Three years of bad transfer dealings

[Dave Ewing's Back 'eader]

We should have paid Hazard/ Iscos parents what they wanted and got one of them here.

I think that Hazard wanted London and was pretty clear on that.

The biggest problem is that we adopt a game plan that is built on quality players displaying 110% patience, so we see a pattern of play where we dominate possession, and most of the stats except goals scored, and pass it backwards and sideways to people who are in no position to move the ball on, through the middle, beating players and opening up the middle of the pitch. We try to get round the back with our attacking FBs but in a twinkle it breaks down with a poor finish and we are immediately under the cosh with two or three defenders backtracking like fury with three or four attackers bearing down on them - Burnley, Sunderland, Boro. All ordinary sides but who are organised to play all day against the pattern of play we adopt.

We used to play with panache, creativity, flamboyance, and we are becoming less convincing each match.

 

[ManCitizens.]

We should have paid Hazard/ Iscos parents what they wanted and got one of them here.

With Uefa breathing down our necks? With Chelsea winning the Champions League and Real Madrid deciding he was one of the must have players? Manchester isn't the be all or end all to some of the foreign stars.

He was quite happy to come and watch the Kompany 1.0 derby so there must have been some interest. That summer we spent 52m, he cost Chelsea just over 30 - FFP can't be blamed for that.

 

[remember arthur mann]

We should have paid Hazard/ Iscos parents what they wanted and got one of them here.

I think that Hazard wanted London and was pretty clear on that.

The biggest problem is that we adopt a game plan that is built on quality players displaying 110% patience, so we see a pattern of play where we dominate possession, and most of the stats except goals scored, and pass it backwards and sideways to people who are in no position to move the ball on, through the middle, beating players and opening up the middle of the pitch. We try to get round the back with our attacking FBs but in a twinkle it breaks down with a poor finish and we are immediately 8under the cosh with two or three defenders backtracking like fury with three or four attackers bearing down on them - Burnley, Sunderland, Boro. All ordinary sides but who are organised to play all day against the pattern of play we adopt.

Spot on, historically we tend to buy players who do well against us, with our tempo it doesn't take much to look good. I nevertheless think our buys are generally good ones.

We used to play with panache, creativity, flamboyance, and we are becoming less convincing each match.

 

[remember arthur mann]

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[Deleted member 58678]

Hard to believe it will be four years in July since Aguero or last good signing was made, if you made a team from our last three windows it would just about manage top 8 at best...spurs signings the best of them if truth be told
Caballero £6m
Maicon £3m
Sagna £0.0m
Nastasic £12m
Faour £0.4m
Zuculini £1.5m
Mangala £32m
Demichelis £4.2m
Fernando £12m
Fernandinho £34m
Rodwell £15m
Garcia £15.8m
Sinclair £6.2m
Navas £14.9m
Jovetic £22m
Lampard £0.0m
Bony £28m
Negredo £16.4m

Compared with
Zabaleta
Kompany
Clichy
Kolarov
Yaya
De Jong
Barry
Nasri
Silva
Robinho
Aguero
Dzeko
Tevez
Balotelli

Ok we signed shit like Santa Cruz, adebayor etc...but come on

And the amount of money we've spent on that first list as well (I've put them in blue in your post). I keep reading "UEFA breathing down our necks" "but FFPR!" yet in three years we've spent £223.4m on that list of players. So it's not like we've really been scrimping and saving is it? We've spent £79m this season when we've supposedly had a transfer limitation set on us, well that's actually £25m more than we spent in the Summer of 2012.

Overall a £223.4m investment in seven transfer windows and not a single world class player being part of it is concerning.

To replace Barry and de Jong we've spent £76.8m and how much better off are we really? Fernandinho plays well with Yaya, but other than that we've gone backwards and Fernandinho doesn't play anywhere near as well without Yaya to hold his hand. That is some poor transfer dealings right there for me.
(Before anyone says it, I'm not saying we should have kept Barry and de Jong; I'm saying we have supposedly spent £76.8m to upgrade on them and gone backwards.)

Also, the takeover was six and a half years ago yet we still have to rely heavily on Silva and Nasri in attacking midfield. In all that time we've only bought those two players of decent quality in that area of the pitch and you're talking from the point of view of a club looking to emulate Barça, a club looking to play fast attractive football with lots of pretty goals. From the £~800m(+?) we've spent in that time, in all...two players in attacking midfield of that quality! While we spend £42.8m on Rodwell García and Fernando to replace de Jong, our third choice centre mid. Just what is that about at all?
Even a young hungry lad with bags of potential we could have snapped up for £10m or something would be better than nothing to cover these two, wouldn't it?

 

[Eccles Blue]

Maybe we should stop saying buy x, buy y, buy z & concentrate on developing & working with & keeping the players we already have & moulding them into a real team who are not constantly looking over their shoulders wondering who is being mooted for their job? Or is this too radical a thought?

 

[richards30]

How have the barca boys gone from buying the worlds best players when at barca to some of the dross they've bought recently! ??! Is it ffp? Mansour must be fucking livid at times with the money wasted!

 

[Jack Wills]

Maybe we should stop saying buy x, buy y, buy z & concentrate on developing & working with & keeping the players we already have & moulding them into a real team who are not constantly looking over their shoulders wondering who is being muted for their job? Or is this too radical a thought?

Depends whether they're good enough, in the cases of Sinclair, Rodwell and unfortunately it looks like Fernando too you can't polish a turd. Ok turd is harsh, none are bad players but the point is if we need to sign players that improve the team - ie better than who they replace, or better than a current incumbent. None of the signings we've made since Aguero have really done that, with the exception (hopefully!) of Bony, who in my opinion is better than Dzeko and Jovetic.

 

[mosssideblue]

Transfer targets would be easy if the crystal ball works, but it doesn't. Not for one minute do I think City went buying players to make the team/squad weaker, it's just because we are not seeing instant improvement that people want to challenge who we have bought.

Had we bought the "stellar" names that are constantly named on this forum, there are no guarantees we would be any better / worse from where we are now.

We have to accept that the scouts know there trade and that sufficient time is afforded new players to show their worth. If after what is deemed an acceptable opportunity it becomes evident we have bought a pup, then I'm sure remedial action will be taken.

 

[Rammy Blue]

Personally I don't think it will prove too hard to re-shape our squad.

With the FFP shackles off we should be able to upgrade the ones who aren't doing it, this summer is going to be very defining in how we move forward as a club.

Txiki is really going to have to earn his corn, incoming and outgoing.