is pep off?

[Mase]

He’s obviously not going to name names is he? He said specifically players that aren’t injured not playing, not playing through the pain and then yesterday said that a lot showed no fight

[Indianablue]

His closing line yesterday when he was asked, again, about his future was important. “…what’s best for Manchester City”.

Makes me think he’s off - he knows, the club knows, the players know. I also think someone has already been chosen and sounded out (Girona manager is my guess). It won’t be announced until it’s right for everyone though.

I'd say the right time was a few weeks ago before the players decided to down tools. They've stopped playing. They won't start playing again until a new manager is in place or Pep comes out and signs for another 2 years minimum. Some of our squad are clearly having beefs with him and this has infected the club

Which players downed tools ? The ones that are injured or the youngsters getting a start because of so many injuries ?

We've just played four away games three long trips to London or the south coast and Lisbon.

KDB
Grealish
Haaland
Walker
Foden
DIAS
Ake
Not getting a proper tune out of any of these above
Nunes, Doku, Sav, Lewis, Akanji. Pussey, O Reilly, Eddy, seem to be trying
Stones not sure, made of glass
Silva trying but affected by events
Gundo past it
Kovatic and Gvardiol playing well

[sheblue]

Downing tools, not so sure about that.

[Indianablue]

Downing tools, not so sure about that.

Apart from Sparta Prague where we eventually put 5 goals in but I feel we could and should have scored double that, which game have we looked good in, and got a win. I struggle to think of any. Most teams have looked like very dangerous with limited opportunities, and have torn thru our midfield and defence.
If we didn't have Haaland we'd be fucked

[sheblue]

Downing tools, not so sure about that.

Apart from Sparta Prague where we eventually put 5 goals in but I feel we could and should have scored double that, which game have we looked good in, and got a win. I struggle to think of any. Most teams have looked like very dangerous with limited opportunities, and have torn thru our midfield and defence.
If we didn't have Haaland we'd be fucked

For me it's not players downing tools. It's a culmination of factors that have been simmering away and have now caught up with us, we've been declining for a while now mainly due to stuff like.
Aging players, e.g. kev, walker, gundo.
Injuries, leading to fatigue in others who have to play more than normal.
Too small a squad.
Bad squad planning, not signing the level of quality needed, letting good players waltz off too easily. Just having 1 striker!
Management mistakes. Pep is prone to stupid mistakes on occasion.
Hunger, after 4 in a row, it's bound to dip at some time.
The charges and legal bullshit, can't see that circus helping morale either.

I think it's more of the above rather than players downing tools.

[Indianablue]

Downing tools, not so sure about that.

Apart from Sparta Prague where we eventually put 5 goals in but I feel we could and should have scored double that, which game have we looked good in, and got a win. I struggle to think of any. Most teams have looked like very dangerous with limited opportunities, and have torn thru our midfield and defence.
If we didn't have Haaland we'd be fucked

For me it's not players downing tools. It's a culmination of factors that have been simmering away and have now caught up with us, we've been declining for a while now mainly due to stuff like.
Aging players, e.g. kev, walker, gundo.
Injuries, leading to fatigue in others who have to play more than normal.
Too small a squad.
Bad squad planning, not signing the level of quality needed, letting good players waltz off too easily. Just having 1 striker!
Management mistakes. Pep is prone to stupid mistakes on occasion.
Hunger, after 4 in a row, it's bound to dip at some time.
The charges and legal bullshit, can't see that circus helping morale either.

I think it's more of the above rather than players downing tools.

There's definitely a lot going on it could be any of them and all of them. But Pep is a poor user of his substitutes. if he releases players that want to go then he needs to cover their absences , Rodri is a big loss and Bobb could have done a good job up front but KDB and Walker have had a hand on the door for a season at least and they should have been moved on. Gundo WAS capable but he's a makeweight now, not first team choice and he's struggling.
I was hoping to see some fight from these players and manager (The professional pride must be hurting) . added with the legal issues i was hoping to see a big Fuckem All but at the moment, we are being bullied off and on the pitch

[carl_feedthegoat]

Downing tools, not so sure about that.

Apart from Sparta Prague where we eventually put 5 goals in but I feel we could and should have scored double that, which game have we looked good in, and got a win. I struggle to think of any. Most teams have looked like very dangerous with limited opportunities, and have torn thru our midfield and defence.
If we didn't have Haaland we'd be fucked

For me it's not players downing tools. It's a culmination of factors that have been simmering away and have now caught up with us, we've been declining for a while now mainly due to stuff like.
Aging players, e.g. kev, walker, gundo.
Injuries, leading to fatigue in others who have to play more than normal.
Too small a squad.
Bad squad planning, not signing the level of quality needed, letting good players waltz off too easily. Just having 1 striker!
Management mistakes. Pep is prone to stupid mistakes on occasion.
Hunger, after 4 in a row, it's bound to dip at some time.
The charges and legal bullshit, can't see that circus helping morale either.

I think it's more of the above rather than players downing tools.

There's definitely a lot going on it could be any of them and all of them. But Pep is a poor user of his substitutes. if he releases players that want to go then he needs to cover their absences , Rodri is a big loss and Bobb could have done a good job up front but KDB and Walker have had a hand on the door for a season at least and they should have been moved on. Gundo WAS capable but he's a makeweight now, not first team choice and he's struggling.
I was hoping to see some fight from these players and manager (The professional pride must be hurting) . added with the legal issues i was hoping to see a big Fuckem All but at the moment, we are being bullied off and on the pitch

Pep bitched and whined for 5 subs for ages and eventually got his way and then hardly ever uses them !!!

It’s a fucking piss take .

[Nick]

Dias at the mtv awards thinking he's a film star

[PeterParker]

https://www.thetimes.com/article/c44bb000-0893-4eb7-93ec-edf42729e80e?shareToken=f422f162566822eb7fb7483d0a106727&fbclid=IwY2xjawGetARleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHUz6HcomAbcr55GWBVpLYnsT7yappr99Z8W_nmFopsAw78B-ScRxZB2cBA_aem_h8MfS3DdWU4ZSVBBU_KB_w

Majestic by Samuel, as always.

[Im_Spartacus]

I'd be surprised he's going, primarily because of the state of the squad at the moment.

I struggle to believe that the club that have been so strategically perfect over the last 15 years, have allowed an entire squad to age together without any meaningful activity in recent transfer windows, at the same time we risk losing the manager.

The only explanation I can see for the lacklustre transfer windows, is that the club potentially do have some concerns about the outcome of the PL case, and haven't wanted to spend big just in case. When you win the treble and the champions league, your job is to get out there and do everything to maintain that level, and while we had a good season last year, and are well placed this year despite the current blip, I worry big time about next year.

Next season we're either going to have a new manager inheriting a squad very clearly past its collective best and risk getting into some questionable decisions of buying for a manager vs buying for the system, or Guardiola staying and needing to bring in 3-4 key players into his very specific way of playing that takes 2 seasons to get the best out of new players.

Either way, it doesn't fill me with confidence.

[carl_feedthegoat]

I'd be surprised he's going, primarily because of the state of the squad at the moment.

I struggle to believe that the club that have been so strategically perfect over the last 15 years, have allowed an entire squad to age together without any meaningful activity in recent transfer windows, at the same time we risk losing the manager.

The only explanation I can see for the lacklustre transfer windows, is that the club potentially do have some concerns about the outcome of the PL case, and haven't wanted to spend big just in case. When you win the treble and the champions league, your job is to get out there and do everything to maintain that level, and while we had a good season last year, and are well placed this year despite the current blip, I worry big time about next year.

Next season we're either going to have a new manager inheriting a squad very clearly past its collective best and risk getting into some questionable decisions of buying for a manager vs buying for the system, or Guardiola staying and needing to bring in 3-4 key players into his very specific way of playing that takes 2 seasons to get the best out of new players.

Either way, it doesn't fill me with confidence.

If they had sold walker ,KDB and Bernardo we would have had enough money in the bank to buy a couple of excellent players....instead we fucked up , 2 of those players are non existent this season and the other one has played poorly.

We wouldn't have missed any of them if we had sold them.

[Mase]

I think it’s wages that’s the issue, apparently. Get Walker off the books. Grealish can fuck off. Kev will be going at the end of the season. Good chunk of wages that

[Harry Dowd scored]

Downing tools, not so sure about that.

Apart from Sparta Prague where we eventually put 5 goals in but I feel we could and should have scored double that, which game have we looked good in, and got a win. I struggle to think of any. Most teams have looked like very dangerous with limited opportunities, and have torn thru our midfield and defence.
If we didn't have Haaland we'd be fucked

For me it's not players downing tools. It's a culmination of factors that have been simmering away and have now caught up with us, we've been declining for a while now mainly due to stuff like.
Aging players, e.g. kev, walker, gundo.
Injuries, leading to fatigue in others who have to play more than normal.
Too small a squad.
Bad squad planning, not signing the level of quality needed, letting good players waltz off too easily. Just having 1 striker!
Management mistakes. Pep is prone to stupid mistakes on occasion.
Hunger, after 4 in a row, it's bound to dip at some time.
The charges and legal bullshit, can't see that circus helping morale either.

I think it's more of the above rather than players downing tools.

There's definitely a lot going on it could be any of them and all of them. But Pep is a poor user of his substitutes. if he releases players that want to go then he needs to cover their absences , Rodri is a big loss and Bobb could have done a good job up front but KDB and Walker have had a hand on the door for a season at least and they should have been moved on. Gundo WAS capable but he's a makeweight now, not first team choice and he's struggling.
I was hoping to see some fight from these players and manager (The professional pride must be hurting) . added with the legal issues i was hoping to see a big Fuckem All but at the moment, we are being bullied off and on the pitch

Pep bitched and whined for 5 subs for ages and eventually got his way and then hardly ever uses them !!!

It’s a fucking piss take .

His use of subs is appalling, like Carl says he fucking made a big issue of 5 subs needed saying it would help with player fatigue, but, he rarely use more than two unless there are injuries during the game. I cannot remember 5 being used. Fucking infuriating when the game looks to be lost & fuck all is done till 87th minute.

[stupot]

We had Wilson Esbrand on the bench Saturday who's not wanted by Championship clubs along with a few kids plus Akanji and Ake who were patched up.
The time to put McAtee, O'Reilly, Wright etc on is when we're winning comfortably in the last 20 minutes or so.
The only 2 he could really bring on at the weekend were Bernardo and Kev who both unfortunately did nothing.

[Mase]

We had Wilson Esbrand on the bench Saturday who's not wanted by Championship clubs along with a few kids plus Akanji and Ake who were patched up.
The time to put McAtee, O'Reilly, Wright etc on is when we're winning comfortably in the last 20 minutes or so.
The only 2 he could really bring on at the weekend were Bernardo and Kev who both unfortunately did nothing.

I’d argue putting your likes of McAtee on is now - would they be any worse than Gundo? They might bring something new. We’ll only know if we play them.

The problem is - we’re never winning comfortably anymore because we take our foot off second half

[stupot]

We had Wilson Esbrand on the bench Saturday who's not wanted by Championship clubs along with a few kids plus Akanji and Ake who were patched up.
The time to put McAtee, O'Reilly, Wright etc on is when we're winning comfortably in the last 20 minutes or so.
The only 2 he could really bring on at the weekend were Bernardo and Kev who both unfortunately did nothing.

I’d argue putting your likes of McAtee on is now - would they be any worse than Gundo? They might bring something new. We’ll only know if we play them.

The problem is - we’re never winning comfortably anymore because we take our foot off second half

You're probably right about McAtee to be fair with his PL experience last season.
I think I'm right about the other 2.
We should be out of sight before the 2nd half. Lisbon and Brighton if we score a 2nd with one of the many 1st half chances then it's a totally different story.

[carl_feedthegoat]

Our poor defence selections have been an abortion and has been for longer than I care to remember .
Pep always fucks around with it and has never ever had a settled back 4 since he’s been with us - no excuse is acceptable as it’s the same story year after year !

As I said , he has gotten away with it for years as we always screwed every team with our midfield and forwards but not anymore.

[Indianablue]

https://www.thetimes.com/article/c44bb000-0893-4eb7-93ec-edf42729e80e?shareToken=f422f162566822eb7fb7483d0a106727&fbclid=IwY2xjawGetARleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHUz6HcomAbcr55GWBVpLYnsT7yappr99Z8W_nmFopsAw78B-ScRxZB2cBA_aem_h8MfS3DdWU4ZSVBBU_KB_w

Majestic by Samuel, as always.

Sums up what alot of us have been posting

[sheblue]

I think it’s wages that’s the issue, apparently. Get Walker off the books. Grealish can fuck off. Kev will be going at the end of the season. Good chunk of wages that

Their replacements, if at the correct standard, would cost as much in wages.

[salford city]

I think it’s wages that’s the issue, apparently. Get Walker off the books. Grealish can fuck off. Kev will be going at the end of the season. Good chunk of wages that

Their replacements, if at the correct standard, would cost as much in wages.

That's where I'm at as well. The only thing in our favour may be the age of player incoming but overall, we are going to have to pay either a higher transfer fee or wages that match our current level if we are looking at the likes of Wirtz