Manchester City...better with no new signings?

For the past few seasons we have been used to Manchester City spending hundreds of millions of pounds every summer. Marquee signings would arrive with remarkable speed. Robinho came first, Emmanuel Adebayor, David Silva, Sergio Aguero, Carlos Tevez all followed. The aim was to challenge and to win the Premier League, and then presumably challenge in Europe.

Last year the aim was achieved, they toppled United on the final day, the big money signings of Aguero and Dzeko came through and got crucial goals to win their first ever Premier League. Obviously that is just the beginning, Manchester City don't want to win it once, they want to become the dominant force of English football, they want to be the bigger of the Manchester clubs. Yet, after winning the Premier League, they have signed nobody in this transfer window.

While Chelsea have had a huge overhaul of their playing squad and first team, moving on veterans such as Alex, Anelka, Drogba and replacing them with talented youth in Eden Hazard and Oscar. Manchester United have improved by signing Kagawa. Tottenham have brought in Jan Vertonghen, Gylfi Sigurdsson and signed Gareth Bale to a long-term contract. Even Arsenal have signed lots of good experienced and talented players in Giroud, Podolski, Carzorla...Manchester City's sole actions in the transfer window has been to loan out Wayne Bridge.

Roberto Mancini has come out and publicly admitted he is angry at the lack of signings, Thiago Silva and then Robin Van Persie have both slipped away from them. However, I think that perhaps Manchester City would be better off not signing anybody new. They have the strongest squad in the Premier League and they will only get stronger together if they spend time together, they will learn how to play together even better, work out each other's strengths.

Crucially, this summer has been controversy free. Carlos Tevez has been quiet, content to stay with City. Mario Balotelli hasn't blown his house up, or done anything stupid. Should they sign Robin Van Persie, it would only create problems, Tevez would demand to leave, Balotelli would begrudge Mancini. Manchester City management should embrace the quietness of the transfer window, focus on the squad he has now which to be honest doesn't require huge overhaul. They're stronger by staying together rather than rocking the boat.

What does everybody else think? Would Manchester City be better if they started working in the transfer window again? Or is the extra year of experience, built on the Premier League success something that should be embraced?

I think on paper, City still have the strongest squad. United haven't really improved their squad massively, and while Chelsea and Arsenal have, there was a significant gap to City last season.

I still think at least one of Tevez/Dzeko will be on their way, and a new striker/defender to come in. It is a squad that on current merits, should win the PL and make some noise in the CL

If it ain't broke then why try and fix it? Perhaps a couple of quality additions will aid their Champions League campaign but the squad they have at the minute is more than capable of winning another PL title.

It does appear to me that Mancini has serious issues with Brian Marwood and looks to open up on him whenever he can! Wasn't Marwood brought in by Gary Cook?

I can't really see anywhere they massively need to improve, their midfield is overloaded with quality and they have four world class strikers for what could be one spot.

The one issue i'd have is this;

Roberto Mancini has come out and publicly admitted he is angry at the lack of signings

Where and when was this?

It was in the times earlier at least

And on the BBC site.

What I would say in regards to City is that they could with improving down the wings, if they had a Valencia style player it'd have given them more options last season. The rumours of them acquiring De Rossi would be a great buy for them, a centre pairing of him and Yaya just sounds dominating.

Marky wrote:The one issue i'd have is this;

Roberto Mancini has come out and publicly admitted he is angry at the lack of signings

Where and when was this?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/19212916

Hero wrote:What I would say in regards to City is that they could with improving down the wings, if they had a Valencia style player it'd have given them more options last season. The rumours of them acquiring De Rossi would be a great buy for them, a centre pairing of him and Yaya just sounds dominating.

I don't think Mancini likes natural wingers, he has Adam Johnson on the bench and very rarely uses him. I think he prefers quite a central attacking unit of Aguero, Tevez, Nasri, Silva. I think Nasri is their weak point, one good year at Arsenal does not hide the fact that so often he is mediocre.

I agree that De Rossi would be perfect. To replace Barry/De Jong with somebody with the quality of De Rossi would be great. Only problem is his age. I wouldn't be surprised to see them go for Tiote in the next year or so.

Well now they're signing Rodwell

I've said they want a defensive midfielder, Rodwell must be the one they're going for. If I was a Manchester City fan I'd be slightly disappointed. Rodwell had early potential but injury has really stunted his development and he isn't a major improvement on Barry/De Jong especially if the fee is as high as rumoured...£20million+

bbc say 15m

I'd take him over Barry in a heartbeat, he's a nothing player and nobody likes De Jong

It says Everton value him at £15 million, but if City come in you know they'll up the price at least £5 million for them. They're quite smart when they sell people...like Lescott, getting £23 million for him was one of the greatest transfer window achievements in the last couple of years.

I think Rodwell is massively overrated, almost all his praise is based on his early potential. He's had so many injuries in the last few years that he'll struggle to ever get back to that level. I'd take Barry and De Jong over him. His job will just be to sit in front of the back four and start off attacks, both of those guys are perfectly capable of doing that. If Rodwell wasn't English, he would be nowhere near as highly rated.

De Rossi or Tiote would have been better signings.

De Jong's range of passing is seeing him shipped off to Inter and Barry never does anything.

Rodwell is a good young player.

And yes you up the price is you know the other person can spend more. Thats just simple business.

De Rossi I cant imagine will ever move, he is after Totti, Mr Roma.

Rodwell is a good signing for City, young, English and versatile.

Good signing for City and excellent move for Rodwell. It seemed like Rodwell's development had stymied somewhat at Everton. I know there were injury worries but it did not seem as though he had developed much. At City, he will have to move up a couple of levels and he will receive presumably a higher level of coaching.

While he may not be a starter this year, over the coming seasons, we will certainly see Barry and de Jong move on, so to have a starting midfielder for England in one of the top sides can only be good for the national side.

Won't be waiting long for De Jong to move on.

as a united fan id be delighted if they sold de jong and replaced him with rodwell.

often been linked with him ourselves in the past so whenever he came to ot would watch him with special intrest, never really impressed me. the only highlight was coming off the bench and scoring against us at goodison. signing of poteniall perhaps but they already have a great proven DM in de jong

Crimey wrote:

Hero wrote:What I would say in regards to City is that they could with improving down the wings, if they had a Valencia style player it'd have given them more options last season. The rumours of them acquiring De Rossi would be a great buy for them, a centre pairing of him and Yaya just sounds dominating.

I don't think Mancini likes natural wingers, he has Adam Johnson on the bench and very rarely uses him. I think he prefers quite a central attacking unit of Aguero, Tevez, Nasri, Silva. I think Nasri is their weak point, one good year at Arsenal does not hide the fact that so often he is mediocre.

I agree that De Rossi would be perfect. To replace Barry/De Jong with somebody with the quality of De Rossi would be great. Only problem is his age. I wouldn't be surprised to see them go for Tiote in the next year or so.

If i was Johnson i would be banging on the door with my transfer request in hand. The guy is wasting himself and could become a key player elsewhere. Yes he's won the title , is on silly money etc...but can he be satisfied if hes barely played? I wouldnt be.

As for Tiote...at the end of this season you can have him for £30m. We will have Bigirimanna ready...who is gonna be phenominal...

Crimey wrote:It says Everton value him at £15 million, but if City come in you know they'll up the price at least £5 million for them. They're quite smart when they sell people...like Lescott, getting £23 million for him was one of the greatest transfer window achievements in the last couple of years.

I think Rodwell is massively overrated, almost all his praise is based on his early potential. He's had so many injuries in the last few years that he'll struggle to ever get back to that level. I'd take Barry and De Jong over him. His job will just be to sit in front of the back four and start off attacks, both of those guys are perfectly capable of doing that. If Rodwell wasn't English, he would be nowhere near as highly rated.

De Rossi or Tiote would have been better signings.

Nearly as good as Carroll for £35m...

GeordieFalcon wrote:

Crimey wrote:It says Everton value him at £15 million, but if City come in you know they'll up the price at least £5 million for them. They're quite smart when they sell people...like Lescott, getting £23 million for him was one of the greatest transfer window achievements in the last couple of years.

I think Rodwell is massively overrated, almost all his praise is based on his early potential. He's had so many injuries in the last few years that he'll struggle to ever get back to that level. I'd take Barry and De Jong over him. His job will just be to sit in front of the back four and start off attacks, both of those guys are perfectly capable of doing that. If Rodwell wasn't English, he would be nowhere near as highly rated.

De Rossi or Tiote would have been better signings.

Nearly as good as Carroll for £35m...

Or Torres for £50!