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We have signed some very poor players over the last couple of years.

Some are blaming FFP.

Yet surely we cant blame FFP because these players have not been cheap either.

Off the field we are in great shape, new ground breaking academy. stadium expansion.

On the field it is not so good. We have decent spine of the team players like Aguero, Ya Ya, Silva, Hart, Kompany, Zabaleta. After that we have only very average squad players.

Who is ultimately responsible for all the appalling signings we have made in the last few transfer windows.

Mancini wanted Hazard and Van Persie. Both have made impacts. Hazard more so he has grown in to one of the best players in the World. He should have been a City player. For the 10,s millions we have shelled out in the last few transfer windows for bang average quantity. We could have signed some real quality.

We have relied heavily on Ya Ya, Aguero,Silva,Kompany,Zabaleta the last few years. They have been key to our success.

Since we have signed Aguero we have not really signed anybody that has taken us to the next level. Yet we have spent hundreds of millions in the process.

We now have an aging side. The players key to our success are now getting old. Most notably Zabs and Ya Ya. We cant rely on them as we have been doing. They have carried City the last few seasons. Now it is time for our supposedly Holistic, yet still expensive signings to step up to the plate. But hang on a minute, where are they ?

This City squad is not in great shape. The man in charge of our recent signings has been stealing a living off the back of another mans signings. Whilst we have been successful he has avoided closer scrutiny of all his signings. Now we see the likes of Zabba blowing, and Ya Ya legs going on him, we are noticing just how poor the quality is in our City Squad once you take away all Gary Cook signings.

The next transfer window is going to be very important for City. Can we really trust the man in charge of targeting players for City.

Got down as far as where you mentioned Hazard. Why do you believe we were unwilling to pay the agent's fees to secure Hazard's signature? I'll give you a clue, it starts with F.

Mentioning Hazard and RVP is very apt, I think we would be heading for our 4th straight title if we had bought them! RVP won it for Utd the season before last. Hazard is one of the main reasons Chelsea are winning the league and doing well in the cups, Chelsea POTY ahead of Costa, Fagregas and Matic.

But we cannot just spend Billlions, we have been reigned in and we have to deal with the rules, thats the reality of it.

Decided to have a look at our signings over the past few years just to see how we're doing.

2010-2011

Edin Dzeko
James Milner
Mario Balotelli

A good year. Dzeko and Milner have been great signings and important members of the squad. Mario did some decent things with us, was never an absolute disaster and we got most of the money back.

2011-2012

Gael Clichy
Stefan Savic
Sergio Aguero
Luca Scapuzzi
Denis Suarez
Costel Pantilimon
Samir Nasri
Owen Hargreaves

A weird mixed one. Clichy, Nasri and Aguero can be all counted as successes. Savic was fucking awful. Scapuzzi was a (shocking) favour for Mancini's kids, Suarez was a talented kid who didn't quite make it, Hargreaves was a hopeless but relatively risk free point and Panty was a decent backup for a couple of years. In terms of money spent though i'd say this was a good window.

2012-2013

Jack Rodwell
Scott Sinclair
Richard Wright
Maicon
Javi Garcia
Matija Nastasic

Just a truly terrible window in hindsight. The first four in particular were utterly pointless and it took Garcia about a year and a half to find form before we shipped him off anyway. Nastasic was also a waste of money.

2013-2014

Fernandinho
Jesus Navas
Stevan Jovetic
Alvaro Negredo
Martin Demichelis

Last season this was a good window i think. Fernandinho is a very good player, Navas is still a good squad option, Negredo helped us win the league and we got the money back and Demi is, let's be honest, attaining something close to cult status these days. Jovetic has been mixed but i presume we'll get most of the money back - some work, some don't.

2014-2015

Fernando
Bacary Sagna
Wilfredo Caballero
Bruno Zuculini
Eliaquim Mangala
Frank Lampard
Wilfried Bony

Bony i'm excluding cos we don't know. So far this window looks a bit average to be honest. It MAY prove good but if we're looking at it in terms of immediate impact in the way last season's had then it's not good. Caballero has been nonexistent and Sagna hasn't been used anywhere near enough to qualify as consistent and good cover for Zaba - that's not his fault as such as he's been fine, but it does make you think that it'd have been better to sign someone that we rotated more with him cos he's clearly knackered. Fernando and Mangala have been hugely mixed.

The one big mistake that we made this window in my opinion is not bringing in a forward. I think you should bring in an attacker every year without fail.... overall though i don't think we've been truly terrible and you just don't know how Mangala and Fernando will adapt in the long run. They've been let down by the rest of the team in that aspect - Negredo, Fernandinho and Navas weren't let down last year as everyone was great around them. It's why it was fair to say Demi was shite for half a season cos the other defenders were playing a bit better and you could tell it was his individual errors whereas this year everyone is poor around them.

That's a good summary twosips, what it doesn't cover though, is the basic issue we have with the spine of the team, in that we have to squeeze everyone in around aguero, Toure and silva - and as a result the signings we made, simply haven't helped to solve that problem, we have just been putting plasters over a stab wound!

I'm not one for throwing the baby out with te bath water, but until toure or silva move on, we are stuck with a dysfunctional squad because of two central midfielders who can't do the hard yards

Im_Spartacus wrote:until toure or silva move on, we are stuck with a dysfunctional squad because of two central midfielders who can't do the hard yards

Which in a nutshell is why we cant play with those two in a four man midfield against good sides; against shite like Newcastle at Home, yes it can work. Against anyone half-decent, it wont as you correctly summise they wont do the legwork. In games like that we have to go 5 in the midfield, at least 3 grafters that give Toure and Silva the license to fart about in the final third and not have to look back too often.

twosips wrote:Decided to have a look at our signings over the past few years just to see how we're doing.

2010-2011

Edin Dzeko
James Milner
Mario Balotelli

A good year. Dzeko and Milner have been great signings and important members of the squad. Mario did some decent things with us, was never an absolute disaster and we got most of the money back.

2011-2012

Gael Clichy
Stefan Savic
Sergio Aguero
Luca Scapuzzi
Denis Suarez
Costel Pantilimon
Samir Nasri
Owen Hargreaves

A weird mixed one. Clichy, Nasri and Aguero can be all counted as successes. Savic was fucking awful. Scapuzzi was a (shocking) favour for Mancini's kids, Suarez was a talented kid who didn't quite make it, Hargreaves was a hopeless but relatively risk free point and Panty was a decent backup for a couple of years. In terms of money spent though i'd say this was a good window.

2012-2013

Jack Rodwell
Scott Sinclair
Richard Wright
Maicon
Javi Garcia
Matija Nastasic

Just a truly terrible window in hindsight. The first four in particular were utterly pointless and it took Garcia about a year and a half to find form before we shipped him off anyway. Nastasic was also a waste of money.

2013-2014

Fernandinho
Jesus Navas
Stevan Jovetic
Alvaro Negredo
Martin Demichelis

Last season this was a good window i think. Fernandinho is a very good player, Navas is still a good squad option, Negredo helped us win the league and we got the money back and Demi is, let's be honest, attaining something close to cult status these days. Jovetic has been mixed but i presume we'll get most of the money back - some work, some don't.

2014-2015

Fernando
Bacary Sagna
Wilfredo Caballero
Bruno Zuculini
Eliaquim Mangala
Frank Lampard
Wilfried Bony

Bony i'm excluding cos we don't know. So far this window looks a bit average to be honest. It MAY prove good but if we're looking at it in terms of immediate impact in the way last season's had then it's not good. Caballero has been nonexistent and Sagna hasn't been used anywhere near enough to qualify as consistent and good cover for Zaba - that's not his fault as such as he's been fine, but it does make you think that it'd have been better to sign someone that we rotated more with him cos he's clearly knackered. Fernando and Mangala have been hugely mixed.

The one big mistake that we made this window in my opinion is not bringing in a forward. I think you should bring in an attacker every year without fail.... overall though i don't think we've been truly terrible and you just don't know how Mangala and Fernando will adapt in the long run. They've been let down by the rest of the team in that aspect - Negredo, Fernandinho and Navas weren't let down last year as everyone was great around them. It's why it was fair to say Demi was shite for half a season cos the other defenders were playing a bit better and you could tell it was his individual errors whereas this year everyone is poor around them.

Very good post twosips .
We need energy and legs in the midfield and possibly two quality fullbacks . We also need a manager with fresh ideas and tactical nous if we are to progress the way MCFC needs to .

I said it in a previous thread, Hazard and Isco were two top dogs that we really missed. I really don't care that much about the rapist, to be fair, he helped them only that season and then we were really shit, but those other two, they are young and could had been Berkovic and Bernabia at a world class level.

We made huge mistakes and we still do, we pay too much money for players that are not that well known. I really wonder if we actually go for those players because the actual targets that we have are not interested in joining us.

Basically, i don't think our transfers have been terrible. I just think we've reached the point where we need a window like 2010 or 2011 again now, which i guess you'd expect after 3 or 4 years. This squad cycle is coming into its latter stages and i think we now have to start mixing it up a bit. We could ahve done with Jovetic coming in and having the impact that we'd hope he would and then things wouldn't have felt anywhere near as catastrophic and he could have been seen as one of the big signings like Nasri and Aguero were that year, but that's not happened for whatever reason.

I think where we're at though is only natural and it happens to every team. We can't buy genuine world stars every year i don't think, cos 1) you can't guarantee they'll become world stars and 2) it's impossible with FFP. We'd have hoped that Jovetic was going to be a world star, and it was a fair assumption, but that's not happened for us and that's that. I think it's fair to say we need one this summer though - be it someone like Isco or Reus. A team needs properly refreshing after 3 or 4 seasons usually, even Pep at Barca found the same old tricks didnt work eventually, and we're finding that out (if we're not already we're about to) now so i feel relatively relaxed about it. It's natural.

All it takes is one good central midfield signing, one good attacker - i don't think these exact transfers will happen, but let's say hypothetically they do - like Reus and Pogba/Isco and then release a couple of bits of relative deadwood, perhaps promote a kid or two and then just like that you've got an infinitely more youthful looking squad. It won't take much. Ship out a couple, bring in a couple, promote Denayer and Lopes. Our squad will look very different, more youthful with more legs and players with more to prove, very easily.

twosips wrote:Basically, i don't think our transfers have been terrible. I just think we've reached the point where we need a window like 2010 or 2011 again now, which i guess you'd expect after 3 or 4 years. This squad cycle is coming into its latter stages and i think we now have to start mixing it up a bit. We could ahve done with Jovetic coming in and having the impact that we'd hope he would and then things wouldn't have felt anywhere near as catastrophic and he could have been seen as one of the big signings like Nasri and Aguero were that year, but that's not happened for whatever reason.

I think where we're at though is only natural and it happens to every team. We can't buy genuine world stars every year i don't think, cos 1) you can't guarantee they'll become world stars and 2) it's impossible with FFP. We'd have hoped that Jovetic was going to be a world star, and it was a fair assumption, but that's not happened for us and that's that. I think it's fair to say we need one this summer though - be it someone like Isco or Reus. A team needs properly refreshing after 3 or 4 seasons usually, even Pep at Barca found the same old tricks didnt work eventually, and we're finding that out (if we're not already we're about to) now so i feel relatively relaxed about it. It's natural.

All it takes is one good central midfield signing, one good attacker - i don't think these exact transfers will happen, but let's say hypothetically they do - like Reus and Pogba/Isco and then release a couple of bits of relative deadwood, perhaps promote a kid or two and then just like that you've got an infinitely more youthful looking squad. It won't take much. Ship out a couple, bring in a couple, promote Denayer and Lopes. Our squad will look very different, more youthful with more legs and players with more to prove, very easily.

Absolutely. Even agree with the players you mention. Keep that kind of positivity up and I may get my will to live back. Get this post into the silver lining thread now.

The squad needs refreshing. As someone mentioned, the cycle is drawing to a close.
How we can navigate it amidst FFP will be tricky, especially since very few clubs want very few of our supposed stars and others.

all went to shit when tricky took over the scouting and negotiations

i wouldn't be surprised if the spanish cunts were double fucking agents....

bring back marwood and cook i say

There u have it , good singing window ,Title , bad one second place. Honestly i can't justify Mangala and Fernando yet,Think we had better options , but when i see some of the name we sing , fuck me , Jack Rodwell ,Scott Sinclair,Stefan Savic. And replace for Negredo was not Jovetic in any case . Never going to happen. We need one Box to Box player who can play and run to cover Silva and Yaya, We need on more to replace Silva to rest or when hes injured same quality or at list close one. Defense need new leader , but really leader.

Cit.revenge wrote:There u have it , good singing window ,Title , bad one second place. Honestly i can't justify Mangala and Fernando yet,Think we had better options , but when i see some of the name we sing , fuck me , Jack Rodwell ,Scott Sinclair,Stefan Savic. And replace for Negredo was not Jovetic in any case . Never going to happen. We need one Box to Box player who can play and run to cover Silva and Yaya, We need on more to replace Silva to rest or when hes injured same quality or at list close one. Defense need new leader , but really leader.

sing when we're winning
we only sing when we're winning

I've been mulling this over and it strikes me that nobody mentions wages when discussing the fact that we haven't signed a marquee name since Aguero.

Soriano has been trying to lower the wage bill since he became CEO so whilst we've shelled out significant sums on transfer fees I don't believe we've been able to compete on the market for marquee names because of the salary costs.

Foreverinbluedreams wrote:I've been mulling this over and it strikes me that nobody mentions wages when discussing the fact that we haven't signed a marquee name since Aguero.

Soriano has been trying to lower the wage bill since he became CEO so whilst we've shelled out significant sums on transfer fees I don't believe we've been able to compete on the market for marquee names because of the salary costs.

We have restructured how we pay our players this summer as bonus's for some reason to count towards FFP. Very strange, but true.

iwasthere2012 wrote:

twosips wrote:Basically, i don't think our transfers have been terrible. I just think we've reached the point where we need a window like 2010 or 2011 again now, which i guess you'd expect after 3 or 4 years. This squad cycle is coming into its latter stages and i think we now have to start mixing it up a bit. We could ahve done with Jovetic coming in and having the impact that we'd hope he would and then things wouldn't have felt anywhere near as catastrophic and he could have been seen as one of the big signings like Nasri and Aguero were that year, but that's not happened for whatever reason.

I think where we're at though is only natural and it happens to every team. We can't buy genuine world stars every year i don't think, cos 1) you can't guarantee they'll become world stars and 2) it's impossible with FFP. We'd have hoped that Jovetic was going to be a world star, and it was a fair assumption, but that's not happened for us and that's that. I think it's fair to say we need one this summer though - be it someone like Isco or Reus. A team needs properly refreshing after 3 or 4 seasons usually, even Pep at Barca found the same old tricks didnt work eventually, and we're finding that out (if we're not already we're about to) now so i feel relatively relaxed about it. It's natural.

All it takes is one good central midfield signing, one good attacker - i don't think these exact transfers will happen, but let's say hypothetically they do - like Reus and Pogba/Isco and then release a couple of bits of relative deadwood, perhaps promote a kid or two and then just like that you've got an infinitely more youthful looking squad. It won't take much. Ship out a couple, bring in a couple, promote Denayer and Lopes. Our squad will look very different, more youthful with more legs and players with more to prove, very easily.

Absolutely. Even agree with the players you mention. Keep that kind of positivity up and I may get my will to live back. Get this post into the silver lining thread now.

Negredo (& to a lesser extent Navas) were players who changed our attacking options quite a lot, & we could see hints of it from Navas & Bony last night.

If we'd had the pre Christmas Negredo, this season, then we would be somewhere close to Chelsea now. We did that business relatively cheap, but it was still important business for the club, & it made a difference.

We have then been shit on by UEFA & had a problem where we desperately needed a cb. We tried an expensive one, as the cheap ones have mostly failed.

Now we are reaching a stage where we need to change some of the other positions, & ideally we can be in the market for a big signing or two, which boosts the club & fans.

We may or may not change the manager, but this shit happens to almost everyone, every few years. Players have to be changed & sometimes managers.

I worry for the Count's future, & one or two of the players, but I'll soon get over it if we replace them with something as good or better.

Bit of a depressing season, but we still have a great squad & are in a great position to fix any problems over the next couple of seasons, & build a new even better one.

Agree with all the above, only things I'll add are:

1) Most importantly, why the fcuk do all the clubs go after the same players? Pretty sure theres more world class quality than Pogba and Reus. Yes they are class but every c*** and his dog want them. I don't remember Chelsea and Madrid trailling Silva, Yaya or Aguero at the time. I can scout Pogba and Reus, we need the next best thing. Mangala seems like that kind of level yet hes already over hyped, wanted by everyone and we paid STAR QUALITY price.

2) We all agree we would be shit hot if we signed the players we missed; mainly Isco, SANCHEZ (don't forget) and Hazard. But aren't all of those 3 players adding to our existing problem/moan that silva, nasri, yaya don't do the running? I don't think either of Isco, Sanchez or Hazard are partners for Dinho in the middle.....

Nick wrote:Agree with all the above, only things I'll add are:

1) Most importantly, why the fcuk do all the clubs go after the same players? Pretty sure theres more world class quality than Pogba and Reus. Yes they are class but every c*** and his dog want them. I don't remember Chelsea and Madrid trailling Silva, Yaya or Aguero at the time. I can scout Pogba and Reus, we need the next best thing. Mangala seems like that kind of level yet hes already over hyped, wanted by everyone and we paid STAR QUALITY price.

2) We all agree we would be shit hot if we signed the players we missed; mainly Isco, SANCHEZ (don't forget) and Hazard. But aren't all of those 3 players adding to our existing problem/moan that silva, nasri, yaya don't do the running? I don't think either of Isco, Sanchez or Hazard are partners for Dinho in the middle.....

It's easy to say that, but who are they? The problem is that all potentially good players are known by all clubs. You just don't find gems that others don't know about anymore.

Nick wrote:Agree with all the above, only things I'll add are:

1) Most importantly, why the fcuk do all the clubs go after the same players? Pretty sure theres more world class quality than Pogba and Reus. Yes they are class but every c*** and his dog want them. I don't remember Chelsea and Madrid trailling Silva, Yaya or Aguero at the time. I can scout Pogba and Reus, we need the next best thing. Mangala seems like that kind of level yet hes already over hyped, wanted by everyone and we paid STAR QUALITY price.

2) We all agree we would be shit hot if we signed the players we missed; mainly Isco, SANCHEZ (don't forget) and Hazard. But aren't all of those 3 players adding to our existing problem/moan that silva, nasri, yaya don't do the running? I don't think either of Isco, Sanchez or Hazard are partners for Dinho in the middle.....

I think it's the right balance we lack, not quality, & we need to add both in the next couple of seasons. Hazard would have been ideal as he runs with the ball, but we wouldn't want all 3 unless we ditched Silva, Yaya, Nasri & we wouldn't want all 3 in the same team. We have that now in a way, & it doesn't work at the top level.

The truth imo, is we have never had the right balance to do what we needed to, in order to live with the Bayerns & Barcas. If they were to meet us on the wrong day though, we would fucking exterminate them, but we have to be at our absolute best & we can't keep it up. Our averagel performance, under Mancini's system, under Pellegrini's system, is as good or better than typical Chelsea, Arse, Liverpool, rags, so we are thereabouts in each title race.

But we have weaknesses, & if we are off our game, they are easy to exploit. Especially for the best.

Re 1: I would like us to identify the players who will become Pogba etc & sign them, to go with our kids, then have Silva etc play alongside them. The money being quoted for Pogba is twice what he is worth. Last year it was Vidal the same.