Recruitment issues

[WRicko]

Since Pep came there have been a lot more misses than hits

Successes:
Ederson
Laporte
Sane
Bernardo
Walker

Inconsistent or not good enough
Gundogan
Mahrez
Jesus
Stones
Danilo
Jesus
Cancelo

Outright terrible
Nolito
Bravo
Mendy
Zinchenko

The world class players who are coming to the end of their time here (VK, Silva, Ferna, Sane & Aguero) are being replaced by players who just aren’t at that level

peps tactics have got worse too, think it all stems from changing from Sane and Sterling outwide with Ferna sweeping up to seeminly Mahrez and Sterling cutting in and Rodri or Gungogan in front of the back 4 to try and get more control

it’s made us so much more blunt up front and exposed at the back

Nolito was not terrible nowhere near what we need now but was good for us effective and didnt we get our money back

Gundagon does not work with Rodri but is a very talented footballer who is excellent at floating balls in and was cheap by our standards and previous seasons transfer standard due to his contract and injury situation which has since been rectified thanks to surgery

Bravo was an expensive back up keeper but worth it for for the cup success ability to understand peps system and cup success

Zinchenko is bargain and is a very useful utility player a cultured and professional young footballer and did well at left back for us but we need more pace and attacking ability and wont play him in his favoured position. We will double or triple our money on him or would if it wernt for covid or if he has a good euros Not to mention did he not come from a club people knew nothing about so hardly obvious buy we usually go for

Mendy cannot legislate for his injuries

 

[DontLookBackInAnger]

Indeed. From Fred to Jorginho to Maguire and a fair few others... what sort of team would Txiki have built if these players had come?

We don’t half go after some very very odd signings that don’t seem to fit our style of play.

Rodri is one, never a Pep player in a million years... This Dias is another, slower than a sloth, in a high line defence?

What’s going on?

I guess you have missed my point.

You would agree that the club made the people mentioned above prime targets(I would add Sanchez to that list too)?
I assume you would also agree that any club has a limited amount of time and resources to allocate to this whole process?
The fact that we failed to make any of these signings and it's seems clear that we didn't walk away, is camouflaged by the fact that they haven't been successful with the moves that they ended up making.
However..... it should be worrying for supporters of the club that, A, these where the people we wanted. B, we couldn't close the deal. I'm not suggesting that they would have proved successful, simply that we are making mistakes and that we have got lucky with regards to these players because they haven't worked in the moves they made.

 

[WRicko]

The other issue is that seemingly none of them have resale value. If we wanted to get rid, we'd probably loan them out to some cheapskate club for a few years and then let them run down their contracts and get maybe a £10m token payment for them in their last year. £20m for Stones, maybe at a push.

Although it's worth mentioning that the Cancelo figure was clearly bollocks at the time, and that price was based on Juventus paying €37m for Danilo. Obviously some accounting trick, because there's no way we'd really pay £60m for a full back that's not going to play every week.

No resale value ? Stones might be true due to injuries but in theory given his age he should get a decent fee

Cancelo still has some value given his age would have more if people had actual seen him play much recently and if he was our first choice clubs would have to pay to get him like we do with other clubs

Mendy would have resale value but for injuries

We keep buying players before there peak so as to get resale value

 

[WRicko]

Our obsession with not paying more than €65m for a player is starting to tell.

It's a PR decision, not a footballing one. We want to be seen to not be in the top 10 biggest transfers. A responsibly run club.

But what we end up doing, is spending €200m every season on 4 or 5 average players who don't improve us. We still spend more than anyone else, but don't improve.

Cancelo, Rodri, Mahrez, Torres, Ake, Dias. €260m all in. They're all worse than the players they're meant to be replacing.

Yaya, Silva, Kompany, Sané, and soon Aguero and Fernandinho. All gone.

And look at the state of what's replacing them.

For me, we should be buying one or two world class players a year, instead of 4 or 5 average.

It would cost the same money, we'd have better players, and more opportunities for youth players to come through instead of having their progress blocked by average dross.

Cancelo replaced Danilo and I think if he gets going he is a better player Dias replaces Otamendi or Stones he is better than both Marhez was a cherry on the cake and did not replace anyone

Torres replaces Sane lets see how he develops but even if he is not as good Sane was always going to go home and had his flaws and was injured so he is better than Sane of last year at least

 

[mancityscot]

Our obsession with not paying more than €65m for a player is starting to tell.

It's a PR decision, not a footballing one. We want to be seen to not be in the top 10 biggest transfers. A responsibly run club.

But what we end up doing, is spending €200m every season on 4 or 5 average players who don't improve us. We still spend more than anyone else, but don't improve.

Cancelo, Rodri, Mahrez, Torres, Ake, Dias. €260m all in. They're all worse than the players they're meant to be replacing.

Yaya, Silva, Kompany, Sané, and soon Aguero and Fernandinho. All gone.

And look at the state of what's replacing them.

For me, we should be buying one or two world class players a year, instead of 4 or 5 average.

It would cost the same money, we'd have better players, and more opportunities for youth players to come through instead of having their progress blocked by average dross.

hard to argue with any of that

 

[HelloCity]

 

[Mattyc55]

Our obsession with not paying more than €65m for a player is starting to tell.

It's a PR decision, not a footballing one. We want to be seen to not be in the top 10 biggest transfers. A responsibly run club.

But what we end up doing, is spending €200m every season on 4 or 5 average players who don't improve us. We still spend more than anyone else, but don't improve.

Cancelo, Rodri, Mahrez, Torres, Ake, Dias. €260m all in. They're all worse than the players they're meant to be replacing.

Yaya, Silva, Kompany, Sané, and soon Aguero and Fernandinho. All gone.

And look at the state of what's replacing them.

For me, we should be buying one or two world class players a year, instead of 4 or 5 average.

It would cost the same money, we'd have better players, and more opportunities for youth players to come through instead of having their progress blocked by average dross.

Bang on.

 

[Uptop]

We dont seem to sign players for how we play is one of the biggest issues I see.

I can only assume Pep (and previous managers) arnt part of the decision making, some of the players we have signed in the past or have been chasing just seem completely out of place for the way we play, it is worrying how we cant seem to identify suitable players despite paying so much for some of them.

We are almost uncompromising in how we play tactically, why are we not signing players with exact requirements rather than ending up with square pegs in round holes?

 

[Pubteam Lomas]

Our obsession with not paying more than €65m for a player is starting to tell.

It's a PR decision, not a footballing one. We want to be seen to not be in the top 10 biggest transfers. A responsibly run club.

But what we end up doing, is spending €200m every season on 4 or 5 average players who don't improve us. We still spend more than anyone else, but don't improve.

Cancelo, Rodri, Mahrez, Torres, Ake, Dias. €260m all in. They're all worse than the players they're meant to be replacing.

Yaya, Silva, Kompany, Sané, and soon Aguero and Fernandinho. All gone.

And look at the state of what's replacing them.

For me, we should be buying one or two world class players a year, instead of 4 or 5 average.

It would cost the same money, we'd have better players, and more opportunities for youth players to come through instead of having their progress blocked by average dross.

Absolutely bang on

 

[MeatHunterrr]

We dont seem to sign players for how we play is one of the biggest issues I see.

I can only assume Pep (and previous managers) arnt part of the decision making, some of the players we have signed in the past or have been chasing just seem completely out of place for the way we play, it is worrying how we cant seem to identify suitable players despite paying so much for some of them.

We are almost uncompromising in how we play tactically, why are we not signing players with exact requirements rather than ending up with square pegs in round holes?

It was like that under Pellegrini too. Fernando, Mangala, Bony....

We just go from one player profile to another. We can't seem to decide what we want.

 

[ChicagoBlue]

Does

Doesnt read well, does it?!

But it goes back to my point that we take a player based on his performances in THAT TEAM, then try shoehorn the player into being a “Pep player.”

Pep didn’t have that problem at Barca, because they were raised that way. At Bayern, he inherited a top, top team that had the finances and contacts to get the very best at the price of their choosing!

At City, you need an “oil money convincer” to get the player from the club, then a fat contract for average players to slot them into the wage structure.

Meanwhile, the Academy has produced ONE STARTER, but we live in hope!

Going forward, we are often scintillating when it’s working, but when it’s not, we just keep trying the same thing but “harder and more desperately!”

Defensively, we finally now have a big back line of actual defenders (Walker, Dias, Laporte, Ake).

Who knows what might happen next?!

Need a big strong midfielder (Aouar) and a goal scoring CF (TBD), and we SHOULD have the 16-18 players to keep us at the very top!

Im not one who thinks we should win everything every year, because that simply disrespects quality opposition. However, I DO want to see progress in personnel and evolution on the field. We have not been seeing that!

City’s “job” is to be challenging for the PL every season, with Top 4 as a minimum. From there, a cup run for the dubs is nice, and keeps them fit and interested, although I honestly don’t care about the domestic Cups that much.

Plus, we simply have to be in the Top 8 in Europe every season, if not Top 4, 2, or (pinch me, I’m dreaming) CL winners. That takes luck as well as quality on the field, and we are stumbling out through poor decisions on AND OFF THE FIELD.

Pep seems to have created a CL monkey for his back, instead of realizing it is a tournament MADE for him!

The officials are hypersensitive you fouls, the teams are all high quality and confident in their ability to go forward, thus leaving the spaces for Pep to exploit, yet we seem to choke at the final hurdle every season...fall to a lesser opponent, where Pep is often out-coached!
That simply should not happen!

 

[I'm With Stupid]

The officials are hypersensitive you fouls, the teams are all high quality and confident in their ability to go forward, thus leaving the spaces for Pep to exploit, yet we seem to choke at the final hurdle every season...fall to a lesser opponent, where Pep is often out-coached!
That simply should not happen!

More often than not, by himself.

 

[alexmcity]

We won 198 pts over two seasons (record in Europe) and won 6 domestic trophies in a row ( breaking multiple records in England). Yet we are complaining about recruitment. WTF? It's not like 5-6 players won those trophies and the rest were a mediocre supporting cast. Even the much criticised Otamendi, Stones, Zinchenko, Gundogan, Jesus and Mahrez have significantly contributed to our historical achievements. Recruitment has been success.

 

[BolinCell]

we need someone in midfield prepared to do the clearing up operation in front of the defence, lets face it KDB and Foden are forward thinking, Ferno has lost his engine while Rhodri is not mobile enough. Kante type player, no nonsense midfielder.

 

[Brendan110_0]

we need someone in midfield prepared to do the clearing up operation in front of the defence, lets face it KDB and Foden are forward thinking, Ferno has lost his engine while Rhodri is not mobile enough. Kante type player, no nonsense midfielder.

John Smith's the man.

 

[TueartsOHK]

We seem to have had extremely bad luck buying players that become injury prone. Season after season it seems that we have key players out for long periods and when you’re short on players in key positions it can kill your season (like LaPorte last season). Is this because of the intensity of Pep‘s style of play or is it simply bad luck?

 

[ctwrd]

We seem to have had extremely bad luck buying players that become injury prone. Season after season it seems that we have key players out for long periods and when you’re short on players in key positions it can kill your season (like LaPorte last season). Is this because of the intensity of Pep‘s style of play or is it simply bad luck?

In Laporte case bad luck. He went for the ball he didn’t need to.

 

[Millo]

In recent years the club has had two Jesuses, two Silvas and a Bronze.
I think we need to show more ambition, and buy players called God and Gold. We're bound to win then!

 

[_OVO_]

I agree with most of the arguments that have been put on in this thread. You just cant tell me that a club with aspirations and backing like ours can't successfully scout TWO (2) competent fullbacks? Tierney, although struggling vs Liverpool at this very moment, was right there for idk at least 2 seasons, everyone and their dog knew that he's going to be a cracking player. Leicester had two fullbacks on the pitch yesterday who looked miles better than what we have and that is unacceptable. I love Walker but he just cannot contribute to attack to save his life. The man just can't cross the bloody ball. Castagne was quality going forward for Leicester and they snatched him from Atalanta for like 21m. James Justin was playing at Luton Youth setup up until 2019. This just gotta be fixed or they need to start afresh.

 

[wolviedinho]

We needed to rebuild the defence when the market was out of control so the number are deemed high. Let’s not forget we have won multiple trophies which is the whole point? What did united get for the money they have spent?

It is never mentioned that we won everything so the fees paid were justified.