Real Madrid Fallout, Times Up For Toure, Pep Can't Arrive Soon Enough.

Having given myself time to calm down I've come to the conclusion that some of our players have run out of steam, lost the will to put the effort in or are just past their peak. One that stands out amongst them is Yaya Toure, what a great player he used to be and even greater player he could have been. Had he not the innate ability to go missing and become lazy, his twilight years at Manchester City will be tarnished by his walking around the pitch like a spectator as our opponents break on us. If that wasn't enough we as a club also suffered every time we lost him to the AFCON, one of many reasons why we came up short in 2012-13 and 2014-15. This is a significant strain so if an elite club is to have African players, then they need to make sure there's adequate cover.

He's not alone though as Aleksandar Kolarov has been quite atrocious of late, as has Wilfried Bony and Jesus Navas continues to try use his speed and touch to hide the fact he can barely score goals. Yeah Navas can whip a ball in but a 10 year old youth player can do that too, the best players actually find their target when they cross a ball whereas Navas just hits it and hopes someone gets on the end of it.

I've never really rated Kolarov much myself, he's from day one always left space in behind himself when bombing forward, we didn't suffer much for it when James Milner played in front of him and covered his backside. A wing Back that can't defend is no defender in my book, relies too much on his speed and quite frankly he's losing it so he's without a doubt going to be one of the first departures under the Pep Guardiola reign.

Although Mangala and Otamendi have upped their performances in the last few games, they are also guilty of failure. A few good performances should never out way an inconsistent and below par season.

Demichelis pretty much has an excuse so it's tough to be hard on the guy, he's nearing retirement age and will be departing anyway.

I have the feeling Yaya has thrown in the towel knowing he won't be at the club much longer, which would explain his embarrassing performance against Real Madrid where even Stoke City's players were condemning him. I strongly believe he threw us under the bus but it doesn't stop there.

Manuel Pellegrini has also been guilty of some awful decisions, why didn't he take Toure off the moment he started causing problems for us? We were doing so well without Yaya in Europe, then Pellegrini ruins all that hard work and what happens? we were effectively playing with 10 men against Real Madrid who I strongly believe we should have knocked out of the Champions League. I will without a doubt take solace in knowing Athletico Madrid will win the Champions League.

Wilfried Bony, Pellegrini has consistently persisted with the Forward despite the fact he can't score goals to save his life, the fact he's continually snubbed Kelechi Iheanacho who can and has been scoring goals from the bench in favour of Bony just makes me angry. It's been one almighty slap in the face for Iheanacho, but the lad has taken it in his stride and has shown maturity beyond his years. Wilfried Bony is as far as I'm concerned the most expensive flop in Manchester City FC history, we were well and truly robbed.

As far as I'm concerned next season can't come soon enough, I really want to believe Pellegrini and Yaya Toure are deliberately derailing us this season but. I put it down to believing Pellegrini just hasn't got what it takes to consistently sustain Champions League football and that Yaya Toure has given all he's got and has no more to offer.

Now this sounds like I'm having a pop at them all and in all honesty I am but, I haven't forgotten all the hard work Manuel Pellegrini has done for our club. He cleaned up the mess left behind by Roberto Mancini and Co, he matched Mancini's success rate. Yaya Toure gave some of his best years early on in his City career so we have to thank then both for that, they can walk away with their heads high.

On the other hand we have suffered of late by poor decision making, under performances and ignorance. Pellegrini this season has jeopardized our Champions League spot for next season which hinges on us beating both Arsenal and Swansea City, Yaya Toure has been guilty of not turning up on more than one occasion.

But we can take comfort in knowing we're still in with a chance of qualifying for the Champions League for now, we can also look at our poor performances over two legs against the mighty egotistical Real Madrid as a positive. We almost knocked out the mighty Real while playing atrociously and only lost by one goal with the players we have.

As always our fans will support our club until the end, my only hope is that if Pellegrini persists with Yaya, that he doesn't produce another poor performance like he did against Real when we face Arsenal. Otherwise Pellegrini's and Toure's legacy will be tarnished, all that hard work and go out with a whimper.

COMON CITY.

Claudio Ranieri Has Lost The Plot, Manchester City's Shortcomings And Season So Far

All I keep reading in the news this week is, Ranieri claiming other clubs are still in the title race, it's as if he's trying to hold on to some myth that Leicester City will win it for no other reason than being worthy winners. Maybe in the fairy tale a lot of fans and pundits are spinning but not in my world, the real world of fact, not fantasy. Statistically we are still in the title race but Leicester City are going to have to lose 3 of their fixtures or draw most of them for Arsenal or Manchester City to stand a chance, even so Tottenham Hotspur are going to have to equally hit a brick wall. Even then Manchester City are going to have to win all our remaining fixtures to stand a chance.

Jamie Vardy cost £1 million + addons in 2012 and Riyah Mahrez cost £375.000 + addons, while they are low fees the truth of the matter is. It's cost, it's money, so in reality not one single professional club in the world can deny they have won anything without spending money. In fact Kasper Schmeichel cost them £1.5 million, Robert Huth £3.2 million, N'Golo Kante £6.8 million, Danny Drinkwater £1 million (from the Stretford Massive), Gokhan Inler £5.3 million, shinji Okazaki £8.5 million. Tell me they haven't tried to buy glory like the rest of us, I'll remind you you're delusional.

Fairy Tale you say? I'm not taking anything away from Leicester City, if they win the league then congratulations. They will be worthy winners for consistency alone but, it stops there because this is no fairy tale and the facts prove so. As far as their fans are concerned it may well be a fairy tale but, in the World of Football fairy tales are extremely rare. Now if Leicester City won the Champions League with the team they now have next season, then you will have yourselves a real fairy tale to tell your grand children.

All the usual top 5 of the Stretford Massive, Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester City have played out very poor seasons, under achieved massively. They can all point too vast injuries to playing staff and bad luck with match officials but, when it comes down to it that's only half the story.

I only really ever follow my own beloved club, rarely pay much attention too the others unless they're our immediate opponents, but I do follow Sport news avidly. So I'm well aware of at least the Stretford Massive, Manchester City and Arsenal suffering injuries to their key and best players.

Manchester City lost Vincent Kompany, Sergio Aguero and then Kevin De Bruyne to injuries against Everton FC, yes I'm blaming Everton and their players. I remember well Gareth Barry and Muhamed Besic tag teaming Sergio Aguero causing his injury, the loss of all three players had all but destroyed Manchester City's fight for the title, the writing was on the wall early on in the season, but us seasoned Manchester City fans ever the optimists in the face of adversity clung on to hope. We've been without Samir Nasri the entire season and Pablo Zabaleta has been out with an injury also, Wilfried Bony is a total and utter failure, we've seen no return on his ridiculous transfer fee. The fact we've stayed in the title race for so long, is down to the rest of our depleted team fighting for it and it's been a tough one this season.


Outsiders and the media would have us believe we have the strongest squad in the league, two players in every position. What they don't see is players getting on in age, Zabaleta 31, Sagna 33, Clichy 30, Demichelis 35, Kolarov 30, Cabellero 34, Toure 32. Of all these 7 players, I'd only keep one if I were Guardiola, that player being Pablo Zabaleta.

What the media have failed to acknowledge are injuries to key players on top of that, not to mention that fact they have been reluctant to point their finger at Manuel Pellegrini. After all it's extremely hard to not like the guy, even if he was your enemy you'd still struggle to hate him.

When Manuel Pellegrini arrived I was excited by his track record of giving youth a chance, despite knowing it wouldn't be so many unlike his work at Malaga. After all he couldn't possibly do as badly as Roberto Mancini did in his last season in charge could he? I thought here we are getting a seasoned and experienced coach who's capable of fixing our problems, and that he did, he never let us down in that department. He steadied the ship and brought more success, all be it erratic and not unlike Mancini, but there's one thing we can not say and that is that they are or were failures. Both Mancini and Pellegrini both deserve respect despite their failing and shortcomings.

And Pellegrini's failure was to put faith in Wilfried Bony, no one on planet Earth with even the slightest intelligence can fail to admit Wilfried Bony has been Manchester City's biggest ever flop. That may sound harsh considering he came from one club playing a completely different style to another, but great players adapt and succeed and that there is the problem. Bony is not a great player and his statistics at Swansea City we're false, just like when the Stretford Massive played through Cristiano Ronaldo the season he scored 40 odd goals in the Premier League.

When we have a rising star in Kelechi Iheanacho on our bench, coming off our bench and scoring goals. Something Wilfried Bony has failed to do, It's criminal of Pellegrini to treat Iheanacho so poorly, He's proved himself time and time again to be worthy of a first team place, Pellegrini has constantly slapped the lad down. Iheanacho is a very humble kid and I find it refreshing listening to him when behind the reporters mic, if he keeps on working hard, improving then boy have we got a world class player on our hands.

I strongly believe had Pellegrini dropped Bony in place of Iheanacho, we would still be in the title race in a more healthy position.

We've also suffered by poor officiating in key title fighting games, like denied stone wall penalties against Everton, Tottenham Hotspur and Leicester City of the incidents I recall. I'm sure there were more incidents but those stand out in the title race more than any. They can point to referee's only being human and claim that decisions balance out over the course of a season but, I don't buy that fiction one single bit. Poor officiating has this season played a huge part in negatively affecting our title fight.

The fact we stubbornly stayed in 4 competitions for so long also made a huge impact on our season, which was why Pellegrini sacrificed the FA Cup in the end as far as I'm concerned. Credit to our young lads though for putting up a valiant fight against Chelsea, for the first 45 minutes they made Chelsea look average.

But back to Ranieri and his opinion that other clubs are still in the title race, well he's right about Tottenham Hotspur but wrong about Arsenal and Manchester City. Is he trying to add more credit to his predicted title win? Yes I think so without a doubt, he's trying to paint it up as much as possible. After all no club wants to admit to winning the league because everyone else was rubbish and gifted it too them.

I'm not going to take anything from Manchester City's worthy players, they've done their best under the circumstances. I'm not going to get on Pellegrini's back and run him down because he's done enough to earn my respect. I'm not going to lambaste match officials for their failings, I'm just going to strike this season off as what it is. A season of fortune, fortunate to still be in the Champions League race, fortunate to win the League Cup and fortunate to still be alive and well to experience it all with my son.

Here's hoping to qualifying for the Champions League, looking forward to the arrival of Pep Guardiola and a brighter blue future.

Claudio Ranieri, pull your head out and see it for what it is, a strange season and probably your last chance saloon for success before you retire so don't try paint it for what it isn't and enjoy it while it lasts.