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.