The Post Transfer Deadline Day (positive) Thread

[onceabluealways]

Its a net spend of £116m I think, and a considerable upgrade for me.

I agree it is a considerable upgrade but that's because we have released lots of average players, the business model is great but I think winning the CL (the goal) is still a million miles off.

 

[domalino]

Everyone has seen how Evans play. He's one dimensional. We scored 7 past Evans last season and he was the captain.

I was at the home game and Evans was really poor we scored 3 past them and were really knocking at their doors and if not for their player Morrison who was subbed around 60m and doing all the footwork and blocking we would have scored 2 more at least. If not for their keeper who went world class mode and saved half a dozen of Jesus shots alone we could have scored more.

There's more chance of us getting weaker playing Evans on CB than Mangala. Ok so if watching him play is not good enough evidence, let's use stats. Mangala has twice more successful tackles than Evans and blocks twice more than Evans in the same amount of games last year.

Not everything Pep wants make the player world class - Bravo is case in point.

I am like every other person here not wanting to play Mangala, but really to put Evans above him is insane and for a crucial position in the team we should have gone for a better CB.

You're still not getting this.


You or me or any fans rating Mangala is completely irrelevant. This has nothing to do with Evans vs. Mangala.

Pep clearly doesn't rate him, he never has and he doesn't want him, so Mangala is done. Hes only stayed a city player by fucking over the managers transfer plans and he'll be dumped ASAP.

The idea of having a player like that as fourth choice ahead of a highly rated prospect earmarked for the first team is ridiculous.

 

[mancity1]

Overall a decent window but disappointing deadline day as I think we needed bolstering in the areas we are low on numbers in.

We will need to stay relatively injury free though to maximise the chances of success this season I would suggest.

At least our rivals haven't improved their stocks on deadline day to any great degree which is important also.

 

[Homar]

On reflection I think this was an average transfer window. It had the potential to be so much more. The way I look at it is that we had four major objectives this window:

1. Replace the fullbacks
2. Address the deficiencies up front
3. Sign a competent keeper
4. Offload deadwood players

On the first we did reasonably well. We brought in two very good fullbacks and a third with exceptional versatility to provide cover. Ideally we would have added another left-back, but this was not crucial.

On the second we failed abysmally. I was hoping that we'd sign Sanchez in addition to an out-and-out striker. We did neither and were made to look foolish in the process. My greatest worry for this season is that we have not addressed the very clear deficiencies up front. You can't challenge for titles when your attackers need 20 clear chances to score. We added Bernardo, who has looked very decent so far this season, but will not solve our goal scoring problems.

On the third we did well. Nothing much to say on this other than I think Ederson will be a success.

On the fourth we were pretty poor. We did manage to get rid of a fair few deadwood players, but at knockdown prices. There is still time to flog Mangala to a Spanish side (though I'm not particularly hopeful). But we also let a couple players go that we failed to replace.

And then we get to the crux of the matter, which is whether we have set ourselves up to deliver on the chairman's targets. On this you'd have to say no. The key target was to challenge on four fronts. Our squad simply isn't deep enough to even attempt this. We are a couple of injuries/suspensions away from shoehorning players into unnatural positions for extended periods of time. We'll end up playing the kids in cup competitions and consequently face the real risk of repeating this past season.

Not much positive in all of this, but we can alleviate many of the negatives in the January window. I'm not sure that I'd put us as favourites for the league, but we should be there or thereabouts. The only real positives from today is that our rivals also failed to strengthen significantly. Oh, and we finally got rid of Bony.

 

[Manchester_lalala]

I agree it is a considerable upgrade but that's because we have released lots of average players, the business model is great but I think winning the CL (the goal) is still a million miles off.

It's not a million miles off, but it's not perfect either. If we had a quality centre back and defensive midfielder, were as good as any team. Another LB for cover, but that won't effect us without injuries.

 

[onceabluealways]

It's not a million miles off, but it's not perfect either. If we had a quality centre back and defensive midfielder, were as good as any team. Another LB for cover, but that won't effect us without injuries.

I think we should have enough to win the PL but CL I don't think we are close

 

[paulchapo]

The window looks good on paper but really we were having to do a rebuilding job in defence, including the keeper, for bad buys and allowing players to all grow old together. We are short of a left back, centre back, DM and a striker, mainly as cover except the striker role. It is now up to Sterling and Sane go push on and prove they can step up to the next level, adding goals to their repoitoire. With no Sanchez it really is a golden opportunity to show their mettle. Pep should still have the tools to win trophies but he worries me in his stubborn refusal to consider changing tactics to take the opposition into consideration. That approach may have worked in leagues where the games weren't as tough but he should have learnt from last season that here you have to be a bit cuter sometimes. It is his job on the line though and results and trophies will either prove him right or not.

 

[taleofbluehalves]

I was really excited before the season started. We've not quite got all we needed this window. I think it'll be a nail biting season and I truly hope Aguero and Gabby Jesus stay fit.

 

[Hamann Pineapple]

I think it will force us into playing 1 up front which may not be a bad thing

 

[mccity]

The good news for me is that we haven't seemed to have made any poor signings. Every addition has their value. Whilst more could have been done up front, we've gone a huge way to addressing the two major structural weaknesses we had as a team last season, full back and goalkeeper.

Although the obvious concern is still the goalscoring. I still think Aguero will score a lot this season, and Jesus too. But the attacking midfielders need to chip in more, particularly Sane, Sterling (started off well admittedly), and the Silvas. De Bruyne seems to be playing a lot deeper so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt, but with his shooting ability surely he could do with a bit more ambition. I would also want our centre backs to be more of a threat, it wasn't until the back end of last season (Kompany's return) they started scoring at all. I believe at one point there was a stat that said we had scored from 1 corner out of 100 at one point.