People who expected all out attack from City yesterday would last about 2 minutes in football management. Four defeats on the trot before Everton meant `back to basics' (including losing the luxury of an attacking left back for the solidity of a defensive one... and it worked!) So having steadied the ship was Bruce supposed to destabilise it again against West Brom? Of course not, because he knows the players need to get their confidence back even if it means a few drab draws to build on. Some on here need a reality check. We are a poor/ average PL team struggling to survive and our recent signings couldn't alter that. We need at least another two seasons in this division (while steadily improving the quality) to have any chance. West Brom are a better side than us with a few season's head start in the transfer market, but they are still struggling (look and learn!)
I agree. The problem with strikers is that you really need 4 but they all want to play if they are any good. If we hadn't sold Long then would we have been able to get another good striker who was any good? Did Long want to leave or did we want the money? We would have been a lot better off if we had kept Long.
Selling Long was a purely economic decision. Nobody - and i mean nobody - thought £12m was a bad price. Nearly everybody thought we'd overpaid at £7m. He was also on far too high wages for someone of his ability. The decision to sell him, spend £10m on a replacement and save £15k per week on wages on said replacement was a perfectly sound and logical one. The only problem was we signed a poor replacement* *not hindsight, as soon as we were linked with Hernandez i said he was nowhere near a £10m player.
He never will. His aim is rubbish. We'll be waiting a long time for that "powerful shot" to develop into a real weapon. Huddlestone has no belief when he shoots. It's like a ritual that needs to be got through.
The timing of losing Long wasn't ideal. We didn't expect to lose such an important player and when we did we had about a week to find and sign a new pacey striker. So far he fits that description as well as Proschwitz fit the description of target man.
Aye that run down the right late on, I thought he'll skin their CB... comfortably won the ball off him. Not seen any evidence of pace. Looks a bit of a predator type in the box player.
Yeah he can finish and take a penalty but doesn't have the strength, speed, positioning or desire to use his finishing ability. Again like Proschwitz.
When spending a club record £10m on someone you want as your main support striker its probably not best to sign someone who is predominantly used as a wide attacker / winger. And before anyone says it, Henry is an exception.
And we were playing WBA who are an established Premier League club, one of which we aspire to be like.
An established Premier League team who lost their last four games and gave the worst away record in the league, if you're not going to set up to attack a team like that, who the hell are you going to attack? You simply can't stay in this league playing for draws,
So after all this talk, what would you do to remedy it? Seriously, Jan is around the corner and we've got - say £5m to spend plus any sales. In an ideal yet realistic world, i would... Send HBA and Gaston back (if this is possible) Sell Davies for anything north of £7m Sell Robertson for anything north of £12m (cos Bruce clearly doesnt fancy him in a flat 4) Sell Huddlestone for anything north of £8m Sell Jake for £5m Sell Meyler for £1m Sell Sagbo for £1m That gives a war-chest of £39m. I'd try and get Giampaolo Pazzini on loan and bring in a box to box midfielder to play alongside Diame cos for all the money we've spent and all the numbers we have our centre mid is lumbering, slow and predictable (Diame excepted).
The minority of our fans have massively over-high expectations of us don't they, surviving in the Premier League has to be our objective every season. Bruce has given the knee-jerkers ammo with last seasons success but it's good to see that most fans aren't carried away going by that poll on here the other week re. the manager, also given it was an internet poll so you'd expect all the web losers to express negative opinion
I pay my money, as always, to support City. Always have done. It's not conditional on anything else: our owner, the way we play, how we're playing or who we're playing. All professional football is over priced - that's my main beef.
Cannot really disagree with a word of it, specially the bit on bold. But given that the ticket hike was justified by the summers investment and the promise of better quality football, the fact that the football is indeed worse is just taking the piss.
Now there's your mistake, believing what MR Allam said. The ticket price at a small club like ours has little effect on total revenue. The money comes from Premier League TV, staying there is most important, and at our current level we need grafters who put in a good 90 min shift.
I repeatedly asked our lass to call in to offset the moaning 'strds on RH but she said she wasn't feeling well enough
