Adrian Durham on TS

Now, I know he divides opinion, with me too. However, he's just summed up Man City, Pellegrini, TLMLF and Raheem Sterling perfectly, when talking about Sterling being included in the squad.

To paraphrase:

Raheem Sterling is a great talent. He came to the club as he felt he wasn't being developed under Brendon Rogers and wanted to win trophies.

Since he's arrived at City, he hasn't developed under Manuel Pellegrini. Why? Because Man City has been run like a holiday camp for 3 years. When the manager has allowed the likes of TLMLF to stroll around the pitch all season, and in particular, the semi-final of the CL, what sort of example is that to Sterling?

Well they'll be in for a shock next season when Pep arrives. And make no doubt about it, if Pep fancies Sterling, he'll make him a better player by working with him, developing him, unlike what Manuel Pellegrini has done at Manchester City.

Boy, will they work for it next season.

Working damn hard is the minimum we should demand all the time. It's scandalous that Pellegrini didn't make that a cornerstone of playing for the 1st team. And he's still harping on about the Pep announcement derailing the season. No Manuel, you are the manager and you have a choice who to play and how to play. It's rank bad form blaming Pep or the club for your failings.
You weren't doing particularly well at the time of the announcement anyway.

It is all a smokescreen by pel. The fact is we hadn't won back to back games since October, so to say February was our downfall  & the announcement was plain wrong.

I said back in June last year when it was announced they had given pel a years extension on his contract that it was probably to keep the press quiet if we were seriously going after pep & appease Pel by giving him a years salary pay off to go along with the charade. Had Pep not come out & said he was definitely leaving Bayern at the end of the season then none of this would in my opinion have come out. Obviously after pep's announcement he was bound to be hounded by the press as to where his next destination lie.

Of course you're right there Oz, so in effect this season's been a wasted one so to speak, as we've not moved forward as a club....but we all knew that.

I certainly hope what Adrian said is right, and maybe it is, i guess one thing's for certain, Sterling can't be any worse than he already is....well i hope not anyway .

I still think we've got the money, and the manager, to get some really top quality players into the club.

I'm thinking one or two huge signings (Pogba etc.) and several in the £20M to £50M range (Kroos, Laporte, Stones, Gundogan etc.).

This will give us a much better squad in depth and those players pushed down the pecking order (like Sterling) will have to buck up their ideas or move on.

SO be it.

I actually think Pep will turn Raheem into the player we thought we had bought.  He could be every bit as good as Gareth Bale if he thought about it.

I agree BB.

He was simply brilliant that season LFC pushed us close.

He needs to show more strength and bulk up a bit and stop falling over when someone gets too close and breathes on him. My 1 year old grandson could push him off the ball ffs.

I don't think he needs the bulking up. He just needs to stop diving and looking for free kicks.

Topdawg wrote:I don't think he needs the bulking up. He just needs to stop diving and looking for free kicks.

He also needs to be stronger in a challenge and stop wussing out of every 50-50 ball.