THE 93:20 NEWSLETTER:- ISSUE 56

Hello, and welcome to a bonus edition of the 93:20 Newsletter, as the transfer window thankfully slams shut. I can’t say it’s been an enjoyable one, and I feel the need to talk. A cathartic bout of honesty, to explain where I, and I imagine many of you, are at right now.

But first, very, very briefly. I amsorry to repeat myself, but this newsletter takes up a lot of my spare time, so if you would like to show your support and help me stay well-stocked in crisps, coffee and sugary treats, then a donation is always welcome, and anything received would be put back into the newsletter. I really appreciate those that have donated so far, for keeping my head bobbing above the water.

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On with my thoughts. And this is not a precise analysis of where i think the club is at and where it will be. More accurately, it is my attempt to convey my stream of consciousness, how it can leave us all unsure, baffled and uncertain, and perhaps explains where many of us are at right now.

To get straight to the point - what a mess. What a f***ing mess.

Ok, step back for a moment. This is admittedly a knee-jerk newsletter, a point in time, and a point where I just don’t feel that positive, caused by little more than a couple of bad results, which has exacerbated nagging thoughts that have laid dormant for a while.

So I am sorry to sink into negativity, but that’s my current mood – one of negativity. I say that well aware that it’s easy to overreact, after 180 minutes of disappointment. It can cloud the wider picture. There’s has been a proud history amongst blues of questioning City’s transfer record, every single time points are dropped. That is naturally more likely coming off last season, a disaster when judged by Pep’s and the club’s high standards.

There was a clear consensus that a rebuild was needed at the club. City went big for a January window, but it was a mixture of players expected to improve the squad immediately, and prospects for the future. I remain fairly happy with the business, but it hasn’t impacted the direction of the club. I still suspect the two plug-and-play purchases were rushed and induced by panic. We need to give Nico time (Rodri got it, after all), and he is needed for duelling alone. Marmoush I really like, but I have a nagging doubt, like many players, of where he fits in a side, and the purpose of his purchase. The bar is so high if City aspire to be the best again, that players like these two almost have to be flaw-free, and robotic in consistency. Marmoush has a few kinks that slightly worry me despite the many positives.

But it’s the summer that has got to me. Not the first half, when Viana flexed his muscles, and moved decisively, making three seemingly excellent purchases at equally excellent prices. We bought a full-back!

But then there was the 2^nd half of the summer. And it’s hard to retain any positivity for the rest of the business. City needed more than three signings, a lot more. Or just one more, truth be told, to be very specific – you can guess in which positon.

And so with defeat, ALL the negatives, all the doubts, surface. Marmoush is too head-down, and not really a wide player. Pep doesn’t rate Nico. Ait-Nouri cannot defend. Reijnders has no defensive nouse at all, and cannot win duels. We’ve inflicted an injury curse on them all. We’re loaning out players instead of giving them a chance now. I could go on, but you’ve read all these views, or expressed them yourself. That Wolves result seems a lifetime ago.

That’s not my position, but when you spend too long online as I do, the doubts and criticisms of others can seep in. You begin to doubt your own beliefs. It does not help that I am one of those people who are easily swayed.

But ultimately, I am not wading in on the general recruitment. Mistakes have been made, we all know that. But recent purchases will be rated after a year, not two games. The idea that we once bought ready-made superstars that immediately impressed is palpable nonsense. Much of the doom and gloom recently is caused by comparing City players who have completed stellar careers at the club with recent buys who have had no opportunity to lay down a legacy yet. Most City fans hadn’t even heard of some of our best signings when they arrived. We pine for the legendary players of old, many of whom were regularly slated during their time at the club.

But there is one element of recruitment above all really annoys me – no, angers me. And that is the right-back situation.

We have a global scouting network. We have a global multi-club ownership model. Yet there wasn’t a right-back that could be identified. Clearly Livramento was the eggs-in-one-basket choice. But the moment it was clear he was not an option this summer, City should have looked elsewhere. Some will note that City may well be confident of the signing for next season, so Pep will be happy to “make-do” for a season with existing options. There is that phrase again, and it is beginning to annoy me. A lot. There can be no guarantee that City can ensure the signing next summer, however keen he may have been this summer. A lot can happen in a year. We do not know the state of the two teams by next summer, his state of mind, Pep’s future and more. If City end up signing another right-back next summer, then it will be fair to ask why it wasn’t done this summer instead. And if they sign Livramento, it’s fair to ask if there was not a short-term solution for a year. Ah yes, I hear some cry, but there are very few top-class right-backs out there right now. Nonsense. There are loads of them. It’s a global game, and I don’t need to undertake scouting courses to know there is absolutely a wealth of talent out there. Talent that would, using simple probability, perform better than a midfielder shoe-horned into a role, and incapable of the concentration required for ninety minutes.

Ahsan suggested that it was the inability to get rid of some of the senior squad members that blocked the route to a right-back purchase. It sounds logical, but I hope it’s not true, as it would be beyond infuriating as a reason for what may undermine City’s entire season. But loaning Akanji out on the cheap only adds to the understanding that City’s bloated squad has hampered recruitment. Another fine mess we’ve got ourselves into, further ramifications from sleepwalking after the treble. And with late departures on transfer day, it becomes even more infuriating if there is now a slot in the squad for a right-back, homegrown or otherwise.

I don’t want to over-egg the consequences of no natural right-back. City could still in theory succeed without a natural one. We won titled with Delph as left-back, we have a historic allergy to full-backs. It’s nothing new. Relying on other options nevertheless lessens the likelihood of on-field success, so why would the club hamper themselves? If I am going to slip back into kneejerk mode, then I would argue the hierarchy need to stop worrying about perception, be aggressive and strive for the best. The money is there, so why not? 115 is also there of course, but we have been told multiple times by club sources that it is business as usual, and there have been plenty of arrivals, so no excuses on that front. The early work of Viana suggests he understands the needs to be more aggressive, but for me he has fallen just short. Will January redemption be required once more?

Over at Liverpool, who naturally face little criticism for the biggest single window transfer spend in football history, Szoboslai is doing a great job as a stand-in right-back. But that’s a temporary situation, not a club decision moving forward. And if he proves to be brilliant at the role, so be it. I have been very complimentary of the job Nunes has generally done in a role he did not come to the club to perform, but we all know that it’s not a sustainable solution. He is a back-up, or should be, and nothing more. After all, Nunes’ bozo moments are extraordinary in their variance. It may be a pointless handball one match, charging into the back of a player the next, a mis-control the following week. He has been fine in his new role, but he has to be fine for 90 minutes, not 89. And why would we accept fine anyway? We aspire to be the best, and once more we are “making-do”. What’s more, there is a difference between Nunes standing in as right-back for three games, and him being first pick.

There was a long WhatsApp discussion on the 93:20 thread on Monday morning, and I found it very interesting, and it helped me align my thoughts a bit better. The ability of Pep to turn things around was even mooted, and it should be, he cannot be immune to being questioned, whatever his track record. Within the blue army of Pep stans, there are many that are wobbling about his ability to turn things around. The issues may be different, but the early results are mirroring last season. Wait and see – that is all we can do. But even with later improvement, which I wholeheartedly expect, will it be too late by then for a title challenge? That’s the thing with nagging doubts – they make you reevaluate everything, and see only the worst. The in-game tactical tweaks that the top managers make seem fewer and far between from Pep in my mind, the substitutions seem worse, something is lacking. And when things aren’t running smoothly, like the machine the club has been for much of the last decade, it seems all the little things conspire against you. Yet again, too many key players are sleep-walking into a season. Savinho is in limbo in his home gym, Doku is ineffective, Phil just cannot stay fit, when we most need him to bounce back strongly. Erling’s heading has regressed further, Dias has not improved, just after signing a lucrative new contract. We can’t afford to wait three months for things to potentially click into place, but we may have to.

A f**king mess.

And that’s before we get to the goalkeeping situation. How this has been allowed to play out after the season has started, when Turkey has been calling Ederson since 2023 is staggering. It has added more uncertainty to the squad, in the position that needs stability more than any other. Has Trafford been stitched up? How will Pep now need to change our style of play? I shall give my Ederson thoughts in full in Friday’s newsletter, and thoughts on Donnarumma too, which makes little sense to me right now. What I will say now is that the transfer business all ties into the mess City find themselves in.

Look, to repeat myself, this is kneejerk. The squad is packed with talent, even with a gaping hole. Let’s not pretend that the legendary Pep teams of the past were packed solely with world-class players. He has weaved his magic before with limited options (relatively speaking). But I feel this is not the time in football history to be repeating the past. The competition is stronger, the need for a deep, solid, settled squad has never been greater. And right now, in this moment in time, City are nowhere near that point – though that can quickly change. It’s not all about recruitment. We could discuss for hours where the issues remain, and perhaps still fail to locate all the pertinent points, or potential solutions. City didn’t lose at Brighton because we haven’t recruited good enough players. Brighton’s four subs were not superior players to any of ours. But nor can I believe that it’s just an issue of fitness either, three games into a season. A poor excuse.

But as a final word, key is that it is not all about City. The issue is not what City are doing, but what everyone else around them is. It has sewn panic into a fanbase, and led to the feeling that City have sleepwalked into a situation that may now leave them left behind for years to come. There would be less angst if a rival had not utilised the GDP of a small African nation to strengthen from a position of strength. It’s about being the best in class, and that requires comparison with others. If Liverpool, Arsenal et al had had quiet summers, we’d be a bit more relaxed right now.

So the final, final word is far more positive. City’s squad is not hugely inferior to anyone else’s, whatever the doom-merchant, woe-is-me section of the fanbase may claim. I think my concerns come more from Pep finding the right system to make it all work in perfect harmony as it so often has in the past, not that we don’t have the personnel for the job. We have always assumed that Pep will find a way, as we have been here before, and he has, but for the first time, I can’t say I know he will this time around. Don’t ask me for specific reasons, it is a mix of a bad season that may have seeped into the next, strong competition, past transfer mistakes, and the loss of that invincibility the team once had – maybe that last reason is the most key of all. Have we lost our mentality monsters? Probably a bit early to be claiming that, but resolution is in short supply on and off the pitch right now.

And what we also lack is patience. We’d have some if last season had gone better. But now the pressure is on – the immediacy of modern football. Many big names have departed, and this is a new era, and there will be obstacles along the way, whatever the end result. How much time will fans allow, however? I’ve seen it all - so what will be, will be.

But still, could be worse. Much, much worse. If you want proof of how far United have fallen, then consider how ridiculous it would be for City accounts to be tweeting that City had more points than United after three games of a season. Reverse it, and that is what many United accounts are doing this week. It’s beyond embarrassing. So, keep the faith, and up the blues.

In Friday’s newsletter, a deeper dive on the keepers, an underappreciated Akanji, and other departed heroes.

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