28 Jan 2026 17:00:26
I see Sterling has finally gone; not reported how much of a pay off he got- I said it from the start- - what a waste of money.
28 Jan 2026 20:38:49
Huge mistake Jimbo to have paid so. much money and put him on such huge wages when clearly on the decline in his career and often on the bench for City.
28 Jan 2026 22:21:24
It will be interesting to see if he does end up signing for a club in London/South East England. It was reported he turned down offers from Napoli and Saudi etc in order to stay. Now he can sign for free, get a bigger signing on fee and perhaps higher wages due to no transfer fee, I wonder if he might end up elsewhere.
28 Jan 2026 22:30:04
I think he will end up at Fulham.
No further interest in the lad.
29 Jan 2026 06:05:32
A cautionary tale for those of us, me included, who want experience added to the group.
29 Jan 2026 14:31:02
I see what you're saying J, but as Jimbo's also said you could spot that one as a disaster from miles away. I might be misremembering, but I feel like that was one transfer where every single poster on this site expressed reservations, if not outright negativity, about it when it happened.
Just for a bit of fun, if you could add one experienced player to this team, who would it be? I'll say they can't have played for us previously, and has to be someone we realistically might have a chance of getting (so not Saliba, for example) .
29 Jan 2026 15:00:46
Yeah, but I can also see why, when fans and pundits are screaming for experienced signings, the owners look at the fees and wages forked out for the likes of Sterling and Koulibaly, during their first year of ownership, and say no thank you.
29 Jan 2026 15:02:30
Victor Osimhen, guaranteed goals.
29 Jan 2026 15:10:37
I was prepared to give Sterling a chance and had charity bets for two seasons that he would score more than 15 goals each season.
We also signed Koulabily and that was a disaster. Over the years we have signed lots of so called experienced players who haven’t pulled up any trees.
It now looks to me as if lots of clubs are going for the younger player with potential rather than the proven but older pro!
Good question about potential experienced player signings. I like the look of Anderson from Forest but I think he will end up at City.
29 Jan 2026 17:55:24
You are 100% correct J, a very cautionary note to all who think adding so called "experience" to the squad solves all the issues and sets us on our way. You pay for proven quality and experience and as was the case with Sterling, Koudibally and the others signed early doors by Todd on huge wages they don't always pay dividends and can prove costly mistakes.
As for experience, surely we can now talk about Reece James, Enzo, Cucu, Moises and Trev as being experienced? after all you have a world and EURO Cup winners on that list.
29 Jan 2026 18:32:07
We still have a very young squad and still need experience in certain areas. True, Koulabily was a big mistake but Disasi and Badiashile are no better. As for getting an experienced player in; I see too many obstacles: our wage structure will not tempt a top class experienced player and frankly our current strategy does not demonstrate ambition to compete for big trophies.
29 Jan 2026 21:49:27
Koulabily and Disasi must rate as two of the worst defenders we have ever signed. In my opinion Badiashile is much better than both.
I personally don’t judge players because of age or experience. We have plenty of experience in our squad. Lots of internationals.
30 Jan 2026 17:25:16
tom sorry i don't buy your argument- sterling and koulibaly weren't just experienced- they were also both visibly past their primes similar to when we signed torres
more a case of bad decision making from the club- i for one like sterling and hoped he'd do well - glad for the saga to be over as feel whilst he was poor when he played, he has been treated a tad harshly- he's not our only big money signing that hasn't worked yet seems to get mentioned a lot more than some others.
30 Jan 2026 18:41:38
Kazblue, I’m sorry to disappoint you but there age isn’t my argument. My argument is their ability.
Over the decades I’ve supported our club we have signed lots of players that didn’t work out or who were just useless, some have gone to be successful at other clubs. There is nothing unique about signings our current owners/SD’s have made who haven’t been successful.
In my opinion age is no guarantee for success and that’s the reason I look at there abilities rather than being concerned about their birth certificates.
30 Jan 2026 20:38:02
Not age tom …EXPERIENCE …playing experience…theres no substitute for that… look back at every title winning side in the prem era you’ll see common themes. plenty of experienced pros who know how to manage things at key momebts and that's what we miss at the minute.
30 Jan 2026 21:59:29
This can’t be that difficult but I will try again. I don’t care about a payers age. I only care about their abilities.
I also don’t care if a player is 40 as long as he is a good player.
I personally don’t buy into the experience argument/excuse because I think we have players like Cucarella, Fofana, James, Colwill, Chalaboa, Enzo, and maybe one or two others all with plenty of premiership experience and I think all internationals. If needs be they can and should offer their experience to the younger less experienced players. I would also add that having experience doesn’t mean you are a leader. Players like JT were natural leaders at 19/20. I think he was made Captain when he was about 22ish.
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I also have very little interest in transfer fees and the subjective value for money argument. I would be interested if we broke, in my opinion the ridiculous PSR/FFP rules.