Yes they’ve spent ridiculous amounts but so have we since forget left and what’ve we got to show for it? It’s about spending wisely. We’ve wasted millions on trash players and trash managers.
75pts: Around about the maximum points haul you’d expect from this squad?
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Lukaku of 17/18 was a better striker than martial, wout, cr7 of 22/23 put together.
Smalling was a great CB. Matic was still a top DM, Pogba had flashes of great form, and Martial and Rashford alternatively chipped in with goals and assists. Finally DDG was a monster.
Overall, that team was much better at keeper and striker, and a little worse but competent in all central positions (CB, CM), much worse at wings and fullbacks and #10.
Both lost badly to Sevilla so at least some football heritage remains...
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Look at the state of the league that year outside of the top 6:
It's basically 14 relegation level teams. Getting 75 points this year is probably more impressive than getting 81 against all that shite.
We have much better CBs than what we had, Martinez and Varane are better than Smalling+1.
Casemiro is better than Matic or any CM we had.
This Rashford is also better than Martial/Rashford back then.
I think biggest difference is De Gea, he was saving lot of goals back then, some of them impossible ones and he is so shit now his shot stopping is very average. With this De Gea in 2017-18 team, we wouldn't have finished 2nd or with 81 points.
The jump in quality to find 15 points extra is massive.
And that’s why in addition to keep improving what we currently have, we also need a couple of top quality players, instead of players who are just “better than Fred/McT/Sabitzer”.
Are people still doing this?
That 2017/18 team was a perfectly good squad, built by spending a lot of money (much as Mourinho loves to pretend he dragged a rabble to the heady heights of second place - conveniently ignoring that he sanctioned the signings of Lindelof and Matic for roughly the 2017 equivalent of what we spent on Martinez and Casemiro).
Nearly all the bookies were predicting us finishing second heading into that season. The fact that we only pulled it off because De Gea had an all-time season in goal is a better reflection of the manager's coaching performance.
(Also, top notch user name - most underrated bowler of the 2010s)
It’s a very solid points tally and there are reasons for reasonable optimism. Still a long way to go to reach 90+ and challenge for the title, but we might get there with some smart transfer business and if we continue to get better on the pitch.
League wise it was probably our second best campaign post-SAF, with Mourinho 80+ still quite ahead, not sure if this season was better than Ole’s 2nd - it’s close. The drumming we took at Anfield still hurts and we can’t really be fully satisfied with a season with such a terrible result.
League wise it was probably our second best campaign post-SAF, with Mourinho 80+ still quite ahead, not sure if this season was better than Ole’s 2nd - it’s close. The drumming we took at Anfield still hurts and we can’t really be fully satisfied with a season with such a terrible result.
Yeah City's main strength is their great depth. I don't think that's our main priority now though, since our starting 11 itself need several upgrades before we start worrying about their replacements on the bench.
The hope is we buy 2 or 3 starters in key positions and the current serviceable players move to the squad. Kind of like Lindelof did with Varane.
When we hired Ten Hag finishing 3rd seemed like a fairytale. But then we spent 200+ million and that massively changed the expectations. So in context 3rd is a solid result.
The problem comes now, we have an aging midfield, no striker, need a new keeper and still holes in defence.
The club clearly can’t keep spending what it did last year with out serious significant long term financial impact.
But in context 75 points and 3rd is great
The problem comes now, we have an aging midfield, no striker, need a new keeper and still holes in defence.
The club clearly can’t keep spending what it did last year with out serious significant long term financial impact.
But in context 75 points and 3rd is great
To think that when Liverpool and City were seriously competing they were pushing 100 points! We're still 25 points away
Considering an almost complete absence of quality strikers and an extremely vulnerable midfield, I’d say 75 points is about what we could reasonable have expected.
Is all these spending amount is Pep? Is KDB Pep? David Silva Pep?
They got 100+ charges over their spending amount. Did we have any during SAF's time? Imagine defending City's financial doping as a Man UTD fan.
And don't derail, you are talking about SAF and I repeat, SAF's team never have any financial advantage on the same level as City has. SAF lost Ronaldo and he replace with Valencia and we still go on to win title. This kind of rebuilding team without unlimited resource and still dominate is the achievement that Pep never achieved in his whole career.
It's dumb to claim City set any standard, it's dumber to claim Pep set any standard, and it's even dumber to use their spending to prove that Pep set some standard that Fergie need to beat him to better his achievement.
Let me repeat this, slowly this time so you may understand: Pep needs to do a lot better to have the same achievement as Mourinho, let alone SAF. In 50 years people will still talk about SAF's era of domination, about Mourinho's fairy tales with Porto or Inter Milan. But Pep? When we talk about his Barcelona we will talk about Messi + Xavi/Iniesta, when we talk about his Man City we will talk state backing, financial doping.
You’re just talking nonsense now mate. Going off topic. I’m not defending city at all. Can’t stand them, they are cheats but they’ll probably never get punished for it as they get away with everything. I originally said I wish fergie competed with pep in the prem. I also said that since fergie left we’ve spent millions but just not on the right players… we have spent more then Liverpool and won less since fergie left so let’s not pretend it’s all about spending on players to win trophies. we’ve had manager after manager and bought different types of players that suit each managers styles. We’ve never had a clear plan and that obviously starts from the top with the board.
Originally you also said:
Which is dumb. Reason in my previous post.
Then you continue with
Which is dumb again. Reason in my previous post.
I said it once more, hopefully you will get it this time. Pep would have to do better to reach the same level of achievement as Mourinho, let alone SAF.