Man City transfer arrogance sees them *only* win the double, but theirs is an easy lesson to learn
Manchester City may *only* win the double this season and we blame their transfer business. Matheus Nunes, Cole Palmer and Declan Rice are among their terrible decisions.
As Pep Guardiola turned to his bench in a bid to land a knock-out blow to Real Madrid in their Champions League quarter-final on Wednesday, we wonder whether he regretted their summer transfer business.
Instead of Matheus Nunes or Jeremy Doku, he could have had Cole Palmer or Riyad Mahrez; Ilkay Gundogan or Declan Rice could have been playing alongside Rodri, who was forced to plough his usual lone furrow at the base of City’s midfield, with Mateo Kovacic only deemed worthy of an eight-minute extra-time cameo ahead of a penalty shoot-out he would fluff.
For a club famed for nailing it in the transfer market, things have not gone so smoothly of late.
It’s not been terrible. The first leg against Madrid saw £80m summer signing Josko Gvardiol score a stunning and crucial goal, and in the previous summer they landed both big-game bottler Erling Haaland and Manuel Akanji for a combined fee of less than £70m, which is patently ridiculously good business.
But Kalvin Phillips also joined, and is now rotting at West Ham along with his market value. Nunes has done next to nothing since City shelled out £53m at the end of the transfer window. Kovacic has been about as good as he was at the end of his time at Chelsea, with the expectation that he could be an able replacement for Gundogan looking as daft now as it was to those who watched the Croatian toil last season.
Having previously gone about their transfer business with the efficiency of a serial killer, City acted like first-timers this summer, not by failing to plan, but by panicking when forced to deviate from that plan. They were caught off guard and made poor decisions when backed into a corner.
A report on Thursday claims they’re once again locked in talks with West Ham over a move for Lucas Paqueta, who was their top playmaker target last summer before they were put off by his alleged betting breaches. Faced with that unforeseen problem they panicked at the end of the window and turned to Nunes, who is inferior to the extent where we’ve either got to question the existence of a shortlist of alternatives, or the intelligence of whoever drew up any shortlist where Nunes sat second. Neither reflects well on sporting director Txiki Begiristain.
But maybe City just aren’t used to not getting their way, and when they don’t – like a toddler unable to express themselves – they act rashly with little thought of the consequences.
Like everyone else, they probably did not see Palmer leading the race for the Golden Boot come this stage of the season. But it felt like a strange transfer for all involved at the time: Chelsea spending £40m on another exciting young forward; Palmer leaving the treble winners; City selling a clearly talented player who had presumably been earmarked to play the role in the squad vacated by Riyad Mahrez.
READ MORE: Premier League icon could stop Palmer being the lowest-finishing Golden Boot winner ever
And while both Chelsea and Palmer are now reaping the rewards of their risky decisions, City are left ruing a mistake that they wouldn’t have anticipated being quite so keenly felt, and certainly not so quickly. But there was always likely to be a problem with no succession plan in place for the succession plan.
Do they regret the sale of Palmer more or less than failing to increase their bid for Rice by a measly £10m? He was rubbish against Bayern on Wednesday, but has been superb for the majority of this season for Arsenal. They wouldn’t be challenging City for the title without him, and City would probably also be well clear of Liverpool if Guardiola had Rice to play alongside or in place of Rodri, who’s been out on his feet in the last few games. This time they didn’t even put up the pretence of there being a Plan B after losing the transfer battle to Arsenal.
We’re so used to Guardiola’s seamless evolution of his side with ordinarily big departures offset by genius additions. David Silva, Leroy Sane, Vincent Kompany, Fernandinho, Sergio Aguero and Raheem Sterling left and they got better. But this time losing Gundogan, Mahrez and Palmer has made them worse.
That dip in quality may manifest itself in a double rather than a treble this season – it’s hardly time for crisis talks. But this season has proved that City are vulnerable to transfer missteps like everyone else. Unfortunately for those hanging onto their coat-tails, theirs is a relatively easy lesson to learn: We don’t always get our way so have a Plan B and a Plan C.
FA Cup replays scrapped by Football Association in response to ‘expansion’ of UEFA competitions
The Football Association have announced that FA Cup replays have been scrapped ahead of the 2024/25 campaign.
The move to abolish all FA Cup replays from the first round proper onwards comes as part of a new agreement between the FA and the Premier League. This will see an extra £33million being put towards grassroots football from the top flight each season.
New FA Cup structure…
The FA had already scrapped replays from the fifth round onwards and said the decision to ditch them altogether had been agreed in response to “changes to the calendar driven by the expanded UEFA competitions”.
The FA said all rounds would now be played at the weekend, with the fifth phase having moved to midweek for the last five seasons.
The FA said the final will now be played on the penultimate weekend of the Premier League season, on a Saturday with no top-flight matches taking place on the same day.
READ MORE: Away goals rule is irrelevant; there’s only one way to pique Champions League interest
From next season the Champions League will feature an extra 64 games, creating increased pressure on the domestic calendar.
The FA said that under the new format, the fourth round, fifth round and quarter-finals would all be exclusive of Premier League fixtures for the first time, while the fourth round will be played across an “extended window” from Friday to the following Wednesday.
The FA said the deal will provide up to £133m per season in funding to the football pyramid from 2025-26.
The first year of the format forms part of the overall calendar which has been given the approval of the Professional Game Board, which features representatives from the FA, the Premier League and the EFL.
The mid-season break has been removed from the calendar to allow a mid-August start date for the Premier League for 2024-25, with the longer break affording top-flight clubs a better chance of giving players a consecutive three-week break.
The FA said that move took into account expert medical advice around the benefits of a longer period of complete rest versus a shorter break in the winter.
“The Emirates FA Cup is our biggest asset…”
FA chief executive Mark Bullingham said: “The Emirates FA Cup is our biggest asset and generates over 60 per cent of our revenue to invest into the game, so it is critical to secure a strong format for the future.
“This new agreement between The FA and the Premier League strengthens the Emirates FA Cup and gives this very special tournament exclusive weekends in an increasingly busy calendar. The new schedule ensures the magic of the cup is protected and enhanced, whilst working for the whole of the English game.
“The longer summer period also allows a much-needed player break before the start of the next season. We have also agreed new funding for the grassroots game, disability football, and the women’s and girls’ game. All football begins at the grassroots, and this is recognised by the Premier League with very welcome additional financial support.”
Premier League chief executive Richard Masters said: “The Premier League is proud of the investment it provides to all levels of the game and this new agreement with the FA will see us enhance our support into grassroots football.
“This will improve facilities for communities and lower league clubs across the country, through the Football Foundation and Premier League Stadium Fund.
“Throughout our discussions both parties have been committed to enhancing the scheduling of the Emirates FA Cup, a hugely important domestic competition with a storied history. The FA and the Premier League have worked in partnership to deliver more exclusive weekends without compromising the excitement of knockout football and this has been achieved at the same time as allowing us to ease fixture congestion generally.”
The EFL has been contacted for comment.
The ridiculously bad stats of Erling Haaland: Big-game bottler and ‘League Two player’
Erling Haaland is a last-16 merchant who has often gone missing when his club or country have needed him most. Manchester City have an elite-level bottler.
Haaland was powerless to prevent Manchester City’s Champions League exit to Real Madrid, substituted and watching from the sidelines as Bernardo Silva and Mateo Kovacic suddenly found themselves incapable of kicking a ball competently when unchallenged from 12 yards.
Antonio Rudiger, the defender who did such a phenomenal job in nullifying the Norwegian yet again, poured salt into open wounds by converting the shoot-out’s winning penalty to consign Manchester City to the prospect of having to pretend the Super Cup could be part of a Treble.
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Far more important than Real Madrid winning another Champions League based purely on vibes and raised eyebrows is the return of the Haaland Discourse. And the best and most hilarious part about the suggestion that Manchester City might be better off without a player who has scored 83 goals in 92 games for them is that it is an entirely justifiable argument.
The counter to it will always be ‘but goals’, yet beyond that Haaland does not suit this team and nor does this team suit him. Manchester City do not play to his strengths and without the same service as last season his limitations have been exposed. Roy Keane will have known his “League Two” jibe was destined to stick.
Related video: Guardiola on Real Madrid knocking Man City out of Champions League (Metro)
Yes,
Fun as it is to laugh at Haaland for his low touch count or how he lost possession more times (14) than he completed passes (11) over two legs against Real, they are far more damning of Pep Guardiola, Manchester City and the system he is deployed in.
MORE ON ERLING HAALAND FROM F365
The ridiculous(ly good) goalscoring stats of Erling Haaland
Guardiola told to drop ‘poor’ Haaland after Man City trio ‘asked’ to be subbed – ‘I’m astonished’
Back in March, Guardiola said: “When you are involved in the game, when the time comes to score a goal you are more precise. It’s difficult to score when you do not touch the ball for 40 minutes. Sometimes it’s his fault but other times it’s our fault.”
Haaland had 12 touches after 40 minutes on Wednesday and a quarter of them were shots.
It was not even the “bare minimum” for Thierry Henry and there are questions to be asked of Haaland personally as his record in The Big Games continues to disappoint. And that is absolutely not a new development either, as these statistics show.
* Haaland has scored 14 Champions League knockout-stage goals in 17 matches, but 12 of those came in the round of 16 – and five were all in one game.
* In 2019/20, he scored two goals for Borussia Dortmund in a 2-1 last-16 first-leg win over Paris Saint-Germain, but no goals in a 2-0 second-leg defeat.
* In 2020/21, he scored four goals for Borussia Dortmund in a 5-4 last-16 aggregate win over Sevilla, but no goals in either leg of a 4-1 quarter-final aggregate defeat to Manchester City.
* In 2021/22, he missed most of Borussia Dortmund’s exit in the Champions League group stages and their subsequent Europa League defeat to Rangers due to injury.
* In 2022/23, he scored five goals for Manchester City in an 8-1 last-16 aggregate win over Leipzig, two goals in a 4-1 quarter-final aggregate win over Bayern (to make it 3-0 in the first leg, missing a penalty before scoring later in the second) and no goals in either leg of a 5-1 semi-final aggregate win over Real Madrid, nor the final against Inter.
* In 2023/24, he scored one goal for Manchester City in a 6-2 last-16 aggregate win over Copenhagen (to make it 3-1 in the second leg) and no goals in either leg of a 4-4 quarter-final aggregate defeat to Real Madrid on penalties.
* Haaland has more yellow cards (one) than goals (zero) in Champions League semi-finals and finals.
* Haaland has almost as many yellow cards (two) as goals in semi-final and final matches across all competitions in his career.
* Haaland has scored nine goals in 25 quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals across spells with four different clubs.
* Since he joined Manchester City, Haaland has scored fewer goals in the Champions League from the quarter-final stage onwards than Bernardo Silva (four); the Norwegian striker is level with Rodri and Kevin de Bruyne (two) but they both have more goals in the semi-final and beyond.
* Haaland has faced Real Madrid more often than any other team he has never scored against at senior level. In four games against the Spanish side he has no goals from 13 shots; Manuel Akanji and Josko Gvardiol have both scored against Real in those matches.
* Haaland has “asked” to come off in games against Real Madrid more times than he has scored goals against them.
* Four different Manchester City players have scored in competition finals since Haaland joined and he is not one of them. Cole Palmer scored in the Community Shield and Super Cup finals (the latter of which Haaland at least scored in the penalty shoot-out to win), Julian Alvarez scored in the Community Shield and Club World Cup finals, Phil Foden scored in the Club World Cup final and Rodri scored in the Champions League final.
* Haaland has scored 56 Premier League goals but almost two-thirds of them (64.3%) came in games against clubs which either finished in the bottom half last season or are currently in the bottom half. Most of his goals have been scored against the teams in 16th (five, Nottingham Forest in 2022/23 and Everton in 2023/24).
TO THE COMMENTS! Is Erling Haaland a League Two player? Join the debate here.
* Haaland has scored two goals in four Premier League games against Arsenal, but they were the last goals in 3-1 and 4-1 wins, scored in the 82nd and 95th minutes respectively.
* Haaland has scored one goal in four Premier League games against Liverpool.
* Haaland has scored six goals in four Premier League games against Manchester United, but three were a hat-trick in a game when Foden opened the scoring, one was a penalty and one made it 3-1 in the 91st minute.
* Haaland has scored eight goals in six FA Cup games but they all came in the space of two matches – against Championship side Burnley (quarter-final) and Premier League relegation battlers Luton (fifth round). He failed to score in a semi-final win against Sheffield United, a final win against Manchester United or a quarter-final win against Newcastle.
* Haaland has scored one goal in two League Cup games, against Liverpool in the 2022/23 fourth round. He could not find a way through Nathan Jones’ Southampton as a second-half substitute in the quarter-finals.
* Haaland scored one goal for Dortmund in the 2020 and 2021 German Super Cup finals but they lost both to Bayern Munich.
* Haaland scored two goals in six Norwegian Football Cup matches for Molde in 2016/17, his only season playing in the competition. They came in a first-round win over Volda TI and a quarter-final victory against Kristiansund BK. He failed to score in a 3-0 semi-final defeat to Lillestrom in the semi-final, getting booked instead.
* Haaland scored four goals in four Austrian Cup games but none beyond the round of 16. Salzburg won the 2019 edition and it is listed among the striker’s career honours but he neither scored nor started in that tournament and was not even named in the squad for the final.
* Haaland failed to score in a Euro 2020 qualifying play-off semi-final against Serbia, in which Brighton and Norwich legend Mathias Normann scored Norway’s only goal.
* Haaland has scored eight goals against countries which finished in the bottom two of Norway’s World Cup and European Championship qualifying groups (v Latvia, Gibraltar, Cyprus and Georgia), but just two goals against countries which finished in the top two (v Netherlands and Scotland).
* Haaland failed to score at the U17 Euros in 2017, scored once at the U18 Euros in 2018 and scored nine goals – all in a single game – at the U20 World Cup in 2019, with Norway not advancing past the group stage in any of those tournaments.
* In the interests of fairness, Haaland scored eight goals in seven DFB-Pokal games. Two were in last-16 defeats to Werder Bremen and St Pauli, three were in a first-round thrashing of Wehen Wiesbaden and one was in a last-16 victory over Paderborn.
The other two came in the 2021 final. But Jadon Sancho opened the scoring in a 4-1 win against Leipzig so even then Haaland was just kicking a downed opponent.
AN ALTERNATIVE TAKE: The ridiculous(ly good) goalscoring stats of Erling Haaland
More: Erling Haaland | Manchester City
