Man City 2020/21 - General discussion

Sure - here's our first team squad for this season.

David De Gea - £18.9m
Dean Henderson - Free
Alex Telles - £15.4m
Luke Shaw - £30m
Harry Maguire - £80m
Eric Bailly - £30m
Axel Tuanzebe - Free
Victor Lindelof - £30m
Aaron Wan-Bissaka - £45m
Brandon Williams - Free
Nemanja Matic - £40m
Scott McTominay - Free
Fred - £47m
Bruno Fernandes - £47m
Paul Pogba - £89m
Donny van de Beek - £35m
Dan James - £15m
Mason Greenwood - Free
Edinson Cavani - Free
Anthony Martial - £36m (£50m incl. add-ons).
Marcus Rashford - Free

I've left Jones (£16.5m), Romero (Free), Grant (£1m) out as they're yet to make a first team appearance (but if you want to include them add on another £17.5m).

So that's £558.3m. Martial is a funny one as he has these add-ons some of which are realised and some that aren't, so if I add on another £15m for him that takes us to £573.3m.

Edit: Just realised I missed off lovely Juan Mata, so that's another £37m to our total - taking it to £595.3m.
So £230m more, probably about 4-5 first team players. Would make a world of difference to us.
 
Sure - here's our first team squad for this season.

David De Gea - £18.9m
Dean Henderson - Free
Alex Telles - £15.4m
Luke Shaw - £30m
Harry Maguire - £80m
Eric Bailly - £30m
Axel Tuanzebe - Free
Victor Lindelof - £30m
Aaron Wan-Bissaka - £45m
Brandon Williams - Free
Nemanja Matic - £40m
Scott McTominay - Free
Fred - £47m
Bruno Fernandes - £47m
Paul Pogba - £89m
Donny van de Beek - £35m
Dan James - £15m
Mason Greenwood - Free
Edinson Cavani - Free
Anthony Martial - £36m (£50m incl. add-ons).
Marcus Rashford - Free

I've left Jones (£16.5m), Romero (Free), Grant (£1m) out as they're yet to make a first team appearance (but if you want to include them add on another £17.5m).

So that's £558.3m. Martial is a funny one as he has these add-ons some of which are realised and some that aren't, so if I add on another £15m for him that takes us to £573.3m.

Edit: Just realised I missed off lovely Juan Mata, so that's another £37m to our total - taking it to £595.3m.
We have had a few players we bought and sold for less money later on, also we have gotten a few older players over the years which have not lasted long.

I am not sure how true this is for City, literally do not know as I don't follow them closely.
 
I would guess United have had more shit buys so it might be a bit skewed due to that. It's not like you didn't buy in the same period (since Aguero also counts) Rojo, Blind, Herrera, Schneiderlin, Di Maria, Schweinsteiger, Depay, Darmian, Mkhitaryan, Lukaku, Dalot, but I don't even see Diallo listed in the above list. Not to mention the astronomical wages and transfer fees to the likes of Ibrahimovic or Alexis or Falcao. Obviously City have had the likes of Bony, Jovetic, Nolito etc. too. So of course United spends comparatively. That was reflected in the respective wage bills throughout the seasons.
Well the above is to show the current first team squad cost.

Diallo was obviously a buy for the future and not for the first team squad straightaway.
 
That would be a valid argument if not for the fact that all but one of the defenders Pep has bought for us is still in the squad and playing regularly to this day...

He really hasn't bought that many defenders. You're seeing what you want to see. That's all.
Dias (68), Ake (45), Cancelo (65), Laporte (65), Mendy (58), Walker (53), Danilo (30), Mangala, Angelino (12 - loaned) in the last 5 seasons?

In Euros, source: https://www.transfermarkt.com/manch...on_id=2020&pos=&detailpos=&altersklasse=&w_s=
 
We have had a few players we bought and sold for less money later on, also we have gotten a few older players over the years which have not lasted long.

I am not sure how true this is for City, literally do not know as I don't follow them closely.
Yea, this is just for current first team squad.
 
But then you'd need to add the same for City...your Mangalas, Otamendis, Claudio Bravos etc. By all metrics, City's spending has blown everyone out of the water.


I'm not disagreeing but go back to season 14/15 and the difference is only just over £100m gross which in that time United have spent over £1bn to win a EL and an FA cup, seriously, the amounts over the last few years aren't that much difference gross wise


edit - went back to the Season when Fergie left, gross difference is £150m, so basically £20-£25m a season
 
Dias (68), Ake (45), Cancelo (65), Laporte (65), Mendy (58), Walker (53), Danilo (30), Mangala, Angelino (12 - loaned) in the last 5 seasons?

In Euros, source: https://www.transfermarkt.com/manch...on_id=2020&pos=&detailpos=&altersklasse=&w_s=

They've seen Zabaleta, Clichy, Sagna, Kolarov, Otamendi, and Kompany leave in that time frame. All mentioned were at the tail-end of their careers.

Valid argument that the aggregate amount spent is eye watering, but those replacements were needed.

Plus, it must be mentioned that when Mendy had his injury issues, Guardiola resorted to playing the likes of Delph and Zinchenko at LB, with considerable success.
 

Big night last night for the ‘massive’ club, managed to get their Munich chants in nice and early, embarrassing cnuts.
 
I'm not disagreeing but go back to season 14/15 and the difference is only just over £100m gross which in that time United have spent over £1bn to win a EL and an FA cup, seriously, the amounts over the last few years aren't that much difference gross wise
We bought poorly in the years post Fergie (Moyes, and LvG), but even then we still weren't spending more than City. City have taken it to a new level.
 
Look if Europe decides to get serious and institute transfer caps, salary luxury tax, and strict squad limits, all this goes away. Then City wouldn't be able to afford to have Laporte and Sterling as second options. But everyone in the sport is jokers so.
 
I really wish Pep would go manage somewhere without the highest budget in the league. I know that managing those types of squads is a different skillset and requires something special, but I honestly don't think you can call Pep won of the greatest managers in history until he does.

That Barca squad won before and after him. Ditto Bayern. City's a bit trickier, but having 2 50m world class talents in every position makes it harder to judge imo.

Maybe if Barca have to sell off all their assets to survive the debt, and Messi leaves he can go back there and show he could take a team of not the worlds best players and win with it.

Wenger has done it. Jose has done it. Fergie has done it. If that's the table he wants to sit at, imo he has to prove himself, and he can't do that at City.
 
I'm not disagreeing but go back to season 14/15 and the difference is only just over £100m gross which in that time United have spent over £1bn to win a EL and an FA cup, seriously, the amounts over the last few years aren't that much difference gross wise


edit - went back to the Season when Fergie left, gross difference is £150m, so basically £20-£25m a season
I really think the crucial thing to remember here is that United aren't the only competition. We're a disaster in terms of spending. Take our utterly useless soon-to-be-ex CEO out of the equation.

Compare City to the other 17 teams in the league (excluding Chelsea for obv reasons). It's laughable how much more they've spent. It's like 3 of 4x Spurs and Arsenal, never mind Leicester etc.
 
Look if Europe decides to get serious and institute transfer caps, salary luxury tax, and strict squad limits, all this goes away. Then City wouldn't be able to afford to have Laporte and Sterling as second options. But everyone in the sport is jokers so.

Chances of that happening is 0 and administering that is even tough.

How many sister clubs City have? You can bet, these state backed clubs will have so many sister clubs in different continents. So what will stop them from selling the player and loaning them back? or sell a dummy player for huge fee?
 

Big night last night for the ‘massive’ club, managed to get their Munich chants in nice and early, embarrassing cnuts.


"We are the City boys" just sounds like they're bragging about having an office job in central London.
 
Shows how small time they are that they're literally celebrating just being in a final.
 
People have to put context when they say but but united also spent a lot. Yes we have spent but let us look at last season. Ole wanted Sancho, he gets two young players in diallo and pellestri. He wanted Grealish but gets VDB, he wanted haaland before he went to dortmund but got Ighalo on free. Pep wanted a cb , gets ake and then gets another in dias. Ultimately United also spent 75 odd gross last summer but how many have improved our first 11 conclusively.

If we had sheikhs running we would have spent those extra 100m on sancho. If city had glazers running they would have asked Pep to work with what he has and would have given a 18 year old CB. Like I said context matters.
 
I really wish Pep would go manage somewhere without the highest budget in the league. I know that managing those types of squads is a different skillset and requires something special, but I honestly don't think you can call Pep won of the greatest managers in history until he does.

That Barca squad won before and after him. Ditto Bayern. City's a bit trickier, but having 2 50m world class talents in every position makes it harder to judge imo.

Maybe if Barca have to sell off all their assets to survive the debt, and Messi leaves he can go back there and show he could take a team of not the worlds best players and win with it.

Wenger has done it. Jose has done it. Fergie has done it. If that's the table he wants to sit at, imo he has to prove himself, and he can't do that at City.

Barca were 3rd the season before Guardiola, 18 points behind Real Madrid.

When has Jose done it? As far as I am aware, biggest spender as Porto, Chelsea, and Real Madrid.
 

Big night last night for the ‘massive’ club, managed to get their Munich chants in nice and early, embarrassing cnuts.


What happened to "We hate CL, we don't care about CL" thing? :lol:
 
I really wish Pep would go manage somewhere without the highest budget in the league. I know that managing those types of squads is a different skillset and requires something special, but I honestly don't think you can call Pep won of the greatest managers in history until he does.

That Barca squad won before and after him. Ditto Bayern. City's a bit trickier, but having 2 50m world class talents in every position makes it harder to judge imo.

Maybe if Barca have to sell off all their assets to survive the debt, and Messi leaves he can go back there and show he could take a team of not the worlds best players and win with it.

Wenger has done it. Jose has done it. Fergie has done it. If that's the table he wants to sit at, imo he has to prove himself, and he can't do that at City.

His peers already consider him one of the greatest.

The only way he'll manage at a level below is if from now on he does a Jose, and mucks things up so bad at City, that he becomes odious to all top clubs and is forced to take a step down to a club like Roma or Spurs or Celtic. And that won't happen, so this conversation will remain amongst us armchair manager assessors.

And all those managers you mentioned did it at the beginning of their careers. He came in blazing from the beginning. Why go back to "prove yourself"?
 
Chances of that happening is 0 and administering that is even tough.

How many sister clubs City have? You can bet, these state backed clubs will have so many sister clubs in different continents. So what will stop them from selling the player and loaning them back? or sell a dummy player for huge fee?


I don't think this can be done, sure there is governance around this from happening, if it could be done I'm sure we'd already have done it.
 
That’s the biggest thing out of all of this. Abu Dhabi have literally appointed guys who worked with him at Barcelona in key senior positions. Soriano and Begiristain have been there laying the foundations to basically get Guardiola in place. They couldn’t get Guardiola the first time so got Pellegrini as a 4 year stop gap(!).

Has any club in the history of football at this high end basically created an entire backroom to suit one manager? I can’t see the established elite clubs ever contemplating that as it would be viewed as risking so much and even ditching traditions. I imagine Guardiola got pushback from the Bayern upper management about spending money and was probably on his own against their top guys... so what better environment to have than your mates working with you supporting your moves, and then your bosses have a blank chequebook to do whatever the feck you want?

It is insane the mountains that have been moved for Guardiola at City, even before he stepped through the door.
Agree. If they win the CL, every commentator in football is going to be slobbering all over Guardiola's record, but not manager I can ever recall has gotten so much support, patience, and an unlimited checquebook to boot. No other manager in the world can match that. He even has the benefit of not having to match expectations like the managers of lets say Bayern, or hysterical crowd demands that one could have with one of the Spanish giants.
 
Chances of that happening is 0 and administering that is even tough.

How many sister clubs City have? You can bet, these state backed clubs will have so many sister clubs in different continents. So what will stop them from selling the player and loaning them back? or sell a dummy player for huge fee?
Wasn't one of those clubs a club they literally bought for Pep's brother? They're unstoppable. :lol:
 
I really think the crucial thing to remember here is that United aren't the only competition. We're a disaster in terms of spending. Take our utterly useless soon-to-be-ex CEO out of the equation.

Compare City to the other 17 teams in the league (excluding Chelsea for obv reasons). It's laughable how much more they've spent. It's like 3 of 4x Spurs and Arsenal, never mind Leicester etc.


it is laughable how much we've spent I would never argue any different but it's exactly the same for United, that's even more laughable for the returns they've got.
 
it is laughable how much we've spent I would never argue any different but it's exactly the same for United, that's even more laughable for the returns they've got.
I think every single United fan agrees on the latter point.
 
@The Corinthian - Interesting comparisons. How do Chelsea compare?
First team squad...

Kepa Arrizabalaga - £71.6m
Edouard Mendy - £22m
Marcos Alonso - £24m
Ben Chilwell - £45m
Antonio Rudiger - £29m
Thiago Silva - Free
Kurt Zouma - £12m
Andreas Christensen - Free
Reece James - Free
Cesar Azpilicueta - £7m
Emerson - £25m
Jorginho - £50m
Mateo Kovacic - £44.8m
Billy Gilmour - £0.5m
Ngolo Kante - £32m
Callum Hudson-Odoi - Free
Christian Pulisic - £58m
Hakim Ziyech - £40m
Mason Mount - Free
Kai Havertz - £62m
Olivier Giroud - undisclosed fee (but transfermarkt has £15.3m)
Tammy Abraham - Free
Timo Werner - £47.5m

Total is £585.7m (including the £15.3m for Giroud, it's £570.4m without).
 
I never mind Pep one bit. Top class coach and more likeable than Klopp. Yes he has spent loads but ultimately he is winning stuff.
 
Barca were 3rd the season before Guardiola, 18 points behind Real Madrid.

When has Jose done it? As far as I am aware, biggest spender as Porto, Chelsea, and Real Madrid.

Jose won the Champions League with Porto. And Inter. I hate the man, but that's ridiculous.
 
We bought poorly in the years post Fergie (Moyes, and LvG), but even then we still weren't spending more than City. City have taken it to a new level.


you've outspent city 3 of 8 years since Fergie left, both teams have spent over £100m 5 times in the last 8 years, you've spent over £175m twice, we've done it 3 times and once massive £280m, I'd argue it's only 1 year when we've blown you out of the water money wise since Fergie left.
 
First team squad...

Total is £585.7m (including the £15.3m for Giroud, it's £570.4m without).
Interesting, thank you for that.

So, Man Utd, Chelsea, and Liverpool are all around a similar sort of squad value, whilst City are a good £300m or so ahead.
 
His peers already consider him one of the greatest.

The only way he'll manage at a level below is if from now on he does a Jose, and mucks things up so bad at City, that he becomes odious to all top clubs and is forced to take a step down to a club like Roma or Spurs or Celtic. And that won't happen, so this conversation will remain amongst us armchair manager assessors.

And all those managers you mentioned did it at the beginning of their careers. He came in blazing from the beginning. Why go back to "prove yourself"?
I don't disagree. Obviously it's just an opinion. But if you want to be considered the best, you have to earn it. Imo he hasn't done that, many would disagree. That's fine.

I don't think a manager has ever created a more perfect points machine than this City team. But no manager has ever had the support that he's had there. So it's just hard to judge. It's why in many ways football is flawed due to not having any kind of 'level playing field'.
 
Jose won the Champions League with Porto. And Inter. I hate the man, but that's ridiculous.
I completely forgot he won the CL with porto and Inter. My mind just went Porto -> Chelsea -> Real -> Man united -> spurs -> Roma. He gets around.
 
Interesting, thank you for that.

So, Man Utd, Chelsea, and Liverpool are all around a similar sort of squad value, whilst City are a good £300m or so ahead.
City have spent more and they've spent better, basically.
 
I never mind Pep one bit. Top class coach and more likeable than Klopp. Yes he has spent loads but ultimately he is winning stuff.

I used to dislike him when he was at Barca, and especially in the early periods when he came to City, he just had this weird aura about him that we should somehow be grateful for his presence in English football. I've mellowed on him since then though. He's the best in the business but he manages a club I don't particularly care about so meh.
 
you've outspent city 3 of 8 years since Fergie left, both teams have spent over £100m 5 times in the last 8 years, you've spent over £175m twice, we've done it 3 times and once massive £280m, I'd argue it's only 1 year when we've blown you out of the water money wise since Fergie left.
You spent over £100m on centre backs in a season where all other clubs had to be conservative due to a pandemic. There's City's spending power, then there's everyone else*.

* not incl. Chelsea.
 
People have to put context when they say but but united also spent a lot. Yes we have spent but let us look at last season. Ole wanted Sancho, he gets two young players in diallo and pellestri. He wanted Grealish but gets VDB, he wanted haaland before he went to dortmund but got Ighalo on free. Pep wanted a cb , gets ake and then gets another in dias. Ultimately United also spent 75 odd gross last summer but how many have improved our first 11 conclusively.

If we had sheikhs running we would have spent those extra 100m on sancho. If city had glazers running they would have asked Pep to work with what he has and would have given a 18 year old CB. Like I said context matters.
Maguire, Alexis, Jorginho were all priority targets for Guardiola too, so not sure what you wanna prove or disprove with this. Even Dias going about the rumours was maybe second or third choice.
 
City have spent more and they've spent better, basically.


that's it in a nutshell, spent more but better, just did Chelsea's spend since Fergie left, they've spent £100m less than City but just under £50m more than United, gross spend all are over £1bn since Fergie left.
 
that's it in a nutshell, spent more but better, just did Chelsea's spend since Fergie left, they've spent £100m less than City but just under £50m more than United, gross spend all are over £1bn since Fergie left.
How do they all compare in net spend? Sorry if you’ve posted it already somewhere.
 
Thanks that's interesting, it really is night and day compared to City. Just the £300 million extra. I can't understand this narrative that we have spent comparatively.

I think think the comparable spend is regards to Net rather than Gross. It's mainly the media that peddle the comparable spend narrative to paint us in a bad light in regards to City. When we buy a player the reported figures include all bonuses whether targets are met or not. It's the same with wages too. City's transfer fees & wages are usually quoted at the basic with no mention of attainable bonuses.

It's pointless really comparing City's & Utd's spending as nobody but a select few knows, or will ever know, how far the rabbit hole goes down at City. We can only say that cheating isn't usually an isolated incident. Lance Armstong didn't stop taking Ped's after his first TDF. Marion Jones didn't stop taking EPO after the Sydney Olympics.

It is fair though to presume the corruption is widespread. The Mancini double salary was never refuted by the club. It's inconceivable that only 1 employee at the club was being greased. Money has to go through many important hands to keep up the charade at City.