Wonderwall wrote:lets all have a disco wrote:Bridge'srightfoot wrote:Wonderwall wrote:Ted Hughes wrote:
He says he didn't beef himself up.
It took him a full season to recover from injury under Hughes, & his attitude seemed questionable too.
Imo, he was absolutely fine under Mancini & probably better then Zabba when fully fit. But his fitness seems to disappear if he has a few injuries. I imagine the Count is currently assessing whether he gets a new contract or not.
I am a little worried about all the english players on the fringe now, how are we going to make the quota that we need to.
Lescott is going,
Richards doesnt seem content,
Milner cant exactly be ecstatic at being a bench warmer when he would start at most teams.
Rodwell is always injured and not a starter when fit
Bary is going
Sinclair is also going
We are in the shit TBH, we need to get some in but who? Not being funny but English players are crap.
I would only look at the following players
Luke Shaw
Gary cahill
Ross Barkley
Adam Lallana
Ravel Morrison?
I think Shaw and Barkley would be excellent additions. Lallana's good but imo not going to replace Silva or Nasri. I'd have Sturridge back but that's not going to happen. We would also imo have to look to push through some youngsters next season like
Lopes or maybe Cole for quota.
Exactly
Lopes
Cole
Huws
Rekik
These lads will be in the squad and will fill the 'homegrown' quota.
this is the problem for me
Lescott, Richards, Milner, Rodwell and Barry are much better players than Lopes, Cole, Huws and Rekik as things are currently.
What we are doing is weakening our squad if we do that.we need to replace the outgoing ones with better quality.
According to the MUEN, we currently have one place left for a 'foreign' player, which DESPERATELY needs to be a central defender if Lescott is going. There are no English, nor academy players who are anywhere near good enough to take that spot next season.
Richards though imo is miles a better bet at cb than any English player we could currently sign for that job, or any of the current academy alternatives, so that is another reason not to get rid of him without really considering our situation.
Count is giving nothing away regarding that, says Richards has one year on his contract & now is not the time to talk about it .
I don't think either Rekik or Huws will be worthwhile first team players for City, & if we have to rely on either next season, I think we are in deep deep shit. Cole could become a player & Lopes probably will be, but both will be fringe players at best next season I would think.
We probably have one year of breathing space though, whilst the contracts of Richards & Milner come into discussion.
We could keep both, sign a cb, poss flog Dzeko & sign a key player there. Then maybe bring in someone like Barkley.
The biggest worry for me is Lescott going. We have no reliable partner/cover for VK once he goes.
Even if we sign a player who is the best young cb in the history of football, it might take him 2 seasons to settle into the Prem.
Lescott is an absolute dream of a player to have in the squad & no other British team in our position would ever let a player like that leave.