. Twice we've been in that position now, and twice made mistakes in replacing players as they retire.

Fergsuson was an expert at this although he did mess it up at the end. He though as we agreed had a club which dominated the market whereas City don't. We're not a Real madrid or barcelona. We could become one. Nothing stays constant but we're moving in the wrong direction at the moment.

We can of course change this. We've yet to see the combined effect of laporte, Dias and Ake. We can expect these to be serious upgrades on Garcia and Otamendi.

It's not possible to overreact when you concede 5 at home but lets remember that 3 were pens, and they were all questionable, and the other 2 goals were world class. The goal that vardy scored at the near post was sensational.
 
alexmcity said:
No, that's wrong. Fernandinho got injured in February 2019, Gundogan replaced him and we continued to be rock solid at the back, even with Zinchenko at LB! Why? Mostly because we had Kompany and Laporte at CB.

Also Fernandinho was crap in Pep's first season to the extent that Pep had to play Toure at DM. This myth that our defensive stability was all down to Fernandinho has to die. It's silly and it is also a big reason why both Rodri and Gundogan are heavily criticised for the mistakes of the defenders.

Our defence suffered badly from several simple things: Kompany retired, Laporte got injured, Stones had personal problems and permanent injuries, Otamendi declined. Suddenly, all our CBs from 17/19 were unavailable for one or another reason and we played almost the entire 19/20 season with a makeshift defence. Yet, many on here still think it's mostly about not having Fernandinho at DM. Utterly simplistic.
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Fernandinho was one of the best players in the world in his position at his peak. That’s why he’s so hard to replace. Excellent defensively whilst also happy to be on the ball.
 
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Marvin said:
You say we should buy gems under the radar but this Summer we really need a proven central defender and not a player who will be good in 18 months time. In other positions we have bought players like Jesus and Sane. KDB came with a Chelsea question mark too.
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i agree and as mentioned we hope Dias can make us much more difficult to expose Ederson and the like.

On top of that we need more pace and guile and effective distribution from midfield both in defence and in attack unless we use the Liverpool model which often by passes DM for the majority of their set up play in the box.

Whether we can get that from our current squad is certainly debatable at least.

I am all for buying players who are not yet on the world stage but have shown enough in their locker to capture our attention to take a punt on combined with proven performers albeit they will cost us much more and there is always that risk verses reward for both types.

KDB had established himself and Wolfsburg just as Virgil had at Southampton before transferring to clubs in line for trophy success at the time.

I think it was just a simple matter of personality clashes as you often get with Mou and players ( Dele Alli being the latest ) and Mou's inability to persist with talent which can happen ( Mo Salah being another example ) that resulted in the player moving on to their benefit and Mou's demise.
 
mancity1 said:
I am all for buying players who are not yet on the world stage but have shown enough in their locker to capture our attention to take a punt on combined with proven performers albeit they will cost us much more and there is always that risk verses reward for both types.
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Ederson, Laporte, Stones, Rodri, Sane, Sterling, Jesus, Bernardo, Torres, Dias, Ake...

Most of those players fit the bill: big potential, and thus a bit expensive, but none world class (then).
 
Marvin said:
I agree although I think when we had a title winning side all we had to do was buy one or two top players a season. Twice we've been in that position now, and twice made mistakes in replacing players as they retire.

Fergsuson was an expert at this although he did mess it up at the end. He though as we agreed had a club which dominated the market whereas City don't. We're not a Real madrid or barcelona. We could become one. Nothing stays constant but we're moving in the wrong direction at the moment.

We can of course change this. We've yet to see the combined effect of laporte, Dias and Ake. We can expect these to be serious upgrades on Garcia and Otamendi.

It's not possible to overreact when you concede 5 at home but lets remember that 3 were pens, and they were all questionable, and the other 2 goals were world class. The goal that vardy scored at the near post was sensational.
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There is an argument if we were playing a very good side on sunday the score could have been considerably worse.

All 3 were penalties , all 3 poor, unprofessional defending.

We as a club have to decide what we want to be, a dominating club and financial powerhouse, or a well run self sufficient club.
 
alexmcity said:
Well, we saw in 2019 that Gundogan was doing perfectly fine at DM and we were rock solid without Fernandinho in decisive for the title and the treble games. So, it wasn't all about Fernandinho. It's a myth that needs to die. Kompany plus Laporte at CB was the more important factor in the run in. It's easy to see why the myth is stubborn though. People love simplistic explanations and many pundits feed them with such.
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Yours is an incredibly simple explanation if you think Fernandinho is a myth.
 
Just 6 days to go before the transfer deadline and still no sign of Pep,is going to sign a striker, which is so important to us. Jesus out for up to another 3 weeks + time to get fit. Then there's Sergio who will need at least another 6 weeks to get match fit. Therefore another striker is an absolute essential for us if we want to go and win the Premier League crown back.

So with the Champions League just around the corner where we will be needing 3 strikers to see us through the group stages. Depending on how kind the draw is to us, we may just get away with two. Should we end up with a tough group we could well fail to qualify for the knockout stages of the Champions League and end up playing on Thursday night in the Europa League. This is something that I don't want. That is unless Pep will go all out to win it.
 
I'm not happy, bit I'll wait till we have everyone available and then see how we perform. But from a depth standpoint we seem quite inferior. I know we are missing a shit ton.


So let's wait and see. But just from stretching my neck and trying to see the future, I see no possible solutions at Left back. And that's worrying.
 
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