Manchester City 17/18 discussion | "If you're here for the Champions clap your hands" (#6505)

Chesterlestreet said:
Eh?
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Dismissing the Europa League trophy as if it's 'beneath' us. It is what it is and I for one was over the moon when we won it. The way some people talk it's just title/top 4 or bust. I haven't even said Champions League because some people just seem to be more intent on getting in it rather than actually winning the thing (Arsenal).

We won the League Cup and Europa League trophy last season but if we hadn't qualified for the Champions League, our season would have been deemed a 'failure'. We are a top 6 now in the Premier League and there is probably a top 10 in Europe....all vying for two trophies. Unless you're expecting us to win both every year we will 'fail' more often than not.

Winning the EFL Cup and Europa League was not enough so I repeat...why not just bin the lot?
 
RedPed said:
Dismissing the Europa League trophy as if it's 'beneath' us.
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Christ, this again.

I don't understand why it's so hard for people to grasp that the Europa League isn't comparable to either of the TWO tournaments it has, essentially, replaced.

The frequently spouted “it's the one tournament we've never won” argument never made any sense. We never won the UEFA Cup. And we never will. Because it doesn't exist anymore.

The single point to winning the EL for a team of our stature is – obviously – to qualify for the CL. And you don't have to worry about that if you finish high enough in the table.

I was very happy we won the EL, and thus qualified for the CL (which happens to be important for all sorts of reasons), but I refuse to regard that “trophy” as anything but what it is. The Europa League isn't a proper competition. It's a means to an end for a club like United.
 
Chesterlestreet said:
Christ, this again.

I don't understand why it's so hard for people to grasp that the Europa League isn't comparable to either of the TWO tournaments it has, essentially, replaced.

The frequently spouted “it's the one tournament we've never won” argument never made any sense. We never won the UEFA Cup. And we never will. Because it doesn't exist anymore.

The single point to winning the EL for a team of our stature is – obviously – to qualify for the CL. And you don't have to worry about that if you finish high enough in the table.

I was very happy we won the EL, and thus qualified for the CL (which happens to be important for all sorts of reasons), but I refuse to regard that “trophy” as anything but what it is. The Europa League isn't a proper competition. It's a means to an end for a club like United.
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Beginning to sound like an Arsenal fan! But this is the City thread so moving on...
 
RedPed said:
Beginning to sound like an Arsenal fan! But this is the City thread so moving on...
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Yeah, let's move on, by all means.

But, seriously, there are two extremes here: Treating a high league finish as a “trophy” (which would be Arsenal style, I suppose) on the one hand – and counting bollocks trophies as “success” on the other hand (which would be anything but United style, if you ask me).
 
So City are going to play West Ham in a friendly in Reykjavik in their last game before the season. The City spokespeople are saying that they want to break the attendance record (little over 20k) that was set when we beat Italy 2-0 in 2004.

A few reasons why they won't do that.
  • Cheapest ticket is 50 pounds.
  • They say that the country is football mad (true) and especially for the PL (also true) but West Ham probably have more fans than City here so it won't be a stadium "filled" with the teams fans.
  • August 4th is the start of the biggest traveling weekend in Iceland. Half of Reykjavík will be driving out of town that day, no one is coming into town.
So it's going to be funny that there won't be that many fans at the stadium but also sad because that means no other team will probably want to come here because of it.
 
Snow said:
So it's going to be funny that there won't be that many fans at the stadium but also sad because that means no other team will probably want to come here because of it.
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City's players will feel right at home, then.
 
It's maybe not surprising that the Berties are paranoid about United.

This from the Brighton local paper's Twitter feed:
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Lol @ these Aguero to Chelsea links. Pep, Khaldoon and Aguero himself have all said we're not selling, he scored 33 goals last season and will continue to be our first choice striker for the next 12 months at least - what else needs to happen for journalists to give up thinking we'll sell him?
 
robinamicrowave said:
Lol @ these Aguero to Chelsea links. Pep, Khaldoon and Aguero himself have all said we're not selling, he scored 33 goals last season and will continue to be our first choice striker for the next 12 months at least - what else needs to happen for journalists to give up thinking we'll sell him?
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I'm not ruling it out.
He would have to make it his decision, though.
He saved his City career by becoming a harder worker off the ball while continuing to bang in the goals at the end of last season but I'm convinced that the club are looking beyond him and would like a nice juicy fee rather than just waving goodbye to a 30 year old with 0/1 years left on his contract in a year or two's time.
We're looking at Sanchez, M'bappe and would be interested should Neymar look to move.
Sergio is in the last couple of years of his time at City, it's just the fine details of his departure that are yet to be settled.
 
We should be all over him. Spurs would be a good place for him to move to.
 
WhoDaGOAT said:
We should be all over him. Spurs would be a good place for him to move to.
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Agreed, bet we'd have an easier time persuading him to stay in Manchester, we also have a fairly clear path to the first team, Lingard, Rashford, potentially Pereira all could be consistent starters this season, that surely has to turn his head a little (not to mention TFM/Pogba/Tuanzebe are all academy graduates too).
 
Really hope the Sancho rumors are untrue but at the same time, he's not near good enough for our first team yet so what does he expect.

Looks like we're stumping up £50m more for Mendy... Clubs know we're desperate for fullbacks and we're paying through the nose for them. Txiki has cost himself alot the Sheik's money by letting us get into this situation. £100m on 2 fullbacks... No excuses if this deal goes through, its Premiership or CL or walk for Pep I think.
 
Fee finally agreed for Mendy according to L'Equipe. £50m.
Ederson
Walker - Kompany - Otamendi - Mendy
Fernandinho
B. Silva - De Bruyne - Silva - Sané
Aguero

Bravo
(Danilo?) - Stones - Adarabioyo/CB? - (Bertrand?)
Yaya Toure
Sterling - Gundogan - Nasri/Foden/CM? - (LW?)
Jesus
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If we manage to acquire the bracketed targets we'll still be a little short. A cheaper winger might be in order if Sanchez does indeed go to PSG.
 
duffer said:
Big question marks over the central defence and goalie in my opinion.
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Big question marks over the goalie because he's new and you haven't seen him yet, or because you've watched him and don't rate him?

CB I agree with, I'd really like us to sign another CB, more so than a DM. Kompany, Stones and Otamendi relies far too much on Kompany's fitness.
 
Manchester Dan said:
Big question marks over the goalie because he's new and you haven't seen him yet, or because you've watched him and don't rate him?
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Another City fan on here said Bravo and the new chap will both be competing for the first team spot. I thought Bravo was pretty cack last season and as for the new chap, I've not seem him but he's 22 and coming from another league (he might be the most expensive goalie ever but I think that warrants "question marks" over him).
 
duffer said:
Another City fan on here said Bravo and the new chap will both be competing for the first team spot.
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Caballero is very average but still infinitely better than the Hologram. You really have to question Pep's sanity shipping Caballero out & keeping Bravo. If Ederson starts badly where do they go from there. It's highly likely they will be shopping for their 3rd keeper in 3 seasons. Makes you appreciate how lucky we are to have 2 special keepers at the club.
 
duffer said:
Another City fan on here said Bravo and the new chap will both be competing for the first team spot. I thought Bravo was pretty cack last season and as for the new chap, I've not seem him but he's 22 and coming from another league (he might be the most expensive goalie ever but I think that warrants "question marks" over him).
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He is a good keeper, however coming from a different league as we saw with De Gea can be difficult at the start. He is talented though, long term he will be a good signing.
 
By my calculations if City get Mendy and Danilo at the prices quoted, as looks likely, that will take Pep's spending in upfront transfer fees alone to just a smidge under £400m in two seasons. That average around £36m for every outfield position.

That is before you consider the potential full cost of some of these transfers with add-ons

Really are no excuses for Pep now next season. I predict one of two things will happen, either City win the title or City flop into 3rd/4th again and Pep walks
 
Lentwood said:
By my calculations if City get Mendy and Danilo at the prices quoted, as looks likely, that will take Pep's spending in upfront transfer fees alone to just a smidge under £400m in two seasons. That average around £36m for every outfield position.

That is before you consider the potential full cost of some of these transfers with add-ons

Really are no excuses for Pep now next season. I predict one of two things will happen, either City win the title or City flop into 3rd/4th again and Pep walks
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They won't fire him and I don't think he'l quit yet. He'll be there till next season regardless.
 
Lentwood said:
By my calculations if City get Mendy and Danilo at the prices quoted, as looks likely, that will take Pep's spending in upfront transfer fees alone to just a smidge under £400m in two seasons. That average around £36m for every outfield position.

That is before you consider the potential full cost of some of these transfers with add-ons

Really are no excuses for Pep now next season. I predict one of two things will happen, either City win the title or City flop into 3rd/4th again and Pep walks
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If he doesn't win, I think he'll walk. When they went through that difficult period this season he started losing his marbles, can't imagine the pressure after basically buying a whole new star eleven and failing.
 
Varun said:
They won't fire him and I don't think he'l quit yet. He'll be there till next season regardless.
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I don't think they will fire him either but he seemed a little mentally fragile at times last season. Imagine if they don't improve after getting exactly what he wants in every position this summer?
 
Womp said:
If he doesn't win, I think he'll walk. When they went through that difficult period this season he started losing his marbles, can't imagine the pressure after basically buying a whole new star eleven and failing.
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But no matter how many players Jose buys and how much he spends I'm sure you'll still be coming up with excuses for him.
 
Lentwood said:
I don't think they will fire him either but he seemed a little mentally fragile at times last season. Imagine if they don't improve after getting exactly what he wants in every position this summer?
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He seemed a bit rattled I felt and the way they're going in the market, he wants to be doubly sure he's got everything he needs and more. I can't see them flopping this season so it'll either be a title or something close in which case I'd expect him to spend a tonne again and give it another go.

One thing's for sure, I'm glad all the shite about him not being a spender and rather improving what he had blah blah blah has been put to rest. :D
 
Mendy is an excellent signing at first glance, but I think walker will perform better out of the two this season.
 
Lentwood said:
By my calculations if City get Mendy and Danilo at the prices quoted, as looks likely, that will take Pep's spending in upfront transfer fees alone to just a smidge under £400m in two seasons. That average around £36m for every outfield position.

That is before you consider the potential full cost of some of these transfers with add-ons

Really are no excuses for Pep now next season. I predict one of two things will happen, either City win the title or City flop into 3rd/4th again and Pep walks
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So you've basically predicted City will either win the title or finish in the top four. Way to put your neck on the line!

I agree it's a lot of money, but one thing it has done is built a side of players that will hopefully perform for the next 3/4 years at the top level. We probably now have the best set of younger talent in the league by far, which should HOPEFULLY mean less need to spend in the future, with focus on 1-2 instead of 4-5. Our squad was in dire need of being refreshed, and it's starting to look young again.

Pep signings over £10m:
Ederson (23)
Mendy (23)
Walker (27)
Silva (22)
Luiz (19)
Stones (23)
Jesus (20)
Sane (21)
Gundogan (26)
Bravo (34)
Nolito (30) - Sold
 
Once again, I get the feeling Kompany will likely be their most important player again next season.

IF he's fit and at his best, I would expect them to win the title, as he'll hold that defence together both with brilliant individual play and instilling confidence in those around him like Stones and Ederson - and probably cut-out a lot of mistakes from both as a result - and Walker and Mendy - who'll feel more comfortable getting forward where they really excel.

That said, we all know he won't be fit though, which leaves their defence somewhat suspect still. Stones still can't defend, Otamendi has been so-so, Mendy is great going forward but if City are under the cosh defensively he could find himself targeted, Walker is only a decent defender aswell and Ederson is a bit of an unknown going in to a bit of a pressure-cooker situation following on from the calamitous Claudio Bravo.

I personally don't hold great hope that those 4 defenders are going to become a solid unit all of a sudden and I would expect some mistakes from the GK. If that's the case, all those attacking players they have are going to have to be on spot-on week-in, week-out because they'll probably need 3 goals most weeks.
 
DannyCAFC said:
Once again, I get the feeling Kompany will likely be their most important player again next season.

IF he's fit and at his best, I would expect them to win the title, as he'll hold that defence together both with brilliant individual play and instilling confidence in those around him like Stones and Ederson - and probably cut-out a lot of mistakes from both as a result - and Walker and Mendy - who'll feel more comfortable getting forward where they really excel.

That said, we all know he won't be fit though, which leaves their defence somewhat suspect still. Stones still can't defend, Otamendi has been so-so, Mendy is great going forward but if City are under the cosh defensively he could find himself targeted, Walker is only a decent defender aswell and Ederson is a bit of an unknown going in to a bit of a pressure-cooker situation following on from the calamitous Claudio Bravo.

I personally don't hold great hope that those 4 defenders are going to become a solid unit all of a sudden and I would expect some mistakes from the GK. If that's the case, all those attacking players they have are going to have to be on spot-on week-in, week-out because they'll probably need 3 goals most weeks.
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Kompany might just be one of the most overrated defenders I've ever seen.
 
Arbitrium said:
Kompany might just be one of the most overrated defenders I've ever seen.
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Kompany does have that kind of impact on the City side, but it's as much a discredit to Stones and Otamendi as a credit to him. That said, for me when fit he's still the best defender in this league.
 
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