Are we in a worse position now than last season? What are the silver linings?

[cityfanlee23]

Just taking a general view of our current situation, and i'm going to point out the obvious doom and gloom, so would appreciate some silver linings and things we can look forward to as a club, and the direction we are going. 
- Kasper leaving and being potentially replaced by Ward, downgrade
- No real cover anywhere on the pitch and seemingly no money to fix that with
- Maddison now wants to leave, we likely won't sell, but do we really want to keep Madders if he does not want to be here? he's very much a player that needs to be confident and happy to perform. 
- Tielemans wants to leave, looks likely to agree a move to Arsenal now.

- Vardy is going to retire soon enough and although we hope to be wrong, we have to drop our expectations of 15-20 goals this season. No reason why he cannot prove me wrong on that though.

Then taking a look at the future that could be affected by these issues:
- Vardy's replacement is supposed to be Daka, he needs time to adjust, right now he's shown glimpses but we aren't 100% sure if he will settle and really start to produce consistent form, the main issue I see with this, is that with 2 of our core midfielders wanting out, the lack of quality and cover on the wings at times, are we going to be providing the chances required for Daka to actually find some form? or are we going to spend another season in limbo where we have no idea who is going to replace Vardy until it's too late?
- Wesley Fofana for most of us comes across as someone who genuinely could be world class in a season or two, we have absolutely no hope of holding onto him at this rate, he's a top 6 player now, we will be lucky to finish top half.
- Evans is getting older and seems to be getting niggles more often (5 seperate injuries for club/country last season as far as I can see, he's missed 35 games since he signed for us), this can't be sustained forever. Soyuncu needs to come to life again but given his performances last season, no idea if that will happen. 

It just feels like last season, we went into it with hope and optimising of a young looking squad with a nice blend of experience, albeit weak in depth. Now it looks like most of the young players we have are either being circled by teams we cannot compete with, want to leave, or will simply be way above our ability in a season or two, and the club is not progressing enough to keep them hanging around, we are infact going backwards. 

Can we get some silver linings or things to look forward to? Since Covid we have obviously been negatively affected more than most clubs, but the last 12 months, all of the progress we were aiming to make on the pitch seems to have ground to a halt. Need something to get behind, but I'm not very confident going into the final few weeks of the window. 
 

[Miquel The Work Geordie]

Loads of assumptions there, bloody hell

[cityfanlee23]

10 minutes ago, Miquel The Work Geordie said:

Loads of assumptions there, bloody hell

There's a few assumptions and predictions of what could happen should they come true. Of the "assumptions" made, we know Kasper is leaving, Maddison handed in a request according to talksport radio, we know Tielemans wants to go, we know Vardy can't go on forever. Not sure what other assumptions I made. 

Edited 1 August 2022 by cityfanlee23

[KFS]

We’re starting to look like a fifa career mode challenge. Stalwart legend goalkeeper being sold, midfield orchestrater wants away, skilful attacking right back long term injured… 

[CosbehFox]

Panic, panic, panic - wouldn’t want ever count on majority of City fans to show any resilience 

Edited 1 August 2022 by Cardiff_Fox

[cityfanlee23]

Just now, Cardiff_Fox said:

Panic, panic, panic 

I wouldn't call it panic to be honest. I've tried to outline the issues that I see. We don't seem to have a solution given the fact we have to sell before we can buy, and the solution to any problems we currently face are solved either by strengthening, or by somehow getting another 10% out of all of our players. 

[SpacedX]

9 minutes ago, cityfanlee23 said:

Maddison handed in a request according to talksport radio

That settles it then. Thanks for that. 

[Lesterlad]

26 minutes ago, cityfanlee23 said:

Just taking a general view of our current situation, and i'm going to point out the obvious doom and gloom, so would appreciate some silver linings and things we can look forward to as a club, and the direction we are going. 
- Kasper leaving and being potentially replaced by Ward, downgrade
- No real cover anywhere on the pitch and seemingly no money to fix that with
- Maddison now wants to leave, we likely won't sell, but do we really want to keep Madders if he does not want to be here? he's very much a player that needs to be confident and happy to perform. 
- Tielemans wants to leave, looks likely to agree a move to Arsenal now.

- Vardy is going to retire soon enough and although we hope to be wrong, we have to drop our expectations of 15-20 goals this season. No reason why he cannot prove me wrong on that though.

Then taking a look at the future that could be affected by these issues:
- Vardy's replacement is supposed to be Daka, he needs time to adjust, right now he's shown glimpses but we aren't 100% sure if he will settle and really start to produce consistent form, the main issue I see with this, is that with 2 of our core midfielders wanting out, the lack of quality and cover on the wings at times, are we going to be providing the chances required for Daka to actually find some form? or are we going to spend another season in limbo where we have no idea who is going to replace Vardy until it's too late?
- Wesley Fofana for most of us comes across as someone who genuinely could be world class in a season or two, we have absolutely no hope of holding onto him at this rate, he's a top 6 player now, we will be lucky to finish top half.
- Evans is getting older and seems to be getting niggles more often (5 seperate injuries for club/country last season as far as I can see, he's missed 35 games since he signed for us), this can't be sustained forever. Soyuncu needs to come to life again but given his performances last season, no idea if that will happen. 

It just feels like last season, we went into it with hope and optimising of a young looking squad with a nice blend of experience, albeit weak in depth. Now it looks like most of the young players we have are either being circled by teams we cannot compete with, want to leave, or will simply be way above our ability in a season or two, and the club is not progressing enough to keep them hanging around, we are infact going backwards. 

Can we get some silver linings or things to look forward to? Since Covid we have obviously been negatively affected more than most clubs, but the last 12 months, all of the progress we were aiming to make on the pitch seems to have ground to a halt. Need something to get behind, but I'm not very confident going into the final few weeks of the window. 
 

Who said Maddison wants to leave?

[CosbehFox]

1 minute ago, cityfanlee23 said:

I wouldn't call it panic to be honest. I've tried to outline the issues that I see. We don't seem to have a solution given the fact we have to sell before we can buy, and the solution to any problems we currently face are solved either by strengthening, or by somehow getting another 10% out of all of our players. 

You said as though the club don’t have any contingency plans or a long term strategy at play. 
 

We won’t sell Maddison or Fofana this summer - if we do I’d happily donate £20 to a charity of your choice. 

[Nalis]

Right at this moment in time we are looking better than we were most of last season - Little to no injuries, no major changes and a decent chunk of our team playing well pre season.

[Guest Col city fan]

Silver linings:

- Fofana… we don’t have to sell him and he’s already exceptional 

- Madders…. same and he’s on great form

- Perez… I have a sneaky suspicion he’s going to have a good season 

- Vardy… back fit again 
- Kasper.. many have gotten their wish, and he’s off. 

 

[Lesterlad]

27 minutes ago, cityfanlee23 said:

Just taking a general view of our current situation, and i'm going to point out the obvious doom and gloom, so would appreciate some silver linings and things we can look forward to as a club, and the direction we are going. 
- Kasper leaving and being potentially replaced by Ward, downgrade
- No real cover anywhere on the pitch and seemingly no money to fix that with
- Maddison now wants to leave, we likely won't sell, but do we really want to keep Madders if he does not want to be here? he's very much a player that needs to be confident and happy to perform. 
- Tielemans wants to leave, looks likely to agree a move to Arsenal now.

- Vardy is going to retire soon enough and although we hope to be wrong, we have to drop our expectations of 15-20 goals this season. No reason why he cannot prove me wrong on that though.

Then taking a look at the future that could be affected by these issues:
- Vardy's replacement is supposed to be Daka, he needs time to adjust, right now he's shown glimpses but we aren't 100% sure if he will settle and really start to produce consistent form, the main issue I see with this, is that with 2 of our core midfielders wanting out, the lack of quality and cover on the wings at times, are we going to be providing the chances required for Daka to actually find some form? or are we going to spend another season in limbo where we have no idea who is going to replace Vardy until it's too late?
- Wesley Fofana for most of us comes across as someone who genuinely could be world class in a season or two, we have absolutely no hope of holding onto him at this rate, he's a top 6 player now, we will be lucky to finish top half.
- Evans is getting older and seems to be getting niggles more often (5 seperate injuries for club/country last season as far as I can see, he's missed 35 games since he signed for us), this can't be sustained forever. Soyuncu needs to come to life again but given his performances last season, no idea if that will happen. 

It just feels like last season, we went into it with hope and optimising of a young looking squad with a nice blend of experience, albeit weak in depth. Now it looks like most of the young players we have are either being circled by teams we cannot compete with, want to leave, or will simply be way above our ability in a season or two, and the club is not progressing enough to keep them hanging around, we are infact going backwards. 

Can we get some silver linings or things to look forward to? Since Covid we have obviously been negatively affected more than most clubs, but the last 12 months, all of the progress we were aiming to make on the pitch seems to have ground to a halt. Need something to get behind, but I'm not very confident going into the final few weeks of the window. 
 

Bloody hell mate would hate to sit next to you at the ground. Dreadful post.  

[foxes_rule1978]

I think we have been set back by not selling tielemans (wants out), cags and soumare players that we would have fetched decent money for and got off the wage bill. That has kind of made things difficult to bringing in new players. The players we are getting offers for our not the ones we are willing to sell. 

Edited 1 August 2022 by foxes_rule1978

[KFS]

7 minutes ago, Cardiff_Fox said:

Panic, panic, panic - wouldn’t want ever count on majority of City fans to show any resilience 

Tbf mate im willing to bet a lot of people show enough resilience in their personal lives that dumping on top a football club that is (on the face of it) losing control, is enough to create a bit of a scene on here 

[cityfanlee23]

4 minutes ago, Cardiff_Fox said:

You said as though the club don’t have any contingency plans or a long term strategy at play. 
 

We won’t sell Maddison or Fofana this summer - if we do I’d happily donate £20 to a charity of your choice. 

Im not sure we will sell them either, as I’ve said I’m trying to look logically at the future. 
our squad doesn’t have the depth required to challenge the progression of teams around us. So we are naturally likely to go down the table not up unless we can somehow turn the tide on the pitch from last season where we were massively inconsistent and at times dreadful. 
If that continues I really can’t see these players sticking around.  
 

 

[CosbehFox]

Just now, KFS said:

Tbf mate im willing to bet a lot of people show enough resilience in their personal lives that dumping on top a football club that is (on the face of it) losing control, is enough to create a bit of a scene on here 

Maybe wrong word choice but it’s not healthy in how some people lose their shit here 

[Brainy]

I stopped reading once every single potential positive was dismissed with a "...but"

[cityfanlee23]

6 minutes ago, Col city fan said:

Silver linings:

- Fofana… we don’t have to sell him and he’s already exceptional 

- Madders…. same and he’s on great form

- Perez… I have a sneaky suspicion he’s going to have a good season 

- Vardy… back fit again 
- Kasper.. many have gotten their wish, and he’s off. 

 

Yep agree with these apart from Perez lol, I’ll believe it when I see it with him, I’d have preferred we sold Perez and signed Lookman personally, but who would buy Perez, hope you’re right on this one. 
 

With Maddison and Fofana you’re absolutely right we don’t have to sell especially this close to the season, but we have to perform to keep them. Personally I cannot see them wanting to stick around unless we can get ourselves challenging the European spots. Unless of course we take the Schmeichel savings and offer a stupid contract, which doesn’t seem progressive. I’d rather players stick around because we are doing well.

[cityfanlee23]

2 minutes ago, Stinky said:

I stopped reading once every single potential positive was dismissed with a "...but"

Because a potential positive relies on certain things happening, which of course is not set in stone, hence the “but” 

[weller54]

Everyone else has strengthened... some clubs very significantly!!

Injuries will do for us again, and that started yesterday!  We have no depth!..

I expect a relegation battle this season.

[cityfanlee23]

7 minutes ago, Cardiff_Fox said:

Maybe wrong word choice but it’s not healthy in how some people lose their shit here 

I wouldn’t call this “losing my shit” though if you’re referring to this post. Pessimistic maybe, but I just can’t see many positives at the moment. 

[Dan]

I see no way the answer can't be yes we are weaker.

[cityfanlee23]

Just now, weller54 said:

Everyone else has strengthened... some clubs very significantly!!

Injuries will do for us again, and that started yesterday!  We have no depth!..

I expect a relegation battle this season.

I think we have enough for 12th-14th but you’re right on this, everyone who we expect to be battling for top half have massively strengthened, and the teams that were finishing 10th to 14th now have a chance of fighting properly for top half. 

[cityfanlee23]

Just now, Dan LCFC said:

I see no way the answer can't be yes we are weaker.

Now I need some silver linings 😂

[Sol thewall Bamba]

Lee?