The transfer that got away (?)

[john@staustell]

Lots of threads slagging off players, but cant see any addressing the direct cause of the defeat.

It's looked for some time that if Touré or Kompany was injured we would struggle in some way against better teams. Dedryck, good lad, good prospect and all that, but the fact remains that is where they took advantage and that is where they won the game in the 4th minute. Although City looked well in it until the 2nd goal, being 1-0 down against Arsenal is a whole different ball game to 0-0. They can swagger about with confidence and our players are playing uphill, against the odds, slag them off as much as we like.

Although in theory Micah (possibly, not convincing) and Boateng (we dont know) can slot in at CB, the left back situation, Lescott's poor form and Dedryck's previous good form meant Boyata starting was probably the best option without hindsight.

But reading between the transfer saga lines, the David Luiz story was a persistent one, both in Spanish and particularly Portuguese media. Marwood said we got just about all our targets, but I reckon we didn't. Bobby (and Real) wanted David Luiz, Benfica insisted on something like €32M and we offered €18M and that was that. No compromise was reached and we didn't move on to another CB.

Pretty likely Dedryck will be OK in the medium or longer term (unlike many of our academy) but this 'hole' needs addressing in January if we harbour any title hopes at all - and I'm sure the club still does!

[Niall Quinns Discopants]

I thought that Mancini was looking David Luiz as hybrid leftback/left centerback bit in same fashion as we bought Boateng. Mancini seems to love versatile players. Idea was probably that he'd start at leftback. Then when they were completely unreasonable with their demands, we went for Aleksandar Kolarov. I rate Luiz from what I've seen of him but Benfica was asking TWICE as much as we paid for Kolarov and I feel there would've been bigger step up from soft as fuck Portuguese League than from Serie A. So I think it was right decision. In little time Kolarov played for us, he seemed to quickly adapt to pace and physical nature of Premier League.

One that def got away was Dzeko. I'm 100% positive we really tried to sign him but again, asking price was unreasonable so we walked away.

[Moonchesteri]

interesting tought. However I don't feep we have to necessarily buy a new CB. The right player With right price but otherwise no. Lescott would find his form too if he got more minutes under his belt.

[ant london]

I thought that Mancini was looking David Luiz as hybrid leftback/left centerback bit in same fashion as we bought Boateng. Mancini seems to love versatile players. Idea was probably that he'd start at leftback. Then when they were completely unreasonable with their demands, we went for Aleksandar Kolarov. I rate Luiz from what I've seen of him but Benfica was asking TWICE as much as we paid for Kolarov and I feel there would've been bigger step up from soft as fuck Portuguese League than from Serie A. So I think it was right decision. In little time Kolarov played for us, he seemed to quickly adapt to pace and physical nature of Premier League.

One that def got away was Dzeko. I'm 100% positive we really tried to sign him but again, asking price was unreasonable so we walked away.

Agree with all of this.

I thought at the time and still think now that we should have just coughed up for Dzeko.....we've had a trip to the cleaners for Lescott and Santa Cruz so I don't see why we were reluctant to go there again for someone of tangibly superior quality to either of the ones we did pay over the odds for

[john@staustell]

interesting tought. However I don't feep we have to necessarily buy a new CB. The right player With right price but otherwise no. Lescott would find his form too if he got more minutes under his belt.

I used to think that, but hope is fading..............................

[Alioune DVToure]

I thought that Mancini was looking David Luiz as hybrid leftback/left centerback bit in same fashion as we bought Boateng. Mancini seems to love versatile players. Idea was probably that he'd start at leftback. Then when they were completely unreasonable with their demands, we went for Aleksandar Kolarov. I rate Luiz from what I've seen of him but Benfica was asking TWICE as much as we paid for Kolarov and I feel there would've been bigger step up from soft as fuck Portuguese League than from Serie A. So I think it was right decision. In little time Kolarov played for us, he seemed to quickly adapt to pace and physical nature of Premier League.

One that def got away was Dzeko. I'm 100% positive we really tried to sign him but again, asking price was unreasonable so we walked away.

Agree with all of this apart from the assessment of Kolarov. His one taste of PL action was at Spurs, where Lennon gave him a pretty torrid time until he went off injured.

As for Boateng, his versatility is valuable but I think it would benefit him and us if he were to focus on becoming a specialist in one position whilst still a young lad. At the moment I prefer Kolo, Komps, Dedryck, Micah and Lescott at CB and Zabs, Micah, Kolarov and Lescott at full-back.

[Beefymcfc]

Where has all the crap come from about Lescott? To my recollection he was touted as coming into form prior to his injury at the back-end of last season, and from what I've seen this, he certainly doesn't seem to warrant this 'He is Crap' mentality - from what I'm reading it's as if Dedryk's sending off is down to Lescott's incompetence instead of the fact that he shouldn't have jumped in on the challenge and that he shouldn't have been in that position in the first place.

Don't get me wrong, I was against giving Everton that much money but once he is here we have to get behind the players who play for City. And, after looking back at the games Lescott's played this season (and seeing most live), then I can't see how he can get so much stick, in fact, the only other game we lost against Sunderland he played in, and as we all know, that was just lucky on there part (or unlucky on Micah's).

Regardless of Luiz or Kolarov, Joleon hasn't been bad for us this season and has been good cover for the LB and L-sided CB role, and in my opinion, Dedryk should've been nowhere near that game yeterday with Joleon starting.

[Dameerto]

We leak goals with Lescott in the centre though, maybe it's temporary and he just needs more matches, but I don't think Mancini was willing to risk it yesterday.

[Dubaimancityfan]

We leak goals with Lescott in the centre though, maybe it's temporary and he just needs more matches, but I don't think Mancini was willing to risk it yesterday.

Lescott's form of late has been bad an you can't blame Mancini for starting Boyata. A lot of us on this forum were calling for it. However I do expect Lescott to come back to form. He needs more games. I do though wish he would score the odd goal as he was doing regularly at Everton !

I don't think we need another CB with the staff that we already have. We even sent Nedum on loan and he could have slotted in there easily.


Yesterday a combination of events happend which led to our loss:

1. Kolo's injury.
2. Boyata's early sending off.
3. Tevez's injury almost midway through 1st half. Without Tevez we lost our way forward. To a lesser extent Yay's injury also added to our problems.
4. Bridge's gift for the 2nd goal which sealed the match.
5. Last but not least, Fabianski all of a sudden decided to become a worl class keeper (much like Robinson earlier in the season) and made a couple of great saves from Silva (and one from Boating late on) which if scored could have changed the whole equation.

[Crossie]

Despite all our injuries,

We still had one of the tightest defences in the league until we played Arsenal with 10 men,

Stop panicing!

[Ted Hughes]

Where has all the crap come from about Lescott? To my recollection he was touted as coming into form prior to his injury at the back-end of last season, and from what I've seen this, he certainly doesn't seem to warrant this 'He is Crap' mentality - from what I'm reading it's as if Dedryk's sending off is down to Lescott's incompetence instead of the fact that he shouldn't have jumped in on the challenge and that he shouldn't have been in that position in the first place.

Don't get me wrong, I was against giving Everton that much money but once he is here we have to get behind the players who play for City. And, after looking back at the games Lescott's played this season (and seeing most live), then I can't see how he can get so much stick, in fact, the only other game we lost against Sunderland he played in, and as we all know, that was just lucky on there part (or unlucky on Micah's).

Regardless of Luiz or Kolarov, Joleon hasn't been bad for us this season and has been good cover for the LB and L-sided CB role, and in my opinion, Dedryk should've been nowhere near that game yeterday with Joleon starting.

Lescott's not been brilliant but Boyata has got away with 2 pens v Chelsea, stank the place out v West Brom & been nothing more than 'promising' in his other games; doing some great & some bad things. There was no rational reason whatsoever for playing him v Arsenal.

If we don't trust Lescott then we need another CB but I personally haven't seen any especially good ones apart from Lucio. Whether Luiz could make the change, I don't know. Imo the problem that needs addressing is that we need a CB who's not only big & strong but also quick. Lescott & Vinny lack pace as a pairing.

As an alternative; Micah is starting to look like he's getting back to what he once was & his best position is at CB. Boateng is an attacking right back/possible quick CB of the future (not yet). We have Zabba as a defensive right back & if we need another defensive RB to take Micah's spot, allowing him to move over, there's a lad at Sunderland called Onuoha who is playing very well indeed & pretty much unbeatable 1v1. I believe he's a City fan too, so we may be able to tempt him. He also has more crossing assists so far than AJ or SWP.

[Dubaimancityfan]

Where has all the crap come from about Lescott? To my recollection he was touted as coming into form prior to his injury at the back-end of last season, and from what I've seen this, he certainly doesn't seem to warrant this 'He is Crap' mentality - from what I'm reading it's as if Dedryk's sending off is down to Lescott's incompetence instead of the fact that he shouldn't have jumped in on the challenge and that he shouldn't have been in that position in the first place.

Don't get me wrong, I was against giving Everton that much money but once he is here we have to get behind the players who play for City. And, after looking back at the games Lescott's played this season (and seeing most live), then I can't see how he can get so much stick, in fact, the only other game we lost against Sunderland he played in, and as we all know, that was just lucky on there part (or unlucky on Micah's).

Regardless of Luiz or Kolarov, Joleon hasn't been bad for us this season and has been good cover for the LB and L-sided CB role, and in my opinion, Dedryk should've been nowhere near that game yeterday with Joleon starting.

Lescott's not been brilliant but Boyata has got away with 2 pens v Chelsea, stank the place out v West Brom & been nothing more than 'promising' in his other games; doing some great & some bad things. There was no rational reason whatsoever for playing him v Arsenal.


If we don't trust Lescott then we need another CB but I personally haven't seen any especially good ones apart from Lucio. Whether Luiz could make the change, I don't know. Imo the problem that needs addressing is that we need a CB who's not only big & strong but also quick. Lescott & Vinny lack pace as a pairing.

As an alternative; Micah is starting to look like he's getting back to what he once was & his best position is at CB. Boateng is an attacking right back/possible quick CB of the future (not yet). We have Zabba as a defensive right back & if we need another defensive RB to take Micah's spot, allowing him to move over, there's a lad at Sunderland called Onuoha who is playing very well indeed & pretty much unbeatable 1v1. I believe he's a City fan too, so we may be able to tempt him. He also has more crossing assists so far than AJ or SWP.

Good shout about this Onouha guy Ted. I've noticed him too ! Maybe someone will alert Mancini about him !

[brite blu sky]

My two penneth on the Lescott issue is that he is still not up to speed, physically, mentally or confidence wise. Due to injury and lack of a run of games. I think he thrown in before 100 % ready recently, with England too. With time i think he will get back up to speed and then be fairly solid. If he keeps getting injuries though he could struggle to get back the form he has shown on occasions. At the moment i have him down as a long term concern for that reason but not because i dont think he is good enough.

As pointed out his pace is not the best, if he is sharp he can get away with that, but anything less and it starts to affect his game imo. Thats why he needs to be a full 100% fit.

[mcfctm]

Funny one this because I was going to start a thread on Sunday morning about Phil Jagielka but didn't. Shame he was injured at the time we signed Lescott because we could have gone for him instead. I think he's matured into a fantastic centre half at Everton and is better than wio and Terry by a country mile. Saw him on goals on Sunday and he seems like a sound bloke as well.

[Ted Hughes]

Funny one this because I was going to start a thread on Sunday morning about Phil Jagielka but didn't. Shame he was injured at the time we signed Lescott because we could have gone for him instead. I think he's matured into a fantastic centre half at Everton and is better than wio and Terry by a country mile. Saw him on goals on Sunday and he seems like a sound bloke as well.

He's 28 though. I don't think we're in the market for big money players of that age anymore.

[Im_Spartacus]

If we allowed Lescott a run in ONE position I am sure he would compare well against the likes of Toure.

I can't for the life of me understand the shit he is getting. I personally thought he was shit most of last season but started getting his act together this year when I thought he has done reasonably well.

He has done little wrong when compared with Boyata, but because we paid 3 squillion for him he is an easy target - the transfer fee was not his fault, lay off for fucksake!

[the_georgian_genius]

I beleive we didn't buy David Luiz because of the fact we had a younger and potentially better centre half already at the club that would save us £35m in Boyata. Boyata next year will be fantastic!

[getdressedmctavish]

Forum very enjoyable today for some reason. Maybe defeat is good for us and Ted admitting to not rating Boyata is laying himself open there, lol. My view on Boyata is that he's got everything except his first movement is slow. If he improves on that he will be a great CB in the mold of sol Cambell, who ofcourse couldn't pass the ball either.Interesting to hear Doug say Jerome was pencilled in with zab left. Coming away with hindsight I was querying why Mancini hadn't gone for that. Not that it would have made much difference given the way he played. in our recent games we've been ripped to shreds at times by Arse but have overpowered them. With 11 Sunday would have been no exception.IMO

[Ted Hughes]

Forum very enjoyable today for some reason. Maybe defeat is good for us and Ted admitting to not rating Boyata is laying himself open there, lol. My view on Boyata is that he's got everything except his first movement is slow. If he improves on that he will be a great CB in the mold of sol Cambell, who ofcourse couldn't pass the ball either.Interesting to hear Doug say Jerome was pencilled in with zab left. Coming away with hindsight I was querying why Mancini hadn't gone for that. Not that it would have made much difference given the way he played. in our recent games we've been ripped to shreds at times by Arse but have overpowered them. With 11 Sunday would have been no exception.IMO

I rate Boyata & Boateng very highly indeed, as fantastic prospects. Just not both together in an untried partenerhip v Arsenal.

[Steve]

I would like to think that for £21m Lescott will be an adequate back up centre half for 5-10 games a season max. I can't think of any other teams in the league who have spent anything near that much for a back up defender.