It’s been a while (1 month and 16 days in fact) since I’ve ‘put pen to paper’ but, then again, not only has there been very little City news to talk about but we’ve been entertained by a very good World Cup, in my opinion, and…why would I want to camp in a dark room typing when, here in the UK & Ireland at least, we’ve had all of this fabulous weather to enjoy?!
A word or two on the World Cup…and England.
I think, for the most part, it’s been a
really entertaining one – some really good games spoilt only by a few, very
negative, spoiling-cheating teams that were largely from the continent that
said farewell before the real latter stages began. Some or all of
those teams need to be reprimanded by FIFA
for the way they wrestled opponents to the ground, used delay tactics in all
sorts of ways and generally cheated in various fashions rather than attempting
to play football themselves…
Video Assistant Referee (VAR)
Utter waste of time IF they aren’t going to pick
up, at least, on some of the afore mentioned wrestling that was going on in the
penalty areas! If most of us could see it then why couldn’t the 3 people
surrounded by screens and other technologies see it also? Or were officials simply directed by FIFA before the competition even started
to be very lenient and allow the game to flow as much as possible regardless of
outrageous footballing sins?
England
Gotta be proud of them, haven’t we? Looked
very good for the most part and although, yes, we seemed to struggle against
the better sides and, yes, it could
be argued that we didn’t exactly have the most difficult route to the
semi-final – I’ll repeat that’s
the…SEMI-FINAL – I thought our shape looked better than in recent years; we
were dangerous going forward and at set pieces in particular, had a great team
spirit / looked like they were enjoying their football under Gareth Southgate and showed incredible maturity
and self-control, for the most part, whilst being hurled to the ground and
generally battered by cheating teams in the earlier stages.
Okay, we missed a bucket load of chances to
score more and finish teams off and we did look increasingly jaded, especially
in the 2nd half against Croatia
and in the 3rd-place play-off game yesterday against a Belgium side who still looked to have plenty of fuel
in THEIR tank.
But let’s not forget that a lot of pundits
were saying how tricky, hard-working and organised Sweden
were going to be in the quarters and those same pundits were getting a little
twitchy before we largely dictated large parts of that game.
Yes, like many, I was left feeling that
we’ve blown our biggest opportunity to get to a final; something we might not see
again for YEARS to come. However, I’m also optimistic that this young side can
mature and learn from that; together with the fact that we have even younger
talent coming up and a manager who talks a lot of sense and seems to fit, in
more ways than one, the England Manager role.
Good luck to both Croatia & France today – I hope it’s a good final for all.
Ins & out at City
Starting with the outs:
Yaya Toure – End of contract (and a mosaic put up for him in honour at the City Football Academy before he allegedly
suggested that Pep Guardiola ‘has problems
with African players').
Angus Gunn – Sold to Southampton for a
rumoured & eventual fee of £13.5M
Olarenwaju Kayode – A well-travelled, 25-year old striker sold to Shakhtar Donetsk for £2.7M.
Pawel Sokol – A youth goalkeeper released and re-joined the club we signed him
from, Korona Kielce.
Will Patching – An EDS Midfielder released on a
free to join Notts County.
Sadou Diallo – A youth midfielder released and is currently without a club
Marcus Wood – Another youth midfielder released and is yet to find a new
footballing home
Erik Sarmiento – A 19-year old left back who has re-joined Espanyol
on a free transfer
And now the ins:
Philippe Sandler – A 21-year old Dutch,
central defender who signed on 1st July 2018 from PEC Zwolle for £2.25M; in a deal that was agree in
January 2018. A 6' 2", former Ajax Youth player.
Riyad Mahrez – A 27-year old, £61M
Algerian Winger / attacking midfielder signed from Leicester City. Mostly a right-sided flanker but can play ‘just off’ /
down the middle and on the left if required.
A word on any of those?
I’m
a bit shocked about the Angus Gunn thing to be honest; I actually expected him
to come back as a 'number 3', at least, having had a season-long loan at Norwich City where he made 46 appearances and got
very good reviews, from memory at least. Good luck to the big fella!
And now
for the Mahrez debate….
What’s
the debate? Simply put, it’s largely around the, ‘do we
really need him’…with
a bit of ‘is he all that good?’ and ‘it’s a big
expensive for what we’re getting / money could have been spent on a better
player elsewhere on the pitch’ thrown into the mix.
I
get it…and I too was hoping first for a top-class defensive midfielder to compete
with – and give some much-needed respite to – Fernandinho. Not that we haven't try like hell with the latter; turning down an ever-increasing fee-demanded for
Fred and being elbowed out of the way at the very last minute
by Napoli & Chelsea officials after a deal had been virtually struck with their
City counterparts for Jorginho.
But
to all those who DO say that we have enough in our attacking midfield / wing
department without the signing of a Riyad Mahrez-type player, it’s hard to
disagree with them and here’s why (in surname order):
- Fernandinho - Defensive midfielder – Centre
Those
fans, looking at that list, would simply say, “They rest their case”.
And
the argument FOR getting the ex-Foxes & Premier League-winning man? I would say in the ‘plus column’ that…
·
He’s a more mature and slightly more consistent Raheem Sterling
·
He’s a better finisher / decision maker that the afore-mentioned England
man
·
The general opinion ‘out there’ from fans who have watched him a lot as
well as pundits & journos alike, is that he’s a very good, hard-working,
pacey, creative, goal-scoring attacking midfielder / winger. So,
I would say…if he’s that good when NOT having played for / been coached by Pep
Guardiola then, coming into his ‘prime years’ at 27, just how good could the
fella become?!
·
There’s another long, long season ahead with the other 19 teams in the
Premier League, at least, wanting to knock us off our very high perch. Some of those
players listed, at least, haven’t had / will not get much of a summer break
because of the World Cup; some aren’t going to America for pre-season and SOME might miss the opening game of
the season at least! I’m thinking Kevin, Fabian, Raheem and possibly, to a
lesser degree, Fernandinho, Bernardo & David in that midfield / attacking-mid department.
There
ya go – that’s 'fence sitting' done! No...seriously, I can see both sides of any
Mahrez debate and although excited to have another talented & experienced
player added to our exciting squad, I can see the other arguments too and I am
split down the middle. Arguments such as…
...money better spent elsewhere?
Well…I’ve
already mentioned the defensive midfield attempts and so I can’t “blame” City,
if there is any blame in mis-spending there.
I
personally would have liked to have seen us bring in a more-assured back-up to Ederson in goal to replace Claudio Bravo if we weren’t going to promote Angus. A point of note on that: Daniel Grimshaw has
been elevated to “No. 3” for next season.
An
additional, top-quality central defender? Perhaps sounds too greedy
with-us-having Vincent Kompany, Aymeric Laporte, Nicholas Otamendi &
John Stones (with the option of Kyle Walker & Danilo)? Well, I think there’s an argument “for” an additional
central defender with a long season ahead in 4 competitions and with a captain &
young England central defender who have both had long World Cups and who are prone
to break-downs. A Leonardo Bonucci-type age / experienced
player?
And
then there’s the, “Shouldn’t we be looking for extra cover in the striker
department…and someone who offers something different to Jesus & Sergio?”. I
get that too. Personally, I’m both “Yes & No” (I know…even
more splinters in my back-side).
Yes
– Because those two often break down for a combined total of around 5 months
per season and, yes also, because it would be good to have a slightly taller /
different type of striker available should a different approach be needed.
No – Because we have so, SO
many creative / goal-scoring midfielders & wingers we can score – and have scored - PLENTY whenever our front two haven’t contributed for whatever reason. We’re more than capable of beating teams and scoring plenty with a
4-6-0 or 4-5-(false)-1 formation if needed…
Up & coming games…
…ALL,
of which, will be largely represented by a mixture of those City players who
didn’t take part in any, or much, of the World Cup any PLENTY of youth players.
Time for a Phil Foden & Brahim Diaz
to shine in particular.
All 3
in the USA…
Saturday 21st July (2:05am
BST)
Thursday 26th July (1:05pm
BST)
Sunday 29th July (0:05am
BST)
At Wembley…
Sunday 5th August (3:00pm
BST)
v
Chelsea (The FA Community Shield)
Sunday 12st August (4:00pm BST)
Sunday 19th August (1:30pm
BST)
Right
then, it’s nice to be back, thanks for ‘looking in’ at Blue chews-daze and take care for now.
I’m off to enjoy more of the fine weather...
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