LondonBlue

We City fans feel pretty much the same. Replacement for Fernandinho. Take some of the load of Rodri.Very risky for Kalvin Phillips in a world cup year as Rodri is probably the first name on our team sheet (after Ederson).

Ake is, at best, okay. Took him ages to adapt to our way of playing. although to be fair most players seem to take a year to adapt to us. but he seems to have mistakes in him, plus, despite his leap, he's pretty short for a central defender. I'm in no rush to see any City player go but i wouldn't be sad either.

When we signed him, he was a number 10 but Pep converted into an emergency left back. We like to push him infield sometimes to make the opposition think there are 2 Kevin De Bruyne's. Pep likes to play midfielders all over the pitch. Sometimes i wonder if Ederson's actually a midfielder.

for me the dream was to go into any game knowing we have a decent chance of winning and i'm living it. Now that the season is done i can relax and press F5 on the transfer centre for three months

Hmm bit early for that i think, give it a couple of years. I'm going to predict top 2 for us and, god i don't know, 6th for you guys. Let me finger in the air a bit more. behind us, the red dippers, the rent boys, spuds and the gunners. but hopefully above the rags.

With any luck you'll hit it by Christmas 😀

Is there a thread predicting when you'll reach the 40 point mark next season yet? It honestly takes a while to stop checking for that.

ah the attendance thing. Most City fans know by now not to leave too early when there's something at stake. I did that myself in the 80s when we were playing chelsea in the full members cup final at wembley (yeah i have no idea what that is either). We were losing 4-1 and my mates all wanted to head off into london for beers. Walking away we heard a lot of cheering. turns out we lost 5-4. we had a full stadium week in week out in the 3rd tier back in 99. so our core is good. not sure about the new breed of plastics though. That year we had our now usual heart stopping final game. 2-0 down to Gillingham in the playoff final then 2 injury time goals to level it and eventually win on pens. That was the most important game ever for us i reckon. The rags stole our thunder with a late CL win the same year. so personally, i never leave early. too risky.

The club will let stay as long as he likes. They have faith in him and, honestly, the grass isn't always greener. The worry for me is burn out. I think he genuinely loves the club and has bought into Manchester but the energy and drive required to maintain such high standards has to take its toll. and thanks ( someone had to stop the quadruple )

Was it ever in doubt? But seriously, we just don't do it the easy way. I think our fan base is going to rapidly reduce in age as old timers like me start to have heart attacks.

Yeah that's the best way, we had a loudmouth that went by the name of Garry Cook. He was a bit of an embarrassment and they got rid off him pretty quick

Those financial constraints are the only real reason stopping you rising up the table more quickly. We were lucky as we got to spend before FFP bit. It felt to us like FFP was brought in by the established elite (not sure thats a real thing but hey) to protect their place at the peak. I'm not sure thats fair as why shouldn't a fan of every club be able to dream about reaching the top. Actually i'd love for one of these super rich buying a none league club and creating something uniquely them. A few years of buying well and selling / loaning out those not good enough. No idea what your academy is like but if its true that you're going to take "lessons" from the way we did it then you'll build a state of the art academy and state of the art training complex. then get kids from near and far. they make you money to spend on stablished stars whilst giving you the odd gem. We have high hopes that Cole Palmer will follow in Phil Fodens footsteps. And another kid Egan Riley may have to step up as a central defender right now. Could you imagine the next Gazza or Shearer in a team of true quality. Hmm better get back to work.

Yes it will definitely be more even in the future. For a start i doubt our post Pep era will look anything like this. I am a bit jealous of you guys. The excitement of the obvious growth, transfers, etc. FFP is meant to slow your roll but thats all it can really do, slow it. It will take you a while to stop looking out for the 40 point barrier. Each season you'll hit it sooner 🙂. Our last 3 games will be tougher than they should have been due to a defensive crisis ( Wolves-A, West Ham-A, Villa-H )

I'd be lying if i said i wasn't happy, I'd also be lying if i said i wasn't bottling it when Chris Woods got that free header early doors. That could have changed the whole day. Might have been an expensive day for us though. Both central defenders injured. We could be without Walker, Stones, Dias and Laporte mid week, That leaves us Ake who seems to be the shortest central defender in the world, Zinchenko who's really a number 10 and Cancelo who's not bad to be fair.

for who?

As a city fan i have to say i'm worried about tomorrow. We should beat you but that doesn't mean we will. You seem stable and together now whereas no one knows how the shock of Madrid will affect us. ( Still can't believe that we've grown so much as a club that Madrid beating us can be considered a shock, i mean did you see their celebrations? A flukey goal, then momentum). I thought you were a banana skin, but now it'll be a very tense afternoon for us. Personally i'm hoping we see a backlash, 90% possession, goals galore, and a clean sheet. But this is football.

I think Kevin Keegan signed him when we got promoted and lets just say he was past his best. As many of our other signings were back then. Thinking Robbie Fowler specifically.

Our first few players had some duds, but also included club legends Zabaleta and Kompany, both around the £6m mark give or take.

Without wanting to sound too happy clappy, I love Jesus. He works so hard. If the rumour mill is to be believed.... outs - Jesus to Arsenal or Milan Laporte to Barca Sterling to just about anyone and everyone as he only has another year on his contract (wants more playing time) Bernado Silva unsettled and off to Spain (think covid played a part, he may stay now) Fernandinho to Brazil (seems definite) Gundogan back to Germany (over 30 and maybe slowing down), hence the Ward Prowse and De Jong rumours Mendy won't play for us again so needs replacing We're hoping Pep, Foden and Sterling sign new contracts ins - Haaland deal done Alvarez to stay in Argentina until Christmas. Also if it means anything, I had quite fancied your manager as a long term replacement for Pep. Guess if he's good enough for us, he'll prove himself with you and build his own empire from scratch.

I suspect they're amongst our new plastic fans. You'll get them too, just as soon as the trophies start rolling in. We have a long and loyal fan base. We had a full stadium when we were third tier. Again much like yourselves. Wanting him gone kinda reminds me of when Charlton fans wanted Curbishley gone all those years ago. They never had it so good until then. I've no idea what sort of City you'll face, we usually bounce back pretty well but it was a big set back. Four more games to go then rumour has it that Haaland will be among our ranks. Joining the argentine Julian Alvarez. Bar that we might be competing for players as we're due a rebuild too. No i'm not crazy, we just have a few players the wrong side of 30 and few near the end of their contracts. How many players do you guys realistically think you'll bring in? (Not sure why i say realistically as its nigh on impossible for you guys to keep your feet on the ground right now)

I'm a City fan. Absolutely gutted about last night. And yes it hurts, But City are still living the dream. Dining at the top table (there's plenty of room on it for you guys) and taking part in some insane games. Went last week and we paid the price for not being clinical enough. Glad you guys stayed up. I always felt (well since January) that you would. Now that you're safe i don't suppose you could take it easy for the rest of the season. Yes i'm a City fan but i'm rooting for Chelsea in the FA Cup and Madrid in the CL. Right how else can i distract myself. ps There are some people saying that if we don't win the league that Pep should go but thats crazy, we'll probably end up of with 90+ points!

You missed the likes of Sterling and De Bruyne, possibly others. Interestingly I don't remember us having much competition for these signings. Why was no one else in for De Bruyne, cos he failed at Chelsea? As a City fan i'm still gobsmacked that we spent 100m on a player. Just noticed that you added to players together to get over the 50m mark, if you're gonna add player fees together, well...

thats a good question. there are quite a few clubs whose owners have more money at their disposal than they would ever spend on football. The amount of deals that man city have backed away from due to the money being silly is crazy. When was the last time city were in a bidding war for a player? Man United went in for Alexis Sanchez and Fred, price went up, Man City left the table. Newcastle are now in the position that they can pay any amount, and for a while they might, but they probably won't once established.

our first crop of players all seemed to be around the 20-30m range too, david silva and yaya toure being two pretty unbelievably good examples. trippier (our academy) and wood look to be a pretty decent start. how many more this window i wonder. i won't comment on that as i don't know who is or isn't loved.

i reckon your owners will look to do the same as ours. invest like crazy on and off the pitch Get you into the big time make you financially self sustainable sit back and relax i think the last time our owners put their own money into the club was 2013-14. then we sold a chunk (10%?) of the holding group to the chinese to pay for the full back splurge and another chunk of the club to an american investment group, silverlake i think. all the talk about arab money is uninformed nonsense. around 2b has been invested in the group worldwide and its now valued at around 4b. take the above with a pinch of salt as i tend to read and forget.