From zeros to heros

[john@staustell]

This isn't intended as a dig at anyone, as I myself have been mystified by one or two signings over the years. The passion of the football fan, and the City fan, is underlined by the horror at what is sometimes seen as a bad signing/appointment. But it just goes to show how wrong we can all be when these people turn up trumps and, in the case of this season, turn up a trophy, CL, and maybe the Community Shield to add.

Of course at our club we have had so many horror sigings over the years, that we are conditioned not to trust the (often equally inept) managers. But maybe for a while we could now?

Over recent history people who have had threads on websites bemoaning their signings, off the top of my head, would be:

Roberto Mancini
Patrick Vieira (essential to what we have done, but maybe the most slated of all initially?)
Yaya Touré (What DOES he actually do? Win cups!!!)
Joleon Lescott (Brilliant this year)
Edin Dzeko (played a major if limited part in keeping us in FA Cup and league victories at the end)
Nigel De Jong (Yes it's true)
Gareth Barry (has his faults, but major importance both for City and England)
Not to mention Bellers of course

Strangely one or two maybe lesser lights, players who have disappointed a bit more, sometimes get a better greeting:

Kolarov
Adam Jonners
SWP

Balotelli can be in both camps!!!

What do we know eh?

[Niall Quinns Discopants]

Gareth Barry belongs to latter group. Considering how muich fish out of water he looks in our starting XI, he has got it quite easy. In fact, there are one or two people who will say "Barry had one of his better games" even after his worst games. Barry is one of those players who make some people think "I didn't see him much all game except for those three handballs so he must've been doing lot of work off the ball".

I have been one of De Jong critics but not so much for his effort or even for what he does for the team but more of the fact that IF you have De Jong on the pitcc, rest of the midfield needs to be extremely attackminded imo. De Jong is a "role player" and one of the best around in his role. I have never ever questioned that. In the system we have though I would either prefer three box-to-box midfielders OR De Jong and two more attacking players. De Jong and Barry together there makes us way too slow on counterattack especially considering kind of attacking players we have in front of them. Mind, I have forgiven but will NEVER forget that fucking spineless and gutless performance in second half of THAT derby. Their winner still fucking hurts.

Apart from Kolarov, who I haven't really critisised either as he has played EXACTLY as I expected him to play having seen him in Italy, I don't think I've been too critical of any of them. Mancini has got some deserved and some extremely harsh critism. Vieira has been mostly used as a tool to beat Mancini, which was bit odd as he came for free. SWP, for me, is fantastic player to have on the bench. Ditto Adam Johnson, who needs to learn to concentrate bit. I always liked YaYa but people were saying that he wasn't in condition to play full 90 minutes earlier in the season and they were right. Lescott is good but injury prone player who is the type that always has few shaky games after injuries. Dzeko will bang tons of goals for us, of that I have no doubt. Looking back at his career, he has started slowly everywhere. And it's not like he didn't contribute AT ALL.

[BlueinBosnia]

Apart from Kolarov, who I haven't really critisised either as he has played EXACTLY as I expected him to play having seen him in Italy...

I was excited by the Kolarov signing, as I thought he had it in him to take the step up to the Prem. In a way, I think he still does, just not with us. If we shipped him off to, say, Hamburg, and he performed well there for a couple of seasons, I think he could hack it with a Europa League-contending team, like Liverpool, Villa or Fulham. I don't think he spent long enough in Seria A to become fully 'Italianized'.

[Douglas Higginbottom]

Gareth Barry belongs to latter group. Considering how muich fish out of water he looks in our starting XI, he has got it quite easy. In fact, there are one or two people who will say "Barry had one of his better games" even after his worst games. Barry is one of those players who make some people think "I didn't see him much all game except for those three handballs so he must've been doing lot of work off the ball".

I have been one of De Jong critics but not so much for his effort or even for what he does for the team but more of the fact that IF you have De Jong on the pitcc, rest of the midfield needs to be extremely attackminded imo. De Jong is a "role player" and one of the best around in his role. I have never ever questioned that. In the system we have though I would either prefer three box-to-box midfielders OR De Jong and two more attacking players. De Jong and Barry together there makes us way too slow on counterattack especially considering kind of attacking players we have in front of them. Mind, I have forgiven but will NEVER forget that fucking spineless and gutless performance in second half of THAT derby. Their winner still fucking hurts.

Apart from Kolarov, who I haven't really critisised either as he has played EXACTLY as I expected him to play having seen him in Italy, I don't think I've been too critical of any of them. Mancini has got some deserved and some extremely harsh critism. Vieira has been mostly used as a tool to beat Mancini, which was bit odd as he came for free. SWP, for me, is fantastic player to have on the bench. Ditto Adam Johnson, who needs to learn to concentrate bit. I always liked YaYa but people were saying that he wasn't in condition to play full 90 minutes earlier in the season and they were right. Lescott is good but injury prone player who is the type that always has few shaky games after injuries. Dzeko will bang tons of goals for us, of that I have no doubt. Looking back at his career, he has started slowly everywhere. And it's not like he didn't contribute AT ALL.

Yessssss. Great to see NQD get the Nigel dig in again. All is right with the world:)

[Niall Quinns Discopants]

Gareth Barry belongs to latter group. Considering how muich fish out of water he looks in our starting XI, he has got it quite easy. In fact, there are one or two people who will say "Barry had one of his better games" even after his worst games. Barry is one of those players who make some people think "I didn't see him much all game except for those three handballs so he must've been doing lot of work off the ball".

I have been one of De Jong critics but not so much for his effort or even for what he does for the team but more of the fact that IF you have De Jong on the pitcc, rest of the midfield needs to be extremely attackminded imo. De Jong is a "role player" and one of the best around in his role. I have never ever questioned that. In the system we have though I would either prefer three box-to-box midfielders OR De Jong and two more attacking players. De Jong and Barry together there makes us way too slow on counterattack especially considering kind of attacking players we have in front of them. Mind, I have forgiven but will NEVER forget that fucking spineless and gutless performance in second half of THAT derby. Their winner still fucking hurts.

Apart from Kolarov, who I haven't really critisised either as he has played EXACTLY as I expected him to play having seen him in Italy, I don't think I've been too critical of any of them. Mancini has got some deserved and some extremely harsh critism. Vieira has been mostly used as a tool to beat Mancini, which was bit odd as he came for free. SWP, for me, is fantastic player to have on the bench. Ditto Adam Johnson, who needs to learn to concentrate bit. I always liked YaYa but people were saying that he wasn't in condition to play full 90 minutes earlier in the season and they were right. Lescott is good but injury prone player who is the type that always has few shaky games after injuries. Dzeko will bang tons of goals for us, of that I have no doubt. Looking back at his career, he has started slowly everywhere. And it's not like he didn't contribute AT ALL.

Yessssss. Great to see NQD get the Nigel dig in again. All is right with the world:)

How was that having a go at De Jong? Should I just say that he is flair central midfield playmaker with passing range to die for?

[john@staustell]

It's very simplistic to think every midfielder should have 'flair and passing range'. A team needs different players, which Mr Wenger cannot seem to grasp. Wonder where Arsenal might have got with Messrs De Jong and Kompany in their side? And Barry for that matter. Not sure what it is, but there's something about him that makes Capello and Mancini put him down on the teamsheet.

Several 'expert' pundits also seem to think you should have 11 'flair' players. Most of them can only grasp the attacking half of the game, and not that a game of football has several components, of which attack and defence should be equal partners.

[Avalon]

I indeed wonder why Capello and Mancini are so keen on Barry. Not that I dislike Barry, I think he's a nice bloke and that he's there to help the team. I just wonder what Capello and Mancini see in him that he's almost always guaranteed to start.

[johnny crossan]

and back again....and back again - in the case of Carlitos

[aaron bond]

I agree with the OP that we all chop and change our minds on players, and now it's the end of the season and we've been so successful, we forgive the manager/players for any mistakes they've made. Whilst people can go over the top on occasion, the list of players above have all at times warranted a closer inspection.

Mancini - whilst always a far superior appointment over Hughes, did have some worrying moments, particularly with his ability to change a game. But the way we finished the season was incredible so he deserves credit there.

Vieira - I actually always liked Vieira. He was never a defensive midfielder as so many people said when we first got him and his experience and influence upon the squad has been valuable. Yes his legs have gone but Mancini never brought him here to be a starter.

Toure - he did step up in the big games and he'll always be a hero for his FA Cup goals, but he has had some abysmal games this season, particularly in the first half of the season when he looked tired and lazy. However, overall it's been a good first season in the Prem and I expect him to be a major player for us throughout the whole of next season.

Lescott - to be fair, he's always looked good when given a run in the side, he's just been unlucky with injuries. Hopefully now he'll stay fit throughout the summer and continue his partnership with Kompany in August.

Dzeko - has looked rusty but has only been around the Prem for 4 months and has popped up with some crucial goals. He thrives on service into the box and was getting criticised pretty heavily on here even in games where we didn't put any crosses in. For him to succeed, we need to cross the ball more!

De Jong - has been excellent this season but I'll admit I wasn't his biggest fan before this season, mainly due to the fact we won more games when he didn't play. He wasn't adding enough to the attacking side of play. It's great putting a tackle in but if the ball goes back to the opposition it doesn't help us. His all round game has improved massively and he's one of the first names on the team sheet now. I agree with NQDP that we don't need him and Barry in there most of the time, just 1 will suffice, and you'd pick De Jong ahead of Barry based on current form.

Barry - had a good season overall but hasn't exactly set the world alight. I still think Milner would do better than him given a run of games.

Kolarov - has been poor pretty much all season so has warranted criticism, although it is his first season so we at least need to see how he shapes up next season. The pressure is on him now to show he's worthy of a place in our squad. We still should be trying to buy a better left back.

AJ - he rarely seems to be criticised yet he increasingly is looking out of depth in our squad. His end product is non-existent. He has some great tricks but loses the ball almost every time. He needs to step it up next season and show he can deliver at this level. I believe he has the tools to be a top player but his decision-making lets him down, either crossing at the wrong time, or taking on one man too many.

SWP - as sad as it is to say, not good enough any more and should be moved on. He only gets praise because of his former glory days but we can't be too sentimental if we want to win the league. I do wish he'd got a few mins in the FA Cup Final as he'll always be a City legend, but I'd rather see him playing first team football elsewhere instead of sitting on our bench (or not even making the squad).

[PeterParker]

I agreed 200 % that the club did great transfers, but i don't agree with the AJ fact. IMHO Aj is one of the best players in world when he comes in as a substitute in the last 20 minutes. As a regular he is a good player, but not world class. Everytime when Bob used him as a "secret weapon" he delivered.
Remember how we suffered this spring when he was injured and our offensive department was a wreck. He is the type of player that any team needs, the player that is coming in and he is changing the game and we need players like that.

As Pacino said in Scarface: "You need people like me" :))

[Slim]

I agreed 200 % that the club did great transfers, but i don't agree with the AJ fact. IMHO Aj is one of the best players in world when he comes in as a substitute in the last 20 minutes. As a regular he is a good player, but not world class. Everytime when Bob used him as a "secret weapon" he delivered.
Remember how we suffered this spring when he was injured and our offensive department was a wreck. He is the type of player that any team needs, the player that is coming in and he is changing the game and we need players like that.

As Pacino said in Scarface: "You need people like me" :))

He finished by saying " so you can point and say there is the bad guy" which is why we need Kolarov as well.

[Bridge'srightfoot]

Disagree. Like all managers he's made some great (Toure, Silva), some decent (Johnson, Balotelli) and some poor (Koloarov, Boateng) signings.

We still desperately lack any sort of pace on the wings.