City’s team is so fucking deep. Pep talking about a light squad…total horseshit.
City will be competitive next season, especially with Rodri back. Casual half a billion dropped in 6 months.
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A
Ahem…@Dutch is not the only Dutch here!
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Do you hate Ajax and everyone ever associated with them?
Of course…my family comes from Groningen!
Maybe hate Heerenveen more though!
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Oh, of course
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I thought it was common knowledge that any Dutch not from Amsterdam hates Ajax.
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Linking the vid as it’s actually a good watch and hopefully a preview of what City will face next season:
Basically, when they’re good they’ll be very very good, but teams with width and pace will probably have a lot of like carving them open on the flanks next season.
Frimpong and Kerkez rubbing their hands lol
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If truth be told I don’t honestly see the evolution from them in that.
Obviously, I know absolutely nothing about Rodri’s recovery and conditioning, but I really have to question the wisdom of playing him significant minutes in a summer tournament, particularly one played in some fairly extreme conditions.
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Here is another half Bill to spend Pep. Are you OK with that?
Think fans can sometimes be overprotective of players coming back from injury or when they are back healthy and need to get fit or find rhythm. And it can be easy to be so, considering the whole football schedule topic. Sometimes it feels like we would struggle to bring a player back in shape! There are no guarantees, even the best medical staff make mistakes in their evaluation and there’s luck involved, but I believe they know what they’re doing.
Yeah, I took a look at Rodri’s playing time, and it does look like it was being carefully managed. With such a long layoff, they may have seen it as an opportunity to get him some match conditioning rather than have him start that process in another 3-4 weeks.
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Summer is always weird for players who return from a long term injury right at the end of the previous season. This tournament was probably good for him, but we really shouldnt be having ET in these quasi competitive summer tournaments. It just fucks with the predictability of the preparation at a time when the margin for error isnt very high.
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Hopefully cheaty suffer
In general though, I have no clue how coaching staffs decided to approach a summer/pre-season with a tournament like this bang in the middle of it.
It’s why I’m partly happy that we aren’t there for the first edition, so we can watch, gather info and perhaps learn from lessons of others when we inevitably qualify (once we’re there, of course I will naturally want us to go all the way and win it).
End of season-little break-CWC-little break-pre season-start of season.
Incredible really. I guess CWC is already part of the ‘pre-season’ aspect. Taking extra players, work on ideas, managing game time, putting some players out in the shop window, etc. Trying to win of course. But interesting to see what that means long term deep into next season for key players.
Especially in a summer when you have to correct things and coming back from a difficult season, imagine if we had this situation in 2023.
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It’s a pain in the neck as the players are all overplayed, but the money they are throwing at the CWC likely means it will be too good to swerve, whenever we qualify.
With Slot and the clever people around him, hopefully we will find a way to satisfy all the main needs - rest for the players, training, new ideas, shop window, and still trying to win.
But it feels a bit defeatist to talk like that, as my instinct would be to boycott and insist on a proper rest for the purpose of player welfare.
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" Manchester City have signed a new contract with Puma worth at least £1bn. The £100m a-year deal extends their agreement until at least 2035 and is a marked increase from the previous £65m-a-year deal with the German kit manufacturer that ran until 2029.
The contract is thought to be the first £1bn deal in English football and a record per year for a Premier League club. In July 2023 Manchester United sealed a 10-year contract with Adidas worth about £900m, and four months ago Liverpool agreed a multi-year deal with Adidas thought to be worth £60m a-season."
Are they comparing Apples with Apples? If the Cheaty and United shirt deals are accurately100m and 90m a season, how come we have just signed for 60m?
I don’t doubt Man Utd’s to be honest…Adidas must be foolish though.
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