The mancityfans.net football forum

Maybe it's an age thing but I have never bought into the modern trend of IMMEDIACY that has been purveyed by the tabloid media and swallowed by the masses. What do we want?....Whatever it is,....we have to have it now.

It serves one purpose and does a lot of damage. It allows the media to make make huge sensational stories out of nothing and nowhere and gives them a power they have no right to over clubs and fans alike.
Pep wins 10 on the trot and City are going to win the League, Pep loses a couple and he's failed miserably...and fans buy into this shit. At the bottom end, the media exert a power of constructing opinion in fans' heads, fans turn against a manager and the chairmen succumb to the pressure...and so the cycle keeps turning. Sensationalism and stupidity combined and the likes of Talkshite, Sky and BT feast on the success of their own lunacy and the lunacy they engender in the fans

Teams don't win trophies, clubs do. Gary Cook had it right, he understood that MCFC had to have the right mentality from the ground staff upwards. He also created the long term City vision, convinced the ADUG Group and so the City project was born as a plan over 15yrs.

Unlike most clubs, City have it right and have the resources to keep it right. The likes of Southampton also have had it right, but without those resources, the vampires fed on them, as was always the way in football and eventually they wilted.

City have the best squad and are favourites to win the Prem. No we didn't, we had a good squad that was ageing and on the wane and had been allowed to stagnate since Mancini had been sent packing. On top of that, City have Pep, the most successful manager in football, so MUST win the League... Despite what Pep himself was actually saying, "I am not interested in winning titles, I want City toplay good football and if we do it well, the titles will arrive". He also added that "He was here to learn" and that City "Weren'tgood enough to win the league nor the Champions League." He did say
"Judge me in 3yrs."
Why did so many not take notice, he was telling the truth.

Phase 1 was to buy a team to qualify for Europe, increase the club's global profile and allow us to gain access to the income streams and players that CL qualification can bring. Phase 1 also included the planning and building of the state of the art CFA, laying the foundations for the future. We even won the League twice, got to CL semi finals and won the FA Cup, League Cup and Charity Shield. Consider also that we became financially self sufficient, the most valuable club in the Prem and the World's fastest growing commercial sports' business. In every aspect, we as a club are in a perfect position to launch a concrete challenge on the World's elite old order. Pretty decent start to our 15yr project.

During that time, we had our great ups and several downs, League trophies, trips to Wembley, even a loss to Wigan. They chucked everything at us, Bent CL draws, the FFP, blatantly corrupt on field decisions, media bias and abuse that bordered on the isane. It wasn't all success, but our rise as a club has been relentless.

We made strides in Phase 1 well beyond our wildest dreams. I keep reading negative shit on here, reflective of the media and their instant success. City are now coming to the end of the 1st season of phase 2, We are ahead of schedule, everything is in place, Our old team did their job excellently, now is the time to build a new team into the future. It will be a rollercoaster of success with some failures,but we are on track....One transfer window was never going to be enough, it will take several.

Agree 100%

There are stuff there that I definitely agree with and few points I disagree with but all I came to say was that I throughly enjoy this kind of well thought out long winded posts. More of these please.

Niall Quinns Discopants wrote:There are stuff there that I definitely agree with and few points I disagree with but all I came to say was that I throughly enjoy this kind of well thought out long winded posts. More of these please.

Wouldn't be right if you didn't disagree with him a little.

Glad to see both of you back BTW.

Absolute beauty of a post, the problem being that in modern football you need nerves of steel to plan long term, you've also got Pep saying that he's not convinced the youth are up to the job as the leagues are not competitive enough - oh for the old reserves matches when players coming back from injury kick three shades out of an up and coming youngster

Excellent analysis John.

You've got the uncanny ability to put things perfectly in perspective and inject a solid dose of common sense into proceedings.

Please don't ever stop posting.

Excellent post John.

It's pretty impressive what we've achieved since the takeover, in spite of everything that has been thrown at us as you said. The changing of rules to slow us down, the officials and most importantly, the media and how they portray us.

Even now, most pundits and journos will slate our achievements and question how we haven't won much more. I've heard them say we "barely won" the premier league twice without ever once mentioning the terrible officiating or FFP.

To have won every domestic trophy in the space of 5 years is fantastic.
To do it under the circumstances we did is unprecedented.

Far too sensible John.

Does this mean we have actually had a successful season?

I'm still massively underwhelmed if I'm honest.

Have a look at this

http://talksport.com/football/premier-league-table-august-2012-revealing-top-six-over-last-five-years-170515239250?p=2

Ok, it may be talkshite bollox, but it does put how consistantly successful we've been in the last few seasons

london blue 2 wrote:Does this mean we have actually had a successful season?

I'm still massively underwhelmed if I'm honest.

Maybe your feeling of being underwhelmed is driven by your expectations at the start of this season.
Considering the stagnation and ageing of our 1st team and lack of regeneration, a new manager, new philosophy, I had quite low expectations and considered this season pretty much a write off at the level we have come to expect previously.,

2015-16... Pl 36, W 19, D 7, L 10, For 68, Against 38, GD 30, Pts 64.
2016-17... Pl 36, W 21, D 9, L 6, For 72, Against 38, GD 34, Pts 72.

Difficult to compare the FA Cup as last season we put out a reserve side v Chelsea and this season we were cheated out of it by the officials in the semis.
Much the same in the EFL, where this season we put out a reserve side v the rags,

The only real failure that could be pointed at City is the record in the CL.

All things considered and certainly in the League, we have done better than last season with 2 games to go. And that has been done with a defence that is even less fit for purpose than last season,

Advise you check my stats, done quickly and I have a record, at my age of making mistakes...:-)

To add to that John, we were cheated out of the Champions League, but it got forgotten about because we managed to come back against Monaco in the first leg. That first leg is the worst officiating I've seen for a long long time... in fact, I think it's also the first time that useless cunt they have standing on the by-line ever made a decision and it was to award a penalty against us.

That aside, there is also our home record. Whilst we had some bizarre draws that definitely should have been wins, the only time we lost all season at home was against Anthony Taylor.

Only for that, we would have matched Spurs "unbeaten at home all season" record.

That's a good foundation, especially considering we lost a few at home last season.

Lol No need to check. I get what you're saying.

My underwhelming feeling is based on a number of things:

CC - Surrendering the CC to the rags - I know why it happened but can't help but feel it was a dropped bollock.

FAC - lost to worst arse team in god knows how long. There for the beating and we failed again. (Shit ref I know but still)

CL - in prime position to go to semis and simply capitulated. Monaco were not that good, we were awful.

League - played all top teams off park and picked up fuck all points. Real disappointing challenge.

Pep - looks clueless. Pehaps stubborn perhaps he is building. Based on what I've seen im not sure.

Tactics - see above. Pass pass pass pass pass pass concede. It doesn't work. If we put the ball in the oppo box enough they would shit themselves and make more mistakes leading to chances and goals. As it is teams stand off knowing we will keep passing round the box.

Corners = shit.
Free kicks = shit.

The list goes on.

I admit I do have high expectations. We have the world's best manager and some amazing talent in our squad. I expect them yo do better than I have seen mate.

I hope pep makes me look a tit.

We have established ourselves as a top club in the Prem and in Europe. That's testament to incredibly successful work in the last decade. No ifs and buts.

The biggest issue for me, is this:

City have the best squad and are favourites to win the Prem. No we didn't, we had a good squad that was ageing and on the wane and had been allowed to stagnate since Mancini had been sent packing.

This is absolutely unacceptable for any top club (which we are now) and the reason is, that there are always other clubs with similar ambitions and stable upward trajectory. In the last couple of seasons Spurs have moved up a notch and in the next it could be Everton or somebody else on top of those that are already up there. While we have undoubtedly made the biggest strides, there is no resting on past accomplishments if you don't want to get left behind.

Yes, we've had to tough it out with UEFA, PGMOB and the media, but let's not excuse some of our own shortcomings, whether at the hands of players, managers or directors. Under the most obvious of circumstances, we appointed a director of football to initiate a transition of the squad to suit Pep's playstyle specifically. Said director proceeded to blow the better part of £65m on Mangala & Bony. I don't think you can find two players on this planet who are more unsuited to work with Pep Guardiola. 65 million! He turned a corner the window after, but fuck me if I can't criticize obvious failures that have nothing to do with UEFA, PGMOB or the media.

Original Dub wrote:To add to that John, we were cheated out of the Champions League, but it got forgotten about because we managed to come back against Monaco in the first leg. That first leg is the worst officiating I've seen for a long long time... in fact, I think it's also the first time that useless cunt they have standing on the by-line ever made a decision and it was to award a penalty against us.

That aside, there is also our home record. Whilst we had some bizarre draws that definitely should have been wins, the only time we lost all season at home was against Anthony Taylor.

Only for that, we would have matched Spurs "unbeaten at home all season" record.

That's a good foundation, especially considering we lost a few at home last season.

Add to that, we've recorded our best ever away record in the Premier League.

Good post and good thread, nice to bring a bit of reality into the equation. This season has not been a surprise, yes there have been mistakes and bad luck, but we all knew in August that the squad had its problems. Yet many were taken in by this 'best squad in the league' which was and still is nonsense just pure nonsense.
We are re-building and it will take time. However next season its reasonable to expect things to improve a bit and above all stabilise but I can not see us being able to bring in enough quality to be good enough to make us champions next season. Hopefully I am wrong.
This is probably our most important transfer window in 10 years.

patrickblue wrote:Have a look at this

http://talksport.com/football/premier-league-table-august-2012-revealing-top-six-over-last-five-years-170515239250?p=2

Ok, it may be talkshite bollox, but it does put how consistantly successful we've been in the last few seasons

Nice one PB.

Ironically, we 'won' it on goal difference over a Chelsea side with a far better defence than we've been able to muster in the last few seasons. Shows the value of having goal power in our squad.

Pep, please take note, we need some more forwards bringing in this summer.

Fangs has it right when he says our stagnation has been the biggest problem.

This is absolutely unacceptable for any top club (which we are now) and the reason is, that there are always other clubs with similar ambitions and stable upward trajectory. In the last couple of seasons Spurs have moved up a notch and in the next it could be Everton or somebody else on top of those that are already up there. While we have undoubtedly made the biggest strides, there is no resting on past accomplishments if you don't want to get left behind

What has happened to our squad since 2012 is criminal. Maybe with all the other stuff going on, the stadium, NYCFC< Melbourne, and other clubs bought, the building of the CFA, the brand change from MCFC to the CFG, the expansion of the Etihad and the massive expansion of our global commercial activity, someone, somewhere at the top took their eye of the ball.

Since we were Champions in 2012, we strengthened our squad with;
2013-14- Navas, Jovetic, Negredo and Demichellis. none of whom turned out to be good enough for our requirements.
2014-15- Fernando, Sagna, Caballero, Zuculini, Bony and Mangala. Some able to do a job but none top class performers.
2015-16- Sterling, Otamendi, Delph and KDB.
Of that list and there were others either not good enough to make any impact whatsoever and some potential youth, only Kevin de Bruyne has had any major impact. A lot of cash spent for very little return.It is only under Pep that Sterling has blossomed from failure to relative success.

Marwood and Txiki have a lot to answer for. I am no fan of Txiki based on his City record,

Not to excuse but just to put a bit of perspective on things in regards recruitment, we had to rein in our wage bill since the Cook days, what we were doing during his tenure wasn't sustainable long term.

Also, someone who's name never gets thrown into the mix when our recruitment is being analysed/criticised is Gary Worthington, as our head of scouting surely he must shoulder some of the blame for our failures in this area.

Foreverinbluedreams wrote:Not to excuse but just to put a bit of perspective on things in regards recruitment, we had to rein in our wage bill since the Cook days, what we were doing during his tenure wasn't sustainable long term.

Also, someone who's name never gets thrown into the mix when our recruitment is being analysed/criticised is Gary Worthington, as our head of scouting surely he must shoulder some of the blame for our failures in this area.

I would only partly agree with that FIB, If you look at the combined fees and wages of some of the players we have bought, we would undoubtedly have been better served spending higher on fewer quality players that would have improved the squad and not wasting so much on many poorer players.