The Squad planning thread

[WRicko]

Txiki imo checked out a year ago or so. I cannot understand why were we happy with what we had after Gundo and Savinho and also making sure we lose two strikers(Delap, JA) to put added game time pressure on Haaland and zero sensible rotation option for him. almost like we did with Rodri, except there we bought Phillips, but thats not something to praise Txiki with LOL.

it wasnt that long ago we wanted a lot firepower added to our midfield in Bellingham and then made a bid for Rice. and also looked at Paqueta. now since then our midfield aged like milk, we added Nunes who we use as a left winger, and Gundo came back but we might as well bring back Yaya Toure and Fernandinho too...

to me this opposite of great planning.

JA ?

 

[WestGorton]

Anybody big strong and fast please. Is Yaya still about?

 

[Dizbuster]

For a year-and-a-half Rodri begged for a transfer to bring in some support and relief and he was pointedly ignored. We are paying the price for that now. Also, Pep's insistence on continuing to field the smallest active core of players in the PL has left us crippled with no options for another 5-6 weeks. In a new era of year round nonstop competition and an ever more congested fixture list, we should have known better.

 

[richards30]

If we don’t buy in January then we will struggle to get top 4 imo

 

[Tevez City]

For a year-and-a-half Rodri begged for a transfer to bring in some support and relief and he was pointedly ignored. We are paying the price for that now. Also, Pep's insistence on continuing to field the smallest active core of players in the PL has left us crippled with no options for another 5-6 weeks. In a new era of year round nonstop competition and an ever more congested fixture list, we should have known better.

Pep was given 100 million , spent it on Kalvin & Nunes

Gave away Pedro Porro , Palmer, Lavia & Rogers

 

[Dizbuster]

Pep was given 100 million , spent it on Kalvin & Nunes

Gave away Pedro Porro , Palmer, Lavia & Rogers

I was so disappointed that Lavia was not repurchased when we had the opportunity to do so. That's life.

 

[youngbob]

Do they still deserve to be here next season?

Players in bold are Yes. Players in italics are No.

Ederson
Walker, Dias, Stones, Gvardiol
Rodri
De Bruyne, Foden
Savinho, Haaland, Grealish

Ortega
Lewis, Akanji, Ake, Wilson-Esbrand
Kovacic
Gundogan, Bernardo (Nunes)
Bobb, McAtee, Doku

So that's Walker, Wilson-Esbrand, Gundogan, Bernardo, Nunes, McAtee, and Doku all out the door for me.

Leaves us needing a new RB, LB, three new CMs, and a winger/striker. Lol. Maybe Bernardo is allowed a year extra if we can promise to keep the rest of our midfielders fit for the majority of the season.

 

[RayCTID]

Injuries are an issue but Doku should get another chance next season as he proved that can chip in when required and still young enough to improve further (although I agree he isinconsistent to be really considered a top player). The likes of De Bruyne, Bernardo, Walker, Gundo should be phased out in a couple of transfer windows.

 

[youngbob]

Pep was given 100 million , spent it on Kalvin & Nunes

Gave away Pedro Porro , Palmer, Lavia & Rogers

Lmao. There's so much pathetic revisionism here it's untrue.

Pedro Porro hasn't been contracted to City for almost three years and has been utterly ordinary for Spurs throughout his time there. At the time of Porro's sale to Sporting we had Kyle Walker and Joao Cancelo as our RB options. Nobody batted an eyelid when we sold him and rightly so. His goal today changes nothing.

Palmer, I guess I can give you. But at the time of his sale he'd shown virtually nothing in a City shirt to indicate he could hold down a place under Pep. He'd started 13 games in three seasons, wasn't that keen on staying, and Chelsea offered us £45m. We can't just hold on to every Academy player we produce because they might end up being world class.

The same can be said of Lavia, for what it's worth. Since leaving us Lavia has been part of a rubbish Southampton team that went down with 25 points and has played a grand total of eight games in two seasons for Chelsea due to repeated injuries. What would he have brought us last season that Kovacic didn't?

If we'd activated Lavia's buyback clause last season and decided not to go for Kovacic, you would have spent all season complaining that we "put all our trust in an untested kid who can't stay fit" when we could have "signed an experience PL midfielder for peanuts". Hindsight's 20/20 but come on, man. Don't take the piss.

As for Rogers - when we made the decision to sell him to Middlesbrough our midfield options were Rodri, Gundogan, Stones, De Bruyne, Foden, Palmer, and Bernardo Silva. He was never going to get in the team. We then sold him to a Championship side because that was his level at the time. None of us even knew he'd been attached to City until about six months ago.

But let's say we'd kept Rogers. Say we'd sold McAtee instead. In another world McAtee is starring for a good Villa side while Rogers is holding a place on our bench. You can't get every call about every young player completely right. If you were banging on about us keeping all these lads at the time we sold them, fair enough, but don't come in here acting all smug when all you're doing is selective hindsight.

 

[JewelZee]

For a year-and-a-half Rodri begged for a transfer to bring in some support and relief and he was pointedly ignored. We are paying the price for that now. Also, Pep's insistence on continuing to field the smallest active core of players in the PL has left us crippled with no options for another 5-6 weeks. In a new era of year round nonstop competition and an ever more congested fixture list, we should have known better.

We contributed in Rodri's injury. By overplaying him in terms of both playing time and tactical demands.