Looking at City

[barak81]

As i say i actualy think the way city have been splashing there cash is comical.

I dont have a problem with spending a lot of money but its the way tehre spedning it, with no purpose. They havent really assesd there steghnths and weekeness and then gone and brought according to that. Just throwing money around this way and that.

That got me to thinking. I think that all of CR's first season purchases from the abramovich have now moved but how did they fair.

Veron - lasted one season

Crespo - loved him when he got games, to many family issues im guessing. but a true profeshinal the whole time he ws with us.

Mutu - is he on another cocain ban? what a waste of tallent. Got a real buz when he first joined, looked a special player. again what a wast.

Bridge - despite being a cry baby last year cant say a bad word about him in a chelsea shirt.

Duff - Watching him play as I type, really makes me wander how you can go from being the kind of player that scored that goal against lazio to not being able to take on a cone.

Cole - had a couple of great years when Jose arived, injurys took there toll I think and much like duff hasnt looked like he has the beating of players for some time.

I think that was it, chec and robben where signed that season but didnt arive till the second year.

I wander if we can say that those players justified there price tag, cole, duff and bridge I would say yes. mutu and veron was like giving money away, crespo played very well when he was around but unfortunatly for us not around enough.

Makes you think, push it on a year when things had settled down a little, we got drogba, ricky, paulo and Tiago in. Tiago didint really work out but I would say the others deffinatly provided value for money one way or another

ps. I actually forgot about Geremi but well that sums him up I guess

[Katon]

You also forgot about Makelele (who definitely goes in the "justified his fee" category) and Glen Johnson (we recouped most of his transfer fee from Portsmouth, so he didn't need to do that much to justify his fee).

[bjd]

Also Smertin and wait for it....Ambrosio!

Parker signed in the window as well.

[dkw]

Also Smertin and wait for it....Ambrosio!

Parker signed in the window as well.

Didnt Jose sign Hilarious?

[IrishBlue]

Didnt Jose sign Hilarious?

That's probably why he said Ambrosio

[geezer]

That's probably why he said Ambrosio

Easy mistake to make

[Maksimov]

Don't forget Jürgen Macho and Neil Sullivan!

[bluegraham]

petr cech was signed in romans first season but did nt come till jose joined i think thats right could be wrong

[TomW]

Wasn't robben signed by Ranieri aswell?

[Hutch]

their game against Liverpool tomorrow night should be interesting. City didn't exactly get off to a flyer in their first game last week, and Liverpool will be without their ...*ahem*... Marquee Signing. the game could go either way, but i fancy a draw.

Edited August 22, 2010 by stride

[german-blue]

their game against Liverpool tomorrow night should be interesting. City didn't exactly get off to a flyer in their first game last week, and Liverpool will be without their ...*ahem*... Marquee Signing. the game could go either way, but i fancy a draw.

I agree about that. Will certainly be an interesting match. However I really hope for a City win.. Anyways I guess without Joey Liverpool actually has a chance..

[Katon]

Wasn't robben signed by Ranieri aswell?

Both signings (Robben and Cech) were arranged by Ranieri, but they actually joined in the summer 2004 transfer window with Jose's first mob of signings.

If we count them as part of our first year under Roman because that's when the deals were agreed, they're definitely both successes.

[Guest]

I'm glad you've started this thread as there has been a post i've been wanting to make for sometime about this.

Here are the reasons I beleive Man City have underperformed expectations and why they haven't been as successfull in challenging as Chelsea post take over.

1. Football Economy:

When Chelsea took over, the world's football economy was more or less in what you'd call recession. A few teams were spending bits and drabs here and there (Rooney to Man Utd, Ronaldinho to Barca), but for the most part, pretty much everyone was for sale at the right price and there was no one around to buy what were the most promising youngsters (Duff, Mutu, etc). This meant our 100million pounds stretched alot further than City's and meant just about everyone was available to buy bar the very very elite. Remember that Crespo (a former most expensive transfer in world football) came to us for only 15 odd million pounds at the time due to the fact most clubs needed to repair their balance sheets.

2. Status:

This probably isn't as important of a factor as the football economy, but I do feel that the fact Chelsea were already in the Champions League gave us a leg up on attracting the best young talent at the time.

Now onto where I think Man City are struggling

1. Ill-discipline:

I heard some story a while back about how this person working in a hotel (I think it was the hotel manager) had both Man Utd and Man City stay at his hotel at differing times over the course of a season. He said at one of the clubs, all the players were off to bed by 9pm, were quiet, professional and caused no problems whereas the other were up till all hours, partying and generally acting more like holidayers than a proffessional footballers. He declined to name which club was which, but I think it's pretty obvious.

Now I know Mark Hughes struggled against this and actually moved a large number of players on based on this in an effort to stamp his authority on the side. But still, they've brought in several players with less than completely professional reputations and theres no doubt in my mind that this has not only stopped the side from meeting it's potential but was probably more responsible than anything for Hughes losing his job.

This is where Mancini will succeed or fail most in my opinion. Player power is very strong at Man City and it's gonna come down to Mancini to keep a large, opinionated, unprofessional squad all happy, organised and on track. He seems like a good player manager but he really has his work cut out for him here.

2. Impatience:

When Abramovich took over Chelsea, we did go out and spend alot. But we did have the sense to buy younger players some of who would grow into the next elite (while others wouldn't). Whereas at Man City they seemed more interested in buying ready made players like Robinho, Santa Cruz, Adebayor, Lescott etc. Now I do beleive that if a really big name like Kaka comes available, then by all means, they should be throwing money at him. But I think they would have been far better served buying younger players with the potential to become elite than buying a bunch of good premiership players who aren't great players and probably never will be.

Now I have to be fair and say some of the massive squad turnover is due to Mark Hughes needing to get rid of some of the unprofessionalism from the dressing room. But I think too many players moved too quickly and it made it hard for the side to settle.

3. Scouting:

It's really really good for that Man City outbid us for Robinho, imagine if we had wasted 30million pounds on that little primadonna. But I think that shows how poor and short sighted Man City's scouting has been. Maybe just maybe Mancini is starting to change that by looking at buying younger players now like Kolarov, Boateng, etc, but in the previous season it seemed to be just about getting big name players in the door without really spending time to work out who really has the potential to go on and be a great player.

There are other factors i'm sure, but thats all I can think of off the top of my head right now.

[Backbiter]

3. Scouting:

It's really really good for that Man City outbid us for Robinho, imagine if we had wasted 30million pounds on that little primadonna. But I think that shows how poor and short sighted Man City's scouting has been.

Isn't that an indictment of our scouting, too, as we'd have bought him if City hadn't outbid us?

Otherwise, I'd agree with everything you've written about City. I really don't think they've signed anyone who would improve our team one jot. Obviously Hart and Given are a million times better than our back-up keepers, but I still have a lot of faith in Cech.

[TheWestwayWonder]

From City's perspective, with Robinho were just trying to grab a big name away from another club to make a statement (imagine if they had've got Berbatov and not Robinho. They probably wouldnt be trying to flog him to anyone for half price right now.)

What Qaz and Barak have been saying is what I have felt for a while now. Its no knock against City, but their transfers and their buying dont really seem to be based around any master plan. Its just get to the Champions League at all cost, at which time, they will probably flush half their squad again, and rebuild.

I still dont believe "bobby manc" is the man to get them there, and I dont think he will see out the full season with them. I may eat crow for that statement, but I just am not convinced by the guy. That, to me is the main difference. City are giving the keys to the kingdom to a man who hasnt really proven much, imo. When Roman got here, he gave Claudio one season, and then got the best young manager in the game and asked him to build his team. Sometimes it all starts from the top, but now City are in a race against time to get to the Champs League before the financial rules come into play. If hte rules come in and are restrictive, and they are not yet top 4, that would be a disaster for them.

P.S. Not trying to be pedantic, but the Drog was also a pre-Jose purchas, if I recall correctly. Obvoiusly that fee, Maka, Bridge, and Joe Cole were successes imo. I would class duff as a success but maybe he cost a little too much. Crespo I would also class a success, because he was a big time player who signed for us as a signal of intent.

In the final estimation, there have been only a few big time flops, but they have been expensive. Mutu, Sheva, and of course Veron, who we did the mancs a favor buying. But that is about 50-60 million worth of failure, out of about 150-200 invested in those first 2-3 seasons. Not really that bad.

[sizzler85]

I honestly think If Robinho had joined chelsea , he would have been a brilliant player for us . His skill , pace , finishing is good as anyone and probably would have helped Scolari keep his job ..

Surely he is not a misfit in the english league . He has got pace and strength .. his displays for brazil in the WC are enough proof for that ..

[TheWestwayWonder]

That probably wouldnt have been a very good thing.....judging by how many players we later learned were dissatisfied with LFS, we mightve seen the squad divided and people like Ballack and Cech putting in transfer requests.

I agree that, in the short term, Robinho certainly would have helped the Scolari regime, but I think it was only a matter of time before it blew up. And when it did, with Robinho, it might have been atomic.

[Hutch]

i don't see how Robinho could have turned Scolari's short but not short enough Chelsea career round. not even if he'd somehow lived up to the price tag.

apart from rumours of dressing room unrest, what we do know is that his training methods were ineffective and out of date - full scale training matches being the obvious example. the players in general have never looked less fit, and were noticeably tiring towards the longer the game went on. and then there was the fiasco of zonal marking. which never worked the first time, never worked the 20th time, and resulted in the same goals being conceded week in week out. moral was at rock bottom, form was getting worse by the week, and the club were looking perilously close to going into freefall.

[Guest]

Isn't that an indictment of our scouting, too, as we'd have bought him if City hadn't outbid us?

Otherwise, I'd agree with everything you've written about City. I really don't think they've signed anyone who would improve our team one jot. Obviously Hart and Given are a million times better than our back-up keepers, but I still have a lot of faith in Cech.

Tevez and Ballotelli would be nice. Robinho would have been handy had his head been screwed on str8. Apart from that I agree.

Also, I don't consider Drogba a pre-Mourinho purchase. We were linked with him pre-Mourinho, but it was Mourinho who went all out to sign him.

Edited August 23, 2010 by Guest