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I think we need, in an ideal world, for the next phase.

Big player:

Not just sheer talent, but attitude & confidence.

I recon if you'd put a City shirt on Messi tonight, he would have been almost fighting with the likes of Silva, Nasri, for recieving the ball, off people like Milner & Fernando. The whole team would be different & full of the confidence they would get from him. They would swagger it.

Almost all the top sides have had one. Ronaldinho used to be Barca's before Messi. Zidane. Even lesser flair players but as good in their own way; Even Vieira for instance was kind of one, although they usually dominate the attacking play. The nearest we have is Yaya, & he has been a truly great player, but he's still not quite what I'm talking about. You know what i mean ? THE man. People say it's A,B,C but it isn't any of them.

Scholes & Giggs kind of added up to one for Utd. Robson was one in a not as good side. Gullit. Maradona. Even Gerrard & Lampard have been that, in a way.

We have never had one. Our nearest is Aguero, but it's difficult for a striker to be that player. It really needs to be a centre mid or creator on the whole. Silva, Nasri etc. are the blokes who play next to him. It's not purely about talent; it's something else.

It's hard to describe what i mean, but when we got a free kick on the edge of Barca's box tonight, it was a toss up between Milner & Silva, as to who took it. My phantom Mr X, would be taking that, & pumping his fist at the crowd after he buried it in the top corner.

People say we lack something. That's it imo. I don't think Pogba is that bloke, whether we sign him or not.

Anyone seen a potential one ?

Secondly: top level version of Crraig Bellamy. Replaced him with Mario, who, lets face it, is not fit to lace his boots.

Pace, workrate, sklill decent number of goals: frightening on the counter attack. Imagine we had such a player now; we are thenmuch more confident of perhaps nicking something at the Camp Nou & possibly causing a mssacre at Anfield. Remember Bellamy & Tevez. at Stamford bridge ? We have never quite replicated that level of counter attack fear in the oppo. Navas is the nearest we have now.

Any ideas for a Superbellamy & a big figure to run our team ?

Or disagree with my diagnosis & have your own ?

We need a world star then basically.......a talisman. Yaya has that ability, but for whatever reason doesn't do it in the champions league and he's knocking on a bit. I don't know though to be honest. Not even Ronaldinho came that deep for the ball. Messi's a freak and Zidane is/was the best midfielder of my lifetime.

Thing is, i don't think there are any around are there? Messi.......er........there's certainly no Zidane's about. Even Hazard isn't a Ronaldinho.

Oh and i fucking loved Bellamy. Great player. Is Reus that man? (Honestly, i don't know if he's as aggressive as Bellamy is in his forward play as i'm not gonna pretend i watch Dortmund week in week out and youtube highlight reels mean fuck all)

Could be this fella one day though...



Though he'll need a few years.

I actually believe Bale could have nearly elevated himself to proper ballon d'or winning potential if he wasn't just happy being ronaldo's shitty clone over in Madrid. If he was doing what he did for Spurs for us he'd be incredible.

twosips wrote:We need a world star then basically.......a talisman. Yaya has that ability, but for whatever reason doesn't do it in the champions league and he's knocking on a bit. I don't know though to be honest. Not even Ronaldinho came that deep for the ball. Messi's a freak and Zidane is/was the best midfielder of my lifetime.

Thing is, i don't think there are any around are there? Messi.......er........there's certainly no Zidane's about. Even Hazard isn't a Ronaldinho.

Oh and i fucking loved Bellamy. Great player. Is Reus that man? (Honestly, i don't know if he's as aggressive as Bellamy is in his forward play as i'm not gonna pretend i watch Dortmund week in week out and youtube highlight reels mean fuck all)

I think Ronaldinho was even more important to Barca than Messi, because they didn't have that Pep thing going on in those days when they lost the ball. He didn't take over the game from deep under pressure so much like Messi, but he could pick the ball up there & pay a 35 yard pass forward along the ground, without looking, & split the oppo centre backs in two.

But I'm talking as much about a player who takes responsibility & believes in himself & the team & says; 'it's ok, I'm here, we'll do this'. You can see it in Lampard even now, but he's past it. Scholes did it for the rags even when he was past it. Silva, Nasri ,Yaya, Aguero are Keef, Ronnie, Bill & Charlie without Mick Jagger.

We need a front man.

But Yaya has done that for us on countless occasions though hasn't he? He always stepped it up in the big domestic games for us.

I admit he doesn't do it on the continent though and he'll only decline over the next couple of years if we're being realistic

Edit - I swear you've described tevez at his peak there

twosips wrote:But Yaya has done that for us on countless occasions though hasn't he? He always stepped it up in the big domestic games for us.

I admit he doesn't do it on the continent though and he'll only decline over the next couple of years if we're being realistic

Edit - I swear you've described tevez at his peak there

I was thinking the same thing.

He dragged us through when we weren't playing well.

Ted Hughes wrote:I think we need, in an ideal world, for the next phase.

Big player:

Not just sheer talent, but attitude & confidence.

I recon if you'd put a City shirt on Messi tonight, he would have been almost fighting with the likes of Silva, Nasri, for recieving the ball, off people like Milner & Fernando. The whole team would be different & full of the confidence they would get from him. They would swagger it.

Almost all the top sides have had one. Ronaldinho used to be Barca's before Messi. Zidane. Even lesser flair players but as good in their own way; Even Vieira for instance was kind of one, although they usually dominate the attacking play. The nearest we have is Yaya, & he has been a truly great player, but he's still not quite what I'm talking about. You know what i mean ? THE man. People say it's A,B,C but it isn't any of them.

Scholes & Giggs kind of added up to one for Utd. Robson was one in a not as good side. Gullit. Maradona. Even Gerrard & Lampard have been that, in a way.

We have never had one. Our nearest is Aguero, but it's difficult for a striker to be that player. It really needs to be a centre mid or creator on the whole. Silva, Nasri etc. are the blokes who play next to him. It's not purely about talent; it's something else.

It's hard to describe what i mean, but when we got a free kick on the edge of Barca's box tonight, it was a toss up between Milner & Silva, as to who took it. My phantom Mr X, would be taking that, & pumping his fist at the crowd after he buried it in the top corner.

People say we lack something. That's it imo. I don't think Pogba is that bloke, whether we sign him or not.

Anyone seen a potential one ?

Secondly: top level version of Crraig Bellamy. Replaced him with Mario, who, lets face it, is not fit to lace his boots.

Pace, workrate, sklill decent number of goals: frightening on the counter attack. Imagine we had such a player now; we are thenmuch more confident of perhaps nicking something at the Camp Nou & possibly causing a mssacre at Anfield. Remember Bellamy & Tevez. at Stamford bridge ? We have never quite replicated that level of counter attack fear in the oppo. Navas is the nearest we have now.

Any ideas for a Superbellamy & a big figure to run our team ?

Or disagree with my diagnosis & have your own ?

I agree on this but i also think we had a few great players we just miss to buy a good replacment for some of our players , First neither Garcia neither Fernando are good enough as De Jong and we need even better player then that . I honestly think that Nainggolan can be that player .Nainggolan energy and tenacity he is the perfect box-to-box midfielder and hes great tackler . Also i would try to buy duo Pjanic and him . Pjanic is like a litlle Pirilo somobody who plays from deep witch we miss when we don't have Yaya and he could jump in up front when we miss Silva or Nasri , Nainggolan could also. But first I think Nainggolan would be a great buy and i m asking u what u think about him ? We keep missing with some buys , buying not good enough players and paying them silly money.Bony last night could not show anything , we go down to 10 players and it was done , but he show me that even against Barcelona and fresh and we have red, he is not going to run to much. Also think it s tme to sell some players , I think Dzeko is just not player for City never was . He would do much better in let say Bayern or some club where they have wingers that are crazy dangerus and picking strikers out. We cant Pick from corner anybody.So I would sell him and buy some fast strikers. Also some other players needs to go. And i agree with this if we can buy some star crazy player like Messi we should , but there is not a lot of them.

Have said in a couple of match day threads this season that we need someone in the Bellamy kind of mold. A player who will take a game by the scruff of the neck, rally the players and fight when those around him are going missing in a game. Someone who will charge down the wing looking to take players on and go chasing the ball when it's lost in possession.

Zaba does it to some extent but we need this further down the pitch.

Bellamy wasn't a world beater but did it. It's about mind set and having that extra bit of fight and need.

Ted Hughes wrote:I think we need, in an ideal world, for the next phase.

Big player:

Not just sheer talent, but attitude & confidence.

I recon if you'd put a City shirt on Messi tonight, he would have been almost fighting with the likes of Silva, Nasri, for recieving the ball, off people like Milner & Fernando. The whole team would be different & full of the confidence they would get from him. They would swagger it.

Almost all the top sides have had one. Ronaldinho used to be Barca's before Messi. Zidane. Even lesser flair players but as good in their own way; Even Vieira for instance was kind of one, although they usually dominate the attacking play. The nearest we have is Yaya, & he has been a truly great player, but he's still not quite what I'm talking about. You know what i mean ? THE man. People say it's A,B,C but it isn't any of them.

Scholes & Giggs kind of added up to one for Utd. Robson was one in a not as good side. Gullit. Maradona. Even Gerrard & Lampard have been that, in a way.

We have never had one. Our nearest is Aguero, but it's difficult for a striker to be that player. It really needs to be a centre mid or creator on the whole. Silva, Nasri etc. are the blokes who play next to him. It's not purely about talent; it's something else.

It's hard to describe what i mean, but when we got a free kick on the edge of Barca's box tonight, it was a toss up between Milner & Silva, as to who took it. My phantom Mr X, would be taking that, & pumping his fist at the crowd after he buried it in the top corner.

People say we lack something. That's it imo. I don't think Pogba is that bloke, whether we sign him or not.

Anyone seen a potential one ?

Secondly: top level version of Crraig Bellamy. Replaced him with Mario, who, lets face it, is not fit to lace his boots.

Pace, workrate, sklill decent number of goals: frightening on the counter attack. Imagine we had such a player now; we are thenmuch more confident of perhaps nicking something at the Camp Nou & possibly causing a mssacre at Anfield. Remember Bellamy & Tevez. at Stamford bridge ? We have never quite replicated that level of counter attack fear in the oppo. Navas is the nearest we have now.

Any ideas for a Superbellamy & a big figure to run our team ?

Or disagree with my diagnosis & have your own ?

Tevez was that player for me, he had attitude to go with his ability. He like Suarez had bring it on as his first thoughts and never fazed, mostly this squad are nice firstly.As for Pogba he is one beacon standing out to every top side. I hope Paddy has been in his ear as he looks like the real deal to me, Funny his game links with Tevez are magical at times. Anfield will not be nice and we need a reaction.

Hazy2 wrote:

Ted Hughes wrote:I think we need, in an ideal world, for the next phase.

Big player:

Not just sheer talent, but attitude & confidence.

I recon if you'd put a City shirt on Messi tonight, he would have been almost fighting with the likes of Silva, Nasri, for recieving the ball, off people like Milner & Fernando. The whole team would be different & full of the confidence they would get from him. They would swagger it.

Almost all the top sides have had one. Ronaldinho used to be Barca's before Messi. Zidane. Even lesser flair players but as good in their own way; Even Vieira for instance was kind of one, although they usually dominate the attacking play. The nearest we have is Yaya, & he has been a truly great player, but he's still not quite what I'm talking about. You know what i mean ? THE man. People say it's A,B,C but it isn't any of them.

Scholes & Giggs kind of added up to one for Utd. Robson was one in a not as good side. Gullit. Maradona. Even Gerrard & Lampard have been that, in a way.

We have never had one. Our nearest is Aguero, but it's difficult for a striker to be that player. It really needs to be a centre mid or creator on the whole. Silva, Nasri etc. are the blokes who play next to him. It's not purely about talent; it's something else.

It's hard to describe what i mean, but when we got a free kick on the edge of Barca's box tonight, it was a toss up between Milner & Silva, as to who took it. My phantom Mr X, would be taking that, & pumping his fist at the crowd after he buried it in the top corner.

People say we lack something. That's it imo. I don't think Pogba is that bloke, whether we sign him or not.

Anyone seen a potential one ?

Secondly: top level version of Crraig Bellamy. Replaced him with Mario, who, lets face it, is not fit to lace his boots.

Pace, workrate, sklill decent number of goals: frightening on the counter attack. Imagine we had such a player now; we are thenmuch more confident of perhaps nicking something at the Camp Nou & possibly causing a mssacre at Anfield. Remember Bellamy & Tevez. at Stamford bridge ? We have never quite replicated that level of counter attack fear in the oppo. Navas is the nearest we have now.

Any ideas for a Superbellamy & a big figure to run our team ?

Or disagree with my diagnosis & have your own ?

Tevez was that player for me, he had attitude to go with his ability. He like Suarez had bring it on as his first thoughts and never fazed, mostly this squad are nice firstly.As for Pogba he is one beacon standing out to every top side. I hope Paddy has been in his ear as he looks like the real deal to me, Funny his game links with Tevez are magical at times. Anfield will not be nice and we need a reaction.

However good Pogba is, he is not the kind of player I'm talking about. If Tevez was a centre mid, it would be him. If we sign Pogba, it's to replace Silva Nasri or Milner imo, not Yaya. Pogba is icing, not the cake.

Agree we need a leader out there as we seem to have too many Indians and not enough Chiefs.

However, given the last top quality signing we made was Aguero in July 2012, we need 2-3 additions of top class to the squad if we are going to compete at the top table. Neymar and Suarez cost more than the entire team we fielded last night, to highlight the homegrown Barca bollox myth, and we cannot compete at the business end of the Champions League if we are signing players like Sagna, Fernando, Garcia, Sinclair, Nastasic, Navas et al. Yes some of them are good players but where's the top class, elite level additions that the top teams purchase?

Id rather we paid the megabucks for a player the calibre of Popgba, Reus, Bale and had that as 1 sole signing, rather than spend £70m on 3 or 4 players who have potential but aren't at that elite level.

Some very good points about Tevez in this thread too. The man is a complete shitbag, but as a player he often dragged us through and displayed the type of spirit we badly missed on nights like last night.

Tevez was that man. Imagine he and yaya in our team for that game? Different story for my money.

Pretty Boy Lee wrote:Tevez was that man. Imagine he and yaya in our team for that game? Different story for my money.

If Pellegrini was Manager back then , maybe he will be still in City .

Cit.revenge wrote:

Pretty Boy Lee wrote:Tevez was that man. Imagine he and yaya in our team for that game? Different story for my money.

If Pellegrini was Manager back then , maybe he will be still in City .

Peligrini was appointed before Tevez left, probably 'appointed' longer before any of us knew. He was supposed to have spoke to him but Tevez still wanted to leave. Pity though, we could have done with him.

Was quite disappointed with Silva last night bar the assist.
In a game like last night I thought he could be what you're describing Ted, the man who can take control of the game and keep the ball. But he just couldn't get in the game or stamp his authority.

We all know he's a very, very good player but is he a great one? Is it that he doesn't have the bottle on the big European stage or is he although very good, not quite the level we think he is?
He does it in the Premier League but like the rest of the team hasn't done it yet in Europe.

I think after recent experiences of players in the Bellers/Mario mould, we shy away from signing big character players.

I might well be wrong, but I think the profile of the club is very important to the owners and we don't want our name muddying with Mario style antic's in the future.

This might mean that in a couple of seasons, Kompany is as badass as our players get :(

Its bad, because a team needs a bit of everything to really reach the top level.

Crossie wrote:I think after recent experiences of players in the Bellers/Mario mould, we shy away from signing big character players.

I might well be wrong, but I think the profile of the club is very important to the owners and we don't want our name muddying with Mario style antic's in the future.

This might mean that in a couple of seasons, Kompany is as badass as our players get :(

Its bad, because a team needs a bit of everything to really reach the top level.

However, didn't Rebel Tevez have a hotline direct to the sheik?

I think we have realised that our signings this year will not make us world beaters and what hope do we have of signing the best of the best if we are constrained by FFP and we cant even get Milner to sign a new contract at 29 yrs old?

Bridge'srightfoot wrote:Was quite disappointed with Silva last night bar the assist.
In a game like last night I thought he could be what you're describing Ted, the man who can take control of the game and keep the ball. But he just couldn't get in the game or stamp his authority.

We all know he's a very, very good player but is he a great one? Is it that he doesn't have the bottle on the big European stage or is he although very good, not quite the level we think he is?
He does it in the Premier League but like the rest of the team hasn't done it yet in Europe.

Problem with Silva is that is bad in defending and i saw him couple time not tracking back at all, witch is for midfielder against Barcelona must. What i saw as a major problem for our team is a lot good players not many great ones, and we even have a couple average ones, witch is not enough if u wanna make a stamp in home and in Europe. We never had great defense You know really great one , and we never had amazing wingers to change our game.We have Yaya , Silva and Nasri on his day and Aguero, and who had enough quality to close that, we just can't change a lot.If u look at Barcelona players they all can play almost every position. It was clear last night that they left Cliche side open and close off Zabba side becouse well we saw couple times cross from Cliche. Then u had on other side Alba with cross and tap in for them in first chance he had.That is the diference , quality in all positions, only defense is week side of Barcelona and we are not better in that either.

I said it earlier on the thread but i defo think Bale could be a proper superstar in a team that's built around him.

twosips wrote:I said it earlier on the thread but i defo think Bale could be a proper superstar in a team that's built around him.

Christian?



or Gareth?