£150 million pounds worth of defenders...

[lysglimt]

This.

Our defense isn't bad - they just seem to take the blame everytime our attackers fail to produce. After a season like this - Jones and Smalling are taking more criticism than Sanchez, Pogba and Rashford - now explain that to me ?

 

[Damien]

Are you sure you haven't confused Euros with Pounds with Bailly and Lindelofs fees? I'm pretty sure both are bang on 30m?

Combined less than VVD, both less than Mustafi, Less than Luiz, don't even mention Citys signings.

Shaw is the transfer that stands out to me.

And Shaw cost 27M and not 34M.

 

[FlawlessThaw]

So if a manager asks Woodward to sign a player - he signs the players and they flop - it's Woodward who should go ?

Surely he's responsible for the managers consistently flopping? Also I know if I kept fecking up at work, and the people before me in the same role kept fecking up, my own manager would face some scrutiny.

Maybe he just needs some help.

 

[cyril C]

The top of English football to me is challenging for league titles year in and year out and winning a few.

We've not challenged for the league in 5 years. And not only that, but every season we've been out of the race by Christmas! I mean it's absurd.

We need to get back to challenging for the league, because I think the club desperately needs it and we need to win 1 soon. The longer it drags on...

81 points, in an average season, is good enough to either win the season or challenging for the Champion until the last week. So point wise we are not too bad, or in fact a significant improvement from previous few seasons. What has been poor in our performance, is losing 18-20 unnecessary points to bottom clubs, as well as not turning up in crucial games. We did well against Spurs at semi but that was about the only game that I can recall. Instead of replacing existing attacking players and adding more left wingers, I would really like to see a major team work program to fix our attacking force. Adding MF and defenders are understandable as some deadwood are leaving.

 

[amolbhatia50k]

What a weird thread. We had £150m worth of attackers, Mata, Lukaku and Martial on the bench who didn't play either. Your example doesn't highlight a poor transfer strategy, but more shows we're now seeing the effects of Ferguson's lack of planning and reliance on all his star players being over 26-27. (Evra, Rio, Vidic, Valencia, Carrick, Scholes, Giggs, Rooney, RVP... probably some others I missed out).

Shaw was worth the money paid, at the time.
Rojo was/is worth the money paid, at the time.
Blind was/is worth the money paid, at the time.
Darmian was worth the money paid, at the time.
Bailly & Lindelof, who knows.

I kind of see your point but I think in football you need continuity. Something I've realised is that the players Man City have managed to keep are Kompany, Toure, Fernandinho, Silva, Aguero... same with Real Madrid; Marcelo, Ramos, Kroos, Modric, Ronaldo, Benzema - ours are DDG, Smalling, Jones, Young, Valencia, Carrick and Rooney until last year.

While SAF did make some mistake, it's rather pathetic that 5 years we have people still blaming him for our troubles. The people after him have had ample opportunity and resources to sort it all out.

And having most of your key players over 26-27 isnt a problem. How many of Madrid and Barca's key players are 22/23? Were clutching ara straws if were still blaming SAF for present day failings.

 

[Kag]

I don't think it's necesarilly the signings themselves that are wrong. But a large part of it is how we utilize them.

A couple of examples:

Di Maria could definitely have thrived in the right conditions. Ander Herrera we've only really been gotten one good season out of. There could have been many more but for mismanagement IMO.

Anthony Martial and Luke Shaw are another two that should be classed as brilliant signings IMO if our managers had managed to get the best out of them.

Paul Pogba is another one. A brilliant player, but we're not getting the best out of him.

I also think someone like Henrikh Mkhitaryan could've been a very good player under the right conditions. We saw enough glimpses of his talents.

You see what Memphis Depay is doing in Lyon now. The same player, but thriving under a different management than he got here.

And then there's also a fair share of poor signings, as well. Difficult to defend Darmian, Lindelöf et all on the basis of what we've seen.

Bang on.

 

[Godfather]

Our failed investments in the attacking areas are worrying me even more to be honest

 

[Kag]

Our defense isn't bad - they just seem to take the blame everytime our attackers fail to produce. After a season like this - Jones and Smalling are taking more criticism than Sanchez, Pogba and Rashford - now explain that to me ?

They're easy targets that Mourinho acolytes use to pedal their bizarre and increasingly misguided support.

Last season we conceded 29 league goals - second best defensive record in the league - and finished sixth. We scored less than 7 other teams, including Everton and bastard Bournemouth (their star striker Josh King being a kid we flogged from our academy).

This season we were outscored by five of our rivals, including a laughably abysmal Arsenal. We were only a handful of goals ahead of a Chelsea side that stopped playing for their manager five months ago. Manchester City scored THIRTY-EIGHT more league goals than us.

Again, we had the second best defensive record in England, conceding only 28 goals - one less than the season before.

Smalling and Jones, eh...

 

[VivaObertan]

While SAF did make some mistake, it's rather pathetic that 5 years we have people still blaming him for our troubles. The people after him have had ample opportunity and resources to sort it all out.

And having most of your key players over 26-27 isnt a problem. How many of Madrid and Barca's key players are 22/23? Were clutching ara straws if were still blaming SAF for present day failings.

I'm not pinning everything on SAF as the managers that followed him failed too. Jose is remedying this but it will take time and patience, as we're seeing this season.

Barcelona and Real Madrid still have their golden generation teams and have future proofed accordingly... Which is what I'm saying we should have done in 2012.

 

[amolbhatia50k]

I'm not pinning everything on SAF as the managers that followed him failed too. Jose is remedying this but it will take time and patience, as we're seeing this season.

Barcelona and Real Madrid still have their golden generation teams and have future proofed accordingly... Which is what I'm saying we should have done in 2012.

Yes he sure is remedying by signing players who either dont play or are generally poor. Great remedying to sort out the mess that silly Ferguson chap created.

 

[Ishdalar]

I'm not pinning everything on SAF as the managers that followed him failed too. Jose is remedying this but it will take time and patience, as we're seeing this season.

Barcelona and Real Madrid still have their golden generation teams and have future proofed accordingly... Which is what I'm saying we should have done in 2012.

Not necessarily

Jose came to a 66 point team, has spent above 300M in two years, in regard to titles he inherited the FA cup champions, he won the EL and the EFL but no trophies in this season. He has worked around a 16 point improvement in two seasons.

To put it in perpective, City were a 66 point team too when Pep took over, 200M spent in the first year improved them 12 points, and 300M in the second year improved them another 22 points, for a net gain of +34 points compared to Pellegrini.

Every point Mourinho has improved Manchester United has costed the club 19'5M, every point Guardiola has improved City costed them 14M.
And another thing, Guardiola's signings account for 28.409 minutes this season, Mourinho signings have accounted for 17.637 minutes. For United every minute of their new signings in the past two years costed them ~17k, for City it costed them 16k (just signing fees).

tl:dr City didn't need neither time nor patience, they spent heavily, reaped the fruits soon and have done it from a more efficient "bang for buck" perspective. Not only that, but I think we can all agree that Sane, Bernardo, Ederson, Stones or Gabriel Jesus are at least equal or better prospects than Lukaku, Matic, Lindelof/Bailly, Pogba or Alexis. That could enlarge the gap between clubs even more in the future.