
RAG1: People are overrating them massively. They've spent god knows how much but would you honestly take any of their players over ours?
They've bought largely medicore to average players, and I don't believe Mancini is a particularly great coach either; he's going to have a tough job of it keeping all the ego's in check. Chelsea at least had the core of a title winning team before Abramovich came along, who upped their game under the leadership of Mourinho. Can't say the same for City.
They won't win the title for a while yet. It's not just about having 11 great players on the pitch. And they won't be able to attract the better calibre of players until they're playing CL Football. That should be their first aim, and I seriously doubt they'll get that this season.
RAG2: I think this is right, if a little hyperbolic. Their players are certainly better than average/mediocre, and none of them would look out of place on a title winning side. But the only truly top-level outfield player they have is Tevez, assuming Ade keeps playing the way he did last year and Yaya and Silva don't make a step up. (Though Adam Johnson and Balotelli will continue to improve, and who knows what they could become.)
So right now they've got a lot of sexy attackers, but they had more than enough of that last year. The problem was defense and midfield, especially midfield creativity and the ability to control/pace the match. I'm not sure they have the central defenders to win anything right now. At least, they will have to overcome their weakness there somewhere else on the pitch.
So, midfield. That's why Yaya and Silva are so important. Can they bring that to City? Will Silva become the midfield conductor they need? Probably not if they play him on the flank. They'd have to give him Tevez's position on the pitch, but then Tevez will play less effectively.
But that's just next year, when they definitely will NOT win the league. But it's easy to imagine them getting a CL spot. And THEN they'll be able to remake the team all over again. And then, yeah, definitely winning the league in the next 5 years.
[strike]WAG[/strike] RAG OF THE DAY
