Three years of bad transfer dealings

[pavelsrnicek]

For anyone who thinks Txiki has done a great job

We need a pacey wide left sided player
We need a top partner for Kompany (Big fan of Demi but he’s too old to play twice a week all year)
We need an energetic holding midfielder
We have poor back up to Joe Hart
We don’t have a standout left back

This has been the case for 3 years now, we’ve spent £180m and haven’t addressed any of those well enough

On left sided player we went for Isco and he/his father messed us around so we went for Jovetic which hasn't worked out.
On a partner for Kompany, still believe Mangala will come good though the delays in getting the deal through delayed his introduction.
Holding midfielder- Agreed though I still have hope for Fernando, though I honestly believe that other than matches against Barca, Real, Bayern, Chelsea or one or two others we shouldn't start him at home. He's great for tough always (was brilliant in Rome and at Newcastle) but at home he slows down our passing.
Hart's better form this year makes me think he rates Caballero higher than Pantilimon. Willy's job is to put pressure on Joe
Agreed, Kolarov was good last year, while Clichy was poor. This season Clichy has been much better while Kolarov has been dire. We do need a top class left back.

 

[Chippy_boy]

For anyone who thinks Txiki has done a great job

We need a pacey wide left sided player
We need a top partner for Kompany (Big fan of Demi but he’s too old to play twice a week all year)
We need an energetic holding midfielder
We have poor back up to Joe Hart
We don’t have a standout left back

This has been the case for 3 years now, we’ve spent £180m and haven’t addressed any of those well enough

On left sided player we went for Isco and he/his father messed us around so we went for Jovetic which hasn't worked out.

Jovetic may be many things, but "a pacey wide left sided player" is not one of them and you can tell that off youtube, never mind a season at City.

 

[crystal_mais]

This smacks to me of spoilt fans wanting the world

Nothing wrong with trsnafer dealings last 2 years -
Champions
Carling Cup
Knockout round of CL

Progress

We 're still 2nd in the league & in with a shout for CL - wow I wonder what it will be like if we have a good transfer dealings

Wake up THIS IS NOT FOOTBALL MANAGER - THIS IS A BUSINSESS AND THE REAL WORLD or is that too grown up for people to understand

 

[agyeiboateng]

Three years of bad transfer dealing and yet still won a few trophies in those three years and got out of the champs league group stages twice,ill take that any day of the week.

Then you have low expectations

Look at what PSG and A.Madrid have done....PSG with money like us, and if you look at their squad, its better than ours. A.Madrid won La Liga last year and got into the CL final, which they lost right at the end. Those teams are ahead of us and we started the rebuild way earlier than them

 

[Gareth Barry Conlon]

My thoughts on this.

You can’t deny that most of our best players came to the club early or pre Mancini.

However what is forgotten is that we had a scatter gun approach back then, we were accumulating a lot of players in the hope of securing the gems we did find. Back then we had the likes of Robhino, Santa Cruz and Adebayour etc. We ploughed through the muck to get to the brass. We had as a result a lot of players and a lot of disparity in wages / ability.

The signings of, Sinclair and Rodwell were bad moves in a bad summer of transfers however I suspect the club had switched to a more cautious approach that involved picking the right long term targets (evolution not revolution). Good young professionals in the right positions, instead of any available potentially top draw player, this with a view of creating a more stable squad. No more Balotellis and fighting on the training ground or Wayne Bridges hanging around. Add in the mix FFP and the need to live within our means and that is what has driven the approach. We could have spent a lot more, had more player turnover and found anther worldy but there would be a cost in terms of the impact on FFP and a bloated squad. I would assume you sign 3 players for every 1 that turns out to live up to and beyond your expectations (at any level - there are 2 Lee Bradburys for every 1 Ali Bernabia).

In summary, you have to have some faith that Mangala and Fernando have been watched and pursued over the long term and they will come good. Bony was only signed when he had shown real consistency in the PL. That is 3 big money buys in 6 months all with CL or PL pedigree. We are also in a position where the squad has been managed very effectively, bar Sinclair we don’t have any deadwood and all the senior pros are getting game time with good competition for places. The fringe players such as Sagna and Lampard will be off soon having done a job. With FFP under control we have scope to push the boat out again this summer, if we had splurged we would have our hands tied.

 

[mosssideblue]

My thoughts on this.

You can’t deny that most of our best players came to the club early or pre Mancini.

However what is forgotten is that we had a scatter gun approach back then, we were accumulating a lot of players in the hope of securing the gems we did find. Back then we had the likes of Robhino, Santa Cruz and Adebayour etc. We ploughed through the muck to get to the brass. We had as a result a lot of players and a lot of disparity in wages / ability.

The signings of, Sinclair and Rodwell were bad moves in a bad summer of transfers however I suspect the club had switched to a more cautious approach that involved picking the right long term targets (evolution not revolution). Good young professionals in the right positions, instead of any available potentially top draw player, this with a view of creating a more stable squad. No more Balotellis and fighting on the training ground or Wayne Bridges hanging around. Add in the mix FFP and the need to live within our means and that is what has driven the approach. We could have spent a lot more, had more player turnover and found anther worldy but there would be a cost in terms of the impact on FFP and a bloated squad. I would assume you sign 3 players for every 1 that turns out to live up to and beyond your expectations (at any level - there are 2 Lee Bradburys for every 1 Ali Bernabia).

In summary, you have to have some faith that Mangala and Fernando have been watched and pursued over the long term and they will come good. Bony was only signed when he had shown real consistency in the PL. That is 3 big money buys in 6 months all with CL or PL pedigree. We are also in a position where the squad has been managed very effectively, bar Sinclair we don’t have any deadwood and all the senior pros are getting game time with good competition for places. The fringe players such as Sagna and Lampard will be off soon having done a job. With FFP under control we have scope to push the boat out again this summer, if we had splurged we would have our hands tied.

Great Post, Great perspective

 

[Marvin]

The ignorance of these so called blues amuses me. PSG may well not even qualify for the Champions League this season and Atletico are in danger of being overtaken by Valencia and Sevilla

Just 12 months ago Demichelis and Garcia were being criticised and yet we went on to win the title.

 

[agyeiboateng]

The ignorance of these so called blues amuses me. PSG may well not even qualify for the Champions League this season and Atletico are in danger of being overtaken by Valencia and Sevilla

Just 12 months ago Demichelis and Garcia were being criticised and yet we went on to win the title.

They have still performed better than us in the CL. We will see how we do against Barca, but we need to improve in the CL. We can't keep scraping through the group stage and going out in the first round.

 

[blueinsa]

The ignorance of these so called blues amuses me. PSG may well not even qualify for the Champions League this season and Atletico are in danger of being overtaken by Valencia and Sevilla

Just 12 months ago Demichelis and Garcia were being criticised and yet we went on to win the title.

They have still performed better than us in the CL. We will see how we do against Barca, but we need to improve in the CL. We can't keep scraping through the group stage and going out in the first round.

I wonder how they would have faired had they had the same groups as us?

It isn't as black and white as many of you are making out.

 

[casualdeyna]

I'm not disputing our transfer have been underwhelming since Aguero came but we needed to go out and sign two or three top class players every season back then to propel us to challengers, once we are challenging it is a different approach to signing players, and you can see (due to FFP or not) we have chosen to sign hungry players, players with potential, rather than going out and getting finished article, Mangala and Joevtic (and Negredo) perfect examples of this. Also don't be too quick to judge, I hold my hands up and admit to judging Fernandinho and Demechelis too early last season, they both turned out to be crucial members of a title winning team.

There wouldn't be this reaction if two teams hadn't "done a job" on us at home on consecutive weekends, and that for me is the bigger concern. I've said before I think our ills, in the short term, are down more to us trying to play and develop the "City way", basically Barcelona mark 2, it comes from Tixi and Ferran, but also Mansour and Mubarak.

In the long term this is absolutely the right way to go, Pep's barca showed if you are good enough it doesn't matter what tactics others use against you as you will be better and beat them, but for that you need all 11 players singing of same hymn sheet and 11 good footballers, most of that team had come through the ranks playing the same way.

It does mean though that were are very easy to work out how to play against as you know we will play the same way every game, and it is hardly rocket science what teams have done to us this season especially at home. Silva is being surrounded, the full backs aren't being allowed to bomb on and run in to space as zaba has done expertly in the past and the full backs are the only ones providing any width. Navas' final ball just isn't good enough, Jovetic (and I like him) is certainly no centre forward, half fit Aguero up front, and we are always so wide open on the counter attack.

This all means that if we don't play well, there is no plan B, we are not really the type of team to play poor and grind out a result. Teams are going to try to do what Arsenal and Boro have done every week, and I don't think we will do anything about it, we just have to play better.

I'm not getting in to the wrongs or rights of playing the same way week in week out and trying to develop a style of football from top to bottom as I actually think it benefits the club, certainly the kids coming through, but this to me is a bigger concern than transfers or MP's ability as a manager