How do we get a title challenging squad for next season?

[Bojinov's left foot]

Currently (6 games left) we are 15 points behind the leaders with a game in hand. Is it realistic that we can challenge for the title next season and if yes what do we need to do? I think it is realistic, do you agree?

With European football and higher expectation levels than this season our standards would need to be raised. The Club will need to bring in higher quality players than what we currently have.

The key areas to improve for me are:
creative midfielder
box-to-box midfielder
goalscorer

Any thoughts on positions or players that you feel would strengthen our squad and help us challenge for the title?

[Nick]

Possible centre back? There is no stand out starter at CB for me. Lescott I have said may be the big one in the next few years. Kompany is playing well. I think Toure is dodgy as fuck, but hes great when hes in form.

[Kladze]

The key areas are actually (imo) two fullbacks and a midfielder who can dictate the pace of the game (as well as pass the ball well obviously).

[btajim]

Currently (6 games left) we are 15 points behind the leaders with a game in hand. Is it realistic that we can challenge for the title next season and if yes what do we need to do? I think it is realistic, do you agree?

With European football and higher expectation levels than this season our standards would need to be raised. The Club will need to bring in higher quality players than what we currently have.

The key areas to improve for me are:
creative midfielder
box-to-box midfielder
goalscorer

Any thoughts on positions or players that you feel would strengthen our squad and help us challenge for the title?

A top notch Centre Half. Kompany and Lescott might be doing a job when they play together - but Kompany, Lescott, Toure, Richards, Onouha... There's something missing. An absolute Rock in Defence. Colin the King did an excellent thread on it a while back.

Goalscorer? Tevez and Adebayor will do for me. Imagine when Ade has an issue free season and finds his old Arsenal form.

[cdncityfan]

Honestly, I believe that our existing squad is good enough to win the Barclays Premier League. Why we are 15 points behind the leaders have more to do with the number of games where the team has not played as a unit as opposed to the quality of the players as individuals. Team organization has improved under Mancini, albeit at the cost of scoring as many goals against anyone except Burnley and Championship sides.
Apart from adding more depth (although after injury returns, our bench is deeper than the rags, liverpool and arsenal and slightly behind Chelsea), keeping the team together to develop better chemistry and tactical fluidity would be the best thing which we can do. Or we can spend another 200 million quid and start the process all over again.

[Burt]

The simple answer to the question is finish fourth. "Build It And He Will Come".

[patrickblue]

Honestly, I believe that our existing squad is good enough to win the Barclays Premier League. Why we are 15 points behind the leaders have more to do with the number of games where the team has not played as a unit as opposed to the quality of the players as individuals. Team organization has improved under Mancini, albeit at the cost of scoring as many goals against anyone except Burnley and Championship sides.
Apart from adding more depth (although after injury returns, our bench is deeper than the rags, liverpool and arsenal and slightly behind Chelsea), keeping the team together to develop better chemistry and tactical fluidity would be the best thing which we can do. Or we can spend another 200 million quid and start the process all over again.

I'm with you on this one, and said the same a few days back here viewtopic.php?f=119&t=31483&p=129149#p129149

[ashton287]

We need a good creative mid to replace Ireland

we need a good left back and 2 good centre backs. Toure is fucking shit, fat and lazy. Lescott is a girl and kompany is a midfielder.

[bluechester]

We need a good creative mid to replace Ireland

we need a good left back and 2 good centre backs. Toure is fucking shit, fat and lazy. Lescott is a girl and kompany is a midfielder.

agree about the creative midfielder, even about toure, but kompany is a CB not a midfielder, lescott will be a good signing in the long term, was starting to play well with kompany at the bacck

[gillie]

Dont buy Berbatov he is fuckin shite no really he is.

[Grob]

Buy some better players

[Socrates]

Honestly, I believe that our existing squad is good enough to win the Barclays Premier League. Why we are 15 points behind the leaders have more to do with the number of games where the team has not played as a unit as opposed to the quality of the players as individuals. Team organization has improved under Mancini, albeit at the cost of scoring as many goals against anyone except Burnley and Championship sides.
Apart from adding more depth (although after injury returns, our bench is deeper than the rags, liverpool and arsenal and slightly behind Chelsea), keeping the team together to develop better chemistry and tactical fluidity would be the best thing which we can do. Or we can spend another 200 million quid and start the process all over again.

And Chelsea?

[gillie]

Honestly, I believe that our existing squad is good enough to win the Barclays Premier League. Why we are 15 points behind the leaders have more to do with the number of games where the team has not played as a unit as opposed to the quality of the players as individuals. Team organization has improved under Mancini, albeit at the cost of scoring as many goals against anyone except Burnley and Championship sides.
Apart from adding more depth (although after injury returns, our bench is deeper than the rags, liverpool and arsenal and slightly behind Chelsea), keeping the team together to develop better chemistry and tactical fluidity would be the best thing which we can do. Or we can spend another 200 million quid and start the process all over again.

And Chelsea?

And Arsenal at home.

[Beefymcfc]

From the question, we bring in a couple of real quality players to enhance the squad we have got. We've pushed ourselves to fourth within a very short period of time and they've shown recently how good they really are.

[Niall Quinns Discopants]

Honestly, I believe that our existing squad is good enough to win the Barclays Premier League. Why we are 15 points behind the leaders have more to do with the number of games where the team has not played as a unit as opposed to the quality of the players as individuals. Team organization has improved under Mancini, albeit at the cost of scoring as many goals against anyone except Burnley and Championship sides.
Apart from adding more depth (although after injury returns, our bench is deeper than the rags, liverpool and arsenal and slightly behind Chelsea), keeping the team together to develop better chemistry and tactical fluidity would be the best thing which we can do. Or we can spend another 200 million quid and start the process all over again.

I'm with you on this one, and said the same a few days back here viewtopic.php?f=119&t=31483&p=129149#p129149

I disagree strongly with both of you.

We WILL have to spend another 200m (or even more) to get us in contention. It was always clear that spending would come in stages. First we needed to turn midtable squad into Champion's League contenders. Considering our rivals for that spend have years head start of steady spending and building their squads, 200m is what it takes to turn midtable side into Champion's League contenders. SECOND stage, which I believe is getting us to challenge for title(s), will easily take another 200m+. We need to replace Toure's with Terry's, De Jong's with Lampard's and Adebayor's with Drogba's. Honestly, we only have few players capable of playing in a side ready to challenge for title. Gap between 4th and 1st is HUGE right now..... never mind challenging likes of Barcelona which I think is eventually our aim.

This next step will demand time, money and patience. I don't think for a minute that it will happen in a year. Two years minimum for me.

[Bingo Lewis]

Left back
Replacement for Toure. He needs to go.
Right Back
Mega, mega tricky creative midfielder
Right Winger
David Villa

next seasons team should look a bit like this to me

----------------Hart (unless Shay improves)

Maicon----Kompo--Lescott----Cole

Silva-----VDV or Schneider---Barry---Johnson

-------------Tevez-----Villa

Shay, Richards, Bridge, Hangeland, De Jong, Ireland, Ade

and really really good back up / cup squad.
I reckon we need to spend £150m - £200m to get there
Maicon or another top rightback - £20m
Ashley Cole (I know he's a cunt, but he's one of the best LB's) - £25m
Hangeland - £15m
Silva - £25m
VDV / Schneider - £20m - £25m
Villa - £40m - £50m

I'd also make some wild offers for the likes of Torres, Xavi, Messi, Drogba, Fabregas etc just to see if we get lucky with one.

[Wooders]

Gerrard, higuain, Lahm, Subotic, Di Maria, decent left back = prem title

[TonyM]

I think we should aim to simply improve on 4th. If we try to buy for the title we may risk upsetting our development. Move slower I think. Concentrate on getting the players we have playing well together as a unit. Buy a few player to fill some gaps but mostly bring through the young players we have. Ibra, Guidetti, Ball, Weiss, Boyata, etc can all do a job if the team is operating well as a unit.

I'd prefer not to get the likes of Gerrard or Torres. They will almost certainly bring baggage of some sort. A few upcoming players, like Henderson, McCarthy, Gosling, etc but not so much that we stifle our own academy.

IMO if we can just challenge in the top 3 for a couple of seasons, get a couple of cups along the way and represent ourselves well in Europe then we'll be very very strong position. The media, the masses and more importantly potential target will look at us in a different light. IMO we'll be stronger in the long-term if we take it steady once we are in the top 4. Pre top 4 - frenetic, Post top 4 - calm.

[john@staustell]

We are certainly NOT good enough to win it at the moment. Having said that I think that period before Xmas the squad we had underperformed, leading to MH´s departure. If it hadn´t we might have clung on better in this season of mediocrity at the top.

Defence - Two full backs and a centre-back would be nice.

Midfield - the obvious box-to-box, but will Johnson be fit enough to act as cover? Will Ireland return? Will Petrov be left to go out of contract? Will Bellers knees stand up? Is SWP any good at this level anymore? If Vieira goes what cover for Barry and DeJong?

Strikers - If you count Bellers as a left mid, then we have staggered through with 3 strikers, all out for long periods at various times, and for me this has been touch-and-go and we have been lucky. Therefore at least one more top striker. Villa may be OK!

I know Mancini will be thinking big, and I hope the owners continue that route too.

"Ibra, Guidetti, Ball, Weiss, Boyata, etc can all do a job if the team is operating well as a unit."

Sorry Tony but this wont do. It´s the mentality of City 1999. We are talking about winning the PL and possibly the CL here. Ibra, Ball and Boyata may well go down the Chesterfield route in the future, you´re biased because they´re from our sacred academy. Guidetti may be the one, but he may not. But if we are going to use them as our covering players, forget it! We dont want people to ´do a job`, we want people to step up to the top level of club football in the world, from August!!

[Im_Spartacus]

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