Summer Shopping List??

[Mad 4 It]

If all the noise about Tevez is true I would suspect the money we are getting for him is being spent on Sanchez. Net spend is zero and a lower wage bill as well.

 

[Dax777]

You could very well be right Dax, and me having followed O'Neill for many years might have a slightly biased take on him. I however, as objectively as I possible can, think he would be up for it. He seems to be strong enough in his own beliefs to handle such a primadonna squad.
And what top talent do we really need to attract in order to win? Don't we already have a good enough squad? On paper it's the best in the PL by far, but out on the pitch is a different story all together.

I do not disagree with you. I believe if we assemble a crack squad (which I disagree with the opinion we already have one) O'Neill can whip them into a fighting team. I just don't think O'Neill can attract what we need to get to the very top. At best he can attract the English players, and even then we wouldn't get the best, just the best of the rest. And he doesn't seem to have the clout to attract top foreign talent.
If we assemble the players, I am certain he can make them play good football. He is a top technician. But has little clout, and has not had to face the pressure of top of the league football. Most managers cant handle it. Granted you'd have to give them a chance first to determine that.

I am really at a loss here as to what to do regarding the manager. Hence why I tend to dabble in players :)

 

[Mad 4 It]

You could very well be right Dax, and me having followed O'Neill for many years might have a slightly biased take on him. I however, as objectively as I possible can, think he would be up for it. He seems to be strong enough in his own beliefs to handle such a primadonna squad.
And what top talent do we really need to attract in order to win? Don't we already have a good enough squad? On paper it's the best in the PL by far, but out on the pitch is a different story all together.

I do not disagree with you. I believe if we assemble a crack squad (which I disagree with the opinion we already have one) O'Neill can whip them into a fighting team. I just don't think O'Neill can attract what we need to get to the very top. At best he can attract the English players, and even then we wouldn't get the best, just the best of the rest. And he doesn't seem to have the clout to attract top foreign talent.
If we assemble the players, I am certain he can make them play good football. He is a top technician. But has little clout, and has not had to face the pressure of top of the league football. Most managers cant handle it. Granted you'd have to give them a chance first to determine that.

I am really at a loss here as to what to do regarding the manager. Hence why I tend to dabble in players :)

Think he would do a Keagan

 

[Matt the Giant]

[I do not disagree with you. I believe if we assemble a crack squad (which I disagree with the opinion we already have one) O'Neill can whip them into a fighting team. I just don't think O'Neill can attract what we need to get to the very top. At best he can attract the English players, and even then we wouldn't get the best, just the best of the rest. And he doesn't seem to have the clout to attract top foreign talent.
If we assemble the players, I am certain he can make them play good football. He is a top technician. But has little clout, and has not had to face the pressure of top of the league football. Most managers cant handle it. Granted you'd have to give them a chance first to determine that.

I am really at a loss here as to what to do regarding the manager. Hence why I tend to dabble in players :)

Fair enough and probably an accurate take on it, Maybe O'Neill wouldn't be the reason why any world class player would sign for us. In fact, he could very well be the reason they chose NOT to sign for us as he is not a world wide recognized super coach like Mourinho for example.

But... I'm getting a bit tired of the "super star" hunt and "blow your mind out" signings many fans seem to demand and hope for. At this moment on this forum we can see how many posters say "buy Pastore, buy Aguiero, buy Kaka", buy buy buy. And let's face it; - these are all players who would not even consider coming here if they weren't paid a ridiculous amount of money for it. What kind of a team will this bring us? Where would the heart and soul be in such a squad?

Well I hate to say it, but pretty much a team like the one we have today, not necessarily better. No heart what so ever, no feelings for the club at all, nothing personally invested in the club... We even have super stars asking to leave the club, making it look very bad in public, only to get his arse licked and get to wear the captain's armband. To me this is all so wrong. Mancini doesn't care at all... his only interest is to please his bosses, to keep his job and that impressive income he's on.

The squad of super stars in every position will not work, ever. If we take a look at Man U, Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal and Tottenham, or even Everton and the Aston Villa of the last couple of seasons; those are not sqauds packed with superstars at all. Man U has Rooney, Liverpool had Torres, Chelsea have Drogba, Arsenal have... well Fabragas I guess is the closest thing they have to a superstar. Everton and Villa have none. But yet they manage to play very good football, winning matches they should win as well as a few titles all the time.
In addition to their respective superstar they have a hard working squad of very good footballers.

An example: Leighton Baines is not a superstar, probably not even known to most football fans outside PL followers... but I think he would be a fantastic signing for us, much rather have him than Coentrao for example or some Brazilian/Italian so called wiz-kid who will set the league on fire.


I think we should focus in bringing in such players to complement and accommodate our "superstar" whom ever that might be. (Once Teves leaves I think we wont have one, but I'm sure there are players such as YaYa who would think differently), stop looking abroad for mega stars and look domestically for very good hard working footballers who understands what it takes to succeed in the PL.
Names like Ashley Cole, Coleman, Baines, Parker, Albrighton, Bent, Downing, Rodwell, Wilshire, Huddlestone, Modric, Shawcross and so on... you know what I mean? Players who might flu beneath the mega- star radar, and all with PL experience. We already have a few of those in our squad, in fact quite many of them; Milner, Richards, De Jong, Kompany, Johnson, Lescott, Boateng and so on.

We have spent.. I don't know anymore.. but it's an obscene amount of money, on players... but our best performers are lads such as Richards, Zabaleta, Kompany (he has what every other players should strive for) and the others names above, not the super stars.

A good manager should be able to gel those players, to make them play efficient football which also happened to be attractive to watch. It's quite obvious Mancini will not make that happen.

So I personally say No thanks to further super stars, and I would love to see a new management bringing the squad together and maybe get a few new "beneath the radar" players in. I'll gladly wait for few more years if that's what it takes. As long as I can feel proud of team I'm happy. Last match against Liverpool amongst a far too many others since Mancini took over, did not make me proud, but very very sad. Sad because I no longer enjoy watching City, something I have done for so long now. It breaks my hear to be honest and I still haven't gotten over what I last saw.
I'll be overjoyed if we win this weekend, and also if we finish top four, but that will not change anything regarding my take on Mancini. I supported him for a long while, but I just can't lie to myself any longer. He is destroying the club I love, with the players he buy, with his tactics and strategies, his lack of man-management, and I'm very upset about that.

Fuck I'm sad.

 

[FantasyIreland]

A very good post Matt,it certainly sums up the way i feel personally and also what i believe is best for the future of City.

 

[Matt the Giant]

I'd trade our current squad/management with this in a second:

Manager: O'Neill

-------------------------Hart---------------------
Richards----Kompany----Lescott-----Baines
----------------------Parker--------------------
---------Milner--------------------Modric------
A Young-----------------------------------Silva
----------------------Dzeko-----------------------

Then add 14 really good players with PL experience to make a 25 man squad. This team would be very hard to beat, for any European club in any competition.


There... now I'm done. Back to sulking.

 

[FantasyIreland]

I've said previously,four players that would have made a far greater impact would have been

N'Zogbia
Baines
Parker
Gyan

 

[BlueCityfan]

Having spent so much time on reading rumours and posts here and in the papers. I think Tevez might leave. So if he does..i think these are our targets:

Alexis Sanchez
Juan Manuel Mata
Fabio Coentrao
A centre back (I have no idea who)

I think those are the targets. I dont know if we get them all. But those are the players i think are our first choice targets.

And a prospect or two could be added. No idea if the scouts have found any prospects who they could get on the cheap. There could be some on the way in summer.

 

[Mad 4 It]

Having spent so much time on reading rumours and posts here and in the papers. I think Tevez might leave. So if he does..i think these are our targets:

Alexis Sanchez
Juan Manuel Mata
Fabio Coentrao
A centre back (I have no idea who)

I think those are the targets. I dont know if we get them all. But those are the players i think are our first choice targets.

And a prospect or two could be added. No idea if the scouts have found any prospects who they could get on the cheap. There could be some on the way in summer.

With Boateng maybe going back to Germany, Kola maybe going to Inter and Kolo looking at a lengthy ban, I think we could be in for 3 defensive players and would go for Coentrao, VDW and Subotic

 

[BlueCityfan]

Having spent so much time on reading rumours and posts here and in the papers. I think Tevez might leave. So if he does..i think these are our targets:

Alexis Sanchez
Juan Manuel Mata
Fabio Coentrao
A centre back (I have no idea who)

I think those are the targets. I dont know if we get them all. But those are the players i think are our first choice targets.

And a prospect or two could be added. No idea if the scouts have found any prospects who they could get on the cheap. There could be some on the way in summer.

With Boateng maybe going back to Germany, Kola maybe going to Inter and Kolo looking at a lengthy ban, I think we could be in for 3 defensive players and would go for Coentrao, VDW and Subotic

Nah man...Kolarov isn't going anywhere neither is Boateng. Kolo might leave because after his ban he is useless for us.

But we are not the club that ships a player after 1 year anymore. WIth the FFP rules coming..it would be stupid.

Boateng and Kolarov will still have a city future. You have to give players time.