The 2025 Rebuild of City Squad

Dialog said:
We royally messed up—no two ways about it. I said it at the time, and I said it again afterward. All of those players were there for the taking, and we stood by while PSG had a free run at them. We hesitated. We overthought. And we paid the price.


I banged the drum for Neves—repeatedly—and what was I told? "He’s not at our level." Then, five months later, we turned around and went after Nico González, a clearly inferior player, I like Gonazalez but Neves is so clear of him and it is not even a debate. The logic? Nowhere to be found.


I pushed hard for Kvaratskhelia, and the response? "We already have a better player in Grealish." Seriously? Saying Grealish is better than Kvara is pure nonsense—delusion at its finest. There’s no comparison in impact, creativity, or raw talent.


I pleaded for Hakimi—a perfect fit for our system. Blistering pace, defensive solidity, technical brilliance, and attacking presence. He was made for us. We ignored it.


I screamed for Nuno Mendes when our left-back situation was crumbling. The kid was miles ahead of his peers at his age, and we still didn’t move. Why? Because apparently, we don’t buy left-backs. Unreal.


We made a push for Fabián Ruiz, but Napoli slapped a €100M price tag on him several years ago. Fair enough, that one was out of reach—but what about the rest?


Time and again, I warned: keep buying average, and you’ll get average. And what did I hear? "The board knows what it’s doing and are smarter." Like—what does that even mean? This isn’t about ego or intelligence—it’s about plainly seeing the flaws in the players we’re signing versus the quality of the ones we should’ve gone after.


It’s not hindsight. It’s pattern recognition—and we kept missing sitters. Players that could have been acquired with ease!

We became too cocky and complacent—plain and simple. When you reach the top, that’s not the time to relax or get arrogant. That’s when the real fight begins. Staying at the top takes even more hunger, discipline, and self-awareness than getting there in the first place.


But instead of digging in and pushing forward, we acted like the work was done. We got to the summit—and then we completely shit the bed. The focus faded, the sharpness dulled, and the decisions started slipping. We stopped evolving and started believing our own hype. That’s how dynasties crumble—not because others rise, but because the kings get lazy.
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I think Dias and a couple others working out as 3rd choice got txiki thinking city/pep are magic and it's fine to always walk away from your top choice over 5 million, or God forbid a player needs to be wooed a little.
 
ArtetaTechnicalArea said:
and let me guess, you will offer us grealish and lewis for saka and timber.

these deals never work - swapping players you want to sell for players other clubs want to keep. i tried it once, went to a mercedes dealer wanting to trade my 2106 mazda for a new mercedes.
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The term swap is irrelevant, A club that puts an offer in for a palyer will always open the possibility of offloading unwanted ones

swap deals don't happen, you sign one from a club that may also be selling you one at the same time, the deal and fees will be seperate.
 
urban genie said:
The term swap is irrelevant, A club that puts an offer in for a palyer will always open the possibility of offloading unwanted ones

swap deals don't happen, you sign one from a club that may also be selling you one at the same time, the deal and fees will be seperate.
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So your signing Saka. Who are you selling back to us?
 
ArtetaTechnicalArea said:
So your signing Saka. Who are you selling back to us?
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didn't say we were selling anyone back to you.

in fact I didn't eve use the term swap in my original comments about hall and livermento and never when I mentioned saka, so really have no idea what angle you are coming from in your replies.

Also I don't care either so as I put my phone away for the bext 8 hrs while I work and further unrelated questions may not be answered till gone 4pm :-)
 
argyle said:
Not necessarily.

Many of our best players and legends over the years haven't been ready made elite players.

It's good to have hungry, young players who want to prove themselves.
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Is this because our new director of football is Viana?
And by the way with each passing week it looks like Sporting's success maybe had more to do with player recruitment than coaching nous.
 
richards30 said:
So if we had the £125m to spend on Wirtz that now looks like its not happening, would we not maybe go for Rodrygo who is available for £85m? @tolmie's hairdoo
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Rodrygo isn't needed. He's just a name, which is seemingly what some of our fans think we just need, regardless of position.
 
without wirtz they will sign two 8's IMO, but we are going to be crazy overstuffed in that area, and will need more departures than Kev to make it work. Probably 2 of Kovacic, Bernardo, Gundogan, Rico and Mcatee.
 
K-Bo said:
without wirtz they will sign two 8's IMO, but we are going to be crazy overstuffed in that area, and will need more departures than Kev to make it work.
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I would expect Gundogan and Bernardo to move on next Summer when their contracts expire. Kovacic and O'Reilly could be back-ups for the 2 new 8s. Gonzalez back-up for Rodri.

But yes, we would have quite a few for CM next season (ideally one or two would leave this window but doubtful).
 
PragueBlue said:
I would expect Gundogan and Bernardo to move on next Summer when their contracts expire. Kovacic and O'Reilly could be back-ups for the 2 new 8s. Gonzalez back-up for Rodri.

But yes, we would have quite a few for CM next season (ideally one or two would leave this window but doubtful).
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If we kept everybody, Rodri, Nico G, kovacic, bernardo, Gundo, McAtee, Rico, Nunes (in theory), MGW, and potentially reijnders are all competing for minutes in the same 3 spots. This is not good. 10 for 3. This will lead to guys getting left out of the squad on the regular, as well as players like Bernardo punted out wide to fit him in the team which will in turn will cost players like foden and marmoush minutes.

FTR I'm not even counting the likes of foden, marmoush and bobb in that list who could all play centrally.

If MGW and Reijnders come in, 2 or 3 guys have to go. Our problem right now isnt numbers, its quality.
 
K-Bo said:
If we kept everybody, Rodri, Nico G, kovacic, bernardo, Gundo, McAtee, Rico, Nunes (in theory), MGW, and potentially reijnders are all competing for minutes in the same 3 spots. This is not good. 10 for 3. This will lead to guys getting left out of the squad on the regular, as well as players like Bernardo punted out wide to fit him in the team which will in turn will cost players like foden and marmoush minutes.

FTR I'm not even counting the likes of foden, marmoush and bobb in that list who could all play centrally.

If MGW and Reijnders come in, 2 or 3 guys have to go. Our problem right now isnt numbers, its quality.
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I don't really see Lewis, McAtee or Nunes for those positions to be honest. Neither Lewis nor Nunes has the quality and McAtee will either play wide left or be sold I would imagine. Nunes might be kept as back-up RB if we bring a new one in.

We are also have a few too many CBs with Dias, Gvardiol, Akanji, Stones, Ake, Khusanov and Reis, with Bah and Doyle due to return from loans. We need to sell/loan at least 3 or 4 of those.
 
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