Thats the point City should be looking at replacing some of those players because they have already started to decline. They finished 18 points lower this season. Its not just age obviously there are other elements like fatigue which we also appear to have, and tactical stagnation.
La Liga is played at a slower pace so these issues will not be as obvious until players are older. Which is why Barca managed to be successful until recently.
Our plan for this season seems to be to try and wring one more season out of this team and hope City are declining faster than we are. It could work, but it seems an unnecessary gamble when one or two high quality players would make us heavy favourites to retain the league.
Again - hardly anyone is over 30 - how are we wringing one more season out of this group of players?
I don’t think our plan has anything to do with City declining or not declining.
The strategy for years has been to sign up our top players on long term contracts on top wages - which make it hard for other teams to offer a better deal - we’ve signed Salah, Mane & Van Dijk up to £200k+ a week deals tying them to the club for the next 3-5 years
We’re not going to go out and sign players for those positions for £50m+ and massive wages to sit on the bench.
I’m all for signing someone to add more creativity to midfield - but we probably do need to sell someone or at the very least make some room by loaning out one or more of the younger players.
I don’t think the sky will fall in if we don’t sign anyone - but that’ll all depend if Jones, Brewster, Keita, Shaqiri & Minamino can contribute more thus season than in past.