Transfer Nightmare After Winning The League

Van Persie had one decent season left in him and dropped to barely premier league standard after. Hazard had 2 good season and some MIA/sulking, fat and finished by 28. Think it was a bit of blessing in disguise we were restricted by FFP, De Rossi would not have been a good signing either I don't think.
 
Don't know if Mancini had much of a hand in the other signings, but I remember reading somewhere Sinclair coming in was purely down to Marwood. Mancini obviously didn't want him and I've always thought he didn't play him that season purely to prove a point.
 
It was so underwhelming, and Marwood bottled it massively. I remember the 2-3 home defeat to the Rags in December (you know, when Nasri shit his pants at a piss poor Van Persie free kick) and thinking, we're going backwards rapidly. Horrible season.
No a horrible season was when we got relegated to the old third division not after being runners up in the league and FA cup.
 
Mancini was told we only had a £50m transfer budget because of FFP. He was gutted, but accepted it & said he'd settle for RVP & Hazard for a combined £55m including some sales, & IIRC, wasn't De Rossi available on a free, but ended up signing an extension with Roma?



Soriano arrived & Txiki soon followed & the rumours were Pep was also supposed to follow too, but City didn't want to be seen to be sacking Mancini after the Aguerooooo moment.

Soriano later admitted that City were in talks with Pep, but it was difficult to do the deal at the time, & the following January Baldy agreed a three year deal to manage Bayern.

It seems it was always about Pep, hence City not wanting Mancini to build a legacy which would make it harder to justify his sacking.

Football's a brutal business. ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠⊙⁠_⁠ʖ⁠⊙⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯
Could have been handled better
 
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Pellegrini favoured a 4-2-2-2, which was essentially a 4-4-2. Yaya didn't have the physicality to recover after his barnstorming forays forward, which left Fernandinho exposed, as he couldn’t do it all.

I remember several fans calling Fernandinho shit, until most of us woke up to the fact it was Pellegrini's tactics which were at fault for hanging Fern out to dry.

I asked above, would Garcia & Fernando's City careers have panned out differently with a proper manager like Pep in charge?

My recollection of Hazard was he was pissing both us & the Chavs around as he waited to see if they won the CL. He signed for them as soon as they did.

Rumours were RVP agreed a deal with City & I recall someone on here saying they were the estate agent accompanying RVP's Mrs & City's concierge service around properties in Prestbury.

HOWEVER, Marwood was put in charge of transfers to Mancini's anger & dismay, & promptly tried to renegotiate RVP's deal at the 11th hour which enraged him, so he reopened talks with ManUre, signed & shot them to the PL title the following season.

Word was DDR was interested in the move after Mancini spent a couple of seasons selling City to him, but when Marwood stepped in, he ended our interest in DDR & signed Garcia instead. ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠⊙⁠_⁠ʖ⁠⊙⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯
I think we’re on the same page tactically with Fernando doing 2 peoples’ jobs.

I’m not sure why the deals fell through, but not getting RVP shouldn’t have been the end of the world as we had Dzeko and Aguero as first choice.
 
I think we’re on the same page tactically with Fernando doing 2 peoples’ jobs.

I’m not sure why the deals fell through, but not getting RVP shouldn’t have been the end of the world as we had Dzeko and Aguero as first choice.
As we've seen with Pep, a proper manager makes all the difference. We all lamented at the 4-4-2 Pellegrini played, with the treacle slow full backs in Kolarov & Zabaleta.

I'll never forget Fat Sam's interview after Spam beat us away. He said what we all knew & could see happening week after week.

Spam soaked up the pressure, but knew Kola & Zabs had the pace of a couple of pensioners, so he stuck a couple of speedster out wide, waited until our attacks broke down & sprayed wide balls in behind the defence for their whippets to latch onto.

It happened week after week & Pellers didn't have the capacity to adapt his tactics accordingly & stubbornly stuck to his limited 4-4-2. He won the 2013 title with Mancini's squad, & left in 2016 with City almost relegated from the Champions League.

By contrast, look how embarrassed Pep was during his Udders post match interview, after that League One manager remarked how Baldy's revolutionised the English game.

Even teams in the amateur leagues are playing out from the back, & using inverted full backs, & prioritising possession.

The Goven Piss Can maybe the most successful manager ever in the English game, but he had by far the best players in the PL in his bog standard 4-4-2 formation.

Pep's rewritten the football handbook, & everyone from kids football, to our Champions League rivals have followed suit.

Guardiola must be the greatest manager to have ever graced the game, & I can't believe he's all ours!
 
I think we’re on the same page tactically with Fernando doing 2 peoples’ jobs.

I’m not sure why the deals fell through, but not getting RVP shouldn’t have been the end of the world as we had Dzeko and Aguero as first choice.

No it shouldn't have been the end of the world. We were loaded up front in 12/13 - Tevez had more starts in the league than both of Aguero and Dzeko. Even Mario was there for half a season.

Nasri, YaYa, Silva, Barry, Milner, Garcia is pretty loaded as well for a midfield

Zaba, Kompany, Lescot, Nastasic, Kolo, Clichy, Micah glass knees

Plus the rest....

A very strong squad which totally underachieved.
 

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