Could be worse

But you are dead right, 442 in Europe , madness, as most City fans on here were saying before kick off

City need to do better but you cannot deflect that Arsenal were beyond woeful and need major surgery if indeed they qualify. In the long term it may be better that they didn't to allow some rebuilding.
----------------------------------------------
we dont need major surgery, we are not exactly a club in crisis.Its just that Wenger has reached his glass ceiling and cant perform beyond that.Even Fergie in his last few years was now incapable of getting the kind of results he could in his earlier years.

Remember it was the same Fergie who played 4-4-2 against Barca in 2 finals and got raped repeatedly. Its simply the kind of thing that happens to managers when they age.Im not sure how old Pellegrini is but he has the same kind of issues wenger has and i wouldnt say you need major surgery.

It was a bad result but we all know what arsenals level is.We should still get top 4 and thats not a crisis for a team that spends what we spend but we do need to change and for me we need to tap up Pep NOW before City get him.

I think the City plan is for the 62/3 year old manager to have another year or two and then Paddy Viera to take over. Arsenal have spent but not always wisely (Ozil?) so I think they need 4 or 5 players which I do count as surgery. The do need to replace Wenger with someone who can inject a will to win.

We possibly need 2 players at most and thats if we can actually find quality replacements. We need a goalkeeper but its not like there is a long queue of keepers better than Szczęsny.

We also need a defensive midfielder but without being offensive I would rather play Coquelin than go buy a Fernando just for the sake of it.We need to find the right replacement.

Thats 2 players. A world class striker would be nice but as you know they dont grow on trees.No point of signing for the sake of it like we saw united do with Falcao.

If we can get the first 2 players any above average manager should be able to win trophies with this group of players.

actually what I mean is Pep should be able to win trophies with the strikers we have. Afterall he did the same at Barca although I will acknowledge he had Messi but I still think our strikers arent the worst in the world.

The hard part is just replacing Wenger with the right person.Regarding Viera, i wish him well.He is an intelligent player, was the actual leader in our team when wengers plan A failed.

I always say Henry was our best player but Viera was our most IMPORTANT player.

The seeding system was not designed with the view to disadvantage new entrants to the competition and I wish City fans would stop this tune.

You are either naive or talking bóllocks.

City have finished 3rd, 1st, 2nd and 1st in the last 4 season whilst Arsenal have finished 4th on every occasion. I'm not saying we have a right to be in Pot 1 but neither do Arsenal have any right either.

Imagine if the seeding system in tennis was the same - Andy Murray nowhere with Pat Cash given an easy route into the latter stages of an Open.

Comment Deleted by Site Moderator

I'm not saying it will fix it but it's a definate disadvantage playing 6 tough games to even get into the Group of 16 whilst playing in the PL and League Cup knowing that we're going to get one of the top 4 clubs in Europe straight after.

The Pot system is self perpetuating and does not reflect the actual status of a club in the wider game. Would it be fair if City got a 6 point bonus in the PL at the start of this season because we won it last year?

comment by Boris 'Inky' Gibson (U5901)
posted 1 hour, 10 minutes ago
I'm not saying it will fix it but it's a definate disadvantage playing 6 tough games to even get into the Group of 16 whilst playing in the PL and League Cup knowing that we're going to get one of the top 4 clubs in Europe straight after.

The Pot system is self perpetuating and does not reflect the actual status of a club in the wider game. Would it be fair if City got a 6 point bonus in the PL at the start of this season because we won it last year?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Quite right Boris, I think the new system will throw up some new teams for us to be judged against. If we get into Pot 1 we will have earned it by being Champions (it's the Champions League). We need to improve but it will at least give us an advantage if we have earned it, and not if we haven't.

We are in pot 1 because we qualify for the CL every season and qualify from the group every season. No other team has done that as regularly as us. We are hanging on by a thread though. If the likes of PSG, Dortmund or Juve go on a run they could well jump ahead of us. Porto are probably gonna jump ahead of us, too.

You won't be pot 1 next year. It is quite rightly reserved for champions plus last years winner. Thus the annual arrangement where the same teams get easy rides will have finished.