Those three might be 'useful', the issue is that they've invested nearly £90m and one can only assume significant wages into those players. For that sort of money they should be looking to be the new spine to rival the Aguero, Toure, Kompany title winning combination, not bit part players who may or not not become useful.

They're not operating in an environment where they can afford to make these mistakes either, even if you assume they'll find ways to stretch FFP to it's limits.

I don't know. The wages argument holds true; Man City pay ridiculous money there. Getting Bony in, who has been a very good goal scorer in the league for over a year, to me seems like a sensible move. They know Aguero is injury prone, that Jovetic is injury prone too, and that Dzeko isn't very good. Signing Mangala was an attempt at strengthening their core, and I think he will turn out to be a class signing for them, but it was difficult to predict just how shit Kompany was going to continue to be. He is their captain and spokesman anyway, so he is pretty undroppable regardless. I saw Fernando a few times when in Portugal, and he looked really impressive. It was difficult to gauge that he would have such a difficult time to adapt to the PL, and that he and Fernandinho would be such a poor pairing.

All in all, they signed exciting, promising, young players in Nastasic, Jovetic, Balotelli, Sinclair and Rodwell. They were very highly sought after players, possibly Sinclair excluded, but neither of them have managed to kick on. They signed dependable, classy players like Milner, Silva, Nasri, Fernandinho and Dzeko too; they have all done a pretty good job for them, but it is only Silva who has managed to really elevate his game a level IMO. Then there is Yaya, and there is Aguero. Those were superstars when they arrived, and they have delivered.

There are certainly a few flops they have signed too, but every club has them. Perhaps, they should have looked to sign a few more ready made superstars in the Yaya and Aguero bracket, but those players are hard to sign for every club. They tried to sign RVP, but he didn't want to go there. Perhaps that is part of the explanation here; not many top class players have been interested in going there, and they have had to shop in second best bracket.

Burnwinter™ wrote:

I agree.

I very much like the new thread title

Clrnc wrote:

y va marquer wrote:

I feel that the title of this thread is far too chummy and charitable .

Honestly don't get why we are discussing rebuilding Mancity in an Arsenal forum.

Well it's good that they exist as a force again, I can't help feeling that their emergence helped hasten the departure of Fergie and that was a good thing no?

I like that they keep spuds out of the CL.

Clrnc wrote:

y va marquer wrote:

I feel that the title of this thread is far too chummy and charitable .

Honestly don't get why we are discussing rebuilding Mancity in an Arsenal forum.

Because they are a direct rival. Beats the fucking hell out of talking about a two bit league like Serie A.

Or that corrupt divefest.

City are pretty boring themselves, I know they're rivals and everything but, if we're not winning the league, I'm totally indifferent to them winning it. They don't even have the decency to paint themselves as pantomime villains and make things interesting for the rest of us.

They're old, and need a massive overhaul. Won't be as easy as it was when they originally put the team together either.

Hummels, Pogba, Sterling, Bale are the players they should be after, not anyone from the likes of Porto.

y va marquer wrote:

I feel that the title of this thread is far too chummy and charitable .

Mainly cos once Ade left they no longer came across as a bunch of tossers.

Citeh are faaaaar from ruined. Goodness.

they got their success due to mass injections of established quality players. they havent really signed an elite player since aguero, theyve been stock piling middling players for the past few seasons. once they put together another fugazi commercial deal, they'll throw stupid money at guys like reus, pogba, bale etc.

qs! wrote:

Clrnc wrote:

Honestly don't get why we are discussing rebuilding Mancity in an Arsenal forum.

Because they are a direct rival. Beats the fucking hell out of talking about a two bit league like Serie A.

I don't hate them, if we don't win the league I rather they win it. But to me it's about weird discussing who they should buy, who they should sell, how they should do better in an Arsenal forum. Might as well have a Man City wishlist thread soon.

Its just a discussion on their current state. The same questions of strengths, weaknesses and opportunities takes place for United, Chelsea, Spurs, etc regularly. Nothing unusual when its City. Its also more interesting because of how rich they are.

I also don't hate them but they are an obstacle to overcome for us.

Clrnc wrote:

qs! wrote:

Because they are a direct rival. Beats the fucking hell out of talking about a two bit league like Serie A.

I don't hate them, if we don't win the league I rather they win it. But to me it's about weird discussing who they should buy, who they should sell, how they should do better in an Arsenal forum. Might as well have a Man City wishlist thread soon.

If there's no interest, it will go the way of this example below.
http://www.onemoreinthetolly.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=364

What the.

That's great.

Best thread ever, that.

it must have been one of those Scando midsummer things, you know how they go psychotic and insomniac in all the 24hr daylight.........

Hang on I've just checked, it was posted midwinter.

It must be one of those Scando things, you know how they go psychotic and insomniac in the 24hr darkness........

http://gfycat.com/YellowIdolizedFugu
I like that her hands went up.
And they stayed there.

That one gets me every time

If they don't win a big ears this season Pellegrini is gone they'll probably get Guardiola and we'll be left with shit as usual.

Up Down Up Down Up Down

I may be a boring old fart, but I fail to see the humor in a little girl taking a Yaya rocket to the face.

Guardiola is apparently leaving Bayern this summer...

City & Utd will be throwing every dime and dollar they have available at him, he'll probably go City as he'll have a much better squad to work with.

Some reputable people also think he would like to manage Arsenal, can't see it happening though.

I don't think Guardiola will go to City or Chelsea. By most accounts, picking Bayern was an ideologic statement from him. He chose to manage the top club with a sorted economy instead of the ones with success built on artificial oil money.

I think we'd have a good chance of landing him, but it's not going to happen for as long as Wenger has a contract.

Thing at City is they have Txiki and Soriano there who both worked with him at Barca, they all got on very well. He knows they've been trying to get him for over 5 years now so that might sway things for them.

Klaus wrote:

I don't think Guardiola will go to City or Chelsea. By most accounts, picking Bayern was an ideologic statement from him. He chose to manage the top club with a sorted economy instead of the ones with success built on artificial oil money.

I think we'd have a good chance of landing him, but it's not going to happen for as long as Wenger has a contract.

Picking Bayern and ideological statement don't go well together, unless of course you mean some twisted maleficent ideology. Not saying Guardiola isn't shallow/doesn't care enough to still have picked Bayern for the reason you listed, but then again it's just as likely he'd manage City not caring about where they get their money from.

That said, I'd actually have us as favourites to land him if it weren't for Wenger. Barcelona players and managers alike always emphasise how the clubs' philosophies and playing styles are related (even when it blatantly was untrue :lol, the players he'd have at his disposal here are by far best suited for his football out of all EPL clubs plus nobody wants to live in Manchester if they can help it.

Even Kroenke and the board, provided they'd pull their finger out and actually got him of course, probably wouldn't stand in his way if he wanted to spend some money to get the players he wants, you wouldn't hook up with a Victoria Secret model then hand her ten quid and tell her to shop sandals from Tesco.

I don't have any love for Bayern, jonesy, but they've always run an efficient club. They were shouting about the importance of having a sound economy back in the 90s too when the Chelsea and Reals of yesterday were behaving like the Chelsea and Reals of today.

Bayern are a miniature version of Germany basically, they are preaching sound economy to everyone knowing perfectly well that it's impossible to have one with them around. More domestically and less so internationally with Bayern, as they drain all talent out of the league and see off competition for that reason alone, Dortmund, Schalke, Stuttgart or Bremen were all major competitors at one point and all saw their best players go to Bayern within few years.

If you absolutely have to praise them then you could give some credit to Hoeneß for transforming them commercially in the 1970s and turning them into a financial powerhouse. But even if Real and Chelsea are scum German club bosses aren't in a position to criticise anyone because of the Bundesliga being an outlier really, no other country finances and subsidizes their stadiums with taxpayer money.

He managed Barca who are complete and utter cunts too so lets not pretend he wont go wherever he fancies for ideological reasons. He'll want to win if he comes to the PL and he'll go wherever he has the best chance. I doubt he'd ever come here. I'd say he probably favours United as they're most like Bayern and Barca in England, a shower of cunts with silly amounts of money but who also have history and prestige. We are a prestigious club that he may like but we wont allow him the spending power, City and Chelsea would but have little or no prestige to a guy Peps age.

jones wrote:

If you absolutely have to praise them then you could give some credit to Hoeneß for transforming them commercially in the 1970s and turning them into a financial powerhouse. But even if Real and Chelsea are scum German club bosses aren't in a position to criticise anyone because of the Bundesliga being an outlier really, no other country finances and subsidizes their stadiums with taxpayer money.

France does. Well, not the stadiums itself, but the freehold costs like a euro whereas it almost drove us into administration to deal with the Islington council. I don't think that's a good argument. Clubs always need to adopt to national circumstances; it doesn't give them a freecard to live beyond their means without any sort of economic plan. Manchester United is another example of an abomination of a club that, right up until the Glazers bought them and burdened them with the biggest depth mountain in modern sports history, did very little wrong. They were the example to follow, not frown at.

Klaus wrote:

jones wrote:

If you absolutely have to praise them then you could give some credit to Hoeneß for transforming them commercially in the 1970s and turning them into a financial powerhouse. But even if Real and Chelsea are scum German club bosses aren't in a position to criticise anyone because of the Bundesliga being an outlier really, no other country finances and subsidizes their stadiums with taxpayer money.

France does. Well, not the stadiums itself, but the freehold costs like a euro whereas it almost drove us into administration to deal with the Islington council. I don't think that's a good argument. Clubs always need to adopt to national circumstances; it doesn't give them a freecard to live beyond their means without any sort of economic plan. Manchester United is another example of an abomination of a club that, right up until the Glazers bought them and burdened them with the biggest depth mountain in modern sports history, did very little wrong. They were the example to follow, not frown at.

I don't disagree with the overall notion that clubs have to adapt to their realities, just saying the guys talking about discipline are in no position to teach others. I meant it more generally with regards to German football clubs being regarded as sensibly run, when the taxpayer money that flows into them (on a way bigger scale than France btw, mostly but not only because of the WC06) allows them to lower ticket prices to levels nobody could compete with.

It depends what you're defining as exemplary behaviour I'd say. United were dominating England on a level higher than Bayern ever did in Germany before Wenger and subsequently Abramovich came, they had little chance to mess up anywhere despite sinking millions into your Verons, Andersons or Hargreaveses. It obviously isn't as bad as spending money that has been introduced from dubious or downright criminal sources but it's not exactly what I'd call sensibly run either. To be fair to the scum their commercial department has gotten them some great sponsorship deals over a good period of time now though.

Man U was always sensibly run. My definition of that is to live within your means. Their means just happened to be on a totally different scale to everyone else in England.

If Guardiola comes to the Premier League he'll repeat his past behaviour and join the strongest club bidding for his affection, which will probably be City. He does allegedly favour "good" clubs that play "good" football (who doesn't?), but money talks as does the prospect of an easier route to further glory. 

Wherever he might go in England (cough or Wales), it would be harder for him than it has been at Barcelona or Bayern.

Maybe he will take over from Benitez at Real Madrid.

Rex wrote:

I may be a boring old fart, but I fail to see the humor in a little girl taking a Yaya rocket to the face.

Credit to you for showing that you still have a heart and the most important thing is she was not injured, AFAIA.
There are many life lessons in that sequence of events as all grown-ups there, ducked out of the way.
She is not entirely blameless as her dad paid good money for her to watch Yaya Toure which she wasn't.
Next time she will be watching, i'm sure.
Also Yaya needs to sort out his shooting as that was a terrible shot, miles off target.