What struck me watching that last night was the money he has wasted on players. Stones Otamendi Mendy, Zinchenko, Rodri, the shit goalie. Even Laporte is a sick note.
What was his go-to plan? - bring on David Silva and Aguero - only, Aguero is crocked.
Pep has a pattern of play and it is based on players he inherited Kompany, Silva, Aguero, Fernandinho. That inheritance is spent. I honestly think he is off if they don’t get CL ban overturned.
This is exactly right, and for this reason I'm endlessly baffled at City constantly getting referred to by fans and media (even Neil Atkinson did it after the game) as being "well-run".
They've barely signed a good player since 2015 and still hugely rely on players signed more than 5 years ago: Aguero, Silva, Sterling, DeBruyne, Fernandinho. Last season they had Kompany holding the defence together on his last legs.
Bernardo is possibly the only unqualified transfer success in recent years. The goalkeeper is great with the ball at his feet, but still loves a clanger and Sane and Laporte are good players, but crocks. Even these signings have cost massive amounts of money too, and have really been more a question of being able to outbid other clubs, rather than any kind of clever scouting. Otherwise they've basically spunked frightening amounts of money on garbage full backs, garbage centre backs and Rodri.
Yet still the "well-run" narrative refuses to die.
